Asian Inspired Vegetable Soup

I often hear people say our bodies are a temple… But in this fast paced world of go, go, go, my temple starts feeling a bit more like 6 Flags on 4th of July weekend than a holy site of introspection. So I started working on a group of recipes I call restoratives. Contrary to what you may think, restorative food does not have to mean complicated. In fact, a complicated recipe works against the calm inner peace we try to achieve.

To keep it 100% honest, pretty much all of my restorative recipes started out as simple, easy pantry pulls dishes I can make when I’m hungover and/or under the weather. Funny enough I started working on this recipe after a long night of cocktails, and questionable decision making, with friends back in 2013 when I lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

This recipe I’m going to share doesn’t really have a name exactly, but for the purpose of this recipe we’ll call it an Asian Inspired Vegetable Soup.

Asian Inspired Vegetable Soup

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cooking Time: 15 Minutes

Ingredients

1. 3 Dry Sataki Mushrooms, Re-hydrated and water reserved

2. 2 Baby Bok Choy, Chopped Or Torn into 1/2 inch pieces

3. 3-4 Frozen Asian Pork, or Fish, Balls (Replace with Tofu for a Vegan version.)

4. 1/4 Cup Dried Seaweed, Re-hydrated and water discarded

5. 1/2 Inch Fresh Ginger, Finely Diced

6. 1 Garlic Clove, Finely Grated

7. 1/2 Teaspoon Chicken Stock Powder

8. 1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

9. 1/4 Teaspoon Flavorless Cooking Oil

10. 1/4 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil, Optional - Garnish

11. Salt To Taste

Note About Pork Balls: Pork balls are NOT the type of meatballs you typically see in a Swedish Meatballs or Italian dish. They're about the same size, but with typically made from a smooth-ish paste with very light seasoning.

Instructions

1. Heat 2 cups of water in a medium stock pot or tea kettle.

2. Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and pour in about 3/4 cup of hot water. Let soak for about 10 minutes, or until the mushrooms soften enough to cut into 1/8 - 1/4 inch pieces. Make sure to remove the stem from the mushroom as it tends to be a bit tough and woody. Return the cut mushrooms to the soaking liquid.

3. Place the dried seaweed in separate small bowl and pour in about 1/2 cup of hot water. Allow to soak for about 10 minutes and then discard the water. (I normally do the re-hydrating part while I take a hot shower and the coffee brews.)

4. Add the flavorless cooking oil to a medium sauce pan and heat on medium high. Toss in the pork balls along with the ginger and allow to brown slightly. You're mainly going for a light browning to help flavor the broth. Add in the garlic and sauté for another 1-2 minutes.

5. Add the remaining ingredients and allow to simmer on medium for about 15-20 minutes, or until the pork balls are tender to the touch and cooked thru. (Pork is fully cooked at 145 F/62 C.)

6. Pour your soup into a bowl and top with a little of the toasted sesame oil and enjoy!

Did You Make This Recipe? Tag me on Instagram at @transchef.

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Lately I’ve been pretty busy due to the death of a coworker and sorting out some medical issues. So I’ve not had a ton of time to create and post new recipes on the site as much as I wished. I am sorry about this and I should be ramping up service again shortly.

In the mean time I thought I would start sharing some of the many test recipes I’ve worked on over the years with you guys. They are a bit ruff around the edges and the photos are just quick phone snaps. So please bear with me while I sort things out and get everything back on track! 🙂

The first recipe I’ll be sharing is my go to date night meal. Not only is this a wonderfully easy, inexpensive, flexible and impressive date night meal; it’s also is gluten free and you can easily be expanded to feed a crowd.

The name of the dish is “Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy”. I know some of you are thinking “Didn’t you just say inexpensive?”. While in this example I used short ribs you could really use any cut of beef that you would normally braise.

To get started making this dish the first thing we’ll do is prepare the ingredients for the sauce.

BTW, I included photos using a chuck roast as well. So you’ll have a better idea of the steps and cooking method.

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy Print

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Rating: 5.0/5 ( 1 voted )

Ingredients

The Gravy

1. 12oz Canned Whole/Peeled San Marzano Tomatoes

2. 5 Cloves of Garlic, Roughly Chopped

3. 8oz White or Yellow Onion, Quartered

4. 8oz Carrots, Roughly Chopped

5. 2 Dry (or 1 Fresh) Bay Leaves

6. 1/3 Tablespoon Dry Thyme

7. 1/3 Tablespoon Dry Rosemary

8. 8oz Red Wine (Something you can drink.)

9. 8oz Beef Stock

10. 1 - 1 1/2 Tablespoons Kosher Salt

11. 3 Sliced Beef Marrow Bones (Optional, but gives wonderful texture and flavor)

About The Meat

Now for the meat, if your short ribs have a lot of meat on them 4 would be enough for 2 big eaters, or 4 light eaters. If the short ribs don't have a lot of meat then use 6 short ribs for 2 big eaters, 4 light eaters. Like I said earlier, you can also use any other cuts of beef that you would normally braise. If I was going to use a chuck roast I would do about 6-8 pounds which would feed between 6 to 8 people easily.

Instructions

Instructions:

1. Turn on your oven and preheat to 350 F (176 C).

2. Toss the tomatoes, garlic, onions, carrots into your food processor and grind into a rough paste. Set aside and lets prepare the meat.

3. Trim off any large bits of fat, but do not remove all of it. It will add tons of flavor to the final dish during cooking and the excess oil will be skimmed off after cooking.

4. In a medium size enameled Dutch oven, or metal stockpot, add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and heat on medium high until the oil slightly shimmers.

5. Using a bit of paper towel dry your meat, salt half of the meat and brown on all sides. Set the browned meat on a cookie sheet and brown the other batch. Make sure to leave about 1/4 inch between the pieces of meat. If the meat is touching it will not brown as well and steam rather than brown.

6. Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan into a heat proof container and set aside. Add the remaining salt and veggie puree to the pan; then sauté until it turns a rich brown. You want a nice layer of found has formed on the bottom of your pan. Pour in the red wine and stir while scraping the bottom of the pan. The idea is to remove as much of that found as possible. (2-3 minutes should do it.)

7. Turn off the burner, add the remaining ingredients, meat and beef marrow bones.

8. Place in the oven, lid on and cook for about 1 hour. Take the pot out of the oven and turn the meat over. If your gravy is a little dry go ahead and add another 1/2 cup (4 oz) beef stock or water. Return to pot to the oven and cook for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the meat is tender. (Fork tender, but not cooked to pieces.) Turn off the oven.

9. Remove the meat from the gravy and allow to rest for 20 minutes under aluminum foil. Place the pan on the stove top and de-grease the sauce. From this point you can either blend the sauce until smooth or leave it for a more rustic feel. Personally I prefer blended, but my husband likes it more rustic. If your gravy is a little thin you can reduce the sauce on medium-high heat to your desired thickness.

10. To serve, I find it most tasty I server over a bowl of garlic mashed potatoes, but you could also go with egg noodles or a long grain rice.

Did You Make This Recipe?

How you went with my recipes? Tag me on Instagram at @transchef.

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Braised Short Ribs In Red Wine Gravy

Yang Jiang Preserved Black Beans With Ginger

I’ll be honest… I love anything that comes in a black bean garlic sauce. That earthy, funky and rich flavor works with so many dishes and protein types… Even makes a wonderful addition to vegetarian, and vegan, dishes! Don’t let the fact that this brand of black beans is Chinese make you think you can only use black beans in Asian food(s). In fact black beans are used from South America to Japan in some form.

Sadly, most bottled, or canned, black beans on the market today is packed fully of salt, MSG, preservatives and thickeners which, for me, muddies the taste and, now that I’m an older gal, raises the blood pressure. I spent several months researching black beans and various methods of prep, storage and usage and that’s when I discovered “Yang Jiang Preserved Black Beans With Ginger“ while watching a few YouTube channels.

So what makes this preserved black bean brand so good?

1. The beans come dried and can be stored on your pantry shelf without refrigeration for months.

2. You can easily make as much, or little, as you wish. I normally prepare 2-3 portions at once and just keep what I don’t use in a sealed container in the refrigerator. As long as you don’t introduce any extra liquid it should last 2-3 months easily.

3. Despite having ginger in the name, the beans don’t actually have a lot of ginger in them. So you can use it in many other dishes like black bean noodles, American chili, vegetarian dumplings and it’s even in a number of the popular Chili Garlic Crisp currently being sold.

4. It contains 3 ingredients and they are all natural. (Black beans, salt and ginger.) All of the other dry, or bottled, black beans I’ve seen thus far contained things like soy sauce (which normally contains gluten) along with wheat powder. Which isn’t a big deal for me, but I prefer to add my own if/when it’s needed instead of just eating empty carbs.

What don’t I like about this preserved black bean brand?

1. The packaging inside that contains the beans is not resealable. So you either have to make the whole container, or store in an air tight container. It’s not a huge deal, but would be nice to just quickly seal up the package after each use.

2. The outside package is made of somewhat flimsy cardboard and paper. So you have to be careful where you store the package in the kitchen to avoid oils and/or water. Getting it wet a couple times could easily make the fall apart. Again, not a huge deal, but would be nice to have a more stable, resealable container.

To prep these beans for use it pretty simple, but does take about 45 minutes in total to fully complete. I know that sounds like a long time in today’s fast pace world, but the majority of that time is spent waiting for the beans to soak or drain. So the active prep time is only about 5 minutes to 8 minutes depending on the method(s) you use.

The Prep Work

1. Open the container and dish out the amount you wish to make into a heat proof bowl about double the size of your dry beans. I normally go with about 1 Tablespoon of dry beans per serving, but most inexpensive Chinese takeaways in the America/Europe seem to use about 1/2 Tablespoon per serving.

2. Using an electric kettle, microwave or sauce pan heat enough water to cover your beans by at least double. (Doesn’t need to be boiling, but hotter than from your kitchen sink.) Pour the water over the dry black beans and stir from the bottom for about 2-3 minutes to help agitate the beans. This step will re-hydrate the beans while also washing off any dust that may be on the beans from packaging, or the drying process. Once mixed leave the beans soaking in the water for about 10-15 minutes.

3. Over your sink, pour the black beans and water through a fine strainer. Place the strainer with the beans inside over a container and allow any excess water to drip away. This normally takes about 30 minutes. Discard the water and place the black beans in a clean dry bowl.

4. Using the back of a spoon smash the black beans 60% smashed beans and 40% whole and/or broken beans. You can smash it more, or less, depending on your taste. You could also use a food processor on the pulse setting to achieve this too, but be careful not to make a puree of the beans. (There should be some texture.)

5. Place the black bean mixture in a dry container with a lid and store in the refrigerator. As long as you do not introduce any outside moisture you can store the black beans for about 3 months.

6. Optional: You can puree garlic/ginger in a little oil and add it to your black bean paste for added flavor.

So, if you’re like me and LOVE black beans this is definitely a great brand to add to your pantry!

Notice: This product review was done freely without any sponsoring from, or connection with, the company.

Product Images

#asianfood #blackbeans #chinese #Fermented