Taiwanese Meat Sauce

Taiwanese Meat Sauce

Think of this a a Taiwanese version of a bolognese sauce.  Just like with fried rice and many other traditional recipes, every Taiwanese home has their own version of this dish.  It's one of the staple foods that can be used multiple ways: mix it with rice or noodles for a quick meal or add a little to sauted vegetables to give a little extra flavor.  The ingredients to this recipe are ground pork, onion, ginger and soy sauce.  I like to add a few other ingredients in my personal version, hope you like it!

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Pork
1 Medium Brown or Sweet Onion, Diced
1 Medium Carrot, Diced
2 Teaspoons of Grated Ginger
1-2 Cups of Diced Soy Beancurd
2 Star Anise
2-3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Rice Wine
1 Teaspoon of White Pepper
6 Soft Boiled Eggs (Optional)













Instructions:
Add a little cooking oil to a 3-4 quart sauce pot over medium high heat.  Do not add too much oil, as the ground pork should have enough fat content that will render when cooking, you just want a little oil to get the meat to start browning without sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Add the ground pork and slightly brown, stirring occasionally.  Add the onion, carrots, and soy beancurd; saute and cook for about 3-5 minutes until all the meat and veggies are browned.

Add the aromatics and seasoning: ginger, star anise, rice wine, white pepper, and soy sauce.  Give everything a good stir then ADD WATER, just enough to cover the mixture by about 1/2 an inch.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low for about an hour.

***Optional eggs: my husband likes to add some soft boiled eggs to the pot at this point.  The eggs will simmer with the mixture and you'll end up with some lovely soy braised eggs.***

Once finished, fish out the star anise and dispose because they've done their job of adding a wonderful licorice flavor to the mixture but the stars themselves are not fun to bite into.  You can then spoon over rice or noodles and enjoy!  I like to cook this once a week and divide it up into small single portions then stick in the freezer.  ***DO NOT FREEZE THE EGGS***  Super convenient to defrost for a quick meal at home or pack up for lunch.

Lemon & Garlic Roasted Artichokes

Lemon & Garlic Roasted Artichokes

SO EASY!  Found whole artichokes at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market recently and decided to bring some home and try a few recipes.  This recipe was the easiest, most delicious and healthy too!  It was also my first time roasting artichokes and success on the first try is always a testament to the simplicity of the recipe.

Ingredients: 

Artichokes

Lemon

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
*You'll have to treat each artichoke one at a time.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Cut off the stem of the artichoke so you have a flat base.  Then cut off the top 1/3 of the artichoke to expose the center.  Place the artichoke standing upright in a shallow bowl and squeeze a little lemon juice all over the artichoke to prevent it from browning.  Carefully pry open the leaves a little bit, like opening up a rose's petals.  Squeeze some more lemon juice so that it gets in between the leaves then insert a couple fresh garlic cloves into the center of the artichoke.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper.  Wrap the whole artichoke up in heavy duty foil, making sure there are no cracks or tears.  Once its tightly sealed, place the foiled artichokes in a oven safe baking dish and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes for smaller size artichockes and 1 hour 10 minutes for larger ones.  When they're done, BE CAREFUL when handling them out of the oven!  Let them cool enought to handle, they will be piping hot.  Open up your precious foil pouches of yumminess, plate, and enjoy by pulling off one leaf at a time, eating the flesh at the base, and of course the heart.  DON'T FORGET THE GARLIC CLOVE, its the best part!  The garlic glove will be nice and sweet and carmelized. Probably not the best date dish, since your breath will be nice a garlicy for the rest of the day, but if both of you like garlic...it might be the perfect date dish. ;-)