Chinese Honey Chicken

This is one of my favorite things to get at a Chinese restaurant, and while this isn't the perfect recipe, it's very good!

It is also, if time consuming, rather simple. The recipe called for 1.5 pounds of chicken for deep-frying, but it makes so much batter you could probably get away with more.

Batter:

• 4 Tbsp Cornstarch
• 1/4 c. Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 c. Water
• 1 Egg
• 1 Egg White
• Pinch of salt

Mix all of the batter together, and set aside covered for 30 minutes. I recommend steaming some rice during this time, the sauce is better warm.

Sauce:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp Oil
• 2 tsp Ginger (minced or paste)
• 1-2 Tsp minced Garlic - to taste
• 3 Tbsp Honey
• 1 Tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 c. Water
• 1 Tsp cornstarch (mixed with 1 Tsp water)

Now then. The sauce. I made this with my friend Jasmine, and this caused us some problems as the original recipe called for 3 tablespoons garlic. This was, of course, far too garlicky, and we were forced to scrap the first pan of sauce. Taste frequently!

Heat the oil in a pan, adding ginger and garlic and cooking for about 30 seconds. Just heated really. Add the water, vinegar, and honey, stirring well. Finally add the cornstarch mixture and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To cook the chicken (and/or tofu) prepare your deep-fryer or instead prepare a deep pot and heat enough oil to submerge the morsels. I confess I had little to do with this process (Jasmine did the work here). Just be careful that the chicken cooks all the way through. When done it should have a crispy outside and a golden color.

Baked Pears in Brown Sugar

My mom recently has been buying pears for the cheap, since they are in season. But what do you do with them? I researched and found a simple, but delicious recipe. It is modified slightly, so read close.

Ingredients:

• Pears. (duh. You will be halving them, so base how many on how many people you are serving. I am using 3.
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
• Pistachios coarsely chopped (or your favorite nuts. Hohoho)
• Vanilla ice cream (originally called for sourcream, but I like this better)

Preheat oven to 400 F, make sure there the center rack is in place and will fit your pan.

Now then, start halving those pears! When I made them this time they were less than perfectly ripe (a little too soft) so take that into consideration when making this. I've found that using a strawberry stem remover works wonderfully for removing the core of the pears. A simple knife will do for cutting out the stem 'root'.



Plop the butter in slices into the pan of your choice (make sure that it will fit all pear halves) and put it into the oven to melt. In the meantime, pack up your brown sugar.

When the butter is melted, remove from the oven and sprinkle the brown sugar all over in the pan. It'll seem like a ton of brown sugar, but it'll be okay. Place the pears cut side down into the pan, and put into the oven for 30 minutes.



Do a crossword.

Have tongs and a ladle or spoon of some sort at the ready, and remove the pears from the oven. Flip them over, picking up some of that sauce and pouring over the 'white' of the pears (of course they won't be white at this point). Put back into the oven and bake for 10 more minutes.



When they are done, let them cool slightly before transferring to plates or bowls. Serve with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of sour cream, and sprinkle with nuts.



Done! :)

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Tomorrow is valentines day. And I am jobless. So I decided to bake my boyfriend something - at first it was just going to be simple truffles, but I quickly discovered that we were out of a few key ingredients for them. Of course.

These were tasty and surprisingly simple - though you have to wait an hour or two for the dough to chill.


Psst. Here is the recipe.

I didn't put the extra cup of chocolate chips in after the dough was mixed because I thought that was plenty enough chocolate.

WARNING! 36 Servings is a complete lie. This recipe made about 80 small cookies. So I suggest halving it or making bigger cookies... I don't think my concept of an 'inch' is that much smaller than theirs but my god so many cookies.

Leaf Clutch

Some of you might have heard about the Sewing With Nature contest that was held throughout January (I hope you have heard, considering the post just below me is all about it. Keep up guys, jeez). The results haven't been posted yet, but the contest is closed and I can post the bag I made.

It took me a long time to come up with something to do, but then the answer was clear - a clutch! In the shape of a leaf, specifically. Because I am completely bollocks at making my own patterns, it took a long time to put together. But I finally completed it. Huzzah!



Cheers :)