Hoisin-chicken stir-fry with peppers and baby corn

I have found the secret ingredient!

Decided to make a recipe from Mediterrasian.com, because, despite loving making and eating stir fries, I've only got about 1 decent recipe for them.

This one called for Hoisin Sauce - and thankfully Chinese food and ingredients are one thing that you can find in wonderous variety in Mauritian supermarkets. I've never used Hoisin before, but as I cracked open the bottle the smell was amazing. This is clearly the stuff that they use to make the sticky-sweet-and-savoury coating for Peking Duck. I was instantly in love and will start experimenting with the stuff as soon as possible. Hmmm - imagine sticky basting sauce for pork chops on the braai - wicked.

Anyway, I wasn't making pork chops, and Wifey has approved the dinner as one that I can make again - so it goes like this.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons peanut oil

360g skinless chicken breasts - cut into thin strips.

1 1/2 green peppers - julienned.

420g can o baby corn - cut into pieces.

2 cloves garlic - minced (I got lazy and just sliced it thinly)

2 spring onions - diagonally sliced (I seriously need to start growing these - because it drived me crazy buying a whole bunch from the shop and then using 2, only to watch the rest go manky in the fridge) (So I sliced up a small onion instead)

Method:

Cook rice (actually I made noodles)

Mix together the hoisin sauce, soy sauce, water and sesame oil in a small bowl.

Heat wok over super-high heat, then add 1 tbspn peanut oil.

Add chicken and stir-fry till browned (DO NOT OVERCOOK - DON'T LET THE WIFE SEE HOW RAW IT STILL IS WHEN YOU TAKE IT OFF - JUST BROWN IT, SOME PINK IS ACCEPTABLE, IT'S GONNA COOK A LITTLE MORE LATER - THIS IS THE SECRET TO TENDER STIR-FRIED MEAT - I bet Salmonela's not that bad anyway.)

Remove chicken from the wok and set aside.

Add the other tablespoon peanut oil and stir fry green pepper for 2 minutes.

Add corn and garlic and stir fry for 1 minute.

Add spring onions and stir fry for 30 seconds.

Add sauce mixture and chicken and stir fry to combine.

Serve over rice (or noodles)

The great thing about stir-frying is that, aside from prep'ing the vegetables, the actual cooking time is really quick. If you boil the kettle to cook the noodles as you switch on the wok, then the noodles are ready about the same time as the rest of the meal.

Thai Chicken and Pumpkin Curry

Writing another one before I've actually eaten it - looks pretty good though.

This one comes from http://www.taste.com.au/

1. 
   
   A little veggie oil
2. 
   
   1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (good to have in stock)
3. 
   
   6 green onions, thinly sliced (can anyone tell me what a green onion is? I've used spring onions)
4. 
   
   750g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 4cm pieces (I've used about half this amount, there's only 2.5people eating in my house)
5. 
   
   420g Heinz condensed Cream of Pumpkin soup (which I actually found in a shop in Mauritius, who would have thought!?!)
6. 
   
   165ml can light coconut milk (readily available in Mauritius)
7. 
   
   1 lime, juiced (K, i'm not actually a good cook, I've substituted a few squeezes of lemon juice.)
8. 
   
   500g desiree potatoes, cut into pieces (what's a desiree potatoe? Also I just washed mine, didn't peel them like I was supposed to.)
9. 
   
   1 cup fresh coriander leaves, to serve
10. 
    
    1 cup fresh mint leaves, to serve
11. 
    
    Steamed Jasmine rice, to serve
12. 
    
    I added some chopped pumkin to the curry, and I'm about to add some frozen peas, that way we actually get a bunch of veggies with our supper.

Heat oil over medium-high heat.

Add curry paste.

Cook, stirring for a minute.

Add onion and chicken.

Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, to brown the chicken.

Stir in the soup, coconut milk, lime juice, potatoes, and pumkin.

Bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low.

Simmer for 25 minutes, or until 'taters are tender.

Serve over rice, sprinkle coriander and mint over.

Ingest.

I'll let you know how it turns out. Maybe I'll even add a photo.

Chicken Cacciatore

Right so I wasn't supposed to be cooking tonight. Life is slowly returning to a new normal (baby gets fed A LOT, so Wifey is pretty busy), so when we were planning our dinners for the week we included Mac'n'cheese, and Hong Kong Chicken - both Wifey specialities, that would have got us enough supper until after Friday night. However, Wifey isn't feeling well, and in her defense, she really is spending an insane amount of time being a milk cow, so there's not much time left for her to cook.

So I got home from work today and had to quickly start searching for something to cook. The freezer only consisted of chicken pieces, chorizo, pizza bases and frozen veggies (and ice cream). A quick internet search found Chicken Cacciatore at simplyrecipes.com, which I amazingly had all the ingredients for.

1. 
   
   Chicken pieces (recipe says 3.5 pound chicken cut into pieces, I used 5 chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs still combined)).
2. 
   
   Olive oil for frying
3. 
   
   1 cup thinly sliced onions
4. 
   
   2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced.
5. 
   
   Salt and pepper
6. 
   
   1/3 cup white wine (I actually decided to measure this out, because I reckon I normally put too much in, but it turned out to be quite a lot.)
7. 
   
   1 tin of chopped tomatoes (supposed to be 2 cups of peeled and chopped tomatoes - as if I have time for that.)
8. 
   
   The possibility of adding mushrooms or chopped veggies to the stew.

Method:

1. 
   
   Heat olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat.
2. 
   
   Add onions and cook until translucent.
3. 
   
   Push onions aside (next time I'll actually take them off, they burnt a bit.)
4. 
   
   Add gardlic and chicken pieces, skin-side down. Cook until skin is golden brown, then turn pieces over and brown the other side.
5. 
   
   Season the chicken with salt and pepper, on both sides.
6. 
   
   Add wine, simmer until reduced by half.
7. 
   
   Add tomatoes, simmer, cover skillet with lid slightly ajar.
8. 
   
   Cook the chicken in the liquid, turning and basting a few times.
9. 
   
   Cook until tender, about 40 mintues.
10. 
    
    If the stew starts to dry out, add a few tablespoons of water.

Consume, with rice and steamed frozen veggies.

Meal becomes part of the cookbook because its made with easily available materials.

Chicken Parmigiana

In addition to the newfound ability to whisk egg-whites, this week had another great discovery. A mind-bogglingly delicious recipe from ThePioneerWoman.com for Chicken Parmigiana. What follows is pretty much a copy from that blog - there's quite a process to go through.

Simple ingredients, a fair bit of hard work, and gorgeous and wonderous meal at the end of it.

I'm definitely going try this for a dinner party one day.

Ingredients:

1. 
   
   4 - 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and pounded flat.
2. 
   
   1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3. 
   
   Salt and pepper
4. 
   
   1/2 cup of olive oil
5. 
   
   2 tablespoons butter
6. 
   
   1 medium onion, chopped
7. 
   
   4 cloves garlic, minced
8. 
   
   3/4 cup wine - red or white
9. 
   
   3 14.5 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes (not sure how big an ounce is, so I just used 3 cans of crushed tomatoes.)
10. 
    
    2 tbspns sugar
11. 
    
    1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
12. 
    
    A lot of grated Parmesan
13. 
    
    Thin Linguine to serve

Mix flour, salt, and pepper together on a large plate.

Dredge flattened chicken breasts in flour mixture. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter together in a skillet over medium heat.

When  butter is melted, and oil/ butter mixture is hot, fry the chicken breasts until nice and golden brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Remove chicken breasts from the skillet and keep warm.

Without cleaning the skillet, add onions and garlic, and gently stir for 2 minutes.

Pour in wine and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the flavourful bits off the bottom.

Allow wine to reduce down by half, about 2 more minutes.

Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine.

Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste.

Allow to cook for 30 minutes.

Cook linguine.

Toward the end of cooking time, add chopped parsley and give sauce a final stir.

Carefully lay chicken breasts on top of the sauce and completely cover them in Parmesan.

Place lid on skillet and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until cheese is melted and chicken is thoroughly heated. Add more cheese to taste.

Place cooked noodles on a plate and cover with sauce.

Place chicken breast on top and sprinkle more parsley.

Serve with a smile.