Wontons for Soup

I love wontons. Not the crispy ones, though. But I would eat boiled or steamed wontons forever.

Last night I made some. Sean and I decided to skip the soup portion because, well, we didn't know if the wontons would turn out, honestly. And I kind of like them like dumplings. I had 2 recipes lined up, one more traditional and one less traditional. Since my wrappers are approaching the date they expire, I'll be making the other recipe tonight. WONTON OVERLOAD.

Anyway here's my wonton adventures from last night. For a much more detailed explanation of wontons and wonton soup making, please check the link down near the recipe. She has a lot more information in her post than is just in the recipe I copy in here.

Let's make wontons!

For this recipe, I used ground turkey, green onions, teriyaki (or soy) sauce, dry sherry (I used cooking sherry, all I had), sesame oil, fresh ginger, an egg and salt, if it needs it.

I also added a few cloves of garlic.

Mix all your ingredients together. Mine was pretty wet and soft, maybe because I skipped the 1/4 pound of shrimp in the recipe, but it came together just fine. I cooked a small amount in a small frying pan to test my mixture before filling to see if it needed more of anything.

Add just under a teaspoon to your wrapper. And boy you don't want to overfill these, they will not seal right, so better to go a little under while you find the perfect amount. You'll know pretty fast when you've got too much in there.

Then dip your finger in a little water and run it along two sides of the wonton, then fold the top over to seal.

The color of my hands frightens me.

Then, you wet the two side corners and pinch them upwards and hold together for a few seconds.

And repeat a million times. Wontons are definitely a labor of love. Some people might just think it's better to buy them, and honestly, I definitely won't make wontons all the time after having tried it. But it was pretty satisfying. And yummy.

Then you boil them for around 4 minutes. There's this complex thing where you keep adding water to the pot. I kinda half tried it, I don't know if it mattered.

We dipped them in teriyaki sauce and they were awesome.

Here's the recipe for wonton soup, just follow the wonton instructions if you want to skip the soup part.

Wonton Soup (original recipe found here)
For the wontons:

• 1/2 lb. ground pork (you can substitute ground turkey)
• 1/4 lb. peeled shrimp, chopped
• 1/4 cup finely minced green onions
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbs. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbs. dry sherry
• 2 tsp. Asian sesame oil
• 1 tsp. minced ginger root
• Salt, to taste, if needed
• 1 package (1 lb.) wonton wrappers

For the Soup

• 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth simmered with 3 or 4 slices peeled fresh ginger for 10 to 15 minutes
• 1 large bunch spinach, tough stems removed, leaves washed and cut into wide strips   

To make the wontons, in a medium bowl, combine the pork, shrimp, and green onions. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil and ginger juice. Stir the egg mixture into the pork mixture, mixing well. Bring a saucepan three-fourths full of water to a boil, add a small ball of the pork mixture to the water, and poach until cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, taste and adjust the seasonings with soy sauce, ginger root or a little salt.

To assemble the wontons, lay out a wrapper and place a teaspoon or so of the mixture in the center of each wrapper. Dip your finger in water and spread along two edges of each wrapper. Fold each in half on the diagonal to form a triangle and press the seams to seal securely. Place on a baking sheet. Repeat until all the stuffing is used; you should have about 48 wontons. Wrap any leftover wrappers airtight and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Refrigerate the wontons until needed.

In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low to maintain a gentle simmer. At the same time, bring a large saucepan half-full of water to a boil. Carefully drop the wontons into the boiling water. When the water returns to a boil, add 1 1/2 cups cold water. When the water returns to a boil, add 1 more cup cold water. Return to a boil again, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the filling is cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the wontons to the simmering broth. Add the spinach and simmer until it wilts, about 1 minute.

To serve, ladle the soup into 6 large warmed bowls, dividing the wontons evenly. Serves 6.
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I've read on several sites that they prefer to boil the wontons first rather than add them to the broth because it clouds the broth a little. I'm honestly more interested in the wontons than the soup. I'll probably just skip that entirely most of the time.

Hope you enjoy them if you try them. They really weren't difficult, just kind of worrying. But I worry about everything. And they turned out great! So don't let that stop you.

Ranch Style Chicken

I don't know what makes this ranch style. And according to Pioneer Woman, she doesn't either. Naming stuff is hard.

Regardless, let us keep moving forward and make some yummy chicken. I made this on saturday for the boys, and Matty even joined us for once, which is always a treat.

I'd probably make this chicken again even without going to all the trouble to add the bacon and the cheese. The marinade was really really good.

Oh and the Ranch in the name has nothing to do with Ranch dressing, but like a cattle ranch. If it has anything to do with the dressing, I wouldn't have touched it with a ten foot pole.

It's chicken time!

Take your chicken breasts, and either place them between two sheets of wax paper, or inside a large ziploc bag. If you do use the ziploc bag, make sure you leave a corner of the top open so air can escape.

And then you pound the heck out of them with the flat side of a tenderizing mallet. Or, if you don't have one of those, a frying pan will do! Take that, noisy upstairs neighbors! I CAN MAKE NOISE TOO. (also, you suck, please move away)

Kapow!

You don't want them to be insanely thin, just uniform. I wanted mine to be really thin though because I prefer a thinner chicken cutlet with more flavorful surface area than a really tall piece with more meat in the center and less flavor. GAWD I'M SO NEEDY.

Flaaaat.

For the marinade, you'll need dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice, salt, paprika, and red pepper flakes.

I don't trust that bear.

He's just got that look about him. He's scheming.

Add 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup dijon to your bowl.

Swirl it around and take 6 pictures then delete them all but one.

Then squeeze your half a lemon into your bowl. You can do it over a strainer or you can just catch the seeds in your hand like this.

Dear lord the lighting in my kitchen is terrible. I swear I'm not that color. The more I look at that picture the more it hurts my eyes.

Juice extraction complete!

Then add the other ingredients and mix up.

Add it to your chicken and let for a minimum of an hour. Mine sat for half the day. I always prefer a longer marinade time because I love me some flavor, baby.

Now, when it's time to make dinner... Get some bacon strips.

And bacon strips.

And bacon strips.

And BACON STRIPS.

Also do everything in your power to not eat all of that bacon.

Then, if you want to be like me, have some friends over and get totally distracted from taking pictures while you make dinner.

Let your friend take a picture of the monstrous pile of cheese that was grated. We were also having macaroni and cheese, try not to panic.

And then uh.. imagine pictures of me frying the chicken over high heat for a few minutes on either side before putting it on a baking sheet and finishing it in the oven, then adding the bacon and cheese and putting it back in for 5 minutes.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT.

I imagine that it would have been amazing between a kaiser roll. I plan to try it someday.

Ranch Style Chicken (original recipe here)

• ½ cups Dijon Mustard
• ½ cups Honey
• ½ whole (juice Of) Lemon
• ½ teaspoons Paprika
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• Crushed Red Pepper (optional To Taste)
• 6 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1 pound Thick Cut Bacon
• Bacon Grease
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese, to taste
• Canola Oil

To begin, make the marinade. In a large bowl mix together ½ cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with ½ cup honey, juice of ½ lemon, ½ teaspoon paprika, and ½ teaspoon salt and whisk until smooth. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy. Set aside.

Next, rinse the chicken breasts, place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound to around ½ to ¾ inch thick with a mallet. Next, add the chicken to the bowl with the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.

While the chicken marinates, fry up some bacon. When finished cooking, reserve ¼ cup of the bacon grease and clean out the skillet.

When the chicken is done marinating, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chicken from the fridge and pour off excess marinade. Heat half of the reserved bacon grease with an equal quantity of Canola Oil in the clean skillet over medium-high heat. When the grease is nice and hot add two or three pieces of chicken to it. Cook until brownish/blackish, about 1 to 1 ½ minutes per side. Remove chicken to a large baking sheet. If cooking many pieces of chicken, repeat skillet process and remove finished chicken to baking sheet. Place chicken in preheated oven and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Lay a few pieces of bacon over each chicken breast. Sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese over the top of the chicken as generously as you like. Return pan to oven for an additional five minutes until cheese is melted and bacon is sizzling. Serve immediately.

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Another satisfied customer.

That's Garret on the right and Matt trying to escape the picture on the left.

Make the chicken sometime soon, you won't regret it!

Olivia's Buttermilk Pie

My tab at the top of my browser has the recipe page cut off so that it says "Olivia's Butt". *immature giggle* Anyway. I was half listening/watching the food network and I decided on a whim to go to the page of recipes from the episode of one of Paula Deen's shows that was currently airing. I found this recipe. It sounded good. I had all the ingredients. In fact, I have had a lonely box of Bisquick sitting in the pantry since the LAST Paula Deen recipe.

It had to be made.

Bisquick, (soon to be melted) butter, sugar, 3 eggs, vanilla, and one cup of buttermilk.

Now, I don't keep buttermilk in my fridge because I'd never use it. But Ree has a trick and it worked really well. You measure out just under how much milk you need and then add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Stir it around and in moments you have buttermilk. Thanks, Ree!

Anyway, add everything into a bowl. Your biscuit mix, sugar, eggs, vanilla..

And your melted butter and buttermilk.

Then, using an electric mixer, blend it all for 30 seconds to a minute.

Take your greased pie plate..

And pour it in!

This is complex, I know.

Then bake it for about 50 minutes or so at 350 degrees.

What you get is a nice kind of chewy biscuity crust that's so soft and melts into a softer more custardy bottom. That isn't even a great description. It was really good.

It was good the next day but it was definitely best the first day, before it had time to sit. Especially right out of the oven!

Olivia's Buttermilk Pie (original recipe from here)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup biscuit mix (recommended: Bisquick)
• 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• 3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch pie pan.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and blend for 1 minute with a handheld electric mixer. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes.
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Oh, and as for the 1 and a half cups of sugar.. in the reviews, people complained that it was really sweet, so I ended up only using one heaping cup of sugar. And it was pleeeeeeenty sweet. Keep that in mind for your own baking.

Southern Baked Beans

I made these last night. And they were good! Nice and tangy and garlicky and sweet and all kinds of other flavors. Sean really really liked them. I'm learning that he tends to like a sweeter dish compared to me, who really doesn't like a lot of sweetness in my food. Guess I'll have to keep that in mind.

Anyway it wound up being a lot of beans (duh), much more than I assumed from looking at the cans. Oh well, they'll be gone by the end of the weekend. I had more for lunch today.

Let's MAKE US SOME BEANS, Y'ALL. Or something.

Here's what you'll need! Beans (notes on beans lower in post), garlic, celery, onion(if so inclined), green pepper, ketchup, bbq sauce, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, and sriracha. Oh and olive oil.

Dice up your veggies nice and small.

Then saute them in the olive oil until nice and soft.

Pour your beans into a big bowl. Look, bacon! Yay bacon!

Then add all your other ingredients, including the softened veggies. Pour into a casserole dish.

Bake for an hour at 350 degrees. At about the half hour mark, I tossed some hot dogs into the beans to finish cooking them. When it was over, I decided I wanted to give them a bit of time to bubble without a lid, so I put them in for another 15 minutes.

BEANS. And hot dogs! Num.

Now, a note on the beans. Sheri (who's blog I got the recipe from) said that she's made them with canned pork and beans and dry beans. The recipe calls for dry beans but if you use canned beans, make sure you use 2 28oz cans and omit the crushed tomatoes and bay leaf. Well you could probably put the bay leaf in if you really wanted to.

Southern Baked Beans (original recipe here)

• 1 pound dried small white beans.  I used Great Northern Beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 15 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped small
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped small
• 1 large stalk of celery, chopped small
• 4-6 large cloves of garlic, well chopped
• 2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
• about 1/2 cup ketchup
• about 1/2 cup good barbecue sauce
• 2 heaping Tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 squirt of sriracha, to your taste

Sort through the dried beans and discard bad ones or any dirt.  Rinse well and cover with cold water.   Let sit over-night.  When ready to cook, add the bay leaf and make sure the beans are covered with enough water.  Bring the beans to a boil and then lower the heat and cook, slightly covered, on top of the stove until tender, but not mushy.  Add more water if necessary as they cook.

While beans are cooking, saute the onions, bell pepper, garlic, and celery until soft, then set aside.  When the beans are done, drain off the liquid and retain it.  Add the onion mixture, the crushed tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients.  Stir the beans and taste them to see if you need more ketchup, mustard and so forth (I always do).  Add bean broth, if necessary, to have the liquid just cover the beans.  Cover the pot with a well fitting lid, and bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.
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Beans. There isn't much more to say than that. EET BEENZ PLEESE.

Speaking of beans, I saw some nice ones at the store yesterday. There might be fresh green beans in the future. Maybe.

Three Pea Stirfry With Chicken

Boy, I sure do like sugar snap and snow peas. I saw this and it just plain old looked good. The steps are so simple, I didn't really take a lot of pictures. But I'm sure you can figure it out.

Mmm a big ol' pile of peas.

You basically stir fry your chicken, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes, then you add your peas. Then your other peas. Then you're done. WOW. AMAZING.

And then you serve it over rice or noodles. I opted for noodles since we had rice recently. I also drizzled bits of that teriyaki sauce over it and made it extra yummy.

Here's the recipe! Remember to play with it a little. I used 3 or so cloves of garlic, 1 giant chicken breast (next time I'd use 2), one tablespoon of the teriyaki sauce instead of the soy sauce (maybe more with all that drizzling), and so on. I was going to add some sriracha but I figured the red pepper flakes would do their job for Sean, and I didn't want to push it. Oh and I used 8oz of both snow peas and sugar snaps because, well, the two bags were 8oz each. Derp.

Three Pea Stirfry with Chicken (original recipe from here)

Makes 4 side dish servings or 2 main dish servings (with rice)

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
• 6 oz sugar snap peas, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 6 oz snow peas, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Heat vegetable oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then stir-fry garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and chicken slices until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add sugar snaps and snow peas and stir-fry until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add frozen peas and stir-fry until hot, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, then stir in soy sauce and sesame oil. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and season with salt.
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It was really tasty, I thought it might be too uh.. "pea-y" for Sean but he really liked it a lot. I love it when he compliments a dish. When he does it two to three times, I know it was a winner. I really liked this one too. The peas were nice and crunchy still. So good.

There's noodles under there somewhere.

I would make it again for sure. I think I'm getting addicted to that teriyaki sauce. It's like soy sauce only AMAZING. Oh well, there are worse things to be addicted to. :3 *hides liquor bottle*

That was a JOKE by the way.

Chicken with Pepper and Celery

I had leftover celery from making my chicken rice soup, so I went to Tasty Kitchen, one of the websites that Pioneer Woman started for people to share recipes they make at home on, and found this one when I searched for celery. The site has been undergoing maintenance so it's been a little wonky of late.

Anyway this looked simple enough. I figured it would be kind of spicy though with that much pepper in it. And it was. But it was really good. Sean apparently is not a big celery fan so while he exclaimed it had a lot of flavor and tried to go for it, he wound up picking around all the celery. It also contains a lot of celery leaves, which I had never thought of using before, but which tasted wonderful.

I added leftover carrot and some of the celery to it as well, and left out the onion.

You'll need soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, garlic, chicken, and whatever veggies you want. I used carrots and celery, obviously. And that big pile of celery leaves. Also I used that Kikkoman Teriyaki marinade, more on that later. Oh and some sugar, I forgot to put it in the picture. As usual.

I also marinated the chicken in the teriyaki and man.. awesome.

Make your sauce. Soy sauce, oyster sauce, a little sugar, salt, lots of pepper..  I wound up adding almost a whole other teaspoon and a half of sugar to balance the saltiness. And I added one tablespoon of that teriyaki sauce.

And then I added a tsp of chili garlic paste for insane flavor boosting power.

CHILI POWER ACTIVATE.

Saute your veggies in the oil for about 5 minutes, until they start to get soft.

Then add your delicious marinated (or not) chicken.

Add your sauce and cook until chicken is done and veggies at desired tenderness. About 4-7 minutes depending on your preference.

When it's done, stir in your celery leaves.

 I really liked the celery leaves.

Then serve over rice!

It was really good. And before the oyster sauce freaks you out, remember, Sean hates anything that has ANYTHING to do with the sea. But that one tablespoon of oyster sauce? He didn't even know it was there. He said it had tons of flavor, his only real complaint was (of course) the celery, and how spicy it was. And even I have to say, it was pretty spicy. But it was so good.

Now, let's talk about that marinade. Mom and Dad used to use this a lot when I was younger.

The one on the left is thin, like soy sauce, but with such a depth of flavor.. It's great, really really great. Normally, for me, the chicken is the most boring part of a stir fry. This time it was all I wanted to eat. The stuff on the right is thicker and also good in sauces. I love them both and I can't believe it's taken me so long to pick up a bottle of the thin stuff again.

"I love you, bro." "Me too, bro."

Me too, bros. Me too.

Here's the recipe.

Chicken with Pepper and Celery (adapted from here)

• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ½ cups Onion, Diced
• 2 whole Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut Up For Stir Fry
• 3 teaspoons Fresh Ground Pepper, More Or Less To Your Taste
• ½ teaspoons Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce Or More To Taste
• 1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 1 cup Celery Leaves, Chopped

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion stir until translucent, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the chicken, pepper, sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. At this point you can add up to 1/4 cup of water if the chicken is too dry.
Add the chopped celery leaves and mix well.
Serve over your favorite rice.

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I love food with asian flavors. I'm making chicken with 3 pea stir fry tonight. Should be good, I loooove snow peas and sugar snap peas.

Does anyone want to come over and cut up my raw chicken for me though?

Anyone?  Anybody?

Bueller?