Thursday, April 10, 2008

Asian Night

If you hang out in A Corner of My Kitchen, you've probably caught on to the fact that I have an Asian menu in my repretoire at least one night of the week. This week is no exception...mainly because I am a freak for salty food, and Asian cuisine is the easiest, most delicious way for me to mainline sodium (hey, we've all got our habits, right?)!


Of course it was raining here again today, so I off I went to the kitchen, cranked up the iTunes, and started cooking away. Marinating the pork tenderloin was first on my agenda. This is one meat the entire clan can agree on (my youngest always says, "good chicken, mom!"), especially prepared with this particular marinade. It's salty and sweet at the same time. I usually let it go for about eight hours, but today I only did three. Really, I couldn't tell that big of a difference! The original recipe also calls for grilling the pork, which I do in nice weather, but today I roasted it off at 425 for 35 minutes -- it was perfect! I don't have a picture because truth be told, those tenderloins weren't all that photogenic. But I promise, they were delicious!


FRIED RICE WITH PEAS & CILANTRO

Next up was a different take on fried rice. Normally I do rice pilaf or roasted potatoes as a side, but this morning I found a recipe for Fried Rice with Cilantro and Peas on Epicurious, and decided to give it a try. I embellished by adding diced carrot, bean sprouts, and some eggs to make it a little more substantial. I loved the addition of the cilantro! I think fried rice can sometimes taste a little flat, but the addition of cilantro really helped jazz it up a bit. I don't know what I would do if my family didn't like it...I might have to sell them to the circus and get a new brood!

BRAISED BABY BOK CHOY

Although the fried rice had some vegetables, I didn't really consider that a vegetable course. I added Braised Baby Bok Choy with Sesame -- wow! This one is going in my permanent file. And a bonus: they're darned cute, too! One tip: I used a regular chicken broth in a box, which became VERY SALTY (salty for me, even, and you know by now how I feel about salt) -- at the end of the recipe you reduce the braising liquid way down, thereby concentrating the saltiness. Next time I would absolutely go with the low sodium broth.


DARK CHOCOLATE PUDDING


For dessert I made one of my oldest's favorites: Dark Chocolate Pudding, and Oh. My. Gosh. Sooooo rich and yummy and comes together in a snap! You probably have all the ingredients on hand as we speak. Last time I made it I used Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate, which my girls didn't think came out sweet enough. Today I used semisweet chocolate and if they don't think that's sweet enough, then we have a problem! For a humble chocolate pudding, it's rich and slightly mousse-like in texture. I'd probably serve this to company, it's that good!

I think this post is getting a bit long-winded, so I'm going to cop out and just give you the names of the recipes; if you're interested in any of them, go to Epicurious.com where you can seek them out quite easily (and print them off, too)!


** Honey-Gingered Pork Tenderloin
** Fried Rice with Cilantro and Peas
** Braised Baby Bok Choy
** Chocolate Pudding

14 comments:

RecipeGirl said...

WOW! You really went all out. The braised baby bok choy looks especially yummy to me.

Around my house it's Italian or Mexican more often than not. I need to squeeze in a bit more Asian dishes.

Obsessive Foodie or Food Addict....You Decide said...

LOL, we had grilled center cut boneless pork last night and I put a sweet n spicy dry rub on it and my 4 year old says "Can I have some more of that chicken"....apparently all white meat is chickn'.

I LOVE SALT ALSO...I FRICKIN LOVE IT AND I WOULD MARRY IT IN A HEARTBEAT....I WILL SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS.......I LOVE SALT (kosher and fleur de sel of course)

bok choy looks especially yummy

Vicarious Foodie said...

This looks like quite a spread! Sounds fantastic, especially the bok choy. Although, knowing me, I might have a hard time not going straight for the pudding.

winedeb said...

Hi Leah! Anything with peas is alright by me! They are tops on my green veggie list! I even eat them frozen right out of the freezer for a snack! So I probably will be whipping up your rice dish very soon!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope you enjoyed it. Please stop back and visit again soon!
Long Boat Key - you guys were down in my neck of the woods for spring break! Looks like you all had a great time!

Peter M said...

Leah, I couldn't find any email link so I'm replying to you here (you may email me, if you wish):

Hi Leah and thanks for giving me the "heads up" on the Turkish feature in Food & Wine.

I found it on their site and alot of the dishes do overlap with Greek cooking. Us Greeks & Turks will still argue about who created what but I don't get into that.

I'm more interested in finding tasty new dishes.

Cheers,

Peter

Tanya said...

We do Asian night too-your recipes look delicious as always!

Anonymous said...

I love fried rice and baby bok choy is my FAVORITE! I LOVE these recipes. We're going to have to try your version!

Bikergurl said...

Just stumbled across this blog and wanted to say wow, you have some gorgeous photos!

MrOrph said...

Great dishes and photos.

We do an Asian night (or two) here as well. I have been perusing the Asian isle a lot more than in years past.

I like the braised baby bok choy. I will be giving that recipe a go soon.

Nina Timm said...

Your family is indeed blessed to have a 3 course meal every time. I made chocolate pots too on Sunday and it is funny that my children also thought is was not sweet enough.

gc said...

First time reader to your blog! Your pictures are gorgeous and your kitchen is beautiful! The bok choy and pumpkin cake look especially enticing!

Georgina Ingham | CulinaryTravels said...

Oh that looks so delicious especially the chocolate dessert - chocolate heaven.

You've been tagged, please pop over to my blog.

Jaime said...

what a delicious meal :) i've never had cilantro in my fried rice - great idea.

if you love carrot cake, you really must try the pastry queen recipe when you have an excuse to bake one. i could not get enough of it when i made it!!!

Susan @ SGCC said...

What a gourmet meal! Everything looks so wonderful! The pork sounds divine.

I saw your Longboat Key pictures. I live in Sarasota. When were you here?