Sweet and Sour Chicken

Okay, so I have to start out by saying that I had no parts in coming up with this recipe.  I only succeeded in making it deliciously without many of the items on what I consider to be a sprawling ingredient list, and in a mere portion of the time.  It turned out to be a winner with lean protein, tons of veggies and a sweet but not overly sugary sauce that everyone pretty much loves.*Brushes sugar from shoulder* Now that I'm done bragging about my culinary prowess and chameleon like adaptability in the kitchen, let's move on to the method and ingredient list.

First of all, this recipe is actually for Sweet and Sour Pork (butt) which was changed to chicken. I nixed some of the fresh items like ginger, shortened the marinate time for the chicken and eliminated the deep frying in favor of a saute in a shallow pan of oil. I also omitted the celery because it just seemed wrong to me. Celery? In Sweet and Sour Chicken?


I ended up making substitutions for about half of the ingredients, and it was a smash hit with everyone around the dinner table.  To save money, I pulled two breasts from one whole chicken cut up.  As always I stashed the neck and back in the freezer for stock making, and made the other six pieces into Oven Fried Chicken for another night.  One chicken, two meals, happiness all around!  I will post the recipe with my changes since I think that the ingredients I used are more likely to be found in YOUR fridge/pantry today since you will be making this at your next meal immediately following a thorough reading, commentary and sharing of this post via all of the social networks you are a part of.  You will.  Trust me!

 Sweet and Sour Chicken
2/3 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 ground ginger
1/2 cup flour, separated in half
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
Kosher salt and pepper
1 tb. oil , plus more for saute (canola, olive, whatever you like)
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 ounce honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 cup large diced onion
1/3 cup carrots sliced 1/4-inch thick, on a bias
1/3 cup large diced red bell pepper
1/3 cup large diced green bell pepper
1/2 can pineapple chunks

1. In a large non-reactive bowl, combine soy, garlic, ginger, and half the flour Season the pork generously with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the bowl and toss to cover. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hr.

2. Drain off any excess marinade and dredge the chicken in the remaining flour seasoned with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan heat enough oil to cover the pan to 350 degrees F. Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown, flipping each piece half way through. Drain on paper towels. Reserve on a warm plate.

3.In a separate bowl, combine the ketchup, sugar, vinegar, and honey. Whisk to blend.

4. In a small roasting pan heat the tablespoon of oil. Place the vegetables into the pan, allow them to soften for about 2 minutes then add the chicken pieces and cover with the ketchup mixture. Bring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through.

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Shrimp Etoufee, The Easy Way

Hello bloggers, sorry it has been so long.  Sometimes life just takes a hold of you and takes you for a ride, ya'll can understand that right? I knew you would :x <----a kiss for you

I went to a wonderful Cajun restaurant in Charlotte called Bordeaux's for Eid, and had a wonderful shrimp etoufee topped with a blackened whitefish.  It was so good I nearly ordered another one.  Not to go, to eat a second time around.  Alas, I decided one day that I would endeavor this dish at home.  When the time came for me to make it, I looked up some recipes and found ones with ingredient lists miles long.  Let the intimidation begin!

I decided to tackle this one on my own, using the ingredients and spices in other recipes as an inspiration for my own.  And guess what? It worked!  I put this dish together in about 20 minutes, then put on some rice while it simmered for about 30 minutes and as though through some divine inspiration everything came together right around the same time.  Rice: perfectly steamed, etoufee: perfectly spicy,warm and the perfect texture.  Best of all, it was easy!

Shrimp Etoufee

Prep Time: 20 mins  Cook Time: 30 minutes
Cost: $9.64      Servings: 4-6

1 lb of cleaned shrimp
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup flour
1 chopped onion
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 tb. chopped garlic
1- 14.5 oz can chopped tomatoes
1/4 ts. cayenne pepper
1/2 ts. black pepper
1 ts. salt
1/2 ts. garlic powder
1/4 ts. onion powder
1 bay leaf
2 cups water or stock (shrimp if you have it!)

1. Add the flour and oil to a large stockpot or dutch oven to make a roux, and let it cook about 15 minutes until it is a caramel color.  Add the vegetables and garlic then allow them to soften for about 5 minutes.
2. Add in the stock,tomatoes with their juice and all of the spices and stir to combine.  Bring the mixture to a boil and turn down to low heat, simmer for 20 to thirty minutes.
3. Add shrimp and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until the shrimp are cooked.

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Hearty Lamb Stew

Let me start out by saying this: I do not like curry, or rather I have not like it.  This is because the flavors are often too overpowering and aggressive for me.  That might suit someone who is used to these bold flavors, but for me it has always been slightly off putting.  And frankly, it's intimidating.  I am, after all, a Southern bred girl who was never really exposed to international flavors and cuisines until my adult life.  Americanized versions of Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Mexican was pretty much the extent of my adventures in food (Note: let's be clear, these foods are often DAMN tasty!).

Rhymes with Rasheed is another story altogether.  He has eaten many foods from people of many different cuisines and backgrounds, and likes all kids of things that I previously would not even look at, let alone eat.  So this lamb stew is a meeting point for us.  It utilizes lamb, some Eastern spices, and the widely loved flavors of carrots, onions and sweet peas.  Elias loved it -- he ate his first plate before I could dish out everyone else's and then ate two more servings.  The stew went so fast, I ended up eating a PB sandwich afterwards because there was almost none left for me!  The flavor is there, but it's not knocking you over and is a good dish for those of us just starting to experiment with new flavors.

I used cubed lamb shank with the bones in for this, then removed the bones after cooking. But you could easily use any other part of the lamb, or replace with beef or chicken for an equally tasty alternative.  If you wanted to make it vegetarian you can leave out the meat altogether and add potatoes.  Lamb is more expensive than beef or chicken, but since the other ingredients are household staples that most of us typically keep around, the dish is still pretty affordable.  If you don't usually keep tumeric around, check the International foods aisle of your grocery store, you are likely to find smaller packages of spices that are more affordable than the ones on the spice aisle in the fancy glass bottles!

Hearty Lamb Stew

Prep time: 15 minutes     Cook time: 2:30

Price: $12.42         Servings: 4-6

2 lbs. lamb meat
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 ts. tumeric
pinch of allspice
pinch of cumin
kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1. Preheat a stock pot over medium-high heat and drizzle with oil.
2. Season the meat with salt and pepper, and dust with the flour to coat.  
3. Brown the meat in batches, and remove them from the pan.  Add the onions and garlic and soften.
4. Return the meat to the pan, and add enough water to cover. Then add the carrots, peas, tumeric, allspice, cumin and salt and pepper to taste.  
5. Cover and cook over high heat for 20 minutes, then reduce to a simmer for at least two hours. Serve hot over rice.

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Back With a Vengeance

After my last colossal fail at stir fry, I thought I would steer clear from Asian inspired dishes for a while. But, alas, I have revisited the flavors of the Far East once again and this time it was greeeeeeeeeeeeat. And yes I needed all of those "e"s.

After a request for chicken wings for dinner, I intended to make BBQ chicken wings. Until I went to the fridge and didn't find the ketchup bottle refilled with my own BBQ sauce, or any other remnant of BBQ sauce in the fridge. So I had to improvise. I opened the cabinet and what's the first thing I see? Soy sauce. I ran with it and this is what transpired.

Asian BBQ Sauce for Wings (or anything else for that matter)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 tb. red wine vinegar
2 tb. honey
3 tb. brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pinch of ground ginger

Add all of the above to a pan on medium heat. Reduce until the sauce thickens, but still has a liquid consistency about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl or container with a lid.

The makings of the sauce...

The sauce after!

I prepared my wings in a very simple way. First, preheat the oven to 425. I spread them out on a cooling rack placed over a baking sheet, then patted them dry with a paper towel. (Remember, it is unnecessary to rinse chicken since that only liquefies germs and spread them alllll around the kitchen in places you might not even think to look!) Then I seasoned them with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, putting pepper only on the side that would be face down since pepper can scorch easily when placed under direct heat. Bake for about 20 minutes if you are using wing sections, longer if you are using whole wings. Then crank up the broiler and broil the wings on each side for about two minutes or until the skin crisps and turns golden brown. Remove then and toss in the sauce in the covered container.

Chicken before...

Chicken after!

The Sides:

1 zucchini, sliced into 2 inch sections
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups cold brown rice
2 slices turkey bacon
1 egg
2 tb. soy sauce or a fried rice seasoning packet


While the wings are baking, you can make some zucchini fry up some brown rice like I did. To make this a one pan wonder, add 1 ts. olive oil to a pan over medium high heat. Add in sliced zucchini, salt and pepper it, and saute until softened and a little brown, about 3 minutes. Remove the zucchini and let the pan come back to temperature. If you don't have cold, leftover rice in the fridge you can expedite the process by making some instant rice in the microwave and spreading it out on a baking sheet and putting it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Be sure that your rice is COLD, or else it will break up and be a big, mushy mess! Once your rice is ready dice two slices of turkey bacon, and add it to the pan. Then add the chopped onion and cook for another minute. Add an egg, salt and pepper it, and scramble it. At this point I added in a Kikkoman's fried rice seasoning packet, or you could just add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce. Add in the rice and, then cook for another minute and that's all folks. Be sure to use a sizable pan that will allow the rice to maintain a high temperature once it is added.

Rice before...

Rice after!

T

You WILL want to make this for your family, your boo, or whoever. It makes a great, fast meal when the "summer=no cooking" syndrome hits and the pressure is on :) Not to mention there is NO ADDED FAT! 'Til next time.

Finished product!

A Stir Fry Education, A Little Too Late

Before the stir fry went awry...

Last week I made a mediocre stir fry. I hate to admit it, but I did. My mistakes were many and varied, as tends to happen when the spirit of "summer=no cooking" rears its ugly head. Everything started out well. I pulled out my big, stainless steel flat bottomed wok. I heated it until the pan was smoking hot (literally) and added some canola oil. I added my onions and yellow bell pepper. I removed them, added mushrooms and zucchini and put everything back in the fire. Then comes mistake number. I planned on fancying up a dried packet of stir-fry sauce. I read the directions, mixed 2 ts. of honey in place of the sugar suggested on the pack with 2 tb. of soy sauce and some water.....then, I neglected to add the actual seasoning pack. Then I cleared out the wok, let it heat up and added some chicken breast and shrimp and start to toss those suckers like there was no tomorrow. I mean, I swirled, swished and flipped it until the water from my slightly frozen shrimp and the juices from the chicken brought the whole high heat cooking thing to an abrupt close. The chicken and shrimp began to steam in the juices and shrimp water, and I knew then that my perfect stir fry was no longer. Still, I pushed on feeling the pressure of a hungry husband and child hovering from the living room. I continued to drain the juices and return the pan to the fire. Then I did it again, and then again. After all this, the condition of my stir fry still hadn't improved so I added in all the veggies and poured over the (incomplete) sauce and served it up. The facial expressions around the room were pained as we pushed it down, determined not to spend extra money on take out and to maintain the ability to count our calories as much as possible. Can we forget last Monday, please?

Today I opened my email to find a notification that my June-July 2010 issue of my digital subscription to Saveur magazine had arrived. I logged in, and flipped through and realized that I had not really been taking the time to read the previous issues. So I went to an old issue and found some real foodie treasures. A titalating article on macaroni and cheese, the timeless "bechemel vs. custard" debate (to be continued in another post), a revealing article on the food of Kenya, an informative expose on olive oil, and a "Stir Fry Education" on Page 104 of Saveur about traditional Asian stir-fry methods complete with photos and instructions. This was immediately followed by a short piece about adapting American electric stoves and flat bottomed woks to traditional Asian stir fry recipes.

Needless to say, I almost slapped myself silly after reading it. I started off the right way, but should have continued the process of quick cooking parts of the stir fry and setting them aside for later. And most importantly, I didn't think to put my chicken and fish in the wok and not touch them to allow them to sear, since as meat moves it loses juices into the pan. Duh. I say all of this to say, read the article, and don't make the same sad stir fry mistakes I made, and vow to never make again. So let's recap the basics:

1. Crank up your stove top to the max, and let it regain heat each time you add or remove an item.
2. Allow meats to sear before moving them to seal in juices.
3. It only takes about 30 seconds for everything to come together at the end. Thirty seconds and not a second more!

And thus will you be saved from a soggy stir-fry. Tonight I'll be trying another Asian inspired dish- Japanese tempura vegetables and shrimp. Look for that on another menu.