Thai Peanut Noodles

I'm a huge fan of asian noodle dishes. They are inevitably what I gravitate towards at any asian restaurant. But I'd never even considered making them at home until a couple years ago when this recipe showed up on Our Best Bites. The list of ingredients has absolutely nothing bizzare, no fish sauce or oyster sauce in sight. Just basic ingredients you can find in any well-stocked pantry and an amazing flavor with a little heat (to taste of course), crunch (thank you peanuts) and refreshing toppings that really make the dish (hello green onions, cilantro, and lime). If you love noodles you're gonna love these, guaranteed.

Thai Peanut Noodles

{Original recipe from Our Best Bites. I've adapted it to our tastes, mainly by doubling the sauce ingredients. We like things saucy, plus I find the noodles soak it up pretty quick and less seemed like it would be non-existent. Feel free to double or not according to your families tastes. However, doubled amounts are what I've written out below}

1 cup chicken broth

6 T peanut butter

2 t sriracha chili sauce

3 T honey

6 T soy sauce

3 T fresh minced ginger

5-6 cloves garlic minced

12 oz linguine noodles

chopped green onions

chopped cilantro

lime wedges

chopped peanuts

Cook noodles in salted water. In the meantime combine chicken broth, peanut butter, chili sauce, honey, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until smooth and remove from heat. Toss cooked noodles with sauce. Add chopped peanuts to taste. On each serving sprinkle green onions, cilantro, and squeeze a wedge of lime.

*If desired, you can add meat to this dish by stir-frying shrimp or thinly slice (partially frozen first helps) chicken in some veggie oil with a couple cloves of minced garlic, some fresh ginger, green onions, soy sauce, and a small squirt or sriracha chili sauce.

Ground Turkey (or Chicken) Pot Stickers

{This picture is awful. I'm tempted to do a redo, but at the time it was rainy outside and so yucky indoor yellow light was all we had! SO sorry! When I make these again, I'll update with a better picture.}

So with that out of my system on with this winner of a recipe. It's another great one from my good friend Carolee. That woman can cook! These little gems are seriously addicting and make the best leftovers. Sadly we rarely have enough left over though. My son probably ate his weight in these babies. I had to put a limit on how many he could have. And how often is there a recipe that pleases kids and adults alike? Not too often, but this is one of them. The mixture is so flavorful-fresh ginger, garlic, cabbage, etc. and the crispy brown bottoms and soft, pasta like tops are such a great texture combination. Although the prep time is a little more with assembling each individual potsticker, the filling comes together in a snap and the cooking time is next to nothing so they are still a pretty quick meal for any night of the week. We dipped these in a completely random dipping sauce I concocted from a couple different recipes (will include what ingredients I can remember at the end of the recipe) and ate them alongside baked ham-"fried" rice, again from Carolee, and an oriental mandarin salad. Both recipes coming your way soon...

Ground Turkey (or Chicken) Pot Stickers

(Recipe from Carolee. The original calls for ground chicken, which I never have so I substitute the more readily available ground turkey. Putting a couple chicken breasts in the food processor would work beautifully I'm sure)

2 t vegetable oil

2 cups finely chopped napa cabbage

1/2 cup water or chicken broth

1/2-1 lb ground turkey or chicken

1/3 cup minced green onion

1 T minced peeled ginger root

1/2 t salt

few drops dark sesame oil

1 egg white, beaten

2 cloves garlic, crushed

30 won ton wrappers (I find mine in the refrigerated part of the produce section & have used both square and round, I recommend round)

2 T veggie oil

1 cup water (possibly divided)

Heat 2 t veggie oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add cabbage and 1/2 cup water or chicken broth and let cook down and brown for a good 8 minutes or more. Let cool. Meanwhile in mixing bowl, add chicken and next 6 ingredients and mix well. Add mostly cooled cabbage and stir.

Take one won ton wrapper at a time, keeping remaining covered so they don't dry out, and spoon about a tablespoon of filling into center of wrapper. Moisten half the edges with a little water, using your finger. Fold over and press together. Then stand up on end and holding closed edge, lightly press down to create the flat-bottom and ruffled top edge look that is typical of pot stickers. See picture above to get the idea. Set assembled wonton on a cookie sheet sprayer with cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat process, adding each newly assembled pot stickers to the plastic wrapped cookie sheet. You don't want them to dry out while you're working on all the others.

Heat 2 T of veggie oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once hot add pot stickers flat side down. You may have to do more than one batch if they skillet isn't big enough. It's best if they're not too crowded. Let brown on bottom for about 3 minutes. Once browned add water, either full cup or half a cup depending on batch size (all or halved). Put lid on skillet (or cover with foil) and let steam for another 5-7 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Serve warm with favorite asian dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce #1

1 1/2 T soy sauce

1 T seasoned rice vinegar

1 T chili-garlic sauce

Combine and serve with pot stickers, etc.

Dipping Sauce #2

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 T rice wine vinegar

1 T sugar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 t fresh grated ginger

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 t red pepper flakes

Combine and serve. Better to let sit awhile so flavors can meld together.

My version isn't much of a recipe, so might not be all that helpful to others but I just picked and chose what I liked or had on hand from the above 2 recipes: soy sauce, vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, grated ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, and I used a profuse amount of brown sugar because I like sweet dipping sauces with these pot stickers. I would have used green onions too if I'd had anymore. It was yummy!

Orange Peel Chicken

This recipe is righy up my alley. It's saucy, chicken-y, slightly sweet, slightly spicy AND reminiscent of my favorite dish at the wonderous asian bistro restaurant that is PF Chang's. (Sadly, I have to get on an airplane ride if I want to eat there, so this is a good at-home alternative) To top it all off, it's not full of fussy ingredients. I imagine most everyone will have almost every ingredient in their pantry already. The chili garlic sauce is the only out of the ordinary item and it is absolutely necessary. I found mine in the specialty asian section of my grocery store. Now if I could just master dan-dan noodles I'd be a happy gal!

Orange Peel Chicken

{Slightly adapted recipe from my friend Christie. If you like things fairly saucy, I'd 1 1/2 this recipe if not double it}

Sauce:

1 T vegetable oil

2 T minced garlic

4 green onions, sliced

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 T chili garlic sauce

1 T soy sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2-3 large chicken breasts (I used 2 and wanted there to be a little more sauce)

Garlic salt

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1+ cup flour

peel from 1/4 navel orange, julienned with all white part removed (into 1/8-inch thick strips)

Prepare sauce by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sliced green onions. Add tomato sauce and chicken broth quickly before the garlic burns. Add sugar, chili garlic sauce and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Simmer 5 minutes or until sauce thickens, then turn off the heat.

Prepare the chicken by heating 1/2 cup oil in a wok over medium heat. Slice chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and sprinkle with garlic salt. Combine beaten egg with milk in a medium bowl. Pour the flour into another medium bowl.

Coat chicken pieces by dropping them into the egg/milk mixture and into the flour mixture. (FYI: I actually coated them in flour first, then egg/milk, then back into flour) Arrange coated chicken on a plate until all chicken is coated.

When oil in the large skillet or wok is hot, add about half of the chicken to the oil and cook for a couple of minutes or until brown on one side, then flip chicken over. When chicken is golden brown, remove the pieces to a rack or paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining chicken. (I put mine in a glass baking dish and into the oven at 400 for few minutes longer just be sure they were done.) When all of the chicken is cooked wipe the remaining oil out of the pan with paper towels and place it back on the stove to heat up again.

When pan is hot again add julienned orange peel and cooked chicken. Heat for 20 to 30 seconds or so. Add sauce to the pan and cook, stirring gently, until the chicken is well coated and sauce is thick. Serve over white or brown rice.

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

My friend Darla sent me this recipe to try and try I did. I liked that it was a meatless meal, heaven knows we eat plenty of meat around here and could use the occasional break. And I was intrigued by the baking versus frying cooking method. I always find restaurant egg rolls that are fried good but greasy. You know the kind of greasy that makes you feel yucky even while you're devouring them. And I'm no health-nut!

Anyhow, my only beef with the final product was the the wrapper's weren't quite what I hoped they'd be taste-wise. I think next time, and there will be a next time cause the filling is delicious, I might try a pot-sticker style route. Frying them in a pan with a little veggie oil to brown at least one side if not more and then adding a touch of water, putting the lid on, and letting them steam to finish.

We ate these with homemade thai sweet chili dipping sauce and baked brown rice. Both recipes forthcoming...

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

{Adapted from For the Love of Cooking Blog}

• 1 tsp+ olive oil
• 2 cups of savoy cabbage, chopped
• 2 cups of shredded carrots (I used pre-package broccoli slaw mix instead)
• 2 cups of bean sprouts (make sure they're fresh)
• 1 can of water chestnuts, chopped
• 2-3 green onions, sliced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 cup chicken broth + some additional if needed
• 14 or so egg roll wraps
• Sweet chili dipping sauce or sweet and sour sauce (for dipping)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots or broccoli slaw mix, water chestnuts, grated ginger, and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until the vegetables just begin to wilt but still remain a little bit crisp. Feel free to douse mixture with a little bit of chicken broth if you find that it's sticking to your pan while cooking. Mix the corn starch with the 1/4 cup chicken broth and mix thoroughly. Add the corn starch mixture and soy sauce to the pan along with the green onions. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and let cool a little.

Place two or so tablespoons of the barely warm mixture on the center of the egg roll wrap. Fold the bottom up over the filling. Next, fold the two sides over, making it look like an envelope, then roll it up like a burrito. Try to work quickly as the wrappers dry out pretty fast.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with silpat liner. Place the rolled up egg rolls on a baking sheet, seam side down to start. Once you have rolled them all, spray the top of each egg roll with cooking spray.

Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes then turn them over. Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. I found that mine took a bit longer to get brown, more like 8-10 minutes per side. Serve with sweet chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or any other favorite asian dipping sauce.