(Belated, Again) Chinese New Year Meal #1: Strange-Flavor Chicken (Gua Wei Ji Si)

Oops.  I totally missed Chinese New Year again.  That's ok.  We all knew it was going to happen.  And I swear that I will post a week's worth of Chinese meals eventually.  It might take me a month or so to get through it all, but I do have a lot of recipes picked out and/or ideas on tap.  I want to make some noodles (I'm thinking Uyghur laghman with lamb), some dumplings, some seafood...  The plan is to make another Chinese recipe tonight (provided that we can find everything we need at the grocery).  Sadly, we made this meal last weekend (it was one of the first things we cooked upon our return from Whistler) but I just haven't had the time to post about it.  Fingers crossed I will be able to post about tonight's meal a little more promptly. 

There are a number of different simple Sichuan chicken dishes in Land of Plenty: Authentic Sichuan Recipes Personally Gathered in the Chinese Province of Sichuan that I love to make because they are easy and tasty.  You can easily poach a few chicken breasts (or a whole chicken if you want to make some stock, which is what we were doing) and then shred the meat and toss them in one of several different dressings that vary from this sauce, which is very sesame-y or others which are full of Sichuan peppercorns.  It's all a matter of what you have in the kitchen and/or what you are craving.  The last time we made one of these recipes we made the "Hot and Numbing Chicken Slices (Ma La Ji Pian)", but we the shredded chicken on top of a bed of broccoli and just made a little extra dressing to coat the broccoli as well as the chicken.  It was delicious and easy.  I actually might prefer the hot and numbing sauce, which is lighter and spicier than this heavier, more sesame-y sauce.  Either way, I find these dishes to be perfect for summer when you really want something light, but flavorful that doesn't involve an extended period of time in the kitchen.  It's a nice alternative to yet another salad.

Recipe after the jump!

Korean-Style Napa Cabbage

So I got the idea for this recipe from the Korean-Style Romaine that I first made back in February 2010.  We liked the romaine so much that we have made it several times, playing with the recipe a little each time.  I keep thinking that I should turn the Korean-Style Romaine into a full entree salad with some shrimp, some sort of crunchy fried noodle, and maybe some grated carrot and shaved red onions.  But we never get around to it because I have so many recipes that I want to try.  To be perfectly honest, there are a ton of recipes that we have made for the blog (and loved) but have yet to make again because I get a little ridiculous about trying new things.  I have hundreds of recipes that I have bookmarked to make for the blog and for the most part I can't resist cooking and tasting new recipes.  There are recipes like our Roast Asparagus, Spicy "Fried" Chicken Cutlets, and Alex's Roast Chicken Breasts that we make all the time with a few modifications here and there, but those recipes are few and far between.  Mostly we make something once and don't revisit it again (if at all) for a really long time.  Anyway, I was pretty excited that we built off the Korean-Style Romaine to make this napa cabbage dish because I thought the cabbage was really yummy.  The flavor of the sesame, garlic, ginger and the chili flakes is light and fresh, but really savory at the same time.  I wish we had some scallions to throw in with the cabbage.  If so, I would have thinly sliced some on the bias and tossed them in for some mild oniony flavor.  But even without the scallions I thought the cabbage was very successful.

Recipe after the jump!

Cold Sesame Noodles

Cold Sesame Noodles is a traditional Sichuan dish that seems to have made its way onto almost every Chinese restaurant menu and more than a few buffet or picnic lunch tables around the country.  The dish is simple to prepare, inexpensive, and quite tasty.  It is also the perfect lunch or dinner on a hot summer day.  It's not quite summer yet, but with temperatures in NYC in the low 70's today it was downright balmy.  Neither Alex nor I wanted to slave over a hot stove to make a complex dish this evening, so we cooked up some frozen dumplings from Flushing and threw together these noodles.  It seemed like the perfect quick and easy Chinese meal for a warm lazy night.

One word of advice when making these noodles is to make sure that your noodles drain pretty well before tossing them in your sauce.  We got a little impatient and tossed the noodles into the sauce while the noodles were still fairly wet, so the sauce didn't coat the noodles and stick to them as much as it could or should have.  Oops.  We also used the wrong kind of noodles (the only noodles we had were Chinese egg noodles, but they were the super thin variety that you use in wonton mee or in pan-fried noodles).  I suggested just using spaghetti but Alex wanted to use the Chinese egg noodles.  Even with the wrong noodles, it was a really delicious dish.  Alex kept dipping his fingers in the sauce and then licking his fingers while I was working on the noodles themselves.  He also repeated several times that the sesame sauce was "surprisingly tasty."  It didn't occur to me until after we had finished eating that I had forgotten the cucumber matchsticks that I intended to add to the pasta.  The next time we make this dish (and for the record there will be a next time), I won't leave the cucumbers out because they give the dish a nice crunch and fresh, cool flavor.  Make that I won't leave the cucumbers out intentionally but when it comes down to it I might just forget again.  I do that sometimes.

Recipe after the jump!

Nepali Green Bean-Sesame Salad

So this is my first ever attempt at making a Nepalese dish.  I actually Googled it (and found this Wikipedia entry) because I had no idea what Nepalese food was really like and I was curious.  The closest type of cuisine that Alex and I can recall trying in the past is Tibetan food.  Both cuisines feature meat dumplings called "momos," although that might be the extent of their similarity.  It seems that Nepalese cuisine is heavily influenced by Indian food, whereas Tibetan food is more heavily influenced by Chinese and Uyghur food, which makes sense given that Nepal is sandwiched between China (Tibet really) and India.  As I have never traveled to either region, I'm really not sure either way.  What I am sure of is that I thoroughly enjoyed this green bean salad.  I know that green bean salad sounds boring, but this was very refreshing.  I thought that the combination of the crisp-tender green beans, the tart lemon juice, the slightly spicy chilis, and the ground toasted sesame seeds was really nice and totally unlike any other green bean dish we have ever made before.  Alex preferred the green beans to the Luscious Chile-Oil Tofu dish we made alongside it, but I have to say that I am torn.  I thought both dishes were pretty tasty!

Recipe after the jump!

Spinach with Sesame and Garlic

I am always looking for new easy vegetarian side dishes.  When it comes down to it, Alex is usually in favor of forgoing a vegetable side dish to an Asian meal in favor of rice.  As he said to me about 10 minutes ago "rice is a vegetable, it grows."  He usually enjoys the vegetable sides that we make (he particularly likes Sichuan Cucumbers), but as far as Alex is concerned, rice is always the better and easier option.  But sometimes I stick to my guns because I freaking love vegetables and because I am determined that Alex and I try to eat healthier when possible.  I'm totally on board with making pork belly and steak from time-to-time, so long as we balance it out with the occasional vegetarian meal.  I have briefly contemplated doing Meatless Mondays, but sometimes on Mondays I just want fried chicken.  Or a steak.  So long as we commit to having one vegetarian meal a week, I don't think it matters if it is on Monday, Friday, or Sunday.  I will admit that we have been terrible about eating vegetarian meals recently, as we are every winter.  Winter rolls around and I want heavier, fattier foods.  Then spring appears and with it I want salads, vegetables, and more fruit.  As soon as the farmer's markets come back to life I can't wait to experiment with veggies.  Today at the greenmarket behind the American Museum of Natural History I picked up some beautiful purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes and some honeycrisp apples.  As soon as squash season rolls around I will come home with all kinds of squash and eggplant to cook.  But until then, I will have to content myself with the staples that I can pick up in the grocery store - like baby spinach, napa cabbage, arugula, English cucumbers, and mushrooms.

I needed a nice and easy Japanese side dish to go with the Sake-Steamed Chicken we were preparing for dinner and this simple sauteed spinach dish seemed like the easiest choice.  It was my attempt to make goma-ae (spinach with sesame dressing).  The best thing about the recipe is that it is quick and easy to prepare, but flavorful.

Recipe after the jump!