culinary experiments and explorations

Originally gotten from here, on the Good Morning America recipes page.

Continuing my desire to try out a new recipe about every week, I spotted some interesting possibilities that Emeril had put up and decided to give this one a try. Without further ado, ( Emeril's Spicy Pork Stir-Fry with Green Beans. )

Overall, I have to say I was underwhelmed by this recipe. It's not bad, mind you; it's perfectly edible and somewhat tasty. However, it's not really all that spicy, and my suspicion is that the relatively large amount of chicken broth in the sauce dilutes it somewhat. Easy enough to make (and for the green beans, I just used 3/4 of a package of them, frozen), but probably not a recipe I'm going to go back to again and again. It just doesn't feel up to Emeril's usual quality, and I know I've got better Chinese/Asian recipes already under my belt.

A few months back, I had stumbled into a trove of Chinese recipes online while searching for a recipe for, if I remember right, Hunan beef. The homepage for the site itself seemed to be under password protection, but because I'd come in via Google directly to a recipe page (and managed to figure out the form of the directories on the site for various types of recipes) I grabbed as many of them as caught my interest. I've been meaning to try some of them out ever since, but lacked either time or ingredients.

Today, I'm home sick with a cough and congestion, so I decided to try my hand at making...

( Peddler's Hot and Spicy Noodles (Dandan Noodles) )

Overall, very simple and quick to make -- perfect for a late dinner or when you don't have much time to cook. With the listed amount of chili oil, though, it was very spicy-hot -- even for my heat-loving palate. Good, filling fare, but be cautious if your body doesn't agree with spicy food.