notes from my food diary

Last Monday, my son started sneezing.  He had a birthday party the day before and it was held in a swimming pool.  The water was pretty cold considering these were kids who were mostly in the pool.  Afterwards, the party continued on in a party room where it was blasting cold air.  No wonder he got sick! 

With the changing weather just recently, I finally made some menu adjustment in my daily cooking.  I’m preparing to cook a lot more soups and anything hearty and warm.  We all love noodle soup and one of the new recipes that I tried this week was the soy sauce chicken noodle soup.  The idea that I got was after I read Grace Young’s cookbook:  The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing.  I’ve made soy sauce chicken before in the crockpot and even though it’s called red sauce chicken by a different cookbook, it’s basically the same method of cooking the chicken.  Grace Young has a soy sauce chicken in her book using a regular cooking method and she includes rock sugar, light brown sugar, Sichuan peppercorns and Chinese licorice (gum cho) in the soup.  It’s slightly different approach than the one that I used here.  I liked the previous recipe for soy sauce chicken and I’m sure Grace Young’s recipe is equally good.  But since I only had time to make it in the crockpot, I used that crockpot recipe again this time.  In her book, this soup is called Clear Soup Noodles and she suggested pairing the soup with the soy sauce chicken.

Because I had egg noodle, Napa cabbage, and yu choy (edible rape/green choy sum) vegetables already, I included this variation to the basic noodle soup.  The basic recipe uses rice stick vermicelli (mai fun) with bok choy.  What I like to add to the soup is the sauce from the soy sauce chicken.  It’s a very comforting soup and good for the body.  Almost like what Westerners would get the benefit from eating chicken noodle soup Western style.   

Here I share the original recipe:

Clear Soup Noodles

Makes 4 as a typical lunch meal

8 ounces bok choy

8 ounces Soy Sauce Chicken, homemade or store-bought

2 teaspoon sesame oil

8 teaspoons thin soy sauce

1 quart homemade chicken broth

8 ounces rice vermicelli (mai fun)

Cilantro sprigs

Separate the bok choy into stalks.  Wash bok choy in several changes of cold water and allow to thoroughly drain in a colander.  Trim 1/4 inch from the bottom of each stalk and cut into 2-inch-long pieces.

With a meat cleaver, chop the chicken through the bone into bite-sized pieces.  Pour 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 2 teaspoon soy sauce into each 4 large soup bowls.

In a 2-quart saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil over high heat.  Add the bok choy and noodles and return to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until the noodles are tender and the bok choy is bright green and tender.

Divide the noodles and bok choy among the soup bowls and toss with the soy sauce and sesame oil.  Top with the broth, chicken and cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Source:  The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing by Grace Young

Am I happy to be home?  You bet!  Even though I had lots of fun in Southern California, just like the old adage, there’s no place like home.  As we drove back home we’re encountered smoggy driving condition which I thought due to the fires in California.  Once we’re past the state line entering Oregon, the sky turned blue, the greens were more pronounced, the air seemed fresher.  Oregon has truly became a home to me, a place where I long to be back after a few weeks of vacation.

The first meal I made after coming back home were grilled chicken with miso glaze, macaroni pesto salad and green salad.  I wasn’t too in the mood to make a complicated meal.  Driving for two days took a toll to my body, and it just wanted to sleep.  What’s more, my garden needed tender care after a few weeks of break, I couldn’t bear to see them neglected for too long.  Being home means I have to switch my mind from vacation mode to a housewife mode.  Tons of things to do!

Upon inspection in the garden, I could see tomatoes coming out from the two plants, some signs of peppers trying to grow under limited sunlight in my garden box, and a profusion of basil sprouting from two little plants. I found more than a few rotten strawberries in the garden box, but still more to become red.  My lonely blueberry plant survived and gave us a bowl of juicy and sweet blueberries.

Seeing all those basil was  where I got my idea of making a pesto pasta salad.  I desperately needed something very easy to make for dinner.  The chicken recipe was another simple idea, it’s very similar to a dish that I’ve tried before, but this time the chicken was grilled in the barbecue.  Throw in some green salad and I was done making dinner. 

Though it may seem weird to pair macaroni pesto salad with grilled chicken, somehow the flavors work together in my mouth  

Toriniku no Misoyaki (Chicken Grilled with Miso Glaze)

Serves 2 or 3

Marinade:

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon sake

1/2 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

Salt to taste

Miso Glaze:

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon sake

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup miso, preferably white

3 tablespoons water

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each cut in half and visible fat removed

To make the marinade:  in a shallow bowl large enough to accommodate the chicken thighs in a single layer, stir together the soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sake and ginger.  Add salt to taste.  Add the chicken, turn to coat evenly, and let stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes or for up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Prepare a medium fire in a charcoal grill, or preheat a gas grill to medium.

To make a the miso glaze:  in a small bowl, stir together the mirin, sake, sugar, miso and water, mixing well.  Set the bowl near the grill.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.  Place the chicken directly over the heat and grill 5 minutes.  Turn the chicken over, brush the top with some of the glaze, and grill for 5 minutes.  Turn the chicken again and brush the second side with some of the glaze.  Continue to grill, turning and brushing with the glaze every 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes total.

Remove the chicken from the grill and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Source:  adapted from Let’s Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko

I’m submitting this pasta salad recipe for the Presto Pasta Night #75, this week event is hosted by Michelle over at the Greedy Gourmet. 

Macaroni Pesto Salad

5 servings

4 ounces (1 cup) elbow macaroni, cooked al dente, rinse, and drained

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoons vegetable oil

Whisk together the red wine vinegar with vegetable oil in a medium bowl.  Add the cooked macaroni, cover and let chill for 2 to 3 hours.

Pesto sauce:

2 cups loosely packed basil leaves

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup pine nuts

2 medium garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 cup olive oil, or as needed

Salt and black pepper

Combine basil leaves, grated Parmesan, pine nuts and garlic cloves in a food processor and process to a rough paste.  While the machine is running, slowly drizzle the olive oil.  If the paste seems a bit dry add a little more olive oil.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Combine the pesto sauce with macaroni and stir well.  Taste again with salt and pepper.

Source:  adapted from the Joy of Cooking

Red-cooked chicken is a common method to cook chicken in Eastern China. The red color is actually not really red but more like a reddish-brown tinge imparted by the use of soy sauce. Originally the cooking method would be to slowly simmer a whole chicken in a spiced mixture of soy sauce, rice wine and water. Here, I give a slow-cooker method which would make the chicken also tender but without the long waiting. The meat of the chicken fell apart from the bones and I was very pleased with the ratio of the spices with the other ingredients. The red-cooking liquid can be saved after you allow it to cool down a bit and strain it through a strainer. Discard any solids and keep in the refrigerator for a week or 10 days. Anything you don’t use within those days I advise you to freeze it. To reuse the liquid, discard the solidified fat at the top and pour the liquid into the cooker, add a fresh chicken and proceed as directed in the recipe. After every third or fourth use, refresh the liquid by adding 1/2 cup of soy sauce and half of the seasonings.

When I served it, I paired it with a baby bok choy stir-fried with lots of garlic and steamed rice. It’s a very good dinner even my son who seldom asked for second, wanted a little bit more rice with the sauce on top. Brilliant!

Red-Cooked Chicken
Serves 4 to 6
Cooker: Medium or large, oval preferred

One 3- to 4-pound broiler/fyer

Red-cooking liquid:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons sugar
2 green onions (white and green parts), roughly chopped
Two 1/2-inch slices ginger, lightly crushed
1 whole star anise
1 stick cinnamon
1 clove garlic, lightly crushed
1 strip (about 3 inches) orange zest, removed with a vegetable peeler

Wash the chicken and dry thoroughly. Remove the gibblets and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off any lumps of fat. If you have time, place the chicken on a plate and refrigerate it uncovered for a couple of hours. The drier the chicken is, the more color it will absorb from the sauce.

Combine the red-cooking liquid ingredients in the crock and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken and turn to coat it with liquid. Leave it breast side up. Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour.

Carefully turn the chicken over, breast side down, using a sturdy wooden spoon inserted in the cavity and a rubber spatula to help you guide the chicken; take care to avoid splashing. Cover and cook on HIGH until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180°F, about 1 hour more.

Remove the chicken from the cooker. If you wish to serve it cold, refrigerate, uncovered, until chilled before cutting it up. To serve the chicken warm, put it on a cutting board and allow it to cool a bit. Then carve the chicken Western style, or if you have a heavy cleaver, chop it into 2-inch pieces. Arrange the chicken on a platter and drizzle a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid over it.

Source: Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann

easy stir-fry baby bok choy with lotsa garlic…

I finally had a little time to write what I made for Christmas dinner. With my mom help, I did Ayam Kodok, which basically a deboned chicken filled with a kind of meatloaf with several boiled eggs placed alongside the meatloaf. I’ve never done this before so imagine my surprise that deboning chicken with a sharp knife was not something that’s to be afraid of. The meatloaf was a combination of the ground chicken meat itself with liver pate, several slices of bread soaked with milk, some ground pork, nutmeg, salt, pepper, sugar and a little bit of soy sauce. Since Indonesia is like a melting pot of different cultures, don’t be amazed that this dish is a marriage between Dutch, Indonesian and Chinese influences! Once the skin was off of the chicken, it’s rubbed with a juice of quarter of lime. Lime helped the skin to be crispy and to have a crackly texture.

To stuff the chicken is almost like stuffing a turkey except in here I had to sow the skin back to enclosed the stuffing inside. Once this was done, the chicken had to be steamed for about an hour. The reason for steaming was to ensure that the stuffing was partially done because we didn’t want to bake this too long. Baking too long would make the chicken too dry. The dripping that came from the chicken would be made into a thin gravy by combining some water, nutmeg, pepper, salt, Worchestershire sauce, a little bit of sweet soy sauce, and cornstarch to thicken it.

After all of this done, we’d eat this with baked potatoes and the works (sour cream, chives, and shredded cheddar cheese) plus steamed vegetables. Full stomach, happy people

The exterior of Ayam Kodok

The interior of Ayam Kodok

Forgive me for not posting the recipe here since I was too lazy to do it this time.

Yesterday we had our lunch outside. It was a gorgeous day on Labor Day weekend. I decided to make some hamburgers, buffalo wings, baked beans and a little coleslaw. Of course, it won’t be complete without the pickles and some jalapeno slices to spice things up! These buffalo wings and coleslaw recipes were super easy to make.

I made a little modification to the recipe and to make the wings spicier I added some more hot sauce to them. Stalks of celery were the usual recomendation, but you could use carrot sticks or bell pepper slices too. And for the dip, the blue cheese dressing is always the best!

Buffalo Wings
Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings

6 pounds chicken wings
4 (0.7-ounce) envelopes Italian salad dressing mix, divided
1 cup butter, melted
1 to 1 1/2 cups buffalo wings sauce (I used Red Hot brand)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried basil
Hot sauce to taste
Blue cheese dressing

Cut off wingtips, and discard; cut chicken wings in half at joint, if desired. Place 1 package Italian salad dressing mix in a large zip-top plastic bag; add half of wings, and shake to coat. Arrage coated wings in a single layer on a lightly greased rack in an aluminum foil-lined 15- x 10- inch jelly-roll pan. Repeat procedure with 1 package Italian salad dressing mix, remaining half of wings, and another jelly-roll pan.

Bke at 425 degree F for 35 minutes or until browned. Remove pans from oven, and reduce heat to 350 degree F.

Stir together remaining 2 packages Italian salad dressing mix, butter and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; add wings, and toss until evenly coated. Return wings to racks in pans, and bake at 350 degree F for 30 or more minutes. Serve with Blue cheese dressing.

Source: Southern Living magazine, date unknown