Blog Archives

White Bean Chicken Chili

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This chili is one of my favorite uses for rotisserie chicken whenever the local store is having a sale on it.Even though it has a lot of ingredients, it comes together very quickly once you have everything measured out.

It’s warm, spicy, and incredibly healthy. It tastes even better the next day after all of the spices have soaked into to the beans and chicken, intensifying. You could halve this recipe to yield a smaller amount, but this can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight container. I like to top mine with some cheese, chia seeds, or non-fat yogurt as well as the cilantro, but you can dress it up with anything!

White Chicken Chili

Char Siu Chow Fun 叉燒河粉

Today is the Lunar New Year and marks the beginning of the year of the Horse (my mother and sister are both horses!).

Every year my family gathers at my paternal Grandmother’s house to eat a delicious new year’s feast. The new year menu always kicks off with multiple roast ducks, chop suey-style vegetables, rice, sin choy,  roast pork, duck liver potato stuffing, chow fun, all followed by guava chiffon pie. This year my grandmother was thinking about not making chow fun since the noodles are hard to procure where she lives. The thought of a new year celebration without chow fun kicked my butt into gear and I set about testing some chow fun recipes.

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Family at Dim Sum
Chow Fun at Dim Sum
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Vegetables
Here are some pictures of Scott Drewno, of Wolfgang Puck’s Source in DC, cutting some noodles from China Boy for his version of Chow Fun.
Here are some pictures of Scott Drewno, of Wolfgang Puck’s Source in DC, cutting some noodles from China Boy for his version of Chow Fun.

This recipe is a result of a few different recipes that I tried out, including Viet World Kitchen, Hawaii’s Best Local Dishes by Jean Watanabe Hee, Clara Tom’s Old Fashioned Method of Cantonese Chinese Cooking, and 50th Anniversary Best of Our Favorite Recipes 1946-1996 (Maui Cookbook). With, of course, some suggestions from my dad.

I found the noodles in the refrigerated section of my local Chinese supermarket, Great Wall. The noodles I prefer are made by China Boy in Washington, DC. Usually the noodles are steamed or baked for a little to help loosen them up, but I found I didn’t need to do this and it was quite easy to separate them when I got the hang of it.

I am the most happy with the version pictured above. Since I made so many versions during recipe testing, I’m hesitant to provide exact measurements on the sauce. It’s really up to you and your preference on spiciness, saltiness, and oil content. This is a lot less greasy than when I order it out in restaurants, which means it’s easier to enjoy a larger portion.

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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Baked Ratatouille with Morels

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I was given some dried morels from Marx Foods as part of their 5th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge and challenged to use these special mushrooms in a recipe where the primary method of cooking was baking.

You may not have heard of morels before. I have had a few dishes that used morels in a very special way, including a chicken fried steak with morel gravy, but it is not something that pops up on menus too often. Morels are great at soaking up whatever they’re in. They’re great, earthy, sponges.

From Marx Foods’ site:

Morel mushrooms have a honeycombed, hollow, cone-shaped cap from 1 to 3 inches high. They grow naturally in a range of colors from tan to almost-black. Morels are one of the most prized and beloved wild mushroom varieties. People go wild for their buttery-earthy flavor and aroma.

Unfortunately, their fresh season is fleeting, lasting roughly from May to July. Dried morels allow you to enjoy the flavor and beautiful appearance of morel mushrooms year round, and they’re very easy to rehydrate & cook with.

Dried mushrooms are a great value. It takes about 5 pounds of fresh mushrooms to create 8 ounces of dried mushrooms. In addition, they can be shipped much more affordably than fresh or frozen mushrooms.

One of my favorite savory, baked recipes is ratatouille. It’s a very flexible and predictable recipe that can be easily adapted to whatever ingredients you have on hand.

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The first recipe I tried was Ina Garten’s Chicken with Morels, but I realized that while it has baking steps in it, the ingredients are cooked stovetop more than in the oven. I used the chicken I created using that recipe in this dish, but any protein can be used. You can also leave out meat all together and serve it with more quinoa to get the same protein punch. This keeps great in the fridge for leftovers, or frozen into lunch-sized portions.

Go check out all the other entries in the 5th Annual Morel Recipe Challenge, and if you’re up for it, vote for my ratatouille!
Thanks again to Marx Foods for the chance to play around with this funky ingredient.

5th Annual Morel Challenge

Note: I was given the dried morels free of charge from Marx Foods, though all thoughts and recipes are my own.