Garlic, Ginger & Honey Chicken

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This month’s decision to choose a recipe from Lavender and Lovage for Secret Recipe Club was an easy one. When I saw Karen’s Chinese Garlic, Ginger & Honey Chicken, my mind was made. It’s incredibly fast and healthy. We served this atop of some noodles and napa cabbage we picked up at a local market and it was quite satisfying. We also doubled the recipe because it keeps well for lunch leftover. If I were to make it again I would up the spice and maybe add some nuts.

Karen was born in South Africa brought up in rural England. She was greatly influenced by her grandmother and mother and is  currently writing a cookbook based on her British cuisine research. Head on over to Lavender and Lovage to browse her extensive recipe collection or check out the other SRC posts from this month below.
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Kung Pao Chicken

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For October’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with Nora from Natural Noshing. Nora is about the same age as me and has “a passion for nutrition and eating natural, real food — nothing too fussy, over-processed or complicated.” The fact that she avoids gluten and limits her sugar intake seemed a bit daunting at first (I am, after all, a carb-avore that loves sweets), but my worries went away when I started perusing her recipes.

Between Almond Joy / Mounds PancakesChicken Vindaloo, Fire Roasted Chicken Enchiladas with Squash and Red PeppersKickin Cashew Chicken, Red Thai Tofu CurryPineapple Upside Down Cake for One, and Spicy Kabocha Soup, I’ve bookmarked quite a few recipes to try out later.

One of our comfort foods during while were were dating was Kung Pao Tofu from a local Chinese restaurant. Because of this, it wasn’t hard for my husband to decide on this dish as his SRC pick. Not only did he pick this dish, but he also made it for us one day while we were working from home together.

This recipe won’t solve your craving for Chinese take-out style because it is much lighter and less greasy. It tastes fresher, especially with the crunch of the red bell peppers. Since the dish is relatively easy and quick to make, next time I’d like to try boosting up the spice as well as swapping the chicken for tofu.
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Chicken Biryani

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For January’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired up with Bobbi from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen. It was hard to pick a recipe, which is a good sign! I tend to lean towards savory recipes for Secret Recipe Club since I bake and post sweet recipes more frequently. Bobbi’s Chicken Biryani was the perfect solution — a one pot meal that satisfied my craving for Indian food. You can customize the amount of spices to your own liking (I added extra cardamom and heat).

Hop on over to Bobbi’s site and read her inspirational story (overcoming breast cancer and gastric bypass) as well as perusing her recipe stash, including: Boozy Hot Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice Cake, White Chicken Chili, Pumpkin Mac n Cheese, Fudgy Chocolate Caramel Brownies.

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Chinese Roast Pork Integrale Risotto

A few weeks ago I entered to be part of Marx Food‘s The Integrale Gauntlet. At first I was very intimidated by the title, but that’s probably because I’ve been watching a bit too much medieval-themed TV shows recently. The more I read about the “Gauntlet”, the more excited I became. This challenge is “all about rice”, one of my favorite foods!

After I entered the gauntlet, I was sent one kilo package of Italian Organic Integrale Rice — my mission was to make an original savory risotto.

Though rice is one of my favorite foods, I’ve only made brown rice a few times and risotto only once. Ashamedly, the one time I did make risotto was from one of those instant risotto packets back when I was in college. I’ve always been intimidated of risotto–the care and attention it takes, as well as the reputation it has for being so easy to “do poorly” or “just wrong.”

Luckily, Marx Foods has a good framework that broke down the process into general steps, noting when embellishments could be added. Using their steps as a guide, I formulated a recipe using some of my favorite flavors and inspired by a recent trip to a new dim sum restaurant nearby.

I chose to make a risotto with shiitake mushrooms, ginger, water chesnuts, pickled cucumbers, cilantro, scallions, and char siu (chinese roast pork). The end result was something that was creamy and rich with the taste of good memories though balanced with acidity and crunch from the vegetables.

For my first time making risotto from scratch, I was quite proud of myself. This is a great healthier version of risotto with it being organic and brown, and it has the added bonus of being a one pot meal!

This dish paired well with a deep red wine we picked up at the local store; the flavor of the wine helped cleanse between bites of the risotto since the char siu was quite fatty. I used about 2 cups (my rice cup measures 180ml) and had generous dinner and lunch portions the next day for two people.

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This recipe has been deemed a "hit at home" and is one of the tastiest recipes on Hapa-tite!

Peach-Lacquered Chicken Wings

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This recipe is adapted from the most recent Gourmet magazine issue (June 2009). I personally think that the name “Peach-Lacquered” comes from the way these wings are cooked–you have to continually tend to them and coat them for about 20-25 minutes. But, I’d say they were pretty worth it.

The ideal side dish to this would probably be a light, dill-laden potato salad, but we started making ours too late to serve with this dish. If making potato salad, either make earlier in the day or the day before (or buy it!). We instead ate it with some delicious sweet corn-on-the-cob (boiled for about 10 minutes), though a light salad, fries, or a pasta salad would work as well.