Thai Basil Chicken

I made Thai basil chicken tonight and it was pretty delicious - super easy to make and not spicy (unless you want it to be) or scary in any way.  Here's the recipe and pictures - pretty advanced, I know...

Ingredients

10 ounces chicken breast or thighs, boneless and skinless
1/2 medium bell pepper (green or red), cut into 1/2-inch squares
5 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
6 fresh hot chiles, roughly chopped (obviously not necessary if you don't like it spicy)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce (or hoisin sauce - no idea if those are interchangeable but I did it)
2 tablespoons water
20 whole leaves fresh Thai basil
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water

1. Slice the chicken into thin strips. 

2. Pour oil into the cold wok (ok fine--I'm not advanced enough to have a wok so I just use a big frying pan) and add the garlic and chiles (I used some of Kurt's secret hot sauce, which by the way I'm panicking about because I'm down to about a tablespoon and I am very concerned about how I'm going to make my own from here on out). Cook over high heat until the aromas start to release. Add the sliced chicken and stir-fry for about 2 minutes.

3. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and soy sauce and stir-fry for another minute. Add the oyster/hoisin sauce and 2 tablespoons of water and cook for 30 seconds.

4. Add the peppers and 16 of the basil leaves and stir-fry for 2 minutes, until the peppers start to soften.

5. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 tablespoon of cold water, add to the wok, and stir-fry for 1 minute, until the sauce thickens.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice. 

Green Beans and Zucchini

So far we have focused on the main course. Sides and vegetables (at least in our kitchen) are often considered a necessary evil. This doesn't need to be the case. Since green things are generally loathe in this house, I don't yet have much in the "fun vegetable" department. I realize that they can be made to taste fairly good, and would like more ideas. I'm hoping that this post will serve as a launching pad of sorts. Post comments with any good ideas you may have. The only favor I ask is that no one post anything like "oh my, but broccoli is so delicious just by itself!!" It isn't. If that's your (wrong) opinion, you don't need a recipe and you should just keep your thoughts to yourself.

Tonight we had our standby. Green beans with garlic and balsamic vinegar. There isn't even a recipe, you just steam or boil some green beans until they are not quite done, then fry some diced garlic in olive oil for about 30 seconds. Toss in the beans, cook for another minute on low heat. Put it all on a plate and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar. It's about as easy as it gets, and even Hannah likes it.

Another fun thing to do with beans is to cook them with butter and lemon juice. Again, steam the beans until they are nearly done but still a bit crisp. While they steam, melt some butter in a pan. The amount is about 1 tablespoon of butter per fistful of beans, but it doesn't much matter. any extra will just be left in the pan. When the butter is hot, add a diced clove of garlic. Cook on medium heat for about 30 seconds, then add the beans and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice for each tablespoon of butter. Add a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper and cook until the beans are done to your liking, probably around 2 minutes.

Another go-to is zucchini. Anyone who knows me would have a hard time believing that I eat zucchini, but it's true. The first time I made this Hannah ate the entire zucchini and asked for more. And, as usual, it involves vinegar. It goes like this: wash and slice a zucchini as thin as possible. Line a cookie sheet with foil and smear some olive oil all around. Arrange the slices on the foil and drizzle some olive oil over the top (not much, maybe one drop per slice.) Bake in the oven until they are tender, about 5 minutes. A toaster oven is perfect for this, but I am too lazy to find one on Craigslist.

When they are tender, use a spatula to move them to a plate. They are going to overlap on the plate, which is fine. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar (again, about one drop per) and grate some parmesan cheese over them. Done.

So there are my two thoughts for the day, now come on all you people who aren't even reading this! Let's hear your ideas.

Roux

Roux (pronounced roo) is flour cooked in fat. Very basic, very easy, and very easy to impress your friends with. Flour is a thickening agent, as in it makes liquid thicker, like gravy. It is used in most delicious things, so you should know how to make one. We will talk about it's uses in a few minutes.

There are two reasons we cook flour. First, uncooked flour tastes like, well, uncooked flour. Not good. The second reason is that if you dump flour into liquid, it turns into blobs of glue. Not good.

The reason we use fat is because fat is delicious. Enough said.

Roux is a bit tricky to get right at first, but you can always wash the pan and start over. The trick is to go SLOW. It only takes 5 minutes, so take your time.

The basic process goes like this. Heat a pan over medium heat, add the fat until it is hot, add the flour, and stir. Don't stop stirring for more than a few seconds or it will start to burn. You want the mixture to be bubbling without going crazy and burning.

You will be able to tell when it is done by the color. For most things, you want it to be a tan color. The longer you cook, the darker it gets, but the color of khaki pants is about right for us.

What you do next depends on what you are making, but you will be amazed how often this is used in cooking basic delicious things. If we were to add some beef broth, we would end up with a brown gravy for roast beef, or the base for beef stroganoff or sweedish meatballs. Add milk and sausage and you have biscuits and gravy. Milk and cheese and you have mac and cheese. Chicken or turkey stock and you have chicken or turkey gravy. Add more stock and you have a stew. A little more stock, you have soup. Imagine that, 5 minutes of work and you have a dozen dinners. 

Anyhow, back to the process. Once your roux is a nice tan color, we add our liquid. If you are lazy or ham fisted, this is where you will wreck it. If you go slow, it will work out every time. Let's say we have two cups of liquid to add. If we just dumped it all in at once, the roux would turn to globs of glue and we would ruin everything. The trick is to add the liquid slowly, stirring with a whisk the entire time. Don't stop stirring!

Before we go on, I want to warn you. This next step happens fast. You can't take time to measure things out. Don't worry though, it doesn't require any expertise. Hannah is 11 years old now, has made a roux a thousand times, and has never screwed up once. All we are going to do is add a splash of liquid every few seconds and never, ever, ever stop stirring.

At first, add a splash of liquid, maybe a few tablespoons. It will quickly turn to paste while you stir. Once the liquid is soaked up, add another splash. Stir until the liquid and the roux blend thoroughly. As you continue to add liquid and stir, it will turn into a smooth paste. Don't add liquid until the paste is smooth. Also, don't add more liquid until the roux is bubbling again. You don't want the pan to cool down. When it becomes a paste, you can start to add more liquid each time. Stir until you can't tell the difference between the roux and the liquid. When it looks more like liquid than roux, dump the rest of the liquid in and stir for a few seconds.

Notes: if your roux seems lumpy, keep stirring until smooth before you add more liquid. Also, the first few times you make a roux, it might help to heat up your liquid first, as this will makes lumps less likely.

Mac and cheese fight

Mac and cheese is comfort food that is sure to make you obese and lead to your early demise. Like everything else, it will make your life more happy while you waddle your way into an over-sized casket at the ripe old age of 42.

Meagan posted our one pot mac and cheese recipe (that one is not ours, link to follow soon), and it has brought us much pleasure. But I want to fight about it. That recipe is soooo last week.

We have a new recipe, and it is all Hannah's. The problem with the one pot method is that we are not good cooks. We were having a problem with the mac and cheese coming out a sloppy mess. It was often like eating paste. This method is much more fool proof.

First, we make a roux (super easy, see the next post.) Add the milk (read the post on roux before you do this), bring to a low boil for 2 minutes, add the cheese and cook for 1 more minute. Add to cooked pasta (cook pasta in a separate pot.) Done. The sauce takes less time than boiling pasta. Dinner in less than 15 minutes.

This recipe will serve 2-4 people, depending on what else is being served. To serve more, just double it.

2 tbsp. olive oil or butter
2 tbsp. flour
1 1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste (for kids use less pepper, for adults more)
1 cup(ish) grated cheese

A few notes. First, cheese is important. Don't buy grated cheese in a bag. It has no flavor, and is expensive. Spend some money, buy good cheese, and grate it yourself. We use a mixture of cheddar (always), gruyere (always), parmesan, or whatever is in the fridge. Add 1/2 of the cheese and taste. Add more until it is cheesy enough for you, but not so much that you make it into paste.

Second, the pasta. Since this is not a proper recipe, I don't know the amount. I always make too much, but since pasta is so cheap I don't care to measure. Don't just pour all the pasta you cooked into the sauce. The way we do it is to put as much pasta as we want into a bowl, then add the amount of sauce we want. Stir and eat.

What type of pasta you use almost makes no difference. We used to buy elbow macaroni, then we got lazy. Now we just use whatever pasta we have in the freezer. Usually it is fettuccine, so I just cut it into bite sized pieces and boil it up.

Red Sauce for Pasta and Pizza

Now that we have dough we need sauce.

A simple red sauce is incredibly easy. In theory. Getting it just right for your taste is a different story.  Do you want a sauce that highlights the fresh tomato taste, or a rich sauce that is heavy on the herbs and loaded with red wine? I prefer the latter, but whatever.

The basics are this: tomatoes and onion. You can dump a can of tomatoes into a pot, toss in a half of an onion, and cook for 20 minutes or so. How hard is that?

Since there are a million recipes online I wasn't even sure I should write this post. My point is not to give you a sure fire recipe, but to share what I have learned in the million times I have made it.

Since I am lazy, I use the same sauce for everything. Pasta, pizza, meatball sandwiches. Everything. I don't have a recipe for my sauce, but I will try to describe my method.

Like I said, I prefer a heavy sauce. You can use a recipe at first, but you will quickly see how easy it is to just wing it. I start with a can of tomato sauce (tomato sauce is one of the few things we use out of a can because peeling and seeding fresh tomatoes is a pain in the butt. We all have our limits, you guys.) I use a small can when it is just Hannah and I, and a large can when the gang is all here.

I then add oregano, basil, and thyme. It's basically 3 parts oregano, 2 parts basil, 1 part thyme. For a small can of sauce, maybe 1 teaspoon of oregano. You can always add more. 1-2 cloves of diced garlic. Half a yellow onion, diced. Next, a healthy pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Finally, I pour some of the contents of my wine glass into the pot. Simmer for at least 10 minutes until it is the desired thickness. You can always add some tomato paste to thicken it up.

A few tips. One, keep the heat low! If you try to bring it to a simmer too quickly, it will spit sauce all over your stove and your shirt. Two, keep it at a low simmer, not a boil. Three, use yellow onions instead of white. I read somewhere that there is nearly no difference in taste, but yellow onions have more of the chemical that makes your eyes water, which goes away when you cook them. If you are cooking them, yellow. If eating raw, white.

Finally, and most important, I was intentionally vague in giving amounts. This sauce is best when it is exactly what you want it to be. Don't be beholden to a recipe. This means you will be tasting it a dozen times while cooking. Add herbs and salt slowly. Learn by experience what you like. Can't taste the garlic? add a bit more. And, as usual, never underestimate the power of salt. If your sauce tastes a bit bland and you can't figure out why, add more salt. If you add too much, you can always put some more tomato sauce in the pot and it will dilute the salt.

Dough and Pizza

I'm going to admit right away that I am not much of a baker. And by not much, I mean not at all. But two things that usually go over well in this house are pizza and pita, and they both involve dough. We used to buy pizza dough from our local bakery, until I realized how stupid it was to pay $4 for something I could make for 20 cents.

We have been doing this for some time, so I can give a few tips. First, you need a KitchenAid mixer. If you don't already have one, it is the single best investment you can make for your long term happiness. Don't buy one new. Ever. There are a million of them on Craigslist from people who thought they might one day like to take up cooking. They are $300 new and I got mine that was a "wedding present, used once" for $45.

Second, waiting for dough to rise is what kills it for everyone. Who is going to come home from work and wait 2 1/2 hours before they can begin cooking dinner? Me, I guess, but I'm a bit weird. Luckily, you can speed up the process.

What you need to do is get the dough to 110 degrees and keep it there for 35 minutes or so, until it doubles in volume. There are a few ways to go here. I use a food dehydrator that someone gave me. I would never buy one because I'm a fan of hydration and that machine is sort of the opposite, but it works brilliantly. Another way is if you have a super-fancy oven with a proofing setting. Since we all suck at life, I assume no one has such a thing.

The last, and most practical way is to use a bread maker. Again, never buy one new. I got mine for $5 off of Craigslist because it was missing an important part. I went to a big box store and stole the part out of the display model. Okay, the real story is that I went to the store intending to steal the part, then I felt guilty and just ordered it online for $3.

If you get a bread maker, you technically don't need a mixer. They all have a setting to just mix and proof the dough, but you should get a mixer anyway. They make your life better.

The best part about this dough is that the same recipe can be used for bread, pizza dough, and pitas. We just use it for pizza and pita, but bread would be the same. I don't bake my own bread. I tried, but it made me feel like a girl and it was stale the next day.

One more pro tip: if you are single because you can't find anyone who will put up with your bullshit, this will make much more than you can eat in one sitting. Have no fear, this stuff freezes well. After the dough rises, we just cut it in half and put the other half into a ziploc bag and toss it into the freezer. Since I am an idiot, I always forget about the dough in the freezer. We currently have about 11 bags up there.

When you first start making dough, you will be annoyed and feel like a moron. You will never, ever get the ratio of flour and water correct the first time. It isn't you, it's us stupid Americans. We measure flour by volume, not weight. When you measure out that perfect cup of flour, scraping off the top with a knife, it is no guarantee that it is anything close to what you need. Have no fear.

What you do is just wing it. Scoop some flour into the mixing bowl an see what happens. If, after a few minutes in the mixer, it doesn't form a ball, add a bit of water. If it is sticking to the bottom of the bowl, add a bit of flour. One word of caution: add water or flour slowly. How many times have I added too much water, then too much flour, then too much water, only to end up with 8 pounds of useless dough? I don't want to talk about it. One tablespoon at a time, you guys.

It should be sticky, but if you touch it and some sticks to your fingers, more flour. If it isn't sticky, more water.

So here it is:

3 cups flour
1 cup warm water (about as warm as you would wash your hands in)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 pack active dry yeast (or 2 tsp if you have the big jar, as you should)

That's it.

First, measure out a cup of warm water. Add the sugar. Add the yeast. Let it sit in a warm place until it gets all foamy, 10-15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, add the other ingredients to your mixer. When the yeast is all foamy, pour it into the bowl and set your mixer going with the dough hook. Check after a few minutes to see if you need to add more water or flour. Leave it going for 5 minutes.

When everything looks good, you will need to let it rise. I use the mixer bowl since it's already dirty. Pour in about 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil and rub it all around the bowl. Then rub the dough in the oil to make sure nothing sticks. Cover the bowl and put it in whatever warm thing you have chosen.

When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface. This is where we cut it in half and freeze the half we won't use. This recipe will make about 2 12" pizzas, so cut it in half and use both for 4 people.

The cut dough will be an odd shape, so I just manhandle that beast until it bows to my will. Once you have a roundish shape, cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes or so while you have a glass of wine with your friends and look at them in the most smug and condescending way you possibly can.

Finally, roll it out or just mash it with your fingers until it is pizza-shaped. The easiest way to bake pizza is to take a cookie sheet, turn it over, and sprinkle with corn meal to prevent sticking. Then, place your rolled out dough on the sheet, cover with sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake at a super high temp until done.

I call this "Soup"

This one is a bit tough for me. My friend from Laos has been teaching me to cook, but won't provide measurements. Not only that, she won't slow down long enough for me to see what is going on or ask any questions.

This is completely trial and error, but well worth the effort. I'm hoping Meagan will jump in with some tips or corrections, since we accidentally reproduced the deliciousness once.

If you want to do this properly, you need to do it like my friend. First, wear latex gloves while you cook. Second, before and after you chop anything, wash the knife and cutting board for 5 minutes, even though they were clean when you picked them up. Third, after you wash anything, put it in a dishwasher full of clean dishes.

I know that last bit makes no sense. I have watched it happen a dozen times, and I can promise you that it makes no more sense to me than it does to you.

Anyhow:

1. 1 can coconut milk
2. 2 handfuls of medium sized shrimp (about 10? ish?)
3. 1 bunch green onion, green parts only
4. 1/3 cup white onion
5. 1 tsp chili paste (I can't read their words, so pictures to follow. just go to a good Asian market and ask for the aisle where they keep delicious stuff.)

6. 1/2 tsp tom sum (again, should be in the delicious aisle.)
7. Shallots, garlic, ginger to taste. I'd start with one shallot, 1 large clove of garlic, and about 1 inch of ginger (you still have that ginger in the freezer, right?)

8. About 1 tsp Knorr tamarind soup base (will someone please experiment with real tamarind, whatever the hell tamarind is?)

9. 2 chili peppers. I use the dried red peppers in a plastic bag from the "ethnic" section of the grocery store.
10. 1 tsp fish sauce

Add coconut milk to sauce pan, heat on high until boiling. Add ginger, shallots, garlic, tom sum, chili paste. Boil down until browned.

Add 1 cup-ish water, tamarind, fish sauce, and salt to taste.

Cut shrimp in half lengthwise and toss in with diced onion, green onion, and chili peppers. Bring to a boil and cook until shrimp are cooked, about 3 minutes.

One last note, don't worry about the heat. The burner was always on high, it was always boiling at a furious rate, and she never once looked to see if it was burning.