Category Archives: Asian Style

Stir-Fry Pepper Steak

April 22, 2014Asian Style, Beef Dishes, Heart-Healthy, Quick MealsKidd

Back when I was a single college student, not as into cooking as I am today, there was a pepper-steak making kit, I think made by La Choy, that I liked making. I don’t know if it’s even sold anymore. You’d buy the steak separately and cut that up, but the vegetables came pre-cut in a can, along with a little packet of powder you’d mix with water to make the sauce. So it was mostly pre-made, but involved just enough cooking to make you feel like you accomplished something. And it was tasty.

But those preserved vegetables that came out of the can probably weren’t quite at the peak of their nutritional value. These days I still sometimes get the hankering for a simple stir-fry, but I use better and fresher ingredients. This is quick, easy and really good.

Ingredients:

1 lb. sirloin steak
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 green bell pepper
1 bunch green onions (scallions)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced ginger
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 15oz. can bean sprouts
1 cup dry rice (about 3 cups cooked)
1 Tablespoon corn starch
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
15 oz. low-sodium beef stock
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon black pepper

1.
Start cooking the rice according to the rice brand’s cooking instructions. It should take about 20 minutes to cook- just in time for the stir fry to be done cooking.
2.
Cut the red and green peppers into thin strips. Slice up the mushrooms. Cut the green onions into about 1/2″ strips. Mince the garlic and ginger up finely. Cut the steak into thin strips similar to the peppers. Remove the bean sprouts form the can and drain. Now most of your work is already done:

3.
Now we make the sauce. Mix a heaping tablespoon of corn starch with a little water. Mix that into the beef stock, and add the soy sauce and black pepper:

4.
Now heat a couple tablespoons of peanut oil in a large pan, and brown the steak strips with the garlic and ginger. If you have a wok with gas stovetop burners, by all means use that- I have a wok, but alas my stove has electric burners so I use a flat pan to get the temperature hot enough– stir fry should involve high heat and plenty of stirring:

5.
Add the remaining vegetables except for the bean sprouts, and stir-fry until the vegetables are cooked just enough to be still somewhat crisp and still brightly colored:

6.
Add the bean sprouts and sauce and cook a little longer, stirring, until the sauce thickens up a little. Serve over the rice. Enjoy!

Fried Rice

June 18, 2013Asian Style, Quick Meals, SidesKidd

Fried Rice

Well, here’s the fried rice recipe that I promised in a week two weeks ago…

Fried rice is nice and versatile because it can usually be thrown together from what’s already around in the refrigerator and the cupboard, and it can be a side dish or the main course. Add some shrimp toward the end– make it shrimp fried rice, and it can be a pretty impressive main course.

This is a good way to use up leftover rice if you made too much for yesterday’s dinner. In this case I cooked rice intending to use it for the fried rice, so I cooked it with low-sodium chicken stock for a little more flavor. If I use leftover rice that was cooked with water, I just adjust the amount of soy sauce I add when frying the rice up.

Since I was making this to go with the smoky BBQed Garlic-Soy Chicken, but cooking it separately on the stovetop, I wanted to add some smoky flavor to the rice, and I didn’t think the bacon would add enough. So I got the idea to add some smoked almonds I had left over from a camping trip. I actually tried to slice them to make slivered almonds, but they mostly just crumbled on me. But the almonds really added a lot to the fried rice– in addition to the smoky taste they added a nice crunch to it. So if you wanted to add smoked almonds, I’d recommend just putting them in a plastic ziplock bag and breaking them up with a mallet, soupcan, whatever you got that can break up almonds but not cause too much damage.

Ingredients:

1 cup long-grain rice (I like Basmati).

2 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken Stock or Water
6 Strips Bacon
Handful of Diced Green Onion
3-4 Cloves Minced Garlic
6-8 Mushrooms
1/2 of a Sweet Red or Orange Pepper, or 1/2 Carrot, cut into thin strips (mostly for color)
1/2 Cup Smoked Almonds, broken up
1 Egg
1-2 Tbsp. Peanut Oil
Soy Sauce to taste
Fine-Ground Black Pepper to taste

Special Utensils:

Wok or Large Pan

Serves 4

Heat the 2 cups of low-sodium chicken stock or water to boiling, then add the rice, turn heat down to low, and cover. It should be ready in about 20 minutes, just enough time to get the rest of the ingredients ready. A tip if you’re making the rice for the fried rice recipe– use just a little bit less than 2 cups of liquid to the 1 cup of rice. If the rice is a little on the dry side and not mushy at all it will do better in the frying pan.

Heat up the oil in the wok or large pan. Now everything goes fast once the oil is hot…add the bacon and cook until it starts to get crispy. Add the minced garlic and sweet peppers/carrot, and cook until garlic starts to soften up. Add the rice and mix it around in the hot oil. Add mushrooms and keep mixing rice, making sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan. Add pepper and soy sauce to taste.

Move the rice to make a free area at the bottom and break the egg into it. Mix the egg until it starts to set up, then mix the scrambled egg into the rice. This would be the time to add the shrimp if you were in the mood. Add diced green onion and almonds. Keep cooking and mixing rice until the mushrooms (and shrimp) are cooked, then it’s ready to serve. Enjoy!

Garlic and Soy Sauce Marinated Grilled Chicken

June 4, 2013Asian Style, BBQ, Chicken, Heart-HealthyKidd

Garlic and Soy Sauce Marinated Grilled Chicken

Wanted to grill something this past weekend. But we didn’t have much in the house and this is the season when all the yard work makes every weekend minute precious– no time in the schedule for a last-minute grocery store run. Let’s see what we have…hmmm, some boneless chicken breasts. OK, but how to season them…a spice rub? Nahh, done that many times. Maybe some kind of marinade, but what kind exactly? What to make, what to make… finally decided on a quasi-Asian style marinade. Only had a few hours to marinate it, but it turned out great! For a side dish I made some fried rice with ingredients I had on hand– that’s what’s in the background of the pic above. The rice turned out really good too– I’ll make a separate post on the fried rice next week.

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Breasts, Boneless or better yet, Bone-in. Dark meat such as chicken thighs work really well for this recipe too.

1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Peanut Oil
1/4 Cup Mirin (Rice Vinegar)
2-3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Fine-Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Whole Head of Garlic

Special Utensils:

Meat Thermometer
Garlic Press (optional)

Serves 4

Separate the cloves from the head of garlic and remove the skins. Dice up the garlic, or better yet, crush the cloves in a garlic press. Mix the garlic with the rest of the marinade ingredients. Marinate the chicken for at least several hours, preferably overnight.

As always, heat up enough charcoal to cover half the grill, and either burn some of your favorite hardwood down to coals or soak some wood chips for smoking. What I’ve been doing lately is lighting the charcoal in a chimney starter, then pouring out the coals onto the bottom of the grill when they’re good and ignited (but before they’re covered in gray ash, meaning they’re ready for cooking). I put some pieces of wood on the charcoal so it has a chance to catch fire, burn down to coals and be ready for cooking when the charcoal’s ready. the slightly quicker, easier method is to briefly soak wood chips, and throw the chips on the charcoal when it’s ready for cooking. I used apple wood, and it worked really well with this recipe.

Here’s a tip for cooking marinated meats when the coals and the smoking wood are ready– I tried this with the chicken, and it worked nicely. Usually you want to cook the meat on the hot side of the grill first to get a nice sear on the outside, then move to the cooler side of the grill to finish cooking. This works great if you used a dry rub, or you’re cooking some nice steaks seasoned only with a little salt and pepper. But if you take marinated meat directly from the marinade to the hot side of the grill it will drip on the coals and create a sooty smoke that may give the meat an off-taste. Also, it’ll be hard to get a good sear on the wet marinated meat right away. Works better to cook on the cooler side of the grill first– put down a drip pan or some foil to catch the excess marinade. Use the meat thermometer and when the chicken is close to temperature, move to the hot side of the grill to brown both sides of the chicken last. Cook to 165 degrees, let the chicken rest for a few minutes, serve and enjoy!

Ramen Noodle Soup

May 21, 2013Asian Style, Quick Meals, Seafood, Soup, SpicyKidd

Ramen Noodle Soup

From those 5-for-a-dollar noodle packets that are a staple of broke college students everywhere, to high-end Japanese Noodle restaurants, ramen noodle soups really run the gamut in price and sophistication. I ate a lot of those cheap packaged ramen noodles in college, and I still get a hankering for a bowl of noodles every now and then. You can buy higher quality ramen noodles at Asian markets or the Asian section of well-equipped grocery stores. I’ve used those, and they’re good. But we keep the cheap packaged noodles around for emergencies, in case we want to throw together a quick and really tasty bowl of noodle soup.

First, throw out the little packet of powdered seasoning that comes with the noodles– it’s full of sodium, MSG, and God knows what else. We’re going to make a much more flavorful and healthy soup base for the ramen noodles.

Since this site is called “RecipeOptions.com”, I’ll give two options for ramen noodle soups here– a spicy Thai Tom Yum-style soup, and a non-spicy soy sauce-flavored soup. These are not strictly authentic recipes– just quick and delicious Asian style soups I put together using ingredients I’m likely to have on hand.

These recipes serve about two people (or one if you’re hungry). Double up on ingredients as needed.

Spicy Tom Yum Style Ramen

Ingredients:

6-8 Raw Jumbo Shrimp, Deveined.
1 Package Ramen Noodles
2 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken Stock
Juice of 1 Lime
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Heaping Teaspoon Thai-Style Red Curry Paste
3-4 Cloves Garlic, Diced
1/2″ Square Piece of Diced Ginger
1-2 Celery Sticks
6 Green Onions
Peppers– Any Combo of Red/Green Bell, Thai, Jalapeno, Serrano, or Sweet Peppers– depending on what you have on hand and how hot you want your soup.
Handful of Mushrooms
Red Chili Pepper to taste– once again, depending on how spicy you like
1 Teaspoon of Peanut Oil
Few Drops Toasted Sesame Oil
Fresh Cilantro (Optional)

Dice up garlic and ginger. Cut celery and peppers into thin strips. Dice up mushrooms and cut green onion into 1/4-1/2″ pieces. Juice the lime. Cut shrimp down center about halfway through to butterfly them so they cook quickly and evenly.

Heat up a soup pan, add the sesame oil (just a few drops for flavor) and the peanut oil. Add the garlic, ginger, peppers, mushrooms and celery and stir-fry them in the oil for just a few minutes– not too long. Add chicken stock, red curry paste, fish sauce, and chili pepper. When it starts to simmer, add ramen noodles and cook for about two minutes.

Add green onion, lime juice and cilantro (if you like cilantro– a lot of people don’t like the taste, but if you do it really adds a lot to the soup). Finally, add the shrimp, turn off the heat, cover and let the soup sit for about three minutes. This is the secret to NOT overcooking shrimp in soup– don’t boil it! Make sure the shrimp is completely submerged in the broth and let the residual heat cook the shrimp just right. Enjoy!

Ramen Noodles with Soy Sauce Flavored Broth

Ingredients:

6-8 Raw Jumbo Shrimp, Deveined.
1 Package Ramen Noodles
2 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken Stock
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
3-4 Cloves Garlic, Diced
1/2″ Square Piece of Diced Ginger
1-2 Celery Sticks
6 Green Onions
1/2 Sweet Red Bell Pepper
Handful of Mushrooms
Fine-Ground White or Black Pepper, to Taste
1 Teaspoon of Peanut Oil
1 Sheet Nori (Japanese Seaweed), cut or torn into strips

Dice up garlic and ginger. Cut celery and peppers into thin strips. Dice up mushrooms and cut green onion into 1/4-1/2″ pieces. Cut shrimp down center about halfway through to butterfly them so they cook quickly and evenly.

Heat up a soup pan and add the peanut oil. Add the garlic, ginger, red pepper, mushrooms and celery and stir-fry them in the oil for just a few minutes– not too long. Add chicken stock, soy sauce, and white or black pepper. When it starts to simmer, add ramen noodles and cook for about two minutes.

Add green onion and nori. Finally, add the shrimp, turn off the heat, cover and let the soup sit for about three minutes. This is the secret to NOT overcooking shrimp in soup– don’t boil it! Make sure the shrimp is completely submerged in the broth and let the residual heat cook the shrimp just right. Enjoy!

Thai-Style Red Curry Stir-Fry

April 20, 2011Asian Style, Chicken, Quick MealsAsian-Style, Chicken, Quick MealsKidd

Red Curry with Chicken and Shrimp

Thai food is Kristina’s favorite, and it’s right up there in my favorites as well. Unfortunately a few years ago we moved from an area that had great Thai restaurants on just about very corner to a place where the Thai places are few and far between. So I’ve tried to come up with a pretty good approximation, although I’m far from a real authentic Thai chef.

A couple ingredients that often go in an authentic Thai red curry, like kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass, you probably won’t find unless you visit an Asian grocery. So I use lime juice, which makes a good substitute for the citrus flavors of the lime leaf and lemongrass. If you have an Asian grocery nearby and want to get the special ingredients, great, but if that’s not an option, the ingredients I use here are all what can typically be found in your average grocery store.

I’m adding this one to the “Quick Meals” category, but with one caveat- this is a two-step process. The first step is making the coconut milk/chicken stock for the curry, which takes time, but can be frozen in portions for next time. When it’s next time and when you have some of that curry base, you can whip up a new batch of red curry fast.

Ingredients:

For Curry Base (step 1)

Chicken pieces
Salt and pepper
Peanut oil
2 Cans (about 28 oz.) low-sodium chicken stock
1 can (14 oz.) Coconut milk
1 can (14 oz.) Light coconut milk

Step 1 prep time: 5-10 minutes
Step 1 cook time: 2 hours

For Curry (step 2)

Cooked shredded chicken from step 1, or
Raw chicken cut into narrow strips
Shrimp (optional)
1 Green and/or red pepper
2-3 hot chiles, thai or jalapeno (optional)
2 bunches Green onion
1 Eggplant
1 can bamboo shoots
5-6 cloves garlic
Juice from 1-2 limes
1 thumb-size piece of ginger
1 tablespoon red curry paste
Around 2 tablespoons fish sauce
Red chile powder (to taste)
Cilantro (optional)

Step 2 prep time: 15-20 minutes
Step 2 cook time: 10-15 minutes

Special Utensils:

Serves 4

Step 1

Here’s the part that eluded me when I first tried to make a red curry that tasted like what we’d get in our favorite Thai restaurant- the coconut milk flavor would be too obvious in the curry and drown the other flavors out, no matter how I adjusted the mix. The secret is to simmer the coconut/chicken stock mix for a long time. Take enough bone-in chicken pieces to cover the bottom of a large pot. Season with a little salt and pepper, leaving the skin on. Heat up a couple tablespoons of peanut oil in the pot and brown the chicken pieces on each side. Remove them when they’re nicely browned and pour off the leftover fat. Now add the chicken stock, a little at first, and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the chicken stock and coconut milk, mix it up good, and add the chicken pieces back in- they should be covered in the stock/coconut milk. Note: I use 1 can regular and 1 can light coconut milk because the regular is really high in saturated fat, but 2 cans of the light is too thin and doesn’t give the curry enough richness. One of each is a good compromise, I think. Simmer with the top on at low heat for about two hours. Take out the chicken pieces and separate the meat from the skin and bone- the meat should fall right off the bone. Shred the chicken and save it for step 2. Reserve enough of the curry base- 1-2 cups worth- and freeze the rest into portions for next time after it cools.

Step 2

If you’re using frozen red curry base that you saved, cut raw chicken into strips. If you just did step one and you have shredded chicken, you just have the veggies to concern yourself with. Cut the green onion into 1/2 inch pieces. Dice up garlic and ginger. Cut pepper and eggplant into thin strips. We’re going to cook fast and hot, so we want the veggies to be very thin so the stir-fry only lasts a few minutes. Depending on how spicy you like your Thai food, add in some finely diced hot chile pepper too.

Now let’s get the red curry sauce ready. Take a cup or two of the chicken stock/coconut milk base we made in step one. Mix in the red curry paste, fish sauce, and lime juice. Add red chile powder, again depending on how spicy you like it.

Red Curry Ingredients Standing By

Now pour a tablespoon or two of peanut oil into the wok and let it heat up (peanut oil is best because it holds up well to high heat). Get the ingredients all ready by the wok, because things will happen fast now. When the wok is good and hot, throw the diced garlic and ginger into the oil and mix around just for a few seconds, long enough to flavor the oil but not long enough to brown the garlic/ginger. Throw the chicken in (if you don’t have cooked shredded chicken from step one) and constantly stir the chicken until it’s just browned on the outside. Throw in the peppers and eggplant and keep stirring.

Stirring, frying...stir-frying!

After a few minutes of cooking the first wave of veggies, throw in the green onions. They cook fast so you don’t want to add them the same time as the other veggies. Add the shrimp around the same time as the onion if you want to. I like a mix of shrimp and chicken in my Thai- it gives a nice mix of texture and flavor to the meal. toward the very end add the bamboo shoots (and the shredded cooked chicken from step one, if you’re going this route). Don’t overcook the vegetables– the peppers should still have a little crispiness.

Chop up some cilantro and garnish on top if you like. Add onto cooked rice and enjoy!