quick stir fry – Blue Kitchen

Ground pork, English cucumber, red bell pepper, scallions, lemongrass and ginger come together quickly in Peppery Pork Cucumber Stir-fry—perfect for hot summer cooking. Recipe below.

Extreme weather puts us in the mood to take it extremely easy in the kitchen. I’ll let Marion tell you about a quick stir-fry she whipped up that tastes far more delicious than the short time spent in the kitchen would suggest.

All my complaining about the cool, non-summery weather has led to it being miserably hot and humid and weird. This month alone, we’ve had a giant hailstorm that swept across the city accompanied by lightning (we heard it coming, this low drumming advancing toward us in the dark, long before we figured out what it was, and then so much hail, no rain, just hail); then a derecho uprooting trees and hurling around heavy objects on its thousand-mile path; then, this weekend, a day of basement-flooding, record-setting rainfall.

And in between all of this, most of the time it’s been hot—at times so hot that my colleagues in places like Florida and Arizona and California have been helpfully pointing out that it was actually being cooler there, in all those places. (Guys! Thanks, guys!) And along with the heat is a chemical veil over everything, so that when the wind blows, you actually feel worse.

So we have been hunting for dinners that cook up fast. Things mostly made from ingredients, not products, things refreshing to the eye, and nothing including the word slow. Continue reading “Too hot to cook? Not with this quick Peppery Pork Cucumber Stir-fry” →

Tomatoes, cabbage, cilantro and jalapeño peppers give this Southeast Asian Beef with Tomatoes Stir Fry a fresh, lively taste. Recipe below.

hmong-stir-fry

If the Procrastinators of America ever get around to electing a president, I’m a shoo-in. The University of Minnesota Press sent me a review copy of Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America way back in April and, although I’ve spent a good deal of time looking at it, I’m only just now getting around to cooking from it.

The Hmong are an Asian ethnic group in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, including southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma. Cooking from the Heart’s dedication hints at their homeless history and strength as a people: “For centuries the Hmong have been a people without a country, always making the best of each new situation and remaining true to their culture. This book is dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the Hmong people.”

For centuries, the Hmong lived and farmed in central China. “Proud and stubbornly independent,” as the book’s introduction puts it, they refused to be subjugated by Chinese rulers. According to Wikipedia, “Hmong groups began a gradual southward migration in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land.” Spreading throughout much of Southeast Asia, by the 1950s, more than half of the Hmong people lived in what was then called Indochina, mostly in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Because of their reputation as fierce warriors, they were recruited by the CIA to fight in the Secret War against the Communists in Laos and later, in the Vietnam War. At the end of the war, they were singled out for persecution and thousands of families fled to Thailand; from there, many immigrated to the United States, France, Australia, Canada and French Guiana.

Oh, wait. This is a food blog. Well, all this has a certain amount of relevance. It explains that while some 3 million of the 4 to 5 million Hmong still call China home, you’ll find many influences in the Hmong kitchen, especially here in America. Continue reading “Found in translation: Simple, spicy pleasures of Hmong Beef Stir Fry” →