Busy night - Emperor Jade Chicken and Peach "Uncrisp"

Picked a dessert that could work with peaches as I had a lot that were about to go bad.    Also, the dinner is a fairly simple stir fry with chicken and pineapple.    I made plans to go to Ikea (translation - The underbelly of Hell) with some friends, so I managed to get dessert and dinner prepped in the morning.  

Emporer Jade Chicken
4 large chicken breasts
2 cups fresh mushrooms
3 tbsp oil
2 cups sliced celery (only used 1 as I thought this was a bit much)
1 green pepper (used red)
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp corn starch
1 small can pineapple tidbits
1/2 cup green onion, sliced
1/4 cup slivered almonds
Saute chicken in oil until golden brown.   Stir in celery, mushrooms and pepper.  Book 3 minutes.  Drain pineapple and reserve juice.   To pineapple juice, add sherry, soy sauce, garlic powder and corn starch and mix well.   Add to stir fry and cook, while stirring, until thickened.  Fold in pineapple tidbits.   Serve with rice or noodles and add green onions and almonds on top.

Prepared at 10:00 am!

Dinner prepped ahead of time left more time at the worst place on earth!

Apple Crisp
In a greased baking dish, put 2 cups sliced apples and 1 tsp cinnamon.  Pour 1/4 cup water on this.   In a separate bowl, mix 3.4 cup flour, 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar.  Pour over top of apples.  Bake at 450 for 30-35 minutes.

My sous chef at work

Results

When you serve dinner and one of your kids immediately says, "What's for dinner tomorrow?", it isn't really a good sign.   Despite the fact that Mike and I quite enjoyed it, I wouldn't call this a hit.   My kids just can't embrace stir fry.  If I served all of the parts of it as separate items, they would eat it.  But God forbid that I mix them up!!  I did it with noodles as we just had rice the day before, plus I was feeding Claire and Kate who aren't big fans of rice.   They both ate it without complaint.  I even turned Claire over to the "Fruit in main course" side as she said that she liked the pineapple.  (Kate, not so much)  

Not a Harker kid favourite, but good, nonetheless

The Crisp?   Well a few problems.   Did I mention I did peach instead of apples?  Since peaches seem so much more wet than apples, I didnt' add the water that was called for.   Also, since I had slightly less than 2 cups worth, I only used half of the topping and saved the other half for another dessert.   I think this was a big mistake as what came out of the oven was a sloppy goo and not a 'crisp'.  Claire thoughtfully told me that her mom has a crisp recipe that always turns out, so maybe I could borrow it?   Thanks, kid.   So, I figured, oh well, must taste good and I stirred the whole mess up and served it on top of the ice cream and re-branded it as "Peach un-crisp sundaes!".  

Houston, we have a problem!

SOLUTION!!

Orange Chicken and Rice Bake with Strawberry Cake Mould

Monday night, and we begin activities.   Philip has Chess after school and Cubs at night and Eleanor has dance class after school.   Busy busy.   Need an easy quick prep dinner:

Orange Rice and Chicken Bake
1/8 cup butter
chicken thighs (could use breasts, I used 8 thighs)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
salt
pinch of cinnamon and ginger
1 cup rice
1/4 cup raisins
2 medium carrots, sliced

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt butter and add chicken.  Brown on all sides.  Remove chicken and add onions and saute.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.   Poor into sprayed casserole and top with chicken pieces.   Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Verdict
I thought it was very good.  Eleanor and Wilhelmina thought it was to 'Orange-y' tasting.  If I made it again, I'd use less orange juice.   It was such a breeze to prepare, so I'd be tempted to take another run at it.  Cheap, also.

Getting ready

The finished product!

Into the oven

Strawberry Cake Mold

1 small pack strawberry jello

1/2 angel food cake (No Frills didn't have this, so I substituted jelly roll cakes)

1 pint fresh strawberries

whipping cream (I used cool whip)

Tear cake into bite size pieces.  Slice strawberries.  Make jello according to package.   Arrange cake and strawberries into a mould.  Pour jello over this.  Refrigerate until set.  Serve with whip cream

I made this with my sous-chef, Wilhelmina.  She had fun making it.   I didn't have a mould, so I used a bundt pan which probably wasn't the best choice as it was hard to un-mould.   Still, it tasted very good.

the ingredients!

cutting/tasting simultaneously

Verdict!

Despite the hideous appearance caused by the fact that it didn't un-mould, it was very tasty.  Eleanor and Willy really liked it.  Philip, not being a strawberry fan, thought it was ok.   Easy for kids to make.  

Not pretty...

.... but tasty

Back to sanity - School is back - Beef Sate and Corn Cookies

Excuse the absence.  Something about summer that just causes all planning and structure of meals to go out the window.   If it wasn't fast and grill-able, we weren't eating it during July and August.

But, we're back to routine.   Something about September that just makes me want to plan.  This is evidenced by the 30 day meal plan that I made Sept 1 (clearly I have control issues):

yellow is regular meal, green is eating out,
blue is unknown and
orange is Oma recipe day Yes, I'm a freak!

I've been trying to plan on doing a rice table meal, but it is a very overwhelming task.  I didn't want to take it on this month as there is lots to do, but I thought it would be nice to have some Indonesian food for dinner tonight.  So the plan was Sate (grilled beef strips with peanut sauce), corn cookies and for dessert, fried bananas.   I managed to do the sate and the corn cookies, but the bananas got sidelined due to time constraints because of a last minute meeting this afternoon.   Both recipes are part of Oma's rice table instructions, but for the sate, I substituted a different recipe that I wanted to try from my Cook's Monthly magazine.  Here we go!:

Sate - from Cook's Illustrated

Beef
2 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 flank steak halved lengthwise then cut on straight angle into 1/4 inch slices (I used sirloin)

Whisk first three ingredients and add beef.  Toss to coat.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes.   Weave beef onto metal skewers.

Basting sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp veg oil
3 shallots
2 stalks lemon grass minced (I didn't have this)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp coriander, ground
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl.  Remove one third that you will use to brush the raw beef with (the rest will be brushed on as the beef cooks)

Put beef on preheated grill.  Brush with the 1/3 of basting sauce.   Cook for 3-4 minutes.   Flip and brush with rest of sauce.  Cook 4 minutes.  Flip one more time and brush again.  Transfer to platter and serve with peanut sauce (below)

Peanut Sauce
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp red thai curry paste
1 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter (I CAN'T stand chunky peanut butter, so used smooth)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in pan.  Add curry paste, sugar and garlic.  Stir for one minute.  Add coconut milk and simmer.  Whisk in peanut butter till smooth.  Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.  Cool to room temperature.   Full disclosure - I didn't want to use more than one can of coconut milk as I'm cheap, so I used 1/2 can for the baste and 1/2 can for the peanut sauce.   Still turned out fine.

Marinating!  

curry paste/brown sugar/garlic sautee.  It smelled awesome!

Corn Cookies - From Oma's Rice Table Collection
1 small can creamed corn
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp unsweetened coconut
2 eggs, beaten
parsley, pinch
salt to taste
flour

Mix the first 6 ingredients.  Add enough flour to make the batter as thick as pancake mix.   Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan.   Fry small amounts in oil just like a pancake.   Serve immediately.

Sizzlin'

Results


It was a yummy meal.  I served it with basmati rice and a spicy cucumber salad (mixed equal parts of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and hot sauce with sliced cucumber and crushed peanut).  The kids liked the meat, not fussy about the peanut sauce or the corn cookies.   Willy actually ate the beef, which she isn't usually into as she thought it was bacon as it was sliced so thin.   I'd make the sate again, but not sure about the cookies.

FYI-the cooks magazine spent 1 whole page discussing how to marinade the beef without it turning 'mealy'.  After what appears to be about 2 weeks of experimenting, the author realized that adding fresh ginger to a marinade is the culprit as it breaks down the beef's enzymes.   So now you know, don't add ginger to marinade!!

Not bad for 40 minutes work, huh?

yum!!