Flavorful Foursome; Pork Chop Suey, Fettuccine Alla Carbonara, Spicy Halibut and Chicken Paprikash

This post had some great meals!  Thanks to Betty Crocker cookbook for the recipes.  I only changed them a little to fit my tastes.

Pork Chop Suey is something that I haven't had in a really long time.  I have never made it myself, but I will again.  Of course I will have to spice it up a little.

1 lb boneless pork

3/4 cup water

3 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs cornstarch

2 tbs dry sherry

1 tsp chicken bouillon

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbs cooking oil

2 tsp grated ginger

2 stalks celery

2 cups bean sprouts

10 green onions

8 oz water chestnuts/bamboo shoots

2-3 cups cooked rice

I first started my rice in the rice cooker.  

Then cut the pork into bit size pieces, chopped the celery and green onions.  I also add Carrots and garlic and omitted the mushrooms it called for.

Mixed up the sauce by combining the soy sauce, water, cornstarch, sherry, bouillon and pepper.  For some heat, add a little Sriracha to your liking. I used ginger paste instead of grated ginger, so I also added that to the sauce mixture.

Cook carrots and celery for a couple minutes, add bean sprouts and green onions.  Cook for another couple minutes and remove from skillet/wok.  

Cook pork in stages.  Cook until no pink remains, cooking 1/2 the pork at a time. When pork is complete, return all to the pan and push towards to the center.  Add sauce and cook until thickened and bubbly.  Add vegetables and water chestnuts or bamboo.  I prefer bamboo and like them julienne. Cook until all is heated.  Serve over hot cooked rice.

Turned our really good and left overs for lunch the next day.  YUMMMMMY

The Fettuccine Alla Carbonara was good and very simple!

6 slices of bacon

6 oz fettuccine or linguine

1 beaten egg

1 cup half and half, light cream or milk

2 tbs butter

1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

1/4 cup parsley

Since I was entertaining, I doubled the recipe  Glad I did, because there were no left overs

Cook the bacon until desired crispness.  I don't like mine to crispy, so when done, I chopped it up to small pieces.

Cook the noodles as directed.  I recommend a little before al dente for all noodles. 

For the sauce, melt butter.  Yes, use real butter and use half n half.  Makes the sauce much richer and more flavor.  Splurge on the extra fat and calories for this meal.  Combine egg, half n half in the melted butter on medium heat.  Stir continuously and make sure the heat isn't too high. When the mixture coats a metal spoon, about six minutes, pour over fettuccine/linguine. Toss to coat.  Add cheese and parsley and mix. 

 Serve immediately.It made 6 large portions. I added a little extra parsley for presentation.

I made a Spicy Halibut.  For me, it was kind of boring.  I made a pineapple salsa that was really good.  It was diced roma tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, Serrano pepper, salt and a little lime juice.  It was good on top of the fish.  Better just by itself.

My last review is for Chicken Paprikash.  It's a creamy Hungarian dish.

2 lbs chicken pieces

1 tbs cooking oil

salt

pepper

1 cup chopped onion

3-4 tsp paprika

3/4 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 8 oz sour cream

2 tbs flour

3 cups hot cooked noodles or rice

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook until browned.  Remove the chicken.  Add onion and paprika to the skillet.

Cook until the onion is tender and return chicken to skillet, coating chicken with paprika.  Add broth and wine.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for 35 minutes.  Remove chicken.  

For the sauce, skim any fat off the top.  Make sure there is enough juice in the pan to equal 1 1/2 cups by adding water if needed.


Mix flour into sour cream.  Add to skillet with pan juices.  Cook for about a minute after it is thickened and bubbly.  Return chicken.

                                                   Serve over noodles.  I used egg noodles.

The Pork Chop Suey was my favorite this time followed by the Chicken Paprikash.  My least favorite was the Halibut.  It just wasn't as flavorful as I wanted, but the salsa made up for it.

And for some fun, I got a new hat!  $5 at Walmart.  Got to love the Sock Monkey!


Next up, I will be trying Feta Burgers, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Tortilla-Black Bean Casserole.

The good, the bad and the best

I have four dishes this time and a bonus. And what goodies have I made.  I'll start out with Red Beans & Rice with cornbread, then Italian-Style Pepper Steak, followed by Chocolate Chip-Banana Bread and brownies, and ending with Cheese-And-Tofu-Stuffed Shells.

Two and a half hours of simmering of the ham bone. Made the house smell great.

While the ham bone was cooking, I made some corn bread.  I added a little cheese and picante sauce to spice it up.

After the ham bone simmered, I let it cool a bit and then took the meat off and threw it back in the pot.

Then I added the smoked sausage, beans and spices.  Next I'm using Andouille sausage.

This simmers for another half hour

I'm running low on hot sauce, but I of course needed some. We had a guest eating with us, so I didn't want to make it too spicy...yet.

I served over rice

Don't forget to take the bay leafs out! Don't want to mess with removing a bay leaf? You can use Thyme instead. I've not tried it, I just fish out the leaf.  And sometimes have to write down how many I used.

The completed dish.  It was really good for my first attempt.  I only have a few other things I will do next time to spice it up.  

The Itallan-Style Pepper Steak, I didn't like as much.  It was okay, just not as flavorful.

I had to do a lot of chopping and dicing, which I do like to do.

Even the beef was sliced.

 Seems like a lot, but it really wasn't at all.

Saute the peppers, onions and garlic a little.

Diced up a couple tomatoes.

 Cook the beef up until it's heat through, as it will still do some more cooking.

 Set the beef and peppers a side and add the spices and broth.

I kept the dripping and all in the pan and cooked up the broth a bit.

And that was it.  On a little rice it steak and peppers.  As I side at the begging, it was good.  I needed something else.  I will have to play with it again.


I made a couple special treats also.  Brownies, box mix, and homemade chocolate chip banana bread. I made Rachael Ray's recipe. Its easy and made a great bread!

Step 1, preheat oven and get loaf pan read.

 Step 2.  mix dry ingredients.

.

 Step 3. Blend the wet stuff; eggs, mashed banana, you get it.

 Then add the wet and dry.  Also add the chocolate chips.  I used 1 cup.

Put into the pan and bake!

 The brownies were perfect.  I ate one, as I am not a big brownie person.  Lets just say, they didn't last long in the house.  :)

 The bread turned out amazingly.  Most and rich.  I even made french toast with it one day.  That rocked!

Cheese-and-Tofu-Stuffed Shells!  Mmmm pasta.

 It might seam like a lot of ingredients add work, but it wasn't.  A lot can be done ahead of time and thrown together to heat in the oven later.

I shredded my carrots and diced the green onions.  Then rinsed them again.

 Mixed up tofu, ricotta cheese, cheddar and mozzarella.  Separated an egg and added the egg white. Mixed well and put it in the fridge for later.

 I also mixed up the tomato sauce to have it ready.

I boiled the shells up when I was fixing the meal.  I just cooked the whole box.

 

 When the shells were just at the al dente stage, I rinsed them and began to assemble.

 To stuff the shells, I use my small cookie scoop.  It's around a tablespoon and made it more uniform in the shells.  The reciepe said 12, but I make a lot more than than.  I just lined a 9x13 pan with them.

 Then added the sauce on top of that, along with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Let it bake until the cheese was melted and sauce looked nice and bubbly





The end result was spectacular.  I think a little sausage in the sauce would be great also.  It was pretty filling without sausage.  And a vegetarian meal.

 Coming soon, Pork Chop Suey, Fettuccine alla Carbonara and Spicy Halibut.