Tonight I made a recipe that I had seen on Real Thai Recipes. Chicken is stir-fried with lots of garlic (yes, please!), white pepper, and fish sauce. To accompany the chicken I made a Thai Fried Rice based on a few different recipes online.

Chris says:

The garlic in this is so good!

Lisa says:

Why is it so spicy?

Chris says:

Is it? Doesn’t seem that way to me, there aren’t any hot chilies or anything… just pepper.

Lisa says:

It’s delicious, but yeah, seems spicy to me. Maybe I’m not used to white pepper… hey, what the?

Chris says:

I’m investigating by eating off your plate.

Lisa says:

Hands off, sucka!

Garlic and Pepper Chicken
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1 large chicken breast, sliced
1/4 cup garlic cloves, smashed
3/4 teaspoon palm sugar (or white sugar)
3/4 teaspoon white pepper powder or black pepper powder (or mix ‘em!)
1 3/4 teaspoons fish sauce
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil (enough to coat bottom of pan)
2-3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cilantro leaves (for garnish)

Add vegetable oil to pan over medium-high heat. When oil is just about smoking, add in garlic and stir-fry until lightly browned. Add in chicken and stir-fry until chicken is fully cooked and starts to brown. If chicken starts to stick to pan, add a little water. Add in fish sauce, sugar, and white pepper, and stir until well blended, adding water if necessary. Serve immediately.

Thai Fried Rice
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1 tbsp peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 shallot, sliced
3 tbsp egg whites
3 cups cooked rice
1 roma tomato, cut into 8 wedges
1 green onion, chopped
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat until it’s almost smoking. Add the garlic until lightly browned, then add the shallots and stir-fry for a minute. Add in the egg whites and stir until egg is cooked through. Add in the rice, and stir in the remaining ingredients until warmed and well blended. Adjust spices to your liking.

Tonight I made two new recipes, each the first recipe we’ve tried in two new books — from The Mushroom Lover’s Mushroom Cookbook, Boneless Chicken Breasts with Wild Mushrooms and Enoki, and from Asian Flavors, Baby Bok Choy with Garlic and Straw Mushrooms.

Lisa says:

Wow — you can really taste the wine in this.

Chris says:

Yeah, I kinda wish we had the cognac that the recipe calls for on hand.

Lisa says:

Really? I love the wine — and the really interesting variety of mushrooms!

Chris says:

Yeah, it’s delicious. I just ended up getting a bunch of different mushroom varieties because I couldn’t find Mousserons. What about the bok choy?

Lisa says:

Mmmmmm, so good! You know I’m going to say that it needs more garlic — but what doesn’t?

Boneless Chicken Breasts with Mousserons and Enoki
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2 large boneless chicken breasts, with skin
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
4 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced, green and white parts separated
8 oz fresh mousserons, cleaned, or 1 oz dried mousserons or wild mushrooms *
2 tbsp Cognac or 1/4 cup dry red or white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 3.5 package enoki mushrooms, trimmed and broken into 5-6 clumps
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet, preferably nonstick. Add the chicken breasts, skin side down, and cook until the skin is deep golden brown and crisp, about 6 minutes. Turn the chicken breasts over, reduce the heat to medium low, and continue cooking until no trace of pink remains in the thickest part of the chicken, about 6 minutes.
Remove the chicken breasts, add the scallion whites and mousserons or wild mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms are wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the Cognac or wine and cook until evaporated. Add the stock and boil until the sauce is reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 4 minutes. Add the enoki, parsley, and scallion greens and stir to mix. Return the chicken to the skillet, skin side up. Reduce the heat and simmer 2 minutes.
Serve hot, spooning half of the mushroom mixture and sauce onto each of 2 plates and topping it with a chicken breast.
* If using dried mushrooms, reconstitute by pouring hot chicken stock over the mushrooms in a bowl and letting sit for 10-15 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, then strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter and save for use in the recipe.

2 Servings

Baby Bok Choy with Garlic & Straw Mushrooms
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1 lb baby bok choy
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 oz straw mushrooms, halved
2 tbsp rice wine
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Blanch the bok choy in a saucepan of boiling water for one minute. Drain, and cool by running under cold water.
Heat the oil in a wok, add the garlic and fry gently for one minute until golden. Drain from the wok and set aside. Add the straw mushrooms and bok choy and stir-fry over high heat for two minutes. Add the rice wine, sugar, and salt, and stir until the vegetables are coated in the wok juices.
Transfer to a serving plate, spoon over the garlic, and serve at once.

4 Servings