乾炒牛河 Cantonese Stir-fry Beef Rice Noodles

還滿愛乾炒牛河的! 在中式餐廳看到都會想點. 感覺是非常"老廣"的親民小食, 又容易飽肚子.
沒想到自己可以複製出跟在餐廳吃差不多的味道. 以後在家就可以大快朵頤了! 關鍵是老抽和新鮮的河粉~

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, sliced.
some green bean sprouts
A little of green part of green onion
500g ~ 1lb Fresh rice noodles 河粉 ( I bought 2 bags from 德昌). No need to cook in water.
150g ~ 5.3 oz beef
Vegetable oil
Dark (Aged) soy sauce 老抽
Light soy sauce 生抽

Marinade for beef:
Dark soy sauce and light soy sauce 2:1
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp potato starch 太白粉
A little water to balance the taste

- Mix the sauce in a bowl according to taste so it's salty enough but not overly salty.

Directions:

- Unfold the fresh rice noodles and cut in 1/2" width. Running fingers into the noodles to loosen them so they don't stick together. Set aside.

- Slice the beef against the direction of grain. (not too thin) Marinate in the sauce for 10 minutes.

-  Heat up some oil in the wok and cook the rice noodle till you can smell the aroma of rice. 米香味   Then remove from  the pan. (This step is optional)

- Heat up some oil the pan again and pan fry the beef slices on both sides till medium (70%) done.
  Repeat till all beef slices are cooked. Set aside.

- Again heat up some oil to stir fry the onion and green bean sprouts. Season with some dark and light soy sauce.

- Put the beef and rice noodle in and stir fry till beef is done. Season with some dark and light soy sauce to taste. Cook till all rice noodles are evenly colored, no whites showing. Add green onion segments right before turning off heat.

It's hard to say how much of each soy sauces I used. I just add a little by little to get the taste and color closest to the kind I like the most in restaurants. Light soy sauce adds saltiness and dark soy sauce adds color and a little bitterness of soy ( which is what I like!) to the dish.

老抽在這裡很重要, 不但給了河粉漂亮的醬色, 也賦予河粉獨特微微的焦香味!

Yummy dinner: Stir-fry Beef Rice Noodles  + Squid with Celery + Veggie
                          乾炒牛河 + 西芹鮮魷 + 青菜

Braised Baby Back Ribs with Dates and Red Wine 紅酒蜜棗燉肋排

Here I'd like to recommend a Chinese food blog that inspires me a lot: 慵懶生活‧好好生活 by 貓兒. 
I learned many dishes, including this one I'm gonna write about, from her blog and her book. 她的部落格很溫馨, 她的文字輕快易懂, 平實 舒服~ I started following her blog before she became famous, had a cookbook published and began giving occasional lessons and demo.

A lot of bloggers become very commercialized and fake after gaining fame. 貓兒 (Lazy Cat) remains the same. She is as friendly and down to earth as ever. Her blog style is still heartwarming and unpretentious~ :)

Now back to this Braised Baby Back Ribs with Dates. The picture I took really doesn't do its justice. This is a delightful meat dish of which I have been missing the flavor ever since I first made it last month. It is adapted from French bistro cuisine, so bread such as baguette would be a great compliment to this main dish. I actually served it with brown rice the first night and with bread the next day. I enjoyed the dish both ways, but maybe because I am Asian. If you're used to having Western/ European dishes with bread, then you'd better stick to that option.

Braised Baby Back Ribs with Dates and Red Wine 紅酒蜜棗燉肋排
(Serves 2- 3 people)
adapted from Lazy Cat's 法式蜜棗燉肋排


Ingredients:

8-10 pieces of Baby Back Ribs (long strips of the meaty pork short ribs)
22 pitted dates, julienned, then soaked in red wine till just submerged for 30 minutes. Reserve the red wine for cooking.
60g bacon, julienned
1 onion, sliced
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

Sauce:

1 1/2 Cups red wine
1 Cup water
4- 6 Tbsp tomato paste
3 tsp Dijion mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
salt and pepper

Directions:

- Heat up some vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Pan fry the pork ribs on both sides to brown them. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- Cook bacon in the pan til some oil comes out, and add sliced onion. Stir fry until onion softens and turns translucent. Transfer into a deeper soup pot.
- Place the pork ribs in the pot with cooked bacon and onion. Add dates, red wine and water. Bring to boil, then simmer over low heat with lid covering 80% of the pot.
- Cook for about an hour til liquid dries out a bit and meat becomes tender.
- Stir in the rest of the sauce ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer for another 20 minutes or so til the sauce thickens.
- Serve on plate with some fresh herbs as garnishment.

 Enjoy!! It's so Good that you won't get enough of it~