Panda Redone

Who doesn't love a huge plate of chinese food? All of those unique and salty sweet spices are so pleasing to the pallet. Ordering a huge quantity of chow mien and chicken and sitting on the couch and eating as much as you can is so much fun. I was craving me some panda express last week. Rather than running out and buying a 3 item combo from panda express, I though it would be fun to make my own. There are a ton of different recipes online for orange chicken. I find that if you have the few basic ingredients, you can add whatever you want to make up the rest of the sauce. If you don't have every single thing that I used for my orange chicken recipe, that's ok. THe basic ingredients for the orange chicken sauce are orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, and corn starch. As long as you have those items, you are good to go. You can add other ingredients to fill in the rest of it. The orange juice and zest are a must because... well... we are making orange chicken! You cannot make this without soy sauce. You will need it to bring out that salty flavor. The corn starch is necessary because it will thicken the sauce and help it stick to the chicken. COrn starch is inexpensive and you can find it at any grocery store. Here is how I made the orange chicken:

3 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite size peices
1 1/2 cups of orange juice
1/3 cup of soy sauce
2 Tbsp of corn starch
Zest from 1 orange
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup of crushed pineapple
2 Tbsp of orange marmalade or apricot jam
1/4 cup of white vinegar
pinch of hot red pepper flakes
1 cup of plain bread crumbs
2 Tbsp of canola oil

Take the chicken and marinate it in 1/2 a cup of orange juice. Let it sit and marinate while you are making the sauce.
In a small saucepan, put the vinegar and the ketchup. on low heat, stir together until they are combined. add the soy sauce and the remaining orange juice. Stir together until combined. add the orange zest, pineapple, corn starch and the marmalade (or jam).  Crush the red pepper flakes in the palm of your hand and mix into the sauce. Stir occasionally until the sauce starts to thicken. Once it is thick and bubbling, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Set aside.

Take the chicken and lightly coat it with the bread crumbs. The only reason you are using bread crumbs is to give the sauce a little extra something to stick to, so don't use to much on the chicken. Just a light coating. In a frying pan, heat the canola oil over medium high heat and add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked all the way through. put chicken into a separate serving bowl and pour the sauce over the chicken. stir until the chicken is covered with the sauce. hmmmmm Yummy. Your orange chicken is ready to go!

Now it's time for the noodles.

1 pound of pasta (long noodles)
1 red bell pepper, cut into long thin slices
4 shallots, in half lengthwise and then cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1/3 cup of vinegar
1-2 cups of green snap peas (ends cut off)

Sauce:
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of canola oil
1/4 cup of sesame seed oil
2 Tbsp of chili oil (may use more if you like it spicy)
1/4 cup of white vinegar
1 medium piece of Ginger root. Peel it with a paring knife
3 cloves of garlic

In a large pot, bring water to a boil for the pasta. Once it comes to a boil, add the pasta and stir. reduce the heat to medium and let it cook. about 8-10 minutes. Cook to taste and drain noodles and put into a serving bowl. add the red onions. Take the cut shallots and put into a small bowl. Cover them with the vinegar. This will start to break them down a little and make them not quite as strong. Take the snap peas and put into a small pot of boiling water. Cook for 2-3 min and remove from hot water and place in an ice bath. This will stop the cooking process and keep them bright green and crispy. Add the snap peas to the pasta along with the shallots.
In a glass bowl combine the soy sauce, and the white vinegar. Zest in the garlic and the ginger. Slowly add in the canola oil, chili oil and sesame oil while stirring with a whisk. Pour sauce over the pasta and veggies. Combine.

Enjoy!

Pizza

So I have really been into making pizza lately. When most people think of pizza, I think that the first thing they think of "Oh my gosh I don't have time to cook tonight I think I'll order from Domino's". Pizza can actually be a very classy and wonderful dinner. There are so many different things that you can do with it and you can make it as gourmet as you like. My whole pizza fetish started off when I went to my husband and told him that I would make him anything he wanted for dinner. I said "you say it and I'll make it. I will cook you anything you want to eat". I was expecting him to come back and say something like lamb chops or pork and apples or filet minion. I was totally ready for that. But, to my surprise, he looked at me and said "Honey, I would really like some pizza". I then realized that we had not had pizza since we had been married (We had been married for about five months at this time). I then decided that I would attempt to make him the best pizza he had ever had. I don;t want my dear husband to be deprived of anything. I knew that his favorite pizza toppings were pepperoni and pineapple so I went out to the store and bought the ingredients to make the pizza. While I was shopping I realized that I needed to figure out what to do about dough. My mom had made home made pizza when I was a kid but she used a foccacia dough for her pizza. I resorted to buying a pre-made dough and putting the toppings on it and baking it in the oven. My husband loved it and enjoyed it immensely. Over the next few days I did some research on making your own dough and found out that there are hundreds of different ways to make pizza dough. After much research and a few experiments I think that I have found the easiest and best dough. I tried it out again and my husband loved his pizza even more. I now make this dough quite often and leave it in the freezer and pull it out when I don't have time to cook.

Here is how to make the dough:
1/4 cup of warm water
1 envelope of active dry yeast
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups of cold water
1TBSP of olive oil

In a small bowl combine the warm water, the yeast and the sugar. stir and let rest. In a food processor or a stand mixer combine the flour and the salt. Add in the yeast mixture and stir. slowly add in the cold water and oil until a ball forms. do not over mix. Remove from the mixer and knead with hands. Put in an oiled bowl and let it rise for one hour.  Remove from the bowl and divide into 2-4 balls. Let rise for another 30 min.  You can then take the dough balls and wrap them is seran wrap and freeze them or, of course, use it for the pizza right away.
Bake 475 for 12-15 min or until the crust is golden brown on the bottom. Bake on a pizza pan with holes in the bottom or on a pizza stone.
If you are going to freeze it make sure that you let it defrost at room temp before you use it.
It is best to bake the dough when it is at room temp, not when it is chilled.

To spread the dough lay the ball out on your cutting board. Press into it with your hands pushing at the thicker parts of the dough and spreading it outward. Do not worry if you cannot form a perfect circle. make the dough as even and flat as you can.

For toppings: Come on people, this is pizza. Put whatever you want on the top.

Have Fun!

Eggplant Pizza

A few weeks ago I made one of the most amazing pizza's I have ever made before. And surprisingly enough, eggplant was the star of the show. I am not a huge eggplant person but I was experimenting with it and got an amazing result with my pizza. Unfortunately I totally forgot to take pictures :(. What good is a blog post without pictures. I will be making it again soon and when I do you will be the first to know. i will be sure to take lots of pictures and share this amazing recipe with you. Can't wait to eat it again and share it with you.

It's time for some soup!

I was watching one of my favorite Italian cooks on TV. I watched her make this incredible looking soup. I decided to try it and change it up a little based on what my available ingredients are and what I like. Pappa al Pamadoro is what they call it in Italy. For this recipe you will need old bread. I find that it tastes best with old sourdough or french bread. The sourdough bread is good because even when you add it to the soup you can still taste the sourdough part of the bread which is super yummy. You can use any old stale bread for this recipe.
This soup is awesome because it is the entire meal in one bowl. It has plenty of protein and starch from the beans and the cheese I ad gives and extra depth of flavor and completeness to the meal.

Ingredients:
8 cloves of garlic
2 large white onions
28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 large vine ripe tomato.
4 cups of Chicken stock
1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
small hand full of Fresh basil
1/2 cup of Olive oil
1 tsp of sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper
16 oz Can of white beans
Loaf of bread (any kind you like, you can use stale bread if you like and sourdough is preferred)
1 cup of ricotta cheese
Sweet Italian Sausage (optional)

Crush, peel and chop garlic. Chop onions. Save about a cup of raw chopped onions on the side.  Put the rest onions in the bottom of the pan preheated with 1/4 cup of olive oil in the bottom. Have the burner on medium heat. Let the onions cook until they are caramelized. Do not burn. Add the garlic and let cook together for about 3 minutes. While the onions and garlic are cooking. Cut your fresh tomato into chunks and add to the garlic and onions. Add salt and pepper. Once the tomato has cooked down pour in the can of crushed tomatoes. add a tsp of sugar (this is used to cut the acidity of the tomatoes). Pour in the chicken stock. Open the can of white beans and drain out the juice and add the white beans to the soup.  Let simmer for at least 15 min. Take the stale bread and cut it into chunks and add to the soup. Let it cook with the other ingredients and absorb the broth. The soup should start to thicken as the bread absorbs the broth. Let it simmer on low heat for another 10 minutes.

Chop the basil into thin slices right before you are ready to eat. Put soup into individual serving bowls. should serve 4-6 people. Once the soup is in the bowl, drop a tablespoon of the ricotta cheese into the soup bowl. Sprinkle the leftover raw onions to the top, add some basil, sprinkle the parmesan cheese and top off with an extra drizzle of olive oil and some fresh ground black pepper. The drizzle of olive oil and the raw onions are key here. This dish cannot be served without it.  I added an italian sweet sausage to the bowl to complete this amazing Italian dinner. Very healthy, and very hearty. I guarantee you will love it. Leave out the sausage for a vegetarian meal. If you want to go vegan, leave out the cheese or substitute it for some soy cheese. 

 

Hope you enjoy as much as I did. 

Baking Blunder

So I am really not much of a baker. I don't like to follow directions too much. Most of the time I just find what is in my kitchen and make something out of it. There are very few things that I have made the same way twice. I hardly ever cook the same meal twice unless it really really rocks. And even if I do make it twice over I usually change up the ingredients a little bit just for fun. I think that that is the fun part of cooking. There is always something new to be learned. Someone once told me that there are too many wonderful books in the world to ever read a book that you know will be crummy. TIme is better spent reading the good book because there are so many of them and so many good things to learn. I think the same thing about food. Life is too short to eat a cold hot dog or a frozen burrito every night. Now don't get me wrong, they totally have their place in life but if you ask me, try something new!

That is a round about way of saying that I am not really a baker. I have not found too many ways to be creative with baking. There is no way for me to tell how something is going to turn out when I put it in the oven. It is an act of faith when I put the cake in the oven. The batter may taste amazing but that does not determine how it is going to rise or cook or anything! Baking is too strict and unpredictable for me. However, every once in a while I try it. I signed up to make pumpkin bread for a baby shower soon. I remember making some amazing pumpkin bread when I was ten years old so I thought that I would go for it. I went out to the store and bought myself some canned pumpkin. Brought it home and opened the computer to find a recipe. Since I don;t bake very much I don't keep a lot of baking items at home. So as i was searching for a recipe I had two criteria. Number 1: It had to look yummy. That was a must Number 2: I had to have in my home all of the ingredients to make the bread. Ok so maybe I decided that I had to have all of the ingredients except for one or two. Who would keep baking powder AND baking soda in their cup board? What is the difference anyway? Oh well. I found a recipe that looked amazing. Not to mention I had all of the ingredients except for nutmeg and baking powder. I decided to substitute nutmeg for vanilla and to double the baking soda since I did not have baking powder. I made large muffins instead of bread and here is what came out.
The Batter looked amazing. It was a lovely orange color.

Here is the final product.........

So lovely. the texture was amazing. I tasted them while they were hot. I put a little butter on them and they tasted fine. That same evening my In-Laws came over for coffee and desert. I was proud to display my wonderful muffins. That was until I took a bite. Everyone was so kind and no one said anything about how they tasted.  Salty, not even sweet. Salty. I still don't know what I did wrong, perhaps it was doubling the baking soda and using ground rock salt instead of regular salt. Who knows. Whatever.

I am still looking for a scrumptious recipe for pumpkin bread. If anyone has any please let me know. I want something super sweet and moist and dense. Still looking.

P.S. the kitchen aid stand mixer is my birthday present from my wonderful husband. He knew that I wanted one so he got me a green one for my birthday. And in my favorite color too! What a guy. i love him so much. Here is another look at it.

Word to the Wise

So I was craving buffalo chicken wings this week. Nice and spicy with some creamy ranch dressing. Sounds good right? I decided to go out and buy some from the grocery store and I enjoyed about half of them. The rest I stored in the fridge. Before I knew it three days were over and whole refrigerator now smells like buffalo wings and when I tried the buffalo wings they no longer taste good, and strangely enough everything else in the fridge has started to taste like buffalo wings.... perfect. I guess the open case of baking powder in the back of my fridge is not quite as magical as everyone always told me it would be.  I used to be a big fan of buffalo wings but all of the sudden I would not mind never eating them again for the rest of my life. There.  Beware the Wings.

Amazing Garbanzo Bean Salad

This salad is so so yummy. If you have never tried garbanzo beans before (also called chic peas), now is a good time to try. They are one of the main ingredients in humus but can also be used to toss into lots of dishes to add an extra bit of bite. My husband and I love Garbanzo Bean Salad. It is super healthy with good protein from the beans and lots of vitamins. Here's how it works.

1 can of Garbanzo Beans
1 Large tomato
Red onion (I use about a 1/4 of a large red onion for this, use more or less if you wish)
A Handful of parsley
6 oz of mozzarella cheese
1 garlic clove
olive oil
rice vinegar
salt and pepper

Open the can of Garbanzo Beans and drain out the liquid. Rinse the beans with water and strain them. Place in your salad bowl. Cut your tomato into small cubes. about 1/2 inch in size. Place in the salad bowl. Cut the red onion into very small pieces. About one step up from being graded. Next take your parsley and chop it up. Put in the bowl with the rest of your ingredients. Take the cheese and cut it into cubes that are about the size of the tomatoes (about 1/2 inch cubes).  Take the garlic clove and grade it over the salad and mix the salad well after grading in the garlic. Drizzle the salad with the vinegar and olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix and enjoy!

Servings: about 2-3.

Note: If the Garbanzo beans are a little strong for your palate feel free to reduce the garbanzo beans and add more tomato so that a majority of the salad is tomato.