This year we went with Szechuan cuisine, with Gong Bao Chicken and Spicy Szechan-style eggplant. Yummers. To cool the palate I made a salad out of iceberg lettuce and clementines, both on sale as was the chicken. And we had rice, of course. For dessert, something I hadn't made in years: pineapple fritters. Whole Foods had pineapples for $2.50 each, a great deal. We had it in fruit salad yesterday and the fritters today and there's enough fritter batter and pineapple for some breakfast fritters.
Here is the recipe for the main course: Gong Bao chicken
The peanuts add lovely crunch, and the red pepper and the Sichuan peppercorns add heat, but it's not so hot you have to move the tissue box to the table. There's enough left for a light dinner tomorrow. My eggplant recipe was for 2 eggplants, so I cut it in half. Both recipes called for ginger and garlic (both healthy seasonings) and I cut the garlic cloves and ginger root on the mandolin to get really thin slices.
I always keep soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and scallions on hand. Dried red chiles and Sichuan peppercorns, too. Rice, a given. This means that with the inexpensive staples, we can have stir fry at the drop of a hat. Shrimp, beef, and pork are good, too. Whatever is on sale, with whatever veggies are cheap at the market.
You know the drill.
Celebrate the year of the dragon with your own Asian feast. I use cast iron skillets instead of woks.
Saturday we're having goulash soup, one of our all time faves. A little beef or pork go a long way in soup, and it contains onions, celery, carrots and potato. Bell pepper, too. Sometimes tomatoes. It's easy to eat our veggies when we cook in other cuisines.
What cuisine have you cooked in lately?
The Cheeseparer
