Review: Ever Reliable China To Go

Because my husband and I are very busy getting ready to go back home, I wasn't able to prepare anything this week. Hopefully, we'll finish packing most of our stuff this week and enjoy a more decent meal next week.

For sustenance we went to Panda Express which opened their branch in Eagan just last week:

I like their:

- Sweetfire Chicken Breast

- Black Pepper Chicken

- Honey Walnut

A better alternative to Lee Ann Chin but I still think Thai Kitchen is better.

Recipe: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

PF Chang's made me fell in love with chicken lettuce wraps. And of course, I tried making one at home.

Barbecued Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

A very easy recipe with very basic ingredients. The recipe listed chicken breast or tenders but of course we always just have to go towards the unhealthy path and choose thighs. The recipe is very close to what PF Chang's is serving - their version has more delicate flavors. Using cool lettuce works wonders with the warm chicken filling (I tried it with room temp lettuce and it turned out to be ho-hum). The best part about this dish is it's full of flavor but totally healthy.

Ingredients

2 cups, 4 handfuls, fresh shiitake mushrooms

1 1/3 to 1 1/2 pounds thin cut chicken breast or chicken tenders

2 tablespoons light colored oil, such as vegetable oil or peanut oil

Coarse salt and coarse black pepper

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 inch ginger root, finely chopped or grated, optional

1 orange, zested

1/2 red bell pepper, diced small

1 small tin, 6 to 8 ounces, sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped

3 scallions, chopped

3 tablespoons hoisin, Chinese barbecue sauce, available on Asian foods aisle of market

1/2 large head iceberg lettuce, core removed, head quartered

Wedges of navel orange -- platter garnish

Directions

Remove tough stems from mushrooms and brush with damp towel to clean, Slice mushrooms. Chop chicken into small pieces.

Preheat a large skillet or wok to high.

Add oil to hot pan. Add chicken to the pan and sear meat by stir frying a minute or 2. Add mushrooms and cook another minute or two. Add salt and pepper to season, then garlic and ginger. Cook a minute more. Grate zest into pan, add bell pepper bits, chopped water chestnuts and scallions. Cook another minute, continuing to stir fry mixture. Add hoisin Chinese barbecue sauce and toss to coat the mixture evenly. Transfer the hot chopped barbecued chicken to serving platter and pile the quartered wedges of crisp iceberg lettuce along side. Add wedged oranges to platter to garnish. To eat, pile spoonfuls into lettuce leaves, wrapping lettuce around fillings and squeeze an orange wedge over.

Original Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/barbecued-chinese-chicken-lettuce-wraps-recipe/index.html

Recipe: Well-Dressed Fish

I first made this recipe when my husband and I decided to eat less beef and pork. I don't really know a lot of fish recipes so I decided to consult foodnetwork.com again and found this easy recipe by Rachael Ray. It's now my favorite fish recipe.

I used Tilapia since it's way cheaper than Salmon - I just had a little bit of struggle since the Tilapia breaks when I flip it. The dill dressing complements the fish seasoning really well and the cucumber salsa really brightens up the dish. This will probably go well with rice pilaf.

I didn't really change the recipe much so I'm posting the original recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 seedless cucumber

2 small plum tomatoes

1 shallot or 1/4 red onion, finely chopped, divided

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets

Seafood seasoning (recommended: Old Bay)

Directions

On a cutting board, dice cucumber into 1/4-inch pieces - to peel or not to peel is up to you. Seed and dice the tomatoes into 1/4-inch pieces. Combine the cucumber, tomatoes and half of the shallots or red onion in bowl and reserve.

In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, sugar, and white wine vinegar and remaining half of the shallots. Stream in extra-virgin olive oil while continuing to whisk. Stir in dill and season dressing with salt and pepper, to taste.

Season the salmon with seafood seasoning and a little black pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Place salmon rounded side down and cook until golden and a little crispy at edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook 2 minutes more for a pink center, 4 minutes for opaque fish.

Transfer salmon to dinner or serving plates, top with the cucumber-tomato relish and cover with a liberal amount of dill dressing.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/well-dressed-salmon-recipe/index.html

Recipe: French Toast Sunday

My French toast craving was triggered by an episode of Bobby Flay's throwdown. I tried to search for the recipe but was unlucky not to find it in foodnetwork.com. Instead, I found the recipe by Rachael Ray and it didn't taste like second best at all.

Crunchy Vanilla-Almond French Toast with Fancy Fruit Toppings, Sweet-n-Smoky Bacon

Instead of using separate corn flakes and almonds, I used Honey Bunches with Almonds and that worked fine (you might want to add sugar to the flakes if you want it a little sweeter or just add syrup later on). I used white bread instead of challah bread because our bakery wasn't selling challah last night - that worked out great as well. Everything in this recipe just worked so well. The bacon is awesome, the bread melts in your mouth and the fruits make the dish brighter. I am definitely making this dish again.

(Recipe follows - altered to make just two servings and updated with available ingredients)

Ingredients

Bacon:

6 slices smoked bacon

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Toast:

4 large eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups corn flakes, lightly crushed (I used Honey Bunches)

2 tablespoons butter

4 slices of white bread

Medium or dark amber maple syrup to pass at table

Mint sprigs and edible flowers, suggested plate garnish

Fancy Fruit Topping:

6 large strawberries, sliced

1/4 pint blueberries

1/4 pint raspberries

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 cup orange liqueur (I used triple sec)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Arrange bacon on slotted broiler pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and place in oven to bake until crisp, 20 to 22 minutes.

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.

In a shallow dish, beat together with a wire whisk: eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon. In a second shallow dish combine flakes and nuts. Add 2 tablespoons butter to warm skillet. Place a cookie sheet lined with foil (for easy clean-up) near the stove. Coat 4 to 6 slices of bread in egg, depending on the size of your skillet, then coat bread in cornflakes and nuts. Cook slices 2 minutes on each side and transfer toast to cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining slices and transfer toast to oven. Bake 10 minutes, with already cooking bacon.

While bacon and toast are in oven, combine fruit, sugar and liqueur in a serving bowl and reserve.

Remove toast and bacon from oven. Warm syrup in a small pitcher in microwave 15 seconds on high. Serve toast and bacon on plates with optional garnish of mint and edible flowers.

Pass syrup and topping at the table.

Original recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/crunchy-vanilla-almond-french-toast-with-fancy-fruit-topping-sweet-n-smoky-bacon-recipe/index.html

Recipe: Basic Tempura Ice Cream

http://video.about.com/japanesefood/Tempura-Fried-Ice-Cream.htm

I was feeling a little adventurous today so I decided to try making homemade tempura ice cream. I found the recipe to be easy so I decided to head out to the grocery. That's when I almost gave up.

The recipe requires the use of Pound Cake - we couldn't find any from the bakery. So I decided to bake my own (well, I actually bought that Betty Crocker Pound Cake ready mix). When we got home, the box recipe used a 9x5 pan which I don't have. Also, we found out that the cake takes at least 48 minutes to cook - again, who waits for dessert? So anyway, I started baking around 8:30pm and we were able to enjoy the tempura around 11pm.

The flavor we were looking for is there, the outer coat was crisp but the batter and bread were overpowering the dessert. I actually had to alter my flour-to-water proportion because the one provided by the recipe was too thick - maybe I should have thinned it out more. The Pound Cake was a little more brown on top than I'd wanted so that made it difficult for me to roll the cake around the ice cream and make the roll tighter. Oh, and next time, I won't be greedy and follow just putting two scoops of green tea ice cream. :)

Although it's not perfect, I can say that this recipe is a good starting point - it has the texture and the flavor that a tempura ice cream should have. I'll try making one tomorrow again and hopefully I'll get the cake and the batter right.

Recipe: Leftover Carbonara

I've been watching too much of Food Network to know the following:

- bacon fat is good to use in any dish that has sauce

- roux is simply mixing fat and flour

- using store bought chicken stock is ok

So I applied all these to cook Leftover Chicken Carbonara for our dinner last Monday.

In my fridge I had:

- spaghetti

- 1/2 tbsp butter

- 4 slices of bacon; diced

- butter

- 1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh; cut into bite size pieces

- chicken stock

- cream

- zest of lemon

Cook spaghetti noodles according to box directions. Keep a little bit of the starchy water for the cream sauce later.

Melt the butter on a deep frying pan/skillet. Add the bacon and cook until brown (you be the judge of the crispiness). Set aside. Season the chicken and cook until slightly brown. Move chicken to one side of the pan. Add flour to the other side and mix well with butter and bacon fat.

Pour in the chicken stock, then the cream. I wasn't able to watch the amount I put in so just put in equal amounts and then work the consistency you want from there. Add a little bit of lemon zest to the sauce. At this point, you may want to add the herbs you want - I only used parlsey to keep it pretty basic. Add in the starchy water. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.

Mix the noodles with the sauce. Serve on a plate and top with the bacon. Add in parmesan cheese if you wish :)

Recipe: Comfort Thursday

What else is more comforting than Filipino style spaghetti and friend chicken dinner? Reminds me of my kiddie birthday celebrations spent at home. :)

**Chicken recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Better-Than-Best-Fried-Chicken/Detail.aspx

Recipe: Strawberry Panna Cotta

http://littlesistercooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-favorite-friday.html

I was supposed to make this for Valentine's but I couldn't find my bookmark. I kinda felt stupid when I saw it last Friday and realized that I didn't label this bookmark well. Kindee's Panna Cotta inspired me even more to try making it at home.

I was a bit intimidated by the perfect texture of Kindee's Panna Cotta so I was a bit scared that I'm gonna screw this up. I read the recipe over and over again hoping that almost memorizing the recipe will lessen the chance of failure. I didn't know what I was thinking.; it uses very basic ingredients, it's actually just sugar, milk and cream cooked on low heat, flavored syrup is just basic syrup plus your choice of fruit - This recipe is really easy!

The ugly part of it was I prepared it during dinner which meant I had to wait until the following day to try it (I had to wait for it to cool and settle and chill). To add to that, I prepared this on a Sunday night which meant I had to wait until after work to taste it. Who likes for dessert?

My husband loved it! I loved it too! It had really good texture, it's creamy and it had a very delicate flavor. It's good with or without the syrup. It was so worth the wait, my husband and I had two cups each Monday night. :)