This dish was my first venture into Chinese cooking 20 years ago. I used a Betty Crocker recipe then and it is the basis for this recipe. This version takes some non-Chinese directions and finishes with a Thai concept. It is not what you would call authentic but I believe you will like it.
There are some ingredients that can be substituted and others you must have.
Chinese use cornstarch to thicken their sauces. If you add the cornstarch directly it will clump and make a mess. We need to make a cornstarch/cold-water slurry: The cornstarch in the slurry will settle so just before use re-suspend the cornstarch with your thumb. You may you use a lot, a little, or none. Do not add until the end, adding a little at a time until you get the desired consistency. The cornstarch will cook in seconds in a hot wok. Many recipes will call for adding a set amount earlier in the cooking process. If you do this you loose control of the thickness. This can lead to failure. Experience talking.
We will be browning the chicken. This is counter to a true Chinese version of this dish.
1 Lb Chicken, white meat, cut into bite size chunks or strips
4 Oz Cashews, raw, If not available use unsalted roasted
1 Can (small) Water chestnuts, sliced drained
2 Carrots peeled, sliced 2mm thick on the diagonal
1 Bell Pepper, green, small cut into chunks, approx 1 “
1 Onion, small yellow cut into 8 pieces and divide the leaves
2 T Sesame oil toasted
2 T Soy sauce
1 T Sherry dry is preferred
½ Cup Chicken stock low sodium or homemade
1 t Ginger approx. 1 inch piece, grated, peel first if you like
2 T Cornstarch (divided)
1 T Flour, AP
1 T Hoisin Sauce
1 to 2 scallions chopped fine
10 or so leaves Mint, fresh only I use spearmint, chocolate, and orange mint, in a chiffonade
1 to 2 t Chili paste the oriental store stuff, not chili sauce from Publix
1 Pinch Salt For cashews only
¼ t Pepper white or black, white is traditional
Peanut oil
Substitutions:
For the Chicken you could use pork tenderloin. Or dark meat chicken, or tender veal;
For vegetables: Broccoli, asparagus, beans, snow or sugar peas, red bell pepper, bamboo shoots. Pay attention to the colors carrots and green peppers with the white chicken looks nice, red bell peppers with asparagus ditto, etc.
For chili paste: any source of heat, habanero or other chilies, Tabasco sauce
For Cashews: blanched almonds work pretty well, peanuts OK, walnuts OK, pecans no,
Peanut oil - substitute vegetable oil, do not use olive oil or butter
For the sesame oil, Hoisin sauce, ginger, onion, scallions, and soy sauce there are no real substitutes.
This recipe can be done in four steps. You may pause after step 1, 2 or 3. When you begin step 4 it is show time and you need to complete and serve. Step 4 will take less than 10 minutes.
Step One: Prepare the Chicken.
We will marinate the cut-up chicken in the sherry, soy sauce and pepper for 30 minutes (Up to 2 hours). Usually between 30 and 60 minutes is fine. This is for flavor not to tenderize.
This is a good time to prepare the batter of 1 T cornstarch and 2 T sesame oil, whisk well to combine and set aside. We will use this batter in step three.
Step Two: Prepare the Raw Cashews
Heat a wok with a little peanut oil to medium and brown the raw cashews. Don’t burn them. When brown all over remove to paper towel and use the pinch of salt to season. If you are using already roasted cashews this step is already done. Don’t use any cashews with flavor coatings and try to use unsalted.
Step Three: Cook the chicken
Heat 1 to 2 T of oil in the wok. It’s ready when you see slight wisp of smoke.
Move the chicken from the marinate to the batter. This is a thin batter. Coat well and add the chicken in one layer with little touching. It may take two or more rounds, add oil as necessary but you are not frying you are sautéing. Leave the chicken in its original position (side) until nicely browned then turn once and brown the other side. When done remove to a plate. DON’T OVERCOOK. Judge by feel or cut a piece in half if necessary.
Step Four: Show time
Have your mise-en-place ready:
Heat wok with 2 T oil. When you see the first faint wisp of smoke wok is ready, add carrots followed in a minute or so with the onion and ginger. Cook for a couple of minutes then add bell pepper, water chestnuts, Hoisin and chili paste. Stir to bring everything together-- add the chicken stock. Return the chicken and any juices to the wok. When hot add a little of the slurry of cornstarch/water. If necessary. Finish with the scallions and mint, stir to combine and serve.
Notes:
Chiffonade: This is a cutting into thin strips. For leaves, stack, roll, and cut cross-wise.
Mise-en-place: This is having all the stuff you need prepped and ready to go.
T = Tablespoon
t = teaspoon
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
"Sleeping" Icons
This one of the most creative efforts I ever seen. I note it is copyrighted in 2002. Maybe everyone but me had seen it before. If you haven't you will play it over and over.
To see what your icons on your desktop are up to at night look here
.
To see what your icons on your desktop are up to at night look here
.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Book Review: "Service Included"
"Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter" by Phoebe Damrosch (William Morrow, $25)
The sub-title refers to the four stars that the New York Times awarded the New York restaurant, Per Se. Per Se is the East Coast effort of Thomas Keller. He is famous in culinary circles for his Northern California restaurant, The French Laundry.
After reading this book I had a few questions. Why was it written? Why would a serious publisher accept it? Why did I read it? Let’s look for the answers.
The book provides a waitress’s view into Per Se and, by inference, The French Laundry and their competitors in the fine dining market. You will not feel the color and emotion of the restaurant business that permeates the writings of Bill Buford or Antonio Bourdain. There is enough interesting material here for an article in Reader’s Digest but it is puffed up by the inclusion of a memoir of the author’s 20-something life.
The sad point is that the book could have been a valuable addition to a culinary library. Thomas Keller’s success with The French Laundry and Per Se make him a "Person of Interest". His history, ideas, and philosophy could be interesting. We never even learn why he really opened Per Se. It can’t be the money. Ferrying staff back and forth across the coast and all the incidental cost has to be tremendously expensive. Also he closed The French Laundry for a while to do it. Why? We can suspect it’s personal with Keller but we never learn.
The book describes the front operations at Per Se during its first year. There are no "secrets" revealed and there appears to be no "eavesdropping" by this young waitress, the author. These operations are incompletely covered. Restaurateurs will not learn enough to copy the success of Per Se. They may learn enough to be discouraged from trying. The author appears to make no effort to learn anything that did not fall within her purview directly or indirectly.
The book runs 226 pages; it would be a better book at 75. Be prepared to skip, skip, and skip. Her boring reflections and descriptions of her private life are of no interest and, at the same time, not interesting. She puts her boyfriend, a wine steward at Per Se, on a pedestal: Why? We never know and after a while we don’t care. She appears to want to model her private life after a character in Sex and the City. In the end her personal life is interesting only to her family and friends. One observation: Her overly-long description of a six-hour meal she and her boyfriend have at Per Se (after she has quit) makes me not want to eat there. Who could be worthy? Keller’s signature dish (mentioned several times in the book), Oysters and Pearls is one course. This dish is a sabayon of pearl tapioca with Malpeque oysters and Osetra caviar. You can read the recipe here and draw you own conclusions.
You can calculate the amount of time you will waste reading this book by the speed at which you read and your ability to skip long passages and return to the meat or should I say foie gras of the story.
Anyway, this is a minor book which will be read by the employees of Per Se including Keller, the competitors of Per Se and The French Laundry and maybe culinary school students.
Her writing style is simple and clear: I wish she had written my VCR manual.
As it is we are left with an incomplete story of the front operations of a fine restaurant and fodder for a Cosmo article.
Returning to our questions; we know why she wrote it. She tells us: She wants to be an author. William Morrow’s interest: Only conjecture, maybe they are fans of the restaurant. The third: Why did I read it? It was free and I am interested in food and restaurants. Mostly, it was free.
P. S.: No Stars.
If you wish to read Frank Bruni's New York Times' review of Per Se go here
The sub-title refers to the four stars that the New York Times awarded the New York restaurant, Per Se. Per Se is the East Coast effort of Thomas Keller. He is famous in culinary circles for his Northern California restaurant, The French Laundry.
After reading this book I had a few questions. Why was it written? Why would a serious publisher accept it? Why did I read it? Let’s look for the answers.
The book provides a waitress’s view into Per Se and, by inference, The French Laundry and their competitors in the fine dining market. You will not feel the color and emotion of the restaurant business that permeates the writings of Bill Buford or Antonio Bourdain. There is enough interesting material here for an article in Reader’s Digest but it is puffed up by the inclusion of a memoir of the author’s 20-something life.
The sad point is that the book could have been a valuable addition to a culinary library. Thomas Keller’s success with The French Laundry and Per Se make him a "Person of Interest". His history, ideas, and philosophy could be interesting. We never even learn why he really opened Per Se. It can’t be the money. Ferrying staff back and forth across the coast and all the incidental cost has to be tremendously expensive. Also he closed The French Laundry for a while to do it. Why? We can suspect it’s personal with Keller but we never learn.
The book describes the front operations at Per Se during its first year. There are no "secrets" revealed and there appears to be no "eavesdropping" by this young waitress, the author. These operations are incompletely covered. Restaurateurs will not learn enough to copy the success of Per Se. They may learn enough to be discouraged from trying. The author appears to make no effort to learn anything that did not fall within her purview directly or indirectly.
The book runs 226 pages; it would be a better book at 75. Be prepared to skip, skip, and skip. Her boring reflections and descriptions of her private life are of no interest and, at the same time, not interesting. She puts her boyfriend, a wine steward at Per Se, on a pedestal: Why? We never know and after a while we don’t care. She appears to want to model her private life after a character in Sex and the City. In the end her personal life is interesting only to her family and friends. One observation: Her overly-long description of a six-hour meal she and her boyfriend have at Per Se (after she has quit) makes me not want to eat there. Who could be worthy? Keller’s signature dish (mentioned several times in the book), Oysters and Pearls is one course. This dish is a sabayon of pearl tapioca with Malpeque oysters and Osetra caviar. You can read the recipe here and draw you own conclusions.
You can calculate the amount of time you will waste reading this book by the speed at which you read and your ability to skip long passages and return to the meat or should I say foie gras of the story.
Anyway, this is a minor book which will be read by the employees of Per Se including Keller, the competitors of Per Se and The French Laundry and maybe culinary school students.
Her writing style is simple and clear: I wish she had written my VCR manual.
As it is we are left with an incomplete story of the front operations of a fine restaurant and fodder for a Cosmo article.
Returning to our questions; we know why she wrote it. She tells us: She wants to be an author. William Morrow’s interest: Only conjecture, maybe they are fans of the restaurant. The third: Why did I read it? It was free and I am interested in food and restaurants. Mostly, it was free.
P. S.: No Stars.
If you wish to read Frank Bruni's New York Times' review of Per Se go here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
