Summer Lo Mein

As summer wears on, our garden is beginning to yield more produce. While we have dusted off the canning supplies, this is also the time to eat veggies fresh from the garden. It can be a challenge coming up with recipes that can be used for shifting types of produce. Maggie harvested a small head of cabbage, and being of eastern European stock, I immediately thought of corned beef and cabbage. Corned beef was on sale last week, so in this time of inflation it seemed like a good choice. I asked Henry if he liked corned beef and cabbage. He could not recall having tried it before, but he suggested lo mein, as it also uses cabbage. We also had onions, peas, zucchini, garlic, and carrots from the garden, so an Asian dish was a great idea. While shopping for the few ingredients needed, I found corned beef was no longer in the cooler, so lo mein it was.

This recipe was adapted from one I found on allrecipes.com to fit the produce I had on hand. Use whatever you have in season. Like most Asian dishes, this one requires a bit of prep work, but it is much less oily than the version found at most Chinese takeout places. There are a lot of ingredients, but the only things I needed to buy were lo mein noodles, ginger, and chicken - everything else was from the pantry and garden

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken breasts, cubed

5 tsp sugar, divided

3 tbs rice wine vinegar, divided

1/2 cup soy sauce, divided

1-1/4 cup chicken stock

1 cup water

2 tbs sesame oil

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tbs corn starch

1 tbs minced garlic

2 tbs minced ginger

1 small head cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

5 carrots, cubed

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 cups sugar pea pods

1 zucchini, cubed

2 tbs vegetable oil, divided

10 ounces lo mein noodles or linguini

1. In a non-reactive bowl, combine the chicken, 2-1/2 tsp sugar, 1-1/2 tbs rice wine vinegar, and 1/4-cup soy sauce. Mix together and let marinade in refrigerator for at least an hour.

2. In another non-reactive bowl, combine the remaining sugar, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce with the chicken stock, water, sesame oil, and black pepper. Place the corn starch in a small bowl; pour some of the sauce mixture into the corn starch, mix, and set both the sauce and corn starch mixture aside.

3. Cook the noodles in boiling water, strain, toss with some sesame oil, and set aside.

4. If you have a wok or large skillet, use that for cooking everything. Because of the volume of cabbage and to have one less pot to wash, I opted for the stockpot I used for cooking the noodles.

5. Add 1 tbs vegetable oil to your wok/skillet/stockpot and heat on medium-high until shimmering. Add the chicken mixture and cook chicken until just done. Transfer to a clean bowl and set aside.

6. Add the remaining vegetable oil to the pan, increase heat to high, and heat until shimmering. Add the carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes until the onions are just translucent.

7. Add the peas and zucchini and cook for 1 minute

8. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

9. Re-mix the corn starch solution, and pour into sauce; pour sauce mixture into pot and stir until starting to thicken, about 3 minutes.

10. Add the cabbage and stir until wilted down and just tender.

11. Add the cooked chicken and stir everything together until covered with sauce and sauce is thick.

12. Add the noodles and stir gently to coat with sauce. Take off heat and serve.