Final Meal

Theme: Low sodium diet challenge

• Low sodium
• Using only 6 grams of salt for all three dishes

• Includes 3 recipes
• Appetizer: Strawberry Chicken Breast salad
• Main Course: Gyudon
• Side dish: Sichuan Dry Spicy Pot

Appetizer: Strawberry Chicken Breast Salad

• Ingredients selection
• 2 cups of sweet potato
• 7-8 small strawberries
• 6 grape tomatoes
• 0.8 lbs chicken breast
• 1g sea salt
• 1 g cinnamon spice powder
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 g black pepper

• Process of making the dish
• Dice the sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes
• Put the yam into the steamer and steam for 20 minutes
• Dice the chicken breasts into small pieces
• Put the chicken into a skillet and stir-fried for 5 minutes 
• Slice the strawberries and tomatoes into thin pieces
• Put honey, vinegar, cinnamon spice powder, black pepper and salt into the salad bowl
• Add the steamed sweet potatoes, chicken, tomatoes and strawberries
• Mix the everything in the bowl

Main course: Gyudon

• Ingredients selection

• Sliced beef
• Onion
• Mashed Garlic
• Cooking wine
• Cane sugar
• 2g salt
• Water

• Process of making the dish
• Slice the onion into thin pieces
• Add oil into the pot and add garlic and onion into the pot, cook with medium-high heat until it’s sauteed 
• Add the sliced beef into the pot and keep stirring
• Add 2 cups of water into the wok
• Add cooking wine, sugar, salt into the wok
• Turn to medium heat and keep cooking until the beef is sauteed
• Serve with rice

Side dish: Sichuan Dry Spicy Pot

• Ingredients selection
• Sliced Lamb
• Fish cakes, fish meatballs, and kombu
• Cilantro
• Enoki mushrooms
• Garlic
• Napa cabbage, cut into 2 inches slice
• Lotus root
• Mala sauce (Chinese chili sauce)
• Dried chili
• Sugar
• 3g Salt

• Process of making the dish
• Add oil and garlic into a wok
• Add napa cabbage into the wok, keep stir-frying it for 5-6 minutes 
• Add enokitake into the wok and keep stir-frying
• Add fish cake, fish meatballs, and Kumbu into the wok and keep frying
• Add sliced lamb into the wok and keep stirring for another 3 minutes, then wait until everything is sauteed
• Add mala sauce, dried chili, salt, and sugar into the wok, stir for another 3 minutes 
• Sprinkle the chopped cilantro on top
• This is a dish for share

Reflection

• The reason I choose the theme “low sodium/salt diet” is that eating a lot of salt/sodium could be harmful to our bodies. I ended up using only 6 grams of salts for all three different dishes. I choose to make the strawberry and chicken breast salad because it is a very healthy and tasty dish. I thought it would be a good starter of the meal. The vinegar had made the sweet potato and the chicken even more delicious. The Gyudon is a dish I have been eating since I was 9 years old. My mom always makes the dish for me when I am home, now that I have left home, I had to start learning how to make the dish by myself. It is also not a complicated dish for me, I did not use any recipe to guide me. Because my mom taught me how to make this dish. The Sichuan dried spicy pot is a similar thing as the hot pot but without the soup. That's why it's called dried pot.
• The final products turned out really well and seriously good looking and tasty. That's not from me but from my roommates who have tried those three dishes. I thought with the low salt diet rule, the dish might become really plain and doesn't have a lot of flavors, but it was all fine. The mala sauce and the other spices have added flavors into the dish. I like how my final products have turned out to be. They are all very healthy and tasty.