Years ago, a woman named Rosie used to own the Chinese restaurant on the main street in (ha! New Bedlam) Morden. Apparently, she’d given these recipes to someone in my family, who eventually tweaked them and handed them on down to me.

I miss Rosie. She was awesome. It’s not that I don’t love the new restaurant on the highway (new? it’s been there for at least 12 years now…) because it’s now my go-to Chinese place, but Rosie was just plain wonderful. That woman let me taste things to see if I’d like them, portioning out tiny amounts of different dishes onto a plate so I could move past the cheeseburger I always ordered when mom had no choice but to take me with her.

Also, her fried wontons were the best ever. I’ve never had any others like them, anywhere.

Remember, these have been tweaked to suit a family of four.

Pepper Steak
Ingredients:

Directions:

Brown strips in very hot, deep pan. I use my large dutch oven, but I’d prefer to use (and used to have one just for this!) an electric fry-pan. Sprinkle with black pepper and 2 tbsp soy sauce, add a bit of water if necessary.

Add onions and peppers, brown slightly then add soup, tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over low heat until the peppers are softened. Raise the heat to bring sauce to a boil, then add thickening.

The thickening: In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining 2 tbsp soy sauce and 1/4 cup of water. Add to boiling sauce and stir well.

Serve over rice – and you know I’ll suggest Basmati!

Classic China Sun Pork
Ingredients:

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Directions:

Drain pineapple, reserving 3 tbsp of the juice. Mix juice with 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, cornstarch, vinegar and pepper flakes; set aside. You may want to stir occasionally to keep the cornstarch from settling to the bottom.

Cut pork in thin strips.

Brown pork in a small amount of oil in a very hot wok, then lower heat slightly and add in garlic and ginger.

Add in carrots and onion, cook in 1 minute. Stir sauce, add in to pork with pineapple and peppers. Cook only until the sauce boils and thickens.

Serve over rice or noodles (we prefer Basmati rice, as always!)

Our Mandarin Sun Pork recipe evolved when a friend told me her hubby was allergic to pineapple. She had used orange segments instead, but found it too heavy on the spicing then. We tweaked the amounts and eventually came up with this:

Mandarin Sun Pork
Ingredients:

Directions:

Drain oranges, reserving 2 tbsp of the juice. Mix juice with 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, cornstarch, vinegar and pepper flakes; set aside. You may want to stir occasionally to keep the cornstarch from settling to the bottom.

Cut pork in thin strips.

Brown pork in a small amount of oil in a very hot wok, then lower heat slightly and add in garlic and ginger.

Add in carrots and onion, cook in 1 minute. Stir sauce, add in to pork with oranges and peppers. Cook only until the sauce boils and thickens.

It’s basically identical – we used the same base-recipe and just added our own flair…

I think I’ve shared variations of these before, but I found my old, handwritten cookbook so I thought I’d share what I’d received when I first moved out on my own.