Ginger Chicken with Broccoli

Francie and I are on Nantucket - out at the west end in Still Water, a cottage overlooking Madaket Harbor. Last night I cooked up the following to go with rice:

Marinate for a couple of hours 2 chicken breasts cut in to bite size pieces in:
- 2 in chunk of ginger cut into thin slices (I had only the Scimitar that comes with the cottage to cut with so the ginger was a bit more chunky than optimal.  If you cut it fine enough, it will cook and be yummy to eat)
- 2 - 3 big cloves of garlic, minced
- Lemon Juice (from one of those little plastic lemons, I recommend a real lemon, but I was unwilling to go to Stop & Shop just for that)
- 2-4 T of Rose's  (sweetened lemon lime juice, it was in the fridge, but added a nice something)
- Salt & Pepper
- Cumin
- Tabasco

Stir fry as follows:
- 1/2 large sweet onion, char it a bit
- then the chicken, marinade and all
- at about the time marinade has a minute or 2 before it is reduced away, add about the same amount of broccoli as chicken (I did not have enough broccoli)

Cover with a lid to steam the broccoli.

Finish with about 2T butter.

serve with steamed rice...

Ground beef comfort

Ground beef:
brown the ground beef in a skillet
season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce (3 -4 good squirts)
when the juices start to evaporate its done!

Mashed potatoes:
cut 1 MamaFaye of potatoes (see the header on the blog) into 2" chunks
boil until fork tender in salted water
Mash with butter and milk  (for about 1/2 bag of potatoes, I use about 1cup milk and 1/2 stick butter)

nuke some peas

make a pile on your plate and enjoy!!

Rice Noodles and Veg

chop veggies:
- carrots (thin)
- broccoli (small pieces)
- garlic
- peppers ?

soak noodles:
- put the number of noodles you think you will need for the number of people you are going to serve into a bowl
- boil water
- cover noodles with very hot water
- soak about 5 minutes

Skillet on the stove to heat

- about 1:3 ratio of sesame to olive / canola oil in the pan
- when it is hot, add the carrots, followed shortly by the broccoli
- cook for a bit with salt and pepper
- add curry powder or other spices and garlic

when veggies are done, add noodles and "toss"

Tofu and Rice

Sautéed Tofu and Rice

Marinate the tofu:

1. Cut a 1lb block of tofu into about 8 slices each about 3/4 - 1 inch thick
2. Fold a CLEAN tea towel in half long ways and arrange the slices on the towel so that you can fold the towel into a "tofu sandwich"
3. Squeeze the water out of the slices
4. Arrange the tofu on a platter and slowly drizzle them with tamari so that it soaks in.  Turn the slices over and repeat.  Let them sit for a bit.

This is a good time to start the rice:

1. Bring 4 cups of *salted* water to a boil in the rice pot.
2. When the water is boiling add 2 cups of long grain rice
3. Bring the water back to a boil.
4. When it is boiling give the rice one good stir, turn down the heat to medium low (around 3 on the dial), and cover
5. Adjust the lid of the pot a bit if it oozes too much.
6. Cook until the rice is done - about 15-20 minutes.
7. When the rice is done; turn of the heat and leave it covered. 

Saute the tofu:

1. Now start a skillet heating on almost high.  Add a bit of sesame oil and a slug of olive oil to the pan.
2. When the oil is hot, arrange the tofu slices in the pan and let them cook until the are browned on the bottom (5 minutes?)
3. Turn the slices over and repeat the cooking
4. Remove the tofu from the pan.

Eat....

Of course there is nothing green here.  Steamed broccoli is good with this.  You can also nuke some frozen peas.

Things we cooked so far this weekend

Its been a rainy weekend so we been busy...

Chicken Stock
Baked Beans
Fried Noodles
Steaklettes
Scrambled Eggs with Veggies
Devil's Food Cake
Coffee Cake
Biscotti
Grass Fed Prime Rib
Apple Crisp (those apples were not going to be thrown away!)

Yet to come:
Roasted root veggies with potatoes
Green salad
Green Beans