All Entries Tagged With: "Chicken"
Asian Lettuce Cups
For celebration of Chinese New Year, Stella requested a theme of Chinese dishes to be cooked up in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors. So, Charlene prepared three Asian dishes and a popular dessert that you find in Chinese restaurants.
The first dish is an appetizer called Asian Lettuce Cups. Other than lettuce cups, you can also serve the filing in small pita pockets.
Ingredients
Sauce:
- 1.5 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha hot sauce
- freshly ground black pepper
Filling:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 stalks scallions, finely chopped
- 1 pound ground turkey or chicken
- 2 cups mixed vegetables (frozen vegetables are fine)
- 1/2 green apple, finely diced
- 1 head iceberg or bib lettuce, leaves washed and separated
Source: adapted from Jaden Hair’s Steamy Kitchen
Prep time: 30 mins; Cook time: 6 mins; Serve 4 to 6
Helmut and Lorna worked on this recipe.
Chicken Patties
Minoo prepared four dishes in the Gilmore Park Community Kitchen. We made Chicken Patties, a warm salad, a Spinach Cake and a Red Rice Pilaf.
The Chicken Patties are marvelous. They are fried to crispy. Kids will love the Chicken Patties in their lunch boxes.
Source: unknown
Prep time: 15 minutes; Cook time: 10 minutes; Serve 4
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 onion, grated
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup parsley, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1/3 cup canola oil for frying
Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Basil
The South Arm Cooking Club for seniors had a celebratory meal on the last cooking session of 2009. As usual, the seniors made 4 dishes in the kitchen. For this kitchen, there are two desserts which I enjoyed most.
The main dish is a chicken dish called Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Basil. This chicken dish is fit for a party.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless chicken breast halves, skinned
- 1/2 cup fresh goat cheese, about 100 grams
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 3 basil leaves, shredded or 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Sun-Dried Tomato and Mushroom Sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
The Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Basil is adapted from Bon Appetit and it serves 4. Marcel, Helmut and Ken worked on this recipe.
Moroccan Chicken and Rice
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 on following page. Click here to continue reading
Peruvian Cuisine: Chicken in Aji Sauce (Aji De Gallina)
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 on following page. Click here to continue reading
Crispy Fried Chicken
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 on following page. Click here to continue reading
Nando’s Chicken on Marine Way, Burnaby
This is a complementary meal from Nandos. We are not paid for this post.
Nando’s wrote to us out of the blue a couple of weeks ago letting us know that Rochelle Schätzl, the world’s foremost authority on Peri-Peri Chili, will be in Vancouver asking if we would be interested in meeting her. Rochelle is an award-winning author and chef from South Africa, the home of the Peri-Peri Chili. She had written a book about it called “Peri-Peri: The Contrasts and Contradictions of the African Bird’s Eye Chili”.
We said yes, because we knew it will be an opportunity to learn more about the Peri-Peri Chili and its exotic flavours … and boy, was that some learnings we had! Never in my imagination could someone share non-stop about everything Peri-Peri for two straight hours. LOL! We had a great time and this is what we learned.
After a few email exchanges, Mark suggested that we meet at the new Nando’s Restaurant in South Burnaby, in the new big boxes shopping mall by Marine Way. We were greeted by Nick, the owner of this outlet, and Mark and Rochelle. Believe it or not, Suanne and I had never been to Nando’s before because we thought that it was just a spicier version of fried chicken.
We found out how different Nando’s is from KFC and Church’s and that it is not quite the fast food the way we know it. Well, it is like a cross between fast food and slow food is how I would describe it. You place your orders at the fastfood style counter and given a wooden block with a number where there will bring the food to your table when it is ready.
This particular store was busy during lunchtime when we were there during a weekday.
Nando’s originated from South Africa in 1987 and is a restaurant with a Portuguese theme. Nando’s operates in 35 countries today with their biggest market in South African and Britain. There were a lot of other facinating stories about Nando’s history and beginings but am not going to bore you with those.
Anyway, this restaurant we visited carries the South African theme with African decor and artifacts. The restaurant was pleasant, clean and tastefully designed.
Rochelle gave a copy of her beautiful book on Peri-Peri. It took her two years of research to write it. It was a privilege to be given the inside scoop of this brilliant pepper and how it is impacting the global culinary landscape. Specialty Food Magazine recently listed the Peri-Peri Chili as one of the Top 10 Flavour Trends of 2009.
From our time with her, we can clearly see that Rochelle is proud of South Africa, it’s food, people and culture. She told us how the tiny Peri-Peri Chili represents very much a way of life of the South African adding that all restaurants in South Africa will have some form of Peri-Peri.
Peri-Peri is the African version of the Bird’s Eye Chili. It is very much like the South East Asian version of Chili Padi or Thai Pepper. This chili packs a punch despite its size. Peri-Peri is used in a dry form and not fresh. Do you know why?
Let’s see a comparison of Scoville Scale (a measurement of hotness) of Peri-Peri Chili against other common peppers:
- Law enforcement grade pepper spray: 5,000,000 Scoville Rating
- Naga Jolikia (Hottest chili in the world): 1,000,000
- Habanero: 100,000 to 300,000
- Peri-Peri: 50,000 to 175,000
- Thai Pepper: 50,000 to 100,000
- Cayenne Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
- Tabasco Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
- Chipotle Pepper: 10,000 to 40,000
- Jalapeno Pepper: 3,000 to 8,000
- Bell Pepper: Zero!
There had been attempts to cultivate Peri-Peri Chilies outside of a small region in southern African but all attempts had failed. Rochelle said that the Peri Peri is a chili with a bad attitude … the harsher conditions and weather, the meaner the chili gets. There had not been much success in cultivating the Peri-Peri commercially.
Suanne and I sampled a lot of food at Nando’s but there is one I love a lot … the Chicken Livers ($7). Oh major yum. I guess it is not for everyone but if can get over the texture and the thought of it, chicken liver is really delicious.
We ignored the bread that came with the Chicken Livers. We can’t help but notice the tempting looking Portuguese Garlic Bread ($2) … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
