Showing posts with label sort of white guy version of some classic asian flavors. Show all posts

This is mostly just the random stir fry dish I learned from my mom but I did things a little different. For one I used a bunch of fresh veggies, though it ended up not making too much of a difference. And two, I used a premade stir fry package from the store. It did come out a bit better then the typical soy sauce and garlic salt that is the typical seasoning of my mom's stir fry, but the biggest difference is that the packaged seasoning had corn starch in it which turned into a bit more or a light gravy and helped the veggies and rice stick together.

1 package stir fry seasoning
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 onion sliced
1 carrot sliced
1 corn
1 green bell pepper
Handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli
1 lbs chicken, cubed
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 Tbsp salt
oil

I always start with the rice just to give it enough time to cook up. Put the rice, water, and salt in a medium to small pot, boil, turn down to low, and put the top on for 20 -30 minutes.

Follow the directions on the stir fry packaging (for me it was mixing the seasoning, water, soy sauce, and sugar and let it sit until the meat was done.
Fry up the chicken with some hot oil until cooked. Add all the chopped veggies and add the seasoning mixture. Stir it up a bit, and but on a top to let the veggies steam to tenderness. Stir again before serving to coat all pieces with the gravy. Serve.

I tried my hand at a new dish, and though I made some major changes to the original recipe, it turned out really good. And yes, I know I am a king at plate presentations.

6 chicken drumsticks
1 large onion
2 potatoes
3 carrots
(1 red and 1 green bell pepper, but only if you have room in your pot, which I did not)
1 and 1/2 cups basmati or long grain rice
3 cups water
14 oz can diced or chopped or whatever Tomatoes
3 Tbsp Canola oil (or really any type of cooking oil is fine)
chopped Cilantro
1 jar Patak's Biryani curry paste. (the most difficult but most essential ingredient)


You will want to use the largest pot you have a top for, or cut the portions down. I started by chopping up all the veggies into similar size pieces. I put the oil in the pot and tossed in all the veggies and the chicken drumsticks setting the burner on high. I let these cook for a bit while stirring it down. I also added some salt to help it cook down. After about 10 mins, I added the can of tomatoes, rice, water and the whole jar or Biryani paste. I mixed that up and turned the heat down to medium. I put the top on and and let it do it's thing. I still opened it and stirred it every once and a while, once every 5-10 minutes so the rice on the bottom didn't burn. Once it all got real hot and bubbly, I turned down the heat. Essentially it is like making a jambalaya. It seems pretty wet at first but the rice ends up absorbing it all and it thickens up. This all cooked for about 30-45 more minutes. Now at this point it was probably done, but I had to go do some other stuff. To keep it hot and just to make sure the chicken was cooked all the way through, I turned on the oven, let it heat up, then turned it off and put the pot, with the top on into the oven. I left it here for about an hour and a half. When I took it out it was really hot still. Actually after it sat out for another hour, the rice was still steaming when I dug through it with the spoon. Who'da thunk rice with all it's starch held onto heat all that well. The final step is to add some chopped cilantro to the top.

So I don't really know if the last 2 hours of being in the warm oven did much, but it turned out really good. The rice was nice and sticky, the veggies were all soft, and the chicken was tender and moist. I would probably do things different next time however. I would decrease the portion size, by a lot. I might increase the veggie ratio to get more of that flavor, specifically on the onion. And finally, the chicken, while having perfect texture didn't really have a lot of flavor. I might try grilling it up first, or maybe marinating it in plain yogurt and tandoori paste.

So beef ribs are the main protein for this week. To start it off I thought I'd braise some of them. First, I marinated them for about 15 hours in:
-Soy sauce
-Ginger
-Rice Vinegar
-Sesame oil
-Honey
-Garlic
-Onion
-Orange juice
-Red Pepper flakes

When I was ready to cook I got a skillet going super hot with vegetable oil, dumped the rack in and heavily browned it on both sides, removed it then added some chopped onion, and green beans, browning those. I put the ribs in a deep roasting pan, covered them with the veggies, then dumped in all of the remaining marinade, a can of beef broth, and about 1/2 cup of white wine, which was all I had left. Covered it in foil, popped it in the oven at 200 degrees, and let it go for a little over 5 hours. When they came out they were moist, and tender, and full of flavor. We ate them with a side of macaroni and cheese as we are wont to do. BOOM!

More chicken? Never did a chicken in a crockpot. Honestly even while doing it I was thinking do people do this? Is this okay? Am I gonna get my door smashed in ala neighborhood drug bust? The answer of course was yes. But the offending officers were very polite. Not to my door but to me. This is basically what I did.

Then I put all that into the crockpot, with the halves from the lemon I juiced, and half a white onion scattered about. Set it on medium, let it go for about 6 hours. Took it out, carved the thing, ate it with a baked potato. BOOM!