Steamed Chicken Experiment!

Today I thought we'd try to steam a chicken. Since I was at home it was a very opportune moment. Here's the spice packet used. Something hidden for a long time in Aaron's pantry.





After about 5 hours of steaming the finished result. My apologies for not showing the untouched chicken. We were very excited and only remembered to take the pictures after a very excited Aaron has started to carve the bird.




We will definitely do it again and hopefully with a fish soon too. Until then, buen provecho!

Dinnah!! Longs beans with spicy bean sauce, honey garlic chicken and egg tofu!

From Honey Garlic Chicken

Any good chicken dish starts with a good marinade. Begin by marinating your chicken in chinese rice wine vinegar, thick soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper for a minimum of 20 minutes (a few hours is best). The vinegar will help break down the meat and tenderize it.

Side dishes are best left simple but flavorful. First we have some long beans with spicy black bean sauce. Very, very easy, throw some sesame oil on the wok, throw in the long beans and the sauce and stir fry it.

From Honey Garlic Chicken

Next with the egg tofu, same approach but a little more dressed up. Start stir frying some shallots at a medium heat until they are cooked, once they are starting to crisp up throw in the minced garlic. Once the garlic is cooked and the shallots crispy, remove them from the wok. Now throw in the tofu with some sesame oil. After the tofu starts to crisp up throw in some scallions. Once the tofu is crispy on both sides, remove from the stove, top with the shallots and garlic and add soy sauce to taste.




Finally, cut your chicken (against the grain) into thin strips so that they cook quickly. Toss them into the wok with some onion (we used red onion for a change and the flavors went well together), and a little vegetable oil. At this point we added the honey garlic sauce and stir fry at a higher temperature. That's dinner :).

From Honey Garlic Chicken

Garden update

The herb lineup next to the Begonia and the wine rack Meli found from Craigslist:

Begonia closeup:

New Cilantro:

Cactus goes on a reproductive frenzy:

Not a plant, but introducing, The Wok:

Outside:

New addition; Gardenia:

Chocolate Mint, recovering strong after its battle with the aphids:

Ants feasting on the body of a vanquished aphid:

Puerto Rican desserts: Tembleque (Coconut Custard)

From Custards

Today I felt like doing something sweet, easy and comforting to brighten up my day since there's been so much work while my friends enjoy a day out. Between work and housework life has been pretty exhausting lately. Luckily this put a smile on my face along with some lounging around with Chef Wok watching animal planet hehe. Without further ado, I give you my tembleque recipe!

Tembleque is almost like a coconut custard but it does not use eggs.

Ingredients:

15oz can of coconut cream - not milk
2 cups of milk - preferably whole milk
1/2 cup of cornstarch
4 tblsp of sugar
a pinch of salt
1 stick of cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
cinnamon powder for decoration

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl combine your milk and coconut cream until they look homogeneous. Pour about 1/2 cup of this mixture into a pot and start adding the cornstarch slowly so it doesn't clump. Once you've added all the cornstarch turn on a burner on medium-high heat and place your pot with this initial mixture over it. Stirring continuously add the rest of the liquids and then proceed to add the sugar and salt. It is very important that you continue to stir otherwise you will end up with a very weird looking ball of goo.

As the mixture heats up and begins to thicken you'll notice it becomes gelatinous, this is the consistency that we want. As it starts to boil you'll notice it separates easily from the sides of the pot. After it starts boiling continue to mix for about 2 minutes. At this point pour your mixture into a mold that has been recently washed with cold water. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top and let it chill it the refrigerator for a minimum of 3 hours. Then enjoy!

Cookies and gardening

This past weekend we made a yellow cake with orange/mango frosting, oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and walnuts (my foolproof Oatmeal Choc Chip from the Quaker oats box recipe). We also spent some time buying some plants for our garden. This is what we have so far:

- tomatoes
- sweet pepper
- thai pepper
- strawberries
- spicy oregano
- sweet basil
- chocolate mint (it smells so good!)
- chives
- cilantro
- yellow begonias
- purple/pink hydrangeas
- spider plant

They all looked much better after being re-potted. Lucky for us WalMart had some clay pots for a very low price and we were able to get new homes for all of them. Here's a few pictures from before and during re-potting and some pictures of our baking results! The cake didn't come out quite perfect as it sank in the center after coming out of the oven. We think it was because I forgot to sift the flour before measuring it - won't be making the same mistake twice!