Spicy peanut butter salad

I have already written that I need to have a tuna can in cupboard, just in case. The same story is with peanut butter – I don’t use it as a bread spread, only for taste in some dishes which is why I always need to have some in my kitchen. Just in case, a reason good enough for me.

So, what on earth is this. Like some leftovers tossed together. I bet J taught the same thing when he found a bowl of this in the fridge, with a post-it “warm it up and eat, will have dessert later”. Later on he asked why he had to warm it up. Because it was a salad and one is not suppose to warm salads. I don’t know where he has been living. One can and in many cases must warm up salads. At least this one, I thought it tasted better when warm. If you like peanut butter, you should try it. Here’s where I got the idea. Made some changes though, but oh it was good. Serves two (pretty huge portions though).

• 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tsp chili-garlic sauce (I used this kind of sauce)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• salt and pepper
• water
• 200 g chicken
• 100 g rice noodles
• 1 carrot
• half bell pepper
• 1 chicken bouillon cube

# Place chicken in a heavy saucepan, pour over with cold water and bring to boil.

# Add the bouillon cube and boil for about 30 minutes, until the juices run clear. You might want to add some parsley, salt or pepper or something else to spice up the chicken and the stock. I only used a bouillon cube and was satisfied with the result.

# When chicken is ready, remove it from the saucepan. Keep the stock – you’ll need it later. Shred or slice the chicken in the way you prefer.

# Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chili-garlic sauce, sugar, ginger, and 100 ml stock you used for boiling the chicken. Mix until smooth. If you are preparing a larger amount of salad, it is more comfortable to use a blender or a food processor for that. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

# Grate the carrot (use  a grater with larger holes) and cut the bell pepper into matchstick-size strips. I cut them into 1cmx1xm cubes, but I guess smaller and thinner strips will go better with rice noodles.

# Soak rice noodles in hot water for a couple of minutes (I drained them in the same stock where I boiled the chicken). Drain and transfer to a bowl.

# Add carrot and bell pepper. Pour dressing over and toss to coat, adding more broth if dressing is too thick.

Yum. Although you won’t see the sauce in the picture, it is there. Its nice and light taste blew my mind! Leftovers were even better, honestly, though the next day the salad looked even less appetizing. But its not in the looks, in the taste! Next time I’d use different kind of noodles, maybe some kind of pasta. Should be just as good.

Rice noodles with vegetables

At the weekends we often go to L’Archiduc for some jazz and after that to Hong Kong Delight for some Chinese food. It is our favourite Chinese place in Brussels, nothing fancy, but the food is great. Its plastic chairs and the fact that someone often tries to get their way to the kitchen (between the tables) with huge sacs of celery stalks or onions only adds the authentic atmoshpere. So, we try to keep up the tradition and find our way there every weekend. However, once we were either too tired or too lazy to go out, so I tried to make something chinese-food-like from the ingredients I had home.

• 200 g rice noodles
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 carrot
• a handful of bean sprouts
• 1 garlic glove
• 4-5 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• olive oil and water
• 100 g chicken filled, boiled in chicken broth

# Julienne bell pepper and carrot, set aside.

# Heat oil in a wok pan or a saucepan and add crushed garlic, fry for a few minutes to bring out the flavour.

# Place carrot and bell pepper to the saucepan and continue to fry at a lower heat. In case you sense that the vegetables will start to burn, add some water (not oil). Stir-fry the vegetables as long as they are tender (or until still a bit crispy – whatever you like most).

# Add chopped chicken fillet together with oyster sauce and continue to stir fry for another few minutes. Remove from heat.

# Prepare rice noodles (soak them in hot salty water for about 3-5 minutes, drain) and pour over the vegetables-chicken mix.

# Add soy sauce and bean sprouts, give it a good toss and serve immediately. You might want to sprinkle it with some toasted sesame seeds as well.

You’ll get two portions from this amount, in case you were wondering.

Crispy chicken with rice noodles

Chickenis one of my favorite meats, because it can be prepared quickly and easily and you have plenty of room to play – chicken salad, chicken roast, chicken curry, chicken pie, etc. As chicken is pretty healthy as well, I never leave empty handed from a poultry counter. One day I felt the need for crispy chicken legs and I tried out the recipe I found from one of the Estonian foodblogs (Thredalia ).

4-5 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp honey
0,5-1 tbsp mustard
1tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

 

# In a bowl, mix together honey, mustard, orange juice and Worcester sauce.

# Place chicken drumsticks into the mix, cover and marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours (the more you marinate, the best result you’ll get). I once marinated overnight, but wouldn’t recommend, because the chicken came out sticky.

# Bake at 200 degrees C for about 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of drumsticks). For even baking, turn drumsticks in about every 20 minutes.

You might want to serve them with boiled vegetables and the sauce you’ll have accumulated to the bottom of the baking pan. I preferred rice noodles with soy sauce and garlic:

# Bring water to boil, remove from heat, place 200 g noodles into water for 3-5 minutes and drain.

# Mix together 4 tbsp soy sauce and 1 crushed garlic glove and pour over drain noodles.

# Served the noodles with sesame seeds. Moist and tender drumsticks with tasty noodles – yummy!

I have tried the same chicken drumsticks with pineapple-orange rice noodles as well. Got the idea from Food Network, adjusted the recipe a bit:

# First soak and drain the 200 g noodles, as mentioned above.

# Then mix together 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp grated orange rind, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp orange juice and 1/4 tbsp olive oil.

# Heat some oil in a frying pan or a saucepan, add noodles, 150 g pineapple chunks (without juice) and the sauce.

# Stir-fry for a few minutes, and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Pretty moist, although the picture doesn’t show it, so I did not need extra sauce.