DIY Challenge: Make Your Own Ginger Beer

I got really excited today for a few reasons. One was that I finally moved into my new place and everything on that front is finally starting to come together nicely. I also had a really good week at work and that is always a good thing, but the best reason of all has been a post by Food Republic on how to make your own ginger beer.

I happen to love ginger beer because it is a spicy sweet blend that titillates my taste buds and makes me do the cha cha. It also happens to be the main ingredient for some of my favorite cocktails. So far I have been at the mercy of the supermarket chains in my area which carry it erratically and expensively so you will have to forgive me if my excitement seems a bit overrated. To me this one little thing is ripe with possibilities.

Anywhoo here is the link to their recipe, which I am going to be getting going on....as soon as I move the heavy stuff tomorrow. Just in case you need a little inspiration to make this, think that it is not only good for Dark and Stormy concoctions. My favorite is to make it sparkly with seltzer and add St. Germain to it. It is sweet and tangy and all sorts of wonderful.  If any one out there is trying this I would love to hear how it turned out for you. I will certainly post my results when I am done with it.

*Photo credit Food Republic Website

Tried and Tested Recipe - Three Cup Chicken

I have always loved East Asian cuisine particularly Thai and Chinese. Their blend of flavors and combinations have always intrigued me and delighted my taste buds. I have been wanting to give a try to making both of these types of cuisine, but I have always felt intimidated by the ingredients required. Thank goodness for Cooking Channel's Ching-He Huang and her show Easy Chinese. She takes you through the process of making excellent Chinese food at home in a very comfortable manner and her recipes are great.

I found the recipe for Three Cup Chicken in Cooking Channel's website after watching the show and thought I should get out of my comfort zone and try it. This recipe was easy to follow and the results were absolutely delicious. I modified it slightly because I did not have a few ingredients and I also thought that sliced almonds would make a great addition to give it a little crunch. Here is what you will need for my modified version.

Three Cup Chicken

1 TBSP peanut oil
Garlic - 5 cloves finely chopped
Ginger - 1 inch piece, thinly sliced
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup White Cooking Wine
1/4 Cup Toasted Sesame Oil
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/4 Sliced Almonds

Follow the link above to the recipe on Cooking Channel's website and follow the cooking instructions. Add the sliced almonds at the very end tossing them into the chicken to integrate them evenly through the chicken pieces. 

This is a great recipe to get into making Chinese food at home. Serve with either white or Jasmine rice and vegetables. Enjoy :)

Pork Chops with Strawberry Chutney

Tonight was leftovers night and I wanted to make something to enhance some pork chops I had made earlier in the week. I was a little ambitious last week and got two parcels of strawberries because my daughter loves them, but by today these darlings had not been completely eaten and they were starting to look like they needed to be used. I thought I would give a try at a chutney using them. I had not seen any recipes for chutney using strawberries so I made one up and here it is.

Strawberry Chutney

1 1/2 Pounds of Strawberries (finely diced)
Ginger Root (a 1/2 inch piece, pealed and finely sliced)
3 Medium Shallots (finely sliced)
3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 TBSP Sherry Cooking Wine
Salt to taste
2 tsp Red Pepper Paste
1 TBSP Yellow Curry Powder
1 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

Heat the oil in a pan at medium high heat and add your shallots and ginger root. Saute until the shallots become translucent.

Add in your strawberries and allow them to cook briefly.

Add in the brown sugar making sure to allow it to dissolve and incorporate it evenly into the strawberry and shallot mixture.

Add in the sherry, salt, red pepper paste and curry powder mixing in until well incorporated. Make sure to taste it at this point to make sure you like the amount of seasoning.

Add in the vinegar, lower the heat to medium low and let it simmer, making sure to stir frequently until the texture is soft and thick. Do a check on your seasoning again to ensure you like it. then remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly. When ready place on top of the pork chops.

This makes enough to fill a 13oz jar so you can save it and use it on crackers with some nice cheese for a great snack.

Enjoy. 

Roast Sesame Chicken with Tangerine Ginger Glaze

OK I know another chicken recipe from me. I promise you that we will get away from this protein (not entirely, but we will look into the use of others) at some point. I made this because the hubby did the shopping this week and he had already defrosted the chicken thighs so I did not want them to go to waste. Great thing about cooking is that there are as many ways to make things as there are ingredients available in the world so you can have the same protein made a million different ways. Today I bring you a very simple but tasty recipe:

Roast Sesame Chicken with Tangerine Ginger Glaze
Makes 8-10 portions

1 Pack chicken thighs (with 8-10 pieces in it - totally recommend Whole Foods Family Packs)
3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1-2 TBSP Sesame Seeds
Ginger Root (1 inch piece thinly sliced length wise)
1 Large Tangarine (Pealed, sliced in half and segments separated)
2 TBSP Honey 
1 Cup Water

Preheat oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large, deep baking dish put in your olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper and sesame seeds and mix with a whisk until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. 

Take your chicken thighs one by one and coat them with the mixture in the baking dish. Add in your thinly sliced ginger, 1TBSP of the honey and tangerine pieces and spread them out as evenly as possible in the baking dish. Once all the pieces are coated arrange them in the baking dish with the skin side up (if you are using skinless chicken put the meatier side up). 

Add the water using a measuring cup and making sure to add it in from the edge of the dish so that you do not remove the coating from the chicken pieces. Cover the dish with either a tight fitting lid or aluminum foil. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until you can tell that the pieces are cooked through. 

Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle the last TBSP of honey on the chicken. Set your oven to broil and place the baking dish halfway away from the broiler surface and allow chicken skin to crisp up for about 5 minutes or until you see the skin is gold and crispy. 

Serve over rice or spinach with a generous amount of the juices from the baking dish for a little extra love and taste. 

Carrot & Ginger Scones

Yeah I have been on a scone kick lately. This is a bit of a variation on my cranberry date scones, posted about three days ago. This recipe uses a little more flour to offset the moistness added by the carrots. Anywhoo here is the recipe:

Carrot & Ginger Scones  (Yields about 12-14)

For the chunky ginger simple syrup:

1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of water
2 TBSP Ginger (diced into little tiny pieces)

Put the water in a small sauce pan and heat it to a boil. Take off burner and add the sugar to make simple syrup. Add the ginger and put your sauce pan back on the burner this time at a low heat for about 20 minutes, allowing the ginger to infuse the simple syrup. Stir frequently. Raise the heat slightly so that the syrup bubbles a bit stirring frequently so that the sugar will not caramelize, until the syrup reduces by about 1/4. The goal is to make a thick clear ginger syrup with ginger bits to add to the scone mix. 


For the scones:

12 TBSP Butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2 1/2 Cups of flour

1 TBSP Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
Chunky ginger simple syrup
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup of Milk
1/2 Grated Carrots

Preheat your oven to 400 Fahrenheit. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside. Put your butter in a mixer and beat until softened and creamy. Start adding in half of the flour mixture a little at a time to allow the flour to incorporate into the butter. Add the ginger simple syrup. Add the remaining half of the flour mixture adding little by little alternating with the milk and the eggs. Add the grated carrots. 


Scoop the dough into baking cups either closely clustered together on a baking dish (if you want to give them a rustic look) or in a cupcake pan (if you like your baked goods to look perfect). Fill the baking cups half way to allow room for the scone to rise. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until the outside of the scones is a golden brown checking with a toothpick to make sure the inside is cooked through.

Serve drizzled with honey or with your favorite jams, butter or whipped cream and a nice cup of coffee or tea. Hope you enjoy these as much as I did making and eating them.