Trader Joe's General Tsao Stir Fry

This week, I embarked on another kitchen crusade to feed the hungry Ironman chef. He suggested I use our Trader Joe’s General Tsao Stir Fry Sauce. With 130 calories per serving and zero fat, this sauce is a very healthy alternative to the take out General Tsao and it probably took the same amount of time to make as it would have to arrive at my apartment for delivery. I was not able to take a photo of this because my camera was in Joe's trunk...so instead I added a photo of a guard in Cambodia...close enough to General Tsao, right?



Appliances:
Coated fry pan
Small pot to boil veggies
Rice cooker

Ingredients:
• Trader Joe’s General Tsao Stir Fry Sauce (1 Container)
• Two large carrots
• One head of fresh broccoli (it has so many more vitamins than frozen broccoli)
• Two medium sized chicken breasts (cut it into cubes or however you like it. I usually put salt and pepper on it for flavor)
• Two cups of Basmati rice

First take care of the rice because it takes the longest. We use a rice cooker that we got on Clement Street for $14.00. It was a good investment. However before you put it in the rice cooker you have to rinse the rice. Using this electric pot designed to boil water fast is simpler than making rice on the stove, because you don't have to watch it.

Rice:
Determine the amount of rice needed—most recipes call for 2 parts water to 1 part rice. Use the plastic measure provided. Put rice and water in the pot. Put the pot into the base and cover with the lid. Push down the switch to start cooking. The switch will automatically return to the "Keep warm" setting when the rice is done, usually in about 20 minutes.

Stir Fry:
Cut up your veggies so they look like stir fry size. And put them aside. Fill a pot with some water so you can submerge the broccoli spears. Now heat the pot and the water.

Ok now pour the General Tsao sauce into the fry pan. Now, add water to the General Tsao container and shake it and then pour it back into the pan. The sauce is thick so the water helps thin it out a bit.

After the sauce starts simmering, throw in the cut up chicken to the pan too. (Note: you can dip the chicken in flour and fry it a little bit if you want to go that route. Its more General Tsao like and you would add the sauce to the chicken instead of the other way around.) Now, throw your broccoli and carrots in the water in the pot. When you see the broccoli get pretty green, stop the presses! Drain the veggies.

Check out the chicken. Is it mostly white or cooked? If it is, add your veggies. Turn the heat on low and let everything hang out together and get to know each other.

How about the rice? Is it done? On our cooker, a light changes color.
When everything is done, you can serve it up. This served about three people. In our house, its one helping for him, one for me and one to bring to work the next day for lunch.

However, I had an unfortunate experience when I tried to bring this to work for lunch… the top to the Tupperware came off and the General Tsao sauce got all over my back pack including part of my computer. Luckily everything was OK, but I continue to smell General Tsao at my desk!

What to bring on a summer picnic

Our number one favorite thing to do in the Bay Area is picnic. Any time of year, if its sunny, we are picnicking.

Here is how we do it:

Start off with white wine such as a Riesling, Gerwerstraminer, or a Rose (I am not talking white zinfandel, people). Australia makes good rose wine.

If you have questions about wines and you don’t have a lot of money, please go into your local wine shop and tell them how much you want to spend and they will pick something out. For those of you in Jersey, go to Bottle King on Route 23 and ask for Jeff. He is great. For my friends in Cali…anyone want to head up to Sonoma this weekend?

Next, you want purchase cheese. You want to mix it up between hard cheese and soft cheese:

Soft:
Brie, Humboldt Fog, Cowgirl creamery has a great triple cream brie called Mount Tam, Smokey Blue

Hard:
Tuscanelo, sharp provolone, (avoid yellow cheddar cheese), Pecorino Romano, Rosemary Parmesan, Manchego


Spreads
Fig spread
Olive tapenade

Fruit
Grapes
Dried apricots
Green apples

Extras
Baguettes
Prosciutto and/or salame (you want to avoid any kind of Hormel prepackaged items as a loved one presented at a family function recently…step away from these kind of things, please.)
Roasted red peppers
Sundried tomatoes
Assorted fresh olives
Almonds

Stuff you probably already know:
Knives
Picnic blanket
Cheese boards
Napkins, plates, etc.
Plastic wine glasses (DO NOT bring red solo cups for wine. We have plastic wine glasses, you can grab them anywhere)

Persian Rice with Crunchy Tadiq

We recently took a trip to San Diego, California where we enjoyed the warm weather, family and friends. One of the highlights of that trip was enjoying some yummy food. When we visited with our friends Jam and Daniele, we were so lucky to enjoy a traditional Iranian meal. While we had so many delicious things that night, one thing that stood out was the Persian rice with its crunchy tadiq, which you will see in this photo. The Tadiq is the best part of the rice. When you remove the loose rice from the pan, you see the tadiq at the bottom. You must lift it gingerly and place it on a platter. Then you can break it into pieces and people love to eat it just like that. Its really the best part! I just had to replicate it at home and I want to share the recipe with you too! This meal is best served with some very chilled vodka.

Ingredients
•3 cups long grain white rice
•1/2 cup melted butter
•1/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
•2 quarts water
•1 cup water

Directions
Start the 2 quarts water and salt boiling in large stock pot or dutch oven. Rinse rice until water runs clear (or as close to clear as you can get it).
Add rice to boiling water, boil about 10 minutes or until rice is about half cooked.
Drain rice in colander, reserve.
In stock pot or dutch oven, pour about 1/4 cup melted butter on bottom, tilt to cover 2 inches up sides.
Pour the half-cooked rice into the pot, try to make a nice mound in the middle, and avoid the sides as much as possible.
With the end of a wooden spoon, make holes in the mound of rice (5 or 6 places) evenly around.
Pour the remaining melted butter onto the rice, and drizzle 1/4 Cup of the extra water into the holes you made. Cover pot with kitchen towel to absorb the steam, place pot lid on towel.
Cook on very low heat, checking after about 15 minutes. If the rice is browning too fast, add the remaining extra water a little bit at a time.
Cook rice until it's done, about 30 minutes. Try not to check it too often, as it needs to steam.

Saffron is our friend

I recently had the opportunity to dine with a very wise man named Bahram Moeenziai. In this video he tells us how to prepare saffron for home use. In a future post, I will show you how to use it for a meal. It probably won't come close to the delicious meal that he made. This particular Saffron that he uses is very potent and comes directly from Iran. Therefore, he had to add two sugar cubes to the saffron and grind it before use.

Farmer's Market Delight

We hit up the farmer’s market on Divisidero and Grove this past Sunday and came back with some delicious produce. Here is something you can make in a pinch!

This recipe serves two.

2 cloves of garlic
3 small heirloom tomatoes
3 T olive oil
2 T fresh basil
1 T of olive paste tapenade
Angel hair the size of a quarter in diameter
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup organic chicken stock

Start off with a medium pot filled with water. While the water is getting hot. Chop up your garlic. I try to get it really fine. Cut up the basil really thinly too. We took it from our basil plant, Mr. B. He is going down hill so we are trying to use him up! Chop up your tomatoes and get ready to cook!



Heat up your non stick skillet pan, on medium heat. While you are heating up the pan, add the angel hair pasta to the boiling water. Cool until al dente.



Once the non stick pan is pretty hot, pour your olive oil in the pan. Once sizzling, add your garlic. Cook until turns a little brown on the edges.



Next throw in the tomatoes, then add the tapenade. Shake the pan around so the tapenade moves around a bit. Now, hit it with organic chicken stock and let simmer for about a minute.

Once the pasta is ready, add to the skillet and mix altogether. Joe does this super cool “tossing” thing with his wrist, but every time I do that, something falls into the burner. So I kind of push everything around with a spatula.

It is ready to be served. Add some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Kitchen Must-Haves

According to Chef Joseph Alfieri, Here's a list of 10 things everyone should have in their kitchen:

1. Food processor
2. Hand mixer (We have a Braun and like it. I am kind of interested in the "Slap Chop")
3. Chef knife
4. Sautee pan (I prefer a pan with a non-stick coating, but Joe does not)
5. Sriracha chili sauce
6. Olive oil
7. Chicken stock (of course we use Trader Joe's organic, low sodium)
8. Kosher salt
9. Stock pot
10. Your favorite Ethnic spice (Chef Joe likes Goya)

Sichuan Chicken Noodles

I was feeling so confident after my chicken Marvasala dish (below) that I invited a friend over to taste this dish that I found from the "America's Test Kitchen 30-minute suppers" book (www.cooksillustrated.com). However, when I went to the door to buzz him in, my husband took a taste of my concoction and said that it was...well not up to par. Therefore, he added some special ingredients. See below. I will get there!

Recipe serves one Ironman triathlete, and two normal people.

Lesson learned from this recipe:
• It is important to read the directions...instead of the 1/2 cup of peanut butter, I added a full cup by accident!
• Use Asian noodles instead of linguine...(the linguine stuck together and it was a real mess!)
• Add some additional veggies...this will make it healthier and more exciting.
• Joe added some fresh basil from our basil plant, "Mr. B"
• He also added a little bit of Splenda to taste.

Here is the recipe:
1 pound chicken breast sliced into bite sized pieces.
3 T rice vinegar
3 T soy sauce
1 T chili garlic sauce
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 T oyster sauce (DO NOT smell this...ewwww)
1 T olive oil
1 T grated fresh ginger
Salt to taste
1 pound dried Asian noodles (do not use linguine)
1 1/2 cup button mushrooms
1 1/2 cup tomatoes sliced to your preference

1. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot for the noodles. Combine chicken, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 table spoon soy sauce, and chili-garlic sauce in medium bowl, whisk broth, peanut butter, oyster sauce, remaining vinegar, and remaining soy sauce.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken mixture and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms here and cook for another 5 minutes.

3. If you have a small grater, grate the fresh ginger and then stir in ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add broth mixture and the tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon salt and noodles to boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserve ½ cup of cooking water, drain noodles, and return to pot. Add sauce and toss to combine, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Serve with love and serve cupcakes for dessert!

We are celebrities...well not really

Our honeymoon story has made it to the web! Visit: http://www.travelersjoy.com/realmembers/stories/224/

Chicken Marvalasala and Pappardelle with Rosemary Gravy

Here is another recipe that I liked. I was watching Rachel Ray on TV...my husband is not the biggest fan of Rachel Ray...and when he came home, I had to quickly change the channel and pretend like I was watching something else! So I did a search on Food Network and found the recipe.

I used whole wheat pappardelle pasta that we got from Trader Joe's. It was deeelish! The only drawback was that the kitchen looked like Thanksgiving when I was done.


Ingredients
3/4-pound pappardelle pasta (wide ribbons, substitute fettuccine if unavailable)
Salt
4 large, thin pieces boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets
Ground black pepper
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
2 portobello mushroom caps, sliced
12 shiitakes, stemmed and sliced
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tomato paste, look for this in a tube (it's easy to store that way)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, eyeball it
2 tablespoons minced rosemary leaves, a couple of sprigs
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/2 cup Marsala wine
Grated pecorino Romano cheese
A couple handfuls arugula or baby spinach leaves, thinly sliced

Directions
Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. When it comes up to a boil, salt the water, drop in the pasta, and cook to al dente.

While the pasta is working, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large nonstick skillet with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, over medium to medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the pan and brown lightly on both sides; remove to a platter and cover with foil to hold in heat. To the same skillet, add 2 tablespoons more extra-virgin olive oil and 1 clove garlic. Cook garlic a minute or so, then remove and add the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms brown evenly and become tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

While the mushrooms work, start gravy for pasta. In a deep medium skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add a clove of crushed garlic and cook a couple of minutes then remove. Whisk flour and tomato paste into garlic infused butter. Cook the flour a minute or 2 then whisk in the stock. Add rosemary and whisk in tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer to thicken, 5 minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to your taste.

To the cooked mushrooms, add capers and Marsala and reduce a minute or so. Add 2 tablespoons butter in small bits to finish sauce and shake the pan to incorporate. Slide the chicken back into sauce and warm.

Drain pasta and toss with sauce and a handful of cheese. Serve pasta alongside Chicken Marvalasala. Scatter arugula or spinach across both the chicken and pasta, to garnish.

In a pinch, try Trader Joe's Punjab Spinach Sauce

I stocked up on these Trader Joe simmer sauces. Easy to just throw in some chicken breast and have a meal in minutes. Tonight I am using a jar of Trader Joe’s Punjab Spinach Sauce.
What else you will need:
• ½ pound of chicken breast
• 1 c. Jasmine rice
• A glass of Sauvignon Blanc (this is for you to drink to take the edge off)

So when Joe left for his jog, I did the following:
1. Take a cup of Jasmine rice and then run it through water a few times to make sure it’s not all gross and dirty. Make sure you drain it.
2. Then I followed the directions on the rice cooker that we got on Clement Street. The rice took about 40 minutes to cook, so do this first.
3. Cut up the chicken breast into bite sized pieces. (I use a fork and a big knife that we got as a wedding gift. I don’t know how to do that fancy cutting thing that chefs do.)
4. Add the sauce to the pan.
5. Then fill the jar half way with water and then add that to the pan.
6. Once it simmers, add the chicken.
7. After about 10 minutes, lower the heat.
8. Let it all simmer for about 20 more minutes stirring every so often.
9. I do the dishes while it’s simmering.
10. You can let it hang out in the sauce for a little longer if need be. While Joe showered, I plated it.
It was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. It was pretty easy too!

Why I started this blog.

Being married to a chef is a very cool thing I have to say. Every day is a new adventure into the culinary world. One day at work a colleague asked me what I was eating as I opened up my steaming Tupperware preparing to dive in to my lunch. “Duck confit with blueberry compote,” I replied. I will never forget the look on his face; and it was then that I knew I had it good. Night after night, delicious meals would cross my palate…one better than the next. There was Thai and Indian, homemade ravioli on Sunday—you name it, I ate it.

“How can you be married to a chef and not gain weight,” people would ask. Oh yes, I was a triathlete. “Was” being the key word here. About six months after we signed up for our first Ironman race together, I was forced to drop out of the race due to a botched foot surgery that I am still dealing with.

Now Joe trains about 20 hours per week while I catch up on my reality TV. For Joe, working 50 hours per week and training 20 leaves little time to keep up with his culinary dinner delights. So I am now forced to reach out of my comfort zone and prepare meals.

Join me as I attempt this feat. I am going to start with easy to prepare meals and go from there if it goes well.