Notes on a Few New Recipes

This past week, while I've been on vacation, I've tried some new recipes. Having a clearly Oriental bent to my taste buds, I've tried Korean roast chicken thighs, orange soy salsa chicken, ham fried rice, ma po tofu and szechuan green beans. These recipes have either come from Recipezaar or About.com's Chinese food guide.

I did a search on Recipezaar a while ago and found the recipe for the chicken thighs and saved it to my cookbook there. Being in a mood for all things involving soy, ginger, garlic and hot chili sauce, and my local megamart having a sale on chicken thighs, I delved into that cookbook. I can't vouch for the authenticity of the recipe, but it's clearly got an oriental bent. You mix soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, green onions, and if you're me, a good squirt of sriracha hot chili sauce, put chicken thighs, skin side down in a baking dish and pour the sauce over it. The recipe doesn't call for marinating time, but for future reference, I can't see that it would hurt any. The chicken gets baked, uncovered, in a 400 degree oven. Basting the chicken is a good idea. The finished product has a glorious mahogany color and plenty of nice juice to put over some steamed rice. It's a recipe that can be made from my pantry on an average day in no time at all. I think it would be good with pork tenderloin, too, and it's one of those recipes that can be adjusted to suit individual tastes and preferences. A definite keeper.

The orange soy salsa chicken recipe also came from Recipezaar. I was in a mood for orange chicken with broccoli and was cruising my cookbook and the 'zaar site for recipes when I found this one. You mix orange juice, your favorite salsa, soy sauce, cornstarch, garlic, ginger and some dijon mustard to make a sauce that you pour over some browned chicken cubes in a baking dish. I tweaked this recipe by adding the broccoli with the sauce and baking it all uncovered in a 375 oven. It's not classic orange chicken with broccoli, but it was close enough to satisfy my craving and it was so easy. For the future, I'm not sure I'd feel the need to bake it. Chicken could be browned and broccoli sauteed for a bit before you put the sauce in your skillet and let it simmer a bit. I might also bump up the orange flavor with a bit of orange rind. I'd make it again, though.

One of my favorite tofu dishes in the world is ma po tofu. I'd been using a recipe I'd gotten out of Cooking Light magazine to make it at home, but decided to try a newer recipe from Rhonda Parkinson, About.com's Chinese food guide. It wasn't all that different than the Cooking Light recipe except that it used black bean sauce. The black bean sauce gave the dish the note that my Cooking Light recipe was missing. I'll never make ma po tofu again without including either black bean sauce or mashing and chopping up some fermented black beans.

The Szechuan green beans, as done by me, are probably better described as Szechuan style. I strayed furthest with this recipe. I didn't have fresh Chinese long beans or haricot verts. I did have a big ol' bag of Trader Joe's haricot verts. I threw the beans into a hot wok with some heated vegetable oil that I'd drizzled sesame oil into, and cooked the beans until they were thawed. I took them out of the wok, wiped it out, and then cooked a little ground pork that I'd marinated with sherry, soy, cornstarch and the sriracha chili sauce, adding a little fresh minced garlic and grated ginger. Added the beans back in along with the sauce, which was chicken broth, soy sauce, more cornstarch and a little sugar. Cooked the beans until the sauce thickened and the beans were just tender and heated through. The TJ's frozen beans worked perfectly okay to suit me, although I want to try this with fresh ones when they come in season!

No real notes about the fried rice. I consider most recipes guidelines, as you can make fried rice out of anything on hand. I do like my fried rice with the chopped scrambled egg, a little sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Green onions are also a must for me. And I use frozen peas and carrots, too, for extra color.

I also played with my classic oil & vinegar dressed coleslaw to give it a slightly more oriental bent. My "normal" recipe consists of mixing 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar, a little less than 1/3 cup of canola or vegetable oil, 1 tsp. celery seeds and a little salt and pepper in a small saucepan, whisking it to combine and heating to the boiling point. Then I pour the hot dressing over a bag of finely shredded coleslaw mix. My tweaking involved substituting rice wine vinegar and brown sugar, leaving out the celery seeds and using crushed red pepper flakes, and adding just a dash or two of fish sauce and soy sauce. I chopped a bunch of green onions to mix with the cabbage, too. It turned out just fine. I think that adding some finely diced fresh hot chilis and/or some julienned red bell pepper would be great additions. And chopped peanuts sprinkled over it all right before serving might not be a bad idea.

My Dream Kitchen

I'm on vacation, so why not update my blog with a little wishful thinking? If money were no object and I didn't have to give a damn about cleaning it and maintaining it, my dream kitchen would be like this.....

I love the look of professional equipment. I''d have a big honkin' stainless steel professional range. Lots of BTUs. Lots of grates. Gas as my fuel option of choice. A couple ovens. A wok station like I saw on an episode of "Ultimate Kitchens". The featured kitchen was with a guy who'd bough Ken Hom's old house, and the wok station had a special burner to hold the wok, running water around the base, to catch any food that spilled out of the wok during vigorous stir-frying, and a hot water faucet right there to clean out the wok whenever you needed to or when you were done. It was waaay cool. I'd probably pass on the Peking Duck oven, though, since I can't imagine making Peking duck at home. Not when there are Chinatowns all over the country that are lousy with Peking duck shops and restaurants. I'd have a wine cooler. I'd have a baking station, with a Kitchen Aid stand mixer in a cupboard that could be pulled out whenever I needed it. There'd be a marble countertop there, and storage for all my baking pans and baking equipment. Built in bins to hold flour and sugar. I'd have a wood-fired oven to make pizzas and for ambiance. A great big refrigerator with all the bells and whistles and a freezer. A walk-in pantry. An island with a prep sink or two and a cooktop for when I wasn't in the mood to fire up Big Bertha's BTUs. I want plenty of seating at that island, because I don't mind having people in my kitchen while I cook and it would be nice to have a place to sit and have breakfast when I didn't feel like setting a table. A warming drawer, to keep plates and bread or dinner rolls warm. I want a deep fryer in the counter, like Emeril has on his set, and if there isn't a grill on the range (which there surely should be!), then I want an indoor grill with good ventilation in there somewhere. A professional dishwasher. I want my pots and pans and knives on display. With all those honkin' stainless steel appliances, I want lots of windows and lots of light and a cozy little seating area with a fireplace that's suitable for snuggling up with a hot cuppa tea and good book in a comfy chair. I knew someone who had something like that once, and I loved the idea. I think I want rich, warm southwestern colors. A copper hood over the range. Mission style cabinetry in some warm, rosy wood. I want easy access to a wide outdoor veranda or screened in room with a table, so I can eat outside. My friend Scott in North Carolina had french doors that opened onto a wide porch with a roof, and I loved that idea, too. Besides, it will be close to my outdoor kitchen. Which I think I'd copy right from Rick Bayless' outdoor kitchen that I saw on a PBS show once. My dream kitchen would be warm and tranquil and invite you in so that we could do some SERIOUS cookin'.