Asian Lettuce Wraps

After a busy week eating way to much fast food and other horrible things, I finally had enough time to cook a real meal tonight.  Since I had already made egg drop soup and was on a bit of an Asian kick I figured I should continue with that theme.

I make way more Asian food than most people I know and have a ridiculous amount of the semi-weird sauces that can be used in these recipes in my house at all times.  If you don't happen to have hoisin sauce just sitting in your refrigerator waiting to be used like I do, you can find it in the Asian section of most grocery stores.

I wanted to make something at least sort of healthy and have been meaning to try out a new lettuce wrap recipe for awhile so today was the day.  Not the best lettuce wraps I have ever made, but they were still pretty dang delicious.  Next time I'm going to add more spice. (Sensing a theme with my cooking yet?)

Aren't these yummy looking?

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil (or for a more Asian flavor try sesame oil)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
• 2/3 c. green onion, thinly sliced
• 1 (8oz) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
• lettuce
• 3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
• 2 Tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 tsp. Sriracha

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, garlic, and ginger; brown until chicken is cooked through.  Combine chicken mixture, onions, and water chestnuts in a large bowl.  
2. In a small bowl, mix hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and Sriracha.  
3. Combine sauce with chicken mixture; toss to coat.  Add about 1/4 c. to each lettuce leaf.  Eat up.

Serves 4

Egg Drop Soup

Asian food is delicious.  All of it. I love pretty much every Asian food I have ever eaten so I love trying to replicate restaurant foods.  I think I have only made soup one or two other times in my life but I was really craving soup this afternoon so I thought why not try it out and make some egg drop soup.

I thought soup would be hard. Nope. Super, super easy.  This literally took me 5 minutes to make and was simple and delicious.  If I ever have another soup craving that needs to be sated immediately this will be my go to recipe.

Delicious soup.

Ingredients

• 4 c. chicken broth, divided
• 1/8 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 Tbsp. chives or scallions, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk

1. In a large saucepan, combine 3 1/4 cups chicken broth, salt, ginger, and chives.  Bring to a boil.
2. In a small bowl, combine remaining chicken broth and cornstarch.
3. In another bowl, whisk eggs and egg yolk together.  Slowly drizzle eggs into boiling broth.  (It will cook very quickly).  Whisk in the cornstarch mixture until soup reaches your desired consistency.  Enjoy.

Serves 4. 

Guacamole

Until about 2 years ago, I hated avocados.  They freaked me out for some reason and I avoided them at all costs, but when I was living with my friend Ashley I came to love guacamole.  She made guacamole all the time and it just looked and smelled so delicious that I had to try it out.  That was the beginning of my guacamole obsession.

This recipe is based off the one Ashley always made, the one that started my love of guacamole.

Ingredients

• 1 avocado
• 2 Tbsp. onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 jalapeno, diced
• 2 slices tomato, diced
• juice from 1/2 of a lime
• 1/8 c. cilantro
• salt and pepper, to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust amounts to your liking.  Serve with tortilla chips or anything else you want.

Nom Nom Nom 

Pad Thai

Pad Thai is easily one of my favorite foods, but I always thought it would be hard to make at home.  That is not the case.  I have tried quite a few recipes and think this one has a good amount of flavor without all of the weird orange stuff that is often found in restaurant Pad Thai.

I found this recipe to be a little dry initially so I ended up doubling the sauce recipe.  Also, I am a huge fan of garlic so whenever a recipe calls for 1 clove of garlic, I find the biggest clove I can. Yum, yum, garlic.

I used a pretty basic recipe but one of the best things about Pad Thai is that you can add pretty much whatever protein you want and it will still taste amazing.  I have tried chicken and tofu so far; both have been absolutely delicious.

I know this looks a little yucky; dang phone camera.

Ingredients

• 8 oz. dried, wide and flat rice noodles
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
• 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. fish sauce (if you don't have this, don't worry about it)
• 1 tsp. Sriracha (I used almost a whole Tbsp. since I love spicy things)
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 3 scallions, white and green parts separated, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 c. cilantro
• 1/4 c. roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Soak noodles according to package. (Mine took 30 minutes in warm water.)
2. Combine brown sugar, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, and Sriracha in a small bowl.
3. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet or wok.  Add scallion whites and garlic; cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).  Add eggs and cook, scraping skillet with a spatula until eggs are almost set (about 30 seconds to a minute).  Transfer to a plate.
4. Add noodles, scallion greens, and sauce to the skillet.  Cook until noodles are soft (about 1 minute).  Add eggs and toss to coat. 
5. Serve with lime wedges, cilantro, and peanuts.

Serves 4.

Delicious finished product.

Keep in mind I am by no means a good photographer.  All of these foods look much better in real life.  I guess you will have to cook them yourself to see what I mean. :)