Sunday, July 31, 2011

Pine Nut Pork Mince and Zucchini Rice Noodles




I have been suffering for digestive issues for some time now, and last year, I decided to reduce my intake of milk products. Since then, I find a big improvement in reducing the bloat and gluggyness.

This year, I decided to take it one step further and reduce intake of sugar, wheat and vinegar for a month. Just for an experiment to see how I go. I must admit though, that I'm not really good at keeping to it as sugar is EVERYWHERE. I'm so glad I'm not allergic to it! Vinegar pops out in unexpected places as well, such as beef stock. I was also told to avoid soy sauce.



This is my first attempt in making a dish that has no sugar. I pan fried some pork mince with pine nuts which gave it flavour. However, I couldn't resist and put a teaspoon of oyster sauce in that. Oops. Well, it was only day 1! So I could ease myself into it right? I had some lotus root left in my freezer so pan fried that also with garlic and salt. Grated a zucchini and mixed it up with carrot and chilli.

All this together makes this a simplified version of dan dan noodles. It's so simple that I'm going to have to call it... Pine nut Pork mince and Zucchini Rice Noodles. I guess my trick here was to create lots of different texture to make this dish more interesting.

Ps- did you notice the purple little bag at the background? Thanks to Tigerfish for my win on her blog! It's an awesome lunch bag that I have been using daily.


Pine Nut Pork Mince and Zucchini Rice Noodles
200 grams pork mince
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup of pine nuts
1/2 tsp of oyster sauce

Grated zucchini and carrot- 1 each water squeezed from vegetables

Lotus root
garlic
water

200 grams of rice noodles

Boil water, cook rice noodles and drain. Set aside and dish out in bowls. Cook garlic in pan. Fry pork mince till nearly all done. Add sesame oil, salt, pine nuts and oyster sauce. Taste. Serve on noodles.

In a separate pan, hit garlic up and fry lotus root till done. Season with salt and pepper. Dish on bowls.

Then gently heat up zucchini and carrot using same pan. Again, dish on bowl, Mix it all up and serve.


Photobucket

6 comments:

  1. I cannot stand without sugar too...

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  2. you mean better not to take soy sauce to avoid indigestion? i do have the same problem on and off, i suspected milk intake too but i'm taking "gaviscon' whenever i have this problem. Daphne, a liitle bit of oyster sauce will definately make these noodles more delicious, i know that this is really yum!

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  3. Oh zucchini rice noodles! Now that is what I am talking about. it all sounds amazing. Love the pork flavors!

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  4. That's healthy for sure and congratulations on your win on the lunch bag.

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  5. Glad you have been using the bag daily :)

    Sorry to hear about your digestive problems. I did not know sugar affects digestive tract. I know Chinese cooking usually involves oyster sauce but I have not been using oyster sauce for quite some time and not missing it. I guess using more aromatics (onions, garlic, ginger), herbs and spices to flavor up dishes work for me.

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  6. I don't know if I could actually give up sugar entirely but kudos to you for trying! This dish looks super tasty!

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