Chow Times » Chicken

Moroccan Chicken and Rice

Suanne — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:00:45 +0000

The main dish which Minoo planned for the South Arm Community Kitchen is a Moroccan Chicken and Rice dish. We were surprised with the use of winter squash in this rice dish.

This Moroccan Chicken and Rice dish is a all in a pot dish. It has protein, vegetable and grain in this dish. This recipe is adapted from Alive Magazine and it serves 4.

The butternut squash and raisins add sweetness to this rice dish. This is a good recipe to make use of winter squashes which are in season now. They are cheap and nutritious.

Here is a tip to peel the tough skin butternut squash. Microwave the whole squash, on high, for 2 minutes. This softens the skins, making it easier to peel.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Moroccan Chicken and Rice (160 words)

Peruvian Cuisine: Chicken in Aji Sauce (Aji De Gallina)

Suanne — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:30:02 +0000

Erika Pereyra is a relatively new member of the South Arm Community Kitchen. We were glad that she’s sharing some of her favourite Peruvian dishes in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Erika shared with us that Peruvian cuisine has lots of influences from Spanish cuisine. One can also find a lot of Japanese and Chinese restaurants in Peru.

I bet you will never guess that Peruvian Cuisine has one of the most diverse in the world and is at the same level of cuisines of the Chinese, Indian, French and Spanish. Lima, the capital of Peru, is referred to as the “gastronomic capital of the Americas”.

The video above on Peruvian Cuisine is a bit long but I find it interesting that the country of Peru is so rich in gastronomic heritage. Did you know too that Peru is home to about 2000 types of potatoes? Peru accounts for 40% of all potato varieties in the world.

The first dish which Erika shared with us is called Chicken in Aji Sauce (Aji De Gallina). Aji is a kind of pepper, also known as Peruvian hot pepper.

The above are two types of Aji pepper which Erika introduced to us, one in the form of paste while another is whole. Erika told us that we can find Peruvian groceries in Killarney Market at 49th Ave East Vancouver. For the Chicken in Aji Sauce, we used Aji paste.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Peruvian Cuisine: Chicken in Aji Sauce (Aji De Gallina) (322 words)

Crispy Fried Chicken

Suanne — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:00:49 +0000

This recipe is taken from an old recipe book titled Mrs. Lee’s Cookbook. It’s a gift from a friend who bought this from a garage sales long time ago. I made this only once in a blue moon just because Ben and the kids love fried chicken. I do not like the oily smell that lingers in my apartment after deep frying.

On top of that, I think dumping the oil into the garbage is not very environmentally friendly. I usually store away the cooled oil in a glass container and dispose it in the normal garbage bin. Is there a better way to dispose off used oil? I know that restaurants have special disposable bins for grease.

Ingredients:

1 chicken (about 2 1/2 lbs), cut into pieces & marinated & kneaded with the following:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese wine or sherry
6 tablespoons water

Sweet potato flour for coating before frying. You may use cornflour but I find that sweet potato flour gives a more crispy texture. Click on more for the instructions.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Crispy Fried Chicken (60 words)

Star Anise Chicken

Suanne — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:00:06 +0000

In the South Arm Community Kitchen, Jane Duo made a Chinese chicken dish. She calls it special chicken but I think it’s more proper to call ti Star Anise Chicken. We decided to make some Chinese food upon the request of Blanca and other non Chinese members. They specifically requested to learn how to stir fry bok choy which I will cover later.

This Star Anise Chicken is another very homey Chinese chicken dish. It is flavours with star anise, ginger, soy sauce and sugar.

Ingredients

A whole chicken, cut into pieces or just drumsticks or wings.
2 tablespoons sugar
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 inches ginger, sliced
4 star anise
salt to taste
soy sauce
cooking wine
sesame oil

Jane premarinated the chicken with some soy sauce, cooking wine and sesame oil.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Star Anise Chicken (129 words)

Mini Empanadas

Suanne — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:00:31 +0000

Christina and Stella were assigned to this recipe, Mini Empanadas. However, everyone lends their helping hands when it comes to forming the Mini Empanadas. This recipe is adapted from Southern Living. It yields 36 tiny empanadas.

These little Latin-inspired Mini Empanadas are irresistible right out of the oven. They’re are incredibly low in fat because they’re baked, not deep fried and yet they are crispy. The raisins add a touch of sweetness to these empanadas.

Ingredients

8 oz skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 small onion, minced (about 1/4 cup)

1/2 green bell pepper, minced

1/2 tomato, seeded and coarsely chopped

4 pimento-stuffed green olives, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoons chicken broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon minced fresh cilantro or parsley

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon pepper

water

vegetable cooking spray, or oil

1 tablespoon dry breadcrumbs (optional)

36 (3-inch) square wonton wrappers

salt to taste

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Mini Empanadas (196 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Chicken, Community Kitchen, Recipe, Wonton Skin

Easy Butter Chicken

Suanne — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:00:25 +0000

I’m so behind my Community Kitchen posts due to the done time.

The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors celebrated the Vasakhi in the month of April by making an Indian Feast. Vasakhi (or Vaisakhi) is an ancient harvest festival in Punjab. It also marks the beginning of a new solar year, and new harvest season.

Joyce and Sydney partnered again to make this Easy Butter Chicken.

Charlene prepared a menu of Indian feast which consist of Butter Chicken, Roti, Okra Sabzi and a Samosa style Potatoes and Peas side dish. It was a wonderful meal.

Stella decorated the dining table with the colours of the India flag. The setting adds festivities to the Vasakhi festival. Even the flowers are of the same colour, how thoughtful.

The South Arm Cooking Club for seniors also had another thing to celebrate on that day. They had a few minutes of fame on TV as the senior’s kitchen was filmed and interviewed by the Shaw crews. The seniors kitchen was featured on the Shaw program ”Express’ on the weekend of May 1. Unforturnately, I could not get a copy of the program to show it here.

This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.com and Tahera Rawji and it serves 6.

Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1/2 cup plan yogurt

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon garam masala

1/4 teaspoon cayene pepper

Sauce:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-inch piece ginger, grated

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 bay leaf

1 cup crushed tomatoes

1 cup half-and-half

1/4 cup cashew nuts, ground in a food processor (optional)

Here is an excerpt from ‘The Spice of Life’ on cumin shared by Stella:

Cumin is the seed of a small plant related to parsley but found in hot climates, especially North Africa, India and the Americas. The seeds are boat-shaped and resemble caraway seeds, but are lighter in colour and have tiny bristles. They should be roasted before being ground, but can then be used to spice up a whole range of dishes including curries, stews and rills. Cumin is very commonly used in Mexican, Spanish, Indian or Middle Eastern cooking. A word of warning, however, go easy on cumin as half a teaspoon is ample for a family of four.

Cumin has long been believed to help people suffering from disorders of the digestive tract including heartburn, nausea and diarrhea, probably due to its stimulating the production of pancreatic enzymes. Cumin is also believed to have important anti-cancer properties, due to its ability to neutralize cancer-causing “free-radicals” and by enhancing the liver’s detoxification enzymes.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Easy Butter Chicken (179 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: Chicken, Community Kitchen, Recipe

Italian Wedding Soup

Suanne — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:00:38 +0000

While the meatballs are in the oven, Sydney is busy preparing the vegetables for the Italian Wedding Soup. The term ‘wedding soup’ is originated from the Italian language, minestra maritata which literally means ‘married soup’. It is referred to the green vegetables and meats which go well together.

Joyce was jokingly saying that it’s great to work with Sydney again on this recipe as both of them were working on the Pavlova Roll with Passionfruit Cream with great success at the previous cooking meet. However, she continued to say that she does not need another wedding as she enjoys her single and free life now.

The Italian Wedding Soup is very flavourful and is rich with lots of vegetables, especially the escarole which has a very mild hint of bitterness in it. With the addition of pasta in this soup, it is very filling too and can be a meal by itself. It is also great to serve the soup with some bread sticks which I will blog later.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

pinch of nutmeg

8 cups low-sodium chicken or beef stock (we used a combination of both)

1 medium can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup small pasta, such as ditalini, orzo, or stars

1 12 oz. bag of spinach, or 1 bunch kale, chard, or escarole (broad leaved endive), chopped

additional parmesan for serving

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Italian Wedding Soup (103 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Recipe, Soup

Italian Meatballs

Suanne — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:00:05 +0000

Back in the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors, Charlene prepared three recipes for the seniors to cook. The usual menu will consists of a main dish, a side dish and a dessert. For the main dish, the seniors will be making Italian Wedding Soup. There are two parts to this soup; the first part is to make the Italian meatballs and the last part is to make the soup which the meatballs will be part of the ingredients. Joyce, Karen and Sydney are the main participants for this recipe but others also help out in rolling the meatballs.

The Italian meatballs have a little spiciness in it. The are made with ground chicken meat and Italian sausage. The parsley adds freshness and fragrance to the meatballs.

This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten and it serves 6.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 slices white bread, torn into small pieces, with crusts removed

1/2 lb. ground chicken or turkey

1/2 lb. Italian sausage, casings removed

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 teaspoon salt

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Italian Meatballs (115 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Meatball, Recipe

Potato Chicken Stew

Suanne — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:00:54 +0000

We were all very surprise and glad to Vanessa back in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Vanessa was the ex-leader of the South Arm Community Kitchen for several years until last June. Vanessa has involve in some volunteer job which clash with the South Arm Community Kitchen schedule. She came back today to demonstrate a very homey Chinese dish. Welcome back, Vanessa.

The Potato Chicken Stew is best served with steamed rice. The sauce goes so well with rice that kids can just eat the rice with the sauce and potatoes.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs chicken pieces (we used chicken drummets)

3 large potatoes

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

2 to 3 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon cooking wine

1 tablespoon corn starch

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon oil

1 whole bulb garlic, minced

8 small shallots, sliced and rough chopped

3″ ginger, cut in chunks and smashed

2 to 3 tablespoons oil for frying

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Potato Chicken Stew (168 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: Chicken, Community Kitchen, Potato, Recipe

Chicken Mole

Suanne — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:00:05 +0000

It has been a while since I attended the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The reason is most of the demonstrations in that kitchen had been blogged already from other kitchens. Minoo will make it a point to inform me if there is something new in Caring Place Community Kitchen so that I can blog about it. This time, we had Rosa to make Spanish dishes in the Caring Place Community Kitchen.

This is the first time I met Rosa. She is a very cheerful lady with great passion in cooking. Coming from Las Vegas, Rosa told us that the chicken and beef here tastes different from those in the United States. She still goes to the Bellingham Costco to get her meat which is also cheaper there. Rosa told us when she first moved here where her family got to stay in a hotel for 2 months, she lost 20lbs as she cant do her cooking. Once they settled down in a house, she gain back her weightt. This is how much she enjoys her own cooking.

Rosa made this Chicken Mole which is her family’s favourite dish. You may cook this dish in the mole sauce or cook the chicken and the mole sauce separately. This way, the sauce will last longer in the refrigerator, like a few days. Otherwise, you have to freeze the chicken with the sauce if you have left over.

The most important ingredient for this Chicken Mole recipe is the Mole sauce. Mole is a Mexican condiments. It is made with cocoa, sesame seeds, chili pepper, peanut butter, sugar, spice, etc. Rosa told us that you can get Mole from Safeway. There are different flavours of Mole, like Adobo, etc but according to Rosa, the original Mole is the best.

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken pieces (Rosa used chicken thigh which is more flavourful)

1 can Mole

2 tablespoons peanut butter

6 to 8 pieces bay leaves

1/2 onion

1 teaspoon salt

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Chicken Mole (247 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Chicken, Community Kitchen, Recipe, Spanish