Generalgowslover: My Love of Chinese Food Through The Ages

I really love Chinese food. Like really. So much so that my AIM screen name in high school was generalgowslover (no, I'm not kidding; and yes, that's spelled incorrectly). My friends and I would walk downtown after school to the Three Gorges Restaurant to get platters of fried rice, lo mein, and general tso's chicken. A more than hefty afternoon snack, I often left feeling nauseous and sometimes doubting that the general tso's was actual chicken, but I always came back for more. The sweet and spicy sauce, the fried coating - it was a greasy teenager's dream.

Now five years later, with a metabolism half the speed and a palate somewhat more refined, my general tso's consumption has greatly decreased. In fact, up until this past New Year's Day I had never even eaten Chinese food in Chinatown! Hard to believe, but after living in Chinatown for a summer in college, I was pretty scarred by the constant fishy smell and little ladies yelling "handbag, handbag!" at your every step. If I wanted Chinese, I would order delivery (this is New York City after all!) to avoid my stinky, stressful memories of Chinatown. However, this New Year's Day my friend Hayley invited me and some other friends to venture into the forbidden land. Normally, I would have been turned off by this idea, but this seemed like the perfect situation for several reasons:

1. New Year's Day = hungover = in dire need of greasy, fatty, salty food
2. Chinatown is one of the few areas in NYC where you can hide your post-binge drinking shame under Uggs and sweatpants in public and not feel bad about it
3. A New Year means time for new experiences!
4. HUNGOVER!!!

As we walked to our destination, Shanghai Cafe on Mott Street, my memories of Chinatown quickly came back to me: shop owners yelling at each other, the smell of fish making my nose hairs curl. But I was so focused on getting to the restaurant and eating myself into a food coma, that these distractions didn't bother me. And the trek was totally worth it. The food was insanely cheap, and the portions quite generous. We were a group of eight people and only shared about ten sentences the whole meal, as we shoveled food into our mouths, determined to kiss 2011 and the residual hangover goodbye. 

Thanks to that meal, I made it out alive of my post-2011 haze; and while I can't say that I'll be venturing into Chinatown every time I have a craving, my initial fear of the area is now gone. So until my next adventure (or serious hangover), here's a more healthy version of one of the dishes we shared that fateful night: orange chicken. 

Orange Chicken with Broccolini (inspired by Epicurious)
makes 2-3 servings


Ingredients:
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch broccolini, ends trimmed
salt & pepper
cooked brown rice

1. Whisk orange juice, soy sauce and cornstarch together in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved. Stir in orange zest. Set aside.
2. Heat oil over high heat in a large skillet. Add onions and red pepper flakes. Saute about a minute, until onions are fragrant.
3. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the skillet, stirring occasionally, letting the chicken and onions brown slightly. About 7 minutes.
4. Add the juice mixture and broccolini to the pan. Stir to coat chicken and broccolini in the sauce. Cook until the broccolini is tender, but still crisp, and the sauce thickens, about 8 minutes. Serve warm (or cold!) over brown rice.

Kitchen Casualties

Okay, so maybe the title is a little dramatic. I personally don't know of any actual casualties in the kitchen, but I've had my fair share of burns, bumps and bloopers. One of my first cooking conundrums I can remember was in my high school French class. We each were to prepare some sort of traditional French dish. Mind you, I was only a high school freshman and my cooking skills ranged from preparing Kraft mac & cheese to heating up Ellio's pizza in the microwave. I can't remember the exact name of the dish, but it was some sort of white cake with a whipped topping and berries - not very memorable, and not very good. As I was taking the hot cake pan out of the oven, I burnt my arm on the side of the oven and dropped the cake on the floor, which crumbled into several pieces. Luckily, the cake pieces were still large enough to salvage, and I quickly - so as not to disobey the 5 second rule - picked up the broken cake and glued it back together with the whipped egg whites. This probably says a lot about my character (or lack thereof) that I was willing to serve cake that had fallen on the floor to my fellow classmates, but I'm pretty sure no one wound up touching it anyway, as it looked like a crumbly, bland mess. 

My most frustrating and humbling cooking experience was a couple years ago during my week-long "boot camp" at the Culinary Institute of America. The day's lesson was knife cuts: brunoise, chiffonade, julienne (don't these all sound like awesome names for a little French child?). My breaking point was segmenting oranges and grapefruits. It was a total, utter mess. I could not, for the life of me, cut between each thin, delicate membrane. Sticky pith stuck under my fingernails, juices running all over my hands, causing my grip on the knife to slip over and over, leading to several little cuts all over my fingers, which then began to sting like hell from the all citrus juices. Our petite yet stern instructor clearly did not approve. I was ready to call it quits and give up on cooking forever. Luckily, I didn't, and luckily, my hands smelled citrusy fresh for days. 

Skip ahead a few years, and minus a few minor cuts, I've escaped any major mistakes. Until last week that is. It was Thursday night and I was ready to celebrate the looming weekend with a decadent dinner. Enter bacon and bacon fat. With some brussels sprouts still in my fridge, I knew that frozen bacon in the back of my freezer would be the perfect way to add some indulgence to an otherwise healthy veg. After frying up the bacon, the fatty, salty smell had me just so excited to eat that I hastily dumped the brussels sprouts into the hot bacon fat. NEVER DO THIS!! Hot bacon fat everywhere! On my clothes, stained the white paint on my walls, and burned the skin on my wrist. Ouch! After some icing and a nice glass of wine, the redness and swelling went down significantly, and now I'm left with a little constellation of red marks on my arm. Injury aside, the pasta with brussels sprouts and bacon was absolutely delicious and totally worth the pain. 

Pasta with Bacon & Brussels Sprouts

serves one

Ingredients:

2 slices bacon

1 1/2 cups brussels sprouts, quartered

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of crushed red pepper flakes 

1/4 cup chicken broth

2/3 cup whole wheat penne

1/4 cup grated Asiago cheese (or Parmesan)

1. In a medium skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crispy. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

2. Turn down the heat on the skillet and wait a minute for the hot bacon fat to cool slightly (do not skip this step!). Add brussels sprouts, salt and crushed red pepper to the skillet. Toss to coat in the fat and saute a couple minutes until the sprouts start to brown. Add the chicken broth, cover and cook about 5 minutes until sprouts are just tender.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain.

4. Remove the lid from the sprouts and add in the cooked pasta. Crumble the cooked bacon over the pasta. Stir gently to combine.

5. Remove pan from the heat and stir in grated cheese. Serve hot!

A New Year's Resol-soup-tion

It's been almost a month since my last blog post, and while I haven't written in a while, I can assure you that this time has been filled with lots of cooking, eating, and drinking (repeat that sequence about 14 times). From gingerbread cookies to Gaga's lasagna, it's been a nonstop comfort-food-filled-and-sugar-high month.

To "make up" for a month's worth of indulgences, many people vow to be healthier or go to the gym in the new year. Frankly, this annoys me. First of all, these gym newbies take over all the treadmills from us regular gym-goers from January until those resolutions grow stale. Let's be honest people: flocking to the gym on January 1st isn't going to get rid of the 5 chocolate Santa's you gobbled up in December. And the "be more healthy" resolution is perhaps even more of an empty promise than the born-again gym rats. In order to be more healthy, you need to set real, tangible goals (i.e. cook at home more, eat smaller portions). The reason so many of these resolutions fail is that they are too elusive to see any real progress or change, so people just give up. But if you take easy, measurable steps, you're much more likely to stick to and succeed at your goals.

Now I'm not here to lecture. What do I really know about resolutions and life goals? I'm mostly just bitter about the new guy at the gym who's always walking on my favorite treadmill (WALKING, not even running!!) But I am here to share a delicious recipe for Italian Wedding Soup. I came across a recipe last week via Pinterest (check out my page!) that piqued my interest. I'm not sure why, as I've never actually had or made Italian Wedding Soup, but something about the meatballs and kale sounded enticingly healthy, yet still satisfying. And I was right. This soup feels and tastes like the ultimate comfort food, without weighing you down after. Forget your "be more healthy" resolution; making more meals, like this soup, should be a resolution in itself!

Italian Wedding Soup (adapted from The Kitchn)
makes 5-6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey meat (or ground chicken)
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 garlic gloves, minced
8 cups chicken stock
1 bunch kale, roughly chopped (I used an entire 10 oz. bag from Trader Joe's)

1. Combine turkey, bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1/4 cup of each cheese, oregano, salt and pepper in a bowl. Roll into 1-inch diameter balls. You should have about 20-25 meatballs.
2. In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs in batches until lightly browned on all sides. Set aside on paper towels to drain excess oil.
3. In a large stock pot, heat remaining oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until tender, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the kale, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add the meatballs and cook 5 minutes more.
4. Meanwhile, combine 2 eggs and remaining cheeses in a small bowl. Pour the egg mixture into the hot soup, stirring constantly. Cover and simmer until the eggs are just set, about 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper.