A Caramelized Chicken Stir-Fry

On the one hand, I feel like I should be apologizing for all these Gwyneth Paltrow based dishes. On the other, they've all turned out really well.

Stir-fries aren't a popular dish in our house on account of my husband not really being into them. But, I really like them, and I'm the cook, so sometimes he just has to put up with what I put on the table.

He went back for seconds, so that should tell you a little something about this recipe!

Now, Gwyneth brands this as "the best chicken stir-fry" and I don't know that I agree that it's the best, but it is very good. I'll give her that. I'll also give her that this recipe comes together about as quickly as your local Chinese take-out joint would take to deliver to your house.

You might as well just make it, if you ask me!

Chicken Stir Fry

(mildly adapted from My Father's Daughter)

Ingredients

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3/4" cubes
2 tbsp potato starch (you can use cornstarch instead)
coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp canola oil
6 large cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup minced ginger
4 green onions, minced
¼ tsp hot pepper flakes
½ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Toss chicken cubes with potato starch and a healthy pinch of salt and a generous seasoning of pepper. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick wok. Add the garlic, ginger, green onions and chile flakes and cook for about 1 minute. Add the chicken cubes and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Add in the vinegar and sugar and additional black pepper. Allow to boil for about 3 minutes, or until the sugar has really caramelized and the whole sauce is thick and sticky. Stir in the soy sauce, cook for an additional minute and then remove from heat. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve immediately.

Makes enough for 3-4, depending on their appetites.

We ate it with sticky rice with tossed with cooked kale and soy sauce.

My Favourite Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Most of us, at some point in have had an egg salad sandwich or a tuna salad sandwich or chicken salad. Now, I love a good tuna salad as much as the next person, but sometimes, you just want something with a little more oomph, and a little less slathered in mayo.

Enter Fresh's Chickpea Salad. Smashed chickpeas, carrots, celery, green onions and dill pickle... it's got all the right stuff going on. Pumped up with dijon mustard and honey and a mere tablespoon of mayonnaise (I've recently swapped this out for vegenaise because the latter just tastes SO much better), this is a friendly riff off of a classic comfort food.

Chickpea Salad Sandwich with Avocado and Pea Sprouts

Chickpea Salad 

(from Fresh at Home)

Ingredients

1 19 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large carrot, shredded
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 green onion, minced
1 large dill pickle, minced
1½ tbsp dijon mustard
½ tbsp honey (or agave)
1 tbsp vegenaise/mayonnaise
1 tsp lemon juice
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Break up chickpeas in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Alternatively, you can mash them with a potato masher.

2. In a large bowl, mix together chickpeas with remaining ingredients. Mixture will keep for 3 days in the fridge.

Makes enough for 6 sandwiches. I like topping mine with avocado, roasted red peppers and some alfalfa sprouts.

My Newest Pile of Cooking Related Reading Material

I've talked about my deep and abiding love of Coralie Bickford Smith's Penguin Classics Covers before. Last week, I got my first big shipment of one of her latest projects, Penguin's Great Food series.

The collection consists of different books about food. The only one I have read is Samuel Pepys' Joys of Excess, but the rest are all brand new to me.

Over the past couple of nights, I've tucked in to the The Elegant Economist (1845) by Eliza Acton and The Campaign for Domestic Happiness (1861) by Isabella Beeton, which not only includes recipes, but also tables detailing how much you should be paying your servants (Scullery Maid - £4-8 a year). She also writes on appropriate dress and behaviour of the for mistress of the house.

My favourite section detailed the social rules for paying visits of courtesy and friendship:

"These visits [those of courtesy] should be short, a stay of fifteen to twenty minutes being quite sufficient. A lady paying a visit may remove her boa or neckerchief; but neither her shawl nor bonnet.... In paying visits of friendship, it will not be so necessary to be guided by etiquette as in paying visits of ceremony; and if a lady be pressed by her friend to remove her shawl and bonnet, it can be done if it will not interfere with her subsequent arrangements"


"It is not advisable, at any time, to take favourite dogs into another lady's drawing-room, for many persons have an absolute dislike to such animals; and besides this, there is always a chance of a breakage of some article occurring, through their leaping and bounding here and there, sometimes very much to the fear and annoyance of the hostess. Her children, also... should not accompany a lady in making morning calls... The children can be taken in the vehicle and remain in it until the visit is over."

Personally, I find is especially hilarious that the bit about dogs is placed before the bit about children.

And that they are compared to the animal, and not vice versa.

They books are just lovely little snippets of different time-periods! I highly recommend picking the series up. I'm thinking of attempting to cook one recipe from each book (not all contain recipes) where possible...

A Lightened Up Breakfast Poutine

One of my absolute favourite brunch places in Toronto is Fire on the East Side. They do this artery clogging but totally delicious breakfast poutine that features pulled pork, poached eggs, chipotle hollondaise sauce and mountains of home fries.

It's insane. And totally delicious. And a luxury, because eating that much egg and butter isn't good for anyone.

Around lunch time today I found myself thinking about that poutine. I really, really wanted a poached egg and more sweet potato fries. But, I also didn't want mountains of calories. We had kale in the crisper, Ewenity Sheep's Milk Feta and a ton of cremini mushrooms.

Slowly, a recipe began brewing in my head. I'd nix the sauce (hollondaise or otherwise) and top a bowl of sweet potato fries with some sautéed mushrooms and kale. In order to keep the flavour of luxury though, I made the sweet potato fries with white truffle oil and some truffle salt. This added a great depth of flavour.

Truffled Sweet Potato Fries topped with Kale, Mushrooms, Feta & Poached Eggs

Ingredients

1 tbsp canola oil, divided
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 small bunch kale, tough stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped
10 cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 large eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
1 oz feta, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste

1 batch sweet potato fries, made with truffle oil (if possible)

Directions

1. Heat ½ tbsp oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Sauté garlic for 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add in kale and 1/3 cup of water, and let kale steam just until the water evaporates. Season with salt and pepper to taste, remove from pan and set aside somewhere to keep warm.

2. Wipe out frying pan, return to heat and pour in remaining oil. Sauté mushrooms for 5-10 minutes, or until liquid is complete evaporated and mushrooms are golden brown. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

3. While the mushrooms are frying, heat 1" water in a small saucepan. Stir in 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp vinegar. Bring to a gentle simmer. A small stream of bubbles should just be breaking the surface. If you have an instant read thermometer, it should read about 200ºF. Crack egg into a small dish and gently slide egg from dish into simmering water. Cook, for approximately 3-5 minutes or until the white outside the yolk is just set. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon and set aside while you cook the next egg.

4. To assemble the poutine,  layer potatoes in two shallow bowls, sprinkling each bowl with a quarter of the feta. Top with kale and mushrooms, one poached egg on each dish and sprinkle with remaining feta.

An easy, lightened up breakfast luxury!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Love 'em? Me too. Nothing beats a crispy sweet potato fry. The problem with so many recipes is, because of the natural sugars inside that delicious spud, the outside burns before the potato cooks through.

Soggy sweet potato fries? Not lovable. Oh sure, I'll still eat them. But they don't make me jump for joy.

You could deep fry them. It's delicious, but certainly not as healthy.

So, you can imagine my joy when I pulled out these crunchy little babies:

Crispy, but not burned on the outside. Fluffy in the middle. My work here is done.


Baked Sweet Potato Fries

(based on an Alton Brown recipe from Food & Whine)

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tbsp all purpose flour (approx)
1 tbsp canola oil
 seasonings: sea salt, curry powder, smoked paprika... the choice is really up to you.


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425º.

2. Cut the sweet potato into equally sized widths (I did about 3/8th of an inch square). If you have a mandoline, this is a great time to pull it out as it will allow you to cut the potato evenly.

3. Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Toss with egg white, then sprinkle with flour and toss again. You can add a little more flour if the mixture looks too runny, but try to avoid that if you can. Sprinkle with seasonings and toss a third time.

4. Drizzle a parchment lined baking sheet (or two) with oil, and place potatoes on sheet(s). Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, flipping half way through. If using more than one sheet, bake at the top and lower thirds of the oven, rotating halfway through when you flip the sweet potatoes over.

Oprah's Lentil & Brown Rice Burgers

So, after a weekend of barbecued meat, my husband and I were both ready to get back on the whole grain/legume train. As much as I love the kimchi burgers (which I made again up at the cottage - this time with coarse ground chuck - amazing) and the Huli Huli Chicken, I'm seriously beginning to feel like having meat at every meal slows me down. Heck, even having it 4 nights in a row made me feel sluggish.

I'm guessing about the cause of the sluggishness. It might also be a bit of work burn out, lack of sleep, or general stress about the school year winding down. Perhaps it's unfair to blame the meat.

Whatever the case, veggies and legumes are what we're craving right now, so that's what we're eating. And, in honour of Oprah's last show yesterday, I made the Brown Rice and Lentil Burgers out of the June issue of O Magazine.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Now, what's interesting about this recipe is that the lentils aren't actually cooked until you throw the patties into the frying pan. That lends a bit more texture to the burgers. My husband devoured two of these last night, they were that good!

Lentil & Brown Rice Burgers

(adapted from O Magazine)

Ingredients

½ cup mixed dried lentils (French, green, red, brown) or standard green lentils
3/4 lb mixed shiitake and cremini mushrooms, trimmed and roughly quartered
2½ tbsp canola oil, divided
½ tbsp soy sauce
½ tbsp miso
1½ tsp kosher salt, divided
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
2½ cups cooked brown rice (I used brown basmati)
2 tbsp flaxseeds
2 tbsp toasted oat or wheat bran
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
3 scallions, minced

whole grain bread or buns
hamburger toppings (we used pea shoots, alfalfa & onion sprouts, romaine lettuce, dill pickle, roasted red pepper and vegenaise, ketchup and ballpark mustard)

if you're not going vegan for this, the magazine recommends sharp cheddar cheese for melting on top

Directions

1. Rinse and drain lentils. Place in a small bowl and cover with water. Let sit covered in the fridge overnight. Drain the lentils and pulse in a food processor until very finely chopped, but stopping short of forming a paste. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

2. Wipe the food processor clean and add mushrooms to the bowl. Pulse until very finely chopped. Heat 1½ tbsp oil in a large sauté pan. Sauté mushrooms with soy sauce, miso and ¼ tsp each salt and pepper until liquid is evaporated. Add to bowl of lentils, along with all remaining ingredients (through scallions). Fold together until just combined. Divide into 6 balls and shape into patties, about 1" thick.

3. Working in batches, heat ½ tbsp oil over medium low in a pan. Add half of the patties and cook for about 5 minutes. Once a good crust has formed, gently flip patties over. Cook for another 4-5 minutes, or until golden. Place on a plate in a warm oven to keep hot. Repeat with remaining oil and patties.

4. Serve with whatever toppings make you happy!

Another Cottage Recipe: Huli Huli Chicken

One of the things I miss about not being in a house with a yard is a barbecue. With hints of sun finally appearing after what feels like a month (or more) of rain, all I want is to be able to stand outside and cook my food.

On the second floor apartment without a balcony, this dream gets deferred until I'm at the cottage. Over the May long weekend, I knew there was no way I was going to let the throngs of mosquitoes that like to come out at the dinner hour keep me inside. And, as much as I hate applying DEET, sometimes, you've just got to make the hard choices.

I chose flank steak, burgers and Huli Huli Chicken. And, in spite of the DEET, I have at least 5 bites around my ankles.

But, I stand by my decision. The chicken was worth it.

 Huli Huli Chicken is one of those fantastic Hawaiian recipes that has about a million variations. The short? Barbecued chicken marinated with (amongst other things) pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. We chose to spice it up considerably with the sriracha.


Huli Huli Chicken

(adapted from Norah's Menus)

Ingredients

Marinade
4 cups water
1 cup soy sauce (I like to use low sodium here)
½ tablespoon vegetable oil (you can use sesame if you like)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1" knob fresh ginger, grated or finely minced

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts

Sauce
2/3 cup pineapple juice (the fresher, the better)
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cup soy sauce
2 tbsp cup ketchup
2 tbsp cup rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1" knob ginger, freshly grated
1 teaspoons sriracha

1 cup each applewood and hickory wood chips (soaked 30 minutes)

Directions

1. In a large, nonreactive dish, whisk together the marinade ingredients (water,  soy sauce, oil, ginger and garlic). Add chicken and marinate for at least an hour, but no more than 8. The chicken will be too salty if you let it sit for longer.

2. In a saucepan, stir together sauce ingredients (juice through sriracha). Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer until sauce is reduced to approximately ½ cup. This will take anywhere between 20-30 minutes. Set aside.

3. Using tinfoil to create foil packages for your wood chips. This step is essential in creating a smokey chicken. It really makes the dish. The size of the package doesn't really matter, so long as the wood is packed in nicely. Cut several slits in the top of the package so the smoke can escape.

4. Place foil package on bbq burners (Norah has great instructions if you're using other kinds of barbecues), and fire up the grill, with all elements on high. While the grill is heating up (and preferably before the wood is smoking), oil the grill. I find the easiest way to do this is to dip some paper towel in oil and use tongs to swab it across the grates.

5. Once wood packet is smoking, reduce elements to low on all sides and place chicken on grill. Move quickly, because you don't want the smoke to escape. You can discard the marinade at this point.

See that sweet smoke? Hello flavour country!

6. Depending on the thickness of your chicken (and your cut), grill for about 15 minutes (8 per side), or until internal temperature registers 165º. Resist the urge to peek at the chicken. You'll be paid off by flavour in the long run. Brush with sauce and let brown for 1-2 minutes extra. Serve with any extra sauce.

Gwyneth Paltrow's Vietnamese Prawn Sandwiches

I'm back from the cottage, covered with mosquito bites and carrying a couple extra pounds.

For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to choose to believe that some of that is muscle from the first kayak of the season.

More likely, some of it came from this:

For the record, I have no idea why the carrot is so neon. I forgot my camera at school, and used my mum's, which was an exercise in annoyance. It wouldn't let me adjust both the white balance AND shoot on macro.

So, just rest assured that the carrot was normal carrot coloured.

Vietnamese Shrimp Sandwiches

(from Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter)


Ingredients

1 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 tbsp soy sauce
1½ tbsp canola oil
½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds, ground
1 tsp peeled and finely chopped ginger
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
½ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp granulated sugar
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
½ cup mayonnaise (or do as Gwyneth does and use Vegenaise)
Sriracha to taste
juice of one lime
1 baguette
½ English cucumber, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
handful fresh cilantro
handful fresh basil


Directions

1. Put the shrimp in a small bowl and toss with soy sauce, oil, sesame seeds and ginger. Cover and set aside in the fridge to marinate for an hour. Meanwhile, soak 8 bamboo skewers in water.

2. To make pickles, combine carrots through vinegar in another bowl, cover and set aside for an hour. In a third bowl, combine mayonnaise and sriracha and lime juice. Cover and set aside (for an hour!).

3. Fire up the bbq. While it's heating, thread shrimp onto skewers. They'll be easier to manage if you use two skewers per set rather than one.

Grill for about 2 minutes a side, or until pink and no longer translucent. Cut into bite sized chunks.

Assemble sandwich as you see fit, layering carrots, cucumber, herbs, sriracha mayonnaise and shrimp.

Try not to eat the whole baguette.