catching up with Peanuts and Pork

I am super-slacking at the blog lately.  It’s been busy all around, we’re planning lots, friends are in town, and we really haven’t been going crazy with new meals that I can post.  But I have a few things, and a yummy noodle dish!

First, remember the pork chops with rhubarb sauce? We opened up the leftovers to use them for a meal earlier this week, so here’s what the final product of the pork and chutney looked like (after sitting in the fridge for a couple days anyway, and also a little fuzzy…):

Find out what we did with the leftover chop down below.

Second, here are Matt and Santana, viewed from above.  The weather in Seattle has been GORGEOUS, and with our windows open, I heard them walking outside and ran to the balcony to see!

I yelled down for Santana to sit and then threw her a treat from the 2nd floor…SO cute!

Another follow-up picture.  Remember the amazing apple butter also from last weekend? Here it is on some toast!  It is AMAZING! And because it is SO sweet, you only need a tiny bit on the toast.  These slices had a little too much apple butter on them for my taste.  I think you could probably cut down the amount of sugar that goes into the original recipe if you didn’t want it quite as sweet. 

Onto the recipe:

Peanuty Pork Noodles

• canola oil
• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen edamame
• 1 leftover pork chop, chopped
• 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• peanut sauce (I’ve made my own in the past, but this time we just used one we had in the fridge)
• a tiny bit of stir fry sauce (I like this to add a little bit to the peanut sauce)
• Cooked pasta (we used thin spaghetti, but if we had vermicelli or some other kind of noodles, I would have used those instead)

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat until almost smoking.
2. Add onion and garlic and stir fry until just starting to brown on the edges.
3. Add pepper and edamame.  Since the edamame is frozen (and so was our pepper), there will be some liquid released, which will actually help cook the frozen veggies through.  Sauté until liquid has evaporated and veggies start to brown.
4. Remove to a platter
5. Add chopped pork, peanuts and green onion to sizzling hot pan and stir fry for just a couple minutes to heat through.  The pork will get nicely browned edges.
6. Add veggies back in along with peanut and stir fry sauces to your desired sauciness. 
7. Toss with cooked pasta and adjust seasoning. 

This was a SUPER easy way to use up the pork leftovers as well as some of our frozen vegetables.  And it was really yummy.  It hit the Thai/Chinese noodle craving that I get pretty frequently. 

We had some tender red greens still left in the fridge that would only last a day or so more, so I wanted to make a side salad to go with the noodles.

To cut through the creaminess of the peanut sauce, I went with a vinaigrette that I completely eye-balled.  There was no measuring at all.  Unfortunately, it was a little too vinegar-y for Matt, but I LOVED it.  I basically topped the salad with my noodles and ate the two together. 

In a small plastic container I put the following ingredients, closed the lid, and shook until completely mixed.  Then just tossed with the greens. SIMPLE.

• sesame  oil
• olive oil (about half as much as the sesame oil)
• rice vinegar
• red wine vinegar (about half as much as the rice vinegar)
• soy sauce (just a dash or two)
• honey (a tiny drizzle)
• white pepper
• ground dry ginger

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Fun, Leftovers, Life, Magical Magical Animal, Matthew, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.