Thai Basil Chicken

This dish has special nostalgic value for me. Jo made it for dinner the first time I met her during my first real trip to DC, and I cried after feeling overcome with emotion hot spicy feelings in my throat. It was a night to remember, just like senior prom, my college graduation, and that one song by Ashley Tisdale.

It also meets my two cooking criteria: (1) it is easy, and (2) it is tasty.  Note that I did not include “healthy” into my standards, though I think the general lack of oil and butter is a good sign here.

Ingredients
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 chili pepper (use with caution)
1 lb chicken
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 red bell pepper
20 basil leaves (no more, no less)
1/2 tsp cornstarch

Directions
Heat some oil and throw in the garlic and chili pepper for about 30 seconds, until it starts to sizzle. Add chicken and cook on medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Toss in the fish sauce, sugar, and soy sauce and cook for 1 minute. Add oyster sauce and 1 tbsp of water for 30 seconds. Put in red bell pepper and basil leaves, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in water and add. Remove from heat after a minute.

don't forget the basil!!

Everything happens so quickly, but if you do it right, the chicken is very moist and tender. Serve with rice, and enjoy! And one last thing: for some reason, whenever I make this, I always forget the basil in the Thai Basil Chicken, so DON’T DO THAT!

serve with rice. i apologize for the quality of this picture.

(Thai) Peanut Noodles with Shrimp

I’m not really sure what makes this recipe so “Thai.”  I mean, maybe peanut noodles is just a Thai staple, or maybe whoever sent me this recipe is just racist.  I’ve seen peanut noodles that weren’t Thai.  Wikipedia says that it’s frequently used in Indonesian and Chinese cuisine as well as Thai.  I think this should really just be ‘Peanut Noodles with Shrimp that may remind you of Thai food.’

Anyhow, the recipe is super simple, and I think it turned out really well this time around.

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger (I had over .5 tablespoon left over, but you can just freeze whatever’s left)

1/2 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons hot sauce (sriracha, my fave)

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup peanut butter

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 1 lb of shrimp)

salt (optional-I omitted and it was perfect)

1 lb rice noodles

6 scallions, sliced thin

1. Bring water to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, whisk garlic, ginger, soy, vinegar, hot sauce, brown sugar, peanut butter, and sesame oil in a small bowl. You can either reserve some of this sauce to marinate the chicken/shrimp in before grilling or just mix the meat in at the very end.

sauce, pre-stirring

2. Depending on what kind of noodles you buy, the directions to make them can differ.  I bought them at the local Giant and decided to follow the box directions.  It called for putting the noodles in very hot water and letting it soak up for 25-30 minutes until al dente, without letting it oversoak.  I’ve seen other recipes which say to add 1 tablespoon salt and noodles to boiling water and cook until al dente. I think either should work.  Drain well, rinse under cold water until cool and drain again. Toss noodles, peanut sauce and scallions together in a large bowl.

3. Grill chicken/shrimp and serve in/with the noodles.  I grilled the shrimp on medium heat with a little bit of the peanut sauce while the noodles were soaking, and timed it so that they were both done at the same time.  Glorious.

then mix it all up

Some thing that I noticed was that this dish turned out surprisingly spicy.  I didn’t think it would because it was only 2 tsp of hot sauce, but it definitely has a kick.

Also, while mixing the sauce with the noodles and shrimp, I thought the sauce looked really runny, but actually it was just fine.  While it looked kind of thin, the taste is all there, and wasn’t watery at all.

Lastly, don’t overcook the shrimp.  I remember my first time making shrimp, I cooked it until it came out rubbery and gross.  Pretty much, as soon as it’s pink all over, it’s done.  It’s practically bursting with its flavor, and that’s how I like my shrimp–borderline explosive.

Hong Shao Rou (Red Braised Meat)

Intro

When I think of home-cooked meals, I think of two things.

I think of my dad, working in the kitchen without complaints and without help while the rest of us loafed around on the internet or in front of a teevee.  Strangely enough, when dinner was ready, he would always have to plead with us to get us all at the dinner table together.  We would never eat dinner at the same time because he could never get us to step away from whatever it was we were doing.

The second thing I think of is hong shao rou.  Since my dad did all of the cooking, he got to choose the menu.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, this meant eating hong shao rou eight days a week.  It was delicious, but there’s only so much repetition a person can take before wanting to drive off a cliff (see Groundhog Day).

So as soon as I moved out, I left CV and hong shao rou far, far behind.  It’s only been recently that I’ve realized how much I miss the meaty goodness, and no one makes it quite like Father.  So I took my one-week sabbatical as a good time to learn how to make this dish straight from the expert himself.  Keep in mind the measurements are just estimates, because my dad cooks based on eyeballin’ and what feels like the right amount.

Recipe (for about 4 big servings)

1 lb of pork loin, trimmed of skin and fat and cut into bite-sized pieces*
1/2 container of wood ear fungus, cleaned and set in water**
3 medium-sized yams, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces (big enough to not get smashed, small enough to cook thoroughly)
2 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled (optional, i omitted)
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled but left intact
2 1/2 tb sugar
1/2 c salty, lighter soy sauce
1/2 c darker soy sauce
1/4 c rice wine
1 dried star of anise/aniseed
2 tb vegetable oil

*This is uncertain.  My dad couldn’t name what cut of pork it was (other than it wasn’t ground pork or pork chops), but if you’ve ever shopped at a Chinese grocery, you’ll find that the butchers sell a certain cut of pork.  It’s the kind that has both the skin and fat on it still, and after Googling it for a while, it appears the closest thing I can call it would be pork loin.

**I know, I know.  What the fuck is wood ear, right?  It’s a mushroomy fungus you’d find in Asian grocery stores.  They’re often dried and condensed into these tiny boxes, about the size of a matchbox.  If this isn’t readily available, you could always switch this out for dried black mushrooms, or canned bamboo shoots, or dried tofu pieces.

Directions

To prepare the woodear:

1. Remove the woodear from its packaging and submerge in hot water in a large bowl.  Wait 5-10 minutes while it is absorbing the water.

2. After it has absorbed enough water to fill most of the bowl, drain the water and refill with more hot water.  You want to do this rinsing process until the water residue comes out clear, free of debris and any sand.  Once this is done, break apart the bigger pieces so that they are small bite-sized pieces.  Set aside until preparing the rest of the dish.

To prepare the dish:

1. If you decide to cook this with eggs, start them first.  Hard boil the eggs.  Once done, remove from heat and run under cold water.  Remove shells and include with the yams and garlic.

2. Pour enough oil to coat the bottom of the panm and put on high heat.  Once hot, add the pork cuts.  You want to brown the meat evenly, leaving nothing visibly raw.  The browner the meat is, the more tender the final result will be.

3. As you finish browning the meat, add the rice wine, the salty soy sauce, the darker soy sauce, and the sugar.  Reduce heat, to about low-medium.  Add anise seed.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove anise seed, but then insert the woodear.  Increase heat to high until the sauce begins to boil again, and then reduce heat back to low.

5. Add the yams and garlic cloves (and eggs), cook for another 10 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally.  After 10 minutes, test the flavors and the tenderness of the yams, and if all right, take off heat, remove garlic cloves, and serve with rice.

ingredients

hong shao rou

It was a lot of fun cooking with my dad.  It was nice to know how to make something that makes my dad happy.  I also like having a bit of my family that I can share with others, something that is truly a Shen tradition.  Maybe I’ll make it in my new apartment!

Teriyaki Salmon Fillets with Sauteed Green Beans

Intro

I like Michelle’s approach to writing this blog, so I’m going to copy her.  It’s been so long since I’ve written anything that wasn’t an email to some uptight attorney that I hate, I don’t even remember how to do this.  Anyway, I’ve been having a bad week, at work and elsewhere, so I really didn’t feel like going out and doing anything special on Friday night.  I just wanted to hang out with Jo, cook dinner, and watch a movie.  And get crunk on a bottle of wine.  Neither Jo nor I could figure out what we wanted to eat that night.  So after a bit of looking on Tastespotting for some inspiration, we decided on salmon–something neither of us has really prepared before.  So, there are some interesting mistakes and lessons we learned along the way, which I’m sure I’ll repeat time and time again.

Recipe (serves 2, with leftovers)

For the Teriyaki Salmon
2 six ounce salmon fillets (I believe these are different from salmon steaks, fyi)
1/2 c soy sauce
zest and juice of one orange
1.5 tb brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
0.5 tb minced ginger
0.5 tb white sesame seeds (I omitted this, I didn’t think they were necessary)

For the Sauteed Green Beans (according to Jo)
3 big handfuls of green beans (maybe less than 1 lb?)
3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 tb butter
0.5 tb olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the salmon dish, combine all of the ingredients except the salmon (and the sesame seeds if you choose to include them) into a saucepan.  Bring it to a boil and then slowly simmer until a syrupy consistency is attained, about a 50% reduction.  Let it cool completely.

To hasten this process, Jo had the idea of loading the sink up with ice, and sticking the entire pan into the improvised ice bath.  It was cool within a few minutes—just stick your finger in there to test the temperature when you think it’s cool, but be careful.  If you don’t have a grill to cook the salmon on, then start preheating your oven to 500 F now.

The original recipe said to add the sesame seeds and salmon into the sauce and let it marinate for an hour.  We decided 15 minutes was good enough (and it was).  Joanna made up some article she read that said one needn’t marinate meats for longer than half an hour, because everything after that was ineffective.  Whether or not that is true, the short amount of time was really just fine for this recipe.  So let the fillets marinate in the sauce for about 15 minutes, make sure to put the meat side down (seems obvious, but I mean, I don’t know).  Also, Jo rubbed the sides of the fillets with the sauce, just to make sure it was completely covered.  After marinating, remove the salmon from the sauce.

The recipe calls for grilling.  If you don’t have a grill (like I don’t), then you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Uhhh… now what?”  Have no fear, you can bake the salmon, and it works just fine.  If you have a grill, it says to cook for about 3-5 minutes per side.  Occasionally brush the salmon with the sauce.  If you don’t have a grill, then stick the fillets on a cookie sheet or a baking pan.  Either grease your baking pan or lay foil over the cookie sheet.  This will help with removing the fillets once they’re cooked, and it’ll help with not burning your house down.  Bake for about 12 minutes.  Poke at them to check when they’re done.  If they flake—if the layers of the meat come apart easily, and it looks cooked—then it should be done.

marinating

nom

For the green beans, wash and cut off the ends of the green beans.  Then par-boil them, meaning put them into boiling water for about 4 minutes.  You only want to partially cook the green beans.  Remove the greens, drain, and set aside.  In a pan (or the same pot you used to boil them—we’re lazy), add the butter, garlic, and olive oil, and set the burner for medium.  Add the green beans.  Cook until they’re tender, but crisp.  Add the salt and pepper.  We served the salmon and green beans with some white rice, and voila!  All done.

Lessons Learned:
1.    If you end up making all of the elements of this meal together, then make sure to time them together.  The salmon will take the longest, followed shortly by the rice and green beans taking around the same amount of time to prepare.  If you’re a slow vegetable chopper (like Michelle), then be sure to get all of that stuff ready beforehand.  We mistimed it all and ended up waiting around for 15 minutes to use the oven, and then we had to reheat our cold food in the end.
2.    If you bake the salmon with the marinade, be sure to lay down some foil to help lower the risk of setting off the smoke alarm.  We definitely realized this way too late—as soon as we opened the oven door, we thought, “Fuck.  The smoke alarm.”  Then we ended up having to do the ‘fan the smoke alarm with a rag so it will stop beeping’ dance.
3.    Check for bones beforehand.  We found a few before we cooked, but it really ruins the meal when you have a mouthful of fish bones.

waiting around to use the oven... whoops.