Orange Chicken with Broccoli & Peanuts

I love that this recipe (inspired largely by a Rachel Ray dish) uses peanuts. I'd throw in some extra veggies too if I had them on hand (onions, carrots...). My biggest change from the original is in the amount of sriracha. Rachel's original had so much sriracha, in addition to the chili peppers, that when I first made it I couldn't TASTE the orange because all I could FEEL was the heat. I've learned to like more heat than I used to, and you can add more to suit your taste, but her original recipe had so much that it overpowered the orange flavor. And it is ORANGE chicken after all.

Ingredients (for 2)
1/3 C orange juice
3 T beef stock
2 T brown sugar
2 T rice vinegar
2 t sriracha
2 cloves garlic, minced
1½ T fresh minced ginger
2 T orange marmalade
¾ lb chicken, cut to bite size chunks
1 egg white
1 T cornstarch
1-2 cups broccoli, cut to bite size chunks
4 scallions, thinkly sliced on an angle - separate whites & light green parts
1 Thai chili pepper/red finger chile/jalapeno; thinly sliced or diced
1 C peanuts
oil - neutral flavored, or peanut or sesame for extra flavor

Directions
Combine the first 8 ingredients (orange juice through marmalade) in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer; continue simmering until sauce is slightly reduced and thickened. Reduce heat to just keep warm.

Whisk cornstarch into egg white; add chicken chunks and stir to coat. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick fry pan. Add chicken, cooking until golden and crisp. Remove chicken from pan (cover to keep warm).

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed; stir fry broccoli, chili and scallion whites until broccoli is crisp-tender. Add chicken and sauce, stirring to coat everything and re-heat the chicken as needed. Add peanuts.

Serve over rice or noodles. Garnish with sliced scallion greens (and sesame seeds, if desired).

And, yes, I forgot the sliced scallion greens until after I'd taken the photo and eaten a bit or two...it didn't look as nice after a few bites, so not worth another photo!

Lemon-Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Complete recipe is on Food Network's site. This was a pretty easy fix...and I had everything except day old sourdough bread (I used breadcrumbs) and fresh parsley, but with a little improvisation it was a zingy, crunch side to my dinner. Don't overlook the squeeze of fresh lemon just before eating!

Ingredients
3 lbs baby red, Yukon gold potatoes...or a 'mixed bag' like I used
4 C cubed day-old sourdough bread
1/3 C extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup grated parmesan (about 1 ounce)
lemon wedges

Directions
...at FoodNetwork.com/recipes

Karaage: Japanese Fried Chicken

This is a deep fried chicken recipe. I don't do this very often, partly because deep frying and all that oil just doesn't scream "healthy eating", but equally because I just don't like all the mess it makes and oil it uses. But they sure are nice and crispy! Other than using cornstarch (rather than potato starch which might be somewhat more traditional?), this recipe seems pretty authentic. Of course, I made substitutions throughout (check the date - Covid-19 "stay at home" advisory in effect! ...I wasn't heading out shopping.)

Ingredients
1½ T soy sauce
1 T sake (or sherry*)
     Honestly, I didn't have either on hand; I used a little mirin and a splash of lemon juice.
½ t brown sugar
pinch salt
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1½ t fresh grated ginger
     I had minced ginger (purchased in a squeeze tube)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
     I only had breasts; they were fine, though thighs would be juicier and more flavorful
¾ C cornstarch
oil for frying
lemon wedges, for serving
     I had some leftover Thai Chicken Dipping Sauce that I used up this time...that's what's in the photo.


Directions
Cut chicken into strips.

In a bowl or zip loc bag, combine soy, sake, brown sugar, salt, garlic and ginger; add chicken. Let marinate at room temp at least 1/2 hour (or longer, refrigerated; then set at room temp for half hour before frying).

Place a cooling rack on a platter or baking sheet and layer with paper towel.

Put cornstarach in a shallow bowl. Line another baking sheet or platter with parchment (or tin foil). Remove chicken from marinade one piece at a time, letting marinade drip off. Dredge chicken in cornstarch and place gently on parchment lined baking sheet.  -- save the marinade.

Heat 2 inches of oil to 325°F in a dutch oven or large saucepan. While oil is heating, dab any dry patches of cornstarch on chicken pieces with extra marinade. Discard leftover marinade.

Fry 2 or 3 pieces of chicken at a time until brown and crispy (4-5 minutes). Don't add too many at once -- maintain oil temp between 300-325°F. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove chicken pieces to paper towel lined baking sheet.

Simple traditional service: serve with lemon wedges.

Vanilla Cake

I do already have a vanilla cake recipe posted; but I'm always looking for the "best" cake recipe -- especially one that will bake and hold a good, tall crown when making cupcakes. Might not be what I'd want when baking a larger cake when a flatter, even surface is desirable. This one--a combination of a few different recipes I've tried--is fairly good (for crowning) even if not super tall; better than others I've tried that often come out of the oven with a nice dome, but tend to fall as they cool.
   These cupcakes (photo) I filled with some slightly thinned blackberry jam (blackberries grow in my field, so I have easy access to fresh berries every summer), frosted with blackberry-vanilla buttercream, and drizzled with blackberry syrup.

Ingredients
2½ C flour (cake flour is best)
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
¾ C butter, softened
1¾ C sugar
3 eggs, room temp is best
2 t vanilla
1½ C buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Prepare muffin tins with paper liners (makes about 30); or...lightly coat 2 8-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment.

Sift together, flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and 1 C sugar until very pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in remaining sugar and eggs, scraping the bowl down frequently, until mixture is well blended, smooth and thick.

Mixing on low speed, add dry ingredients by thirds, alternating with buttermilk until just combined. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

Pour or scoop batter into prepared pans/muffin cups.

Bake cupcakes 22-24 minutes; 8-inch pans 40-45 minutes (tops should spring back when lightly pressed).

Lemon-Caper White Sauce

Serve it hot over chicken or fish. Thinned a little and chilled - it's zesty as a salad dressing.

Ingredients
1 med shallot, minced (about ¼ C)
1 T olive oil
¼ C white wine
¾ t lemon zest
juice of 1 lemon (scant ¼ C)
1 C + 1 T chicken broth, divided
1 T capers
1 T cornstarch
2 T butter
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Cook shallot in olive oil just until softened. Add wine, lemon zest and juice, deglazing pan; simmer until reduced by about half (2-4 minutes). Stir in broth, capers and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Continue simmering until reduced by half again (another 3-4 minutes).

Whisk together remaining T of broth and cornstarch to form a slurry; whisk into sauce and heat gently just until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in butter; season to taste with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Buttery, Roasted Potatoes

Two recipes: one, I  think, from Eating Well magazine (though I couldn't find it on their website, and my page of the magazine I ripped it from was incomplete), the other from Cooks Country. I've reduced each recipe to 1# of potoatoes, which serves 1-2, though they're both easy to double (or triple...) as needed. Though they're both good...Cooks Country wins, hands down!!

"Melting Potatoes" - Eating Well (?)
I didn't have whole cloves of garlic, so had to use pre-minced. I like garlic, but this was too garlic-y for me. Whole cloves releasing flavor while roasting in the broth would likely have been better.

Ingredients
1 lb yellow potatoes (Yukon Gold)
1 T butter, melted
1 T olive oil
1 t fresh thyme, finely chopped
 t fresh rosemary, finely chopped
½ C chicken broth (chicken, beef, vegetable...)
2-3 smashed garlic cloves
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 500°F.

Peel potatoes; slice into ¾ inch thick pieces. Toss with melted butter, olive oil, thyme and rosemary.
Season with salt and pepper.

Place slices in a single later in a 9x13" pan; Roast, flipping once, until browned (about 30 minutes).
Add broth and garlic cloves to the pan. Continue roasting until broth is aborbed (about 15 minutes more). Season with additional salt & pepper as desired. Serve hot.

"Butter Roasted Potatoes" - slight variation on a recipe from Cook's Country
These might benefit from herbs, like the Melting Potatoes above, but prepared this way they had amazing texture -- crispier outsides, very creamy (and buttery!) insides. They're a little more effort (more steps, though nothing difficult), but in my opinion...worth it! Delicious!!

Ingredients
1 lb yellow potatoes (Yukon Gold)
2 T butter
1 t salt
1 t vegetable oil
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 450°F. Place a rimmed baking sheet (jelly roll pan) on center rack in oven.

Melt butter over medium-low heat; cook, stirring constantly, until butter is nutty brown (about 5 minutes). Set aside.

Peel potatoes; slice into ½ inch thick pieces. Bring pieces to boil in a pot of water with 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat, simmer until potatoes are firm, but tender (about 5 minutes). Drain; blot with paper towels (blot well, or the butter won't be absorbed). Immediately place potatoes in a shallow dish in a single layer. Drizzle with browned butter; season with salt and pepper. Let sit until butter is abored (about 15 minutes, flipping once).*

Remove hot baking sheet from oven and brush with vegetable oil. Place potato slices on baking sheet in a single layer. Bake until crisp and golden brown (about 40 minutes), flipping halfway through. Season with additional salt & pepper as desired. Serve.

* Even with thorough blotting, all the butter never did absorb into my potatoes. I drizzled the extra over them before roasting.

Potato Puffs

This is a recipe that's been in one of my files for YEARS (from Food Network Magazine, December 2013!) I finally made them. A little time consuming, though not difficult. Very similar to making choux pastry (pâte à choux); maybe somewhat healthier with the potatoes, but less so due to deep frying. Makes me wonder about trying to bake them instead -- like choux pastry. Maybe... It would be healthier (and easier just to pop them in the oven) and easier since the challenge is maintaing the oil temp so these cook all the way through (without soaking up much oil!) and are golden brown on the outside, not too dark. 

Ingredients
1 lb russest potatoes, peeled
¼ C whole milk
4 T butter
½ C flour
1 egg
3 egg yolks
salt
oil for deep frying

Directions - Food Network recipe & directions here
If I retry this recipe (or something close) and bake them...I'll update this post with directions of my own.

Thai Chicken Dipping Sauce

Inspired by a few different recipes (mostly Thai) for dipping sauces for chicken, this balances sweet, salty, umami, sour and spicy...  YUM!

(The photo is actually of Japanese Fried Chicken...)

Ingredients
3 T vinegar
3 T brown sugar
2 T shallots, minced
1 (sm) garlic clove, minced
2 T lime juice
¾ tsp fish sauce
1 Thai chili (birds eye chili), minced*
pinch white pepper

Directions
Combine everything in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. Simmer gently 3-5 minutes -- just to infuse the flavors from the shallot and garlic. Cool. If desired, puree.


* To be honest, the first time I made this (during Covid-19 quarantine), I did not have a Thai chili and wasn't about to rush out to the grocery store for this one item. I used a squirt of Sriracha to add a spicy kick.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I was originally inspired to try a peanut butter cake after seeing a peanut butter & banana cupcake combination. That would probably be worth trying too, but I had chocolate ready to use up, so I went that direction this time.

I wasn't sure if these would have strong enough peanut butter flavor -- there's not that much peanut butter. The peanut oil helps bump up the flavor, and it does come through (though I might still like it stronger). I filled these with a little dark chocolate pudding, frosted them with a chocolate French buttercream, and rolled the edges in chopped peanuts.

Ingredients
½ C creamy peanut butter
1 C sugar (I use brown)
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
3 T peanut oil
¼ C applesauce
1½ C flour
2 t baking powder
¾ t baking soda
½ t salt
1 C buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream sugar and peanut butter. Add vanilla and eggs, mixing until light and fluffy. Stir in oil and applesauce.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add alternately with buttermilk until well combined.

Divide batter evenly in 24 muffin cups; do not overfill! Bake 15-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Avgolemono (?) Greek lemon-egg soup...or Sauce

Hmmm...not sure how enthusiastic I am about lemon-egg soup. But...slightly thicker, as a sauce...it was good over broccoli! But I saw a avgolemono soup recipe presented as a sauce in a magazine (Cooking Light, if I remember correctly, but it was years ago), so I found a recipe, reduced it (I don't need a ton of it, used as a sauce), thickened it a bit and...here you go!

Ingredients
2/3 C chicken stock
1 egg
2 tsp lemon zest
2½ tsp lemon juice
pinch salt
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions
Heat the chicken stock in a saucepan to just simmering. Meanwhile, whisk together everything else except the olive oil until very light and frothy. Whisk, whisk, whisk!

Temper the egg mixture by slowly adding a little of the hot chicken broth at a time while continuing to whisk. Add about half the chicken broth this way, then slowly add the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan, whisking continuously.

Reheat the mixture just until it thickens (don't boil it!). Remove from heat and whisk in the olive oil.

Royal Icing ...and... Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

These recipes need not be made in combination. I certainly didn't intend them to be perceived that way. I'm only posting them like this because (idiot that I was)...I completely forgot to snap a picture of the cookies before covering them with the icing!

The shortbread cookies are a pretty basic shortbread recipe...with finely chopped rosemary. I'd love to try other herbs that may make the crossover between sweet and savory, but this is where I started -- likely because my rosemary plant is the only one really flourising so far this spring.

The royal icing is also a recipe that's a combination of 3 different royal icing recipes I had - one I found in a baking & pastry textbook, one from this past year's Fall Conference for FCS educators, and one from Allrecipes.com. Trying to take the best of each and arrive at a balanced final product that tasted okay and was a good, workable consistency.

These cookies were my first attempts with royal icing -- usually I'm a buttercream girl! Piled on a plate (where I can hide my less than stellar first attempts on the bottom layer!) they look decent enough if you don't look too closely. At least they were a sweet, bright spot for Easter. (I realized I have no egg shaped cooking cutter!)

Royal Icing Ingredients
1 lb powdered sugar
2 T meringue powder
½ t cream of tartar
5 T water; additional water for 'flooding' consistency
1 T vanilla (or lemon juice)
gel food coloring (s)

Royal Icing Directions
Blend powdered sugar, meringue powder, and cream of tartar. (I throw in a dash of salt as well.) Mix vanilla with 4 T water; blend into powdered sugar mixture. For a good outlining consistency, the icing should run in thick ribbons from the mixing spoon into the bowl, disappearing into the surface in abouat 10 seconds. Add the remaining tablespoon of water if needed.

Divide the icing into smaller bowls before mixing with food coloring(s) for multiple colors. If you only have liquid food colors, just remember that they will thin your icing - especially if you go for brighter or darker colors and not pastels, so adjust the water content accordingly. Outline cookies or areas to be filled with each color using a piping bag with a small round tip (or...use a disposable plastic sandwich bag and snip a tiny corner off). Save some icings at piping/outlining consistency to add details over flooding (once set), if desired. Then...

Add additional water (a LITTLE at a time) to achieve flooding consistency. Fill outlined areas with thinned icing, spreading gently to fill out to edges as needed.

Rosemary Shortbread Cookie Ingredients
1 C butter, diced
½ C powdered sugar (granulated sugar works fine too)
1 T finely chopped rosemary
2 C flour
½ t salt
1 tsp vanilla

Shortbread Cookie Directions
Preheat oven to 300 F°.

Cream butter with sugar and rosemary; add salt and vanilla, blending until well incorporated. Add flower, mixing on low speed until dough just comes together.

Roll or press to  inch thick; slice into squares or cut with cookie cutters. Gently gather scraps, re-roll and cut...

Bake until bottoms are just beginning to brown (about 30 minutes).

Spicy-Lime Crispy Chickpeas

This is really a combo of two ideas...Cooking Light recently published a chili-lime roasted chickpea recipe. It sounded good, butI knew I already had a roasted, crispy chickpea recipe; so I didn't rip out or save CL's recipe, just used my own, but seasoned them with chili powder, sea salt and lime zest. Crispy-crunchy, spicy-zesty snack!

Ingredients
1 15-ounce cans chickpeas
1 Tbls olive oil
1 tsp  sea salt
1 tsp chili powder
2+ tsp lime zest

Directions
Preheat oven to 400˚F. Rinse and drain chickpeas; place on clean kitchen towel or several paper towels and pat dry. Lightly coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. (Line it with parchment or foil for easy clean-up!)

In medium bowl, toss chickpeas with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and chili powder; toss ot coat evenly. Spread in a single layer on coated baking sheet.

Bake 1 hour, shaking pan halfway through. Let cool thoroughly; chickpeas become crunchier as they cool. Sprinkle or toss with lime zest.

Enjoy!