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Pari Pari Chicken

Nov 4th, 2009
by dave.
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Pari Pari Chicken

For the record, I met my October goals and successfully lost 6 pounds. Funny though, I don’t think I really changed my eating habits all that much (well, except for maybe eating out only 1-2 times a week instead of 4-5). I have been eating more chicken lately and cutting out some of the carbs (Crazy how much rice I sometimes use with a meal). But I think it has to do more with the exercise. After all, if you work it all off, you should be able to eat everything you want right?

I’ve also been accumulating cookbooks lately, trying to find a couple cookbooks that “define” a particular cuisine. Two of the most recent have been Japanese cookbooks, one of the Asian cuisines I’m not very familiar with, except for maybe a few things I’ve tried on my own like Katsu or Teriyaki. One cook I’ve read a lot about is Harumi Kurihara, one of the most renowned writers in Japanese cooking. She’s likened as the Japanese Martha Stewart and has just started releasing cookbooks in English! I picked up Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking, trying to pick a cookbook that had a more homestyle feel to it.

Today’s recipe is the first one I’ve tried out of this cookbook and probably the easiest one too. It’s a quick chicken marinade with a little bit of extra sesame oil for flavor and can be paired with any medley of vegetables, I chose to slice up and stir-fry some bok choy.

Pari Pari Style Chicken

Serves 4
Time : 30 minutes active time (overnight marination)

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lb Chicken Thighs (boneless, skin better for marinating)
- 1 tbsp Dry sherry
- 1 tbsp Light Soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Couple grinds of white pepper
- 2 tbsp Sesame oil for brushing on chicken
- Worcestershire sauce on the side

Method:
1. Mix together the chicken with everything but the 2 tbsp Sesame oil and worcestershire sauce. Marinade at least 15 minutes but overnight would be the best.
2. Bake chicken at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes.
3. Brush the extra sesame oil on the chicken and then bake another 10 minutes or so.
4. Serve over rice with some worcestershire sauce on the side and some vegetables.

Dukboki – Rice Cakes in Red pepper sauce

Oct 14th, 2009
by dave.
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Dukboki

So I’m now on a bit of a diet. I mean, that’s not necessarily going to stop me from eating what I want, but maybe just less of it. Just will have to work out more if I’m going to hit my goals =P

Here’s another pretty quick meal if you have the ingredients on hand. I bought two kinds of rice cakes at H-mart last week with the intention of making a couple different dishes. Dukboki is something I get every now and then at Misono Wok at Super 88 (Usually with ramen or japche mixed in there too) but I’ve never really had a whole ton of success making it myself. But then I stumbled on a couple nice cookbooks and an archived post on My Korean Kitchen and it was off to the races.

The main ingredient needed for the sauce (and it’s used a lot in Korean cooking, I’ve found) is Gochujang paste, or hot pepper paste. Gochujang mixed with a few other household ingredients nets a really tasty sauce that can be used in a whole bunch of different stir-fry dishes. So now I keep a tin of the stuff in my fridge at all times, just in case I need to put something together in a hurry (and without any kind of meal planning in advance).

Dukboki – Rice Cakes in Red pepper sauce

Time : 20 minutes
Serves : 4
Ingredients:
- 1 – 2 lbs rice cakes
- 3-4 fish cakes, sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 2-3 scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- Optional : Hot dog, hard boiled eggs, ramen, cellophane noodles
- Sesame seeds for garnish

Gochujang seasoning sauce:
- 4 tbsp Gochujang
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp Korean chili powder
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Method:
1. Boil rice cakes as instructions dictate. Usually a couple minutes to soften them up a little.
2. Heat a wok over high heat, add some oil, toss in the onions and green peppers and stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add in everything else but the scallions. Mix well. Stir fry for another 4-5 minutes or so.
4. Add in the scallions, give a final few stirs, then serve with some sesame seeds.

Hotate Hokkaiyaki (Baked Scallops in Spicy Mayo)

Oct 7th, 2009
by dave.
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Hotate Hokkaiyaki

Everytime I’m in a Japanese restaurant, I absolutely crave this stuff. Really. I get it every time…provided they have it. And if they don’t, I ask. Trust me, I’ve embarrassed myself a couple time doing this already =P

But anyway, I’ve never figured out how to make it. And lacking good resources online and in the two cookbooks I have, I was forced to improvise. And if you know me, that’s never a good thing ; I’m no good at balancing ingredients together. So off I went, with the bare minimum of ingredients, hoping for the best.

And wow, it actually turned out alright! A bit spicy, which was great but it definitely had evidence of the flavor I crave. I bet there’s more mayo but I can’t bring myself to use more than I have already.

Hotate Hokkaiyaki

Serves 4 as an appetizer
Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients:
- 6 Sea Scallops, sliced
- 12-18 Crab Sticks (Kani) – Pulled apart
- 4 tbsp Flying Fish Roe
- 6 tbsp Japanese Mayo
- Generous squeeze Sriracha
- Optional : Sliced up Enoki mushrooms

Method:
1. Mix everything but the scallops together in a bowl. Taste and adjust flavor as necessary.
2. Add scallops, mix again, then set in a bakeable dish.
3. Bake for 10 minutes at 475 or until done.

Hotate Hokkaiyaki

Vietnamese Pork (Thit Heo Nuong)

Sep 23rd, 2009
by dave.
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Vietnamese Pork

I haven’t been cooking anything new lately (cooked a couple staple dishes I’ve already posted about) and I was away for a weekend in the Midwest but with Fall starting, I’m excited to try some new “colder weather” recipes. I’ve made a decent dent in the list of 100 recipes, coming up with about 15 so far. A new page for the project is in the works and hopefully I’ll have that done in the next couple weeks.

Here’s another dish that I can’t seem to ever get enough of. I order this about 60% of the time when I go to Pho Viet at Super 88, the grilled pork combined with the broken rice and a side salad…yum! I remember trying to make this a while back but completely forgot the recipe (Maybe it’s posted here somewhere, I’m a little too lazy to look =P) but I consulted some notes I had from a friend along with a recipe from Wandering Chopsticks, another fantastic food blog, and went to work!

Update : Found the notes from my friend!

Vietnamese Pork (Thit Heo Nuong)

Time : 45 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 lb of pork shoulder or butt, sliced thinly
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
4 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp Light Soy sauce
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp Honey (optional)
3-4 stalks scallions (white and green parts separated)
1 tbsp canola oil

Method:
1. Mix pork through pepper (with white parts scallions) and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Cook in sauté pan or on grill. Cook green part scallions with oil in a separate pan and use as garnish over rice.

Vietnamese Ginger Chicken with Caramel Sauce

Sep 16th, 2009
by dave.
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Vietnamese Ginger Chicken

Caramel sauce (Nuoc Mau) is a staple in a lot of Vietnamese recipes, especially many of the quick (sub 1 hour) dishes. There are many techniques ranging from an ice bath for the pot to pouring boiling water into the half melted sugar, but my favorite is just mixing the sugar and water right away and leaving it be. Simple, quick, and low effort. I like that! And, you can make a ton of it ahead of time and store it all in a jar.

So with that, I went poring through my favorite Vietnamese cookbook, Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen and immediately found something perfect for weeknights. I keep most of the ingredients around normally so all I needed to do was pick up some chicken thighs from Whole Foods, and fortunately enough they just opened one up in Dedham, super close to work! Now I have absolutely no excuse NOT to cook anymore, there are two Whole Foods, a Super Stop & Shop, and Lambert’s Rainbow Fruit on my drive home. And another Super Stop & Shop and Trader Joe’s not too far out of the way either. Though I’ll probably find some reason to be lazy one of these days, it’s in my blood =P

This goes well with a simple veggie stir-fry, I usually like some form of bok choy (or pea pod stems) quickly stir fried with some ginger and garlic.

Vietnamese Ginger Chicken with Caramel Sauce

Serves 4
Time : 40 minutes

Ingredients
- 1½ lb boneless chicken thighs, cubed
- 2-inch piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 scallion, green parts, chopped

For the caramel sauce:
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp water

Method:
1. Combine 3 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water in a saucepan. On medium heat, melt the sugar, stirring occasionally. The mixture will slowly start to turn golden brown. Remove from heat once caramel becomes light brown. Should take about 15-20 minutes.
2. Add everything but the scallion into a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and then simmer for about 10 minutes, covered.
3. Remove lid, simmer for another 5 minutes, taste sauce. Add more fish sauce if necessary
4. Stir in scallions and immediately transfer to serving bowl.

Notes:
Adapted from Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen

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