Asian Nachos

Welcome back to my blog. Sorry for the delay in this post. I ran into a bit of a problem with my last blog and have been trying to figure out the best way to address it. Let me explain. You see I am an Aristologist. Aristology is the art or science of cooking and dining. It encompasses the preparation, combination, and presentation of dishes and the manner in which these dishes are integrated into a meal. In short, I love everything about food. I love to grow it, shop for it, and most of all I love to prepare and eating it. Yes I put them at equal status, prepare and eat. I truly do love to create with food. I like to take ordinary ingredients and transform them into works of art, both for the palate and the eye.

All that being said, that explains why I do what I do for a living. I am the owner/operator of

du jour fine catering and I am an independent consultant for The Pampered Chef. I truly believe that The Pampered Chef has some of the finest quality product on the market.

In my last post I linked my post with my personal Pampered Chef web site so that if you were in need of any of the tools I am using in my recipes you would know where to get them. As it turns out that is against The Pampered Chef policy. It took some investigation to learn that I can mention The Pampered Chef but I may not link the site to my blog. So this is what I will do, any word that is blue indicates that I am talking about an item that you can purchase from The Pampered Chef. If you have interest in making an purchases just let me know and I can direct you to my web site.

Anyway, are you ready for the recipe for my Asian Nachos? I should tell you that my recipes for both the Thia Tacos and the Asian Nachos came out of a visit to one of my favorite restaurant down town Chicago, The Grand Lux. The Grand Lux used to have Thai Tacos on there menu and they do still offer the Asian Nachos. If you get there you must try them. If not try my version.

Asian Nachos

1 cup long grain brown rice

2 cups water

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup Ginger-Wasabi sauce

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 green onions, sliced thinly both whites and greens

1 package small won ton wrappers

peanut sauce (can be the home made from my last post or bottled)

bottled wasabi sauce (optional)

First make the "fried" won tons. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut won tons in half, I like to use a pizza cutter for this. Place the cut won tons in a single layer on a baking sheet that has be spritzed with oil. It will take several batches to get this accomplished. I prefer to use my large bar pan stoneware for this. Spritz the top of the won tons before placing them into the oven. "Fry" them just until they start to brown. Remove to a cooling rack.

Next make the rice. This can be done on the stove top or in the microwave. On the stove top pour the water into a 3 qt. covered sauce pan, add the salt and rice. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer rice covered for 45 minutes.

If you would like to speed up the cooking time for then rice you will need a 2 qt. micro cooker. Pour water and salt into micro cooker, add rice and cover. microwave on full power for 5 minutes and then for 15 minutes at 50% power. I suggest that you place a paper towel under the micro cooker to catch the bubble-over. Let rest with the cover on until all the moisture is absorbed.

When rice is ready add the Ginger-Wasabi Sauce, peas and 1/2 of the sliced green onions and mix.

Now pour the rice mixture onto the center of your serving plate. Arrange "fried" won tons around the rice mixture.

Now for the final touch. I like to put my prepared peanut sauce into a squeeze bottle and squirt it in a pattern over my rice and won tons. Do the same with the wasabi sauce if you want more heat in our dish.

I would love to hear your thoughts when you make one of my recipes as well as on anything else I talk about.

Oh yes! the winner of the bottle of Thia Peanut Sauce. I decided to have two winners and they are:

Kim P and Lisa Dozema. I will be sending a bottle of sauce to you very soon!

P.S. My thumb is healing nicely. It has a long way to go but I am happy with the progress.

Change of Menu: how Thai Tacos became hand tossed pizza

Welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by to read my thoughts on cooking!

So, Thai Tacos and Asain Nachos for dinner Friday night?













First the chicken was marinated, cooked and resting for the tacos and the rise was cooking for the nachos. Next came the shredding of the red and green cabbage, and slicing the cucumbers and onions. This job is easily done with a mandoline. A mandoline is a very sharp utensil with an adjustable blade for slicing food thinly and evenly. You should always use the hand guard when using a mandoline. I always teach my guest that at my classes and shows. Yet I, like you, do not always do the right thing. I was just making this meal for my husband and I so there was not a large quantity to shred and slice so I grabbed my small hand held mandoline instead of my Pampered Chef larger mandoline with a built in stand. The Pampered Chef mandoline is very safe because the blade only works with the hand guard engaged. The one I used you have a choice of using the hand guard or not. As I grabbed the mandoline my thoughts were, “always use the hand guard” and yet my next thought took precedence, “I just have a little to do, I’ll be fine”. I started with the red cabbage. I cut a wedge from the head and ran it over the blade of the mandoline, all was going well and then the wedge sticks in the blade. What did I do? I flexed my muscles and ramped up speed and forced it through the blade.

And as I did, I saw my thumb going through the blade along with the cabbage. Yes a large, deep slice of my thumb is now missing. I am home alone so I have to figure out what to do next.

I am a chef so I keep band aids in the kitchen. Cuts are not uncommon when using large sharp interments at high speeds. So I grab the band aid box and dump it out to find the largest one. I unwrap it and put it up to my open wound and find that this is not a job for a band aid. By now I am bleeding heavily. I find the gauze, wrap my thumb and head to my neighbor Kelly’s house for advice. Kelly is an ER nurse so I was very happy she was home. By the time I got to her house, a three minute walk, I had bled through the gauze. Kelly took one look at my thumb, redressed it, instructed me to keep pressure on it and if it did not stop bleeding in a few minutes to go to the ER.

So, Thai Tacos and Asian Nachos for dinner Friday night? No, it was Pizza Hut’s hand tossed veggie lovers with chicken pizza and a glass of wine. But just because we didn’t get to have the tacos and nachos does not mean you shouldn’t. Today I am sharing my recipe for Tai Tacos. Next time, Asian Nachos, hopefully without injury.

First. Here is the mandoline you should use; you can find it here:

Thai Tacos

4 boneless skinless chicken breast, marinated

8 – 10 flour tortillas

Thinly sliced cucumber

Shredded red and green cabbage

Thinly sliced red onion

Peanut sauce

Marinade

½ cup veggie or canola oil

¼ cup honey

2 Tbs. cider vinegar

3 Tbs. soy sauce

1 clove garlic, pressed

2 tsps. fresh parsley, chopped

½ tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 tsp. fennel seed, cracked

Peanut Sauce

½ cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup water

2 Tbs. soy sauce

2 Tbs. rice vinegar

1 Tb. Honey

1 Tb. Asian sesame oil

1 ½ tsp. grated fresh ginger

1 tsp. garlic, pressed

Cayenne pepper or chili sauce (optional)

Here are your instructions, click on any of the links to see the tools I used:

Make the Marinade; Whisk together the oil, honey, vinegar and soy sauce. Press the garlic, chop the parsley, grind the pepper and *crack the fennel seeds and mix with the whisked mixture.

Trim all fat from the chicken breast and place into a zip top bag. Pour marinade over the breast and refrigerate 4 – 24 hours.

Make the Peanut Sauce; (you can use bottled peanut sauce if you prefer) Combine the peanut butter, water, soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, grated ginger and pressed garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade an d process until smooth. You can season with a pinch of cayenne pepper or a dash of chili sauce if you want to add some heat.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Please marinated breast on sheet pan and roast 6 minutes on one side, turn breast over and roast until thermometer reads 160 degrees in center of breast. Remove from oven and lightly cover with foil and let rest at least 10 minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, shred the cabbages and thinly slice cucumber and onion. Arrange on a platter so that each person can build there own taco.

Slice the chicken breast into about ½ inch slices. Arrange on the platter with the veggies.

Place tortillas on a small plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Warm the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until just warm.

*a little tip from the chef: to crack your fennel- place in a ziplock baggie & pound it a few times to simply crack your seeds.