SUNDAY DINNER ... CHINESE

Our newest kitchen adventure was 2 sundays ago ... and this time it was china style. My family has a serious love affair with all Asian food. Inspiration for this particular Sunday's Dinner was P.F. Chang's. We have been cooking fried rice and won-tons for a long time, but this time we decided to add Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Honey Crispy Chicken. And it went something like this ....

The Ingredients (sadly minus some)

The Shiitake Mushroom!! This little mushroom amazes me ... and this is why. Ancient Oriental healers have used it for centuries to help with a host of ailments (I would go into all of that but some are not table friendly and we are talking about cooking and eating food ... so we won't go there). But this little mushroom is great for your skin, it has even been called the Fountain of Youth. It has also been proven to help with cholesterol, blood pressure, cancer, heart disease, viral infections and even AIDS. Researchers are pumping major cash into this little mushroom to really see how much it can do. Pretty amazing. 

And they are really cute! haha

WON-TONS

This recipe isn’t really formal … we just kinda add until it tastes right. We use shrimp or crawfish that we put into a food processor then add it to cream cheese. We put some green onions in the mix and then add (of course) Tony chachere ‘s until it tastes right. As the pictures depict … 

1. Lay out the won-ton wraps 

2. Add a spoon full of the stuffing 

3. Rub a scrambles egg onto 2 sides

 4. Fold and fry

These are soooo good. The great thing about this recipe and the Fried Rice is that they are great recipes that are easy and for us are usually made from left-overs. Left-over boiled shrimp and left over rice.

SHRIMP FRIED RICE

This recipe is also just made up as we go along, it’s the kinda thing you can pretty much add whatever to (whatever is in the fridge). We also use onions, egg, soy sauce and rice of course. The best is day old rice. We start with the egg, then add the onions and whatever else we are throwing in there (such as the shrimp). Let everything cook down, then add the rice and soy until its browned and tastes just right. Quick, easy and oh so good!

PF CHANG'S CHINA BISTRO CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS

INGREDIENTS:
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons water
salt and pepper
1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, minced
5 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 green onions, minced
2 small dried chilis (optional)
1 8 oz. can bamboo shoots, minced
1 8 oz. can water chestnuts, minced
1 package cellophane Chinese rice noodles, fried in oil for a minute or two, until they puff nicely.

COOKING SAUCE:
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Lettuce of your choice to make lettuce "cups" (Butter or Bibb lettuce is my choice.)

DIRECTIONS:
Cover mushrooms with boiling water, let stand 30 minutes then drain.
Cut and discard woody stems. Mince mushrooms. Set aside. 
Mix all ingredients for cooking sauce in bowl, and set aside. 
In medium bowl, combine cornstarch, sherry, water, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and chicken. 
Stir to coat chicken thoroughly. 
Stir in 1 teaspoon oil and let sit 15 minutes to marinate. 
Heat wok or large skillet over medium high heat.
When the pan smokes a bit, add 3 tablespoons oil, then add chicken and stir fry for about 3-4 minuts. Set aside. 
Add 2 tablespoons oil to pan. 
Add ginger, garlic, chilis (if desired), and onion. 
Stir- fry about a minute or so. 
Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts; stir fry an additional 2 minutes. 
Return chicken to pan. 
Add mixed cooking sauce to pan. 
Cook until thickened and hot. 
Break the cooked cellophane noodles into small pieces, and cover bottom of serving dish with them. 
Then pour chicken mixture on top of noodles. 
Spoon into lettuce leaf "cups" and roll.

P.F. CHANG'S CHINA BISTRO CRISPY HONEY CHICKEN

FOR THE BATTER:
4 oz. all purpose flour
2 1/2 oz. cornstarch
1 egg
6 oz. water
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda

FOR THE CHICKEN SEASONING:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into medium size chunks
1 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. corn starch

FOR THE SAUCE:
1/2 cup sake or rice wine
1/2 cup honey
3 oz. rice vinegar
3 Tbsp. lite soy sauce
6 Tbsp. sugar

TO COOK THE CHICKEN:
Vegetable oil for frying (plus 2 tbsp for finishing sauce)

TO FINISH THE SAUCE:
cornstarch slurry (1/4 cup corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup water)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
red bell pepper and/or scallions, julienne

TO SERVE:
Crispy noodles, rice or egg noodles or steamed rice

TO MAKE THE BATTER:
Mix ingredients for the batter together till just combined. Let rest in refrigerator for a couple of hours. 

TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN:
Coat chicken well with seasonings and marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. 

TO PREPARE THE SAUCE:
Combine sauce ingredients, mix thoroughly and reserve for serving.

TO COOK THE CHICKEN:
Pour vegetable oil into fryer or heavy bottomed sauce pot. Heat slowly to 340-350 degrees. 

Put 1/4 of the marinated chicken in a clean bowl and pour enough batter over to coat. Remove a few pieces at a time from the batter, using slotted spoon or large fork. Shake off excess batter. Carefully lower chicken into the hot oil. Suspend the chicken until the batter "sets," 20-30 seconds. Chicken is done when golden to light brown and crisp. Remove to platter with paper towels to drain. Repeat for all the chicken. Remember to check the oil temperature, it must remain hot.

TO FINISH THE SAUCE:
Heat the reserved sauce in sauce pan, bring to a boil. Add cornstarch slurry, a little at a time. The sauce will thicken, let it come to a thickness of "loose honey." Let cook for a minute or two.

Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp. oil in a wok and add some minced garlic, red bell pepper and scallions and stir-fry briefly. 

Add 1/3 to 1/2 of the chicken (depending on pan size) and stir-fry briefly. Add enough sauce to just coat chicken. Stir-fry again briefly. 

TO SERVE:
Serve over noodles or rice.

THE RESULT

SUNDAY DINNER

I love to cook!! I mean I really really really love to cook ... I get this deep passion from my Maw Maw. Although she passed away 10 years ago a week ago, she definitely passed the cooking gene on!! Everyone on my dad's side of the family is a pretty amazing cook and I truly believe it is because of Maw Maw. She was always in the kitchen, and she would always get you to taste things and see what needed to be added or if you could pick up the different herbs, spices and other ingredients. I may have been too young to learn a lot of what she could of taught me but there is one thing that she taught me very well and that is the pleasure of feeding people. She loved having people over and feeding them (wayyy too much by the way ... you would take 2 bits and she would be filling your plate again!). She took so much pleasure herself in seeing people just fully enjoying her food. That passion to feed people and please them ... I definitely attribute to her! Especially being from New Orleans, food is a huge part of my life. New Orleans Seafood is surely my favorite to cook with. So I though what a good blog idea, since its one of my favorite things in the world!! So pretty much every weekend the family tries to do something new and different. A lot of times we go to a restaurant and we try something on the menu and become obsessed with it and have to figure out how to make it ourselves. This recipe originated from a tv show that we watched, Everyday Italian. We changed the sauce, and a few other things but the gist of it was from Giada. Not to brag but OHHH did it come out sooo good!!!!

CRAB AND RICOTTA CANNELLONI with CRAWFISH SAUCE

Cannelloni Pasta (I was able to make 8)

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese, plus about 1/4 cup for sprinkling

1 egg yolk

1 pound lump crabmeat

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, once to a nice boil add cannelloni. Cook until tender but still a little firm ... this will make it easier to stuff them.

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg yolk, crab, salt and pepper. I also added a little garlic and herb salt.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crawfish Sauce -- 

1/2 pound Crawfish tails  

(I used a whole pound and I think that was a waste! 

So use your judgement)

1 sticks butter

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons onion powder

1/2 cup onions

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

2 tablespoons paprika

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

4 tablespoons Flour

2 cups milk

1 cup half and half

Melt  1 stick of butter in a large sauce pan, then add onion powder and onions. Saute onions until tender, then add garlic and cook for another minute (be careful, it burns easy!). Add in salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, Worcestershire, lemon juice and crawfish tails. Cook for 2-4 minutes

Add flour and milk, cook for 3 minutes then add half and half. Let sauce thicken (when you start seeing the sauce stick to the sides, cook for just a few more minutes).

Fill the cannelloni with the crab mixture and pour the crawfish sauce on top, then sprinkle the extra parmesan on top! Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Since this was the first time, I really liked the sauce ... it actually came out wayyy different than I thought it would. My dad absolutely loved it to death and wouldn't shut up about it. But I think it would be good with something a little lighter also, and thats what I was going for but it came out very rich. I think it would of been good with something a little lighter and just good enough to give it some moisture and a little flavor because the crab stuffing was my favorite part. All in all it was really good and it tasted awesome.