Tag: appetizer
Chinese Cucumber Salad
Chinese Cucumber Salad
This Chinese cucumber salad is a little different than your average cuc salad. Instead of straight up slinging the cucumbers, they are slightly smashed first. This allows them to catch more of the dressing. Lots of minced garlic is added to the cucumbers. The dressing is a simple soy/black vinegar/sugar/chili oil/sesame oil base. Pour the dressing over the cucumbers right before serving. Do not pour the dressing on in advance. The salt from the dressing will extract the moisture from the cucumbers, making your salad watery. Needless to say, this salad is not a good leftover.
Ingredients
- 12 oz English or Persian cucumbers
- 6 garlic cloves minced
Dressing
- 1 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp chili oil
Instructions
- Very lightly smash the cucumbers with a mallet.
- Slice into 1/2” pieces.
- Add the minced garlic to the cucumbers in a bowl.
- Mix together the dressing ingredients.
- Add the dressing to the cucumbers right before serving.
How to make Chili Oil in an Instant Pot
Ever eat at a Chinese restaurant and they have that chili oil at the table? Then you end up putting it on everything because it’s so damn good. Well now it’s time to learn how to make it for a fraction of the price of the store bought brands. Making this couldn’t be easier using the Instant Pot. The most important thing in making this chili oil is to not burn the ingredients. You want to keep the oil between 225 and 250 degrees. The Instant Pot has a custom temperature setting which makes making this street free. You can still make this on a stove top if you don’t have an Instant Pot. Just make sure to use a cane thermometer to make sure the oil doesn’t get too hot. If the ingredients burn, you will have to start over.Most cultures have some sort of chili oil in their cuisine, all made very similarly. This recipe is for a Chinese style chili oil, so I used ingredients in Chinese cooking. If you were to make a chili oil for Italian cuisine, you would you’d Italian crushed chili flakes and maybe some garlic and dried herbs in the oil. So experiment with making different oils. The chili flake is always the main ingredient, followed by aromatics steeping in the oil.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable oil
- 1 large cinnamon stick
- 5 star anise
- 3 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup crushed Szechuan chili flakes
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to the sauté function. Choose custom temp. Set to 230 degrees, Add your oil, cinnamon stick, star anise, peppercorns, and bay leaves to the Instant Pot. Cook for 30 minutes, giving an occasional stir. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- Put the crushed chili flakes in a mason jar. Take a small piece of cheese cloth and put it over the jar, with a rubber band around it to hold in place.
- Take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Pour the oil into the mason jar. The cheese cloth will catch all of the peppercorns and star anise..
- Screw on the cover and let cool to room temp. Refrigerate up to 6 months.
Tandoori Chicken Tikka
Tandoori Chicken Tikka
Tandoori chicken tikka is the most well known food of all Indian cuisine. You will find this on just about every Indian menu. Tandoori chicken originated from the Indian state of Punjab, where skewers of marinated chicken are roasted in a cylindrical clay oven heated with charcoal or wood.You can use chicken breast or thighs with this recipe. I’m partial to using chicken thigh. The boneless skinless thighs I used happened to be ginormous, so I cut them into thirds. Marinate the chicken for 4 hours, preferably overnight. You can either broil or grill the skewers. First, cook them for 5 minutes a side. Then brush each side with melted butter, cooking for another 5 minutes on each side. You should have a nice char on your tandoori chicken. Serve the chicken with mint chutney and naan.
Equipment
- metal skewers
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into large chunks
- butter melted for basting
Marinade
- 2 tbsp greek yogurt
- 2 tsp chickpea flour
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 birds eye green chili finely chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp kashmiri chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch saffron crushed
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Mix all of the marinade ingredients together.
- Add in the chicken. Marinate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Preheat your oven’s broiler. Place 2 pieces of the marinated chicken on metal skewers. Place on a rack on a baking sheet lined in foil.
- Broil for 5 minutes a side. Brush the top side with melted butter. Broil for 5 minutes. Flip the skewers, brushing the other side with butter. Broil for 5 more minutes.
- Squeeze a little lemon juice over the skewers.
Sweet and Sour Cuttlefish Balls
Sweet and Sour Cuttlefish Balls
Fish balls are eaten in pretty much all Asian cultures in various forms. They are mostly eaten in noodle or soup based dishes, but can be eaten as an appetizer or as a main course. For this recipe, I used cuttlefish balls. You can use regular fish, shrimp, lobster, or any other variation. I’m partial to the Dodo brand frozen fish balls: more fish, less filler.The most important thing to remember is to make sure the fish balls are completely defrosted before deep frying. If not, your oil will spatter all over and the fish balls won’t reach the desired crispiness. They will end up absorbing the oil, making them mushy. Once submerged in the oil, they only take 5-6 minutes. Drain them on paper towel. Combine all of the sweet and sour sauce ingredients and cook over medium heat just for a minute. Add the cuttlefish balls back in and coat in the sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds.
Ingredients
- 20 cuttlefish balls defrosted
- vegetable oil for frying
Sweet and Sour Sauce
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
- Heat up a pot of cooking oil over medium high heat that is deep enough to have the cuttlefish balls completely submerged. Add the cuttlefish balls. Fry for 5-6 minutes until they are crispy.
- Drain on paper towel.
- Heat up 2 tsp of cooking oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the ketchup, sugar, sriracha, and oyster sauce. Simmer for just a minute.
- Add the fried cuttlefish balls back into the sauce. Cook for 1 more minute, making sure they are evenly coated in the sauce.
- Garnish with sesame seeds.
