Orange Chicken

I am still on a mission to use all of the oranges I brought home in a big Hefty trash bag last week. So last night, it was Orange Chicken, a dish I have only ever tried at Chinese restaurants. I don’t own a deep-fryer, so I just rolled the chicken in flour and put it in the oven. Yes, crispy chicken would be better, but this recipe is still unbelievably delicious and lower fat (I lost a ½ pound on it!).
-AnglophileinLA
Orange Chicken

For Sauce, combine the following:
Juice of 2 oranges, then fill the measuring cup to 1 ½ C with water
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp Soy sauce
Zest of 1 orange
¾ C brown sugar (add to taste, could be up to 1 C brown sugar)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 inch chopped ginger root (extra root freezes well)
½ a small onion chopped fine, or green onions
½ tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tb Flour mixture from chicken (to follow)
For the chicken, you will need:
A casserole dish large enough for the chicken
6 drumsticks (or bite sized pieces of chicken breast, whatever you have)
½ C Flour
1 tsp salt
A few twists of pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
Sesame oil

Directions for Chicken:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix the flour, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and garlic powder in a small bowl.
3. Oil the bottom of the casserole dish with sesame oil (olive oil will also work, but sesame oil adds a nutty undertone to the dish).
4. Take a piece of chicken and dip both sides in the sesame oil in the casserole dish, then roll it in the flour mixture until completely coated. Return to the casserole dish and repeat with the rest of the chicken. You should have some flour left over which will be used to thicken the sauce.
5. Put chicken in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, then flip the chicken pieces and cook for another 30 minutes or until browned.

Directions for Sauce:
1. Cook the garlic, onion and ginger first, keep in pan.
2. Combine all the other ingredients and whisk in 2 Tb of the chicken flour mixture into the liquid before adding it into the pan.
3. Cook down until the chicken is done.
Meanwhile – make your rice (10 min rice is good), and stirfry some chopped carrots and Asian-style peas in soy sauce if you want. They’re great for presentation, and vegetables are always good.

Spread the rice out in a large serving dish, cover with the stir-fried veggies, and place the chicken pieces on top. Pour most of the orange sauce over everything, saving some to be served on the side (believe me, you will want every drop).

Chicken Provencal

 

Chicken Provencal

Serves 2
According to Julia Child, the combo of thyme, basil, fennel and garlic makes this “de Provence.” I wouldn’t know. But, I do know that this is one of the best chicken recipes I have ever made. The funny thing is, I’m really bad at following directions for French recipes – they’re too complex. So I just take the general flavor combinations and go with my gut. So here is my easy version with a lemon-basil cream sauce.
--AnglophileinLA
Chicken
6-8 chicken tenders
1/4th stick butter
1 tsp dried thyme, or a small handful fresh (I used fresh)
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp fennel seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
a dash of dry white wine

Sauce
1 egg yolk
½ cup buttermilk
Juice from ½ lemon
1 Tb dry white wine
5 leaves fresh basil, chopped coarse
For the chicken:
1. Put the garlic and butter in at the same time, so the butter melts as the garlic cooks, infusing everything with garlicky goodness.
2. Add the thyme, dried basil and fennel seeds.
3. Add the chicken, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Brown the chicken in the butter, then flip.
4. Add the wine, and cover the pot, let cook for another 5 minutes.


For the sauce

Take all the ingredients and put them in a pot, stirring constantly. Let it simmer for a couple minutes. I don’t think the darkened basil looks that good, so I poured the sauce through a strainer over the chicken.

I served the chicken over quinoa, which was perfect to soak up the sauce, and had a side of simple green beans.

Chicken Soup

With the crazy abrupt weather change here in Southern California, my body has succumbed to illness. I hate sore throats. Ugh. Anyhow, I had some bouillon cubes at hand and some random veggies. I haven't had the opportunity to go stock up yet, so whatever was in my fridge went into this soup. LV, has a more delectable version here.

Serves 1-2 (if you're all giant sick pigs like me)
Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped/shredded leftover rotisserie chicken
1/2 tspn dried oregano
1 big clove of garlic, minced
1/2 a carrot, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
a palmful of peas
5 florets of broccoli
some cauliflower (optional)
5 mushrooms (i used creminis-- more flavor that butto/white mushrooms)
whatever else veggie you have on hand...(squash, celery, scallions, bean sprouts, napa cabbage, spinach, snowpeas, etc.)
3 cups chicken stock ( i just used 1.5 cubes of chicken cubes in hot water)
salt to taste
and lots of black pepper to taste.
pasta of choice (i only had some multicolored corkscrew pasta)
some vegetable oil

Method

1. In a pan add the oil and heat it up on medium-high. To this add the garlic and oregano and saute for about 1 minute. Next add the onions and saute for 1 minute.

2. Add the hearty veggies (carrots, broccoli, beans) and saute for about 3 minutes.

3. Lastly add the chicken and mushrooms and mix for about 2 minutes.

4. In a separate pot bring the chicken stock to a simmer and add the cooked veggies and chicken to this. I cooked my pasta in the simmering stock before adding my veggies...you could do that or cook it separately. Lastly add a palmful of peas and bring to a boil. Taste and add lots of black pepper/salt.

Serve hot.

Chicken Tostadas

I really like the store-bought Rotisserie chicken and we always have leftovers. Usually, we end up making chicken alfredo with fettucine or some sort of chicken paninis. This time we had a craving for mexican and I decided, instead of tacos, to make tostadas. the tostadas bases are store-bought but you can use this filling to make mexican paninis or even soft tacos or quesadillas!


Ingredients:

1 cup cooked chicken breast (rotisserie, works)
2 tspn cumin
1/2 tspn Red chilli powder/Cayenne
1 tspn paprika
1/4 chicken bouillion cube - immersed in about 1.5 tbspn water (=stock)
1 yellow onion sliced like french fries
1 roma tomato, sliced like french fries
1 serrano (substitute green bell peppers. feel free to add red and yellow bell peppers as well)
Splashes of Hot sauce (Tobasco or Cholula works...again, this isn't required)

1 tbspn oil.

Method:

1. In a pan heat up the oil and add the onions and peppers. Saute for about 2 minutes.

2. To this add the dry seasoning (cumin, paprika, cayenne) and saute for 1-2 mins.

3. Next, add the tomatoes and saute for about 30 seconds.

4. Add the chicken and stock and saute uncovered. Lastly add dashes of hot sauce (if you desire).

5. let it heat up and the liquisd should evaporate; should take another 2-4 minutes tops.

you're done! Slap this onto a tortilla or tostada and top off with some raw chopped tomato, onions, scallions, avocado, iceberg lettuce, and mexican/cheddar cheese and you are DONE.
Yum Yum!

Lasagna

I really love lasagna. What there not to love? Gorgeous layers of cheese, meat, pasta...sorry, I think I zoned out for a bit there. I was gifted a cookbook with simple American recipes by my friend Bryan a few years ago when I had just started to cook. I was really wary of cooking Italian or anything "American" back then, but this book changed that. So, thanks Bryan.

Lasagna is generally made with some sort of ground meat. Of course, one could avoid the meat altogether and make it with veggies and cheese. I have yet to try that version out. Maybe when I finally take the plunge and turn vegetarian...

I'm using ground chicken in this recipe. I've used ground turkey before so anything works, really.


Ingredients (Serves 8, very easily)
1lb Ground chicken/meat
6 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion -finely chopped
1 Tspn Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
Ricotta Cheese - about 1/2 of a 150z container (I didn't really measure. this depends on how much you put in. )- 1.5 cup
Mozarella - 4-6oz (Again, didn't measure but had an 8oz packet on hand)- Maybe 1.5 cups
Parmesean Cheese - 1/2 cup
Lasagna pasta - about 12 (cook according to directions on box)
Olive Oil - 1tbspn
Marinara (or any Pizza/Tomato) Sauce - 12 oz (give or take; I used store-bought)

Optional : Button Mushrooms (I had to finish a carton before it rotted)

Method:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. To it add the onions and saute for about 3 mins. Add the garlic and italian seasoning. Saute until onions are translucent. Ensure you don't let the garlic burn. If adding mushrooms, add at this point. Also add salt.

2. To the above, add the minced meat. Saute until cooked and begins to brown.

3. Add tomato sauce (marinara) to the pan and bring to a boil. You sauce is now done.

To assemble lasagna, use an appropriate baking utensil and
(i) thin layer of the sauce.
(ii) layer of pasta noodles
(iii) ricotta and mozarella on top of noodles.
(iv) sauce on top of the cheeses
(v) back to (ii) and repeat.

(vi) the last layer should be a layer of pasta noodles. top this off with a generous layer of pamesean cheese.

Baking instructions:
Set oven to 425 and pre-heat for about 5 minutes. Cover your work of layered art and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove the covering and bake for another 10 mins or until the top is a nice golden brown.

That's it! Serve with salad and garlic bread!


excuse the crappy picture again. I really need to get used to my camera.

Kofta Curry

I'm sure there are ways to improve this one. But the taste was so good the first time I tried it, that I had to post the recipe here. Kofta is aka meatball. So it's a meatball curry! This one is sort of a random recipe i.e. I came up with it myself. Hope you'll give it a try! I know I will...next week. :)


Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Minced Chicken - 1/2 lb
Serrano Chilli peppers - 1/2-1 finely chopped, seeds and all.
Garam Masala - 1 tspn
Salt to taste
Bread Crumbs - 1/2 cup [I toast up regular bread when I can't finish an entire loaf. So I used toasted wheat bread]
Vegetable oil - 2 tbspn
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Red chilli powder (Indian)- 1 tsp
Cumin powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Coriander powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - literally a pinch.
Fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish and for koftas (optional)
Coconut milk - 1/2 can (about 6-7 fluid oz.)

Part 1: the koftas

In a mixing bowl add the garam masala, bread crumbs, serrano, cilantro, salt, and chicken. Mix throughly and add 1tbspn of oil to keep this moist. Make spheres or ovals and set aside. Let this sit for about 20 mins.

Part 2: the curry

1. In a pan add 1 tbspn oil and let it heat up. To this add the chopped onion and saute until it is translucent.

2. Now add the chopped tomatoes and saute for about 3-4 minutes.

3. In a separate bowl mix the spice powders (cumin, coriander, red chilli) in 1.5 cups of water. Add this to the pan and let it come to a boil.

4. As this is simmering, add the meatballs to it and let it cook for about 10 mins or so.

5. next add the coconut milk and let it simmer/boil for about 10-15mins. Taste this at some point to add salt as required.

6. It was very liquidy so I just let it boil for some 20 or so minutes and finally gave up since it tasted fantastic. Eventually as it cooled, it got a little thicker so that was good, but overall it's still a very liquidy curry. That's why I categorize this recipe as a work-in-progress.

7. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

Serve with hot basmati rice and raitha.

NOTE: You can always add more serrano or red chilli powder as it is simmering, so add a little at first and see if you can handle the heat. Serranos can vary in size and heat, so a little may just go a long way.

Nuclear 'Sheek' Kababs

I went to the store to get some Chicken breast meat but instead walked out with minced turkey meat. Since I was out of Lasagna ingredients (my go-to recipe for minced meat), I decided to try out an Indian buffet favourite: Sheek kabab.

Sheek or Shish? that is the question. According to wikitionary, sheek implies minced meat and shish implies cubed pieces of meat. I like Nuclear Kababs. My brother gave them this name because of their intense aroma.

I also want to pay homage to two of my companions in the kitchen that I lost over this recipe. Lousy companions, but companions none the less: My knives.



Ingredients:

1 Lb of minced meat (I use either turkey or chicken; lean meat works)
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped (use your grater)
6-8 garlic cloves finely chopped (you may want to lower the amount of garlic)
Lime/Lemon juice of 1
Vegetable Oil-1.5 tbspn
about 1.5 tbspn water with saffron (can omit)
Fresh green chillies (I used serrano) - 2-4 depending on how hot you like your food.
Salt
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Red chilli powder - 1/2tsp
Corriander powder - 3/4tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2tsp

Optional: Fresh Cilantro/Corriander leaves

Method:

1. In a utensil, add all of your ingredients except the meat, oil, and saffron water. mix and taste to check if you want more spices or salt.

2. Next add the rest of your ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Let it marinate in the fridge for anywhere from an hour to 6 hours.

4. Make them into shapes you are familiar with (sphere in my case) and fire up your grill and grill 'em! Or, since I'm lame I just pan-grilled them in a non-stick pan. Since I had already used oil in the mix, I didn't bother oiling the pan before cooking them. They will release liquid as they cook. Cook on one side for about 5-7 mins until it starts browning and then flip and let other side brown as well.

5. Serve with grilled onions, lemon wedges, warm pita, saffron flavored basmati rice, and a yoghurt sauce (Yoghurt + some fresh minced garlic + salt) .

Chardonnay Chicken with Pasta

This is my new favorite pasta recipe. Well, second favorite; my heart will always be with the bourbon based sauce with Italian Sausage, chicken, and mushrooms served over penne or stuffed shells (Shout out to Cafe Italia up in Davis ).
Alright straight to my modified version of this recipe

Serves 1-2 (2 people, if you add sides like a salad and generous helpings of steamed veggies)

Ingredients (I didn't exactly measure...)

1 chicken breast, cubed into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup(or a tad bit more) all-purpose flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-1.5 tbspn extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:
1tbspn e.v.o.o
2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced (yes, I know the original recipe added 4 cloves to 4-6 breasts and I'm adding it to 1 breast. Sue me. Garlic rules me)
1/2 tspn dried Italian spices (My bottle has thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, and basil)
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1/4-1/2 cup Chicken stock (I dropped a bouillion cube in boiling water and added that)

Also some cooked pasta (I used fettucine noodles)

Method:
Before I go further: I LOVE dishes that can be cooked in one pan.
1. Heat the 1.5 tbspn of olive oil in a frying/stir-fry pan (medium high heat)
2. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper to make a dry batter.
3. Coat the pieces of chicken with above batter and place in frying pan.
4. 2-3 minutes on each side and it should look like its just beginning to brown. Remove from the pan and place in a bowl and set aside.
5. In the same pan,add 1tbspn of olive oil (at this point you could also add a dash of butter as the original recipe calls for, but I left it out) and let it heat up.
6. Add minced garlic and saute for about a minute. To this add the spices as well. Saute for another minute. The aroma at this point should tingle your senses.
7. Add the chicken back and stir so it is covered with the garlic and spices [1minute].
8. Add 1/2 cup of Chardonnay (be careful, alcohol and fire..) and let the alcohol cook off. Iit will take about 5 minutes. The sauce will begin to thicken.
9. At this point, add the 1/4 cup of chicken stock and cook until sauce thickens to desired consistency.
10.Pour over pasta and ENJOY! maybe with some fresh toasted roasted garlic bread.

Sidenote: garnish with Parmesan+Romano or not! Really great either way.

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki
I’m very picky when it comes to food; I’m extra sensitive to foul odors and staleness. That being said, this Japanese restaurant in Costa Mesa “I love Sushi” had a great thing going for it when it came to my patronage. That is, until the entire service staff got horrible. The food remained great but it was painful to go there and sadly I haven’t gone back since 2006. I crave the food there every now and then, but the horrifically pathetic service has successfully kept me away.

In my quest to find a good replacement for this restaurant, I went to several restaurants. I think I need to come clean right now before the comments are flooded with sushi suggestions: I don’t eat sushi at all. If my food smells like the ocean (seaweed), I’m outta there. On the contrary, I should try sashimi and I do enjoy the seaweed in Miso soup. Sue me. Now back to this elaborate rambling that I’ve somehow gotten myself into…yes. Anyway, I haven’t found a replacement restaurant in terms of taste and I’m sad about that but I finally took matters into my own hands and tried making dish #1 : Chicken Sukiyaki.

Here is the recipe (guesstimated), adjust condiments according to your taste.

Ingredients for the broth:
1.5 cups Chicken Stock ( I used a pinch of Bouillion cube which had salt in it).
6 Tablespoons Japanese Soy Sauce (I used Kikkoman)
5 Tablespoons Mirin (sweet rice wine type thing. Sugar is NOT a good enough substitute)
6 teaspoons sugar
5 Tablespoons Sake (mmm after eating a big bowl of this, I was passed out for a good 2 hours)


Other Ingredients all of which can be got at a Japanese Store :
Glass Noodles – made out of potato starch [Shirataki] 4-8 oz.
Napa cabbage
Snow Peas
Shitake Mushroom (I hate these Fungi but it’s always added)
White/button Mushroom
Spinach
Onions
Bean Sprouts
Scallions
Zucchini
Broccoli
Grilled Tofu [Yaki-Dofu]
Thin Slices of chicken (marinate thin slices of breast meat in mirin, soy sauce, sugar and ginger for about 1.5 hours)
Vegetable oil- about 2 tbspns


Method:
1. In a saucepan, add the broth ingredients sequentially in the order listed above. Let it heat up at each step and taste. Adjust quantity of sugar etc. according to taste.
2. In a separate pot, add some vegetable oil, just enough to coat the bottom. To this add the chicken and cook it until semi-done.
3. Toss in the Tofu, veggies, and noodles (can cook noodles before hand or it will cook in the broth) and let it gel for about a minute and then add the prepared sukiyaki broth.
4. Let all the ingredients simmer and veggies cook—takes about 10-15mins (also ensure chicken is now cooked).
5. Serve over sticky Japanese rice!
6. Also if you know how to make tempura, topping your bowl with sweet potato or pumpkin tempura = FOR THE WIN!


Sidenotes:
You can make a vegan/vegetarian version by omitting the chicken and chicken stock. I made a vegan version and it was freaking delicious.

Fried Rice, Desi Style

There's nothing specifically Indian about this but this is pretty much what we get when we go to a Chinese restaurant in India and order fried rice. Indianized chinese food is heavenly.

Ingredients:

Carrots - peeled and chopped finely [into tiny cubes]
Zucchini- Chopped finely
Green Beans- Chopped finely
Green Bell pepper- Chopped finely
Button (white) mushrooms - thinly sliced
Celery- chopped finely
Spring Onions- finely chopped
Red onions - 1 medium sized one, finely chopped.

Ginger: about 2 thin slices (about 1 cm in breadth), DO NOT FINELY CHOP, not much fun to eat this. Remove before serving.
Optional: add other colored peppers, sprouts, spinach!, etc. Don't add eggplant, potato, sweet potato, etc.

Basmati Rice- 1 or 2 cups. [ will serve 2-4 people]

Vegetable cooking oil
Optional: a few drops of sesame oil for aroma.

Salt to taste.
Pepper to taste.
Soy Sauce (totally optional. I prefer it without)

Procedure:

Step 1: Cook the Rice.
I own a rice cooker and use it to make rice. However, if you don't own one then general rule of thumb for cooking rice.: 1rice:2water.
For every cup of rice, add 1.75-2 cups of water to cook it.

Once it is cooked, take it out of the cooker or pot and spread it out on a large plate so it can cool down and separate.

Step 2: Cook the veggies:

In a large pot, put some oil to coat the bottom. If it's a non stick pan then just add a little bit. To it add onions, ginger, carrots, and celery. Saute for about 2 minutes. then add green beans, zuccini, green peppers. Saute for a minute. then add mushrooms (takes the least time to cook) and the spring onions. Keep saute-ing until the veggies are semi-ccoked. i.e. they should remain crunchy when you taste it but at the same time cooked.

Step 3:
Once it is at this stage, add the rice. Also at this point add salt and pepper and soy sauce (if you want, but I don't) and also 1/2 tsp of sesame oil . Mix thoroughly for about 2-4 minutes on the stove and you are done!!!

Notes:
I purposely have not specified how much of each veggie since it depends on if you want more rice or more veggies.

Optional variations:
To make Chicken fried rice:
Buy boneless chicken, preferably chicken breast (white meat):
cut into manageable pieces and marinate for about 30 minutes with ginger and soy sauce. Saute separately and get it cooked.
Once cooked, chop finely and add it to the veggie mixture when you add the rice.

To make Egg fried rice:
On the side scramble an egg or two. Once your fried rice is ready, plate it up and then top it off with the scrambled egg.
Another option is to make fluffly omelette's (properly cooked) and then to chop it up into cubes/squares/rectangles and to top off the rice with it.
Enjoy!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

The Very Best Home-made Chicken Noodle Soup
--guaranteed to cure for what ails you.


My boyfriend and I both caught colds in England this past week: he from everyone who was coughing around us on the plane, on the tube, on the train… and I caught it from him coughing on me. As soon as we got back home, I made this soup to nurse us back to health. And it worked!
--AnglophileLV

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, chopped up
1 bay leaf
2 leeks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
½ onion
1 clove garlic
3 sprigs thyme
5 sprigs parsley chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
6 cups chicken bouillon (half low sodium and half regular)
Fettuccini noodles

1. Make your chicken bouillon in a large pot using cubes or packets. I used ½ low sodium and ½ regular. Trader Joe’s has organic bouillon packets that don’t have partially-hydrogenated crap in them.
2. Add bay leaf, chicken, onions and garlic.
3. Add carrots, celery, leeks, thyme and parsley.
4. Bring to a boil, simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add as much fettuccini as desired (some like more noodles, some like less) and boil until tender, ~10 minutes.
6. Add pepper to taste.

Saffron Chicken with Couscous

This is my new favorite recipe. It’s easy, low fat, exotic enough to impress your guests and familiar enough to sneak past picky partners and most children. What more could a girl ask for? Hmmm… dessert…
--AnglophileLV

Saffron Chicken with Couscous

Serves 4

3 cups water
1 can chickpeas
Uncooked chicken pieces (legs, thighs, wings, whatever you like – I used 6 drumsticks)
1 stick celery, chopped
½ tsp cinnamon
½ onion chopped
¼ heaping tsp turmeric
1 good pinch saffron threads (world market has them, but they are hard to find in the chain groceries)
¼ cup raisins
Salt and pepper to taste

¾ cup plain fast-cooking couscous (the kind you add to boiling water and leave for 5 minutes)
1 cup broth from above recipe

Pour the water into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the celery, onion and cinnamon, then the turmeric and saffron. Add the chicken. Let boil around 30 minutes, then add the raisins last. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When you have five minutes left on the chicken, ladle 1 cup of the chicken broth into a small pot and bring to a boil. Add the ¾ cup couscous (check the measurements on the box, this serves 2, but the box serves six) to the boiling broth, turn off the heat, cover and wait five minutes. I like to put some raisins in this also, which I add with the hot water so they re-hydrate a little.

I plated this on a long oval dish and made a kind of nest out of the couscous with all the chicken and chickpeas in the middle.