Prime Cuts

There is a special place in my heart for Thai food, sometimes I seriously wonder if I was born in the wrong place but then I remember how good thai food is in Los Angeles. During the summer I feel like I constantly battle between wanting to cook over the stove and wanting to grill every night of the week. Where I live it regularly gets to over 100 degrees during the summer so choosing which heat source to sweat over can be difficult. Enter my slow cooker. Honestly, they don’t get the love they deserve but I have found a renewed love for them this summer because they are so easy and you don’t have to sweat over them.

Saturday morning I was rifling through the freezer trying to use up piled frozen food in there as my constant food ADD forces me to abandon wise, planned food choices. I found a pack of chicken legs. Knowing that later in the day we would be having friends over I decided that the chicken legs would be perfect because they feed a lot of people and everyone likes them. So then I tried to think about how I could make these, immediately I went to something with stewed tomatoes but that idea was quickly deserted. Thai food came to mind, something with peanuts, I know, it’s very cliche but I love peanuts, chicken, and rice. I wanted to make something with a peanut sauce but also wanted it to be quick and easy. That’s when we turned to the slow cooker, peanut butter, soy sauce, and hot salsa. I know what you’re thinking, “Salsa, are you crazy? Do you even know how to cook?” The answer is yes I am crazy and as far as cooking, that’s debatable.

I quickly pulled out a mixing bowl and put in the salsa, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, crushed coriander, and some lime. As I turned to grab a spoon to stir my craziness I glanced out the window, the pool caught my eye. It was calling my name, it was 10:30 in the morning and it was already 93 degrees outside. My scurry turned into a blur of mixing, pouring, and throwing chicken legs into the slow cooker. I stopped dead in my tracks once I put the peanut butter in and mixed it. Now this is a moment where you just need to trust me because at this point none of it looks appetizing. Do you know what wet peanut butter looks like? Maybe I’ve said too much, I’ll let your mind do the talking for me.

Once I got everything in there I set it cook and almost ran through the sliding glass door before jumping in the pool. Fast forward six hours, the pool party was a success, all remnants of snack food was indistinguishable, the chicken was ready. My friend Nicolette made her fried rice while I tasted the chicken, the meat was literally falling off the bones; the taste was epic. We plated the rice, laid a stray piece of scallion, then set the chicken down on the pillowy rice. We sprinkled cilantro and chopped peanuts over it, now it was done and ready to eat. We finished setting the remaining plates with food, gathered around the table and shared in a great meal to pinnacle an amazing Saturday. Before the meal ended we already had made plans for next weekend and began discussing what we would make.

Slow Cooked Thai Chicken

Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds of chicken legs
1 cup HOT salsa
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons crushed coriander
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons cilantro

Preparation

1. Put chicken into slow cooker (just in case you forgot what you’re doing with it)
2. Mix salsa, peanut butter, lime juice, garlic, soy sauce, coriander, ginger; pour over chicken
3. Cover; cook on high for a few hours then switch to low for the last couple of hours.
4. Place chicken on plate or hand, pour sauce over chicken; sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro
5. Eat one before anyone else, you cooked it, be the first to enjoy it.

My friend Nicolette Dunn is an amazing home chef and a great friend, this last weekend we shared the responsibility of cooking dinner for everyone. She pulled a recipe from her childhood while I tried new things with the crockpot and chicken. She is guest posting for me today, my post for the chicken will follow in a few days, enjoy.

When most people think of fried rice they think of it as accompanying a Chinese meal.  We don’t usually think out of the to-go box and make it at home as a unique side with an everyday meal.

As a kid, I remember being very excited when we would have a meal with white rice and having some left over at the end of the meal… this almost surely meant we would have my mom’s fried rice with dinner the next day, maybe with some grilled chicken or steak.  When I became old enough to cook for my family I learned how to work the system and cook too much rice for a meal. This way we couldn’t let it go to waste, and I could conveniently point out that the only logical thing to do is have mom make her fried rice with the leftovers.

This fried rice is a nice light side dish or meal that requires very little preparation and just minutes at the stove.  All of these aspects were immensely appealing when we were looking for a side dish to make on a 109 degree day, to accompany Justin’s greatly anticipated Thai chicken dish (recipe to follow).  We needed something light, that wouldn’t compete with the flavors in the chicken and didn’t require much time over a hot stove.  It was decided, mom’s fried rice it was.  It was a perfect fit, inexpensive, light, easy to make and delicious!

Mom’s Fried Rice

Ingredients
4 Cups cooked long grain white rice (2 cups uncooked will yield 4 cooked)
2 Eggs
1 Tbl water
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
5 Slices deli ham
4 Whole green onions
Soy sauce
4-5 Tbl Peanut or Vegetable oil
½ – 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)

Preparation

1. Prepare your rice (one cup of water for every cup of rice) and refrigerate – refrigerating your rice is best before stir frying in order to prevent the starches from breaking down and becoming mushy.
2. Slice ham into ½ inch squares
3. Fine – Medium chop green onions
4. In small bowl, scramble eggs with 1 Tbl water
5. Heat wok on high heat then add 3-4 Tbl oil
6. Reduce heat to med and add eggs
7. Season with salt and pepper
8. Cook on one side then flip
9. Once thoroughly cooked, remove, chop into small pieces and set aside
10. If needed add more oil to pan (enough to coat rice) and reheat wok
11. Reduce heat to med-high and add rice
12. Gently fold rice in oil until it is evenly coated
13. Add sliced ham to rice and stir fry 30-40 seconds
14. Add green onions and stir fry 30-40 seconds
15. Add chopped egg and stir fry for 30-40 seconds
16. Add soy sauce and gently fold in until evenly distributed.

Serve!

If you head over to Justin’s Flickr page you can check out more pictures of this fried rice preparation.

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Veteran readers of this blog know that in my old position, before joining New Marketing Labs, I traveled to the Philippines 3-4 times per year.  Though the flight sucked (about 20hrs long) and the time difference was rough (12-13hrs ahead of ET), one of the great things was that I got to travel to a completely different culture and try tons of new food.  Being a true foodie and a restaurateur, this is a dream come true.  By indulging in other cultures, especially if you can go to the actual country, you have the chance to expand your palette, come up with new ideas for recipes, and gain new appreciations.

Now that I’ve moved on in my career, I’m not sure if/when I’ll ever have the opportunity to travel back to the Philippines.  One of the mistakes I made was never filming any video.  When I was there, I was running around so crazy and so sleep deprived, I never thought of shooting any content that I could share here.  Then a couple days ago I received an email on behalf of the Travel Channel promoting the upcoming episode of “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain.  The episode, airing Monday, February 16th at 10p ET, takes Anthony to the Philippines in many of the same communities that I traveled to.  If you ever wanted to learn more about the Filipino culture and food, check out the episode.

Here is a sneak preview of the upcoming episode.  If you can’t view the video, you can check it out on Viddler.

[viddler id=e7205289&w=437&h=370]

What did you think?  Let’s chat about different cultures’ food, especially Filipino in the comments below.

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Saturday night Justin and his fiance, Laura decided to have an Asian-themed night for dinner.  Besides yummy pork, scallion and ginger potstickers (recipe to follow soon), they made an adaptation of a recipe for Asian slaw that they found from Guy Fieri.

If you’re looking for a fun and healthy recipe to try, definitely give this one a shot.  Depending at how fast you are at chopping and how sharp of a knife you have, it does take a little while to put together.  But, it is worth the hard work.  Your family, friends or other guests will thank you for serving this next time.

Asian Slaw

Recipe Credit: Guy Fieri, Food Network

Ingredients

Preparation

In a small saucepan add 2 tablespoons olive oil, ginger and garlic, lightly saute until lightly brown. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, and mirin. Saute for 5 minutes and remove from heat. When cool whisk in olive oil, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.

Mix all vegetables in a bowl and toss with dressing.

Garnish with crushed chow mein noodles and peanuts.

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Photo by: Food Network