Another Chance To Celebrate The New Year!

Sue came across the recipe for the lemongrass chicken following an e-mail from “Food and Wine” magazine, and was intrigued by the concept of cooking with lemongrass.  (New experience for both of us…)

Lemon grass is an aromatic citrus-flavored herb used in Asian cooking. It is our “elusive” ingredient for this meal, and presented the opportunity to visit just about every store in our area.  We finally found lemongrass locally in two grocery stores and our favorite Asian market, Manila Hong Kong market in Sparks.

In addition to the “lemongrass expedition” we did some research on the internet to see how to prepare it.  Here is some of what we found:

• Purchase lemongrass with stalks that are full and firm with a pale green color.  The lemongrass should be moist to the touch with a fragrant aroma.  The bottom of the stalk shouldn’t be woody and tough.
• Wash the lemongrass under cool, running water.  Trim the ends of the lemongrass and peel off the outer leaves.  Use a sharp knife.   Lemongrass is fibrous and can be difficult to cut. 
• Use only the bottom 4 to 6 inches of the stalk and discard the grass, as it is too tough to use in cooking.
• Place the lemongrass stalk on a cutting board and crush it with a kitchen mallet or blade of a large (weapon sized) knife. 
• Add the crushed lemongrass to your dish, and then remove it just before serving, as the lemongrass stalk is tough and difficult to chew.

The method in this recipe differs in that the lemongrass is made into a paste and remains a part of the dish when served.

If you can't find lemongrass with the fresh produce, check the freezer section. Because lemongrass freezes well, it is often sold in frozen packets of about 6-8 stalks.

Oh, by the way, the lemongrass plant is believed to bring about a calming effect in relieving insomnia and stress. We usually rely on a couple of glasses of wine while cooking.

Once we started down the Asian road for this meal, Sue also found the recipe for the Chinese Sticky Cake, (Nian Gao), on the internet.  This steamed fruitcake is a tradition for Chinese New Year. We know, it was celebrated last week, but once we decide on a theme, there is no stopping us.

Meg pulled the broccoli recipe from the bulging binder she uses to store recipes she fully intends to cook someday. 

Forbidden rice is available in many grocery stores now, but we get ours in the bulk department of Winco.  Check around.  It’s worth trying if you have never had it -- the texture and flavor will surprise you.  We also love the color.

 

Marinade ingredients

Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken
Contributed by Grace Parisi
Food & Wine email

ACTIVE: 10 MIN
TOTAL TIME: 40 MIN
SERVINGS: 6 to 8

5 plump lemongrass stalks, inner bulb only, coarsely chopped
3 scallions, white and light green parts only, coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, smashed
1 large jalapeño, chopped
Pinch of sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for brushing
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs and breasts

In a food processor, pulse the lemongrass until finely chopped. Add the scallions, garlic, jalapeño and sugar and pulse until finely chopped. With the machine on, add the 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a steady stream and process to a fine paste. Season the paste with salt and pepper.

Using a small, sharp knife, make 1/2-inch-deep slashes into the chicken and rub the paste all over, working it into the slashes. Marinate the chicken for 15 minutes at room temperature or refrigerate overnight.

 

Light a grill. Brush the chicken with oil, season with salt and pepper and grill over a medium-hot fire, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

 

Lemongrass marinade paste on chicken thighs

Stir-Fried Broccoli With Chili-Garlic Sauce
(Source of recipe is unknown -- some magazine)
Serves 2

Ingredients

2 Tbsp low-sodium chicken broth
2 tsp soy sauce
1 ½ tsp dry sherry
1   tsp Asian chili-garlic sauce
½  tsp toasted sesame oil
½  tsp cornstarch
3 ½ tsp vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch red pepper flakes
12 oz broccoli florets (about 5 cups) cut into ¾ pieces 
1/8 tsp sugar

In a small bowl, whisk broth, soy sauce, sherry, chili garlic sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch together until well combined. In second small bowl, combine ½ teaspoon vegetable oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium high heat until just smoking. Add broccoli and sugar and cook, stirring frequently until broccoli is well browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Stir in garlic-oil mixture and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add broth-soy sauce mixture and toss until broccoli is evenly coated.

We thought a Chardonnay would compliment the lemongrass and not overwhelm the ingredients.

Kendall-Jackson Avant Chardonnay, California 2010 $8.99 on sale at Raley’s.

Chinese Sticky Cake (Nian Gao)
Number of Servings: 16
Prep Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
 3/4 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups glutinous rice flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup chopped dates (preseved plums, jujubes or candied orange peel can be used instead)
Instructions:

1. In a small pan, boil water.
2. In a mixing bowl, add brown sugar and stir in boiling water to make a syrup. Let cool.
3. Add flour, egg and milk and stir to blend.
4. Knead the dough until smooth, then mix in chopped sweets.
5. Pour batter into a lightly greased 7″ shallow cake pan.
6. Steam for about 45 minutes, or until edges move away from the pan.
7. Let cool before unmolding. Serve in thin slices.

Chinese Sticky Cake - cut in half to show the dates

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We recommend cutting the lemongrass into very small pieces before processing it with the other ingredients. We chopped ours into ½ to ¾ inch pieces and practically burned up the motor on Meg’s food processor. It never did reach a true paste consistency; so we removed most of it before grilling the chicken. It had a wonderful flavor and aroma, but was a bit too fibrous.

We marinated it for about an hour and a half in a zip lock bag. As usual, we only used chicken thighs. The chicken was moist and it had a distinctive lemon grass flavor. We added an extra garlic clove, and it was not spicy from the jalapeno. We are excited to have left overs.

Next time we will combine the two sauces for the broccoli and add them at the same time. This would prevent the garlic from overcooking. We think the overall cooking time in this recipe was too long. We only cooked the broccoli for about 3 minutes total. We had a screaming hot pan, and we like our vegetables crisp tender.  The chili garlic sauce is wonderful!

We cooked the cake in a make shift steamer (metal cookie cutters on the bottom of the pan to hold the basket above the water) and a small bowl, instead of a cake pan. Meg did not have a 7 inch cake pan, and you can bet if Meg, the baker, didn’t have it, Sue certainly didn’t. We lost track of how much longer we cooked the cake. But altitude and the thickness, from the bowl instead of a flat pan, required a much, much longer cooking time.

This was not a cake in the traditional sense of the word.  You could  taste the rice from the flour and the dates but the texture was gelatinous and dense. It was good to try something different, but next time we will make fortune cookies – an opportunity to write our preferred fortunes!

So this is our nod to Chinese New Year, the year of the horse.

Chinese New Year is fascinating and there is a wealth of information on the internet:

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in horse years are cheerful, skillful with money, perceptive, witty, talented and good with their hands. Rembrandt, Harrison Ford, Aretha Franklin, Chopin, Sandra Day O'Connor, and President Theodore Roosevelt were born in the year of the horse.

Neither of us is a horse.  Meg is a rat, and Sue is a dragon… luckily the signs are compatible which we are sure is one of the reasons we have been such good friends for all these years.

We want to share these traditional Chinese wishes for your new year. The most common greetings and sayings consist of four characters, such as the following:

  金玉滿堂 Jīnyùmǎntáng - "May your wealth [gold and jade] come to fill a hall"
  大展鴻圖 Dàzhǎnhóngtú - "May you realize your ambitions"
  迎春接福 Yíngchúnjiēfú - "Greet the New Year and encounter happiness"
  萬事如意 Wànshìrúyì - "May all your wishes be fulfilled"
  吉慶有餘 Jíqìngyǒuyú - "May your happiness be without limit"
  竹報平安 Zhúbàopíng'ān - "May you hear [in a letter] that all is well"
  一本萬利 Yīběnwànlì - "May a small investment bring ten-thousandfold profits"
  福壽雙全 Fúshòushuāngquán - "May your happiness and longevity be complete"
  招財進寶 Zhāocáijìnbǎo - "When wealth is acquired, precious objects follow"
Pick your favorite and Happy New Year again.

Rising To The Occasion With A Broccoli and Walnut Souffle!

What are you doing for Valentine’s Day? Stay at home and make this elegant dinner to share with your special someone.  A soufflé, always has a “wow” factor to it, and this one is a beauty.  They are not as tricky as you would think, so let the illusion remain and accept the praise with grace.

A mouthful of this soufflé is full of tiny bits of fresh broccoli, and crunchy walnuts, and paired with the sour cream horseradish sauce, it is a little bit of heaven on a fork.

A salad or just about any vegetable would be a nice accompaniment. We chose these beautiful heirloom tomatoes, because they were so pretty and smelled like garden grown tomatoes. (Yes, we are desperate for summer produce again.)

And because Valentine’s Day was on the February calendar, we felt it necessary to make a chocolate dessert.  Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Any Day,  . . . you get the picture. Finding these beautiful raspberries cemented the deal.

Pretty Raspberries All In A Row!



Broccoli Walnut Souffle
Serves: 5 -6
Source: “The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two”, Anna Thomas, Knopf

4 T butter
4 T flour
1 ½ c hot milk
5 egg yolks
1 ½ c chopped cooked broccoli
½ c finely chopped or sliced walnuts
3 T minced onion
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
½ t salt
freshly ground black pepper
7 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar

garnish
Sour Cream Horseradish sauce

Butter a 2 quart soufflé dish and tie a buttered “collar” around it.
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook the roux over medium heat for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Then add the hot milk and stir with a whisk as the sauce thickens.
When the sauce is perfectly smooth, remove it from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks, one by one. Then add the cooked broccoli, the walnuts, the onions, and the cheese. Stir well and season with salt and pepper.

In another bowl add a pinch of cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat them with a clean whisk or beater until they are stiff enough to form peaks. Do not overbeat them, as they will be too dry.
Stir about 1 cup of the beaten egg whites into the warm sauce. Now add the remaining egg whites and gently fold them in. Do this carefully, as you want to lose as little air as possible.
Pile the soufflé into the prepared soufflé dish, place it in the middle of a preheated 375’ oven, and bake it for 40 – 45 minutes.

Serve immediately with hot Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce.

Adding chopped broccoli to the batter.

Filling the souffle dish.

The gorgeous souffle!

Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

Makes about 2 ½ cups
Source: “The Vegetarian Epicure Book Two”, Anna Thomas, Knopf

2 T butter
2 T flour
1 c hot milk
2 egg yolks
½ c grated Wensleydale or other mild cheese (we used Gruyere)
1 c sour cream
1 T prepared horseradish
½ t Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet and stir in the flour. Lower the flame and cook the roux for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add the hot milk, stirring with a whisk as the sauce thickens. Then whisk in the 2 egg yolks, one at a time, and stir in the grated cheese.

Continue stirring with the whisk until all the cheese is melted. Do not let the sauce boil.
Add the sour cream, horseradish, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over a very low flame for about 5 minutes more, still gently stirring. Serve hot.


Baked Tomatoes
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials 2/09/13

3 heirloom tomatoes
1 clove garlic, grated
1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. Italian herbs
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
2 Tbsp. olive oil for drizzling
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cut tomatoes and place on oiled baking sheet. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the remaining ingredients, except the olive oil, in a small bowl. Sprinkle over tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake at 400 degrees on top rack for approximately 15 minutes. Broil for 1-2 minutes to brown tops.

Pretty, pretty tomatoes.

Tomatoes ready for the oven.

Kestrel "Lady In Red" , Columbia Valley, Washington

Raspberry Chocolate Pecan Torte
Serves: 8 – 10
Source: “Great Desserts of the American West”, Frances Towner Giedt, Lone Star Books

½ c (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 c granulated sugar
1 c pecan halves, toasted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3 c fresh raspberries, rinsed and drained on paper towels
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350’. Lightly butter a 9 inch round tart pan.

In the top of a double boiler or a large stainless steel bowl suspended over a pot of simmering water, (don’t let water actually touch bottom of the bowl), combine butter and chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and stir in sugar.

In a food processor or nut grinder, process pecans until they form a fine powder. Stir into chocolate mixture along with eggs and vanilla extract. Add flour and stir to mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Set aside 1 cup of the raspberries. Gently place remaining berries on top of cake batter, gently pressing each berry slightly into the batter. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until a tester inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes; invert out onto a rack, turn torte right side up, and cool.

When cool, sprinkle powdered sugar from a shaker or sieve onto the top of the torte and pile the remaining raspberries in the center. To serve, cut into wedges.

A 5 star dessert!

Almost too pretty to eat, almost.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We wouldn’t change anything about the soufflé. The sauce however, needed some boosting, which we did with two additional tablespoons of horseradish and a few red pepper flakes. This would be a great sauce for eggs Benedict or fish or a potato gratin. Confession time: Sue did not have any Dijon, (a pantry staple, can you believe it?), which probably affected the flavor, but we made up for it, in our minds, with the horseradish.

Sue fell in love with the wine label during a tasting at Total Wines. Lucky for her, the wine was really good and paired well with this meal. It was even on sale, so Sue claims it was meant to be.  (Who buys wine because of a pretty label?)

This Raspberry Chocolate Pecan Torte is “five star” wonderful. Excuse us for a moment while we go on and on about this dessert. It has a chewy edge, and  gooey raspberry surprises throughout.  Plan on sharing this with a lot of friends, so that the temptation leaves with them. Otherwise, you will have to hide it under all the other food in your freezer like Sue is doing. Meg has more will power and says she will have a small slice with coffee for the next five days. Yeah, right.

We enjoyed this, and we hope you do too!