Japanese like to eat homemade Chinese food. Chinese cooking technique is a bit different from Japanese cooking. Chinese cooking tends to deep fry meats and vegetables and coat with heavy sauce. Japanese way of Chinese cooking is much healthier. Let’s avoid deep frying food! When you deep fry meats and vegetables, they will absorb oil. One teaspoon of oil has 38 calories! I will show you a Chinese food which is not greasy but is delicious!
Sweet and Sour Pork Set Meal 488 calories
Main – Sweet and Sour Pork
Side 1 – Celery Salad
Side 2 – Asparagus with Miso Dressing
Soup – Clear Broth Soup
Steamed White Rice
All recipes are made for 2 servings. This printable recipe box will allow you to change the serving size to adjust the recipe.
Main: Sweet and Sour Pork 243 calories
The key to make pork tender and savory is to use potato starch. Potato starch becomes cushion so that meat can avoid direct heat. As a result the meat doesn’t shrink and does get juicy. It also holds flavor and seasoning of meat when cooked. In America, cornstarch is more popular to use but I highly recommend to use potato starch. The most common usage is to thicken sauce. Use small amount of potato starch and dilute with two to three times water depending on how much liquid left in pan. For example, for 1 teaspoon of potato starch add 2 to 3 teaspoon of water. It dissolves well in water and tolerates heat. It does not clump up. Remember to turn off heat when you stir in the dissolved potato starch. It creates jello like texture if liquid in pan is too hot or there is not much liquid left in pan. Try it when you make gravy. When used as coating for frying, it becomes crispy. Try it when you make fried chicken. I have to note that potato starch is kosher and gluten free!
- 200 g pork sirloin
- salt & pepper
- 2/3 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon oil
- 2 teaspoon potato starch
- 50 g carrot
- 50 g green bell pepper
- 50 g onion
- 1/2 teaspoon oil 1/4 tsp for vegetables & 1/4 tsp for pork
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon sake
- 2 teaspoon vinegar
- 4 teaspoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon or chicken base
- 2/3 teaspoon potato starch
- Slice carrot, green bell pepper and onion. Cut pork into bite size. Salt and pepper meat.
- Combine sugar, soy sauce, sake, vinegar, ketchup and potato starch for sauce.
- Mix pork with soy sauce and oil. Then coat the meat with potato starch.
- Heat 1/4 teaspoon of oil in pan and sauté onion, bell pepper and carrot until onion becomes translucent.
- Take vegetable out from pan when cooked and set aside.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon of oil to pan and brown meat both side.
- Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes in low heat.
- Remove excess oil in pan with a piece of paper towel after meat is cooked.
- Add the vegetable back in the pan.
- Turn off heat and stir in the sauce. Continue to cook in low heat until the sauce becomes thicken.
Side1: Celery Salad 38 calories
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It is okay to stuff yourself for a special occasion. The important thing is to go back to healthy diet. Leftover turkey can be used for sandwich. How about unused celery stalks purchased for making stuffing? Tired of celery sticks? Here is what you can do. Just slice them and mix with mayonnaise and soy sauce. If you don’t care for celery, use the one inside (not the outer hard ones). They are light green and normally have leaves. Those new growth stalks are tender and mildly sweet. Chop the leaves and add to the dish. This is my no wasting policy!
- Slice celery diagonally.
- Combine soy sauce and mayo in bowl.
- Add celery into the bowl and mix well. It will taste better if let it sit for 30 minutes.
Side2: Asparagus with Miso Dressing 34 calories
Other Thanksgiving leftovers can be greens such as asparagus, green beans and broccoli. I simply boil them and place over lettuce bed. Does that sound easy? But I make my own dressing in order to keep it low calories. For this recipe, I use miso. Miso is not just for making miso soup. Miso can be used to marinate meats and vegetables. Miso is fermented soybean paste and more effective when you eat with vegetables to promote heathy digestion and clean intestine. In other words, you can expect detox power. Let’s have miso every day!
- Cut asparagus into 2 inch length. Hand cut lettuce.
- Mix miso, sugar and vinegar in bowl.
- Lightly boil asparagus and drain.
- Add asparagus into bowl and mix well.
- Place asparagus on lettuce bed. Sprinkle ground sesame.
Soup: Clear Broth Soup 13 calories
I showed you how to make miso soup on my last post. Clear broth soup is also Japanese traditional food. It has refreshing flavor and goes with rich flavored main dish. Make sure you mastered how to make Dashi before cooking. For this kind of soup, we add soy sauce and salt to Dashi instead of miso. The calorie is very low. It is under 15 calories, half of miso soup!
- 20 g green onion
- 50 g spinach
- 250 ml dashi Japanese fish broth
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- salt to taste
- Chop green onion. Cut spinach (or use baby spinach).
- Boil Dashi in pan.
- Add green onions and spinach.
- Add soy sauce and salt to taste. Bring to boil and turn off heat.
100 g Steamed White Rice 160 calories
Each 500 calories set meal comes with 100g of steamed rice. You will need to cook rice in a rice cooker or in a heavy gage pot. And measure cooked rice for 100 grams. I will show you how to make your cooking life easier. Read more How To Cook And Store Japanese Rice.