On Saturday Night, Liz and I whipped up a Japanese chicken dish that turned out great.

It was simple enough.

2-3 chicken breasts
2 med onions
oil for stir frying
60 milliliters of water
the same of soy
a little fish oil
a little veggie bullion

The real recipe called for a few other ethnic specific ingredients, but they were not easily found at the local stop and shop.

Stir fry the chicken. Once brown, remove from the wok and throw in onions. Once softened, add the rest and let it reach a boil. Once it boils, add the chicken. Cook for 3 minutes, and serve over rice!

Easy and Fast!

Mike D’s rock climbing food ratings:
Deliciousness: 5.9
Difficulty: 5.6

It has been a week of food!

Tuesday night I got home from Kung Fu a bit early and Jesse and I decided to make yet another delicious meal out of the ‘essential asian’ cookbook. Our fridge is pretty stocked, but even still, I figured it’d be best to choose a recipe that didn’t require too many unusual ingredients.

I found the perfect one: Chinese Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup.

Wow.

First of all, even if you don’t consider yourself a cook, you can make this. It’s extremely simple and the result was wonderful.

Ingredients:
1 Chicken Breast
3 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Cup Creamed Corn
2 Egg Whites
1 T corn starch
Some Salt
Some Scallions
Some Soy Sauce

Directions:
1. Mince the meat in a food processor or with lots of cutting.

2. Whip the egg whites until they froth to a peak.

3. Fold the egg into the chicken mince. Add a teaspoon or so of salt.

4. Pour the broth into a pan and bring to a boil.

5. Add creamed corn. Mix the T of corn starch with a bit of water and then add to the pot. it should thicken.

6. Once the broth thickens, lower the temp slightly and add the chicken egg mixture. Cook for 3 minutes stirring, do not let it boil.

7. Serve with a little soy sauce splashed on top and a couple scallions cut along the diagonal.

I had a photo, unfortunately it seems I mistakenly deleted it. I’ll grab one next time.

Total time from start to finish: maybe 25 min

Mike D’s rock climbing ratings:
Difficulty: 5.3
Deliciousness: 5.10a

Last week while I was in Texas I had a most amazing tomato basil soup. This got me inspired and I decided to try to make my own version on Sunday.

But, I couldn’t just have Tomato Basil soup, so I talked to my mom and the two of us found a great recipe for Apricot Almond Chicken Salad.

This lunch was A+
I highly recommend it.

The soup came from this recipe. I did add the full portions of cream and butter and it actually did make a difference. I was hoping to be able to get away with half the butter and 3/4 of the cream. No dice.

The chicken salad recipe was excellent, healthy, and extremely easy.

Dried Apricots
Toasted Almonds
Celery
Cooked Diced Chicken
Some light mayo mixed with nonfat milk
Rosemary
Scallions

And that’s it! Blend it, chill it, and serve on a bed of lettuce with fresh grapes, or on a slab of wheat bread. Either way, it’s amazing.

Mike D’s Rockclimbing food ratings:

Tomato Soup:
Difficulty: 5.9-
Deliciousness: 5.10

Chicekn Salad:
Difficulty: 5.7
Deliciousness: 5.10

A week ago Saturday, Jesse and I dug a bit deeper into the ‘Essential Asian’ cookbook. This time we went to the Thailand chapter and tried a green curry.

It came out Awesome.

Basics:

Green curry paste
Coconut milk
Chicken
Onion
Green beans
Brown sugar
Fish sauce
Lime Juice
Oil

I don’t think I’m missing any big ingredients up there. We served it on a bed of rice.

I used some Indian Saag (spinach) curry because I couldn’t find any Thai curry at the food store. It worked well though. That is certain.

Here’s a photo of the final product.

This will be made again.

Difficulty: 5.6 R (r means gear placement is tough to find. This fits perfectly because some of the ingredients were not easily accessible)
Deliciousness: 5.10c

I’d developed a fast easy tasty chicken dish great for bringing to lunch.

Ingredients:
chicken
oil
white cooking wine
ketchup
salt
lemon juice
cornstarch
sugar

Directions:
Throw chicken in pan with a little olive oil. Cook one side until white. Flip.
Add a little cooking wine.
Add a little ketchup and a small bit of salt
Sprinkle some sugar over the top
Add a comfortable dose of lemon juice
add cornstarch to thicken the sauce
cook until it starts to brown

it’s pretty good.

Sunday evening post climbing (tomorrow’s feature) Pete, Jesse, and I returned to the House of Rock to make some food. We opened up my new Essential Asian cookbook, flipped to “Laos and Cambodia” and found a recipe for Spicy Fried Fish. The basic premise was such. Cut up some white fish, coat with egg and a flour-cumin-coriander mix and then fry in oil. Separately make up some hot sauce and serve.

The strange thing was, the sauce wasn’t spicy. It didn’t even have any spicy ingredients in it.
Sauce Ingredients:

sesame oil
garlic
ginger
onion
spring onion (scallions)
fish sauce
soy sauce
brown sugar
water

please tell me where the ‘hot’ is suppose to come from.

Anyway, here are some photos.

Pete taking control of the frying pan.

A shot with strange perspective that looks more like a mini-mike d standing on the counter next to a giant Jesse. Jesse meanwhile is contemplating the inner workings of a cheese grater.

This is the start to the spicy sauce that wasn’t very spicy.

The final product in all its glory!

I would give this dish the following rock climber ratings:

Difficulty: 5.9
Deliciousness: 5.8-

Really, the ‘difficult’ rating might be biased. The dish wasn’t hard to prepare, it was just annoying. I really don’t enjoy putting batter on fried foods pre-frying. Maybe there’s a better way to do it, but my way always ends up with my hands covered in batter and my egg and flour mixtures running out prematurely.

It was tasty, but I don’t think I’ll try it again.

The fried rice recipe that I mentioned briefly in yesterday’s post ended up being very simple, quick, and delish.

Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 med onion (cut into 8 wedges)
4 scallions (cut into small pieces on the diagonal)
8 oz. ham (sliced into long thin strips)
3-4 T peanut oil
2 T soy sauce
1 3/4 cup long grain brown rice
1/4 Cup frozen peas

STEP 1: cook the rice, then chill the rice. The recipe says chill it overnight… I settled for 20 minutes in the freezer.
STEP 2: throw 2T of oil into a wok.
STEP 3: mix the eggs, adding some salt and pepper to season
STEP 4: throw eggs in wok. spread the egg out by swishing it around the wok until it just starts to solidify into a thin patty. Then separate with a spatula, scrambled eggs style. Remove eggs and set aside.
STEP 5: Throw in the onion. Keep ‘em in there until they start to become transparent.
STEP 6: Add ham. Fry for 1 min.
STEP 7: Add the rest of the oil, then the rice and peas. fry for 3 min.
STEP 8: Add scallions, egg, and soy sauce. Cook until heated through.
STEP 9: Serve, and enjoy.

It should be noted that I ended up using white basmati rice instead because we had it on hand. Also, the real recipe called for prawns to be added. I did not. It was still excellent.

Mike D’s food climbing ratings:
Deliciousness: 5.8+
Difficulty: 5.5

For a tasty breakfast saute some red peppers and add one full eggs and two egg whites. Scramble a bit and then add a teaspoon or two of honey.

Simple and delicious.