Sweet and Sour Chicken

Sweet and Sour Chicken

    This is one of the most popular Asian dishes and it's easy to make no matter where you are in the world.  Friends have asked me for the recipe many times but it took my living along pre-college son's request to make me writing it down! (Yas & Claudia, I was thinking about you girls!:) 

So here it is, my version of sweet and sour chicken. Cooking is an art. You can adjust the amount of any of the ingredients to please your taste buds!

Ingredients:

Chicken & marinade

• About 2lbs (900g, let's say 1kg) of chicken thigh, or breast. Cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 cup of all purpose flour. You can replace 1/4 cup of flour with corn starch for lighter texture or just use only corn starch to make it gluten free. 
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon of white pepper (preferable, finely grinded black pepper would work too)
• 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder (I forgot it when taking the photo!)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of milk (or water with some clear alcohol)

Sauce

• 1 cup of water

• 2 tablespoon of ketchup

• 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce

• 2 tablespoon of pineapple juice (optional, I just happen to have some)

• 1/2 table spoon of light vinegar (rice, apple, white wine...)

• 1 tablespoon of corn starch

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon of salt 

• 1/2 tablespoon of white pepper (or finely grinded black pepper)

Steps:

• Mix the "chicken & marinade" ingredients well and marinade for at least 30 mins or overnight in the fridge. the batter texture should be somewhat sticky not runny. You can keep the milk at the end to adjust the texture. 

       This is a home recipe so I want my people to eat chicken not batter. I add just enough batter to coat the chicken, which you can still see the chicken. 

• 
  Fry the chicken in medium high heat oil first for 3-5 minutes until light brown.  

• Then double fry in high heat for 10, 15 seconds until golden brown.  

• Stir-fry your veggies accordingly and lightly salt and pepper them.  Keep them aside. 

Where I live now we are in the crisis of getting fruits and vegetables distributed. I considered myself lucky to find these yellow peppers. But really, any non leafy vegetable is good to use. 

• Mix all the "sauce" ingredients except the vinegar. Cook it in medium low heat to boil and continue for 2-3 minutes for all the flavors to blend together.

• Add the vinegar then slightly stir to mix well. Add the chicken and let it boil again then turn off the heat. 

It's done! Enjoy! 

Canadian butter tarts with Maple syrup

Another classic Canadian treat. This recipe is with firmer filling.

Ingredients
Pastry

• 21/4 cups pastry flour
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup shortening. Very cold and cut in cubes
• 1/2 cup(115g) butter. Very cold and cut in cubes
• about 6 tbsp ice water.

Filling

• 3/4 lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1large, or 2 small eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• optional:1/2 cup raisins, pecans, walnuts 

To prepare the pastry

• Mix the flour, sugar and salt together
• Cut the butter and shortening into flour mix until the fat is reduced to pea sized pieces.
• Sprinkle the water over the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork until the mixture is sticking together. Lightly work with the dough to form into an inch thick disk. 
• Wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Roll out on lightly floured surface. Cut into 4 inch rounds and fit into muffin cups. Chill in the fridge while preparing the filling to ensure flaky shell!

To prepare the filling

• combine all filling ingredients except raisins and mix well. 
• (Sprinkle raisins in a single layer in the bottom of the pastry lined muffin cups)
•  Fill 2/3 full with syrup mixture
• Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 425 degrees F (or 220 C) for 12 to 15 minutes.
• Cool completely on a wire rack and remove tarts from pans

Dumpling workshop: dumpling recipe

Dumpling workshop May 8th, 2018.

It was absolutely fun to share my way of making dumplings with a group of fun and enthusiastic ladies! 

Here's the menu: