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Free Tibet Chicken

chinese chicken

Over 2 years ago I wrote a post about a meal I referred to as Chinese Chicken, named as such because I didn’t have an actual name for it and because it’s vaguely asian in flavor. However, I’m dissatisfied with calling this chicken by it’s old name and so I gave it a new moniker, Free Tibet Chicken. Other than that this meal hasn’t changed much over the years and it’s still a family favorite and it still has the power to nourish your belly, heart, and soul.

chinese chicken

Begin by cutting a chicken into pieces, remove the skin if you like or leave it on. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil and drop the chicken pieces into the water along with 2 or 3 cloves of peeled garlic. Once the water comes back up to a boil turn the temperature down and poach the chicken on a low temp for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Once it’s cooked remove the chicken from the pan, and debone it. Throw the bones back into the poaching liquid and place the chicken in a serving dish and spoon some of the poaching juice over, splash it with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, and chili oil.

chinese chicken

Stir fry some veggies over incredibly high heat. I used leeks and …

chinese chicken

cabbage. This step only takes a few minutes. Arrange the veggies alongside the chicken and add a spoonful of poaching juice over the chicken again. Serve with a medium grain white rice like Nishiki if you like but if you’re a South Beacher you can be totally Phase 1 with this meal as long as you serve it up sans rice..

Replenish yourself with this meal; it will nourish your belly, heart, and soul.

Be sure to save the bones and poaching juice; they’re still full of flavor and can be thrown in the pot with other chicken carcasses to make stock.

October 8, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, South Beach, beef, fish, poultry, pork, food, geek fast food, recipe, vegetable | 2 Comments 

Marinated tofu – deconstructed stir-fry

tofu with bok choy, mushrooms, green onions

Tofu is okay…if it’s not prepare well it can be nasty. But steep it in vibrantly seasoned marinade and pan fry it until the edges are crisp…then you have a tasty pile of flavor. I’m a Top Chef watcher and when goofy-hair-guy rendered some beef fat and then marinated the tofu in it, I thought it was genius…of course I probably would have gone with pork fat…whatever.

This meal is a deconstructed stir-fry. I’m a fan of this method because it allows each component’s flavor to shine brightly. Also it plates much prettier than a jumbled stir-fry, and sometimes that’s important too.

Here’s a simple guide on how to create the marinated tofu and the deconstructed stir-fry:

1. In a blender jar add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon chili oil, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 a shallot, 3 cloves garlic, 2″ x 2″ knob of fresh ginger (cut into pieces). Let this rip on medium speed until the ginger, shallot, and garlic are emulsified. Pour 1/3 of it into a dish. Slice a firm-style block of tofu into 12 pieces and arrange the tofu on top of it, pour the remaining marinade over the tops of the tofu.

tofu marinating

2. Prep the remaining components. In my case I sliced 2 huge white mushrooms and 2 green onions. I diced 3 cloves of garlic and another 2″ x 2″ knob of ginger.

tofu prep

3. Chop and wash/spin the bok choy. Preheat the oven to 150°.

bok choy

4. Heat a skillet up over a medium flame and once it’s hot add two or three tablespoons of neutral oil, like canola. Once that comes up to heat carefully transfer the tofu into the hot skillet, piece by piece, being careful to watch out for the spattering oil.

5. Now this is the hard part…don’t do a thing. Don’t try to flip them, don’t try to pry them up and look at them…just let them cook for about 5 to 7 minutes and then you can look…chances are they’ll need another 5 minutes or so. Then using a spatula, gently flip each one and let the other side brown. I think my batch probably took 15 – 18 minutes total, this is the most time-consuming part of this dish. While the tofu cooked I unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen.

6. Once the tofu is deep, beautiful brown, remove it from the skillet. Take the skillet over to the sink and douse it with water and clean it up…it’ll clean easy while it’s hot, but once it cools down it’s a bitch.

7. Put the skillet back on the burner with high heat this time. Let it heat up for 5 minutes or so. In the meantime, put the tofu in the oven to stay warm.

8. Now that the skillet is hot add 1 tablespoon of oil and the diced garlic and ginger. Then add the mushrooms and salt them. At this point you might think you need more oil but actually add some water. The pan should be so hot that it should vaporize immediately and it acts as a tool to move the mushrooms around the pan. This should portion should take about one minute to cook.

9. Remove the mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. Add the bok choy to the pan (still on high heat). Shake or stir the pan to keep the bok choy moving and salt it. Again, you can add some water to create some non-stick action with it’s vapors. This portion should take about 1 minute.

10. Slide the bok choy to the coolest part of the skillet and add the green onions. Toss a little canola (1 teaspoon) on them if you like and salt them. Shake or stir and remove from the heat.

tofu with bok choy, mushrooms, green onions

11. I plated this meal by making a mound of bok choy, encircled with the mushrooms, I arranged the tofu on top and garnished it with a bok choy leaf. Then I tangled the onions over the whole thing. It was awesome! The garlic and the ginger really perked up the bland mushrooms, the bok choy was delicate and sweetly tasted of spring and the onions are always addicting. Low calorie, low carb and delicious.


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May 6, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, Local, Wisconsin, food, gratins, stews, and stir-frys, low carb, low cal, mushroom, quick and easy, recipe, spicy, vegetable, vermont Valley CSA | 12 Comments 

Monday night blues buster…udon

udon with ham, cabbage, and woodear mushrooms

Another frigid evening with the forecast for more snow…today I saw dump trucks and end loaders all over town clearing out old snow to make room for new. What’s a girl to do? Hop a jet to a warmer climate…nah, that’s not my speed. I just head into the kitchen and crank out some kick-ass soup in under 10 minutes.

I made chicken stock a few weeks ago and stashed it in the freezer and today seemed like a good day for the healing hand of a good bowl of soup. While the udon cooked, I heated up the stock with some added fresh ginger and a garlic clove. The rest was easy, rehydrated woodear mushrooms, napa cabbage, and ham all cut into thin strips, and a couple of green onions sliced. I added a dash of soy sauce, sesame oil , and chili oil to the stock and it was ready. Although you can’t tell by the picture I did arrange the noodles in a nice bundle with the cabbage, woodear, and ham snuggled up next to them and then drowned it all in the best broth…ever.

February 11, 2008 | Filed Under Asian, beef, fish, poultry, pork, food, pasta, pizza, noodles, soup, salad, sandwich | 1 Comment 

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