Sweet & Sour Chicken

I know I haven't posted much. We have been on an ultra frugal dining plan and it doesn't leave much room for creativity. I use recipes I know work and are basic but they aren't delicious fun so I hesitate to share. I also left Daring Bakers because I didn't have time for the time consuming projects.

A recent delicious dinner we had was Sweet & Sour Chicken from the cookbook "Deseret Recipes". It was published almost 30 years ago by the LDS church and has some good basic recipes you can modify as needed. This is a great example. It makes a delicious, simple sweet & sour sauce.

1 cut up whole chicekn
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 can pineapple chunks in juice

1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ginger
1 large green pepper, cut in strips
2 Tbsp chicken drippings (from browning chicken)

Coat the chicken pieces with the 1/2 cup flour. Heat up the oil in a skillet and brown the chicken. Then put the chicken in a shallow pan and turn the oven to 350. Sprinkle the salt/pepper over the chicken pieces. Reserve 2 Tbsp chicken drippings. Set aside.

Drain the pineapple chunks liquid into a measuring cup and add water to make 1 1/4 cups liquid. In a different saucepan, combine the liquid with 1 cup sugar, 4 Tbsp flour, 3/4 cup vinegar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp ginger and 2 Tbsp chicken drippings. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 2 minutes then pour over chicken.

Put in oven uncovered and bake for 30 minutes. Pull out and add pineapple chunks and green pepper strips. Bake 30 minutes more.

Serve over rice.
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This was so delicious and simple! You could turn it into more of a take-out stir fry by using chunks of chicken and cooking them on the stove top and then sauteing the pineapple and bell pepper with it quickly before covering in sauce. It would be faster and a fun variation, but cost a bit more. We just pulled chicken off the bones on our plates and mixed up to make it like stir fry. I loved the sauce. Yum.

Hot & Sour Soup

Nigella Lawson was an unknown sensation to me until this month. I have watched several episodes of Nigella Express & checked out six different cookbooks to try and learn something about this cooking celebrity that I had missed.

Her cookbooks are fun to read. I especially enjoyed Feast, which was all about special occasion foods. There were many interesting and appealing recipes to pick from, however the one that jumped out to me was a hot & sour soup recipe in Nigella Bites. My DH loves hot & sour soup and yet we've never tried making it at home.

While Nigella assured us that the ingredients were easily obtained at regular supermarkets, it took 3 stores for me to find everything, the tom yam paste being the most difficult. I finally found it at a Chinese supermarket.

Once the ingredients are obtained, the recipe is very quick and simple to assemble and quite delicious. It really qualifies as an express meal that sounds fancy, but is quick and simple, with wonderful flavor.

My apologies for the bad picture! I did use the kaffir lime leaves & lemongrass, obtained at the fancy store here, though all the greenery has sunk to the bottom in my photo, not to mention the way the bowl is all splashy. Sorry! It really looks more appealing in real life!

See the rest of the Weekend cookbook challenge entries this month at this link: http://foodiechickie.blogspot.com/2008/03/thank-you-to-everyone-who-participated.html

6 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 heaping tablespoon tom yam hot & sour paste
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped, optional
1 stick lemongrass, tender inner part only, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lime
4 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)
2-3 small jalapenos or fresh red or green chilies, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons straw or button mushrooms, halved or quartered according to size
1 pound 2 ounces peeled raw shrimp, thawed if frozen
5 small scallions, cut into short lengths and then into strips
small bunch cilantro, chopped

Heat stock and tom yam paste in large saucepan with lime leaves, lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce, chilies and sugar. Bring to a boil, add the mushrooms and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the shrimp and scallions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until the shrimp are cooked but still tender. Sprinkle with a little cilantro and put more on the table for people to add themselves as they want.

Chinese Noodle Bowl

Checking out the recipe book Beggars Banquets that I saw on another blog, I found this recipe that sounded fun. It took some interpretation on a few of the ingredients, but resulted in a successful delicious dinner for our family. My boys ate it up with relish and DH thought it was wonderful.

I used broccoli instead of cucumber because of family preference, the book suggests using whatever vegetables are cheapest/in season at the store. The hoisin sauce is the real flavor. :)

Chinese Noodle Bowl with Bean sprouts, carrots and peanuts


12 oz ground pork or diced firm tofu
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 tsp chopped fresh ginger
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce or to taste, with extra for tossing noodles if desired
5-6 Tbsp hoisin sauce (or more, to taste)
2-2.5 oz water
4 oz bean sprouts
1 lb dried Chinese egg noodles (I used ramen type noodles)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil, to taste (optional)
3-4 Tbsp roasted peanuts
1 carrot, julienned
1 cucumber julienned
2-3 Tbsp coarse chopped fresh cilantro

Stir fry the pork or tofu w/garlic and ginger in the oil for 6-7 minutes until lightly browned. Stir in half the onions, the sugar, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce. Remove pan from heat and stir in water, then return to heat and warm on medium heat. Remove from heat, and add bean sprouts

Cook noodles in rapidly boiling salted water until just ender. Drain and toss with sesame oil then serve straight away, topping each portion with some of meat sauce, onions, peanuts, carrot and cucumber and cilantro. (Or mix it all up and then serve, which is what I did.)