A Typical Lunch for a Family of Three in Beijing: Simple 6 Dishes, Balanced with Meat and Vegetables

With the arrival of the spring season and blooming flowers, life is gradually returning to normal. Although we haven't yet gone to the park to see the splendid flowers, it's not just sticking to buying ingredients once a week. Since discovering a nearby small supermarket that offers quite affordable prices, we've been going there regularly to buy vegetables, which is much better than eating sparingly before. With the spring in Beijing being dry, it's good to eat more seasonal vegetables to supplement nutrition. While we have time, we can make more dishes at noon.

Cold Spinach

Wash the spinach and blanch it in boiling water for about 1 minute, then drain and cut into segments and put them in a dish. Add an appropriate amount of fragrant oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and sprinkle with chopped garlic, and mix well to eat.

Cold Shredded Vegetables

Wash the potatoes and carrots, peel and cut them into shreds. Wash the bell peppers and cut them into shreds. Blanch the potatoes and carrots in boiling water for about 2 minutes, drain the water and mix with the shredded bell peppers, then add an appropriate amount of soy sauce, vinegar, and fragrant oil, and mix well to cook.

Baby Pea Frozen Tofu

Wash the baby peas and cut them into segments. Cut the frozen tofu into pieces. In a pot, add an appropriate amount of oil and sauté chopped green onions and ginger until fragrant. Then add the baby peas and sauté for 1 minute before adding the frozen tofu. Pour in an appropriate amount of hot water, cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Then add the baby pea leaves, sprinkle with an appropriate amount of salt, and sauté for 1 minute. Add a cornstarch and water slurry, a few drops of soy sauce mixed, and stir-fry until bubbles appear before cooking.

Soy Bean Stew

Everyone likes to stir-fry meat with soybeans. My family prefers to make it with soybeans because it's simple to make, down-to-earth, and particularly flavorful. When we don't want to cook, we often stir-fry soybeans to eat.

Wash the soybeans and cut them into segments. In a pot, add an appropriate amount of oil and sauté chopped green onions and ginger until fragrant. Then add the soybeans and stir-fry for 5-6 minutes. Add an appropriate amount of soy sauce and then add 2 tablespoons of hot water, cover and simmer for a while. Basically, if there's no soup left, add chopped garlic and stir-fry a few times before cooking.

Pan-Fried Fish

Fish fillets are usually made with basa fish today, let's try pan-fried fish, which is also delicious.

Cut the basa fish into pieces and marinate them with salt and white wine. Drain the water and sprinkle a little starch. Wash the carrots and bell peppers and cut them into pieces. In a pot, add an appropriate amount of oil and sauté chopped green onions and ginger until fragrant. Then add the basa fish pieces and stir-fry for about 3 minutes until fully cooked. Then add chopped green onions and ginger, and then add sliced carrots and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. Pour in a few drops of soy sauce and a cornstarch and water slurry with small bubbles, and stir-fry evenly before cooking.

Fish is easy to stick to the pan, so add a little more oil. After the fish is added to the pan, don't stir-fry directly, about 1-2 minutes, then gently turn it over, otherwise it's easy to break.

Braised Pork Belly

This is the pork belly I bought when I went out to buy meat. At the time, I didn't buy pork belly, but bought rear tenderloin. Braising pork belly is a bit lean, but the taste is still good.

Cut the pork into pieces and add a little salt and a small amount of cornstarch. In a pot, add an appropriate amount of oil and sauté white sugar to make caramel sugar color. When the sugar melts and small brown bubbles appear, add the pork and stir-fry evenly. About 2-3 minutes until there is no raw color, add 2 star anise, 1 clove of fragrant leaf, 10-10 pieces of star anise, a few slices of ginger, then add a little aged liquor and vinegar, then pour in hot water to cover the meat, add 3-4 segments of green onion, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. According to personal taste, add an appropriate amount of salt and continue to simmer until the meat color turns red and almost no soup remains before cooking.

This is my lunch with 6 dishes. Although they are all very simple, they are all loved by the family. This is probably what is meant by 'home-style cooking'. It is ordinary, but it has a familiar and warm taste. It's very happy to sit around the table to eat. It's a wonderful thing to cherish every meal and every precious moment of eating together.

Night Photography Food Light, a rookie kitchen, uses the most ordinary ingredients, the most rustic methods, the most ordinary combinations, restores the most warm home-style cooking flavors. Sincerely do a good meal every time, cherish every wonderful moment of eating together. I hope to share with you the experience of cooking and making dishes, if you like it, please pay attention to me!