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Monday and Tuesday I spent the day at the Lift Opera Center helping to get the LBN invites put together and mailed.  Then later Tuesday I had PT.  We ate the NYE pizza and NYD soup for dinner those days.  

Finally cooking again and still with Milk Street.  It is listed in the Fastest Section.

Ingredients:

8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into rough 1/4” pieces

1 1/2 T oyster sauce

Kosher salt and white pepper

1 QT. low-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 C jasmine rice, rinsed and drained

1 T grapeseed oil

8 oz. fresh or 1 oz. dried shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced.  (If using dry, you must hydrate in water until they are soft.)

1 T fresh ginger, finely grated

1# baby bock why, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/2” pieces

5 scallions, thinly sliced

Toasted sesame oil to serve

Directions:

1. Caution:  don’t use a pot smaller that 6 quarts to cook the rice or the starchy liquid my over flow.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the chicken,  oyster sauce and 1/4t white pepper.  Set aside.  
3. Ina large dutch oven over medium-high, combine 4 C water, the broth, rice and 2 t salt.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce to low, cover and  simmer, stirring once or twice, until the rice is tender, about 8 minutes.
4. While the rice cooks, in a 12” nonstick skillet over medium-high, heat the grapeseed oil until barely smoking.  Add the mushrooms and 1/2 t salt and cook, stirring, until softened and shrunken in size, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until no longer pink, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the ginger.  Turn off the heat, stir in the bok choy and set aside until rice is ready. 
5. When the rice is tender, quickly stir in the bok choy-chicken mixture.  Turn off the heat, cover and let stand until the bok choy stems are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.  
6. Taste and season with salt (Believe me it does not need any.)
7. Ladle into bowls.  Sprinkle with additional white pepper and scallions, then drizzle with sesame oil.  

This makes a lot and we have leftovers. Good thing as we had, for Nashville, a disastrous snowstorm, 7”.  I know you northerners are laughing, but we only have 13 snow plows and Boston is the same area and has 300.  They can barely keep the express ways open.  My PT for Friday was cancelled.  No one is going anywhere, except the 95 cars, bus, and fire truck crashes reported to the police as of noon on Thursday.  The remaining population wasn’t that stupid.  The snow started at 7:30 AM here.  I got up at 7:00 and there was nothing.  By 8:00 you couldn’t see the grass.  It continued to about 4:30 PM.  I know as Jim was eager to use his snow plow.  He went out at about 5:00 and plowed the driveway.  He said there was slush under all that snow so he wanted to get it off before it froze.  He didn’t get the whole bottom cleared as it got too slick.  He said a snow plow came down and cleared one lane on our road but it was iced over.  

This was delicious.  Again working my way through Ina’s new cookbook.  We ate the lentil soup, what seemed like forever.  Last night we had it with burgers to change it up a little.  This is a great make ahead meal.  Most ingredients are for the sauce.  It makes more sauce than you really need.  We have a half pound box that we will boil next to add with leftovers and have it again.  Jim loved it.  I made the sauce and cut up the vegetables before I went in the pool.  We boiled the pasta when we came in and dinner was ready.  Ina says you can make the sauce as much as a week before.  

Ingredients:

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 C chopped fresh ginger

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/2 C tahini

1/2 C peanut butter (I used almond butter)

1/2 C good soy sauce

1/4 C dry sherry

1/4 C honey

1/2 t hot chili oil

2 T toasted sesame oil

1/2 t black pepper

1/8 t ground cayenne pepper

1# spaghetti

1 red bell pepper, julienned

1 yellow bell pepper, julienned

4 scallions, sliced diagonally (white and green parts

Directions:

1. Place the first 12 ingredients in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.  Puree the sauce.  
2. Boil the pasta in a large pot of salted water according to package directions.  Drain the pasta in a colander.  
3. Place in a large bowl, and while still warm, toss with 3/4 of the sauce.
4. Add the peppers and scallions and toss well.

This chicken stir-fry is one of Jim’s favorites to order in a restaurant.  He also likes the shrimp version.  We both avoided eating the red peppers, so it was not that hot.  I forgot to take a photo as it was quite late when we finally ate.  We had been in the pool, sat on the front porch as it was so nice and then finally ate.  this recipe is from the latest Fine Cooking and Serves 4.  

Ingredients:

1 # boneless, skinless chicken thigh, cut into 1/4” think bite size pieces.  

1 T fresh ginger, minced

2 T soy sauce

2 t sake

1 1/2 t corn starch

Kosher slat

2 T + 1 t peanut oil

1 T chicken broth (I used water)

1 T balsamic vinegar

2 t Asian sesame oil

5 dried chile pepper

3 medium cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 t Sichuan pepper corns, toasted and ground

1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1” squares

1 C scallions, cut into 2” pieces

1/2 C roasted unsalted peanuts

Rice, for serving

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, ginger, 1 t soy sauce, 1 t of the saki, cornstarch, 1/2 t salt and 1 t cold wanter.  Add 1 t peanut oil, and stir until the chicken is lightly coated.
2. In a small bowl, combine the broth vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, the remaining 1 t soy sauce, and remaining 1 t sake,  
3. Heat a 14” flat-bottomed walkover high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1-2 seconds.  Add 1 T peanut oil, swirl to coat the pan. then add the chile peppers, garlic, and ground peppercorns.  Stir0fry with a metal spatula until fragrant, about 10 seconds.  Push the aromatics up the sides of the wok, and add the chicken mixture, spreading it evenly over the bottom in a single layer.  Cook undisturbed, for 1 minute letting the chicken begin to sear.  
4. Then stir-fry the chicken with the aromatics until beginning to brown but not cooked through, bout 1 minute.  Transfer the chicken mixture to a plate.
5. Add the remaining 1 T peanut oil to the wok, and swirl to coat.  Add the bell pepper and stir-fry until bright red, 1 minute.
6. Return the chicken mixture to the wok with any accumulated juices.  Pour the broth mixture down and and around the sides of the work, and stir-fry until the chicken is just cooked through about 1 minute.  Add scallions, and peanuts, and cook until the scallions are bright green, about 30 seconds.  
7. Serve immediately with rice.