What's cooking at Jerk Castle . . .

Sesame Chicken and Shanghai Noodles

Time to leave BBQ for a bit and get back to soy sauce and ginger. . . .i found this recipe in an asian cookbook that i had forgotten i had . . . .we loved it and ate the leftovers for lunch two days in a row. . The dish has a good ginger flavor without it being too overwhelming. . . and i love baby bok choy but never really know how long to cook it for when i make it on my own without a recipe. .  .

Recipe Adapted from The Complete Asian Cookbook - Edited by Helen Aitken:

Ingredients:

-600g (1 1/4 lb) Shanghai noodles (i just cooked the full package of noodles and then added a portion at a time to the wok until i felt it was the right amount- we couldn't find shanghai noodles so we used other chinese noodles- seems like any chinese noodle should work) 

-1 tblspn olive oil

-1 tblspn fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks

-1  long red chili, seeded and finely chopped (i used a seeded jalapeno)

-500g (1 lb) chicken breast fillets, thinly sliced (i used thinly sliced chicken cutlets cut into bite size-stir fry size pieces)

-2 cloves garlic, crushed

-1/4 cup salt reduced soy sauce

-3 tspns sesame oil

-700g (1 lb 7 oz) baby bok choy, sliced length-ways into eighths

-2 tblspns sesame seeds toasted

1) Cook the noodles in a saucepan of boiling water for 4-5 minutes, or until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain again.

2) Heat the oil in a wok and stir to coat. Add the ginger and chili and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the chicken and stir-fry for a further 3-5 minutes, or until browned and almost cooked.

3) Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the soy sauce and sesame oil and toss to coat. Add the bok choy and noodles and stir-fry until the bok choy is tender and the noodles are warmed through. Place in individual serving bowls, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Enjoy!

Summer Rolls and Pad Thai

As you may have guessed by now, I am a huge asian food fan. In fact, i think i once after a few glasses of wine, I actually teared up over my love for lemongrass. I've wanted to make summer rolls for a long time but never got it together to get all the ingredients and summon the courage to try. These were delicious. Not that easy only b/c there a lot of things going on at once  (and yes, i know you can buy them for like $5.00 but that takes the fun out if it) . . .very satisfying at the end, tasty and super fresh. I encourage you to go for it. . . .

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Summer-Rolls-with-Baked-Tofu-and-Sweet-and-Savory-Dipping-Sauce-352777

tips: we used shrimp instead of baked tofu- mostly because i went to 5 stores in my neighborhood and couldn't find it and because we had the shrimp.  also, i thought the sauce was a little too much hoisin and not enough peanut- when making it again i will change the ratio.

Now for the pad thai. . .check it out- looks like pad thai, doesn't it?

The dish came out pad-thai like, a bit ketchup-y. Steven said I should call it ketchup pad thai. . . suprisingly, the ketchup flavor was much more subdued the next day when i ate the leftovers for lunch.  In the end, i liked it and would make it again but will look for a way to just use a little less ketchup.

This recipe is from cooking light so supposed to be a few less calories than most pad thai recipes and it does require fewer ingredients making it easier to manage. . .

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1867549

tips: try and keep the tofu as intact as possible when frying. . . ours was all crumbly and a bit weird. also, and this is a big one, do not use any more corn starch then the recipe calls for- not even a smidge- it gets all goopy when fried and adds a weird consistency to the tofu.

i would make this again, but i am keeping my eye out there for pad thai recipes. Send me any suggestions. . .

Red Curry Chicken

For those of you a little hesitant to try out a curry at home or those of you like me who don't generally order it at thai restaurants bc coconut milk is so fattening, this dish is super easy and really tasty using light coconut milk. My friend Todd introduced me to this recipe a while back and i made it for steven when we were first dating in an effort to impress him (i guess it worked). . . i had forgotten about it until last week when we had a curry craving. . . we will now keep it as a standby. 

The recipe  is right from the jar of the thai kitchen curry paste so you won't have to look far for it (the one on the jar that i just bought is actually for shrimp, so i had to just adjust the cooking time for chicken).

Adapted from my jar of curry paste and tweeked for chicken:

*In a large saucepan simmer one 14 fl. oz of coconut milk (if you are worried about fat- or should be-use light coconut milk) with 1/2 to 1tbsp red curry paste (i use 1.5 bc we like a kick) over medium heat for 5 minutes.

*Add 1 to 2 tbsp. (i used around 1.5) fish sauce (if you are going to do asian food, you better have this around), 2 tbsps. brown sugar, 1/2 cup frozen peas or other vegetables (we used a ton more veggies- not frozen- and added water chestnuts and bamboo shoots) and 1/3 cup water. 

*Simmer around 5 minutes stirring occassionally until the veggies seem a bit cooked but still a little crunchy. 

* Stir in cut up/cubed chicken cutlets (we had a little less than 1 pd of chicken cutlets that i cut into small stir-fry size pieces) and simmer for approximately 8-10 minutes checking on the chicken to make sure it is done.

Garnish with basil and/or cilantro and serve with rice.

Of course, here is a peek at ours:

My next attempt is chicken with chili and basil (my all time favorite thai food dish). . .i'll let you know how it turns out.

Please send over any tips. . .

Beef Lettuce Wraps

Not usually a fan of the magazine Cooking Light but had stocked up on magazines in the airport for a flight to LA and that was one of them. . . we found a few recipes that looked interesting- this was a lovely one- easy and quick and the sauce was sweet and vinegary-we also added advocado slices and some salsa- i'd recommend that.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1898540

tip: use bibb lettuce or other lettuces with large leaves- we bought the lettuce they had at our farmers market- which was fresh and local and all that stuff but wasn't the best for wrapping.

Green Mango Salad

If you like thai food as much as me, you will love this mango salad- super easy to make and a lovely leftover- we ate it as a side with at least 3 dinners . . . last week was basically full of mango.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/green-mango-salad

suggestions: i added some peanuts and cilantro- next time i will do the same, use red onion instead of the sweet onion, and less jalapeno (i think i had the largest ever grown jalapeno which made for a very spicy-close to uncomfortable-situation).

and a final note- i was a little concerned because i had never peeled a mango (i usually cut off pieces with the skin on and then cut out cubes of the fruit)- peeling the mango however and then cutting it was really easy and allowed me to cut a lot more fruit from each mango.

i'd like to have this in my fridge all summer with some chilled white wine. . . .

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

 

The wonders of fish sauce . . . wisk a little fish sauce, rice vinegar and sugar and you cannot go wrong. I love vietnamese food and have been enjoying learning how to make it at home since vietnamese restaurants are few and far between in brooklyn (although Nicky's on Atlantic makes a fantastic vietnamese sandwich).

Here is the recipe-i can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vietnamese-Rice-Noodle-Salad-232173

The noodles seem to pair well with anything and could easily be made with tofu if you wanted to keep it vegetarian.  Gourmet pairs it with carmelized grilled pork- Steven doesn't eat pork so the first time we made this we substituted chicken- pretty good but i found the carmelizing to be a bit of a pain.  We then had it with grilled skirt steak and that was fabulous. (we made a quick marinade for the steak using soy sauce, rice vinegar, a little sugar, garlic, salt, pepper and chopped green onions)

Here is the carmelized pork recipe that Gourmet had posted with the noodles:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vietnamese-Caramelized-Grilled-Pork-232160

Last night I made monkfish for Steven to have with the noodles using this recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver. . .

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/grilled-or-roasted-monkfish

(although i took the easy way out instead of grinding the salt with lemon peel, i just salted the fish- i then just drizzled some lemon juice while sauteeing.)

And now if I can only get up the courage to try my hand at pad thai. . .

Slanted Door Carmelized Black Pepper Chicken

I figured that the best way to start this blog is to post a new favorite recipe of mine that also happens to be from my all time favorite restaurant-The Slanted Door, in San Francisco.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/caramelized-black-pepper-chicken

This restaurant now has a huge following but I was there the week it opened, when it was still in the Mission district  . . . we had the best meal and told the chef as much when he came out to ask us what we thought. . . then my girlfriends and i would save our money to go there for every celebratory dinner that came our way . . now it is a huge hit and located in the beautifully renovated Ferry building. ..

I've made this dish twice now and we loved it both times- can be served with rice or noodles- (I'm more a rice fan, so since I was cooking, that's what we had it with. . ...and lots of cilantro.)

Let me know what you think.