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Bucking up
Since I seem to be getting back into a semi-regular routine of posting here, I decided to buck up and buy a paid account. I've been happy with the service Dreamwidth is providing, so I don't mind tossing a few $ to support them. You can probably expect to see a few new user icons from me going forward.
I did a lunch experiment today to see how quickly I could turn out a fast, cheap, reasonably healthy meal with a minimum of ingredients. The idea came to me when I walked down to buy coffee this morning, and I noted that I would be walking right past the butcher shop on my way home. I stopped in there and grabbed a pound of their ground pork because it's remarkably inexpensive.
It was past 12:30 by the time I got home, so I wanted to make something as fast possible so as not to eat late enough to spoil dinner.
I grabbed the wok and peanut oil and set to work. I started by cutting a medium yellow onion into eight pieces, then I minced a couple cloves of garlic, and halved a half-dozen stalks of frozen asparagus. Prep work done, I tossed about half of the pork into the wok and broke it up, tossing it until most of the pink was gone. I threw in the onion and when it looked to be about half-done, I threw in the minced garlic. When the garlic was suitable fragrant, I added equal parts of tamari and mirin (I could have used soy sauce, but we are almost out of it, and I wanted something with a bit less salt). Finally, once the onions looked like they were about done, I threw in the asparagus and tossed it in the wok until the asparagus was heated through.
The result was very good, and very fast. From the time I got in the door until I was finished eating was about 20 minutes. This probably could have served two if I'd served it with rice or rice noodles, but I didn't want to spend the extra time, nor add the extra carbohydrates.
If I was going to change this, the only things I might do is add a bit more mirin, or maybe add a dash of five-spice.
I did a lunch experiment today to see how quickly I could turn out a fast, cheap, reasonably healthy meal with a minimum of ingredients. The idea came to me when I walked down to buy coffee this morning, and I noted that I would be walking right past the butcher shop on my way home. I stopped in there and grabbed a pound of their ground pork because it's remarkably inexpensive.
It was past 12:30 by the time I got home, so I wanted to make something as fast possible so as not to eat late enough to spoil dinner.
I grabbed the wok and peanut oil and set to work. I started by cutting a medium yellow onion into eight pieces, then I minced a couple cloves of garlic, and halved a half-dozen stalks of frozen asparagus. Prep work done, I tossed about half of the pork into the wok and broke it up, tossing it until most of the pink was gone. I threw in the onion and when it looked to be about half-done, I threw in the minced garlic. When the garlic was suitable fragrant, I added equal parts of tamari and mirin (I could have used soy sauce, but we are almost out of it, and I wanted something with a bit less salt). Finally, once the onions looked like they were about done, I threw in the asparagus and tossed it in the wok until the asparagus was heated through.
The result was very good, and very fast. From the time I got in the door until I was finished eating was about 20 minutes. This probably could have served two if I'd served it with rice or rice noodles, but I didn't want to spend the extra time, nor add the extra carbohydrates.
If I was going to change this, the only things I might do is add a bit more mirin, or maybe add a dash of five-spice.