Monday, November 22, 2010

2 days til turkey

Greetings my new viewers :)

Welcome to the first, of hopefully many 3 Day Chef episodes.  Most of my cooking is plagarised with lots of twists...just so ya'll are prepared.

I'm going to start out simple, it is after all a pre-holiday week and who wanted to spend their weekend getting anything but the shopping done?  Oh wait, there was that "too much wine" part, and a day spent spaaing it up with aromatherapy blends liberally applied under my fleece.....but now its back to the real world for a few days, with a now full pantry and lots of ideas :)


Tonight's inspiration comes from This Allrecipes tidbit for Orange Chicken. Had I had a bit more time over the weekend, I would do this with chicken, but no dice....I was busy taking it easy, so its my beloved Vege 1 :)

The prep: 
  • Make the sauce without the cornstarch and water.  Coat the chicken or hydrated meat substitute (I'm a huge fan of Vege 1) with the flour and salt and pepper, skip the oil.  Throw this all in a bowl to marinate for up to 2 days.  It'll be a gloppy mess, but worth it.
  • Cut up a bunch of various veggies, my chinese favorites are lots of celery cut on the diagonal, some shredded carrots (a food processor makes this cake), and about half a sliced onion.  Today I'm also adding a bell pepper and 2 sliced reconsitututed shiatake.  Put that in a bowl in the fridge.
  • This can store for ~3 days...more or less depending on your veggies.
The cook:

  • Heat the olive oil you left off the chicken in a pan.  Get it HOT!  You want to sear the coating a bit.
  • Add the chicken/sauce....stir fry, while reducing the heat to med.
  • It should get pretty thick on its own, if it doesn't, add cornstarch (I always start with 1 Tblsp in a small jar of water...shake, saves the trouble of stirring it together first)/
  • Throw on the veggies and steam for a bit until they are crips tender...
  • Serve over noodles or rice....VIOLA!
Easy variations:  Shrimp, tofu (although you can't be as rough as with meat or vege 1)...veggie focues abound, I'm just a huge fan of celery and it was a steal at $0.20/bunch this week.

More to come....a pot of slow cooker beans and rice is up next :)

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