Coaching Cooking

I find that for those occasional nights where I give in to the ease and price of getting Chinese take-out, I need to spiff it up somehow. The best way to do that is with a bottle of bubbly. Sparkling wine goes well with the saltiness of your chow mein, the fried egg rolls, or sweet and sour chicken. That particular bottle in the picture is an Oregon brut, but you could use almost any bubbly.

If you like sweet wine, though, make the meal a little spicier to provide good contrast.

If you use items and concoctions from the previous post, this next meal will be super quick, great for a lunch to take to work. Now that you’ve got basil pesto already made, you need something to put it on. Boil water for the penne from yesterday’s list of ingedients. While that cooks, assemble the mixed greens with the balsamic vinaigrette that also doubled as a marinade, along with the goat cheese and sliced red onions, optional. Pull out and reheat the 2-4 portabellas you previously grilled or baked and chop into small pieces. When the penne is done, drain all but a little of the starchy water, then stir in as much of the basil pesto as it takes to coat the noodles, and toss in the mushrooms as well.

Even though some of the ingredients aren’t cheap (portabellas, goat cheese, pine nuts)…when you consider that these two meals can each feed two or three people, it works out to be quite cost efficient.

basil pesto

A recent bout with food poisoning confined me to that Queen of the Cheap Pastas….ramen. Many of you know this as the budget food eaten in college or the budget food that is quick and easy to prepare. So I present my updated version of ramen, sauteed with chicken, onion and some tasty seasonings.

Jenny’s Stir-Fried Chicken Ramen

Ingredients:
2 packages of ramen (try Maruchan or Nissen or Sapporo…they cost about 50 cents or less each and come in packages of two noodle bricks each)
1 egg, beaten and seasoned with 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/3 cup of sliced white onion
1/4 cup of frozen peas
1 raw chicken breast, cut into thin slices
2 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
Sriracha chili sauce

Directions:
Prepare the ramen noodles according to the package directions (usually this means boil them for 3 minutes). Drain well and set aside. In a small bowl, add the frozen peas and cover with water. Microwave the peas for about 1 minute until they turn bright green. Drain well and reserve for later. Sautee the onion and chicken in a tablespoon of oil, in a medium, nonstick saute pan until the chicken is cooked through (about 8-10 minutes) and the onions are soft and lightly browned. Set this mixture aside in a small bowl and add the sesame oil on top and mix lightly. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and add the ramen noodles. Fry the noodles for 2 minutes on each side until both sides are lightly browned and crispy (about 4-6 minutes total). Place the fried noodles on a plate. Add the chicken mixture to the pan again and fry for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is rewarmed. Add the peas to the pan and mix together for a few seconds. Top the noodles with the chicken mixture and serve. Enjoy with sriracha chili sauce! Serves one (or two if you feel like sharing!).