Orange Beef

I think this is supposed to be deep-fried, but in addition to being bad for you I find the prospect of deep-frying positively terrifying. If you want to do it at home, more power to you; the beef will probably be much crispier.

Ingredients

1 lb. sirloin steak (or whatever steaky thing you have on hand)

1 egg white
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp. salt and pepper
2 T. soy sauce

2 scallions, chopped
3 T. brown sugar
3-4 T. soy sauce
1 T. sesame oil
2 T. vinegar (white, red wine, or rice wine)
1 knob ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
black or white pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. red chili pepper flakes (more or less, depending on how spicy you want it)
1 orange, zest and juice

Peanut or canola oil for frying
Steamed broccoli

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the steak into chunks (it's easier to do this if you put the beef in the freezer 1 hour prior to cooking)

2. Coat the chunks of steak in the next 4 ingredients (egg white, corn starch, soy sauce, salt and pepper) and set aside while you do the rest (preferably for about 30 minutes)

3. Whisk the rest of the ingredients, except the broccoli and oil, together***. This part is pretty flexible; if you think it needs more soy sauce/sugar/whatever add it now. Keep taste testing it.

4. Add some oil, and cook the coated beef on both sides until brown and crispy.

5. Drain the oil (there should be a little left on the pan), then re-add your beef and the soy sauce mixture.

6. Cook until well-coated; add steamed broccoli and serve over rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds for garnish.



***If you prefer to cook the garlic and ginger a little first, you could omit them then toss them in before you re-add the beef and the soy sauce mixture, but it's not necessary.

Tofu and sweet potato penang curry

This is based off of the one from Chef Chloe's blog (I think I've exhausted it at this point!) REALLY tasty Thai food, although to be honest it didn't taste much like the penang curry I've had at Thai places.

Chef Chloe recommends serving with rice. After making it with rice, I think it might be even better with rice noodles. I also didn't believe it but it would be really good and filling by itself as well.

Ingredients

1 package firm tofu, cut into 1 cm cubes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes and steamed
1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk
2 whole shallots, finely chopped
2 T. fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
peanut, canola, or olive oil for cooking
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
2 tsp. tumeric
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
Almost 1 T. red curry paste
2 T. lime juice (lime zest, too, if you're using a lime!)
4 T. brown sugar
8-10 oz. frozen spinach
salt to taste
handful of peanuts of cashews per serving

Directions

1. Saute ginger, garlic, and shallots in a large skillet (with a cover) in olive oil until tender (about 6 minutes)

2. Mix together tumeric, coriander, cumin, curry paste, and peanut butter

3. Whisk peanut butter mix into coconut milk, lime juice, zest, and brown sugar together until smooth-ish

4. Lower heat, add coconut milk mixture to pan and bring to a simmer, then add tofu, sweet potatoes, and spinach and cook covered on low heat for 20 minutes

Pad Thai

Ingredients

10 oz. rice noodles
4 T. brown sugar
1 T. honey
3 T. lime juice
4 T. soy sauce
1 T. sesame oil
3 green onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1x1 inch bulb of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 bunches of broccoli, cut into florets and steamed for 4 minutes
1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped by food processor
Olive or peanut oil for cooking

Directions

NOTE: In order to cook rice noodles, you shouldn't boil them like you do with semolina pastas; they need to be put into warm (not hot) water and left to sit for 1-3 hours. When you're ready to use them, just drain.

1. Mix together brown sugar, honey, lime juice, soy sauce, and sesame oil; set aside

2. Heat up oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat

3. Toss in scallions, garlic, and ginger and cook for about 1-2 minutes, being careful not to let the garlic burn (be sure to move it around the pan)

4. Add the steamed broccoli, noodles, and soy sauce; toss around until noodles are coated

5. When the noodles are well-coated and everything is evenly distributed, add the peanuts and toss again to spread them around; let noodles sit in pot, cooking, for a minute or two until the noodles have absorbed the sauce

6. Serve immediately.

Chinese Chicken and Broccoli

My first time cooking Chinese food! As Borat would say, "great success"! I found a recipe online but didn't really follow it at all, to be perfectly honest. I just kind of played around. I thought Chinese food would be complicated (thus never having tried it before) but it seems like if you have enough sesame and soy sauce you can't really go wrong. Murat was crazy about this, even the ginger, and that's saying something. This probably works better if you have a wok; I just used a frying pan, and it was fine.

Also, when I made this I put in soy sauce AND hoisin sauce, and it was way too salty for my taste (Murat liked it, though). This adds more soy sauce to the hoisin sauce and doesn't put in more, which I think would have been better.

This is my attempt at recreating it, but it may not be exact. Play with it! I think it's hard to get wrong.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks
4 cloves garlic, pressed or very finely chopped
1 2x1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
6 T. chicken broth (low-sodium if you can find it)
2 large heads of broccoli, cut into florets
1 tsp. corn starch
olive or peanut oil for cooking (can add a dash of sesame oil for flavor)
seseme seeds for garnish (skip if you don't have any)
homemade hoisin sauce**

**Hoisin Sauce
(Honestly, I'm not sure how exactly the proportions were, so these are estimates; fix to taste)
3-4 T. soy sauce
1 T. honey
almost 1 T. tahini (or smooth peanut butter)
2 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. black or white pepper
2 garlic cloves, pressed

Directions

1. Saute the chicken on medium-high heat in the olive (or peanut)/sesame oil mixture until cooked through and lightly brown; set aside

2. Put a little more oil in the pan and saute the garlic and ginger for about 30 seconds to a minute (don't burn the garlic!) on medium

3. Add the cayenne pepper, broccoli florets, and half the chicken broth; cook until broccoli florets are looking green and tender and most of the chicken broth is evaporated

4. Whisk the hoisin sauce with the cornstarch

5. Add hoisin sauce, rest of the chicken broth, and chicken to pan, and cook until sauce is thickened

6. Serve over rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds!

Mango Sticky Rice

My mother introduced me to this wonderful Thai dessert, and at $6 a pop at our local Thai restaurant, I ventured to make it at home. I found a lot of different recipes that I boiled down to this one; it's new to me but I'm writing it as I made it, but I think some things are probably optional (cornstarch, brown sugar instead of white).

Anyway, being used to basmati rice, which is boiled, I had no idea how to work with sticky rice, which apparently needs to be steamed in a bamboo steamer. I was even all set to buy one, but before I did I thought I'd just try steaming it the way I steam regular vegetables and it worked BEAUTIFULLY! Boil some water at the bottom of a big pot, place a the steamer basket on top filled with rice and lined with 2 paper towels, cover, and cook! Who needs fancy rice cookers?

Ingredients

2 cups (thereabouts) Thai glutinous rice
1 can coconut milk
4 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
Toasted seseme seeds (can do without if unavailable)
A couple mangoes (preferably yellow ones!)

Directions

1. Steam the rice according to directions (again, if you don't have a bamboo pot, use the directions above). Be sure to soak the rice for at least two hours, then drain it, then steam for about 30 minutes.

2. In separate pot, add half of coconut milk, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1-2 T. brown sugar (taste it so it suits your sweetness preference; keep in mind that it will be less sweet on the rice than it is in the pot)

3. Add the cooked rice the the coconut milk mixture and let sit, covered, for at least 20 minutes to let the rice soak it up.

4. In a small pot, mix the rest of the coconut milk with 1/4 tsp. salt, the cornstarch, and as much sugar as you like.

5. When it's ready, serve rice topped with warm sauce and seseme seeds beside a sliced mango.

Ginger Yogurt Chicken

Marinade for chicken (I like breasts, cubed, about 4):

2 1/2 cups yogurt
Lemon juice (1 lemon's worth or 2 T.)
2 T. fresh ginger, sliced
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. coriander
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cloves garlic, pressed (or finely chopped)
2 T. olive oil


Directions

Marinate overnight (or at least for a couple of hours), then cook on stovetop until chicken is cooked through. Eh, voila, tres simple, no?


Just make sure not to marry Turks, who don't like ginger :(

Basmati Rice (How to cook basmati rice)

I don't really get why people make "minute rice". It takes just as long, is easily as complicated, and tastes, quite frankly, gross. Here is a simple way to cook basmati rice, which tastes and smells about a thousand times better.

Ingredients (for about 2 people)

1 cup of basmati rice
2 cups of water
1 T. butter
1 tsp. salt

(Double for more servings; just make sure that there is exactly twice as much water as rice)

Directions

1. Wash basmati rice 3 times

2. Soak rice in water for approximately 30 minutes (it should start to look whitish, which is possible for rice, believe it or not)

3. Drain the soaking water, then add the water to cook it in

4. Put on the stove on medium, placing the salt and butter directly on top of the water

5. Allow to boil uncovered; when the water reaches just below the rice line, turn the stove down to low and cover the pot

6. Cook for an additional 10 minutes (keep covered on low heat)

7. Fluff before serving