Pork Lo Mein
Listening to: Zac Brown Band — “Colder Weather”
Sipping on: Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Maple Syrup Cask 2017
I go to Wegman’s every Sunday. It’s a thing. It’s not necessarily a thing that I ever thought would happen, but… COVID. I’ve been going grocery shopping every week for 18 months. Normally I figure out what I’m going to cook on my weekends weeks in advance (I’m a planner) but sometimes things just don’t work out as I plan. Sometimes life and work just sucks all of your creativity away. It happens. I went to Wegman’s today and finished my shopping and *still* couldn’t figure out what to cook for dinner. I’m standing in the middle of the produce section staring into the distance trying to decide what to cook and then I just said “fuck it. Let’s do a stir fry kind of thing.” I grabbed a couple pork chops and made a bee line to the “International” section and picked up some lo main noodles, a bottle of kung pao sauce and some chili crisp. Let’s do this.
Now, I consider myself very qualified to cook French food. I know my way around Italian food. I am absolutely not comfortable in my abilities cooking (Americanized) Chinese food. That said, I know flavors and I know technique and I know what tastes good to me. So let’s talk about my approach to cooking (Americanized) Chinese food from the POV of a classically trained French chef.
Mis en place is EVERYTHING. This is quick cooking, folks. You’re done in 10 minutes so prep is essential. Everything needs to be cut to be cooked quickly. For my dish, I chose snow peas, scallions, carrots, broccolini, and bok choi from our garden. I cut the snow peas into thirds, julienned the carrots, and cut down the remaining ingredients into small enough portions that will cook quickly. If you’re doing noodles, cook them for 4 minutes, strain & chill.
The next most important aspect is timing. All of these ingredients cook at different times. In this case, here’s my breakdown of steps: pork (sear and remove) > garlic > carrots & broccolini > bok choi > scallions & snow peas > add the pork back > sauces. It’s imperative that everything is ready to go when you start cooking otherwise you’re fucked. Plain and simple.
I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t have high hopes for this one only because I’m not used to this style of cooking or the flavor profiles that come with it. Understanding technique can only get you so far. The depth of knowledge to cook proper Chinese food is so far outside my expertise that its actually incredibly intimidating. I’m friends with a couple AAPI chefs that cook ridiculously good Chinese & Laotian food that blows my mind. (Shout out to my dudes Will @ Kudzu & V @ Royal Pig.)
That said, this actually ended up tasting pretty damn good. I wasn’t super excited about this dinner for a couple reasons; It’s a cuisine that I (sadly) know very little of and I’m using prepared, jarred sauces. Talk about “outside of your comfort zone.” When I want béarnaise, I make it. When I want marinara, I make it. It’s just what I’m used to doing and I know how to do it. But when you’re completely outside of what you know, what do you do? You buy it. AND THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. What matters is what you do with it. Make it your own. Have fun. Add whatever you want.
I have zero idea how to make a “kung pao” sauce. I don’t even know if that bottle I bought is even close to what “kung pao” sauce actually is. But that makes me want to learn! It makes me want to research “kung pao” and what that sauce actually is and how to make it and as soon as I realized this it all made sense to me. The first step is seeing a bottle of something you don’t understand on the grocery store shelf and taking a chance and buying it and making something delicious with it. From then on, the seed has been planted. That’s huge! I walk into a grocery store as a professional chef. I know what I know and I do what I do and I do it well. I see the world through a chefs eyes. Sometimes it’s refreshing to see things from a different perspective. It may be a bit scary (it is) but the pros outweigh the cons. You might end up learning something (I did.)
