Ni Hao

My grandma in Virginia has a beautiful home with a huge yard, and a section of that yard is sectioned off into a really nice and well-maintained garden. Each time any of us goes to visit, we are filled to the brim with any food she can give us, much of it made with fruits and veggies from her garden, and then when we leave we are most likely carrying armloads of homegrown and homemade goodies. Among the bounty my parents returned with this last visit, was an entire sack full of plums from my grandma's plum tree, most of which were ranging in size from ping-pong balls to golf balls.
As their are just the three of us in our house, (Mom, Dad and myself) I needed to find a way to use the plums. At first we considered just breaking them down into plum sauce sort of like an apple sauce, but then I decided I love apricots and peaches with meat, why not make a little home-made Asian Ginger Plum barbecue sauce.
I boiled the plums down, removed pits and peels, then cooked the plum-mash with some spices and seasonings until it smelled and tasted delicious. I kept that in an air-tight container for a few days while I my birthday weekend passed by.

Last night, I worked on a marinate for the pork chops we had decided I'd use the sauce on. I find pork to be a very taste-less and dry meat, especially if you do not use a marinate, and so I'm personally not much a fan, but Mom and Dad enjoy it, so I use it. Now, I'll be honest. If you can't tell, I'm just not the measurements type! I grab and go. The marinate I tossed my pork loin chops into includes: orange juice, soy sauce, canola oil, worchestershire sauce, pomegranate juice, minced dried onion, ginger, chinese five spice, thyme, sage, and 1/4 cup of near-boiling water with a chai-spice tea bag that was allowed to settle in it until it cooled. I mixed all of this together and poured it over my chops. I let it marinate 24 hours and everything smells mildly spiced and yummy.
I grill them for 5-6 minutes on the first side, then 3-5 on the second side. They are definitely done, as these aren't thick chops. The last minute on each side, I cook on a little of the Asian Ginger Plum sauce that I made for them, then pull them off, put a little more on and let them rest covered in foil.


To go with these Asian-style pork chops, I went with a homemade fried rice. In my pot I put: rice, margarine, chicken bouillon, beef bouillon, dried & minced onion in a pot. Stir it around a little, then throw it on medium-high heat. I bring the mix to a boil with lid on, stir, then replace the lid, set to lowest heat setting and walk away for about 18-20 minutes. DO NOT remove the lid! The steam and heat in the pot cooks the rice slow and evenly.
When its done, you have a yummy fluffy but not sticky rice with some flavor already cooked into it thanks to the bouillon and you didn't waste money cooking it in a chicken or beef stock. Same principle, same flavor, less expensive! I do the same when I make Panamanian rice, but I also toss in saffron and achiote then.


In the rice, when I fry it, I'll use around 2Tbsp of canola oil. I stir fry an onion until its just translucent, sprinkle in a little garlic powder with it then toss in my thawed frozen peas and carrots. stir fry them long enough to be warmed through, but never too long. I like them to keep their bite to them.
Once the veggies are to my liking, I pull them off the heat and into a large bowl. I pre-whipped 2 eggs and then I scramble them in the pan that I've returned to the heat (add a drop or two more of oil if necessary) and a drop or two of soy sauce. I make sure the eggs break up into tiny crumbles and toss them in the bowl with the veggies, then add oil to the pan again if necessary. This time, a little bit of sesame oil goes in the mix as well. I throw in a few dashes of Chinese five spice, a sprinkle or two of ground ginger, and then some more soy sauce and let that heat in the oil a few seconds, then BOOM, add the rice and mix to coat. I let the rice sit spread out for a few minutes so it will crisp up just a little, flip it around and do that again, then when the rice is ready, pop it into the bowl with the veggies and eggs, mix to combine and its ready.
I also made eggrolls to go with dinner, but admittedly I cheated with these. I'm fully capable of making homemade eggrolls, but the fact is that for two dollars per package, I can't beat the fresh pre-packed ones from the grocery store. Bake them up in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (flipping them once) and they're done.

All in all, everything turned out really good. :)