Last night I made Dining Car Beef and Red Onions from Helen’s Asian Kitchen: Easy Chinese Stir-Fries cookbook. It was the first official disappointment. It was extremely meh. What ended up giving it flavour was the black bean green bean dish that I put on the same plate.
I was inspired by one of her recipes but made my own version. Mix together 2 tbsp black bean sauce, 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger, 2 minced garlic cloves and 1/4 tsp chili sauce.
Heat 3 tbsp of canola oil over medium heat. Add the black bean mixture and stir until fragrant.
Add 1 lb cleaned and trimmed green beans. Also add 2 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar. Add 1/2 cup water, stir to mix, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Uncover and cook over high heat for another five, until the green beans are cooked through. Make sure to stir to prevent burning.
The sauce of these green beans mixed in with the stir fry and saved dinner. Reg just smushed it all together, thinking it was suppose to go that way. A totally tasty side dish I will definitely make again.
As much as I love Asian food (which I do oh-so-much) having the main dish be so boring was a bit heartbreaking. I am just not feeling it in my kitchen right now.
I think I need to go in another direction for a while. Perhaps more Italian and/or French. I definitely need to follow the energy and right now, it is not with Asian cuisine. Which is a bummer but I will respect the foodie universe.
It will be interesting to see what comes next.
[yumprint-recipe id=’15’]
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