Chinese Orange Chicken with Tempura Batter

Tonight I had a hankering for orange juice, and what better way to use it than with chicken?  I prepared the chicken and marinade in the afternoon, and by dinner it was ready to go!  This recipe officially serves 4, if you don’t have a hungry husband.  I do.  So consider it 2 servings, though it’s certainly easy to multiply.

Serve with Jasmine rice.  As a drink you could serve either orange juice, or a Tropical Coconut Smoothie.

Orange Chicken

½ – 1 C. orange juice
4 Tbs. lemon juice
2½ Tbs. rice vinegar
5½ Tbs. soy sauce
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
3 Tbs. soft brown sugar
½ tsp. minced fresh ginger root
½ tsp. minced garlic
2 Tbs. chopped spring onion
¼ tsp. red chili flakes (or sambal oelek – chili paste)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces or into thin strips

½ C. flour (optional:  Instead of this mixture, use Tempura – recipe below)
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

3 Tbs. Olive oil

3 Tbs. cornflour + 2 Tbs. water, mixed to a paste

Mix the first set of ingredients into a large Ziploc bag (tip:  Set it in a bowl for easy filling, and keeping the liquids together to cover the chicken).  Prepare the chicken; add it to the bag, seal, and massage all together well.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
When you’re ready to cook:  In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag and shake to coat.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium heat. Place chicken into the pan, and brown on both sides. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and set aside.
Wipe out the pan, and add the sauce. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat.  Stir the cornflour paste into the sauce. Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken pieces, and simmer about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with hot Jasmine rice, or stir-fried rice with shavings of orange peel or ginger added.

 

Tempura Batter

1 egg yolk, beaten
1 ½ C. ice water or very cold club soda
1 C. (250 ml) all – purpose flour or rice flour, plus additional for dredging

Mix together; dredge your meat and cook as directed.

Hand-Made Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli

This was recently made, and delicious!  I will be the first to admit that I am usually too lazy to make my own pasta – living next door to Italy means we have both dried and fresh versions in every grocery store.  Having said that, I have made this occasionally and what can I say?  Home-made is the best!  In the picture you’ll notice two colours of pasta; we substituted a bit of the spinach for some of the flour in the basic dough recipe; experiment and see how much you’ll need, and add a bit of flour to compensate for the extra moisture if needed.

DOUGH:

250 gr. Flour
2 eggs, beaten
2-4 Tbs. Water
1 Tbs. Oil

Mix into a smooth dough; tip out onto a floured surface and knead with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover and let it rest for 30-60 minutes.

FILLING:

300 gr. Frozen, chopped spinach
200 gr. Ricotta, diced
100 gr. Parmesan cheese, grated
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely chopped
a pinch of Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Salt
A few grinds of pepper

Thaw the spinach, press the extra liquid from it, and chop if it’s not already chopped. Mix everything together.

To Form:

Halve the dough; set aside half. On a bit of flour, roll out the half dough into a thin rectangle (~32×46 cm), loosening it occasionally from the work surface. With a dough cutter (pizza cutter or a knife), trim the edges to straighten.
About 4 cm from the edge of the dough, about 2 finger-widths apart, spoon ~1 tsp. Across ONE row only, covering the rest of the dough with plastic to keep it from drying out.
With a bit of water on your finger, moisten a strip of dough between each filling mound and along the outer edges.
Fold the dough from the edge up and over the filling, pressing down on the outer edges and between each mound. With a dough wheel, or butter knife, cut the dough free from the rest of the dough, and slice between each ravioli, pressing together firmly if still needed.
Spread the finished ravioli on a plate to dry while you prepare the others.

To Cook:

In simmering, salted water, simmer the pasta for 5-7 minutes (avoid boiling, as it will burst the ravioli). If you want to cook all 60 ravioli at once, use a wide, deep pan. If you do it in batches, then place the cooked pasta, drizzled with a bit of melted butter, into an oven-safe pan with a lid, and keep it warm in a low-heated oven (50-100°C / 120-200°F).

Serve with your favourite pasta sauce, and grated cheese.  Serve with a robust red wine,  for example a somewhat buttery Chardonnay or a full-bodied Pinot Gris.  Fleshy, aromatic whites with a hint of fruit and oak are well suited to this dish. Thanks to The Wine Review for this tip!

Beef & Feta Cabbage Rolls

Recently my husband requested Cabbage Rolls with Feta and ground beef; I couldn’t find a good recipe, so I came up with this.  It’s a wee bit of work, but well worth the time!  You could mix up the components the day before if you wanted, to save time on the day.  It’s worthy of being a guest menu, especially when served with a robust red wine.  As a side dish you could serve green beans or another steamed vegetable.

500 gr. ground beef

1-2 packages Feta cheese, diced

cumin, salt, pepper to taste

lemon juice

1 onion, chopped

5-6 fresh mushrooms, sliced

2-3 C. rice, boiled

Saute the onions and mushrooms, adding the meat and browning.  Spice to taste, then toss in the Feta to melt into the mixture.  Set aside to cool, stirring in the rice whenever it is ready.

1 head Savoy Cabbage

You can prepare the cabbage one of two ways:  Either blanch the entire head in a large pot of boiling water, or do as I did:  Carefully separate the individual leaves, wash them, and “shave” down the thick spines to make them more flexible once softened.  Quickly microwave the leaves in batches (30 seconds to 1 minute on full power); this will make them pliable to roll.  Let them cool down a bit before handling.

250 gr. Grated cheese of your choice (Parmesan, Gruyére, etc.) to sprinkle on top just before baking

~1/2 – 1 C. Bread crumbs to sprinkle on top for an extra crunch (optional)

 

This next recipe is a basic white sauce; you can either use this or your own recipe, or mix up a batch of Make-Ahead Sauce.

BECHAMEL SAUCE (White Sauce)

6 Tbs. Butter

8 Tbs. Flour

4 C. (1 L) milk

Salt & white pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over moderate heat.  Stir in the flour & cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until it has lost the floury aroma.  Do not allow to brown.  Add the milk gradually, stirring to dissolve any lumps that have formed.  Heat, stirring frequently, until the sauce boils & becomes thick.  Spice to taste.

 

To Assemble:

Taking each leave, spoon in a bit of the meat mixture in the centre and roll the leave around it, laying the leaf seam-side down in a casserole dish.  Repeat until the casserole dish is full; any leftover meat can either be saved for a later meal or spread out atop the cabbage rolls.  Pour in the prepared White Sauce, and then top with the grated cheese. Place in a preheated oven at 200°C (400°F) for ~45-60 minutes, or until the cheese / bread crumb topping browns nicely.

Serve with a dry red wine.

Copycat Ranch Dressing Dry Mix & Dressing Recipe

For those of you who live in the States, you may be able to go out to the store and buy a large container of this; but if you read the ingredients list, and look up those chemical codes, you might be surprised to find out just how little that concoction resembles anything your grandmother would have recognized as “food.”  I prefer to mix it myself; then at least I know what I’m eating!  If you want to go all natural, grow and dry your spices yourself (here in Switzerland there are no added preservatives to most spices I buy), and try to find powdered milk that is just that – milk that has been dehydrated and pulverized, with no added sugar or chemicals.

I keep a large container of this at hand; it makes a great salad dressing (obviously), but can also be used in Bisquick biscuits, soups, or any meal that wants a quick zing added.  Mix it up and keep it in an air-tight container.  To mix up the dressing, make sure you use a generous-sized bottle as it will thicken, and you will likely need to add additional milk to bring it to the consistency you want.

Ranch Dressing Mix

½ C. powdered milk (unsweetened!)

1 Tbs. dried parsley, crushed

1 tsp. dried dill weed

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. dried onion flakes

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend at high speed until it forms a consistently smooth, fine powder. Store in an air-tight container.

Ranch Dressing

Combine

1 Tbs. mix

1 C. mayonnaise

1 C. milk; if you want a buttermilk taste, add 1 Tbs. lemon juice to the cup of milk.

Stir well.  It will thicken up because of the powdered milk, so make sure you use a large container or bottle.  If you want a “Lite” dressing,  I assume you’re smart enough to figure out the changes to ingredients on your own… 😉

Otherwise use 1 Tbs. in any recipe calling for an envelope of ranch dressing mix.

Southwest Beef Empanada & a Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix

Photo Credit: Betty Crocker

I’ll be making these once again this week.  This recipe was originally from Betty Crocker; one of my pet peeves is product placement in recipes; this is the 21st century, and bloggers are global which means that many people do not have access to Uncle Doohickey’s Gobbers, and have no idea how much “1 package” is!  When it comes to recipe ingredients, I’m a scratchaholic.  The Bisquick is a clone recipe I’ve already posted, and here you’ll find a good recipe for taco seasoning mix; there are hundreds out there on the web, but this is one I’ve used and like.

SOUTHWEST BEEF EMPANADAS

FILLING:

1  lb. (450 gr.) lean ground beef

1 oz. (30 gr.) taco seasoning mix

2/3  C. water

2-3 small potatoes, finely diced

8 oz. (225 gr.) carrots, finely sliced or diced

1  Tbs. dried minced onion (or 2 Tbs. fresh, finely chopped)

 

DOUGH:

4½  C. Bisquick mix 

1  C. boiling water

 

Heat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking sheet with baking paper, or grease with butter or oil of choice.

In a pan, sauté the diced potatoes and carrots in a splash of coconut oil or olive oil a minute, then add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until done; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix, the water, & onion. Reduce heat to medium; cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

In a bowl stir the Bisquick mix and boiling water together until a dough forms. On a surface sprinkled with Bisquick mix, roll the dough in the mix to coat; knead. Divide dough into 6 balls. Pat or roll each ball into 7-inch (18 cm) round. Place on the baking sheet. Spoon about ½ C. beef mixture onto one half of each round. Moisten the edge of each round with water and fold over the beef mixture, pressing the edges with a fork to seal. Cut 3 small slits into the top of each crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown.

 

TACO SEASONING MIX

In a small bowl, combine the following ingredients:

 

¼ tsp. onion powder

2 tsp. paprika

½ tsp. cayenne pepper

4 Tbs. flour

1 ½ tsp. powdered beef bouillon

½ tsp. sugar

3 tsp. dried chopped onion

2 ½ tsp. salt

4 tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. garlic powder

 

Mix well, and store in a sealed jar.  This should be enough for ~25 tacos.

Schinken-Kaese (Ham & Cheese) Strudel

This recipe is simple, delicious, and prepared quickly.  It’s one of those meals you can throw together in minutes, and perfect for a cool evening.  The cheese you choose will determine the distinctive flavour; I tend to use a sharp cheese, such as Gruyére cheese aged in a cave, or réserve if you can’t get anything more aged.  Cheddar might have too dominant a taste, but to each his or her own!  You can always experiment!

Schinken-Kaese Strudel

1 Phyllo pastry dough, rectangular

2 eggs

200 gr. grated cheese of choice

1 C. cream cheese

150 gr  Ham, finely chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

A sprinkling each of chives, salt and pepper

A bit of cream to brush to dough

Chop the ham & onion finely, then mix the eggs, spices & cheeses into the blend.  Mound along the centre of the phyllo dough leaving the ends and sides free; wrap and press the seam together carefully, then pinch together at the ends.  Flip over, seam-side down, and brush with the cream; take a sharp knife and cut a few slits along the top of the dough to allow steam to escape.  Bake at 200°C ~20-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Serve it alone, or with either a steamed vegetable of choice, or oven fries baked on the same tray as the strudel, surrounding it (bake according to their packaging directions; it may require more or less time than the strudel, so you may need to add one or the other seperately to time it well).

Afghani Mourgh (Afghani Lemon & Garlic Chicken) with Mint Couscous

This is a recipe I made on Sunday, and it was delicious!  This is a great recipe for trying out the Salted Lemons, and it was a success.  If you’re like me and only come up with these glorious cooking schemes a few hours before you need it for dinner, you can skip the overnight marinating, and just get it marinating as soon as you can.  It’s a simple dish, refreshing, and a nice change of pace!

TIP:  If you don’t have any fresh mint on hand, take a bag or two of peppermint tea (after all, it’s dried mint in a bag!), tear them open and pour them in.  I used both fresh mint, and 1 bag each (for the meat, and the couscous) for the meal.

Serve this with fresh plain yogurt, and hot peppermint tea.

Afghani Mourgh (Afghani Lemon & Garlic Chicken)

2 lg Cloves garlic

1 Tbs. finely chopped Salted Lemons (OR:  ½ tsp. Salt plus Juice & pulp of 1 large fresh lemon, 3 to 4 Tbs.)

2 C. Plain, whole-milk yogurt

black pepper (amount to taste)

2 lg Whole chicken breasts, about 2 pounds (boneless and skinless).  You can either use them whole, or slice them into strips.

a small handful of fresh mint sprigs, washed and finely chopped (leaves and stem)

1/2 an onion, finely diced

 

Chop up the salted lemons into half-pea-sized bits.  Any juice that comes with it can be poured into the marinating bowl, and add a bit more from the preserves jar if needed.  If you haven’t yet made the salted lemons, then simply add the salt and lemon as above.  Finely chop a couple cloves of garlic, and stir all together.  For a finer mixture, mash them together with the back of a spoon until you have a paste.

Add the plain yogurt & pepper, then the chopped peppermint and onion.

Skin the chicken breasts, remove all visible fat & separate the halves, or slice as you like it.

Turn the meat into the marinade, and stir until well-coated. Cover the bowl tightly & refrigerate. If you thought of it ahead of time, allow it to marinate at least overnight, up to a day & a half. Turn when you think of it.  Otherwise, let it marinade as long as possible.

To cook, remove breasts from marinade & wipe off all but a thin film. Broil or grill about 6 inches from the heat for 6 to 8 minutes a side, or until thoroughly cooked. Meat will brown somewhat but should not char. Once the meat is slightly brown, pour in the marinade and allow it to cook down somewhat.

Serves 2-4

Mint Couscous

2 C. uncooked couscous

1/2 an onion, finely diced

a small handful of fresh mint sprigs and leaves, washed and finely chopped

2 to 2 1/2 C. boiling water

 

In a heat-proof bowl, pour in the uncooked couscous, then stir in the onion and mint; add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour in the boiling water, stir quickly, and cover.  When the liquid is absorbed, fluff the couscous with a fork and test; if it needs more boiling water, or flavouring, adjust accordingly.

The Best Cookies You’ll Ever Make

That may seem like a presumptuous title; after all, everyone thinks their cookies are the best, right?  But I have yet to come across another recipe that evokes the responses this one does:  I made them this week, and after one bite a guest asked if I would give his wife the recipe!  I’ve had people groaning with pleasure after the first bite, and they’re seriously addictive, as light as air, and melt-on-your-tongue delicious.

But what makes these cookies so special to me personally is the story behind them:  My paternal grandmother, Mary Mae Herring-Higbee, was a Kansas farmer’s wife; she crossed the prairies with her parents in a covered wagon around 1902 as a baby, and they settled in the wild prairies of Kansas, where she met my grandfather and set up house.  She lost seven or eight children before my father came along when she was 40, and he remained an only child.  She was a no-nonsense pioneer, a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in a town so small that if you were driving through it at 10 miles an hour and sneezed, you’d miss it (really).  These were her cookies.  When she was baking these even the air was edible they smelled so good, and I burnt my tongue on several occasions because I couldn’t wait for them to cool to take the first one.

Being the simple farmer’s wife she was however, she figured everyone knew how to make these so she never wrote the recipe down, and took it to the grave with her.  One day as a teenager I determined to figure out the recipe before it faded from my memory, and spent all day trying to find the secret ingredient and combination that makes them melt on the tongue.  I was at the end of my rope, batches of failed (but very good) cookies up to my eyeballs, when in walked my brother, hands stuffed into his pockets.  “Watchyadoin’?” When I told him, he casually tasted a cookie and said, “You don’t have any applesauce in ’em” and walked to his room.  I didn’t know whether to strangle him or hug him.

So without further ado:

Kansan Farmer’s Cookies

1 tsp. baking soda + 2 Tbs. hot water; disolve soda in water

1 tsp. baking powder

1 C. melted butter (or oil of choice)

¾ C. brown sugar

¾ C. white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. each of vanilla & almond extracts

2 C. + flour*

1 C. raisins (light or dark)*

~1 C. chocolate chips*

3/4 can (average size) apple sauce – should be added until it lightens the dough colour  & texture; not drippy, but light and viscous.

Drop onto a baking sheet by the spoonful, far enough apart (they will spread a bit while baking).  Bake @ 190°C for 10 minutes, or until glazed light brown.  While they’re still hot remove to a cooling rack with a spatula that’s large enough for the cookie – they’re especially soft while warm.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen palm-sized cookies.

* If you toss the raisins and chocolate chips in the flour before adding to the liquid ingredients, it prevents them from sinking to the bottom during the baking process.

Swiss Cholera – Oberwalliser Lauchkuchen (Valais Leek Pie)

This traditional Swiss recipe got its dubious name most likely during the cholera epidemics of the early 19th century; unwilling to leave the house, they used what they had on hand, packing it into a pie and baking it.  An educated guess is that, especially up in the Alps where technology was slow to come and even slower to be accepted, people were baking these either in their stone or clay bread ovens.  The apples add a nice contrast to the leeks and ham, and a good cheese makes all the difference in the world!  Raclette cheese is recommended for the reason that it’s quite a creamy melting cheese, but any good-quality cheese will work as well – Appenzeller, Gruyere, Emmentaler, etc.

Swiss Cholera

1 large onion, finely diced

300 gr. Leeks (3-4 stalks), halved lengthwise and ringed

60 gr. Ham, finely chopped

Nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste

250 gr. (6-8 med.) potatoes, boiled, chopped

2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

150 Raclette cheese, or any good cheese, grated or diced

butter and flour for the baking form

500 gr. Pie crust dough (enough for a bottom and top crust)

1 egg yolk for brushing the top dough

Traditional Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) Prepare the vegetables.  Saute the ham, adding spices to taste, then add the onion and leek, then add the chopped potatoes and apples; stir well, remove from heat.  Just before pouring the mixture into the prepared bottom crust, mix the grated cheese into the pan well.

Butter and flour your chosen baking form (round, or casserole), and then lay the bottom crust in.  Pour in the mixture, spreading out and topping with the top crust.  Pinch the edges together, slice away any extra dough, and puncture the top dough with a knife or fork to allow steam to escape.  Brush with the egg yolk, and bake for ~35-45 minutes.

My Method:

Preheat the oven.  Instead of sauteeing the vegetables before baking, I prepare the vegetables as described in the ingredients list, then toss them together with the grated cheese and spices before pouring it all into the prepared bottom crust.  I add a wee bit of milk, but it’s not really necessary.  Top with the top crust, pinch it together and trim away the extra dough, then bake as above.  In the boiling of the potatoes, I also added a few carrots to add a bit of colour; I boiled them with the potatoes, and chopped them both to large bite-sized bits once they were cool enough to handle.

En Guete!

Prep:  30 minutes  /  Bake:  45 minutes  /  Total:  75 minutes

Swiss Salted Lemons

The following recipe is translated (by me) from the recent edition of “Landliebe”, a Swiss country-living magazine.  It’s my favourite magazine, and as soon as I saw this recipe I had to try it!  My lemons are now in the end of the curing phase, and almost ready to use!  Looking forward to it, and when I find and try a good recipe to use them in, I’ll post it here.  The sky’s the limit, really – you can use these in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, Caribbean, or South American cuisine, to name a few.  The trick to doing this according to the proportions of the recipe is finding the right-sized jar; too roomy, and you’ll need a lot more lemon juice to cover the lemons (I topped mine up with lemon and lime juice).

The peeling of these is soft and edible.  Finely chopped, it adds flavour to any meat or vegetable.  Usually additional salt is unnecessary.

Salted Lemons

4 lemons – untreated

Wash in hot water, and then lay in a vat of cold water for ONE WEEK, changing the water daily.

After 1 week, slice into the lemon peeling in diagonals around each lemon, so that it goes deep but remains whole. Press together lightly, and in each opening sprinkle: 1/4 tsp. Coarse-grained salt

Layer the lemons into a canning jar, then add:

1 lemon’s juice

1 Tbs. Coarse-grained salt

1 whole clove

1 bay leaf

1 black peppercorn

With the ball of your hand, press the lemons together and seal the jar.  Place in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks.

They are good for 1 year kept in a cool place, even when the jar is opened occasionally.