Who’s Hungry?

I’m starting to make dinner for the family about one night a week or more if I can.

Three of my more recent dinners were a caramel chicken recipe I found online and adapted, a “spiced-batter fish” one and a marinara mix stir fry.

1. Caramel chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken thighs/ breast, thinly sliced
• Garlic
• 1 red or brown onion
• Vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• Chopped vegies of your choice
• Rice

Method

1. Chop up chicken and choose, wash and chop vegies
   NB. Vegies for stir-frying are good
2. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan and cook chicken, in batches, stirring, until golden. Transfer to a bowl/plate to wait.
   NB. Start cooking with the pan with the heat set to ‘high’, then turn down to medium or medium-high as needed, once the pan’s hot. This is particularly useful if your stove takes a while to warm up; it also allows for quicker cooking.
3. Add onion. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic. Cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.
4. Add vegies and begin cooking them.
5. In a separate pot, add rice to water with a bit of salt. The ratio is usually 2 cups water to 1 cup rice I think. Cook. It should take about 15 minutes.
   NB. This can be done in the microwave, but you’ll need to stop it half-way and stir it.
   NB. If you don’t want gluggy rice, then you’ll need to stir it on the stove and keep an eye on it as you’re doing the rest of the meal. It’s great if there’s someone else to help!
6. When vegies are mostly cooked, return chicken to pan. Add soy sauce. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Add sugar. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes or until mixture is bubbling. Add fish sauce and juice. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until sauce thickens.
7. Wait for the rice to finish, plate up and serve! More or less vegies alter the effects of the sauce on the chicken, I think.

2. Spiced-Batter Recipe (for Fish)

Ingredients

• Fish pieces
• Flour
• Water
• Spices (I used mixed spice and tumeric)
• Salt
• Pepper

Method

1. In the bottom of two containers, mix a good amount of flour with salt, pepper and spices. Add water to the mix of one of the containers.
   NB. Remember to think about the ratio of flour to spices (you want it to be “just right”, not too spicy or too ‘weak’).
2. Dip and cover the fish into the ‘dry’ mix then into the ‘wet’ one.
3. The fish are battered – now it’s time to cook.
4. Use a deep pan to fry the fish as that will hold more pieces. Depending on whether you want to deep-fry or shallow-fry it, use more or less oil.
5. Serve with salad and rice/potatoes.

3. Marinara Mix Stir-fry

Ingredients

• Vegies
• Marinara mix (can be bought at most supermarket delis, it’s a mix of seafood)
• Vegetable oil
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Chili
• Onion
• Rice/ potatoes

Method

1. Cut up vegies. I used carrot, pumpkin, zucchini, purple cabbage, cauliflower and bok choy. They were cut up into sticks or thinly sliced some other way.
2. Put oil into wok – enough to thinly coat the bottom. Add onion and cook until soft and translucent. While it’s cooking, add a teaspoon each of garlic, ginger and chili.
3. Add vegies and cook.
4. Add sauces; a tablespoon/teaspoon of each, to taste.
5. Add marinara mix and cook until done.
6. Remember to coat everything with the flavours by mixing through from bottom to top with a large kitchen spoon.

7. Meanwhile, cook rice/ potatoes.

8. Serve.

Something like that, anyway.

Bang! Three recipes. 🙂