“If you could cook at home for less money and less time (than eating out), would you do it?” asked Sarah Dayton registered dietician nutritionist, standing in Geisinger Medical Center’s kitchen surrounded by an array of fresh vegetables and some common and not-so-common dinner ingredients.
Dayton hoped to bolster people’s healthy New Year’s resolutions with good-for-you, easy-prep recipes.
“I think, it’s Friday night, you want to go out to eat,” she said. “So instead, make something at home. Like a takeout fake-out.”
One surefire path to good health: Vegetables.
“This is one of those dishes where you can prep everything up and it all goes into the pan together,” Dayton said. “You could prep everything up the night before and have it all ready to go.”
Dayton added shredded cabbage and scallions to the pan, then added more, and even more, packing in as many vegetables as possible to power up the health (shhh!) and taste.
• Dried ginger usually suffices, but this is one recipe where real ginger makes a real difference. “It’s a flavor all its own,” Dayton said. Choose ginger that is firm, not dried out and prunish-looking. The brown skin is tough; she found it easiest to peel by scraping with the edge of a spoon.
Bonus: “Ginger is a vegetable,” Dayton said. “If you’re going to ginger your sauce, it adds a lot of flavor without any calories.”
• The recipe calls for Napa cabbage. Green cabbage works just as well. Even pre-shredded cole slaw mix will do.
• Use yellow onions if you must, but green onions are “definitely the way to go” with this dish, Dayton said.
• Ginger, garlic and chili flakes created a flavored oil and added a mouthwatering aroma to the kitchen.
• Build layers of flavor with mushrooms, carrots, pork, onion and cabbage.
• “I think pork is a highly underutilized meat,” Dayton said. Trichinosis, which used to be feared in pork, has been virtually eliminated by modern farming methods, so the FDA has lowered its standards to allow pork to be cooked to medium-well, if desired.
Mu Shu Pork Wraps
Serves 4 (2 wraps each)
1 Tbsp Dark sesame oil
1 Tbsp Minced, peeled, fresh ginger
5 Garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Chili flakes (more if you like it spicy)
1 cup Matchstick-cut carrot
2 (3.5-ounce) pkgs Sliced fresh mushroom mix
1 cup Green onions, 1-inch pieces
4 cups Napa cabbage, thinly sliced
1 tsp Sugar
3 Pork chops, sliced thin
Cooking spray
1 ½ Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 ½ Tbsp Fish sauce
8 (6.5-inch) Whole wheat tortillas
1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add ginger and garlic and chili flakes; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Increase heat to medium-high. Add carrots and mushrooms; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onions and cabbage; cook 1 to 2 minutes or just until cabbage wilts. Spoon cabbage mixture into a large bowl.
2. Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Return pan to medium-high heat. Combine sugar and pork, tossing well to coat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork mixture to pan; cook 3 minutes or until pork is browned and done, stirring occasionally. Carefully add 1 ½ tablespoons water to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in hoisin sauce and fish sauce. Add cabbage mixture to pan; toss gently to combine. Spoon about 2/3 cup pork mixture into each tortilla. Roll up and enjoy.
