Chicken Stir Fry

A couple weeks ago I made Beef Stir-Fry.  Tonight I made Chicken Stir-Fry.  Didn't use as many veggies as last time.  Didn't feel like running to the store and spending money, so I used what veg we had on hand; white and purple cabbage, celery, carrot, onion, and garlic.

Chopped that all up and sliced four chicken breasts.  Didn't use all the purple cabbage though.  That would have been a lot of cabbage.

My mise en place.

First I heated the wok, put a but of oil in it and cooked the chicken with a bit of salt and pepper.

After the chicken was cooked I took it out of the wok and drained the liquid, to be used later.  Then I got the veg working.  First the onion and garlic.

Then added the carrots.

Let that saute a bit then added soy sauce, put a lid on it and let it steam until the carrots were crisp-tender.  Then added the celery,

and lastly the cabbage.

I mixed cornstarch in with the reserved juice from cooking the chicken and added it to the wok.  I kinda added too much cornstarch and it was way too thick.  I had used the last of the soy sauce sauce so I poured in some Worcestershire.  Added the cooked chicken and it was done.

Served it atop freshly made rice.

Nom nom nom.  I love stir-fry.  So quick to make and so yummy.

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Restaurant Review: Monza - Manassas, VA

My sister Janina and I have been wanting to go to Monza for a while.  We wanted to go when her fiancee Jon was around.  It never seemed to work.  Yesterday was my birthday.  Jon is here.  So us three and Austin went to Monza for my birthday lunch.

Now a lot of people might not know anything about Monza, but they should.  It is a fairly new restaurant.  People will probably know where Carmello's and Little Portugal was located in Old Town Manassas.  After they had a fire in the restaurant they closed for a while and did remodeling.  They reopened March of this year I believe as Carmello's and sister restaurant Monza.  Carmello's is still the fine dining Italian and Portuguese restaurant that everybody has come to know and love.  Monza is located in the back of Carmello's on Battle Street.  It is their casual bar, less expensive, Italian place.  It is a pretty small place but has a huge 15 person bar.  We sat at one of the tables beside the bar.  Ordered some apps; deviled eggs and the special app of the day, wings.  The deviled eggs were quite good.  Topped with looked like a bit of Italian ham and a caper.  Yum.  The wings were okay.  Nothing fabulous, but not at all bad.  Janina ordered Rigatoni Italiano, rigatoni with Italian sausage, onions, and peppers in a garlic olive oil.  Jon ordered the Meatball Marinara sandwich.  Austin ordered Jack's Special, an Old Town legend’s recipe. Cappelini pasta in a white wine lemon butter sauce with shrimp,crab and scallops.  I ordered the Monza Pizza, brick oven wood fired pizza with Italian sausage, chicken, marinara, and cheese.  It was my first time ever having a wood fired pizza, and it did not disappoint.  Very good. Very good.  It was a big massive pizza too, and except for a few bites that I gave to the others to try, I ate it all.  So good.  Everybody else loved their food.  Austin was in love with his Jack's Special.  I tasted a bit if Janina's pasta and it was yum.  Jon's meatball sandwich was humongous and served with curly fries.  It could almost serve to small people, and for $7 I would say it's a good deal.  Compared to the prices of Carmello's, all the prices are Monza are very reasonable.  We had a bit of a wait on our food, but I wasn't complaining because it looked like they had a party going on at Carmello's and another party of about 7 people were in front of us at Monza.  I'm a chef so I give extra leeway to the wait on food because I know how it goes.  I was thinking about getting some Mascarpone mousse to see how it compares to the mousse that I makes at work, but I was so full from that delicious pizza that I couldn't eat any more.  The only issue I would have with Monza is their music selection.  They were playing Top 40 songs.  Now I'm a sticker for this.  I would much rather have the music go along with the cuisine.  Italian cuisine so Italian music.  Then again, I guess the Top 40 music does go with what they are doing at Monza.  It seems to me like they want to be a late night, casual bar, and the music does fit that.  All in all though, great place.  I want to go back and try their other pizzas now.

www.eatmonza.com

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Beef Stir-Fry

We have been talking about getting a cast iron wok for a while now.  All the good ones are expensive; $75 or so.  The other day Mom was at the thrift store and made a great discover, a 14 inch, flat bottom, cast iron, Lodge wok for the high price of $16.  It looks like it has not been used at all.  It is in excellent shape.  This is good.  So tonight I tried it for the first time.  Made beef stir-fry.  Considering the amount of vegetables and the little amount of beef I used it was more like vegetable stir-fry with a bit of beef.

First I got my mise en place together.  (Mise en place is a French phrase for "everything in it's place."  Meaning, all your prep done and ready to go.)

Sirloin steak, bok choy, bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, onion, garlic, sugar snap peas, and water chestnuts.

Then I heated oil and butter in the wok and sauteed the onion and garlic.

Added the beef with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar and let it cook for a bit,

then the carrot,

broccoli,

 bell pepper,

cabbage and bok choy ends,

bok choy tops,

and lastly the sugar snap peas and water chestnuts.

The finished product.

Served atop rice.

It was good.  This probably wasn't true stir-frying though.  I did a bit of researching, aka watched a Jamie Olive stir-fry tutorial on Youtube, and you are supposed to heat the wok really hot then pour in the oil.  Stir-frying is supposed to be quick, quick.  And you aren't supposed to do more than 2 servings per wok or it will be more like steaming.  Oops.  I probably did like 9 servings.  Oh, well.  First time using the wok.  Now I will know what to do better next time.  And I think I will do more stir-fry research.  I like this thing of stir-frying.

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Meatball and Sweet Potato Stew

Tonight for dinner I made stew.  It was a bit cold today, so stew was a good thing.  Meatball and Sweet Potato Stew.  I like meatballs and sweet potatoes so it would surely be good.

I used a large onion, six carrots, and sweet potatoes.  Traditionally you use white potatoes in stew, but I used sweet potatoes instead. because that's what I do.

 Chopped the onion and carrots and got them sauteing while I cut the potato.

Then added the sweet potato, meatballs, oregano, thyme, parsley, ketchup, some water, and tomato juice.

Let that simmer on the stove for a few hours until all the veg was soft.

When we were soon ready to eat I made garlic bread.

It was quite good.  Very flavorful.  The sweet potatoes gave it a different, but very good touch.

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Vietnamese Fish Curry

We had some fish to do something with for dinner tonight.  At first I was thinking about fish chowder, but then I though of my love for Vietnamese food.  Wondered if there is anything like Fish Pho.  Looked online and I guess there is not.  So then I looked for more Vietnamese fish recipes.  I came across this curry thing over rice noodles that looked to be good and quite healthy at that.  So I made it.  Had to make a run to Wegmans for the noodles and sprouts.  I don't usually make ethnic food, so when I do I don't mind running to get some stuff I need.

First I made the sauce that was to go over the noodles and also a salad that I was going to make.  The sauce is called Nuoc tron.  It is made with sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and chilies.

I minced the garlic and thinly sliced the chilies...didn't have any Thai chilies so I used a jalapeno.  Combined everything and mixed it well until the sugar was dissolved.

The fish I used was Whiting.  I cut it into small pieces that put it in a pot with sliced jalapeno, lime juice, fish sauce, and coriander.  Poured some water over it, put the lid on and let it steam until it was opaque.

The finished product.  Fish set over rice noodles with said sauce and sprouts.

The salad was just Romaine with sprouts and grated carrot.  It was good with some of that sauce sprinkled on top.

This make me want to eat at Pho Gourmet in Manassas again.  I love that place.  Have not been there in far too long.  This what I made was good, but it was nowhere near as good as real Vietnamese cooking.  I am going to say that Vietnamese is my favorite ethic cuisine.

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Red Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

Mom found this recipe online for Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili.  She made it once.  It's good.  Real good.  Tomorrow we have a fellowship meal after church, so I decided to make some chili for it.  Now I didn't have any black beans or butternut squash so I substituted kidney beans and sweet potatoes, respectively.  So I'm calling it Red Bean and Sweet Potato Chili.

First I diced the veg: onion, garlic, chili peppers, jalapenos, and the sweet potato.

Sauteed, actually sweated it in a pot until the potatoes were tender-crisp.

Then I added tomato juice and the seasoning.

Now for tomorrow I'm going to put in the the crock pot and let it cook back at church until we are ready to eat it.  I tasted some to see how it is.  Yum yum!  It's good.  Will be even better tomorrow when it cooks some more.

Stuff like this is what I like to do as a chef; take something that everybody knows and make it my own.  Do different things.  Substitute black beans for red beans, butternut squash for sweet potatoes.  Stuff like that.  I hate being tied down to a recipe.  I used to be like that, back in the day when I first started cooking.  It was not good.  The other week I was talking to Jeff at work.  He has plenty of cooking experience.  Ha, I think he has been cooking for about as long as I have been alive.  Anyway, we were talking about this.  He complemented me on doing different things.  Thinking outside the box, to borrow that tired cliche.  He said that for 15+ years he was stuck in the pot and just cooked according to recipes, etc.  It was only in the past 5 years that he has been doing different stuff, stuff that he wants to do, stuff outside the box, and he has been getting more recognition for that then when he was stuck in the pot.  So this is good.  I will continue to do my thing in the culinary scene.

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White Chicken Chili

Colder weather calls for chili, so for dinner tonight I made White Chicken Chili.  It's not what you typically think of when you think of chili.  It doesn't have any chili powder, instead you use green chilies, and it's white, hence the name.

I didn't have any of the store bought green chili stuff, so I used peppers from the garden, Jalapenos and Hungarian Wax.  Diced that and a large onion.

I diced two chicken breasts and sauteed that a bit.

Then I added the diced veg.

Sauteed that some more then added chicken stock, Great White Northern beans, salt, cumin, oregano, and black pepper.

I had to go to work so I put the concoction in the crock pot until they were ready to eat.

Mom finished the chili then by stirring in sour cream right before they ate it.  I think she may have added a bit much because it was kinda soupy, not really chili like.  It was still good though.  Much good.

Even with five Jalapenos in it it wasn't spicy at all.  I added crushed red pepper to mine to make it spicier.  It was good.

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Stuffed Swiss Chard Leaves

I love stuffed grape leaves.  Nobody else in this family likes them, though.  We had Swiss chard in the garden that needed to be used.  Mom said she saw a recipe for Stuffed Swiss Chard Leaves.  I had to make it.

For the stuffing I used a large onion, a bell pepper, mushrooms, and chopped walnuts.

Diced the onion and sauteed it.

Added the diced bell pepper and sauteed it some more.

Then added the mushrooms, walnuts, and a cup of rice and took it off the heat.

Yep, it looks weird. No worries. It will turn out good.

I cut the hard stem out of the chard,

and boiled them in water for several minutes to wilt them just a bit.

Then I took some of the stuffing and rolled it up in the leaves.

It's like a big, fat cigar.

Actually I just did this one and them Mom finished blanching the leaves and stuffing them because I had to go to work.  When it was time to cook them she poured pizza sauce over them and baked them.  Ate it over rice.  I had some when I got home.  Much good.  Even Janina, who hates the stuffed grape leaves that I made before, said she likes them.  Goodie!

Nom.

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