Category Archives: asian

Sweet Clementine Chicken and Szechuan Green Beans

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , , ,

Sweet Clementine Chicken and Szechuan Green Beans

At Christmastime I made a slightly spicy Clementine marmalade, and still had some left, so decided to use it in this orange chicken dish.

Orange Chicken: carrots, baby bok choy, peanut oil, sliced chicken breast, minced fresh garlic and ginger, water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, five spice powder, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes, sliced scallion greens, Clementine marmalade, toasted slivered almonds, and (frozen) green peas, corn starch to thicken sauce as necessary. Served with sticky Calrose rice.

One “trick” I discovered is to cut the carrots the way many Chinese restaurants do, so that the slices have slanted ends and ripples on the long side edges: first slice the carrot diagonally into thick “chips” with a ripple blade (or mandolin), then lay the chips flat and cut them into relatively thin strips.  Here’s a 1 minute video on Fancy Cut Carrot.

Szechuan Beans: green beans, peanut oil, minced fresh garlic and ginger, minced scallion (white portion), chili garlic sauce, sesame oil, toasted sesame seed.

Here are the recipes I consulted for ideas:

“Spicy Orange Chicken Stir-Fry”
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Orange-Chicken-Stir-Fry-353398

“Szechuan Green Bean Recipe”
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/vegetablesrecipes/r/greenbean.htm

“Clementine Marmalade”
http://ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-4/clementine-marmalade.htm

Pork Tenderloin with Clementine Marmalade over Rice and Wine-simmered Vegetables

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , , , ,

Pork Tenderloin with Clementine Marmalade over Rice and Wine-simmered Vegetables

I marinated this pork tendorloin in olive and sesame oils, red pepper flakes, and minced fresh garlic and ginger and cooked separately. The wine sauce with vegetables was made similarly to that in the recipe below.

This was inspired by recipies on the television program Simply Ming. Personally, I found the combination of both the sweet simmer sauce and the sweet marmalade to be too sweet overall, so I’d use one or the other instead of both.

“Braised Lamb Shank with Clementine Marmalade”
http://ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-4/braised-lamb-shank-with-clementine-marmalade.htm

“Clementine Marmalade”
http://ming.com/foodandwine/recipes/simply-ming-season-4/clementine-marmalade.htm
(I halved the amount of most of the marmalade ingredients, thus essentially doubling the ginger and thai bird peppers)

Orange Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , , , ,

Orange Chicken and Brussels Sprouts

Boneless skinless breasts baked in a marinade (later reduced to a sauce) including fresh orange juice & zest, honey, soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic & ginger, red pepper flakes, and cilantro. The chicken, sliced after cooking, was served on rice, accompanied by steamed Brussels sprouts with chinese hot mustard butter.

Here are a couple related recipes:
“Fragrant Orange Chicken with Scallion Mashed Potatoes”
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fragrant-Orange-Chicken-with-Scallion-Mashed-Potatoes-355349

“Mustard Butter”
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mustard-butter/

Ginger Catfish

Posted by Dave in asian, fish and tagged with , , ,

Ginger Catfish

I wanted to use the fresh ginger root and catfish I had on hand and found this, apparently popular, Vietnamese dish.

Here I prepared it much as describe in the following recipe, except I added diced eggplant (at the same time as the catfish) rather than bell pepper and substituted brown sugar for white. Also, cutting thicker catfish strips, as in the video below, will keep them from disintegrating during cooking. Instead of fillets, you can use the less expensive catfish chunks sold at, Hy-Vee, for instance.
Optionally, you can carmelize the ginger and add water to make a browner sauce.

“Ginger Catfish (Trey Cha K’nyei)”
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ginger-Catfish-Trey-Cha-Knyei-100931

“ginger catfish” video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5g96jdqtIU

I served it on sticky Calrose rice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calrose_rice) and with sesame rainbow chard.

Interestingly, the Vietnamese fish is likely to be “basa”, a catfish but not so closely related to those in the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basa_fish

Firecracker Chicken with Cilantro Rice

Posted by Dave in asian, meat and tagged with , , , ,

Firecracker Chicken with Cilantro Rice

I love spicy dishes and that chili sauce that they serve in asian restaurants, so that seemed like a great ingredient to spice up chicken. For this dish, use either use a prepared chili oil or chili sauce or make one yourself. (Here, I made a chili sauce from sliced fresh red thai bird peppers, minced garlic, canola oil, and a bit of sesame oil. Thesesauces are usually made from dried peppers, but fresh should be fine if you use the sauce immediately.)

Using whole chicken pieces with the skin on (here I used thighs), coat the meat with chili oil underneath the skin. Place the pieces in a greased baking pan, slightly oil the pieces on top of the skin and coat lightly with a blend of five-spice powder and coarse salt and black pepper. Bake as you normally would, e.g., 50-60 minutes at 360-375°F. Perhaps 10 minutes before done, moisten the skin with drippings and sprinkle with sesame seeds, and return to oven. If skin is not crispy, finish cooking under the broiler. Either serve the pieces whole, or pull the meat from the bone and tear the skin into pieces bite size pieces (as shown here.)

Serve on cilantro rice, i.e., simply white rice with torn fresh cilantro leaves mixed in after the rice is cooked, and garnish with more pepper slices.

Sesame Swiss Chard

Posted by Dave in asian, vegan, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Sesame Swiss Chard

Here’s a simple, tasty Korean or Japanese-inspired vegetable dish that I served with the aforementioned Firecracker Chicken and Rice.

To prepare: roll washed and trimmed swiss chard leaves, leaving some stalk pieces intact, and cut across the leaves in perhaps 1.5 inch strips; tear these in half to manageable eating length if necessary. Sauté chard with minced garlic in oil. Add a splash of soy sauce and bit of freshly ground black pepper. When done (stalks a bit translucent but still slightly firm), mix in some toasted sesame seeds; splash with a bit of sesame oil and top with more sesame seeds to serve.

(This is based, I think, on something I saw on a favorite cooking show: Simply Ming. http://ming.com/simplyming)

Whole Red Snapper in Spicy Sauce

Posted by Dave in asian, fish and tagged with , , , ,

Whole Red Snapper in Spicy Sauce

If you haven’t eaten anything with a face on it lately, you might like to try this.

Tonight I finally rose to the occassion and made this Chinese dish using the star anise I bought months ago. My Chinese friend made snapper something like this – in his dorm room, no less – when I visited him years ago and it was great, so I’ve been meaning to try it myself.

To prepare: remove the scales from the cleaned fish (it’s a good idea to do this out in the yard :-), and cut some slits in each side and fill them and the cavity with coarsely chopped fresh ginger and garlic.
For the sauce, mix the following in bowl: water (perhaps 1/2 cup), a couple tablespoons vegetable oil, apple cider vineger, soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, chopped ginger and garlic, black pepper, five spice powder, perhaps 5 star anise pieces, 4 hot red thai bird peppers (finely sliced), minced onion (I used red onion because I didn’t have scallions), and bring this mixture to boil in a hot pan. Next, reduce the heat and place the fish in the pan, and cover with a slightly vented lid, cooking the fish until it is opaque and flakes easy, flipping it once half way through (perhaps 5 minutes per side on medium high heat). Move the fish to a serving platter; in the pan, add some corn starch to the sauce and return it to a boil to thicken it.

Lastly, I sprinkled the dish with sesame seeds and garnished with cilantro leaves and served it with steamed brocolli and white rice.

I also made a similar video recipe for Chinese Red Snapper:

Here’s one recipe I consulted for hints: http://chinese.food.com/recipe/whole-red-snapper-in-szechuan-hot-sauce-53686

Sweet Potato Pad Thai

Posted by Dave in asian, vegetarian and tagged with , , ,

Sweet Potato Pad Thai

ingredients: sweet potato (in sticks), onion, garlic, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, rice noodles, salt & pepper; sauce: chicken stock, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, five spice powder, a dash of cayenne powder. red pepper flakes and lime to taste.
directions: don’t measure anything; cook everything just the right amount in the right order; add sauce, reduce; enjoy.