Rye Cooks

Chicken and Noodles in a Creamy Szechuan Dressing

I don't know how in the world mayonnaise ever got invited to join in the cool Asian crowd, but diversity is good right?  Well, it is really good as part of the recipe I used to make a side dish for a Fourth of July celebration we recently attended.

I wanted to use my cookbooks to come up with a dish using the leftover chicken we had from the previous bbq at our own house.  (Here in Rye, Fourth of July starts on July 1st with fireworks at Playland and basically continues until after dark on the 4th.)  Actually, does anyone know what in the world happened to the Playland fireworks on the 4th?  Did they use up all the good ones?  Was someone late for work?   We they just messing with us?

Anyway, I have a decent cookbook collection.  I know I could make interesting food for the rest of my life using them, yet the addiction to instant recipe searches have almost made me forget the pleasure of looking through the stained and sticky pages of much-loved cookbooks.

Here is a scaled down version of what is called "Chicken, Mein, and Vegetables in Creamy Szechuan Dressing".  I've simplified it so I didn't have to shop for extra ingredients I didn't have on hand and admittedly, I halved the bit about the mayo dressing.  As written, it called for 2 cups mayo and that's just excessive for one pound of pasta.  

1 pound capellini

3/4 cup soy sauce, divided

1/4 cup peanut oil

1 cup mayo 

1 1/2 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/8 cup sesame oil

dash Szechuan chili oil (or use any hot sauce)

2 whole chicken breasts, cooked, sliced thin

2 carrots, peeled, chopped into half rounds

1 sweet red pepper, sliced thin

Cook noodles until very al dente (the box of capellini says 2 mins!)  After one minute, throw in the carrots and red pepper so they will quick-cook.

Drain and toss in a large bowl with 1/2 cup soy sauce and the peanut oil.  Stir around to coat evenly.  Let cool.

Combine Mayo with mustard, sesame oil, the remaining 1/4 cup soy sauce and chili oil (hot sauce).  Add to noodles, and add in the chicken.  

Mix gently, using hands if necessary.  Cover and refrigerate until using.  It improves with time, but don't forget to take it our early enough to bring back down to room temp.

If presentation is a priority, toss some sesame seeds on top, and some green sprigs like parsley or cilantro.  Also, if it seems dry, just add some more extra soy/ sesame oil, or peanut oil before serving.

This dish was well received at the party so I encourage you to try.  Of course, it would be great with leftover pork, steak or tofu.

 

 

Crunch Time

Yeesss!  We finally finished the third show and we are on air on the public access channel in Rye.  But you can only see us on the big screen if you live in town, so use the link below if you want to take a peek.

 http://ryeny.swagit.com/play/03162011-157/0/  

The theme was around getting ready for a big night out, the Rye TV awards ceremony was held that night.  We had a bit of primping to do, and of course, dinner still had to get on the table.   

I promised to post the recipes we used on the episode so here they are:

Quick and Easy Waffles...........by Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything

Canola oil for brushing on waffle iron (I use Pam)

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but I put it in)

Brush the waffle iron with oil, or use Pam and preheat it. Combine the dry ingredients.  Mix together the milk and eggs. Stir in the butter and the vanilla.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry.

Spread a ladleful or so of batter onto the waffle iron and bake until the waffle is done, usually 3-5 minutes.  Serve immediately or keep warm for a few minutes in a low oven.

 

Then we made pot pie, as it was easy to make early in the day, for re-heating later. This recipe came from the back of the box of Pillsbury pie crust.  I will post that next time, because even I can see this is long enough for now.  More importantly, click on the link and tell us what you think!

 

 

The Baking Throw Down

Another snow day.  Well, the tease of merely a "delay" for the elementary school so that a broken pipe could be fixed, and then an early dismissal for the rest of the school district.

After the pick up, a few kids assembled at our house, which happens kind of rarely.  We don't have a finished basement, attic space or any sort of "playroom" that affords privacy. When the kids were young, I equated heading down into one of those basement rooms to watch the kids play as a form of parent purgatory.  Now, the thought of that degree of privacy just seems wrong. "Heyyy, I just thought I'd throw in some whites, anything I can get you guys?"

What we do have is ingredients.  And a double oven.  So, the kids split up into teams, one made a Sour Cream Coffee Cake, from Bon Appetit, the opposing team made Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies.  I voted for the coffee cake, even though they were both delicious.  

I love this coffee cake.  It makes a big enough recipe (baked in a 13 X 9 pan) to feed a crowd.  It is perfect when we are invited to someone's house for brunch or for a ski weekend.  

I just checked my recipe so I could quote you the right magazine, and I can't believe it is from 1987.  I tore out a page from a magazine more than 23 years ago.  Was I really thinking about coffee cake way back in my senior year of college?  

Generally, I feel about 28 years old so stuff like this comes as a bit of a shock.  Well, it is nice to have a teenage daughter whose friends come over to bake.  They even did a stand up job of cleaning up today.

White or Red?

Are you one of my kind?  The kind that waits for all the happenings of December to work their way through so we can come out the other side into clean, fresh January?  New everything?  Getting organized, doing all that went by the wayside in the rush of celebrations, identifing the gloves that have long ago lost their mate, getting rid of them, making piles of outgrown warm stuff for donations, etc.

Ask me mid December and I would have told you that by now, my cookbook binders would be updated, out with the old stuff I never made, in with all the print outs of recipes I made successfully, the recipes ripped out of waiting room magazines that I plan to try. (uhhh, you know, ask the receptionist if she can please make you a copy...)

I would have weekly meals planned or at least be a day or two ahead. We might have some fresh vegetables in the house by now.  Not the kind ice-picked from the freezer.

Ah, but no.  Not much of the above.

What has gotten my family through these past weeks is: PASTA FAGIOLE soup.

There are two places in Rye to order it and the two soups you will come home with have only a passing resemblance to each other, and they are both highly recommended.

The first is from Sunrise Pizza.  Small tubes of pasta, white beans in a heavy broth; they swear there is no cream in it, and I believe them.  It is completely, utterly satisfying.  Enjoy it in front of a cozy fire.

The second is from Piazza Pizza. Their pasta fagiole is the fiery little sister to the one from Sunrise.  Piazza uses bacon and the smoky flavor may not be traditional (and maybe it is?), but it works.  Piazza uses an assortment of beans and the broth is deep tomato red.  Warming and wonderful in a different way, kind of energizing, actually.

We have been subsisting on both, the leftovers are great for breakfast. 

Thank you Sunrise, thank you Piazza!

Introducing Dottie. Or Fay.

"International Cookery", from a cookbook so worn and coverless, I can't even find its name.  For those who want their culture served up bracingly straight, here are spaghetti and meatballs, and two kebabs.

If you've seen our blog before, you may have noticed that we're changing our look.  It's a gradual process that isn't complete yet.  We'll be done soon.

This is the work of Dionne, at Studio Chic Design.  She surprised us with the lady up at the top of the page here. 

Giant spoon all under control, a tophat that might put her in Mr. Peanut territory if not for the waistline of a wasp, she looks like she stepped out of one of my mom's spineless, stained cookbooks from the 40's.  She looks like a noseless Dottie, or a Fay.  Maybe a Greer.  

Looking for a blog design with a clean, playful style -- and a designer who is  very easy to work with?  Check out Dionne's Ink Studio page at Etsy, or her website.