Catching up from Christmas - Part 6 of 6, The Grand Finale!

FINALLY caught up! The final holiday post covers New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, which incidentally marks the one year anniversary of the launch of wegoodatfood.com. I am grateful to everyone who follows me through this blog, Instagram, or Facebook and I love reading all of the comments, compliments, and suggestions. I assure you that more food excitement is on its way for 2023!

December 31

New Year's Eve used to be a night to go out for a night on the town. Not anymore. Now our idea of a good time on NYE is to invite people over and cook up a feast. This year's menu was Asian-inspired, including some new recipes along with some tried and true from the past year.

Back in my Part 1 post which covered early December, I mentioned my new Spicy Pork Kimchi Egg Rolls and I said I would talk about the recipe in a future post. Well here is the future post!

I started by browning a pound ground pork in a drizzle of olive oil. I seasoned the pork with salt, cracked Szechuan pepper, two tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of ponzu, two teaspoons of black vinegar, one tablespoon of garlic chili paste, six cloves of garlic (minced), and one tablespoon of fresh grated ginger.

Once the flavors were all combined, I added one half cup of chopped kimchi.

To assemble the egg rolls, I added a heaping spoonful of the meat mixture to the center of an egg roll wrapper and topped with some red cabbage for crunch. I brushed the edges with egg wash...

...folded the bottom corner over the filling...

...tucked in the sides, and then finished by rolling it over to fully seal.

Ready to fry! (I preheated my oil to 360 degrees while I assembled them.)

These fry fast, so do not walk away! They only take a minute or two on each side. Do not forget to season with salt as soon as they come out of the oil onto a rack to drain.

You could also air fry these and they would be equally delicious! For dipping, I like a combination of duck sauce and hot Chinese mustard but you can use anything you want, or forget the sauce and just eat them as they are!

Probably my favorite appetizer is Shrimp Toast and it is so easy to make. I cut the crust off of several slices of bread and smeared on the shrimp mixture which I made by blitzing raw shrimp, sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions, egg white, lemongrass, salt, and pepper.

I used the same oil that I used for the egg rolls and these too will cook fast so do not walk away! I removed to a paper towel, cut them into triangles, sprinkled with salt and sesame seeds. (A few minute after this picture was taken, the blue plate was empty FYI.)

My hubby made the ribs and they were also a huge hit!

Homemade Garlicky Fried Rice starts the day before for me. I make white rice in my pressure cooker and let it sit in the fridge overnight to get cold and firm.

I scramble three eggs and cook strips of bacon until crispy.

I start the rice by sautéing eight cloves of minced garlic in olive oil and a splash of sesame oil. I then add minced carrots and cook until slightly softened. Next is the white rice which I break up with a spoon. Once warmed up I start adding soy sauce and ponzu. I taste frequently until the saltiness level is where I want it. I also add freshly cracked Szechuan pepper. To finish, I add frozen peas, and the eggs and bacon from earlier.

My version of Bang Bang Shrimp was also on the menu. When I made this early last year, I posted about how good it was and how I would make it again. The second time was even better than the first! To see how I made it, check out this post from last February.

For the main course, I wanted to make one of my absolute favorites - Mongolian Beef. I started with flank steak which I sliced into strips and then chunks which I combined with cornstarch, baking soda, salt, pepper, water and oil. I did this step earlier in the day and let it sit in the fridge. I also made the sauce in advance which consisted of soy sauce, hoisin, oyster sauce, corn starch, black vinegar, garlic, ginger, and salt.

In my screaming hot wok, I added some oil and started by stir frying the meat until medium-rare. I then added more garlic and ginger, sliced red and yellow bell peppers, scallions, and once the veggies started to char, I poured in the sauce. It did not take long to thicken up due to the heat and corn starch.

Colorful and flavorful! A few hours later, our bellies were full, and we were toasting the arrival of 2023!

January 1

My new TBH Chicken and Sweet Potato Waffles had become so popular in this house in 2022 so it seemed appropriate to make this for the first meal of 2023. For details about how I made this, check out my post from the first time I created this recipe. The only difference this time was that I tried a quicker process of brining the chicken using buttermilk, which you can see below. The end result was just as mouth-watering!

I also used a combination of tenderloins and boneless/skinless thighs this time.

This dish is truly restaurant worthy if I do say so myself!

So there you have it! Six posts and over three dozen recipes, covering December 9, 2022 through January 1, 2023.

Here's to a prosperous and delicious 2023 to all of you! More great posts and other food excitement on the way!