January 2012 – Spice Place Cooking Blog

Twice Cooked Thai Chicken and Fruit Recipe

Serving of Twice Cooked Thai Chicken and Tropical Fruit

This recipe takes a little effort but the rewards in flavor makes the effort worthwhile.

First Cooking

7 or 8 chicken thighs
1 tbsp Thai Kitchen Thai Seasoning

Season Chicken Thighs evenly with Thai Seasoning
Place in a 1/2 size aluminum steam table pan lined with non-stick aluminum foil
Cover pan with foil and bake in a 300° F oven for 1 to 2 hours. Remove cover for last 1/2 hour.
Allow to cool. Then remove skin from thighs and discard.
Shred the chicken meat by hand and place in a large bowl.

Seasoned Chicken Thighs for Twice Cooked Thai Chicken

Second Cooking – Curried Coconut Sauce with Shredded Chicken

3/4 cup Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
1 tsp McCormick Chinese Five Spice
1 tbsp Thai Kitchen Thai Seasoning
1 tsp McCormick Fancy Paprika
1/4 tsp Gilroy Farms Minced Garlic
1 15.25oz can Tropical Fruit
1 small can pineapple chunks, diced if desired
1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted lightly in a frying pan
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan (large enough to hold ingredients plus chicken).
Heat and blend Curried Coconut Sauce.
When well blended, fold in the shredded chicken, and stir to blend well.
Cook for 15 minutes, stirring often.
Serve 1 cup Twice Cooked Thai Chicken over 1 cup of fresh cooked Honey Cumin jasmine or basmati rice (recipe below).

Honey Cumin Rice Recipe

2 cups Jasmine or Basmati Rice
4 cups water
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp McCormick Ground Cumin

Bring water to boil. Add rice, cover, reduce heat and cook until water is absorbed, about 20 minutes (less time for basmati)
Remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Sprinkle ground cumin evenly over top of rice, and drizzle with honey.
Stir well

Easy to make Crispy Potatoes Pancakes

This dish is an excellent change of pace from mashed or baked potatoes as a side dish for pork chops, roasts and hamburgers. We used to make this recipe with fresh potatoes by peeling, shredding, and ringing out the excess water. That’s a lot of work and there are a couple obstacles to avoid. First, you have to have some McCormick Anti-oxidant on-hand to keep the shreds of potatoes from browning. All of those thin slices of potato brown almost immediately after shredding unless the Anti-Oxidant is used. It’s citric acid, just like in the OJ you drink, but without the flavor. Second, because you have to put those shreds of potato into the Anti-oxidant mixture, they get really wet and it’s really difficult to get rid of the excess water. And, the excess water makes it difficult to get the potato pancakes to form properly – they’ll fall apart while cooking.

Package of Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns

So, we found the trick to making delicious, well formed, simple to make Crispy Potato Pancakes is to cheat a little, and buy the Simply Potato Hash Brown Potatoes in the dairy section of your grocery store. The peeling is done and there is no extra water. This makes our recipe for Crispy Potato Pancakes a snap. From start to finish in about 10 to 15 minutes, just about the same time to cook those pork chops and a vegetable to square out your lunch or dinner. Plus these Potato Pancakes keep well in the refrigerator after being cooked and make an excellent leftover. Just zap them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to warm them up.

Recipe for Easy Crispy Potato Pancakes

1 store bought package of Simply Potatoes Hash Brown Potatoes
1 egg
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup chopped scallions or onion [we prefer scallions as the green tops add some color]

Combine the scallions and potatoes in a large bowl.
Sprinkle the flour evenly over the potatoes and scallions (or chopped onion).
Beat the egg in a small bowl and pour over the potato mixture.
Mix well by hand. Latex or nitrile gloves work well as the mixture is sticky and sticks to your hands.
Form into 4″ pancakes about 3/8 – 1/2″ thick. Place formed potato pancakes on wax paper.
Heat a large lightly greased (with heart healthy olive or canola oil) non-stick skillet add 2 to 3 potato pancakes, depending on the size of your pan (ours pictured is about 14″ in diameter).
Cook over medium heat for 3 – 4 minutes (until lightly browned, lift and peek underneath if required).
Cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove to a warm plate and cover to keep warm while cooking a second batch.
Serve plain, with low fat sour cream, ketchup or season with Old Bay French Fry Seasoning.

Makes six 4″ potato pancakes.

Just placed in pan to cook:

After being flipped once, note the browning is “just right.”

Classic French Toast

Prepared French Toast — French Toast with Strawberry Jam and Maple Syrup

Looking to have something different for breakfast other than the standard eggs, potatoes and ham/sausage, today we had French Toast. This is a fairly simple breakfast that can be made from start to finish in about 10 minutes. What you need:

2 eggs
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
McCormick Cinnamon Sugar (or 2 tsp Cinnamon blended with 1/3 cup confectioners sugar)
4 slices bread (we used whole wheat)
Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Jelly (as a garnish)

Beat the eggs in a bowl that is wide enough for the bread to fit across, but not to wide as you want the bread to soak up the liquid. Add the milk, and pure vanilla extract. Beat together well. Heat a large frying pan or griddle over medium heat and melt a small tab of butter in the pan or griddle.

Dip one piece of bread in the egg/milk mixture, quickly turn over and dip the other side. If you have a cookie rack handy, place the rank over a dinner plate, a place the dipped bread on top of the rack to allow any excess egg/milk mixture to dip off. Repeat for the other 3 slices of bread.

Brown the bread in the pan or griddle, and flip to brown the other side. You want to make sure to toast the bread will so that the egg is completely cooked (i.e. the finished French Toast should be firm and not damp). Place a tablespoon of Strawberry jam or jelly on the plate as a garnish and to dip the toast in when eating. I like to cut my French Toast up into about 3/4″ square pieces as I eat it.

Sprinkle the Cinnamon Sugar over top of the Toasted French Toast finally pour over a little warm Maple Syrup. Serve alone or with bacon, ham, or sausage as you desire.

Makes 2 servings, 2 slices each.

Alternatives:
Use 1/4 tsp Imitation Rum Extract in place of Pure Vanilla Extract.
Cut 1″ thick slices of bread from a whole loaf, cook thoroughly, and use 1 slice per serving.

Author: Matthew Schroebel

Creamed Chipped Beef Breakfast Recipe

This is tasty breakfast meal and is often known as SOS. It’s easy to make, and tastes great. On the downside, chipped beef is high in sodium. Don’t salt this dish.

Ingredients:

6 Ounces Chipped Beef
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped red or green bell pepper
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
Paprika as a garnish

Picture of Esskay Chipped Beef — Package of Esskay Chipped Beef

Directions

Shred the chipped beef into about 3/4″ wide pieces
Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet
Cooked the onions and pepper until there is a light carmelization (browning) of the onions
Sprinkle the flour over top and cook for another minute or two, stirring the mixture.
Add the milk, and beef. Cook over medium heat, while stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
Meanwhile make 4 siles of toast and dice.
Serve over diced toast pieces. Sprinkle with Paprika to add additional color.

Author: Matthew Schroebel