Tortellini Chinoise

 

They are not to be confused with a real main dish, but the little filled pastas that have appeared in the grocery stores are appealing as a special treat to take the place of just plain pasta.  The little burst of filling (spinach and cheese, in this case) is fun to experience.

They freeze well, so when they are on sale, I grab a pack or two to have on hand for such dishes as above.  They cook very quickly – about three minutes – in rapidly boiling water, and will happily wait for you to finish the rest of the meal without getting soggy.

Next, a quick stir fry with the veggies on hand – shredded carrots, onions, mushrooms, cabbage, celery, tri-color baby sweet peppers, topped with fresh pineapple chunks.  I usually use bok choy in this dish, but failing to find any in my refrigerator, I used the cabbage.  Not as crunchy, nor were we treated to the lovely dark green leaves, but the cabbage was a good substitute.

Then came the meat off a couple of previously cooked chicken thighs, along with a bit of soy sauce, and fresh ginger mash.  At serving time, I added some sesame oil and sesame seeds.  My supply of sliced almonds had been depleted, else there would have been a big handful of them on top as well.

Had I thought of the pineapple in time, I would have sautéed that first in some butter to get a bit of caramelization on it, but I didn’t!  So I settled for putting bits on top.

Two nights later, the leftover veggies paired with a different meat, made an appearance over my rice experiment in the pressure cooker.  This provided a quick dinner with little clean up, and it was just as appealing as the first round.  Bonus!

As in all my dishes, you will notice the absence of garlic, but if you like it, please feel free to start your stir fry with a few minced cloves.  If you like the ambience, but not such an overpowering sense of it, you can just sauté the cloves whole (or having been bashed a bit with the flat side of a cleaver), and then remove them. Depending on my level of sloth, sometimes I do that.  DH is more than thrilled to find them offered separately at serving time.

 

Advertisement