Peanut Chicken with Cabbage Slaw

One of my favorite magazines is Everyday Food. I have a bunch of them as I inherited my grandma's copies, and had my own subscription for a year while I was in college. It's a fun foodie magazine- lots of colorful pictures, meal plans, shopping lists, and basic information, such as how to cook a basic meatloaf.

In many of these magazines, there is a section called Cooking for One. Now, while I cook for two, if I want to eat meat, it is cooking for one. Hence, today's recipe. It's a fresh take on Chinese/Asian, and I loved the cabbage slaw- the perfect accompaniment to the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast half (about 6 ounces)
coarse salt and ground pepper
4 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 small carrot, shredded
1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce

1.) In a small skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium. Season chicken with salt and pepper; cook until browned and opaque throughout, about 6 minutes per side.

2.) Meanwhile, make slaw: In a medium bowl, whisk 3 teaspoons vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil. Add cabbage, scallions, carrot, and ginger; toss to combine. Set aside.

3.) Make sauce: In a small bowl, stir together peanut butter, soy sauce, and remaining teaspoon vinegar; if necessary, thin with water.

4.) Mound slaw on a serving plate. Thinly slice chicken crosswise on the diagonal. Place alongside slaw; spoon a little sauce on the plate, and serve remaining sauce on the side.

*I add some cut up peanuts to my sauce for an extra crunch.

Hoisin Tofu and Almonds

Another tofu recipe! This one is similar to ones I've made before, but uses lots of hoisin (as the title indicates) and has the crunchy addition of almonds. I found this recipe on a vegetarian blog, which I will now be frequenting quite often, veggienumnum.com

This was a good dish, but I would bake the tofu first. Normally that is what I do, but I thought I'd try it again in a pan, and it just proves to be too soft and mushy, often breaking apart and not staying in chunks. It also didn't get as crispy as I had hoped. So from now on- bake that tofu!

Ingredients:

10 1/2 oz. firm tofu
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, sliced
5 shallots, sliced
5 1/4 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, diced
2 1/2 oz. almonds

Sauce-

1 T cornstarch
1 T soy sauce
1 T hoisin sauce

Batter-

1 egg white
1 teaspoon salt
1 T cornstarch
1 T hoisin sauce


1.) Cut the tofu into chunks and soak in the stock for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the stock, and drain the tofu well on paper towels.

2.) To make the sauce, blend the cornstarch with the reserved stock, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce in a medium pot. Bring the sauce to a boil, stir, until it turns dark in color and has thickened; 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3.) To make the batter, lightly whisk the egg white, then mix in the cornstarch, salt and hoisin sauce to form a light batter. Toss the drained tofu in the batter to coat well.

4.) In a large frying pan, add oil and fry tofu til crisp and golden. Drain the tofu. Add the veggies and fry. Add the tofu and toss til heated through. Add the sauce and combine well. Finally, add almonds.

*You can serve this as is, or over rice or noodles.

Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake

One of my very first blog posts was sharing the recipe for a delicious lemon tart, a tart that I made for dinner guests who ended up getting sick and canceling.

This beautiful bundt cake was made for those same dinner guests- who months later, after lots of scheduling for both of us, finally made it to our apartment for a meal. I didn't want to make the exact same dessert, but went with the same flavor: lemon!

This recipe comes from allrecipes.com, and is absolutely delicious. I just cannot get enough of lemon, and this cake not only has the lemon zest (which you can see beautifully speckled in each slice), but also uses the juice to create a sweet glaze that oozes over the top, and spills down the sides.

Ingredients:

Cake-

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 T grated lemon peel

Glaze-

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 T water
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
3/4 cup sugar


1.) In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the extracts.

2.) Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add this to the creamed mixture, alternately with milk. Stir in the lemon peel.

3.) Pour the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes longer.

4.) Place the rack on waxed paper. Combine the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the warm cake. Cool completely before serving.

*Serves 12.