One of these days I’ll get a decent camera

First off, a quick caveat.  I am currently working my way through a bottle of Dogfish Head Red and White, 10% ABV.  I was really looking forward to cracking this one open but it’s not all I had hoped it would be.  I mean, it’s not bad but not ….SPECTACULAR.  But still…..10% ABV so if the typing skillz go downhill, y’all know why.

So. Dinner tonight was yum.  I took inspiration from this post but decided to tweak it up a bit.  First, because I don’t like water chestnuts so I left ‘em out.  And second because my printer is out of ink and I didn’t feel like copying down the recipe by hand so I was working from memory.

I took two chicken breasts (I was only cooking for me and Jack – if you’re serving more than two you’d want to increase this of course) and pulsed ‘em in the food processor until they were nicely miniced.  I pulled some ginger I had in the freezer (’bout a half an inch) and microplaned it and then added about another teaspoon of jarred fresh ginger.  Big ol’ tablespoon of garlic.  Drizzle of sesame oil.  Salt and pepper. 

Then I had to deal with the cilantro.  I only grocery shop about once every three weeks so my cilantro was a little squiffy.  But I was able to save about a quarter cup.  Threw in a couple of chopped green onions and a large dash of dry mustard.  And an egg.

Mixed it all together.  Formed two patties plus a little extra I cooked up to test for seasoning.  Tasted good, but I knew I’d want some type of sauce/spread.  I tested it with mango chutney and then with soy sauce.  Both were good.  And then I thought HEY!  Let’s add a little soy to the mango chutney!  And how about some Chinese mustard?  So this I did and it worked perfectly.

So I cooked up the chicken….about four minutes per side but another four minutes covered with lid over medium.  Served on buns with the chutney/soy mixture,  Fabulous although next time I will serve without buns because Jack said it was too much bread.  (Oh yeah…..speaking of bread, I threw some fresh breadcrumb into the mixture to bind it all together)

My side dish bears mentioning.  Again, I only grocery shop every few weeks and last time I went shopping, I decided to buy some frozen veggies.  I am a total snob when it comes to veggies.  I hate using canned or frozen.  Only fresh for ths girl.  But….I also hate throwing stuff out so I caved and bought some frozen asparagus.  I cooked up some sliced shallots in butter with some salt and defrosted the asparagus in the mic.  Then I tossed the asparagus in the butter until it was hot through and added a quick splash of lemon juice. Didn’t taste frozen at all.  Wish I could say the same about last night’s green beans.  Sigh

Anyway.  That was dinner tonight.  I figgered it was wotth blogging about because it was that good.

I’m going to be making some design changes around here soon.  I need something more zippy.  But for now….I need a bath.  ‘Night y’all.