Chinese Fried Rice

Wisconsin is a big state.   And other than the Eastern and Southern quarters of it, most of it is pretty rural, dotted with towns with populations under 10,000...even under 1000.   I've lived in areas where it was an hours drive or more to get anything resembling Chinese food, and like so many of my recipes, this one was born out of necessity...to satisfy my craving for Big City Food like good Fried Rice!

I try to keep my recipes simple, using ingredients one can get at the tiniest town's IGA as I know it can be challenging to find Oyster Sauce or Sesame Oil in such a place.  But sometimes, as is the case with these two key ingredients, it just doesn't taste right without them.  So if you are one of those people who lives in such a place, a little planning ahead on your next shopping trip to The Big City is in order...but the payoff is that you can have Big City Food right at home!

This recipe is for a very authentic Fried Rice recipe.  You can make it with Chicken, Pork or even Shrimp (I'd use those little salad shrimp that are very inexpensive and about the size of a dime).  You can use raw meat or cooked leftovers, which is a great way to stretch the food budget.  In this case, I'll use Chicken, but the recipe is the same for other meats/seafood.  In time, you can play with and adjust the ingredients to your liking.  It's very quick to make, with one caveat...you must make the rice well in advance so it has time to cool.  It should be cold when added.

If you don't have a Wok, you can use a large fry pan.  If your stove is electric, go out and buy an electric wok.  You can find them often in thrift stores for 5 or so dollars and they're handy for more than Chinese cooking...example, I use them for Buffalo Wings.   If you have a gas stove, do yourself a favor and get a high quality carbon steel wok and season it like you would cast iron, never wash it in soap.  There's nothing better than a gas stove and a nice carbon steel wok, but at present, I'm stuck with the electric one.  It's ok, it does the job.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups uncooked rice
2 cups water
2 Chicken Breasts (or 3 Thighs), or 3 small Pork Chops, or a bag of Salad Shrimp, diced finely (except for the shrimp, leave them whole)
1 T Oyster Sauce (don't worry, it doesn't taste like oysters...it's really key for authentic Fried Rice)
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

Heating the Sesame Oil/Butter with the Garlic and
Chicken at the ready...

1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Onion Powder

1 T + 1 T Sesame Oil
2 T Butter
1 T Minced Garlic

1 small diced Onion
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 bag frozen Peas and Carrots
1/8 cup plus 1 T Soy Sauce

Everything's in but the Rice

Start by making the rice, well in advance of mealtime.  Put 1.5 cups of rice in a small saucepan with a tight fitting cover, along with 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Cover and simmer about 10-15 minutes.  The rice is ready when...well, put it this way, if it were pasta, it would be Al Dente, or a little chewy, not gloppy and sticky, just slightly underdone.  Remove from heat, stir and fluff, refrigerate.

Now that that's out of the way, when it comes to make the meal, things happen fast. So have your ingredients measured out, chopped up, ready to go.

Put your finely diced meat (or shrimp, not diced) in a bowl along with 1 T Soy Sauce, 1 T Sesame Oil, the Oyster Sauce and Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Salt and Pepper.  Toss, let sit for a few minutes.

Everything is in..stir fry for 7-10 minutes

Heat your wok (or fry pan) up at a medium-high heat (if a gas stove/carbon steel wok) or full bore (if an electric wok).  Add the other 1 T of Sesame Oil and Butter, then add the Minced Garlic.  Stir around and saute the garlic a bit.   Dump the meat or seafood mixture in and heat well.  If it's raw, cook til it's no longer pink.  If it's cooked (i.e. leftovers) just bring it up to heat.   Then add the Diced Onion, stirring fairly constantly, til the onion starts to clarify.  Then add the 2 Eggs (beaten), cook for about 4 minutes, stirring.   Now dump in the Peas and Carrots and the (cold) Rice along with 1/8 cup of Soy Sauce.  Stir constanly and fry the rice to a golden brown, about another 7-10 minutes, taking care to keep it from burning on the bottom via constant stirring.  Remove from heat and serve!

Serve!

You can really go nuts with ingredients beyond this basic recipe...hot peppers, pepper flakes, mushrooms, pineapple, diced bamboo shoots and/or water chestnuts, bacon...the sky is the limit!  As long as you have Oyster Sauce and Sesame Oil (which are the only two ingredients that may be challenging to find in a rural area), you're in business.




Let me know if this recipe worked for you!  I love feedback!

Poor Man's Lawyer

Burbot, Eelpout, Lawyer.  Member of the Cod family.

Eelpout.  Burbot.  Lawyer.  Plus a few other names that aren't very complimentary and which decorum prohibits listing here.  Considered by most to be 'garbage fish' to be thrown on the ice or the banks and left behind, these ugly but delicious fish make about the best Poor Man's Lobster that there is!


Found in the Bay of Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Winnebago and other inland lakes in Wisconsin and Minnesota, a few fishermen and lovers of fresh fish have figured out how good this much maligned fish is!  The AC Tap in Door County often features Lawyer in their Friday Night Fish Fry.   It is delicious deep fried, beer battered, baked or boiled, with a firm flesh and a slight sweetness that's out of this world.

This recipe would also work well with Whitefish, Black Bass or Tilapia, so feel free to try those as well.  But if you can find the lowly Burbot/Lawyer/Eelpout in your area, give it a try, you won't be sorry.  Halvorson Fisheries in Cornucopia, WI often has frozen Burbot (as they refer to it).  Please sound off if you know of other places that offer this fine fish commercially.

To make Poor Man's Lobster that's out of this world, you'll need:

4-5 potatoes, chunked (or baby reds, if in season)

3 T salt
2-3 bay leaves
1/2 lb. butter
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp Paprika
3 lbs. Lawyer aka Eelpout aka Burbot (or other fish) cut into 2 in. pieces
3 quarts water
1 med. onion
3 stalks celery (chopped)
1/2 c. lemon juice

In a large kettle, bring water and salt to a boil.  Add the potatoes and when nearly done, add the onion, celery & lemon juice.  Boil for an additional 4 minutes.  Add bay leaves and fish.  Boil for an additional 3 minutes.  Remove fish and place in a Pyrex 9x13 pan.  Melt the butter and the garlic in a small saucepan at low heat.  Brush with melted garlic butter and sprinkle with paprika.  Broil in the oven for 2 minutes.  Reserve the onion and celery to serve on the side, along with the potatoes.  Serve with melted garlic butter on the side.

German Dinner Pt. 3...Wiener Schnitzel vom Schwein with Lemon Caper Sauce

(See my segment on this, Spaetzle and Rotkohl on WLUK Fox 11's "Good Day Wisconsin" by following this link:  http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/good_day_wi/Cooking-With-You-Mike-Kohn)

Schnitzel...nothing says German food like Schnitzel.  If you've ever wondered what Wiener Schnitzel is, it's basically a breaded veal cutlet.  By German law, if you're making Schnitzel with anything other than Veal, you must declare it so.  You can make Schnitzel with just about any cut of meat...beef, pork, chicken, whatever...the basic preparation being that it is pounded flat with a heavy object, then breaded and fried.  But if you want true Wiener Schnitzel, you must use veal.

Place cutlet inside of baggie and beat with the bottom
of a flat, heavy pan.

I don't know if  you've priced veal lately, but I opted for pork.  I picked up some nice boneless pork chops and pounded them with the bottom of a stout pan.  I like this better than with one of those spikey tenderizing hammers as it helps retain the juices of the meat better.  To assist in the meat holding together, not splattering all over hell and not sticking to the pan, put the boneless cutlet in a ziplock bag first, leaving the bag open and facing an area that you don't care if it gets a little dirty.

Ingredients:

Boneless pork chops, the thinner the better
1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 eggs, beaten well
1 cup of fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup lard (or oil, shortening, whatever is your pleasure)
1/4 cup white wine
1 T capers (the little pickled flower buds, not the Packers defensive coordinator)
2 T butter
2 lemons
Chopped parsley (for garnish)

Dredge in flour, dip in egg, roll in breadcrumbs,
fry in lard.

Beat the cutlets with the bottom of a pan as mentioned above.  Heat 1/4 cup of lard in a large pan, on medium-low.  Lard is traditional in making Schnitzel, but use whatever you wish.  You don't want this at the usual deep-frying temperature but rather around 230 or so.  The exact temp isn't critical, somewhere between low and medium will suffice.

Arrange a bowl and two small plates thusly, in a row:  Plate with the flour and salt/pepper mixed in, bowl with the 2 whipped eggs, plate with the breadcrumbs on it.  Dredge the cutlet through the flour, then into the egg mixture, then gently roll in the breadcrumbs.  Resist the temptation to press the breadcrumbs into the cutlet, the coating should puff nicely around the cutlet, not adhere tightly to it.  When all of your cutlets are breaded thusly, fry in the lard for about 3-4 minutes each side, flipping when the bottom is golden brown.  Remove and transfer to a serving plate.

Pour finished sauce over serving plate of cutlets.

Add 2 T of Butter to the frying pan, swirl about till melted.  Then remove from heat and add the 1/4 cup of white wine to deglaze the pan.  Squeeze 1/2 of a lemon into the pan and add the capers, swirl about til well mixed and drizzle over the plate of cutlets.  Save off extra to a small sauce dish for drizzling over Spaetzle.   Garnish the serving platter with chopped parsley and lemon wedges and serve immediately, along with the side dishes from Pt. 1 & 2!

Ready to serve!

Our German meal...Schnitzel, Spaetzle, Rotkohl.

German Dinner Pt. 2...Spaetzle

(See my segment on this, Rotkohl and Schnitzel on WLUK Fox 11's "Good Day Wisconsin" by following this link:  http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/good_day_wi/Cooking-With-You-Mike-Kohn)

Mmmm....Spaetzle.  That yummy German noodle-dumpling thing that tastes great just by itself, with a little salt, pepper and butter, or with the gravy of whatever main dish you might be making.

In this case, we'll be making Schnitzel, and I'll make with a lemon-caper white sauce that will go great with this Spaetzle recipe!

Spaetzle is easy to make and doesn't take long.  You don't have to have any special tools, but a Spaetzle Maker, which looks sort of like a cheese grater with a sliding hopper on top of it, makes the job a lot easier.

Ingredients for about 4 servings:

1 cups flour

3 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all together to form a thick batter, it should be a little thicker than pancake batter.  Bring a pot of salted water to boil...you should have enough salt in the water to taste that it's there, but it shouldn't be overtly salty.  Place the Spaetzle Maker over the pot and load the hopper of the Spaetzle Maker with the batter, gently slide back and forth.  Or, just drizzle batter into the boiling water thru a slotted spoon or just from the end of a spoon.  Spaetzle floats to the top when done, and you can remove it to a dish as it's done while you continue to add more batter.  If you're using the Spaetzle Maker, you can probably just leave it all in there until it's done, as the process goes so much more quickly.

Put in a serving bowl with some butter, salt and pepper.  Serve it up as is, or with a ladle of gravy over the top.  Mmmmmm!

German Dinner Pt. 1...Rotkohl (Red Cabbage)

(See my segment on this, Spaetzle and Schnitzel on WLUK Fox 11's "Good Day Wisconsin" by following this link:  http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/good_day_wi/Cooking-With-You-Mike-Kohn)

Ach du lieber!  It's October!  And that means it's time for Oktoberfest...lots of good German food, beer that stands up to the rules of the Reinheitsgebot, and perhaps an Oompah band or three.  Ein Prosit!

The meal that I'll be preparing for my television debut is a very simple meal of food that the common people would prepare...Wienerschnitzel, Spaetzle and Rotkohl.   This recipe is for the Rotkohl.  I'm doing this one first, as it's much better if it sits for a day or two than it is on the day that you prepare it.  It's also hard to make just a little, but it does freeze well, so you might wish to freeze half of it for later.  I love the sweet/sour flavor of this dish and it's a perfect compliment to a lot of German dishes.

Note:  Technically, this should be called Blaukraut, as Rotkohl is known in Bavaria and southern Germany.

Ingredients for about 8 servings

1 small head red cabbage, shredded
4-5 slices of bacon, cut up into 1/2 inch pieces
2 T butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 raw apple, diced (I used a Door County Honeycrisp)
1/2 cup vinegar
3/4 cup brown sugar (I used one cup of real maple syrup, but you may not have that luxury)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup red wine
1.5 T flour
Dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Fry bacon til it begins to crisp, add onions and butter and simmer til onions clarify.  Meanwhile, in a medium pot, add all the other ingredients except the flour.  When onions are clarified and bacon is done to your satisfaction, dump in with the rest of the ingredients in the pot and cover.  Simmer for about 45 minutes. Then add the flour a little at a time, stirring well.  Adjust seasonings to taste, simmer for another 10 minutes and remove from heat.

You can serve it at this point, or refrigerate it and reheat it for the next day's German meal (which is ideal...as mentioned before, it gets better as it sits).

Wisconsin Beer and Cheddar Soup

They don't call us "Cheeseheads" fer nuttin'.  And there's good reason that many men in Wisconsin pat their beer guts with pride...years of hard work go into those!

This soup is a Wisconsin favorite, and there are as many ways to make it here in the Dairy State as there are ways to make chili.  One of my displaced Cheesehead friends requested a recipe for Beer and Cheese Soup, so after careful research of numerous recipes and some tricks of my own, here's mine.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter
3 Carrots
4 stalks Celery
3 medium Onions
1 T minced Garlic
2 cups Beef Broth
16 oz. Beer of a lighter style (Lager, Pilsner, Light, etc...not dark or heavy or extremely hoppy) + a little extra to drink and to add to taste at the end
1/3 cup Self Rising Cornmeal Mix (or flour, but I like the Cornmeal mix better for this)
1 1/2 T Dijon Mustard (I used Door County Wine Mustard)
2 T Worcestershire

Simmering vegetables, butter, broth

1 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Basil

3 cups Milk
1 cup Buttermilk


16 oz. Super Sharp Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese (24 oz if you really want it cheesy)

Salt and Pepper to taste

4-5 strips of bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled finely.

Start by dicing up the carrots, celery and onion.  Cook on medium low heat with the butter and garlic in a covered skillet til the vegetables are soft.  Add the beef broth, simmer for a couple more minutes, then remove and transfer to a food processor or blender.  Blend until smooth.

Blend veggies, butter and broth til smooth.

Transfer into a soup kettle at medium-low.  LOW heat is the secret to this recipe from here on out...you NEVER want it to boil, EVER.  Add the cornmeal mix (or flour) and simmer/stir until it thickens.  Add the beer and the rest of the seasonings, simmer/stir for a few minutes, then add the milk and buttermilk, stirring constantly.  Again, NEVER let this boil...if it starts to, immediately reduce heat and keep stirring, for about 10-15 minutes.  Turn heat to low and add shredded cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly, til all cheese is in and melted.  Salt and pepper to taste, add a little more beer if you like, to taste.  Serve with crumbled bacon sprinkled on top.

Add cheddar a little at a time, stirring constantly.

Additional tip:  If you want your soup really smooth, use an immersion blender at the end to finely puree everything.

Now get out your foam Cheesehead, grab a DVD of the 2011 Super Bowl with the Packers vs. the Steelers, crack a cold one and enjoy a bowl of soup, Sconnie!