Fried Rice and Cheese Wontons

     After weeks of procrastination over making fried rice each week for dinner, I finally made it and a ton of it because I was feeding three guests. As a side dish I made cheese wontons for the first time. I made the rice the night before because it stops the rice from becoming mushy when cooked a second time. I use jasmine rice which is long grain Thai rice but basmati rice is also a good rice to use when making fried rice. So to make this dish, the first step is to cook the rice as directed on the package the night before. Once it is done cooking, allow it to cool in a large bowl and then put it in the refrigerator, covered. I use the recipe on the back of the Kikkoman fried rice seasoning packet. Since I made two batches of rice, I double everything in the recipe including a second packet of seasoning. Here is what you need for a single batch:

3 cups cold cooked rice

1 egg

2 strips thick cut bacon (Substitute other meats if you choose)

3 scallions (green onion) chopped

1 packet Kikkoman fried rice seasoning

2 tablespoons water

Soy sauce for seasoning

     Since the directions are on the back of one of the ingredients, I’m not going to go into how to make the rice but I will tell you how it came out later in this post. Now to the cheese wontons, usually there is crab meat mixed into these but I omitted it. Here is what you will need for my recipe for cheese wontons:

8oz softened cream cheese

3 scallions (green onion) chopped

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon paprika

1 package wonton wrappers

Egg whites from one large egg

Oil for frying (Don’t Use Vegetable)

Sweet and sour sauce for dipping

     Before you do anything, put the oil in a deep pan or pot and turn the heat on. You are looking to get the oil to about 350 to 400 degrees. Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Take a teaspoon of the mixture and place it in the center of a wonton wrapper. Take two fingers, dip them in the egg white, and spread them along the edges of the wrapper. Fold over one corner across the top of the mixture top the opposite corner. Pull the other two corners up to meet the already combined corners and then you’ll have one done. Repeat this process until the cream cheese mixture is gone. I place the wontons on a paper towel until I’m done. Christine’s cousin, sister, and sister’s boyfriend came over during the tedious process of making these homemade cheese wontons so they had to wait a little while before we ate. Once the oil is up to temperature, begin placing these in the oil a few at a time until golden brown. Let them drain on some paper towels and serve them with sweet and sour sauce to dip in.

     The rice was good but not the best that I have made. I chalk it up to making a double batch all at once. The stars of the meal, at least in my eyes, were the cheese wontons. They cooked pretty evenly for not being able to use my new deep fryer. They were crunchy and didn’t taste greasy like they sometimes do when ordered out. Christine commented that they were cream cheesier than from an actual Chinese restaurant which she enjoyed. For a first try, they came out well and I will definitely be making them again. Overall a good meal that I mill make in the future.

Rating: Yummy - I can't wait to perfect these dishes.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

     Marinating meats or vegetables is a great way to help keep them moist while cooking. There are hundreds upon thousands of marinade recipes that you can buy in stores but when making them at home possibilities are endless. Christine and I are fans of lemon pepper seasoning so for dinner last night I decided to make up a basic marinade to include some lemon pepper seasoning we recently purchased. Most marinades use oil, vinegar, seasoning, and a small amount of water. Using my knowledge of marinades and the help of the internet to confirm, I came up with this recipe:

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup water

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Lemon Pepper Seasoning

     I marinated one large chicken breast, which weighed in at just under a pound, for about 10 hours. The longer you leave the ingredient in the marinade the more tender it will become. This is true with marinades that do not contain citrus or any other highly acidic ingredient. A quick tip when it comes to using citrus in a marinade, do NOT marinate for more that an hour. Citrus begins to cook whatever you are marinating in it, so when using a citrus based marinade only use it to brush on while you cook. This marinade doesn’t contain citrus; so feel free to leave whatever you’re marinating for as long as you would like, within reason.

     Heat up a pan with a tablespoon or two of olive oil over a medium heat. Just before adding the chicken breast, I cut mine in half lengthwise because it was so thick. This ensured that it would cook quicker and more evenly. Let the chicken cook for about 5 – 6 minutes or until golden brown and then turn it over and continue to cook for the same amount of time. Meanwhile, I used a box of broccoli rice Rice-A-Roni for a side. Following the directions on the box, I browned the rice in a tablespoon of butter then added 2 cups of water and the seasoning packet. Once this comes to a boil, turn down the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. This will simmer for about 20 minutes at which time I turned off the heat, uncovered, and fluffed after about 3 minutes. Since there was broccoli in the rice we omitted an extra vegetable and just had the chicken with it.

     The rice was as good as Rice-A-Roni can be, there isn’t a lot you can do to improve it so I won’t comment further. The chicken came out moist much like the kabobs did the night before. If you are a beginner in the kitchen, using marinades will help you get through your meals by reducing your chances of over cooking your main ingredient. The lemon part of the lemon pepper marinade was lacking, so we sprinkled a little extra seasoning on the chicken and that seemed to do the trick. Olive oil could replace the vegetable oil next time to give some sweetness to a very peppery dish. I wouldn’t add more seasoning because there was more than enough pepper that came through, perhaps adding some lemon juice during the cooking process would give us the lemony flavor we were looking for.

Rating: Yummy - The marinade needs some work but I'll keep trying.

Chicken and Vegetable Kabobs

     When we do get a nice day in Syracuse, a rarity I know, I like to bust out my charcoal grill. I believe that everything tastes better grilled, but it has to be charcoal not propane. Propane is good but doesn’t give you the same flavor that charcoal does. Kabobs are a quick thing to make using a grill. While the coals heat up, you can get all the prep work done. I marinated two chicken breasts all day in state fair speedie sauce. I cut up the chicken into bite size pieces which made about four skewers worth. For vegetables I cut up three peppers, one yellow, one red, and one orange. In addition to the peppers we added baby bella mushrooms that came pre cut and I chopped a sweet Vidalia onion as well. We were able to make five skewers of vegetables with two of them having no mushrooms on them because Matt was coming over.

     Once the coals were glowing red, Matt dumped them into the grill. Before putting the vegetable skewers on the grill, I brushed them with the speedie sauce that I left in the bottle. To prevent sticking, I sprayed the grate with some non-stick butter spray. Be very careful if you do this after you put the grate over the coals because the spray is flammable and flares will shoot up when you spray. Using a small circular grill is tough when making kabobs because the heat usually gets centralized so you may have to move the kabobs around as you cook them in ensure the chicken cooks through and the vegetables get softened. I ran into this problem but using my trusty Ov-Glove, I was able to move the kabobs all around without burning my fingers. While the chicken and vegetables cooked, I brushed them with speedie sauce occasionally to keep them from burning. Cooking times are going to be different depending on the amount of coals you use, the meat you are cooking, and how much space you have on the grill.

     We all enjoyed the flavoring that the speedie sauce gave the vegetables and chicken. The chicken was moist yet had a bit of a crunch on the outside which was a nice change in texture. The mushrooms practically fell apart upon removing them from the skewers and were my favorite ingredient. The peppers softened some but still had a crunch to them. Charring on the onions gave them a smoky flavor that went well with the sweetness that they give off. Sweet ingredients like the peppers and the onion benefit greatly from being grilled because the charred flavor gives them extra flavor and texture. As a side we had white rice, which Christine suggested as a lighter component to a very seasoned dish. This was a great choice, Christine and Matt had butter on theirs while I had soy sauce. Overall, a good meal that I will definitely make again as long as the weather allows it.

Rating: Yummy - This was one of the quickest meals I've made thus far.

Chicken Stir Fry 2.0

     Getting home by 6pm at the absolute earliest really puts a strain on what I can make for dinner if I want to be done eating before 7pm. Stir fry is a quick and easy dinner idea that I have made before so a lot of this post will repeat my prior attempt. I made a few changes that I had hoped would be for the better but not all of them ended up not turning out the way I wanted them to. I began as I did before by boiling some jasmine rice and dropped the heat to a simmer while the chicken and vegetables cooked. I only seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper this time and left out the five spice.

     I let the chicken sit a while, while I started on the vegetables. I tried a different mix of frozen stir fry vegetables this time and liked this one better. Asian stir fry is the name of the mix and it contains water chestnuts, baby corn, snap peas, red peppers, and mushrooms. I sautéed the vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil until they were heated through. Next, I added the chicken in with the vegetables and cooked it until it was no longer pink. I also bought a different sauce to go with the chicken and vegetables since I know Christine doesn’t really care for the traditional stir fry sauce. We agreed upon a Caribbean style sweet and tangy sauce which sounded good. Upon opening the bottle, it seemed a bit watery and not as syrupy as the previous sauce. I added it to the chicken-vegetable mixture and allowed the sauce to reduce to see if I could get a better consistency.

     The sauce never tightened up and I didn’t want to over cook the chicken so I had to go with what I had. Like before I laid some rice on each plate as a base and placed the chicken and vegetables on top. The chicken, vegetables, and rice were all cooked fine but the taste just wasn’t there. Leaving out the five spice took away the ginger flavor that was masked by the stir fry sauce last time. I still think the chicken needs something more but haven’t found what that is yet. The sauce that we went with was kind of bland and not saucy enough for my taste. I guess I’m used to the heavy sauces often found in Chinese cooking.

Rating: Fair – Some changes worked but others didn't.

Chicken Stir Fry

     Not being able to get out of work on time doesn't allow me much time too cook if I want to eat at a reasonable time. This was the story tonight but I had planned ahead by picking out something I knew I could make quickly. I love Chinese food but it is very bad for you so I made this healthier Chinese dish. As soon as I got home I put some jasmine rice in a one and one half cups of water and brought that to a soft boil. While that began to heat up, I cut up a large chicken breast and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and five spice. In a large skillet I began to heat up stir fry oil on a medium heat.
    Once the rice began to boil, I covered it and dropped the heat to low. After about five minutes I added the seasoned chicken to the oil and stirred frequently until cooked through. Wegmans has a variety of frozen vegetable mixes used for stir frying. I went with the Hong Kong mix which contains broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and snap peas. Add these to the pan with the chicken along with about one third cup stir fry sauce. The Asian section of the grocery store has a pretty good selection of sauces that you can use depending on your taste. I lowered the heat down to keep everything warm while I waited for the rice to be done.
    When the has absorbed all the water, turn the heat off and let rest for about five minutes and then fluff with a fork. I spooned some out to make a base on the plate and then poured some of the stir fry mixture on top. I bought some soy sauce to go on the rice because the sauce doesn't saturate the rice very well.
Rating: Yummy - With so many choices of sauces, meats, and vegetables you can let your imagination run wild.

Mushroom Rice

Click Here For The Recipe

     Rice is such a versatile ingredient because it tastes great with just some butter or it can be flavored with whatever you are cooking it with. Mushrooms are another one of my favorite ingredients to use because there a so many kinds of them which allows them to be used in a variety of different dishes. So naturally the two of them work well together. This recipe would be a great side dish but I decided to make this a one pan meal and added some beef strips that had been seasoned with salt and pepper.

     Instead of using butter I used olive oil to saute the green onion, garlic and mushrooms. I took some of the other user suggestions and added more mushrooms. Wegmans has 8oz packages of pre-sliced mushrooms so I just used the whole package. I sauteed these until they were soft and added the beef strips until they were browned on the outside. Next I added the broth and a cup of uncooked rice. Instead of chicken broth I used beef broth because it compliments the meaty flavor of the mushrooms. As for the rice, I have stopped using regular white rice because it isn't as flavorful as some of the specialty rices out there. I have been using jasmine rice as of late and we really enjoy it. I let this simmer for about 20 minutes and garnished with parsley and parmesan cheese.

     Christine thought that the mushroom flavor was too overpowering and I could see where she was coming from but I thought the rice didn't have enough flavor overall. The rice even though it was cooked in beef broth with the mushrooms and other ingredients was kind of bland in my opinion.

Rating: Fair - I'd like to make this again but it will need some improvements

Greek Lemon Chicken Soup

Click Here For The Recipe

     A co-worker brought in this soup from Steak & Sundae in Syracuse for me to try and I really enjoyed it. So I decided to see if I could find a recipe for it so I could try it at home. Avegolemono is the greek name for this soup. If you type that into any search engine you'll find a slew of recipes to try. Allrecipes had a few and this one had a favorable amount of reviews.

     I started out by sauteing the onion with two cloves of garlic on a low heat until the onions were soft. Next I added the lemon juice, celery, white pepper, and 48oz of broth, which is only 6 cups of broth opposed to the 8 cups the recipe called for. This made for a thicker consistency almost like a chowder. If you like your soup to have more of a liquid broth just add the extra two cups. I ommited the carrots and used two chicken boullion cubes instead of the soup base because that's what I had on hand. Instead of using precooked chicken, I cut up two chicken breasts into thin slices and added them to the pot so the juices from the chicken would blend into the soup. I brought this all to a boil all while stirring occasionally. Once it began to boil I decided to add 1 cup of uncooked jasmine rice per other users suggestions. I allowed this to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes before adding the roux(butter and flour). Once I added the roux the soup really started to thicken up, so this is another time where you could make the soup thinner by using less. Again I let it simmer but only for about 10 minutes this time. While the soup simmered and its aroma began to fill the kitchen, I started on the egg yolks. Once I whisked the yolks, I slowly stirred them into the pot a little at a time. I gave them time to cook through and spooned a quick taste or two just to make sure the rice had cooked. I was impressed but what would Christine's reaction be? This is how the conversation went:

Christine: "Is this the lemon soup you were going to make?"

Me: "Yeah, why?"

Christine: "Oh because it looked like it was going to be bland since there isn't much color to it but the lemon gives it that zing and it goes well with the celery. Is it my favorite soup in the world? No, but..."

Me: "You'd eat it if I made it again."

Christine: "Right."

Rating: Yummy - I'll definately be making this again.