Making a Good Recipe Better

One of Fellow Traveler's very favorite dishes is my Chinese cabbage salad. It's not something I made up -- the recipe is from my battered, well loved Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. But sometimes it pays to play around with a familiar dish. In this case, some leftover charcoal-grilled pork loin and sweet chili sauce made a good recipe really good.

Chinese Cabbage Salad With Pork

Toast in a pan over medium heat until golden brown, then set aside to cool:
1 package ramen noodles, without seasoning packet
3 TBS slivered almonds
1 TBS sesame seeds

Meanwhile, whisk together:
3 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS rice or white vinegar, or to taste
3 TBS oil
2 tsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp chili sauce (in the Chinese/Thai section of the supermarket), or to taste


Toss in bowl:
3 cups shredded napa cabbage
1 cup or more leftover extra-lean pork, shredded or diced
1/4 cup slivered red bell pepper
about three green onions, sliced

Just before serving, toss vegetables with dressing; season to taste. Top with toasted mixture.

Cooks' Notes: I really like the dressing and usually make half again as much to add to the salad. Chicken is also good in the salad, although I usually make it without any meat, and if you like to add fruit to dinner salads orange bits or mandarin oranges are good in here.

Tip: If you like charcoal-grilled food but don't have the time or energy to do a lot of grilling...as long as you have hot coals, make extra food to enjoy over subsequent meals. We did this the other day with chicken thighs, pork loin and pork steak -- three days, three meals, one grillling session! Veggies are also good grilled ahead of time, then made into a salad.

The case for unfamiliar seasonings: Why go to the trouble of purchasing some fairly exotic ingredient like sesame oil or chili sauce for a recipe, especially if you're pinching pennies? Because they can be used to punch up other recipes. Toasted sesame oil, for instance, is great to add to recipes calling for sesame seeds or other nuts/seeds if you have someone in your household who has a hard time digesting those foods; it provides a great nutty flavor if used prudently and stored in the fridge in between uses to keep it from going rancid. Sweet chili sauce tastes fantastic in/on all sorts of things -- mix it with soy sauce, for instance, and it makes a great wing sauce; mix it with a bit of soy sauce, some peanut butter diluted with a little hot water and green onion, and you can turn a humble bowl of noodles (even the infamous ramen noodles) into spicy peanut noodles.