the review: pork yakisoba
Welcome back to review-land! It’s been awhile, for sure. This week, we are gearing back up somewhat slowly (at least on the cooking front) and I will be cooking at my mom’s house as our kitchen looks something like this.
It’s looking good as long as I have no intention of living in my house. Or cooking in it. Ever.
Right off the bat, I’ve gone and changed things up in the menu line up this week. We came home on Friday to chicken and more chicken. I just couldn’t make chicken again last night, so switched it up with Tuesday’s yakisoba. Excellent choice. This meal was fast. We even forgot two ingredients, sent a runner to the store, and still had dinner on the table in about 30 minutes.
The yakisoba recipe calls for raw chicken, but I used a bit of pork roast that I had frozen as leftover last month. I also added whatever vegetables I had handy (or rather, my mom had handy) in with the carrot, broccoli, and cabbage. A note on the cabbage: when I went to the grocery, I almost bought napa cabbage or bok choy instead of regular old green cabbage. The only reason that I didn’t is because the heads were so large that they wouldn’t have fit in the fridge. I am really glad I made this decision. The green cabbage cut into really small pieces perfectly attached to the noodles and became unnoticeable to the naked eye of a four year old. They ate cabbage. And didn’t complain.
Prepping all of your vegetables before cooking is essential here. I also prepped the sauce in advance, which is how we learned that there is no ketchup in my mom’s house. I skipped the added sugar and was careful with the sriracha in the sauce due to the little mouths. This recipe is spicy (said two women who are used to Cajun cooking). I’d almost recommend not adding sriracha to the sauce but putting it on the table so that everyone can adjust accordingly.
Like any stir-fry, this recipe starts with a little seasoning in hot oil, followed by meat and veggies, followed by sauce. The directions call for tossing all of the vegetables in at once, after a 30 second sauté of the ginger. I may have added a little cooking time here by cooking my vegetables in order – onion first, followed by broccoli, then carrot, then cabbage and bell pepper, then snap peas and pre-cooked pork. I did cook the veggies a little too long here anyway, but it worked out. The dish was still really good. A definite keeper for a busy weeknight.
Oh, and P.S. I did not use packaged ramen as called for, but actual yakisoba noodles. I think any kind of noodle would be fine here, even whole wheat spaghetti if you have it on hand. Let me know how it goes!