Shrimp Lo Mein

Asian food is some of my favorite. Who doesn't like some good lo mein noodles? Nowadays, you can find them made with a wide range of ingredients, from carrots to mushrooms. Traditionally, however, these noodles are very simple.

I prefer them in the traditional manner. Something about the simplicity seems to make the whole dish pop. They're also very easy to make at home.

Ingredients:
1 lb noodles. I buy the traditional semi-wide lo mein noodles, but you can also use linguini or even spaghetti.
1 lb green onions, sliced into 2-inch pieces.
1 slice of fresh ginger, about 1/4 inch thick.
2 cups shredded cabbage or bean sprouts.
1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined.
2 tblsp. vegetable or peanut oil.
1 tsp. sesame oil.
3 tblsp. soy sauce.
1 tsp. mushroom soy sauce (optional). Mushroom soy sauce has a richer taste and much darker color than regular soy sauce, which makes it a great way to get a deeper color without overdoing the soy sauce.
2 tblsp. oyster sauce

Start by boiling the noodles until they're tender. Drain and set aside. Add the sesame oil and toss to keep them from sticking while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add the vegetable oil, ginger and shrimp. Stir fry for a few minutes (until the shrimp is almost done), then add the green onions. Cook for another minute, than add the cabbage. You don't want the cabbage cooked to limpness, just enough to wilt. It takes maybe another minute. Add the noodles, oyster sauce and soy sauce. Cook until combined and the flavors are melded. Taste for seasonings, and serve.

Oven-Baked Buffalo Wings

Buffalo wings are one of the great party foods. No utensils needed, full festive flavors, and makes it perfectly acceptable to lick your fingers in public.

Most buffalo wings are prepared by frying. While I have nothing against fried wings, I'd rather not make them at home. Frying is a mess, and requires both standing over a stove and serving the food quickly. I'm not a fan of nursemaiding a pot of hot oil while a party is going on. So instead, these wings are baked. A bit of cornstarch gives a lightly crisp crunch on the outside. It cuts the workload way down, makes the wings a bit healthier, and still makes a great addition to the party.

Ingredients:

5 lbs of chicken wings, wingtips removed, and cut at the joint to separate the wing sections. You can buy them pre-sectioned, but I find it cheaper to buy them whole and do it myself.
2 tblsp. hot sauce.
2 tsp. garlic powder.
1 tblsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tblsp. chili powder
2 tsp. onion powder
Half a shot of tequila or rum.
3 tblsp. corn starch
A bottle of your favorite buffalo wing sauce, or a homemade sauce. I don't make my own buffalo wing sauce anymore. I found a bottled version that I really like, and the cost is the same that I would spend to make it myself. So, I figure I'd just run with it.

The night before, mix together all the ingredients except the corn starch and wing sauce. Toss the wings well to coat, and marinate in the fridge overnight. It's best to do this in a large bowl or container, well-covered.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a jelly roll pan (or a good-sized cookie sheet with sides) with nonstick cooking spray or cover the bottom with foil. Add the cornstarch to the wings and toss until they're well-coated. Spread the wings out in a single layer in the bottom of the pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Remove the wings from the pan (I use cooking tongs for this), and put in a large bowl. While still hot from the oven, add the desired amount of wing sauce and mix well to coat. Serve right away.

Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Biscuit Crust

Chicken pot pie, at its core, is very simple. Chicken stew baked in a crust. However, that opens the door for a bazillion different variations. Not only can you change up the type of stew, you can change the type of crust.

My husband calls this particular variation, "the best chicken pot pie, ever." It's your traditional pot pie filling, but made with a cheddar biscuit crust. This is a good-sized recipe and should fill a 9x13 roasting pan. If you like, you can make the filling in advance.

Filling ingredients:
2 lbs boneless chicken, diced in 1/2 inch pieces. Either white or dark meat is fine.
2 tblsp. butter.
1 whole onion.
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced.
1 can cream-style corn.
2 carrots, diced.
2 celery stalks, diced.
1 cup green peas, fresh or frozen.
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
salt and pepper, to taste.

Gravy ingredients:
1 can chicken broth, or equivalent amount fresh.
2 tblsp. oil
2 tblsp. flour.
salt and pepper, to taste.

Crust ingredients:
4 c. flour
8 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 c. shortening
2 c. milk.
2 tblsp. white vinegar.

Start with the filling. First, the gravy. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil and flour, and cook until the flour is lightly browned. It should take about 2 minutes. Then, whisk in the chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for another 3-4 minutes, to thicken. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, mushrooms, carrots and celery, and cook until the onions are clear and the carrots are starting to tenderize. Turn up the heat to medium-high. Add the chicken, poultry seasoning, and salt and pepper. Cook until the chicken is completely cooked through, anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Add the creamed corn, green peas and gravy, and cook until the entire mixture is heated through. Once finished, pour the filling in a 9x13 baking pan.

Now, for the crust. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine the milk and vinegar, and set it aside to sour and thicken. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, then cut in the shortening. Stir in the cheese. Add the milk mixture, a bit at a time, and stir after each addition. You want just enough liquid for the mixture to come together in a dough. If you need more liquid, you can just use plain milk.

When you have the dough, knead it very briefly on a well-floured surface. With a biscuit crust, the less you knead it, the better. You only want to work it just enough for the ingredients to come together and become elastic. It takes as little as 3-5 kneads for this to happen.

Roll out the crust on a floured surface. You want it about 1/3-1/2 inch thick. Then, place it over the filling. If you have any extra crust, you can just form it into biscuits and bake them on a cookie sheet.

Bake the pot pie in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned. Serve it when it's nice and hot.

Lamb Curry

I really enjoy curry, especially when it's cold outside. The combination of spices and flavors works so well to warm you up inside. And there are so many ways to make it! There are entire cookbooks dedicated to different types of curry.

As much as I would love to experiment with them all, I'm admittedly hampered by ingredient availability (and that can a problem anywhere there's no good spice or Indian store). Those wonderful spices, curry's trademark, can be difficult to find. Where I live, I'm more likely to find kryptonite than fenugreek. Still, you can usually find enough ingredients to make a good, basic curry....which is what this recipe is.

I use premixed curry powder. I normally don't like pre-mixed seasonings, but finding curry powder in the stores here is much easier than finding each individual curry spice. If you use pre-mixed curry powder, be sure to check the ingredients in the spice mix. Look for a curry powder that at least has coriander, tumeric, fenugreek, cumin, nutmeg and cloves. If needed, you can always add the additional (and more common!) spices like black pepper and ginger separately.

Ingredients:
2 lbs lamb, cut into 1-inch pieces. I like lamb breast, cut conveniently into slices by the meat counter. It's inexpensive and makes for a very rich curry. However, lamb shoulder or lamb leg also works just fine.
1 whole onion, diced
2 hot green chiles, seeded and diced.
1 can diced tomatoes, or 3 medium tomatoes, diced.
1/4 c. vinegar
1 bay leaf
4 tsp. yellow curry powder.
Salt, to taste
2 tblsp. ghee (clarified butter) or vegetable oil.
Water (if needed)

Heat a 6-8 quart pot over medium/high heat. Add the ghee and onions, and cook until onions are translucent. Add the lamb, tomatoes, curry powder and vinegar and turn the heat down to medium/low. It should smell pretty sharp and vinegar-y at this point, but don't worry. The vinegar will mellow and loose some its sharpness while cooking. You can pour in a little water if needed, but don't overdo it. Curry shouldn't be soupy. Simmer over medium/low heat for 1 1/2-2 hours, until the meat is tender and the flavors are melded.

I've always heard that curry, like stew, tastes better the next day. Some people make it the day before, and reheat it on the day they actually plan to serve it. I personally can't do that. It smells so darned good while cooking that I can't wait. Serve it with a side of white rice or Indian flatbread (naan).

Filipino Chicken and Mung Beans (Balatung)

Once, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to try to find a recipe for this on the Internet. It was, I'm sad to say, an incredibly unfruitful search. The few recipes I saw were so far into left field as to bear no resemblance to the dish I grew up eating. I don't know if it's a sad butchery of a classic Filipino soul food, or just the dish as interpreted by another Filipino cooking style (highly possible, considering how many different islands and subcultures there are in the Phillippines).

Anyway, I found the situation saddening and decided I had to try and remedy it. Balatung is wonderful! Tender, slide-off-the-bone chicken, with mung beans cooked until they reach a gravy-like consistency that works perfectly with hot rice. The closest thing I can compare the flavor to is cream gravy, with a more exotic feel. Except, unlike regular cream gravy, this stuff is good for you.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into pieces, or a combination of 8-10 legs and thighs. Do NOT use boneless or all-white-meat chicken! That's a sure-fire way to kill the flavor.
1 14-ounce package of dried split mung beans, peeled. You can find these in many grocery store nowadays. Can't find them peeled? No problem. Just buy them with the skins on, put them in a bowl of water, and scrub them between your hands. The skins will come off and sit on top, and you can pour them off with the water.
3 cans of chicken broth, or an equivalent amount of water or homemade chicken broth.
1 onion, chopped.
6 cloves of garlic, minced.
2 tblsp. vegetable or canola oil.
3 tblsp. fish sauce.
1/4 tsp. black pepper.
2 tsp. salt.

Start on the mung beans first. Rinse the mung beans well, and put them in a 6-8 quart pot. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to low, cover and let it simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Be sure to stir on occasion to prevent sticking. Add more water or broth, if needed, if the pot becomes to dry. As the beans cook, they will break down to a consistency that's similar to pea soup or cream gravy. Once it's tender, remove from heat and cover it to keep warm.

Once the beans are tender, you can start on the chicken. Heat a 6-8 quart pot over medium/high heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are tender. Add the chicken, salt and pepper, and cook until it's nice and browned. At that point, the chicken has probably generated enough liquid to stew itself. If not, add enough chicken broth or water to make about 1" of liquid in the pot. Add the fish sauce, turn the heat down to medium/low, and cover the pot. Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, for about an hour. You want the chicken to be tender enough that the meat comes off the bone easily. If you poke a piece with your stirring spoon and the meat slides off easily, it's ready.

Add the mung beans, and taste for seasonings. Simmer for another 5 minutes to combine the flavors. Serve hot over white rice.

Southern Fried Catfish

Another basic, fast, yet delicious recipe. I rarely serve fried foods because of the fat, but there's nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence. And with light, flaky catfish and a crunchy cornmeal crust, this is definitely indulging.

Ingredients:
2 lbs catfish nuggets. You can often find them in the freezer section of the grocery store.
1 c. flour.
1 c. cornmeal.
2 tsp. seasoned salt or Old Bay seasoning.
3 eggs.
1 c. milk.
Vegetable or canola oil for frying.

Sprinkle the catfish nuggets with 1 tsp. of the seasoning, and toss well to mix. Let this sit for 20-30 minutes for the flavors to sink in.

In the meantime, prepare your dredging stations. Mix the cornmeal, flour, and the remaining teaspoon of seasoning in a plate. In a shallow baking dish or casserole pan, whisk together the eggs and milk until blended.

When your ready to fry, put the oil on medium-high heat and let it warm up for a few minutes. There's no need to break out the deep fryer for this one. You don't need the oil to be super hot, and you also don't need a lot of it. One-half to one inch of oil in a large, everyday frying pan is plenty.

While the oil is heating, dredge your catfish. You don't want to dredge them all at once! Dredge about 1/3 of the catfish at a time. First, toss the nuggets in the cornmeal/flour mixture until they're thoroughly coated. Then, dip them in the egg mixture to coat both sides. Finally, put it in the cornmeal mixture and toss one more time. From there, put the pieces straight into the frying pan. Be sure to try and space them out so they don't touch or crowd too closely.

One common mistake is to overcook the fish. Fish is very delicate and cooks quickly. Overcooked fish turns pasty, dry and flat-tasting, no fun at all. Catfish nuggets, being small and thin, cook in no time. Fry for about 30 seconds on one side, then flip the nuggets over and fry for another 30 seconds. That should be all it takes. When the batter is crispy and lightly brown, it's ready. Put the fish on paper towels to drain. And while one batch is frying, you can dredge and prepare the next.

Serve it nice and hot. I love it with some sauteed green beans, black-eyed peas and white rice on the side.

Pecan pie

Confession time: I'm not a big pecan pie eater. Don't get me wrong! I think it's very good, but it's so sweet! When made properly, a good pecan pie is basically candy in a pie crust....tender, rich and almost painfully sweet. I'm not a sweets person at all, so I can only eat a few bites before I get a sugar overload. But put this pie in front of a sweet tooth or dessert lover, and they'll go nuts (pun intended!) over it.

You can find pecan pie in a bazillion different variations, including versions with chocolate, cream cheese, peanut butter, or more. But all variations aside, I think that classic pecan pie is best.

This recipe is for a "normal" 9-inch pie shell. I, however, go deep-dish. I believe that's the best way to have pecan pie. It turns out amazing that way. I have a deep-dish pie pan that I use. When using a deep-dish pan, I double the recipe for both crust and filling, and increase oven time by an additional 15-20 minutes (or more, if necessary).

Crust ingredients (this is a single-crust pie):
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
3 tblsp. ice water

Filling ingredients:
3 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1 tblsp. flour
1 c. light corn syrup
3 tblsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 c. chopped pecans.

First, the pie crust. Mix the flour and salt, then cut in the shortening or rub it in with your fingers. Next, add the water. Don't add it all at once! Add it a bit at a time, mixing between each addition. You want just enough water to make the dough come together into a mass of moist crumbs. Gather the crumbs together with your hands and press them into a ball. Cover it tightly and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 4 hours. This makes it easier to work with.

Now to roll it out. I know the current trend is to roll it between plastic wrap or waxed paper. You can do it if you want, but frankly, I don't like that. Yet another example of making culinary mountains out of molehills. Rolling pie crust, with nothing more than a rolling pin, is simple. People were making pies long before wax paper came around. All it takes to roll a pie crust is a little...very little!...bit of practice. That's it. It may take a time or two before you get it perfect, but hey, nothing wrong with developing a skill.

Flour your surface, and roll out the crust. The secret is, initially, to keep it moving. Roll, rotate. That prevents sticking. Once the crust gets too big to move without breaking, that's okay. It should be beyond the point of sticking. Roll out the crust until its the right size. Here's a hint: before moving the pie crust to the pan, run a flat dinner knife under the edges of the crust to ensure there's no sticking. Very simple.

There's also a trick to moving the pie crust to the pan. If you try to move the crust the way it is, it will probably fall to pieces on you. You need to fold it. First, fold it in half along the middle, bottom to top. Then, fold it in half again, left to right. Your pie crust is now folded in a neat little quarter, and is much easier to move. Pick up the folded crust and put it so it covers one quarter of the pie pan. Then, unfold the crust flat again, covering the pan as you do so. Tada! Trim any excess from the edges, and fold or flute the edge as you see fit.

Now for the filling. Wisk the eggs in a bowl until thoroughly blended. Don't overmix, you don't want them foamy. Add the butter, corn syrup and vanilla, and mix again. Blend the flour into the sugar, and add it to the bowl. Stir to combine. Finally, stir in the the pecans.

Pour the mixture into your pie shell. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the filling is solid and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.