Saturday, April 30, 2011

Spiral Chicken Recipe



One of the dining halls at UVA hosts a student Iron Chef competition (well it's really just a cooking competition, nothing like my favorite cooking show of all time) but it's pretty fun and we get to use the sweet stuff in the industrial dining hall kitchen. Last year my team took second place with Mango Chicken Curry. This year we're going for broke, and came up with this ... thing.

Spiral Chicken

Ingredients:
skinned boneless chicken breast (big ones preferably, for roll-ability)
green (spring) onion*
eggs
fish sauce
soy sauce
hot sauce (of the Sriracha variety, preferably - something with chilis and garlic)
mirin*
sake (or rice cooking wine)*
corn starch
sugar
rice or corn chex cereal (for breading) or Panko if you aren't allergic to wheat like my housemate, haha
oil (for deep frying)

1. Prepare the chicken by cutting it to ¼ inch thickness, and tenderize/flatten with a meat mallet to make rectangles about 3”x7”.
2. Prepare the filling by combining the spring onions, 1 egg, ¼ cup of chex mix and 1 tbsp of fish sauce in a blender until it becomes a thick paste. Add some hot sauce if you like things spicy. Add more chex mix if it isn’t thick enough to be spreadable.
3. Spread the filling along the surface of the chicken and then roll it, and secure with a toothpick.
4. Prepare the sauce by combining soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a 3:3:2:1 ratio in a pot. Heat until boiling on the stove, add about 1 tbsp at a time of corn starch (mixed with cold water to dilute) and stir until thick consistency is acquired.
5. Coat the chicken roll in beaten egg wash. Roll in finely crushed Chex cereal seasoned with a little salt and pepper. When oil has come up to temperature, cook for about five minutes. Cut in half so you can see the spiral and return to oil to finish cooking until just done through. Do not overcook.

Dipping or serving it with the home made teriyaki sauce (or store bought is fine too) really does the trick :D The competition is today, so we'll see how the judges like it!

Oh and y'all should check out Ada's giveaway here!!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Turtle Bread and Flowers


Melon pan shaped like turtles! This Japanese Baker sells shoku-pan and curry and melon-pan


Super gorgeous flowers. I wish I had a garden so I could plant them. Or a nice place to display them, but I'm actually not big on cut flowers.



Sweet hat; Awkward face



My haul from today! Salad greens, wildflower honey, strawberry rhubarb jam and shoku pan! (I froze half because I'm the only one in my apartment who eats bread :| )

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Red Bean 'Brownie' Recipe



Ingredients:
16 oz. sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour works too, its what I used)
1 can of Red Bean Paste
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup of sugar (to taste though)
2 cups of milk
Option: nuts

Directions:
Mix all the dry ingredients first, and then add the can of red bean paste. Stir, and then gradually (by 1/2 cupfuls) add the milk until everything is wet. The batter should be very stiff though. Here's a semi helpful picture of the batter:



You can add nuts, I added some crushed hazelnuts because they were on hand. Pour into a 9" square greased baking pan and bake at 375 for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool. Then cut up and eat!

Credited to my mom ;D

This isn't a real brownie / anything that remotely resembles a cake, as you can tell from the picture. It's closer to 'mochi' or dduk, in korean aka, sweet rice cake, mixed with sweet red beans. AND it's gluten free! Very chewy and delicious.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Five for five II: Return of the bento



I got a "perfect score" again this week :D So I thought I'd share them today (a little late)

Monday: Duk Buk Gi (Korean spicy noodle dish I've mentioned here)
1 Boiled egg (it helps when my mouth hurts because its so spicy >w<)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Five for five: A week's worth of bento



Normally I pack lunch about 3 times a week, less if I don't have any time or more, if I do, like this week (and I don't go out to lunch).
Monday
Leftover Steak
Fried Rice (My housemate made a HUGE quantity of fried rice that will be present all week... and the next)
Broccoli Florets and Japanese Mayo (which is very good, just a little more vinegar-y)

To see Tues-Friday click the jump