Chinese Oval Flat Noodles

I'm cooking a lot more Chinese lately.  Here's my latest from scratch creation, done without a recipe!  No filter on this photo either... it really is that greasy hahaha.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground beef, pork, turkey or chicken
2 bunches of baby bok choy, rinsed and separated
1 package of flat Shanghai rice noodles (just place them in boiling water for a bit to soften them, no need to cook 'em for too long thereafter)
1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/3 cup sesame oil
1 T corn starch
1 tsp pepper
1-2 garlic cloves, diced
1/4 cup black bean paste

Directions:
In a bowl, mix ground meat with soy sauce, sesame oil, corn starch, garlic, and pepper.  Mix around.  In a medium saucepan, cook meat on medium until meat is browned.  Remove and cook bok choy in the leftover oil.  Add in the softened noodles, black bean paste, and cooked meat already put to the side.  Cook together for a bit... and done!

Orange Chicken in a Crockpot with Snow Peas

I love me some orange chicken, but the breading ... is it really necessary?  I decided to find out.  And of course, use the crock pot since it was for Sunday dinner and the less involved I have to be... the bette!


Orange Chicken:
4 chicken breasts - cut into cubes, with 2 breaded in flour, 2 not breaded.


Sauce Mixture
3 T kethcup
4 T brown sugar
1 T apple cider vinegar
4-6 oz of orange concentrate (a can is about 8oz, so I did a little under half, and thawed it by putting it in  tub of warm water)
1 t salt

I used olive oil in a medium saucepan on medium, and browned the breaded chicken a bit (didn't have to be fully cooked since I was going to use the crock pot) and boiled the other 2 chicken breasts which were actually frozen.

I put the chicken in the crockpot and poured the sauce mixture over the chicken and cooked on low for 5 hours.  Next time, I'd go for 4 hours because most of the chicken was already cooked and the sauce got burnt on some pieces.

Snow Peas:
I cut off the ends of about 2 cups of snow peas (did you know you have to cut off the ends?!, it took me a few errors to realize this).

I chopped up 1/4 of a yellow onion, put some olive oil in a small saucepan and sauteed the onions for 3-5 minutes, then added the following:

3 T light soy sauce
1 t coarse pepper
2 T sesame oil

My husband made some rice and we had ourselves a delicious Sunday afternoon dinner.

Don't judge by the photo... some food that tastes good is not always the prettiest.  Nor is the laundry I later folded which is peeking out from the back.  HAHAHA!  but the chicken came out delicious!  Breaded or not, the sauce is a winner.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat... but probably add some scallions afterwards (forgot!).

Panda Express Orange Chicken

Am I the only ABC ("American Born Chinese") girl who does not know how to cook rice?! I never had a reason to learn (mom or dad always put the rice in, we set the table and cleaned up) and my rice knowledge only goes as far as being instructed by my grandmother the proper way to serve rice (mix it in the pot and then serve it loosely). It's a bit disgraceful ... but true.

So when I got married and my mom gave me a rice cooker, I called her on a few occasions to ask for the proper water to rice ratio. After being scolded one too many times, I started googling it. But google only explained how to cook rice without a rice cooker. So then I started doing it on a whim without instructions. To date, I have not cooked rice successfully even once (and I try to cook Chinese food once a week). Fry rice - now that is different because you make it with old rice (and nasty old rice is fine) but normal rice, not so much. Today was no different. I put the correct rice ratio but forgot to put some water outside of the pot in the rice cooker so it could steam. Smart.

So I boiled some egg noodles instead. Still Chinese. Pretty good for the Panda Express orange chicken I made (cheated and bought the $4.99 Panda Express sauce) that Andy fried (while I fed Jordan!). Now I will never forget how to bread Chinese chicken:

1-2 pounds of chicken cubes

white pepper

black pepper

salt

sesame oil

1 egg

mix 1/4 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of corn starch and mix in with the chicken, cook in hot oil and wala - Chinese breaded chicken!

Then, cook some garlic, ginger and green onions, put the chicken back in and pour the sauce in.