Bean Sprout Adventures

This is a popular Filipino dish. I’ve never had it before, but J has fond memories of it. We actually have a Filipino cookbook, The Filipino Cookbook by Miki Garcia, so we used that recipe.

Recipe

• 2.5 lb chicken pieces (preferably skin-on)
• Oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 cup cane, apple cider, or rice vinegar (or white vinegar diluted with water)
• 1 cup soy sauce

Sauté chicken and garlic in oil until browned. Add everything except the onion and simmer until chicken is done (about 30 min). Add the onion and cook 5 min more.

I would describe the original dish as “aggressively tart”, to quote Cook’s Illustrated, and the chicken overcooked and chalky, so this version makes some changes. Originally, you were supposed to marinate the chicken overnight, include lime juice, and cook the chicken longer.

I might even decrease the cooking time more. You’re supposed to braise the chicken to make it tender, but we don’t have much success at that in general. Maybe this is one for a slow cooker.

We’re at that period of being without restaurant excursions that we’re having food cravings, so we’ve been making fancier dishes!

We’ve been expanding our dessert repertoire, and I wanted to use up a box of cake mix we got from the free shelf in our apartment building. J suggested cuatro leches cake! It’s like tres leches cake (cake soaked in a mixture of condensed, evaporated, and whole milk or heavy cream, often topped with dulce de leche), but the cake batter also includes powdered milk. I’m not sure that the powdered milk actually does anything for the cake, seems like it might just be for bragging rights on getting 53 different milk ingredients into the dish.

This isn’t really going to be a recipe so much as a guide, since I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a cake mix. The cake is supposed to be a sponge cake, and there are lots of versions online. We added 1/4 cup milk powder to the boxed mix, and whipped the egg whites and folded them in.

The cake turned out really well, much better than I was expecting! J had described the cake as being soooo sweet that you can only eat about a 1 square inch piece at a time. This version is more like cuatro leches cake lite.

We tried making bagels again, same recipe. They turned out a lot prettier. In the shaping step, turning the dough into nice balls is pretty important, and cornmeal is important to prevent sticking.

• Oil
• 1 pound chicken or other protein (tempeh, tofu, beef, etc), cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 cup quartered dried figs (about 2 oz)
• 1/4 cup chopped green olives
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp Marsala or Madeira
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Brown protein in oil. Add all ingredients except for cilantro. Cook for about 10 minutes until protein is cooked through and figs are plump. Turn off pan and stir in cilantro.

The wine can be substituted with other alcohols. We’ve used shaoxing cooking wine out of convenience.

From Maangchi.

• 2-3 medium potatoes (about 1 lb total)
• 1/2 onion
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tbsp corn syrup (or honey or sugar)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• Sesame seeds to taste

1. Cut potatoes into 2 cm cubes. Rinse. Cut onion into bite-sized pieces.
2. Cook garlic and potato in oil for a few minutes. Add onion. Add water and soy sauce. Simmer until liquid is mostly evaporated and potato is cooked, about 10 minutes. Add more water if needed.
3. Turn off stove, adding sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Bao recipe and spicy fried chicken inspiration – we used our own fried chicken recipe.

I presume the dough recipe is good for other bao dishes.