China Wok - Towson

Ever since we discovered Grace Garden, we seldom eat Chinese food anywhere else. But what do we do if we get a craving and don't feel like jumping in the car for a 45-minute drive? Sometimes we make it (or a reasonable facsimile) ourselves, but sometimes we bite the bullet and eat somewhere that's not Grace Garden.

There are tons of American-style Chinese restaurants in the Towson area, and most of them have stuffed a menu in our door handle at some point or another. We used to save them, but eventually figured there was no use in that. So for our most recent Chinese food craving we just pulled a name out of the air. "China Wok," seemed like a place that might exist in Towson, and indeed it does. I looked it up on Urban Spoon, checked out the photo of the menu attached to the listing, and called in an order for delivery.

Delivery is always tricky. Will they find our house in our neighborhood of crazy one-way streets? Will the food still be hot? Will it have slopped out of its containers all over the inside of the bag? The answers to those questions, in the case of China Wok, are "yes," "yes," and "no."

Within a half hour, we had a bag of steaming hot goodies packaged so neatly that nary a drop of anything was spilled.

We got a quart of won ton soup that had ten porky/garlicky won tons in a nicely flavored broth. Pretty damn good for $2.35.

Mr Minx ordered his customary Kung Pao chicken. The chunks of chicken with diced celery and carrots and the occasional slab of green bell pepper looked and smelled great. The meat was ridiculously tender and the veggies crisp, but unfortunately, apart from some heat, the dish didn't have much flavor. I thought it almost tasted like Old Bay. 

We also got an order of Szechuan string beans, which were nicely cooked, garlicky, but not spicy. 

I rook the risk of ordering the vegetarian Moo Shu. It was risky because every time I've ordered moo shu from Szechuan House, it's smelled like something scraped out of an elephant's backyard. It always tasted fine, but the smell was offputting and I had never noticed it at other restaurants. Happily, China Wok's moo shu both smelled and tasted fine. Delicious, even.

While the kung pao wasn't up to snuff, the rest of the meal was pretty good, including the free order of crab rangoon that I originally thought were fried noodles for the soup. And we now have a lifetime supply of packets of mustard, duck, and soy sauces. 

China Wok's no Grace Garden, but it was definitely worth trying. Might have to order Chinese more often.

China Wok
6372 York Rd
Baltimore, MD 21212
(410) 377-5933



Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Swordfish, Fried Rice, Peppered Tamarind Gastrique

After all of my fancy eating in NY a couple weeks ago, I was in the mood for...more fancy stuff. Yeah, moderation? What is that? I stopped short of suggesting to Mr Minx that we go out for dinner on Sunday because, honestly, I had already spent enough money on food for the week, plus I was feeling a teensy bit guilty for dining out without my hubby at my side. So I attempted to make up for it by creating a restaurant-quality dinner at home.

That started out with a quick rummage through the freezer. There I re-discovered a package of Chinese sausage that I knew was in there but hadn't seen recently, and a ton of fish recently procured on a trip to Trader Joe's. Given the choice between salmon, mahi mahi, and swordfish, Mr Minx chose the latter. I decided to make a dish with Asian flavors (naturally - my usual M.O.) - fried rice, marinated swordfish, and some simply-buttered green beans. After more consideration, I thought a sauce might be nice and did a riff on the black pepper gastrique I had at The Modern the day before.

The fish was meaty and buttery, the rice had lots of interesting textures from the snappy mushrooms and the sausage bits, and the sauce added much-needed acid tartness. The sauce was rather rich and while it was fine with the meaty fish, it would probably work even better with red meat.

Swordfish, Fried Rice, Peppered Tamarind Gastrique

Swordfish
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
couple glugs fish sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 swordfish steaks, about 3/4" thick

Fried Rice
1 teaspoon canola oil
1/2 cup sliced onion
2 Chinese sausage (lop cheong), roughly chopped into about 1/2" pieces
2 ounces dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked for one hour, rinsed, drained, & roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups cold cooked rice
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup frozen edamame, prepared according to package directions
1 tablespoon chopped scallions

Peppered Tamarind Gastrique
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fig vinegar
2 teaspoons tamarind concentrate
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Swordfish:
Place first five ingredients in a non-reactive container. Add fish. Marinate for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

When ready to cook, remove fish from marinade and pat dry. Preheat oven to 400F. Heat an oven-proof skillet over high heat and add a drizzle of canola oil. Add swordfish and cook about 2-3 minutes, until bottoms are browned. Turn fish and place in preheated oven. Bake 8-9 minutes, until cooked through.

Fried Rice:
In a large saute pan, heat canola oil over medium-high heat and add onions. Cook until wilted, 3-4 minutes. Stir in sausage; cook until onions brown and sausage begins to get crisp, about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook an additional minute. Add rice, breaking up any clumps with a wooden spoon. Stir in mushrooms, five spice powder and soy sauce. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is no longer white and is beginning to crisp up a bit, about 6 minutes. Stir in edamame and scallions and cook until vegetables are warmed through.

Gastrique:
Place sugar in medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until sugar begins to melt. Stir until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Pour in vinegar, which will cause sugar to harden. Continue stirring until sugar remelts. Add tamarind concentrate and water and turn heat to high, stirring constantly to dissolve tamarind. Bring to a boil and when liquid begins to thicken, add broth. Continue boiling until gastrique is thick enough to coat a spoon and is reduced to about half a cup. Stir in pepper.

To Serve:
Place a mound of rice on a plate. Top with swordfish steak. Drizzle with gastrique. Top with cooked and lightly buttered green beans, asparagus spears, or a handful of arugula or watercress dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Serves 2, with leftover rice and gastrique

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Chicken with String Beans

We went a little crazy with buying vegetables at the supermarket last week. I think we've been eating too much meat lately and wanted to incorporate more green stuff into our diet. A head of cabbage became both kimchee and an important component of "bubble and squeak." A bag of broccoli slaw got the remoulade treatment. And a mess of string beans was combined with chicken to create a version of Chinese chicken with string beans.

I basically used the recipe for Kung Pao chicken from Land of Plenty, added a tablespoon of tobanjan (spicy fermented soybean paste) and substituted cashews for peanuts. And of course added about half a pound of trimmed string beans.

Although the sauce tasted really strong and spicy before I added it to the pan, it was a little lackluster after the watering-down it got from the beans. Probably could have added a little more salt, but no matter - it was still good, and the leftovers made a nice lunch for later in the week.