I mentioned before that we were going to celebrate Valentines Day with a homemade Chinese dinner on Sunday. And thats exactly what we did. Everything turned out great! We made Sweet and Sour Pork, Ham Fried Rice, and Egg Rolls. We even tried making wantons. Now, if only I could find a way to make the same meal without deep frying. I have all manor of random Asian sauces (e.g. Oyster sauce) now though, so I’ll have to get cracking on some more ethnic dishes.

At any rate, the food was great and the company was great. It was a fun evening.

Here are the recipes if you wanted to try them.

Sweet and Sour Pork (Deep Fried Pork and Pineapple)
I used this recipe.

Sweet and Sour Pork (Sauce with peppers, carrots, and pineapple)

Sweet and Sour Pork

• 3/4 pound pork tenderloin
• 2 – 3 teaspoons soy sauce
• Pinch of cornstarch
• Sauce:
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup water or reserved pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
• Batter:
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup warm water, as needed
• Other:
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
• 3 cups oil for deep-frying, or as needed

Directions for sweet and sour pork
Cut the pork into 1-inch cubes. Marinate in the soy sauce and cornstarch for 20 minutes.

To prepare the sauce, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, ketchup, dark soy sauce, salt, water or juice and vinegar. Set aside. In a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Set aside.

Peel the carrot and chop on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces. Cut the bell peppers in half, remove the seeds and cut into cubes.

Heat the oil for deep–frying to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the batter, combine the flour and cornstarch. Stir in the egg white and vegetable oil. Add as much of the warm water as is needed to form a thick batter that is neither too dry or too moist. (The batter should not be runny, but should drop off the back of a spoon).

Dip the marinated pork cubes in the batter. Deep-fry in batches, taking care not to overcrowd the wok. Deep-fry the pork until it is golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.

(If desired you can deep-fry the pork at second time to make it extra crispy. Make sure the oil is back up to 375 before you begin deep-frying again).

To prepare the sweet and sour sauce, bring the sauce ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot, green pepper, and pineapple. Bring to a boil again and thicken with cornstarch mixture, stirring. Check the sauce one more time and adjust seasonings, adding salt and/or vinegar if desired. Serve hot over the deep-fried pork. Serve the sweet and sour pork over rice.

These were very good. I think I may thicken up the sauce a bit next time though. The flavor was great! (Note: I only deep fried mine once. I also briefly deep fried some fresh pineapple… that was awesome and bad, but still awesome)

Ham Fried Rice
I used this recipe.

Ham Fried Rice

• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 onion
• 8 ounces cooked ham
• 1 green onion, washed
• 6 tablespoons oil for frying, or as needed
• 1/2 cup peas, fresh, canned or frozen
• 4 cups cold cooked rice

Lightly beat the eggs. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon each of the oyster sauce and soy sauce. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Peel and dice the onion. Dice the ham and green onion.

Heat a wok or frying pan on medium-high to high heat. When the oil is hot, add 2 tablespoons oil. Add the eggs. Scramble lightly and remove from the pan. Clean out the pan.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the pan or wok. When the oil is hot, add the onion. Stir-fry briefly, then add the ham and the green peas. Stir-fry and remove from the pan. Clean out the pan.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the wok. Reduce the heat to medium and add the rice, stirring with chopsticks to break up the clumps. Stir in the remainder of the soy sauce and oyster sauce. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Add the cooked meat and vegetables back into the pan. Stir in the scrambled egg. Heat through and stir in the green onion. Serve hot.

Egg Rolls
My friend, Michelle, pointed me to this website for the recipe. I think these were the biggest hit.

Chinese Egg Rolls Recipe

Ingredients:

• Spring roll pastry
• Approximately 1 lb. ground pork, chicken, or turkey
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2 small onions, sliced thin
• 1 head of cabbage, sliced thin like cole slaw (you can buy a bag of shredded cole slaw w/out sauce if you prefer)
• Bean sprouts
• Other optional ingredients: small shrimp, spinach or snow peas (sliced thin)
• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 egg

1. Slice/grate your veggies very thin.

2. Brown meat until cooked thoroughly. You may want to add 1/4 c. water to pork when cooking if you have a low-fat percentage.

3. When meat is cooked, add veggies and soy sauce and sesame oil. Cook and stir 2-3 minutes–overcooking will cause your veggies to get soggy.

4. Drain veggies in a colander and let cool, or the mixture will ruin your pastry.

5. When your mixture has cooled, open your spring roll pastry. Don’t open too early–they’ll dry out. Also, plan on using the entire package at once. They won’t keep once they’re opened. Just peel off a couple at a time. Crack an egg in a small dish and lay out a pastry.

6. Spoon some of the mixture onto the pastry wrap near the corner closest to you.

7. Wrap fast! Fold the corner up and wrap tightly around mixture as shown.

8. Dip a finger in your egg white and wet the two corners of the wrap. (This is important to keep the wrap sealed until it’s fried.)

9. Fold corners over and press to seal.

10. Continue to roll, almost to the end.

11. Using more egg white, seal the last corner to the roll.

12. Repeat until all the wraps or mixture are gone. If you want to freeze some, this is the point you need to do it. Flash-freeze them on a cookie sheet for about an hour, then place in a freezer bag in the freezer. To cook them later, allow to thaw to room temp, then continue with frying instructions below.

13. Heat a few inches of vegetable oil in a deep pan. Place a few egg rolls in the oil at a time and fry until golden brown.

These were amazingly delicious!! The website linked above has step-by-step images if you’d like to see the process.

Wantons
We just used some leftover Egg Roll Skins for these. Cut in quarters, attempted to shape them and tossed them in the oil. We did not fill them with pork. Maybe next time.

After dinner we made some Valentines Day cookies, using this recipe. Yum! Cookies!

As much fun as Sunday was, Saturday was even better. I was gifted with a “Day with Dave” – No work. No school. No homework. No blackberry. Just Dave. It was great! I don’t think we’ve had him home or really available for a full 24 hours for nearly a year now. We went shopping, to McDonalds (Bridget’s request), and just played together. It was fun and relaxing, and nice to be together.

He also gave me some pretty flowers.

I hope you all had as great of a v-day as we did!