Basil Chicken, Thai style

I am always trying to replicate—or make better—dishes that I eat at restaurants, especially dishes that seem so simple it's more work to put on shoes and go out to eat them. 

I also hate eating out, because I hate to wait (an hour +) to be seated, hate to be rushed by the waitstaff (and anxious wait-ers, sending side-eye to your table with silent thoughts of GTFO), and wanting  desperately to drink my own wine with my meal, and not some crappy 2-buck sauv blanc. 

SO, this tastes just like the take-out version, is super easy to make, and pairs nicely with your slightly better than crappy sauv blanc. 

One last note: Dishes like these are only "good" if they taste like YOU want them to taste. 

I mean, the taste that you are used to from your favorite take-out place. So if it doesn't taste good to you, by all means, experiment with the fish sauce, soy, sauce, oyster sauce, etc. until it matches your favorite take-out place. Then, you know you have a successful dish in front of you! PS write down your personal proportions so you can replicate it. 

BASIL CHICKEN, THAI STYLE

2 cups minced chicken breast

1/2 cup roasted cashew nuts

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup white onion

1 cup Thai basil (if unavailable, use normal basil)

3 tablespoons oil 

11/2 tablespoon fish sauce

11/2 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce (I use low sodium)

1 teaspoon sugar (I use agave syrup, sold at Trader Joe's in baking section)

1 splash water (optional)

Mix the soy sauce in a cup with the agave, and stir to dissolve.

Heat a wok or frying pan on medium to high flame for 20 seconds. Add 3 tablespoons oil and swirl the wok/frying pan so that the oil is evenly distributed.

Add minced garlic and fry for 10 seconds. Quickly add minced chicken and continue frying until chicken turns white.

Pour the sauces into the chicken and mix well. Add the basil and fry for another 30 seconds. If the chicken looks dry, add a splash of water. Throw in the cashew nuts and turn the flame off. Stir the cashew nuts into the chicken.

This dish goes well with rice, over cooked soba noodles or on top of a salad of lettuce and mixed herbs like cilantro, basil and mint. 

(celebrating annual) Hot Crab Dip (Day)

I'm done searching my computer for this damn recipe - I only make it once a year, on Super Bowl Sunday, with any leftover crab I froze from our Annual Christmas Eve Crab-fest. We are fortunate that Dungeness crab season runs November to March in our area, so I'm not sure why I only make this once a year?* (see next paragraph) I think it would make a great crab enchilada filling with a green chile sauce. 

*Don't be frightened by the recipe - this is dip is ridiculously rich, so make sure you are prepared for the fat-bomb that follows. 
Boom.

HOT CRAB DIP

This recipe can be scaled to make an infinite amount, which is good news because that's how much you will want to eat.  

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce, I prefer Frank's

1/2 tsp. seafood seasoning or seasoned salt

6 ounces fresh lump crab, drained

Preheat oven to 350°.

In medium bowl, combine all ingredients except crab and beat with a stand mixer or by hand until smooth. Gently stir in crab., and sprinkle with some homemade Emeril's seasoning (you can Google that). Spread gently into a greased shallow baking dish. I like a thin layer of dip so there is lots of crusty top for everyone. 

Bake 30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly, and hopefully a little toasty on top. 

Serve with your favorite dippers. Ours include regular flavor Doritos. 

Crumb topping (a gift to you)

Been invited to a birthday party this weekend and the invite says "no gifts."

I am a bit relieved just because we all have so much stuff, it's hard to come up with a little something special that most can't acquire themselves - so I've taken to bringing a breakfast baked-good from my baking-company days as a thank you/hostess /birthday/whatever gift. 

Nothing says I care about you like breakfast the next day after I've drunk all your wine and danced on your kitchen island, am I right??

Here's a crumb topping recipe that I keep in a zip-top bag in the freezer for all sorts of occasions. I use it to top unbaked cranberry or raspberry coffee cakes, any sort of fruit pie, and today, on a fool-proof, insanely easy apple bread recipe that I (think I?) I cut out of the WSJ food section last year about this time...?

Make a bag and then know you have a secret gift in your freezer at all times. 

Cinnamon Crumb Topping (photo on my Instagram - too lazy to link right now)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted (or salted) butter - room temp to slightly soft

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt (omit if you only had salted butter)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
few shakes of ground nutmeg

Mix the dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl (I use large because I am, after all, a hot mess). 

With your hands, rub the soft butter into the dry ingredients until fully incorporated and you have a range of clump sizes, a little powder all the way up to biggish clumps. 

For optimum clump size, freeze it all on a metal tray for about 20 minutes, then move to zip top bag; or just put topping straight into the bag and into the freeze, relatively flat so your clumps don't turn into one giant frozen clump. That's a bummer, you have to wait for it to defrost a bit before showering your baked-good with crumby goodness before it goes into the oven. 

Whatever you top, bake generally as instructed. 

And the recipient will thank you. 

Easy Chicken (Coconut) Curry

I recently read a book about minimizing the chances of Alzheimer's and dementia through diet that threw alot of data at me. Great, fine, I love data and I am sure no one wants brain deterioration, but I don't know how many people are willing to make (extreme) dietary changes (ie sacrifices) at present? 

Something certainly NOT a sacrifice is eating curry. One of the chapters mentions Turmeric as a spice in the curry blend (the yellow one) that (according to DATA) can help ward off brain disease. Well that's easy, I love curry! 

Here is a recipe that I found on a very random curry powder jar years and years ago. We liked the recipe so I have kept that darn empty curry jar in my spice cabinet for nearly 20 years, just so I wouldn't lose the recipe. Now I will finally write it down. 

I started out making it according to the jar directions, using whipping cream, but now that I have learned about the super healing power of coconut (as told to me in the book and also backed by DATA) I've been doing it with coconut cream. (Thanks to TJ's!) 

Canned coconut cream is alot thicker and richer than the canned coconut milk I had been using for curries. Trying to recreate Thai curries at home just never worked because they were too runny and not rich like restaurant versions. Well I think the key is using coconut cream. But NOT the sweetened Cream of Coconut in the mixer section of the grocery store. Save that for your Piña Coladas! 

Easy Chicken (Coconut) Curry 
serves 2-4 depending on how much your people eat

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil (I use coconut oil because it's so healing!)
1 small yellow onion, chopped or sliced thin, depending on how much onion you want present in your finished dish (chopped will disappear more)
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (full fat if you want to be super brain-healthy) **OPTIONAL for coconut version
1 cup heavy cream --OR-- 1 - 14 oz can of coconut cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
(I use more because I like my curry with heavy salt & pepper)
2 chicken breasts (organic and pastured, of course) sliced really thin into bite size pieces
Cilantro for garnish

Steamed rice to serve

In a medium/large saucepan, heat the olive or coconut oil over medium/low heat and cook onions until soft, trying not to brown them, about 5-8 minutes. I am lame and usually somehow let them brown, it's not a crisis. ADjust the heat to medium and add the curry powder. Stir so it doesn't burn. 

Add the chicken and cook in batches, if necessary, until it just turns white, not really cooked through. Add the whipping cream or coconut cream and yogurt, and simmer 3-5 minutes until chicken is just cooked through but still tender. Season with the salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve over rice with a side of sautéed or roasted vegetables, kale, whatever you like!

I call this my dinner-party curry because you can make a vat of it and it's a crowd pleaser. Plus, now it know it's good for us. 

Doesn't your brain feel younger already?

Quick/easy Steak Marinade

I am sure (well, I hope) everyone has some hand-me-down trashy comfort food recipes from their childhoods that they bust out now and then - mine is my Mom's Beef Stroganoff with a base of Campbell's Tomato Soup. Maybe I will post it sometime, if you promise not to judge. It's pretty tasty. 

My friend's secret is the package of Lawry's powdered meat marinade. Who knows what evil lurks in that little envelope, but toss some grass-fed rib eye steaks in it and in 20 minutes you have some tasty meat to grill. 

Panic ensued last night when I checked the pantry for a magic little envelope and I was all out - friends were coming in an hour and I didn't have time to get to a store that actually carries it (ie trashy grocery, not Whole Foods) so I tracked this marinade down. Easy because all the ingredients are pantry items, and quick because you just toss it all in the blender.

Delicious – and bet a lot healthier than the packet of Lawry’s marinade, with just a little more work!

Quick/easy Steak Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
4 scallions, washed and rough chopped
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
2 pounds inside skirt steak, cut into 3-4 equal pieces - I am sure you can use any cut you like tho

In a blender, put in oil, soy sauce, scallions, garlic, lime juice, red pepper, cumin, and sugar and puree. 

In a large heavy duty, zip top bag, put pieces of skirt steak and pour in marinade. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Allow steak to marinate for 1-1.5 hours in refrigerator.

Remove steak from bag and grill until done. Don't overcook! When finished cooking, cover with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Remove meat from foil, reserving foil and juices. Slice thinly across the grain of the meat. Return to foil pouch and toss with juice.

Chicken lemon meatballs

Ok and now, back to dinner. 

My sister has been sick and I have been doing my best to drive down each month with a few meals so the pressure is off her to feed the family. Because even when you are sick, you can't escape the pressure of dinner, which sucks. She escaped to my house for a few nights last month, and I revived an old favorite for her. This is one of my jotted-on-a-crumpled-stained-sticky-note favorites, from a friend I used to work with. She shared a few more winners with me, and when I locate those sticky-notes, I'll blog them too. Enjoy!


Chicken lemon meatballs
I usually double the recipe to serve 4 and a few left over...if you are lucky...

Most of the time, I serve this with couscous I've fancied-up with curry powder, chopped sautéed veggies, currants, pine nuts or almonds, and lots of salt and pepper.

1/3 cup soft, coarse fresh breadcrumbs (don’t use crusts)
2 tbs. fresh lemon juice - maybe some zest if you are motivated to zest
1 lb. freshly ground lean chicken (light and dark meat) or ground turkey breast
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste - optional
2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2/3 cup minced onion, sautéed in 2 tbs. butter or olive oil until translucent
2 tbs. olive oil
2 tbs. butter

Make the meatballs:
In a large bowl, soak the breadcrumbs in the lemon juice until plumped and the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Add the ground chicken or turkey, salt, paprika, cumin, pepper flakes, parsley, and sautéed onions, along with the oil in the pan. Mix gently but thoroughly. Shape into 1-1/2-inch meatballs; maybe 20 per lb of meat. I use a one ounce scoop with a spring release.

To fry: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the meatballs (take care not to crowd the pan) and cook, turning gently, until browned on 2 or 3 sides and cooked through, about  8 minutes total. Transfer to a 350 oven to finish cooking and hold until all meatballs are cooked.

I will often fry first and finish in the oven to be sure the meatballs are cooked thorough. Frying is such a mess though. And mine don't keep that round meatball shape. So sometimes I just bake them...

To bake: place meatballs on an oiled rack/pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. This is the easiest, least messy option. You will want a rack pan that can catch the juices, which you'll use for the sauce.

Then finish sauce in the skillet: add a 2 tbsp each of butter and flour to the pan and gently brown for three minutes (make a roux) then deglaze the pan with a 2 cups of chicken broth. Finish the sauce with a half a cup of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. Nestle the cooked meatballs and any remaining juice they released into the sauce and return to a simmer before serving

To finish if baked: Add a 2 tbsp each of butter and flour to the pan and gently brown for three minutes (make a roux). Scrape the browned bits and juice from the base of the rack pan into the roux then deglaze the pan with a 2 cups of chicken broth. Finish the sauce with  half cup of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. Nestle the cooked meatballs and any remaining juice they released into the sauce and return to a simmer.

Waffles for Dinner

We got off the waffle train about a year and a half ago. Our trusty wedding-gift waffle maker was looking bald of it's non-stick coating, which is always a sign for me that we've ingested it all and it's time to start poisoning ourselves again with new non-stick. A friend who house-sat recently gave us a new waffle maker, but I never mastered it.  And besides the child had moved into a chocolate chip pancakes phase, so we have been busy eating the non-stick coating off the pancake griddle.

A few Sunday mornings ago, someone in the family announced they wanted waffles and it up and started again, the waffle obsession. It was time for me to master the new waffle maker, and needed to burn a few before getting the temperature setting and cook time just right. The new waffle maker consists of four big squares and is semi-deep—not like those fancy, deep two-sided Belgian ones - but rather a hybrid between traditional and Belgian. And it is huge. Maybe I could eat two squares max, then fall back into bed in a carb-and-syrup induced coma. 

Since that Sunday, we've made waffles every weekend **successfully** in the new waffle maker. No, we didn't eat them for dinner. But you could! I just put that in the post title because the blog is called Hot Mess Dinner and I felt like I needed a tie-in.  See below for a savory waffle note. 

Really Good Waffles from Scratch

This makes about three full (4 square) waffles in my waffle maker, which is giant.

You can double this recipe to make a lot more waffles and freeze them for later. 

Just pop in the toaster to reheat. 

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp white sugar

2 eggs, separated (!!!)

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup buttermilk (my obsession continues)

> mix and warm them on the stove top or in the microwave for a minute or two so they are not ice cold

1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit

1 tsp vanilla 

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, sugar and set aside. 

In another bowl, temper the egg yolks with the warm milk and combine. Add the melted butter. 

In yet another bowl, beat the egg whites until firm and set aside.

Add the liquid mixture (egg yolks, milk, and melted butter) to the dry mixture (flour, etc) and mix just until combined. It may look  a little lumpy, that's OK. Gently fold in the egg whites until they are evenly distributed. Don't over mix, you don't want tough waffles. 

Scoop the batter into a preheated waffle maker that has been sprayed with cooking spray or brushed with melted butter or coconut oil.  

Cook until your waffle is crisp and dark golden. 

You can throw a few handfuls of mini chocolate chips into your batter and make yourself a chocolate chip waffle. Top it with whipped cream and that's a perfect dinner!


>>Little note here: After some inspirational pancakes at the St Francis Soda Fountain, we've done the savory waffle thing a few times now and it is deeeeelicious.

Start by putting some julienned proscuitto into your waffle maker (spray with cooking spray first) and let it cook until crispy. Respray and add some waffle batter and shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Mix it around so the cheese is covered with batter, otherwise it may get a little burny.

Cook until waffle is done, and serve with some sour cream and chopped green onion. Maybe a fried egg on top?

Now this IS a waffle you could have for dinner.