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.

Stir fried beef with snow peas

Today's recipe was Kai's stir fried beef with snow peas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gz00JGN84

The ingredients are as follows
1 lb beef, sliced thin
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp chicken stock
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
1 clove garlic
8 oz fresh snow peas
sesame oil

Kai did it again. We were very pleased with the flavor of the sauce and the crispness of the snow peas. Instead of chicken stock, we used a pinch of chicken bouillon cube in 2 tablespoons hot water. Snow peas were hard to find this time of year, but we tracked some down. Overall this recipe is most similar to beef with broccoli, but the end flavor is distinctly different.

First the ingredients were prepared and the beef was marinated for 15 minutes in soy sauce and corn starch


The beef was cooked and set aside, and then the snow peas were stir fried


The rest of the ingredients were added


The meal was served with jasmine rice


Ian approves


We really enjoyed this recipe and now I plan to grow snow peas in the garden this Spring so we can have fresh ones on hand. This recipe deserves 4.75 snow peas out of 5. It will serve 2-3 hungry Americans when accompanied with rice.

Chinese Moo Goo Gai Pan

Today we made Kai's Chinese Moo Goo Gai Pan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORxPeuqNPw

As we learned from Kai, Moo Goo is mushrooms, Gai is chicken, and Pan is sliced. We recently became aware that 2 'Cooking With Wendy' blog subscribers lived nearby, so we invited them over to share in the experience of moo goo gai pan. We doubled the recipe and made jasmine rice to accompany the meal.

The ingredients are as follows
1/2 pound boneless chicken sliced
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup brocolli
1 clove garlic
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Instead of chicken stock, we broke a small piece of chicken bouillon cube into warm water. It was about 1/5th of a bouillon cube.

First the chicken thigh meat was sliced thinly. I'm sure chicken breast would also be good.


All of the ingredients were prepped and ready to be assembled


First the vegetables were stir fried


Then the chicken was cooked and the other ingredients were added


Served with jasmine rice and chop sticks


The table is set


Approval!


The meal was delicious and the flavors of the mushroom and brocolli blended well with the sauce. Our special guests also approved this recipe. If you serve with rice, Kai's recipe will serve atleast 2 hungry Americans (4-5 if you double the recipe). We plan to make this recipe again. The recipe deserves 8.5 out of 9 chinese cabbages.