Sunday Lunch

We had kassler today, with noodles, kassler is a German-style smoked porkchop, one can eat it like it is, or grill it. With that, my brother-in-law made a couple of dishes, both of which were quite tasty. The first of the dishes contains string beans, a vegetable normally I don't care for, but this dish was good and I liked it. He first fried some chicken in a little oil with some sliced ginger, then added the washed and prepared beans (snap the ends off of each bean) to the hot wok or large frying pan, cooking the beans till they were tender, but with still a crunch to them. Restaurants normally boil the beans first, so they cook quickly in the wok, but my brother-in-law finds it loses a lot of the flavour and colour and goodness in the bean. Normally, too, even vegetarian dishes in China contain a little meat, to enhance the flavour of the vegetable. The other dish he cooked was sweet and sour cabbage with bacon. This too was easy to make and tasted quite good. First, shred a whole head of white cabbage. Then fry several strips of bacon, about 10-12, until they are slightly done. Then, add the shredded cabbage and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is soft but not mushy, and the bacon is fully cooked. He used turkey bacon for this recipe, which has an interesting flavour. Lastly, add about 1/2 cup of Chinese vinegar and stir to incorporate.