Mushroom Beef

Mushrooms are one of Ian's favorite foods, so when we saw the mushroom beef recipe we had to try it.

This is also the first time that we significantly changed the ingredients and some of the methods in a Kai recipe. The original recipe used bell pepper and mushrooms, but we increased the amount of mushrooms, decreased the amount of bell pepper, and included carrots. Kai marinated the meat in all the sauce ingredients, whereas we marinated the meat in only soy sauce and corn starch, and added the remaining sauce ingredients at the end of cooking. Additionally, Kai stir fried the vegetables and then added the raw meat near the end of cooking. We stir fried the vegetables, removed them, stir fried the beef with the garlic, and then added the cooked vegetables and sauce to finish the dish.

The ingredients were as follows:
1/2 lb beef, sliced thin
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 red bell pepper
1 pack white mushrooms sliced
1 carrot sliced into thin strips



First the vegetables were stir fried


then the meat was stir fried


the vegetables and beef were combined and the sauce was added


beef and mushrooms was served with jasmine rice


Ian cleans his bowl in approval


With the modifications that we made, this recipe would serve 4 people. The pepper added a slight peppery taste to the entire dish, which was nice but different from the other Kai recipes we've made. The carrots were a first too, and they turned out really tasty. Perhaps Kai has a recipe that calls for carrots we can make.. time to start searching!

Overall, this meal deserves 4 out of 5 carrot bunches

Ingredients used

I've been receiving alot of reader questions concerning the brands of sauces/ingredients that we use. So I've decided to make a post listing our favorites. Also, know that all the ingredients we use in the Kai recipes are gluten/wheat free.

These are our current favorites:

Sauces:
Soy sauce= Nuoc Tuong Chay Soya Sauce made by Flying Horse (real soybeans, no wheat or MSG)
Hoisin sauce= Dynasty brand (gluten free, MSG free)
Oyster sauce= Panda Brand from Lee Kum Kee, oyster flavored sauce (wheat and MSG free)
Sesame oil= Kadoya pure sesame oil (avoid the sesame oil blends)
Rice vinegar= Kame brand
Rice cooking wine= Kame brand

Meats:
Chicken thighs for all chicken dishes. Thighs are much more tender and can tolerate being over cooked better than breast meat.
For beef, the chef recommends flank steak with the next best cut being chuck. Avoid top round or bottom round cuts.

Pineapple Chicken

Kai's orange chicken recipe was so good, so we decided to try pineapple chicken. It's one of Kai's favorites, so we figured it must taste good! Pineapple chicken has the same basic chicken preparation step as orange chicken, and has a similar sauce.

The recipe is as follows:

1/2 lb chicken cut into pieces. We used 2 chicken thighs
1 cup pineapple cubed
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp rice cooking wine
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 tsp corn starch
rice flour and 1 beaten egg for battering and dredging chicken


We took the advice of Kai and used canned pineapple.

First the sauce ingredients were combined, and the pineapple measured. We bought pre-sliced canned pineapple, so this step was easy.


Ian cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Even though both orange chicken and pineapple chicken call for deep fried battered chicken, both use different methods to batter the chicken. We decided to use the method described in the orange chicken recipe. Basically, the chicken is dredged in rice flour, dipped in beaten egg, and dredged again in rice flour. We used a mixture of sweet and regular rice flour and a pinch of salt for seasoning.


The chicken was fried for a few minutes in the deep fryer


The pineapple was briefly stir fried in the wok


The sauce ingredients were added and quickly thickened to a nice sauce.


The chicken was added and everything was stir fried for another minute.


The pineapple chicken was served with jasmine rice


This recipe served enough for 2 dinners and 2 small left over lunches. We were very impressed with the overall taste of the sauce and pineapple. We both decided that pineapple chicken tastes slightly better than orange chicken, although orange chicken is still deserving of 8.75/10 flour bags.

Despite having the tip of his nose mutilated by a rat bite earlier in the day, Ian shows his approval for pineapple chicken.


This recipe is deserving of 9 out of 10 pineapples

Stir fry chicken with eggplant

The purple Chinese eggplants at our new Asian market were too beautiful to pass up, so we decided to try Kai's stir fry chicken with eggplant recipe . I've had this recipe bookmarked for a long time, but eggplant was a scary idea for Ian who was traumatized with bitter tasting eggplant in the past. The recipe is as follows:

1/2 lb chicken sliced thinly
1 mid sized Chinese eggplant
5 Chinese mushrooms
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

We used chicken thighs which are always more tender than breast, and 2 small Chinese eggplants. The mushrooms were shitake and I'm guessing we used 6 of them. Also, Kai suggested we add chicken stock if the sauce was too thick, so we had some ready if we needed it.


First the eggplant and mushrooms were added to the wok


The vegetables were stir fried until done


And then the chicken was stir fried


The vegetables were added back to the wok, and then the sauce was mixed in


Rice was served along side the meal


We knew this was going to be a flavorful dish because of the quantity of hoisin and oyster sauce. The flavor was delicious and it had a slight spicy flavor from the hoisin sauce. The eggplant was surprisingly good and after an initial autistic texture moment, Ian quickly decided he really liked the eggplant and gave the meal a thumbs up.



This meal served with rice would feed 3 hungry Americans or 2 hungry Americans and 2 small left over lunches. We will certainly make this again. Next summer we will grow our own Chinese eggplants alongside the snowpeas and chinese cabbage that has already found its way to our garden.

This recipe deserves 9 out of 10 eggplants

orange chicken

Its been a long time since we tried a new Kai recipe. For the last few months we've been happily eating one of the following meals weekly: beef with broccoli, beef with snow peas, fried spring rolls or moo goo gai pan. We've learned that well marbled chuck roast is our favorite cut of beef for stir fry and Nuoc Tuong Chay soy sauce is better than LaChoy. We have mastered those 4 Kai recipes, so it was time to try something new. This weekend we made Orange chicken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gufY6DhylpY

The ingredients are:

sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice cooking wine
1-2 tsp corn starch

3/4 lb chicken
2 eggs beaten
rice flour
orange peel sliced
ginger root sliced

We used fresh squeezed orange juice since we needed the peel anyway. Remember to slice off all the bitter white flesh under the peel before you slice it thinly. The chicken meat was from the thigh and the chicken stock was our usual pinch of chicken bouillon cube mixed with hot water.

First we prepared all of the sauce ingredients:


and then the rest of the ingredients:


Ian started dipping the chicken... egg, then flour, then egg, then flour


That was taking too long so another hand jumped in and suddenly the process got alot messier


In the meantime, the vegetable oil was ready for chicken pieces


The chicken was fried in 2 batches


and it only took about 5 minutes for the chicken to cook


Oil in the wok was heated and the ginger and orange peel was added


The sauce ingredients came next


When the orange sauce started to bubble, the chicken was added


Looking and smelling so yummy


Orange chicken served with jasmine rice. This meal served 3 people so we're going to have a lunch snack tomorrow from the leftovers.


The orange chicken was eaten while watching Dexter, and Ian gives it a thumbs up



We were very happy with how the dish turned out. First, the coating on the chicken had no strange aftertaste or weird texture as we have experienced before when trying to batter and fry foods. The chicken was extremely tender and juicy too. The orange sauce had a great flavor, although our American palates would have liked it slightly sweeter so next time we will add more sugar. Everything else was perfect, so this recipe was awarded 8.75 out of 10 rice flour bags. We will certainly make it again.

Chinese cashew chicken

Today we tried Kai's Chinese cashew chicken which can be see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuUQGihyvIs

A few weeks has passed since a new recipe was made We've been eating the other Kai meals quite frequently but decided it was time to try something different. Chicken with cashews was always a favorite choice for Ian when ordering Chinese, so it was an easy decision to try Kai's version.

The ingredients are as follows

1/2 lb chicken, cut into pieces
marinated in 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp rice cooking wine

1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup baby corn (optional)
1/2 cup water chestnuts (optional)
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp chicken broth

We didn't use celery, but we did add the optional baby corn and water chestnuts. Both were from cans and I found the acid preserved taste a little unappetizing. We rinsed them, but it wasn't enough to completely remove the flavor. Next time we will search for fresh baby corn and water chestnuts because they should taste 100 times better.

First we prepared the ingredients. The chicken marinated as we cooked jasmine rice


The chicken was cooked. This was the first recipe that did not call for garlic


The pan was cleaned and then the veggies were stir fried


Sugar was added along with the other ingredients to make the sauce


One final stir before serving


The meal was served with jasmine rice


Ian shows his approval


We both enjoyed the meal and it tasted like authentic chicken with cashews. Next time we will use fresh baby corn and water chestnuts because that will remove the canned aftertaste. Also, we will be on the lookout for cashews that are unsalted because the best we could find were lightly salted. The celery was omitted due to celery aversions, but I'm sure it would have been delicious. This dish will serve 3 hungry people when rice is included. Overall we give this meal 4.25 water chestnuts out of 5. With the changes I mentioned above, this recipe could reach an almost perfect 5.

Beef noodle stir fry

Today we made Kai's beef noodle stir fry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN8KsqM-a7o

This recipe is different from the rest featured in this blog because it uses noodles. We used Pad Thai rice sticks soaked in warm water for 20 minutes as per Kai's instructions. The ingredients for this dish are as follows:

2 cups rice sticks soaked in warm water
1/4 lb beef sliced
4 cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic minced
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp seasoning sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp chicken stock

We still don't know what seasoning sauce is, so we used soy sauce in its place. Also, instead of chicken stock, a pinch of chicken bouillon cube mixed in 2 tablespoons of warm water was used. Adding soy from both soy sauce and dark soy sauce was a little disturbing. Dark soy sauce looks like tar but Kai's looked much thinner, so it felt like we weren't using the proper ingredients.

The ingredients were prepared and the noodles were allowed to soak for 20 minutes


First the beef was stir fried with garlic


Tomatoes were added along with soy sauce


The partially softened noodles were added to the pan


The meal was dished out and topped with bean sprouts and green onion


Ian slurps up his noodles


The meal wasn't perfect for several reasons. First, the noodles took about 5-10 minutes to soften in the wok, which allowed the meat to overcook and become quite tough. We had to add a lot of extra water too because the noodles kept drying out before they softened. The flavor was good but not delicious like the flavors in the beef and broccoli dish. We might make this again but try to soak the noodles longer and use less dark soy sauce or substitute hoisin sauce instead. This recipe deserves 5 out of 10 woks.