Mini chicken burgers

Buns homemade using recipe from Peter Callahan’s book, Bite by Bite.

I used ground chicken instead of beef or turkey but use whatever you like.

 

For the patties:

• 1.5 lbs ground chicken
• salt about 2 tsp
• pepper – as much as you like
• 1 whole egg
• Worcestershire sauce – 1tbsp
• half of a finely diced white onion
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp crushed chili pepper

Combine all of the above ingredients.   If its too sticky add some bread crumbs until you can form the meat mixture into ping pong ball-sized spheres.

Flatten the spheres to make small patties.

Heat cast iron pan on med-high heat.  Add patties in batches and cook.

Last 2 mins of cooking put a small slice of cheese on top (I used cheddar).  Cut the buns in half and grill.   Then add a small slice of tomato, sprinkle on some pepper, add lettuce and enjoy!

 

Appetizers – part 2

Goat cheese with chives, bacon, and pecan coating

We altered this recipe by using finely chopped fresh chives, bacon and pecans.

Recipe Link:  http://www.marthastewart.com/350085/goat-cheese-bites 

Panko crusted fried shrimp

Recipe Link:  http://mamasgottabake.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/panko-crusted-shrimp-with-chive-aioli/

Tandoori chicken

Ingredients: 

1 lb thinly sliced boneless skinless chicken breasts 
2 cups Greek yogurt
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp fenugreek powder
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp lime juice (use fresh lime juice)

Recipe:

1. Cut chicken into 1-2 inch pieces
2. In a glass bowl combine salt, chili powder, ginger garlic paste and garlic
3. Add chicken pieces to mixture and let sit 30 mins
4. In a separate bowl mix remaining ingredients
5. Add the chicken mixture to yogurt mixture
6. Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight
7. Remove chicken from fridge 1 hour before cooking
8. Place chicken pieces on wire rack with foil lined baking sheet underneath -this is to catch the dripping
9. Bake on middle rack of the oven at 350 deg. F for 10-15 mins
10. Change oven setting to broil and place chicken closer to broiling element
11. Watch carefully!  Chicken should start turning dark/black.
12. Remove from oven and skewer chicken pieces after they have cooled
13. Serve with lime wedges and cucumber yogurt

Thanksgiving

Few photos from yesterday…

 

Pan gravy

Individual gravy pots

Stuffing

Brussel sprouts and red onions in balsamic vinegarette

Vegetable Manchurian 2

Part 2

Manchurian Sauce

• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon Pepper
• Umami (optional)
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped scallions
• 6 cloves garlic finely chopped
• ½ cup white onion chopped
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons Chili Garlic Paste
• 1 tablespoon chopped Serrano chilies
• ¼ cup water with equal amount of corn STARCH (not flour) mixed well
• 1 teaspoon Siracha sauce
• ¼ cup sweet red chili sauce ( substitute ¼ cup dark brown sugar if you don’t have sauce)
• ¼ cup sesame oil

 

1. In a large sauce pan add sesame oil and heat on medium
2. Add white onion and fry
3. Add salt
4. Add ginger, garlic, and Serrano and fry until cooked though
5. Add pepper, umami, scallions, red chili sauce, soy sauce, chili garlic paste and cook 1-2 mins
6. Add water/corn starch mixture
7. Turn heat down to medium -low
8. Add veggie balls and coat
   

   
   Ingredients

   

   Substitute 1/4 cup dark brown sugar if you don’t have sweet sauce

    

   

   Oil and onions

    

   

   Serrano chilies, garlic and ginger added

    

   

   Everything except the water/corn starch added

   

    

   

   Vegetable Manchurian

Vegetable Manchurian

 

Vegetable Manchurian

 

This recipe was adapted from VahChef at http://www.vahrehvah.com/.

To make the fried vegetable balls you will need the following:

Food Processor with shredding attachment or shredding device (I do not recommend doing this by hand – it will take forever)

• 1/2 head of fresh Cabbage
• 2 Carrots cleaned and pealed
• 2 Russet Potatoes cleaned and pealed
• 2 Bell peppers (I used red and yellow)
• 1 Bag of frozen peas – which has been thawed
• Salt -fine
• Pepper
• Umami (optional)
• 1 cup fresh chopped scallions
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons Chili Garlic Paste
• 1 cup corn flour + extra for rolling
• 1 large egg (- you can also use 1 cup cooked white rice to bind the mixture)
• 1/4 cup chopped Serrano chilies (-optional )

 

1. Shred Cabbage, Carrots, Russet Potatoes, Bell Peppers and Peas
2. In a large pot of UNSALTED boiling water add shredded veggies
3. Boil for 2 mins, mixing occasionally
4. Remove and drain in cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer until all of the water is removed
5. Once the veggies have drained well, add to a large mixing bowl
6. Add salt and pepper to your taste (I used about 2 teaspoons salt and 2 teaspoons pepper)
7. Add scallions and chopped ginger and mix well
8. Then add soy sauce, umami, and chili garlic paste and mix
9. Add corn flour and 1 egg and mix well
10. Heat hot oil to 350 deg F
11. Form into 1 inch size balls with your hands and add to a plate coated in corn flour

***Water must be completely drained from step 4 otherwise the balls will not form easily

1.  By now the oil should be heated, start frying the balls in batches –  I did 5-6 at a time in a cast iron skillet
2. Fry for 5-6 mins until they are golden brown
3. Drain and set aside
   

   Shredded veggie mixture

 

Chopped Serrano chilies

Mixture with soy and garlic chili paste added

 

 

Pre-fried

 

Sauce recipe in next post…

Milwaukee State Fair

Chicken on a stick

 

Cheese on a stick

Bison Burrito

Baked Potato

Mexican Corn

Pulled pork egg rolls

Deep fried Twinkie and Snickers

Fudge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kimchi

Few weeks ago I attempted to make Kimchi.  Found really great step-by-step instructions on Aeri’s Kitchen.

Link here:  http://aeriskitchen.com/2009/01/napa-cabbage-kimchi-%EB%B0%B0%EC%B6%94-%EA%B9%80%EC%B9%98baechu-kimchi/

Tastes great!  Recommend trying it if you are a Kimchi lover.

I found all the ingredients at an Asian market.

Minced garlic

Apple and onion mixture

Korean Chili Powder

From top left clockwise: Korean Radish, Korean Chilies, Scallions, Onion, Garlic Chives

DIY Spice Kit

I really like the idea of a homemade gift.  Here are some ideas about how you can put together your own spice kit and recipe book.

Use your own recipes or your favorite recipes from another source.   Save them in a word document and print out on thick paper or card stock.  Punch a hole in one corner.  Use ribbon, twine, or a loose leaf ring to tie them together.

 

 

I decided to color code the recipes with little stickers.  Green = vegetarian.  Yellow = poultry.  Blue = drinks.  And so on…

The small containers are polystyrene lip balm containers.  I used a hand held label maker (Motex) to make the labels.

Clear acetate box (4 inch square) was used to keep all the spices together.  Mini white spoons bought from CB2 (cost was about $2 for 3 spoons).  The labels I used were square clear CD labels.  I just used wording from Wikipedia to create some interesting facts about spices.  Plastic chili pepper box bought from sks bottle.

Everything cost less than $8 to put together.  I made a lot of these to give as gifts to friends and family.

Hope you enjoy making these as much as I did!

Kung Pao Tofu

This recipe is delicious.  The tofu is more palatable if deep fried and it doesn’t fall apart when stir frying.  Make adjustments to the recipe to your liking.  I like really saucy Kung Pao, so I added the whole bottle of sauce.  Instead of peanuts, my recipe uses cashews (I didn’t have peanuts).

Sauce used:

Kung Pao Sauce

Ingredients

Ajinomoto                              1 tsp

Extra firm tofu    one box drained

Lee kum kee kung pao sauce 1 bottle

Corn flour                             ½ cup

Corn starch                           1 tbsp

Soy sauce                   to your taste

Black Pepper                           2 tsp

Dried whole chilies               8-10

salt                                        1 tsp

sugar                                      2 tsp

Egg                                         1

Garlic-chopped                     4 cloves

Ginger/Garlic paste             2 tbsp

crushed chili pepper              1 tsp

Oil                               as needed to fry

Green chili (Serrano or Indian)        1

Yellow Onion                         1

red bell pepper                       1

sliced water chestnuts        1 can

whole cashews                      1 cup

scallions                               4

broccoli                          1-2 lbs

Directions

1. Drain one box of extra firm tofu with paper towels.
2. Cut tofu into small cubes.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine tofu cubes, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste and 4 splashes of soy sauce. Mix well.  Let sit for 5-10 mins
4. In a separate bowl mix one egg.  Add corn flour to egg mixture slowly.  Add corn starch.  Add a little water as needed to make it into a batter
5. Add this egg/water/corn flour mixture to tofu and mix well.
6. Heat oil in a deep non-stick pan or deep fryer (I used a deep fryer)
7. Carefully add small batches of tofu to fryer.  Take them out once they are golden brown.

Fried Tofu

 

Broccoli:  to make perfect broccoli for Asian stir fry I prefer using fresh broccoli and blanching.

1. In a large pot heat water with kosher salt.
2. Chop the stems off the broccoli, so that only the heads remain
3. In a separate bowl add ice (30-40 cubes?) then add cold water to the ice.
4. Once water is boiling add broccoli.  Cook for 3-4 mins until bright green.
5. Immediately remove from boiling water and add to ice bath.  Let sit for 2-3 mins.  Then drain.
   

   Broccoli

    

   NEXT:  Chop onion, red pepper, scallions.  Drain and rinse off water chestnuts from a can.  Set aside.

   

   Scallions

   

   Drained and washed water chestnuts

   In a small bowel add salt, ginger garlic paste (1tbsp), pepper, crushed chili pepper, chopped green chili, chopped garlic cloves and sugar.

   

   Garlic, pepper, spice mixture

   COOK:

   1. Heat oil in wok at medium heat
   2. Add whole red chilis and cook until brown.
   3. Add mixture of salt, ginger garlic paste, pepper, crushed chili pepper, green chili, garlic cloves and sugar.
   4. Add water chestnuts.  Cook 2 mins.
   5. Add chopped onion, broccoli, red pepper.  Stir fry for 3 mins.  Add soy sauce – 4-5 dashes.
   6. Add kung pao sauce (whole bottle) J  Add msg.  cook for 4-5 mins.
   7. Then add the fried tofu carefully.
   8. Add cashews. And cook one more min.

   Finish off with chopped scallions.

   

   Kung Pao Tofu

    

   
   

    

    

    

Ingredients I use in the recipes posted

Ginger Garlic Paste

Indian cooking uses a lot of ginger and garlic.  Having ginger garlic paste in the refrigerator is a life-saver.  This stuff will keep for months in the fridge.

Whole chili peppers

Whole chili peppers are also good to keep on hand.  Since they are dried, they can also stay for months.  I usually keep them in an air-tight container on the counter.

Chili garlic paste

Staple for most Asian dishes is this chili garlic paste.  I always have this in my fridge.

Thai crushed chili

Bought this Thai crushed chili at an Asian grocery store.  It is VERY spicy.  Probably 2-3x more spicy than regular crushed chili peppers from the store.  Use it carefully.

Aji no moto AKA MSG

Aji-no-moto AKA MSG.  This ingredient can be omitted from recipes due to health concerns.  I use a small amount in most of my Asian dishes.  I feel that it really brings all the favors together.

Sriracha sauce

I put Sriracha sauce on almost everything.  Great to have if you like spicy food!