Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Kick Things Off with a (Kung) Pao!

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." -Harriet Van Horne

At some point last fall, it came into my head that it was time to learn to cook. Like...really cook. Simple stir-fry dinners were growing tiresome, my budget forbade me from eating out every night, and the thought of coming home to a culinary
event suddenly seemed, well... refreshing. So I picked up the figurative spatula, convinced Karl to jump on the band-wagon as my sous-chef, and jumped right into the frying pan.

Since then, Karl and I have reached a level of co-chefdom, and we've managed to learn a thing or two about creating delicious food. However, we've still got a
lot to learn!

I'll start things off with one of the good and follow up with one of the bad...

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When K and I are looking for inspiration, we tend to jump to All Recipes for ideas. On this particular day, the front page featured Kung Pao Chicken...

"Spicy chicken with peanuts, similar to what is served in Chinese restaurants. It is easy to make, and you can be as sloppy with the measurements as you want."

...and we were sold. Now, to be honest, the extent of my cooking- as far as asian cuisine is concerned- can be written off as little more than sauteing vegetables and chicken in a disgusting amount of soy sauce. But as it turns out, there's a lot more to that token asian flavor then sodium and MSG. K and I found ourselves purchasing a lot of firsts for the kitchen- white cooking wine, white vinegar, and most interesting of all: sesame oil. (As someone whose grown up using either vegetable oil or olive oil every time he cooks, seeing shelves of 'the other oils' was mind-boggling.) That said, sesame oil is not exactly the cheapest... though I'd wager that any local asian market would sell it for a more reasonable price.

We followed the recipe (by Arlena at AllRecipes) almost to a T, but the next night we tweaked things a bit to have more sauce and a hint of citrus. And yes- we did make this two nights in a row! Our recipe and a link to the original can be found after the jump.

Last things to note:
-If you decide to cook rice with this, start it early! We didn't...and had to wait 40 minutes to have a complete meal.
-Big thanks to Jon at Daily Ham for inadvertently inspiring me to start blogging.
-Please feel free to send me suggestions for things to cook. K and I will do the experimenting and get back to you with a good recipe!

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

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Kung Pao Chicken

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Ready in: ~1 hr 30 min (if you're not waiting for rice)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into chunks
  • 3 tbsp white wine
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp sesame oil
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 4 tbsp water
  • 2-4 dried chili peppers, chopped
  • 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp orange juice (about half an orange of juice)
  • 4 green onions, chopped
  • 2 tbsp chopped garlic
  • 4 ounces chopped peanuts

Directions

  1. To Make Marinade: Combine 1 tbsp white wine, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil and 1 tbsp cornstarch/water mixture and mix together. Place chicken pieces in a glass dish or bowl and add marinade. Toss lightly to coat. Cover dish and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
  2. To Make Sauce: In a small saucepan, combine 2 tbsp white wine, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp cornstarch/water mixture, chili pepper, vinegar and orange juice. Mix together and add green onion, garlic, and peanuts. Heat sauce slowly until it smells sweet.
  3. Meanwhile, remove chicken from marinade and saute in a large skillet until meat is white and juices run clear. When sauce is aromatic, add sauteed chicken to it and let simmer together until sauce thickens.

Original recipe can be found here.




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