Monday, November 11, 2013

My Asian Kitchen

It is not very often that food makes it on to my "bucket list."  But I have always wanted to recreate the bean sprout-y, water chestnutty goodness of what I always think of as "chow mein."  Now, I have since learned that what that refers to is actually the noodles (fried in this case) but that is not the bit I like the best.  I like the vegetable goop that goes on top!  I love to eat it with chop sticks like I used to as a kid at the Asian Kitchen restaurant on Burnside.

Now, my husband doesn't much care for Chinese food.  Once or twice a year is plenty for him.  He eats some pork fried rice and is content.  So we don't spend our date dollars on eating out at the Chinese joint.  So I often have a craving for chow mein and think, "Wouldn't it be great if I could make it at home?"  But whenever I would decide to try making my own, I would invariably be missing some key ingredient.  But not today!  I sprouted my own mung beans this past week, and was more than ready to embark on a new culinary adventure.


I located a recipe that looked promising and started assembling my ingredients.  Celery, onion, water chestnuts and bean sprouts made it in time for the photo opp:


I didn't do step-by-step pics, because they are included in the recipe above.  I made some substitutions, due to preference and availability.  I used sesame seed oil instead of peanut oil because it was what I had on hand.  I omitted the mushrooms because I just don't care for them.  And I served it over rice and without chicken, because it wasn't dinner time.  But the recipe was lovely, and I will certainly make it again.  And I have conquered another item on my bucket list.  Grow my own bean sprouts and make chow mein at home?  Check!


Enjoy!