Simple Sauce for Crispy Pan-Fried Noodles

I recently discovered crispy noodles that I can make at home! Aaaand, I've started making them more often. It's kind of been a trial and error on finding a sauce that tastes right to me for it. Finally found this one on rasamalaysia which I guess was actually a guest post from another blogger, Taste Hong Kong. Either way the sauce was perfect for it, and at some point I do intend to do the full on recipe as is. Lately I've just been making the sauce plain and pouring it over the noodles. So yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 3/4 tsp sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp cornstarch
• 1 cup and 2 Tbsp water

PREPARATION:

1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. 
2. Bring to a boil stirring frequently, usually just boil it for a minute or two.
3. Pour over noodles and enjoy!

Chewy Caramel Popcorn

Adapted from this recipe on Allrecipes. Really quick and easy to make, tried it for the first time this year and ended up making a ton of batches! 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 bag of microwave popcorn, popped

PREPARATION:

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. 
2. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.
3.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly. As soon as first bubbles appear, allow mixture to boil for 3 minutes without stirring. 
4. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. 
5. Spread out on lined cookie sheet, breaking apart into smaller pieces as you go and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Blueberry Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

We tried this recipe for the first time today, and it was awesome! We got some blueberries in our co-op basket and were trying to figure out what we wanted to do with them, other than just eat them as-is :), and I was thinking for whatever reason that it would be good as a sauce with balsamic vinegar. Went on the trusty internet and found a couple of various recipes which were pretty much identical. Turns out someone else had the idea before I did! 

This is a French dish and was incredibly home~y and rustic. I could totally see myself ordering it at a French restaurant or maybe even a pub somewhere. :) We had it with mashed potatoes, and it was a great Fall dish - even though it isn't quite Fall yet! One thing we did notice was that 10 min. definitely wasn't long enough in the oven to finish cooking. I would definitely do it for at least double that. We kept checking w/ the thermometer just to make sure. Maybe we didn't brown it long enough? Or it really does make a difference browning in a skillet vs a regular frying pan? We're going to try browning it longer next time, but really either way it turned out great and the flavor was awesome! If you want to retain some of your crispy skin after browning I would use a larger baking dish so that your sauce doesn't completely cover your chicken. 

We had ours with brownies for dessert, but during dinner we ended up talking about other desserts that would go really well with this, like a free-form apple tart, baked cheesecake, lemon pie...yum! We figured this would be great for company and easy to stretch out, recipe made quite a bit of sauce. We were thinking it would also be really nice with a green salad with feta too, if you decided to serve it in courses... Such an inspiring dish, ha! And it was fairly easy to do and the results were well worth the effort!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4-6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or 2 lbs bone-in leg and thigh (we used thawed frozen chicken thighs from Costco, 4 thighs in a pack, worked great) 
• 2 shallots, about 1/4 cup, thinly sliced (we substituted this with regular onion thinly sliced)
• 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen - we supplemented with frozen)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup maple syrup (Used honey because we already had it! But I imagine it would be really good with maple syrup, want to try it that way sometime...)
• 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. Heat 1 Tbsp each of oil and butter in a large skillet until hot and bubbly. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and sear over medium high heat until golden brown - about 1 minute per side or until a light crust forms. Remove to baking dish and set aside.
3. Add remaining oil and butter to pan and when hot stir in shallots and cook until soft and lightly caramelized - about 4 minutes.
4. Add blueberries to shallots and cook 1 minute. Add balsamic vinegar, honey or maple syrup, rosemary and salt and pepper. Simmer about 10 min, or until blueberries have collapsed.
5.  Pour blueberry balsamic mixture over chicken and place baking dish in top half of oven for about 10 min. (25-35 min. I would say start at 25 and check and then go from there), until the chicken has cooked to interior temp of 170° F 

Lamb with Rosemary Honey Mustard Glaze

This recipe is one that Don found from Allrecipes. It is the best recipe I've ever had for lamb and all the ingredients are items we have on hand with the exception of fresh rosemary, which we do actually get. Usually we substitute for dry, which I imagine you could, but it really is awesome with fresh if you can get it for a reasonable price. Original recipe calls for leg of lamb, but we have always done it with a lamb roast, which we get at Costco. I imagine you could do it with pretty much any cut of lamb and it would still be great. We like making extra marinade to use as a sauce, it really is that good! Can be served with pretty much anything, we've done it a couple of times with a quinoa recipe and the flavors went together really well. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (We use the Grey Poupon brand)
• 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Optional: dash each of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar (Haven't tried it this way yet, but want to at some point. Some of the reviewers prepared it this way and it's supposed to be really good!)
• 2 lbs of lamb roast approx. (Original recipe calls for 5 lbs of lamb leg, but the roasts we get are smaller)
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt 

PREPARATION:

1. Combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, pepper, lemon zest and garlic. Mix well (some reviewers recommend putting it all in the blender to mix. I think if you want to make extra to use it as a sauce afterwards I would definitely recommend that b/c of the garlic cloves) and apply to the lamb. Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight. 
2. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
3. Place lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle with salt to taste. Cover loosely with a foil tent.
4. Cook for 20 min at 450 then turn the oven down to 350 and cook for 1 hour. Remove the foil and turn the heat temp up to 400 and cook for another 10 - 15 min. (Consider simplifying, I don't know if all this is quite necessary...will double check the next time we make it and update this.)
5. Let the roast sit for 10 min and then carve and serve with extra marinade as sauce! Yum!

Char Siu - Cantonese BBQ'd Pork

Don and I made this for the first time just last month. Up until this point I thought the only way to make this was from pre-made powder sauce packets etc. It just seemed too complicated to try to make from scratch and I wasn't the biggest fan of the results from the packets. Then I found this post about it, on none other than our favorite Chinese food blog, Appetite for China! (I've been copying out more of her recipes recently b/c I've been having issues accessing her site for some reason. It' been glitchy and won't load...)I watched the video, and it turns out it wasn't so bad at all! I watched a couple of other videos and read a few other recipes for it, but this one still seemed the easiest to do without hunting down a bunch of extra ingredients. We tried them in sandwiches a couple of times, done up like the pork in this recipe(found the buns in the freezer section of our Chinese market, only a couple of dollars) and it was really a simplified quick and easy way to have a Cha Siu Bao without having to make everything else from scratch. :0) I liked them with the cilantro and we also did a couple with some sliced cucumber! Yum!
  

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb whole pork belly, skin removed (We prefer using pork loin, less fatty. I've read some people use pork butt for the same reason.)
• 2 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (Found some cooking rice wine at our local Chinese market. I have heard you can substitute this for apple or orange juice. Also saw something about using vinegar sugar and a dash of lemon juice?)
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar (I read one variation that used agave sweetener instead of sugar, wonder how that would taste?)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp hoisin sauce (This is a Chinese BBQ sauce, sweeter than traditional western BBQ sauces)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder (Definitely can be found in Chinese markets - we got ours at a World Market.)
• 2 Tbsp honey 

PREPARATION:

1. Marinate the pork belly: In a large bowl, mix together the rice wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, garlic, hoisin sauce and fice spice powder. Rub the pork belly with the marinade mixture and marinate for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (We usually set a large ziploc bag in the bowl and do everything in that instead, makes for less mess and much easier clean-up. Also makes it easier to 'rub' everything together.) 
2. Preheat the oven to 325.
3. Hold up the pork for a few seconds to allow excess marinade to drip off, then place the pork in a roasting pan. Brush the top with the honey. (Make sure to either spray and or line pan with tin foil, this can make quite a big sticky mess as it cooks.) Roast the pork for about 45 min, flipping over the pork belly half-way through and brushing honey on the other side. The pork is done when the outsides begin to crisp and blacken and the center of the pork belly strip feels firm.
4. Remove the pork from oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and serve.

Mapo Doufu or Mapo Tofu

This is an awesome recipe from one of our favorite go to cooking blogs for Chinese food. In fact I think this is the first recipe I ever cooked from her blog and was the reason I stumbled onto the Appetite for China blog in the first place. The flavors were spot on for what I was looking for and it was not ridiculously difficult to make. Ever since I've always checked her website for Chinese recipes first, and I've never had a problem with a single one! (FYI - she also has a cookbook out now!) It can be a little on the spicy side for kids, but I don't really have spicy tolerance and this has been just fine for me! Makes 4 servings but very easy to stretch out and make more of. Here's a link to the original recipe and site.
  

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (or substitute black bean sauce)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2½ tablespoons chili bean paste
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (We've made this for years w/o ever putting it in b/c we never had it and it had always tasted awesome anyways!)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper (Awesome addition if you can find it, we found this at an Asian market as whole peppercorns. We have also made it w/o this and while it isn't as aromatic w/o it, it still tastes just fine.)

Other Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• ½ pound ground pork or beef
• 2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced at an angle (Because leeks are usually harder to find and aren't regularly stocked in our 'pantry' we usually end up using regular green onion.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 block soft or medium-firm tofu (about 1 pound), drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
• 1 scallion, green part only, chopped for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. Prepare the sauce: Rinse the black beans to remove any grit. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a spoon. Combine the black beans with the chicken stock, chili bean paste, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and Sichuan pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the peanut oil and swirl to coat the base. Add the pork and stir-fry until crispy and starting to brown but not yet dry, about 2 minutes, breaking up the pork with a spatula. Reduce the heat to medium, then add leeks, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Pour in the sauce and bring the liquid to a boil, the reduce to a simmer. The liquid should now have a nice red color. Gently add the tofu cubes, being careful to not move them around too much or else they will break up. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes so the tofu can cook and absorb the the sauce.
4. Carefully push the tofu to the sides and create a small well in the middle. Stir in the cornstarch mixture in the center. Allow the liquid to simmer for another minute, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a deep plate or wide bowl, sprinkle scallions on top, and serve hot.

German Pancakes / Dutch Babies for Two!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 - 3 Tbsp butter for baking dish - not mixed in w/ other ingredients
• 2 eggs at room temp (can put in a bowl of warm water for a bit)
• 1/2 cup warmed milk (heat up for about 20 sec in microwave) 
• 1/2 cup sifted flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch salt
• Juice from 1 lemon and about 2 Tbsp powdered sugar for topping

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F 
2. As the oven is warming, put butter in 8x8 baking dish and let melt as oven preheats.
3. Place eggs and milk in blender, blend lightly until frothy. Add remaining ingredients and blend until just incorporated. 
4. Remove baking dish from oven with melted butter and pour batter in without stirring or mixing and return to oven.
5. Bake 20 - 25 min. until golden brown crust on top and puffy!
6. Top with lemon juice and powdered sugar and enjoy!

Broccoli Salad

So this past Easter we had a family lunch/dinner at my Sis-in-law Melanie's house, and she made this awesome salad. We got the recipe from her and as I was looking it over to add to the site I discovered I had one incredibly similar already posted from when I took my cooking class back at BYU. Who knew? 

I certainly hadn't been using it lately and I definitely fell in love the version I had at Easter so I decided to update and kind of mash the two recipes together, hence all the options for quantities! Seriously though, you can just eyeball everything and it will still turn out fantastic, it's that great. 

Hearty enough to be a meal on it's own with a side of rolls/bread/cornbread or whatever else you want! The dressing recipe included is the halved proportions. We found that the original had to much dressing for our taste. So if you like more dressing with your salad, it can easily be doubled.

INGREDIENTS:
For Salad:

• 1 large head (3-4 cups) of fresh broccoli, washed and trimmed
• ¼ - ½ cup red onion, finely diced
• ½ - 1 cup craisins or raisins

Optional (but highly recommended) Mix-Ins:

• 4 - 6 strips of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
• ½ - 1 cup shredded cheese (I've used sharp cheddar and Parmesan before, both great) 
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup pepitas
• ½ - 1 cup cashews or chopped pecans or walnuts

For Dressing:

• 1 cup low-fat mayonnaise
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (can substitute w/ regular vinegar if it’s all you have)
• 2 Tbsp sugar

PREPARATION:

1. In small separate bowl, make salad dressing by combining all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
2. Cut broccoli into small florets, peel the stem and cut into 1/2" pieces.
3. Combine broccoli, onions, craisins, nuts, bacon, and cheese.
4. Pour dressing over salad.
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve and toss before serving

Note: This salad can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for hours, even overnight.