Ginger Honey Chicken

What can be keeping me from blogging, you ask? Applications are done, we're eating at home more than ever, and with all of the cooking, there definitely has to be something to write about.

Well, there is. However, there's a huge time-sucking obsession that's superseded blogging and taking good pictures of food. Some of you may have heard of it... hell, some of you may be as obsessed as I've become.

Battlestar Galactica. The current version.

Don't worry, Star Trek, you're still my first love.

Since we're really late in jumping on the bandwagon, we've been watching the last 3 1/2 seasons on DVDs via Netflix. D.'s folks gave us all of the seasons for Christmas, which sped things up in time for us to start watching the last 10 episodes of the series. The last 10 episodes ever. Thus, I eagerly await every Friday evening until the last episode airs, after which I'll be beside myself with grief and withdrawal.

Anyway, continuing on the cooking-whatever's-in-the-pantry/freezer trend, we decided to take some of the ingredients from the curry mee to my mother's recipe for ginger honey chicken. My disclaimer to this recipe is that my mother didn't give me the measurements and these estimates have worked for me. Play around and adjust the taste to your liking.

Ginger Honey Chicken
(Recipe courtesy of Mom, amounts are rough estimates)

2 tablespoons oil (any kind works... I prefer olive)
1 cup young ginger, cubed
1 cup chicken thigh, cubed (breast meat is fine)
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/4 cup light soy sauce (use more if necessary)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
pepper
2 tablespoons dark or mushroom soy sauce (for color only... add gradually and stop before the sauce becomes too dark)
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed into 1/4 cup water
scallions, chopped into 2 inch pieces for garnish

Heat olive oil and toast ginger cubes until fragrant. Add chicken and cook until mostly done, then add garlic. Add light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, pepper. Stir well and gradually add dark or mushroom soy sauce for color. Once a caramel brown is reached, stop. Add chicken broth. Taste sauce, which should be smooth and not too salty. There should definitely be hints of oyster sauce and it should not be dominated by the soy sauce. Mix cornstarch in water and slowly dribble into the sauce to thicken. Add honey, stir, and add scallions. Toss everything thoroughly until scallions wilt.

The sauce should showcase the sweet young ginger and the soy sauce should be balanced, made richer by the honey. Adjustments can be made to the amounts at any point.

Up next: What do you do when you have extra carrots?

Curry Mee

Gung hay fat choi, everyone! Happy Lunar New Year!

A few months ago, Sharon wrote about planning out a week's worth of meals. D. and I decided to give it a try ourselves, since we were eating out too much. Between the stress of test-taking, work, life, and the never-ending diet (17 pounds and counting!), we didn't make the time to plan and cook healthy meals. We'd make the healthiest choices possible when we went out, but it was still not good for us.

While we were meal-planning, we decided to clean out our pantry and freezer. Why buy more groceries when we had plenty of stuff on hand? Our problem was that we'd buy without a plan, so we had a mish-mash of ingredients that didn't seem to pair well.

To our surprise, we've had a lot of interesting meals. It's amazing what we've found in our hodgepodge of ingredients. After reading this article in the New York Times, I had to try one of the recipes. Believe it or not, we had almost everything on hand. Instead of half-and-half, we used 1:1 heavy cream and milk. The only things we had to buy were some of the fresh items: lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, scallions, Vietnamese mint, and noodles. We omitted the bean sprouts and cilantro, because I'm anti-sprouts and D.'s anti-cilantro.

The ginger and lemon grass went on to the next night's dinner: Ginger Honey Chicken.

Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup (Curry Mee)
(from the New York Times, article by Julia Moskin)

Note: I halved the recipe, which made exactly two servings.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 small onion, minced

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 tablespoon minced lemon grass or pale green cilantro roots

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dark red chili paste, such as sambal, more for serving

3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast meat, thinly sliced and cut into bite-size pieces

3 tablespoons curry powder, preferably Malaysian, Thai or Vietnamese

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 can (14 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup half-and-half

4 cups chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar, more to taste

About 12 kaffir lime leaves or curry leaves, fresh or frozen (optional)

8 ounces dried thin rice noodles (bun or vermicelli), or other Asian noodles such as udon or lai fun

Salt to taste

1 cup bean sprouts

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 scallions, cut into thin rings

2 shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried in vegetable oil until brown (optional)

Quartered limes for serving.

1. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger and lemon grass and cook, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Do not brown; reduce heat if necessary. Add garlic and chili paste and stir until fragrant. Raise heat, add chicken and stir-fry one minute. Add curry powder and paprika and stir to coat. Then add coconut milk, half-and-half, chicken stock, turmeric, fish sauce, sugar and lime or curry leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 7 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook rice noodles in boiling water according to package directions (about 4 minutes). Rinse and drain.

3. Taste broth and adjust seasonings with salt and sugar. Divide noodles into large soup bowls. Bring broth to a boil, then ladle over noodles. Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, scallions and fried shallots, if using. Pass limes and sambal at the table.

Yield: 4 main-course servings.

Note: To make this rich soup more substantial, boiled potatoes are sometimes added to the simmering broth and cooked until very soft.

The resulting broth is hearty without being too thick, even without the potatoes. One thing to keep in mind is that the noodles will absorb a lot of the broth, so undercook them a little to keep them al dente. Or else they'll turn into mush, which isn't very palatable. I love rau ram, or Vietnamese mint, which adds a nice bite to the rich coconut milk.

Los Angeles: Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles

Like Britney, my comeback has had its setbacks. I still have my hair... for now. When the tests ended, it was holidays, my yearly respiratory infection, applications, and more holidays. I hate personal statements. I'm fabulous and I'm insane enough to make chemistry a career... what more do these schools want?

Apparently, a coherent message about my goals and experiences. If it weren't for good friends answering panicked pleas for editing help, I would have submitted some craptastic essays to some fairly prestigious schools. Yikes.

I'm going to blog regularly after the apps are done in early January. Until then, I'm going to close out 2008 with a visit to a place of legend and lore.

There are many great food pairings, but one of the greatest is fried chicken and waffles. It's baffling to the uninitiated and very few would utter "waffles" when asked for a compliment to fried chicken, but it works. It works incredibly well. I bow to the altar of fried chicken and waffles and the place to worship is Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, with several locations in the Los Angeles area.

Last Sunday's visit with D., Teej, and Krazo took place at the Pasadena location. D. and Krazo ordered the Carol C. Special with one fried chicken breast and one waffle. D. noted that Roscoe's was a smidge pricey for its portion sizes, but it's best to price the dishes per calorie. That way, it appears downright cheap.

Teej ordered the Jeanne Jones Omelette with a waffle, while I ordered the 'Scoe's with gravy and onions. My chicken, all dark meat, was fried to perfection. The crust stayed crispy even drenched by the gooey gravy and onions. Crispy, however, didn't translate to my waffles, which were a little underdone and soggy. I was slightly disappointed, especially since Roscoe's was the place that turned me on to the classic waffle. After a crisp and thin waffle from Roscoe's, I swore off Belgian-style waffles forever and bought a classic waffle maker.

Service was excellent and the atmosphere is dive-ish, but comfortable and fun. Fried chicken and waffles... don't knock it until you've tried it. Happy New Year!!

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles (Pasadena location)
830 N. Lake Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91104