The Shrinkage Diaries: It looks like a bird's nest...

Dear Figure-seekers!

If you would be so kind, take a look at the picture below....

This is a severely inauspicious plate of food.

Honestly. It looks like a cross between a haystack, a bird's nest, and what I used to pull out of the garbage disposal when it got clogged up. (That is, before we moved out to the country where we can't have a garbage disposal system.)

Look at it again.

It looks bland at best, I know. But this is pancit, and it is one of the stinkin' best Asian dishes there is to feed a large crowd. My first introduction to pancit was way back at the church where my Dad worked as assistant music pastor. There was a Philippino woman in the choir, and on occasion she would make pancit for us. Then a Philippino couple moved down the street from us, and she made us dinner and lo and behold, pancit popped up again. Then we moved churches and house, and I forgot all about this amazing dinner until we were at a friend's party, and there again was a huge bowl of the stuff. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was at a Narnian costume party to which I went dressed as The Lady of the Green Kirtle. I ate pancit again, and boom! Right back to memory lane. 

The best part about this meal is that it's waist-friendly, (more-so if you use chicken instead of beef) and qualifies as Shrinkage food because there's not a smidge flour or sugar, and it's packed with veggies. Also, it's gluten free, because those are rice-noodles up there, not wheat, which makes them much better. It would be awesome if you could buy brown-rice noodles, but for now these are great.

Pancit is one of those things that is great for feeding large families because it's kind of a catch-all dish. You can use any kind of meat in the dish. (We've used chicken, beef, shrimp, etc.) Really whatever you have on hand. Last night we had ground beef, and I'd never done that before. When I think of Asian cuisine, ground beef isn't exactly the first thing I think of. I knew I'd need to kick the recipe up a notch of I didn't want dinner to taste like a Teriyaki-Burger from a Japanese McDonald's.

Fast Fun Tip: While rummaging around for the best chili recipe for Dad, I had stumbled across a website that I can't find now. The guy writing the article mentioned that most of the time we don't "brown" ground beef, we "grey" it. In short, we put too much meat in the pan at once and it basically boils in the fat without ever gaining that awesome "browned" flavor. This time I took my pound of ground beef and did it in three separate chunks, smushing the ground beef into patties, sprinkling a bit of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes, salt, and minced ginger over the top, then flipping the patties and breaking them apart. This is THE BOMB and allowed me to impart a vague Asian flare to the ground beef which was lacking beforehand.

Okay. So now that we've established how you have to cook your beef if you are using beef, we can get on with the real recipe. Again, it's a "per your own taste" thing, so the measurements for spices are going to be rather ambiguous. I change it every time depending on what we have on hand and what flavors I'm feeling. 

Pancit

• 1 head cabbage
• 1 red bell pepper
• 12 carrots
• 2 onions
• 3 tbs. minced ginger
• 4 ribs celery
• garlic
• 1 lb. ground beef (or other meat, chopped)
• 1/2 c. soy sauce (and a bit for serving)
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
• Salt
• red-pepper flakes
• olive oil or sesame oil
• peanuts
• 2 packages rice noodles (we use Mai Fu)

1. Start by slicing up all vegetables sensibly. The idea is not chunky--it's long strips to match the noodles. I left my carrot round just because they'd go farther, but onions, cabbage, and peppers can be cut into strips. Toss all veggies in a bowl together.
2. Brown the ground beef per my instructions further up the post. Set aside.
3. This is going to get majorly messy, and this recipe feeds a lot of people. A whole lot. Like...twelve of us with leftovers. So you'll need three skillets on the stove. Pour a bit of olive oil into the bottoms of the pans, and sautee leftover ginger and a spoonful of garlic in each man till golden. Divide the veggies into the three pans, and sautee for ten minutes until the vegetables are tender. Dash all your soy/vinegar/worcestershire sauces over the vegetables and continue to cook. Sprinkle with salt and red pepper flakes. When vegetables are done, cover and let steam while you work on the noodles.
4. Rice noodles are really cool because you don't boil them. Your first step will be to pull the noodles apart and put them in the bottom of some great big bowl. Then you will boil a kettle-full of water (a couple quarts) on the stove. When it is at a rolling boil, pour the water over the dry noodles, cover the bowl with a tray of some sort, and let steam until noodles are tender.
5. Drain your noodles, and mix the noodles, beef, and vegetables together. Add more soy sauce to taste, and mix well. This will kill your arms. You may have to chop up the noodles a bit in order to be able to stir.

Serve on plates and dig in! This is a wonderful meal for a party because it's pretty cheap and goes a really long way. Plus, it is delicious, and easy to throw together; you really can't go wrong with seasonings. At different times I have sprinkled in tons of different spices, drizzled a bit of molasses, dabbled in some clam juice...anything you have on hand. Take my word for it. 

Try this recipe next time you are having an Asian-themed party or just a great big family get-together. It's delicious, and everyone will want the recipe. Then it will be your turn to tell them you pretty much did it on the wing, because with pancit you can't go wrong. Plus, your figure will thank you for making life easy.