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Category Archives: Asian
This Week’s Lunch: Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans
I’ve been making a lot of Mexican and Tex-Mex flavored dishes for lunches lately — burritos, enchiladas, chili — so this week, I decided it was probably time to change it up a bit. I was inspired by one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes: spicy string beans.
In this case, I added some chicken and made the dish sweet and spicy. It took forever to process the green beans, but otherwise it was quick to throw together. This dish hits all of the same flavors that I like when we order Chinese while remaining very healthy. Knowing this is in my lunch box will help getting back to work tomorrow after this long weekend much easier.
Sweet & Spicy Chicken and Green Beans
Makes 8 lunch portions
Lunch assembly line.
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. corn starch
24 oz. green beans, stems picked off and cut in half
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
24 oz. chicken breast, cut into medium cubes
8 cups white rice, cooked
In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, pineapple juice, soy sauce, water, garlic powder, ginger, crushed red pepper flakes and corn starch. Whisk together until well combined and the corn starch is mixed in without any lumps. Set the sauce aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a big handful of salt. Add the green beans and boil for 3 minutes. Drain into a colander filled with ice. Set aside.
In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the onion and saute until it gets soft and starts to brown. Add the chicken and saute for 5-7 minutes, stirring often so that all sides get browned. Add the green beans and the sauce (whisk it together one more time before adding to help redistribute the corn starch.) Stir to combine all of the ingredients.
Cook covered over medium high heat for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.
Serve over white rice.
Posted in Asian, Chicken, Cuisine, Green Beans, Main Dish, Meat, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Rice, Starch, Vegetables
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Dinner Tonight: Asian Chicken Salad
What a great weekend. On Friday, I decided to bake some cupcakes — my friends on Facebook helped me choose between lime and coconut or lemon with raspberry icing. Lime and coconut won the Facebook vote. I was leaning that way anyway because I’m getting excited for our trip to St. Martin in March where I expect to drink lots and lots of limey, coconut-y rum drinks! I spent the rest of the night watching Pretty in Pink and Project Runway. Love lazy Fridays!
This is my dessert tonight!
On Saturday, we went to a belated holiday party where we took part in a Yankee swap — I lucked up and ended up with a great scarf from Ecolissa. Sean got the new hot game among our friends, Quelf. It’s a pretty silly party game. He broke it out at the party. I sat out and still had a great time just watching. It was HILARIOUS!
Today, we met up with Ana & Jesse for dim sum. They just got back from Brazil where they got engaged! It was great to see them for some congratulatory dumplings. It was Jesse’s first time going to dim sum. I hope he liked it so we can do it more often.
We spent the rest of the weekend working on a project that we’ve been wanting to accomplish for a long time. We are creating a media library using an external media storage drive. Turns out it takes a long time to rip CDs into MP3s — after many hours, we’re still probably not even near half way done. But, it’s a good project to continue through the winter. I’m excited to finally have easy access to all of our music — and to be able to box up our CDs and move them to the basement so they aren’t taking up space.
Before we headed to the party on Saturday, I wanted to fill up on something that was filling and healthy. Like everyone else in the universe, I’m trying to eat healthier after the holidays. I didn’t want to get to the party and eat a bunch of junk. We had half a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I used that as inspiration to make this salad. It’s super fresh, flavorful, and filling. The salad base gets an extra punch from the cilantro and green onions mixed in.
This recipe makes a ton, so we had these for dinner last night and tonight. Plus we have leftover salad mix which we’ll use later in the week for something else (stay tuned!)
Asian Chicken Salad
Makes 6 HUGE Salads
GIANT, delicious salad.
Salad
1/2 medium head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 head romaine lettuce, thinly shredded
2 large carrots, cut julienne
5 green onions/scallions, chopped
1 medium bunch of cilantro, remove the bottom couple of inches of the stem and then roughly chop the bunch
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached, cooled, and shredded
1 14oz. package of fettuccine style rice noodles, cooked and cooled (found these at Whole Foods — you could really use any noodles you like.)
3/4 cup of sliced almonds, toasted
Toss all of these ingredients together. If you are going to split this up over multiple meals, hold out the almonds and use them to garnish before each meal.
Dressing
6 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp. honey
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tsp. soy sauce
3 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. granulated garlic/garlic powder
1 tsp. sesame oil
Whisk all of these ingredients in a bowl. Or put all of them in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and shake, shake, shake until everything is well combined (this makes for easy storage for leftovers!)
Dinner Tonight: Vegetable Green Curry
On Sunday, I did a bunch of cooking — and part of that was making a huge batch of green curry paste. Green curry is one of my favorites when I get Thai food. It’s not difficult to make on your own, but making the paste necessary for the curry does require quite a few ingredients and a little bit of time to whiz them together in the food processor. You can buy it in a jar at the store, but fresh tastes so much better.
I found the recipe that I used on Instructables.com It made A LOT. I froze the curry paste into 30 pucks using my mini-cupcake tins. Now I have at least a year’s supply.
Tonight, I went out for drinks with some co-workers. It was a really fun evening. I didn’t get home until 9:00 — thankfully, I was able to throw together a batch of vegetable green curry in minutes and we were having a healthy albeit late dinner by 9:30.
Vegetable Green Curry
Makes 2 Big Servings
Thank you green curry pucks!
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced into strips
2-3 tbsp. green curry paste
1 can light coconut milk
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. Thai fish sauce
1 large sweet potato, diced large
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 can of chick peas
2 cups steamed white rice
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and green peppers and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add the coconut milk, curry paste, brown sugar, salt, and fish sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the vegetables. Cover the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked through and tender. Add the chick peas and cook for another minute.
Serve over white rice.
Posted in Asian, Carrots, Cauliflower, Cuisine, Healthy, Main Dish, Peppers, Recipe, Sweet Potato, Vegetables, Vegetarian
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Thai Tea Ice Cream
Last year, my friend and co-worker, Steve, suggested making an ice cream that tasted like Thai iced tea. I thought it was a brilliant idea, but apparently not brilliant enough to create until a year later.
I finally made the ice cream this weekend. I found Thai tea bags at an Asian grocery store when I was in Seattle. I’m not super clear what makes Thai tea, Thai tea. The package says the tea bags contain Thai black tea and star anise, so I maybe it’s the star anise that makes Thai tea so magical.
This ice cream is sweet and creamy just like Thai iced tea you’d order from your favorite Thai restaurant, but possibly more refreshing on a hot, summer afternoon.
Thai Tea Ice Cream
Makes a pint of ice cream
1 cup whole milk
10 Thai tea bags
2 tbsp. brown sugar
6 oz. sweetened condensed milk
6 oz. evaporated milk
Heat the milk in a medium sized sauce pan until it comes to a simmer. Add the Thai tea bags and simmer for 10 minutes or until the milk takes on a light coffee color. Remove tea bags and squeeze each tea bag between two spoons to strain all of the liquid and flavor from each bag. Add the brown sugar, condensed milk, and evaporated milk.
Chill the ice cream base covered in the refrigerator for about 8 hours.
Pour the ice cream base into an ice cream machine. Churn according to the manufacturers directions — mine took about 30 minutes to get to soft-serve consistency. Serve as is or move it into a freezer-safe container and freeze until it hardens.
Posted in Asian, Cuisine, Dessert, Recipe
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Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans
Sean and I just joined Boston Organics. It’s a really great deal for organic fruits and vegetables — and they deliver, to boot! I was pretty excited about it because they send a basically random box every week. I figured it would help me be creative every week in what I make for dinner.
This week, we got green beans and some organic oranges. I’ve noticed those two items go bad fast, so I wanted to use them. We also received 5 pounds of carrots last week and a huge bulb of ginger. Since one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes is spicy string beans, I decided to try and make something similar with all of these ingredients we need to use up.
Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans
Serves 4
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
1 lb. green beans, trimmed
2 large carrots, sliced on the bias
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp. freshly grated ginger, divided
1 tbsp. rice wine vineger
4 tbsp. soy sauce, divided
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce or siracha
2 tbsp. honey
Cut chicken thighs into 1 inch cubes. Put into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce to season the chicken. Toss to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Mix together half of the ginger, orange juice, orange zest, rice wine vinegar, the rest of the soy sauce, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, and honey. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add the chicken and cook until it’s cooked through — about 7-10 minutes. Remove from skillet. Set aside.
Once you remove the chicken, make sure the pan is still very hot, and add the onions, rest of the ginger, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the green beans and carrots. Stir fry until the carrots and green beans are al dente, about 10 minutes.
Add the chicken back to the pan and pour in the sauce. Cook uncovered for another 2-3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce is mixed into the chicken and vegetables well and starts to thicken. At this point, if you need to cook the vegetables a little more, cover for a couple of minutes to let the vegetables steam.
Serve over rice.
Posted in Asian, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Fruit, Green Beans, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Oranges, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Vegetables
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Asian-y Noodles with Grilled Chicken
I thought of this recipe on the way home today. Sean and I didn’t have very much in the fridge, but I knew we had some cabbage and some chicken that we needed to use up. I always have tons of flavorful pantry items (spices, vinegars, sauces, etc.) so it was easy to throw together. It turned out great. The noodles themselves were great served at room temperature — perfect for a warm evening like tonight.
You can serve this as a main dish with chicken (as written here) or shrimp; you might also serve as a delicious vegetarian dish by forgoing the meat all together.
Asian-y Noodles with Grilled Chicken
For Dressing:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 tsp. toasted sesame oil
4 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
Juice of a lime
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. siracha sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
For Salad:
1/2 lb. fettucini
1/2 small head green cabbage, thinly shredded
1/2 small head red cabbage, thinly shredded
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
2 green onions, sliced
2 tbsp. chives, chopped
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 large chicken breast
Toasted almonds
Put ingredients for the dressing into a small bowl; whisk to combine.
Boil the fettucini noodles for about 10 minutes until al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water until the noodles are cool to the touch. Drain well. Toss together with the cabbage, onions, chives, and carrots until all ingredients are mixed together well. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper (or, you could also marinate in teriyaki, hoisin, or any other asian-type sauce.) Grill until temperature reaches 165 degrees and slice.
To serve, place some salad in a large bowl. Top with sliced grilled chicken. Garnish with sliced almonds and sesame seeds.
Posted in Appetizer, Asian, Cabbage, Carrots, Chicken, Comfort Food, Cuisine, Fish, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetables, Vegetarian
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