Chili Pequin

We had our annual retreat at Liz's house yesterday. A very nice house with a lot of collectables (antique cameras, masks from different countries, etc.). What interested me most, however, were plants in her gardens. She has three gardens - a tomato garden, a garden full or flowers and edible plants, and a cactus garden. It's interesting to see varieties in your yard, but of course, you need to have a really big yard (Did I mention that she has a land of five acres? Yeah...I know what you are thinking...this is Texas. :-)).

Let me begin by telling you my first-time experience tasting a chili pequin. Alarm bells should have rang in my head when Liz introduced this plant's name - CHILI pequin - to me but it didn't. I actually only paid attention to the edible part and wanted to give it a try. After handing me a tiny fruit picked from the bush, she warned me it's spicy, but for some reason I still thought it wouldn't be that spicy (well, if you see the fruit you will understand what I mean. It looks just like a sweet berry.  Who would think it will be spicy at all? :-( )

So, I just threw one in my mouth and gave it a bite. The juice came out immediately and so was my tears. I simply felt my whole mouth was burning and had to drink some ice water to cool my mouth down. Actually, after almost five minutes I was still wiping tears from my eyes. Later on, I checked it online and here is the information about this unique plant:

Chili peguin is also known as bird pepper because it is loved by all kinds of birds. It is both fiery and tiny, making it ideal for pickles. It is indigenous to Mexico and has a elongated oval shape. Its nutty and citrous-like flavor is responsible for its usage as liquid hot pepper seasoning agent. Pequin plants are suited to grow in any kind of climate, being both heat and drought tolerant.

Pretty fruits, huh? Believe me, they are really spicy.

Indian Chicken Curry

Last month Alex and I tried an Indian restaurant "The Clay Pit" in downtown Austin. The food was really good in my opinion. We ordered Coriander Calamari as our appetizer and Lamb Roganjosh and Seafood in Garlic & Red Wine as the main entries. The fried calamari might not be the best we ever tried but both main entries were delicious. So was the naan.

After that dinner I began to look for recipes for home-made naans and Alex decided to try making Indian  Chicken Curry. Till today, I haven't made any naans yet (blush~) but Alex did make some delicious Indian Chicken Curry last week. It's actually very easy to make and you can surely try it in your kitchen.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients: 

1 lb deboned chicken meat cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large onion,finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
olive oil
water
1 package Indian Vindaloo curry spice paste (yeah.we cheated a little bit by using curry spice paste but that's why I say it's very easy)

Steps:

1. Add onion and spice paste in heated oil and let them stir fry for 2 minutes.
2. Add meat and stir fry for 3 more minutes.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and some water and let it boil.
4. Reduce the heat, cover the pan with the lid, and let everything cook for about 15 minutes.

Done! :) You can either serve it with rice or naans. Since I haven't made the naans we could only eat it with rice. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

麻辣鸡丝

我小时候印象最最深刻的一道川菜就是麻辣鸡丝了，但凡家里吃新鲜的整鸡都会有三道必做的菜：炒鸡杂、清鸡汤、麻辣鸡丝。一鸡三吃而口味各有不同，实在是让人回味。也因此，在看到冰箱里的冷冻鸡腿的时候，第一个跳到我脑海里的念头就是做一道麻辣鸡丝，乘着老曾大厨（老爸）来访之际，咱也可以做道地道川菜，丰富一下Alex同学对川菜饮食文化的认识。

麻辣鸡丝，简单易做，口感清爽，菜谱如下：

1. 将鸡腿（或鸡胸肉）放入锅中去血水。
2. 在重新倒入清水的锅中放入八角、姜片、桂皮、花椒和鸡腿（或鸡胸肉）煮约20分钟至肉熟。
3. 将鸡肉捞起放凉，手撕鸡肉成鸡丝，放入碗盘中。
4. 另起一炒锅，放入花椒干炒至炒香，倒入小盅捣碎盛起。
5. 再在炒锅中放入切碎的干辣椒炒香，倒入小盅捣碎盛起。
6. 在鸡丝中倒入花椒末、干辣椒末、加入少许盐、生抽、糖、香油，搅拌均匀即可上桌。

Alex同学连吃三碗饭以示对老曾大厨所做麻辣鸡丝的支持，并于之后联想丰富的实践了麻辣鸭丝，对此菜的喜爱可见一斑。：）

晚餐

大厨Alex在看了我的blog后抗议说难道我做的海参还没资格上你的blog啊。事实是要写的东西太多，所以还没来得及提及。今天就来展示一下偶们的晚餐，由Alex, Jing和Rui共同完成。

首先自然要推出Alex大厨完成的——蚝油香菇海参。

原料：蚝油、香菇、新鲜海参、青江菜苗、姜、葱

做法（根据Rui的记忆，如有出错，大厨Alex补充说明）：

1. 将新鲜海参洗净切成小段，姜切片，葱切段，香菇切成小块


2. 将海参在开水中略微烫熟备用；将青江菜苗放入少许盐的沸水略微烫熟捞出摆盘围边。


3. 在炒锅中加油烧热，将葱、姜倒入锅中爆香，加入海参块、香菇及蚝油翻炒转小火焖煮稍许。


4. 淋入太白粉水勾芡，翻炒稍许即可装盘。

其次要推出Jing大厨做的川湘菜——肉末豇豆丁

原料：肉末、豇豆、干辣椒、盐、酱油

做法：

1. 在肉末里加入少许老抽、生粉、盐、酒搅拌均匀


2. 在锅中将油烧热倒入肉末翻炒至肉末散开，


3. 大火在热油锅中将豇豆丁煸炒至豇豆丁变软，中间加入少许水，加入干辣椒、少许盐和酱油。


4. 豇豆炒软之后将肉末倒入，煸炒稍许即可。

最后推出的是Rui小厨做的几道家常蔬菜：香肠豆干蒜苔、虾仁花菜、青椒褐菇（portobello mushroom），实在太容易做，所以大家就直接看图说话吧。：）

上一张众菜的全家福作为结束。：）Happy eating!

粑粑肉

我小的时候老爸老妈很喜欢研究美食做法，那时候香肠自家灌，做风干的腊肉，没烤箱还会做蛋糕。等我长大了之后，老爸老妈的下厨热情就顿减，咱也就只能吃吃家常小炒了，不过偶尔的回想起来，我也还是对某几道菜印象特别深刻，粑粑肉就是其中的一个。

之所以真的做了，是因为有天和Alex谈起小时候吃过的四川美食，然后就突然兴致所至的去google了粑粑肉的做法。咱生在新中国，长在红旗下，自然各种中国美食吃个遍，Alex小朋友就没听说过这个粑粑肉了，所以做来给他尝尝，顺便咱也回味一下童年印象。

原料：

• 绞猪肉 2磅


• 姜末


• 红薯淀粉


• 鸡蛋


• 盐


• 料酒


• 白菜

做法：

1. 将绞猪肉继续剁成细馅，放入一杯左右的淀粉，2个鸡蛋清，适量姜末，一些黄酒，盐，然后将猪肉馅搅拌均匀。偶是戴了个手套用手进去抓匀的，你也可以用筷子或者勺子搅拌。


2. 在蒸屉里铺好白菜叶，将一半的肉馅倒在白菜叶上，轻轻拍平，将鸡蛋黄涂抹在肉馅表面，大火蒸20分钟。


3. 蒸好的肉馅出锅放至冷却，切成薄片即可。

后面的做法就可以因人而异了，按网上的做法在食用时取一个汤盆，在底部放上黄花菜，木耳，芋头，菜头等等，将粑粑肉薄片转圈码在垫菜上，加入高汤没过肉片，大火蒸熟即好。

我们的做法则是著的粑粑肉汤，汤锅里放入白菜，木耳，黄花，将粑粑肉片放在其上，加入适量鸡汤和水，少量盐，汤煮好即可实用，一样的味美可口。

有兴趣你就试一下吧。露个丑丑的笑，偶煎的荷包蛋。