4-5-2011 Lee Hock Cooks Chinese

King Hock is always complaining about the lack of a kosher Chinese restaurant here in town. To fill this void, I decided to cook Chinese food tonight.
What a great idea! It turned out beyond superb, I highly recommend giving these dishes a try.
I made Beef Wonton Soup, Sesame Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, and Steamed Rice.
The Sesame Chicken was probably the best I have ever had. It is not the healthiest dish because it is deep fried, but sometimes you got to splurge. I just finished eating it, and I'm already dreaming about the next time I can have it.
The wontons in the wonton soup could be served alone with jarred sweet-n-sour sauce or with a dipping sauce, I will include a recipe for this below. Also, I had extra beef filling leftover, and I made it into a few hamburger patties, which my kids devoured. (I baked these at 350 degrees for 20 minutes)
Here are the recipes and some pictures:

Sesame Chicken Recipe

I found this recipe on food.com, it's title was "Flawless Sesame Chicken (Restaurant Style)" I figured it would be good. Serves 2-3

I did have a small problem with the chicken sticking to the pan while frying, I found that it stuck less once it was completely ready to flip and was very golden brown. If it sticks, use a spoon to scrape it off, it will still turn out great.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry, I used kosher cooking sherry
  
   
• 3 drops sesame oil, I used toasted
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce

• 1/8 cup white vinegar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chili paste, I left this out so the kids could eat it 
• 1 garlic clove (minced)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 C. chicken broth, I used Pacific Kosher Organic, found only at Whole Foods

Frying

• peanut or vegetable oil (3 1/2-4 cups)

Serving

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions:

 

1. Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients (the first 9 ingredients listed) and marinate the chicken for at least 20 minutes inside the refrigerator.

2. To prepare the sauce:. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Pour them into a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring continuously with a whisk. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.

3. To deep-fry the chicken:. Add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and then place chicken in warm oven (130 degrees) while you continue frying. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.

4. Place the chicken on a large platter and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and chopped green onions.

This is a picture of the sauce:

Beef Wonton Soup

This recipe makes a large quantity, probably would serve 8 people. If serving as main couse, maybe would serve 6.

10 C. Chicken Stock

1 t. toasted sesame oil

1 recipe Beef Wontons, below

2 green onions, thinly sliced for garnish

Bring the chicken stock and sesame oil to a boil, the turn heat to low, until ready to serve. Place wontons in serving bowl, ladle over broth. Sprinkle with green onions, and serve.

Beef Wontons

1 lb. ground beef
2 t. light soy sauce, if using kosher meat might want to scale back to 1.5 t.
1 t. toasted sesame oil
pinch white pepper
1/2 t. cornstarch
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/2 package wonton wrappers, found in the supermarket in the refrigerated section of the produce area

In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, cornstarch, and green onions.

Lay a wrapper on the coutertop in front of you and spoon 1t.-1 T. of beef mixture in the center. Dip your finger in water and moisten the edges all the way around. Fold in half into a triangle. Press out the extra air. Press together to stick. Bring the two corners farthest away from each other together and press together to stick. Cover with plastic wrap, so it doesn't get dried out while you make the rest of the wontons. Repeat the procedure until you have used up all of the wrappers and beef.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place wontons in the water and boil for 5-10 minutes, they should be floating, if they stick to the bottom of the pot, use a spoon to free them.

Using a slotted spoon remove cooked wontons to a plate.

The steamed rice and broccoli, are self explanatory. The simplicity of these side dishes makes up for the diffuculty of the other dishes.

Here is a recipe for a dipping sauce for the wontons:

Wonton Dipping Sauce:

4 T. soy sauce

1 t. toasted sesame oil

1 T. seasoned rice wine vinegar

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. freshly grated ginger, optional

Mix together until the sugar is dissolved.



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