Oriental Stir Fry Dishes

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Recently, I have been haunting a couple of Oriental food markets and making a lot of  Asian dishes completely from scratch. No more canned bean sprouts and water chestnuts. What a difference "fresh" makes!


For this dish, which I just threw together (kind of resembles chow mein, I guess), I cooked some chicken breast in a little oil while making a sauce of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, organic, unbleached sugar, a little red chili paste and a little sea salt.  Then I put the chicken bits in the sauce and let it simmer on low for a while. I didn't measure any of this; just went by taste.

In another pan, I put some oil, threw in some sliced carrots and sliced celery, let that cook for a few minutes while chopping some onion, bok choy, and peeling and slicing some water chestnuts. I threw those things into the mixture, holding back the tops of the bok choy for a little bit more since they cook much more quickly than the bottoms. I also added the fresh bean sprouts at this point and stir-fried for a bit. Then I threw in the bok choy tops and some cut green onions.

Then I put a little cornstarch and water into my sauce to thicken it up and added it to the vegetable mixture. We could have had it with rice or noodles, but I thought it was really good just like this.

Homemade Pizza Crust

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I love, love, love making pizza! It took me a while to get it down to where I would actually rather have a homemade pizza than to get it from a good pizza place, but it was worth all the years of trial and error.

I usually make one large (18") and two mediums (12") with this recipe. You can cut it in half, or put half the dough in the freezer for later use.

I usually put no oil or fat in my pizza crust. I often brush the crust with butter after baking is finished. You can put a tablespoon or so in the dough, if you wish, or you can drizzle the crust with olive oil before topping. Whatever you like.

2 cups warm water

1 slightly heaping tablespoon (TBSP) of good yeast

2 cups unbleached flour

Whisk these together to allow the sponge to form. After it is bubbly and about doubled in size, add:

1 teaspoon (tsp) sea salt

1 or 2 teaspoons (tsp) sugar ( or you can leave it out completely )

1 1/2 to 2 more cups unbleached flour ( I usually reserve some of this for the kneading process. Feel free to add more while kneading until it seems right.)

Knead for about 15 minutes, until smooth and elastic. ( If you don't want to knead it the whole time, it will have about the same effect if you just let it set for about 15 minutes and then come back and knead it for 5 minutes or so. )

Divide the dough as needed for your pizzas.

Place each ball of dough on a greased pizza pan and cover with a cloth. Allow it to rise until about doubled in size.  With greased hands, spread your dough out over the pan, working from the middle out. Poke holes all over with a fork. Let rise again for ten to fifteen minutes, more if needed.

You can put your crust in the oven for a few minutes before topping, or just begin topping as it.

Bake at about 425* til done.

Enjoy!

Homemade Apple Nut Bread

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There is just something so wonderful about making homemade bread. I love the kneading: It makes me feel like Caroline Ingalls in my little house on the prairie. Okay, so I don't have a little house, and there is no prairie, but when that bread comes out of the oven, I get a country feeling every time.

This particular loaf of bread was made with unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, oat flour, freshly squeezed apple juice, fresh apple bits, and chopped walnuts. It was really wonderful toasted and slathered with real butter.

I wish I could give the exact recipe. I hardly ever measure when I'm making bread, so it gets a bit challenging to share recipes. Basically, I started with a cup of warm water and a cup of fresh apple juice, added a rounded tablespoon of yeast, and let that sit a few minutes. Then I added about 2.5 cups of unbleached flour and let my sponge form for an hour or so. Then I added about a teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of sugar, and - here's where the real guessing comes in - about a cup of oat flour, a cup of whole wheat, and then I kneaded in more whole wheat flour. I left the dough a little soft, because I knew the flours would expand once they got wet. After rising another hour to hour and a half, I shaped my loaves (it made this one big loaf and two mini-loaves), and let them rise another half hour or so. Times are very approximate, and always depend upon things like room temp and humidity. I like to go by the look of my dough rather than the time to decide when it's finished rising.

Anyway, very, very yummy!