03.08.10
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Meats, Poultry, Veggies at 3:21 pm by julie
I’m always looking for new ways to cook chicken, especially recipes that are quick to make. Nolan loves chicken stir fry, so I make that pretty frequently with a basic recipe, adding or subtracting depending on what veggies and flavorings I’ve got on hand. But variety is the spice of life, so here are three stir fry variations we’ve tried out recently.
First up is a chicken satay stir fry with a peanut butter based sauce meant to emulate the dipping sauce used for satays. I don’t really care for peanut sauce, but Jeremy does, and we had most of the ingredients on hand, so I thought it was worth giving it a shot. This recipe was alright, although the peanut butter still gives the sauce a little strange texture for me; at least it wasn’t spicy. I did have to use orange juice from concentrate, and dried zest in the rice. I also substituted broccoli for the snow peas.
Next up is a recipe that looks remarkably similar, but tasted completely different. It was based on a Real Simple recipe that seemed to be a cross between a soup and a stir fry, based on all the liquid and the direction to simmer the chicken and veggies in it. For me, the Brussels sprouts were what really set the recipe apart, but a liquidy sauce didn’t appeal to me, so I made some adjustments.
Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced on the bias
8 oz Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 C unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4 C soy sauce or tamari
3 T brown sugar
1 C homemade chicken broth
1 T cornstarch, plus 2-3 T water
Toss chicken with 5-spice and saute in a hot wok or skillet with a little oil, until opaque. Add the onion, carrot and Brussels sprouts, then add ginger and garlic, and saute just until fragrant. Then add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and chicken broth, and simmer until broth has reduced slightly and vegetables are tender-crisp. Add cornstarch slurry, and continue to simmer until sauce has thickened. Serve over rice.
This recipe is in some ways similar to the last. I adapted this recipe because Jeremy just wanted something like teriyaki and broccoli, and I wanted to incorporate the sweetness of some fruit juice into it. Usually I’d reach for orange juice, but we were out, so instead I used some of the big bottle of pomegranate-blueberry juice we’ve been making into smoothies. It actually came out pretty well, and may be worth repeating, with the ginger toned down a bit (it was pretty strong!).
Pomegranate Chicken Stir Fry
2 T olive oil
1 T brown sugar
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 Tbsp minced shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T grated ginger
1 tsp dried orange zest
1 tsp Chinese 5-spice
2 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 C pomegranate-blueberry juice
1 C broccoli florets, steamed
1 T cornstarch, plus 2-3 T water
Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sugar and stir, using a wooden spoon, until sugar darkens just slightly. Toss the chicken pieces with the 5-spice, add to the skillet and stir well to coat. Cook chicken for a few minutes until the outside of the chicken pieces turn opaque. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger, and orange zest; cook, stirring, for a few minutes until shallots and garlic have softened a bit. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and juice. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is slightly reduced. Add cornstarch slurry, and continue to simmer until sauce has thickened. Toss with broccoli and serve over rice.
Source: Adapted heavily from eHow.
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02.08.10
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Poultry, Sides, Veggies at 10:17 pm by julie
This was a good use for boneless chicken and some basic pantry ingredients. It is a riff off of traditional Chinese red cooking, which takes its name—and its color—from gentle braising in soy sauce and brown sugar; afterwards, the braising liquid is reduced almost to a syrup that gets tossed back together with the meat. This recipe calls for red wine in place of the traditional shaoxing, which helps to underline the color. The recipe calls for thigh meat, but I used breasts because that was what I had, and it worked out fine; I also used shallot in place of the green onion. The sauce, once reduced, packs a big punch; it was a little salty for our taste due to the soy, so I think we might tone that down a touch next time. I served my chicken with rice and some mildly Asian roasted carrots.
Double Red-Cooked Chicken
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
2 tsp five-spice powder
2 1/2 C dry red wine
6 large scallions—white and light green parts cut into 2-inch lengths, dark green tops finely chopped
1/2 C soy sauce
1/3 C light brown sugar
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 T finely grated fresh ginger
1 dried red chile (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
1 T sesame seeds
In a large bowl, toss the chicken with the five-spice powder.
In a large, nonreactive saucepan, combine the wine with the scallion pieces, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, ginger and chile and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Reduce the heat to moderately low and add the chicken. Simmer until the chicken is just cooked, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken and scallions to a plate.
Boil the cooking liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 1 cup and glossy, about 12 minutes. Return the chicken and scallions to the saucepan and stir to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a bowl. Garnish with the chopped scallion tops and sesame seeds and serve.
Source: Food and Wine.
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10.18.09
Posted in American, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Poultry at 6:09 pm by julie
I’ve been trying for a while to track down a recipe that emulates the orange chicken from Panda Express, which I’m sure is loaded with fat, corn syrup and other naughty things. This recipe comes pretty darn close to that sweet-heat flavor and crisp-gooey texture, and I’ve already made it several times. I did make a few slight adjustments, most notably orange juice concentrate in place of the orange juice, which kicked up the orange flavor markedly. When I had no more orange juice concentrate, I made it myself just by boiling down about 1/2 C prepared orange juice to 2 T before adding the rest of the sauce/marinade ingredients. I also omitted the green onion and substituted dried orange zest and some chips of dried ginger in place of fresh; they imparted plenty of flavor as the marinade cooked.
As for the chicken, I am rarely organized enough to know what I’m making for dinner hours in advance, so my chicken just marinated for about half an hour. I use a Tupperware container for that, and also to shake it with the flour so I don’t waste a Ziploc. I also just throw all the marinade in with the chicken instead of separating some for the sauce; it boils down at high heat afterwards, so I don’t worry too much about contamination. I also added some lightly steamed broccoli to the dish at the end, just in time to toss with the chicken and sauce.
Crispy Orange Chicken
1 1/2 C water
2 T orange juice concentrate (or 1/2 C juice boiled down to 2 T)
1/4 C lemon juice
1/3 C rice vinegar
2 1/2 T soy sauce
1 T grated orange zest (or 1 tsp dried)
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger root
1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 T chopped green onion (optional)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
3 T cornstarch
2 T water
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 T olive oil
Pour 1 1/2 C water, orange juice concentrate, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool 10 to 15 minutes.
Place the chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag or container. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour 1 C of sauce into bag. Reserve the remaining sauce. Seal the bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken into the skillet, and brown on both sides. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and cover with aluminum foil.
Wipe out the skillet, and add the remaining sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 2 T water; stir into the sauce. Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken pieces, and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Source: AllRecipes.
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06.14.09
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pork and Ham at 11:51 pm by julie
It’s time for the second Daring Cooks challenge, chosen by Jen of use real butter—potstickers! Now, I’ve made pork potstickers several times before, and I’ve even made my own wrappers, but my folding technique was less than stellar, and I’m always up for an opportunity to practice. When it came right down to brass tacks (read: a few hours ago for dinner), all I had on hand was a huge pork loin and some broccoli, so I improvised on the filling pretty extensively, but I think it worked out alright.
I quickly made the dough, which was very simple but required a few extra tablespoons of water to become supple, and let it rest under a damp towel while I made my filling. For this, I halved the filling recipe and minced up some pork loin in my food processor rather than in the grinder, as it was a pretty small amount of meat. I also steamed some fresh chunks of broccoli, heavy on the stems, quickly chilled it in an ice bath, and minced it up to go in the filling along with some rehydrated shiitakes (popped into the boiling water leftover from the broccoli for a few minutes), garlic, ginger, soy and sesame oil.
My rested dough was just a touch on the sticky side, so I kept bench flour on hand and dusted my rolling pin pretty regularly as I rolled out the wrapper rounds. This part was hard, mostly because Nolan kept trying to storm the kitchen to get into everything and then protested at high volume when his daddy came for the interception. Jen’s photos finally helped me get the hang of the pleats, and I turned out some decent looking potstickers in very little time at all.
I used the pan frying method to cook my potstickers, partly because I don’t have a bamboo steamer basket, and partly because I really like the way the bottoms of the ’stickers crisp up in the skillet. I would have liked to make a creative dipping sauce to go with them, but I was pressed for time and just reached for our Ginger People sauce instead.
These were good, but I like my old potsticker filling recipe better; of course, I didn’t really give this one a fair shake because I had to improvise so many of the ingredients. Still, it was a tasty meal, and helped me get over my slight paranoia about using raw pork in the filling. I also really liked the dough recipe, and finally feel like I am getting the hang of folding them, at least a little. I think I could do it more justice if I cut my fingernails and wasn’t in such a rush to get back to the wailing baby. It made quite a few potstickers, enough for the two of us for dinner with half a dozen leftover in the fridge and a plateful in the freezer—and I could have made lots more with my excess pork filling if I had felt like making up another batch of dough. Thanks so much, Jen, for sharing! And check out all the elegant dumplings at the Daring Cooks Blogroll.
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04.22.09
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Poultry at 3:54 pm by julie
We’re running a bit low on interesting ingredients at the moment, and I keep diving into the back of the freezer and the bottom shelf of the pantry trying to find a little inspiration. Last night turned up a little jar of black bean-garlic paste and some frozen chicken breasts, so I combined them with half a package of fresh asparagus in a quick stirfry that was really delicious. Since I now have an open jar of bean paste haunting the fridge, I expect to be making variations of this meal for some time to come.
2 T cornstarch, divided
1 T soy sauce, divided
1 T shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 T black bean-garlic paste
1/2 C chicken broth
1 T oyster sauce
1 T brown sugar, plus a pinch
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into 12 wedges
3 T vegetable oil, divided
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and diagonally cut into 1-inch pieces
2 T water
For marinade, combine 1 tablespoon each cornstarch, soy sauce, and sherry, with a pinch of sugar, in large bowl; mix well. Add chicken; stir to coat well. Let stand 30 minutes.
Combine 1 T cornstarch, 1 T soy sauce, chicken broth, sesame oil, brown sugar, and oyster sauce in small bowl; mix well. Set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in wok or large skillet over high heat. Add chicken; stir-fry until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove from wok; set aside.
Heat remaining tablespoon of vegetable oil in wok. Add onion and asparagus; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add water and cover; cook, stirring occasionally, until asparagus is crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Return chicken to wok. Add black bean-garlic paste and chicken broth mixture to the wok; cook until sauce boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Serve over rice.
Source: Adapted from Howstuffworks.
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09.01.08
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Fish, Italian, Mediterranean, Pastas, Seafood, Sides at 12:40 pm by julie
Tilapia is one of those proteins that Jeremy likes bringing home in bulk from Costco, so I’m always on the look-out for creative ways to use it. Here is another pair of recipes that were set on the blog’s back-burner, thanks to a trip to the emergency room. No worries and no relation to the fish—turns out Jeremy had a kidney stone, and it seems to have passed. Of course, now I’ve got a bunch of tilapia stranded in the freezer because he has started associating it with intense pain. Sigh.
Thank heavens for fish, really, because it cooks so quickly. Even marinating it takes no time at all. I made the sauce for this meal in a free moment, and came back when we were ready to eat and cooked off the fish. I served it with Jaden’s garlic scallion noodles (a.k.a. noodle crack), veggiefied with shredded red cabbage, vertically sliced onion, and carrots cut into lazy-man’s julienne (I peel the carrot, then use the peeler to cut the entire carrot into thin slices, stack and julienne from there). Every time I make these noodles, Jeremy comments on how good they are and forgets he’s had them before—perhaps because I include whatever veggies I’ve got on hand. It was a perfect side-dish for the mild Asian flavors of the fish.
Five-Spice Tilapia with Ponzu Sauce
2 T thinly sliced green onions
2 T orange juice
1 T lemon juice
1 T low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/4 tsp bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
2 tsp canola oil
Combine green onions, juices, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and ginger in a small bowl. Set aside.
Combine five-spice powder, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle both sides of fish evenly with spice mixture. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from skillet, and serve with sauce.
Source: Cooking Light.
The second recipe I chose for my tilapia this time around was a quick piccata, served with couscous that I seasoned with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. I liked it, but I think Jeremy was already wary of tilapia after his first kidney stone, so he mostly ate the couscous.
Tilapia Piccata
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper, divided
3 T all-purpose flour
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
3 T butter, divided
1/4 C white wine
3 T fresh lemon juice
1 T drained capers
Combine salt, pepper, and flour in a large shallow dish. Dredge fish in flour mixture. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Remove fish from pan; keep warm.
Add wine, juice, and capers to pan; cook 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Add remaining butter to pan; stir until butter melts. Serve fish with sauce and pasta.
Source: Cooking Light.
Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Couscous
1 T olive oil
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 T dried basil or 1/4 C chopped fresh basil
10-12 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 C couscous
1 C boiling water
Place 1 1/2 cups of water on the stove or in a kettle to boil. In a bowl, mix the olive oil, salt, basil, tomatoes, and couscous until combined. Measure out 1 cup of boiling water and pour over couscous mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 5 minutes. Lightly fluff the couscous with a fork, and drizzle with a bit more olive oil if desired.
Source: Slightly adapted from VeganYumYum.
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05.30.08
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats, Pork and Ham at 12:27 pm by julie
I don’t like ribs. They are way too much work and mess for hardly any payoff. They don’t fill you up, you have to gnaw on the bones (which gives me the willies), and you always end up with sauce smeared in the corners of your mouth. I only bought pork babyback ribs last week because they were on sale at the grocery store, and I wasn’t much looking forward to cooking them. However, I set to work on a recipe from the May 2008 issue of Gourmet in order to finally get some use out of my bottle of black vinegar, substituting the babyback ribs for spareribs.
Well, I loved this recipe. Unabashedly. I gnawed rib bones, people. It took me a while to finish, because I had to do it in stages as Nolan’s temperament allowed, but we ended up with a saute pan full of sticky, chewy, aromatic ribs that were quickly devoured with platefuls of rice. If I’d known how good they were going to be, I would have considered doubling the recipe. I meant to steam some veggies to go along with them, but there just wasn’t time; I weighed my priorities and made white chocolate ice cream and brownies instead (recipes forthcoming, maybe tomorrow).
Pork Ribs with Black Vinegar Sauce
I think this sauce, simmered down to glaze consistency, could be adapted to work with many cuts of pork or chicken, maybe even salmon… I certainly intend to give it a try in other applications myself.
2 lb pork spareribs or babyback ribs, cut into individual ribs
1/4 C cornstarch
About 12 cups peanut or vegetable oil for frying, divided
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
2 T very thin matchsticks of peeled ginger
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2 T Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/3 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/3 C Chinese black vinegar
1/3 C reduced-sodium soy sauce
Blanch ribs in a 4-quart pot of boiling water 4 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Whisk 1/2 teaspoon salt into cornstarch in a large bowl. Add ribs, cover bowl with a plate, and toss.
Heat 3 inches oil to 400°F in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot, then fry ribs (in batches if necessary) 5 minutes per batch. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a bowl.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook garlic, shallot, and ginger, stirring occasionally, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cook, stirring, until dissolved, about 1 minute. Add wine and boil 1 minute. Add ribs with broth, vinegar, and soy sauce and simmer, covered, stirring and turning ribs occasionally, until tender, about 1 hour.
Transfer ribs to a platter. Boil sauce, whisking, until thickened and emulsified, about 2 minutes; pour over ribs.
Source: Slightly adapted from Epicurious
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05.27.08
Posted in Beef, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Meats at 1:18 pm by julie
I’ve been craving a lot of Asian food lately. We’ve been eating so much curry that we decided to invest in a quality rice cooker—our old one was a cast-off from friends. After doing a bit of research, we ended up purchasing a Zojirushi Micom Fuzzy Logic 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker
, and we’ve already used it at least half a dozen times. It takes up a bit more storage space and requires slightly longer to cook rice, but it is lightweight and has a useful handle, rice paddle, and shockingly nonstick bowl…and did I mention it cooks and warms rice perfectly? Because it can keep rice warm for up to 12 hours if necessary, I can pretty much get the rice going anytime in the afternoon that I have a free moment, and it will be ready to eat whenever I get to dinner.
Anyway, I think part of my current interest in Asian cuisine may stem from the fact that, once the ingredients are prepped, it often cooks rapidly—even more rapidly if I just send my husband for take-out. Heh. My favorite Chinese restaurant dish is the one that goes by the name of orange chicken at Panda Express (but is sometimes called mandarin chicken or even sesame chicken at other restaurants I’ve visited): you know the one, with bits of chicken deep-fried and coated in a sticky-sweet, tangy, and often slightly spicy sauce. So I tend to gravitate toward trying recipes that promise crunch and tangy orange-flavored sauces. I’ve made two in the past few weeks, as it happens.
My first stab was at the Shun Lee Palace’s Crispy Orange Beef, and it was alright. I did use pre-cut stirfry beef instead of cutting my own, so the meat was probably not of the quality it might have been, but hey—time is a precious commodity around here these days. The beef was incredibly crispy after coming out of the oil, but not so much after having been tossed with the sauce, despite serving it as quickly as possible. I’d like to know how the Chinese restaurants keep their deep-fried meats crunchy. I also stir-fried a few snow peas with the beef right at the end for some green veggies.
Crispy Orange Beef
1 lb sirloin steak, cut for stirfry
1 T baking soda
6 T water
Zest of 2 oranges
4 C vegetable oil
1 egg white
1 C corn starch
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C red wine vinegar
2 T sherry
1 T soy sauce
2 tsp corn starch
½ cup scallions, sliced diagonally into ½ inch pieces, white part only
1/2 lb snow peas
2 tsp sesame oil
Juice of 1 orange
1 T Ginger People sweet ginger chili sauce
In a bowl, mix the steak, baking soda and water, and marinade in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight. The baking soda will tenderize the meat.
In a wok, heat salad oil until smoking. To the steak, add the egg white and corn starch, and mix thoroughly. In a bowl, mix sugar, vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of corn starch.
Fry the beef in the hot wok for 20 seconds, remove, and drain. Clean the oil with a slotted spoon. Return the beef to the wok, and fry again for another 30 seconds, remove, and drain.
Discard the oil, and to what remains in the wok, add scallions, beef, sesame oil, sherry-soy sauce, orange rind and juice, and chili paste. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and serve immediately over rice.
Source: Adapted from StarChefs
My other recent stab at these flavors took the form of the Sesame-Orange Chicken from Elise at Simply Recipes. I didn’t manage to snap a photo of this meal, but it came out alright. My chicken was a bit burned on top and a bit soggy underneath; I can’t remember now exactly what I was doing while it cooked, but I imagine it had something to do with a baby. Anyway, I served it with some fresh skillet-cooked broccoli, and boiled down the marinade to drizzle back over the finished chicken and rice for sauce. It tasted good, and was easier to make than the beef dish, but every time I make an orange chicken dish that involves marmalade, it comes out with a bitter edge that just doesn’t quite work for me, and this was no exception. I’d still probably make it again—especially since I have an open jar of marmalade in the fridge now—but I’m still on the lookout for a recipe that reaches closer to my ideal. Maybe this one should be next on the list?
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01.10.08
Posted in Appetizers, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pastas, Pork and Ham at 5:10 pm by julie
We made a run by LifeSource the other night for some essentials, and I decided, upon seeing the huge organic Napa cabbages, to make pork potstickers for dinner again. We made our way around to the refrigerated cases last, and lo and behold, no wonton wrappers in sight. Turns out they hadn’t been selling, and are no longer kept in stock—good to know, but not much help to a woman with the makings for potstickers already in her shopping cart. When I got home, I sat down and decided to try making the wrappers myself. You can use wonton wrappers as substitutes for fresh pasta in ravioli recipes, so how different could it be from making pasta dough?
Not much! I started with this recipe as my base, but halved it, using an egg white instead of a halved whole egg. My primary concern was producing a dough that wasn’t too sticky, and I ended up having to add quite a bit of flour to get something that didn’t leave residue on my fingers when I gave it a pinch. Next time I will add less water more gradually. The dough ran through my pasta maker up to the finest setting without a hitch, and I made sure to sprinkle the sheets very liberally with bench flour to keep them from sticking to the counter-top and each other. I overlapped them and covered them with a damp towel while making the potsticker filling, and they stayed nice and pliable until I was ready to fold my stickers. I just uncovered a few at a time, as I was ready for them.
The dough behaved very well, and definitely felt similar to the commercially-produced wonton wrappers I’ve used in the past. It was a tad softer, but that just facilitated folding and pinching into shape (a good thing since I don’t have a clue what I’m doing in that department!). I made about a dozen at a time, because that is all that would fit in my little nonstick pan. They responded to steaming and panfrying just as they should, with a good chew on top and a crisp brown crust underneath. The amount of dough I made produced almost exactly the right amount of wrappers to use up all the filling, amounting to about 3 dozen potstickers. They were so tasty that Jeremy commented, while tucking away his second helping, that now we won’t have to worry about finding wonton wrappers at the store anymore. I guess that’s true, but it wouldn’t hurt to look—potstickers are fiddly enough as it is, thanks!
This is my somewhat unorthodox entry for Presto Pasta Night #45, hosted by the lovely Ruth.
Wonton Wrappers
1 large egg white
About 1/3 C water
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour and salt. Add the egg white and mix with the paddle attachment over medium speed, slowly adding water until the dough forms a ball. You may not need all the water. Continue beating the dough with the paddle for several minutes, or remove from the mixer to knead by hand. You want a smooth elastic dough that isn’t sticky, so adjust the flour and/or water content by increments as necessary. Mine was rather more pliable than my usual egg pasta dough. Note: This was not a large amount of dough, so I didn’t bother with my dough hook.
Cut the dough into four equal parts and run through a pasta maker up to the thinnest setting, or roll out by hand using a liberal amount of bench flour. Cut the sheets into roughly 3″ squares, and make sure they are well sprinkled with flour on both sides before stacking or overlapping to prevent them from melding together again. Use immediately or cover for a short while with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Makes about 3 dozen squares, enough for me to use up nearly all of the spectacularly delicious filling from Shawnda’s recipe, here. Or use in any recipe that calls for wonton wrappers.
Source: Adapted from AllRecipes.
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09.04.07
Posted in Beef, Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Meats, Pastas, Thai at 11:01 am by julie
I’m still cooking and and taking pictures, but for some reason lately it seems like a great effort to translate that information into a timely blog post. Consequently, I’ve got a backlog of post fodder building up, and I’ve decided to just unleash all of it on you at once.
A week or so ago I was really wanting some beef and broccoli: not just any beef and broccoli, actually, but the version I used to have at a now-closed Vietnamese restaurant, which had little wedges of noodle pancake tossed in with the rest. I used a recipe from Cooking Light, and sort of made up the noodle pancake thing using some boiled chow mein noodles. It turned out pretty well. The beef was thinly sliced flat-iron steak, and it was incredibly tender; the sauce tasted alright, but I found the presence of ginger really distracting and unlike local restaurant versions; the noodle pancake was too thick and a bit charred on the outsides. If I tried this again, I would leave out the ginger, and make a thinner noodle pancake with rice noodles. But if anyone has a more authentic recipe for beef and broccoli, share the love!
We’ve been making lots and lots of pasta this past week, since it’s my go-to meal when I haven’t made advance plans and gone grocery shopping. We had Noil’s Noodles for lunch one day (that recipe deserves its own post when I can get some pictures; it’s like my ultimate comfort food) using rotini because we were out of plain egg noodles. Also, Jeremy seems to have developed some sort of snobbish dislike for ordinary wide egg noodles. I don’t get it. Another night, I made a version of Jaden’s garlic scallion noodles, using Barilla Plus angel hair pasta, our last two chicken tenders, half a tiny Napa cabbage that I found in the bottom of the crisper (surprisingly fresh for its age), and some julienned carrots. Turned out to be a really tasty something-out-of-nothing meal, and one I’ll keep in mind for similar occasions.
I should note that I’ve been using a lot of the Barilla Plus pastas lately because they have a boosted protein and omega-3 content, and we like them a lot. We can’t tell the difference at all as far as flavor goes, which is great. We have tried several types of whole wheat pasta also, and while they are very tasty, they definitely have a noticeable flavor and texture difference that doesn’t work equally well with every sauce. So I would recommend the Barilla Plus option, but I’ve noticed that it wants more of a flavor boost than your standard pasta, so be sure to taste it and up the sauces and seasonings a bit if you find the same.
Finally, and more recently, I made a linguine carbonara for dinner at the end of the week, based on Mario Batali’s recipe in Molto Italiano. We didn’t have spaghetti, so I used linguine, subbed in bacon for guanciale (although I would happily use the latter if I could just find it somewhere), added peas to the pasta for the last two minutes to give the dish a veggie component, and didn’t bother separating the yolks out to nest on top of the dish (maybe another time, though). For a tense moment I thought I had scrambled the eggs instead of carbonara-izing them, but it all worked out in the end, as you can see from the photo.
Soon to come, I promise: our Labor Day dinner of roast duck, spaetzle, and haricots verts. Mmm, duck…
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