proper care and feeding of a Taiwanese husband

People ask me all the time what kind of food I cook for Lawrance.  They want to know if we eat Taiwanese food or American food.  My answer is not simple: To Taiwanese, we eat what looks like western food, but to Americans we eat what looks like Asian cuisine.  It is our own unique fusion of east meets west.

I’m slowly learning the art of stir-fry.  I’m learning tricks to the trade and figuring out how to make things we both love.  And, I’m always on the lookout for new recipes to try to see how we’d like them.

Last week, I made this:

And it was a homerun!  Simple and delicious!  Yay for another dish to be part of our regular rotation.

I call it YaoGua JiDing with Peppers (aka Cashew Chicken with Peppers).  It’s not quite really “cashew chicken,” but it does have cashews and chicken in it.

Ingredients

·         5 tsp cornstarch

·         3 Tbs soy sauce

·         4 tsp apple cider vinegar

·         2 tsp rice wine vinegar

·         1.5 tsp sugar

·         1 tsp hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

·         1 pound chicken breast tenders

·         1 yellow bell pepper

·         1 red bell pepper

·         2-4 cloves garlic

·         1 tsp fresh ginger

·         1 stalk of green onions

·         1/2 cup unsalted cashews

·         2 Tbs coconut oil (I use coconut, you can use oil of your choice)

Directions

1.     Combine 2 tsp cornstarch, 2 Tbs soy sauce, and next 4 ingredients (through hot pepper sauce) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk or chopsticks.

2.     Slice the two bell peppers, mince the garlic and ginger, and cut the green onions.

3.     Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Combine 3 tsp cornstarch, 1 Tbs soy sauce, and chicken in a medium bowl; toss well to coat.

4.     Heat wok over medium heat.

5.     Add cashews to pan to lightly toast, stir frequently. Remove from pan.

6.     Add oil to pan. Add chicken; stir-fry but don’t cook all the way (about 85% done). Remove almost cooked chicken from pan; place in a bowl.

7.     Add bell pepper to pan and stir-fry about 2 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook 30 seconds.

8.     Add the almost cooked chicken and the sauce (made in #1); cook until sauce is slightly thick (about 1 minute).

9.     Sprinkle with the toasted cashews and green onions. Turn mixture over a few times then serve.

One of the keys to stir-frying is to prep EVERYTHING before you get started.  Once you start, there is no turning back because it all happens so quickly once you get started. That is why I now include the prep in my recipes (#2 & 3) above.

This took me a little less than 30 minutes from start to finish my first time making it.  It made about four servings.

of leaves and grass

The summer of 1997 was my first time to see someone drinking tea with leaves.  The leaves were literally bursting forth from this man’s paper cup, and it kinda freaked me out a bit.

I also remember that my surprise at the leaves in his glass of tea amused all my adult students.  How on earth had this silly girl made it through 19 years of life without realizing that tea came from actual leaves?

For several of the years between 1997 and now, I adopted the attitude of sure you go ahead and have your leaves in your tea.  If you offer me some, I’ll drink it, but please just the tea. :)  But, this summer I got really excited when Lawrance bought me a special thermos for brewing tea leaves in.  So, I can have my tea with leaves and drink it easily too.

When I first tried jasmine tea (also back in 1997), I thought it tasted exactly like what soap should taste like.  Now, Lawrance and I also keep a pitcher of cold brewed jasmine green tea in our fridge. (Although, admittedly, the green tea helps with the soap flavor issues of pure jasmine tea.)


And, my newest thing is that I love lemongrass tea.  It is so wonderful!  I could drink it all day long!!  Corrina, our neighbor, friend, and matchmaker, gave Lawrance a lemongrass plant for his birthday.  What she didn’t know is that she was really giving it it me! :D  (Lawrance’s interest in finding the plant was to help me get one.  She didn’t know that; all she knew was that Lawrance wanted some lemongrass.)

Anywho, for two weeks now, I’ve been able to make my own lemongrass tea.  I step out onto our laundry porch (balcony), cut some grass, clean it, and then let it boil for a few minutes in our wok.



As I stood there yesterday, watching my leaves of grass boil filling our home with the oh so refreshing scent of lemongrass, I couldn’t help but think of how much as changed in the past 13 years.

What once shocked me is now commonplace.

What once took me by surprise is now normal.

And, this of course, made me marvel at God’s kindness.

breakfast with the wu's

On Saturday, Lawrance prepared breakfast for me and mom.  He made sweet potato “xi fan” (porridge) and fried eggs.



Taiwanese people eat pickled things with their xi fan.  Here are some of the pickled things Lawrance likes on his xi fan.



Wanna know what mom’s favorite one was?  She loved the Chile Odorous Frying Fish.  She loved it so much, in fact, that she asked about taking some back with her!!

making pizza in taiwan

wuhoo! it's wu family pizza :)

If anyone asks Lawrance what his favorite food to eat that Amanda makes is, he answers enthusiastically “pizza!”

Taiwanese people who hear this answer assume it would be a common answer since of course all Americans eat is pizza and hamburgers.  But, the looks on some of the American’s faces have been precious. Most assume he has misunderstood the question since it would seem very difficult to make pizza in Taiwan. Then once they realize he totally understood, and I do make pizza here, they want to know how.

Actually making pizza in Taiwan is quite easy. I get both my pizza sauce and crust at a “local” bakery supply store called Wang Lai; it is about a 45 minute ride from our home by moped. I’m sure other bakery supply stores probably also sell pizza sauce and crust–I know the “pineapple man store” in Kaohsiung does too. The small jar of sauce pictured below is our favorite and will cover about 10-12 small pizzas.

The pizza cheese (mozzarella) can be found at the bakery store too, and sometimes we are able to find it at our local grocery store as well. It’s not cheap, but frozen the cheese will keep awhile and this one bag will last us about 16 small pizzas.

products we use to make our pizza

In addition to the cheese, we top our pizzas with ground beef or pork that I have seasoned generously with Italian seasoning that we can get at Costco (thanks Larina!!) and Tony’s that I carry back from the States. We also typically top it with yellow and red peppers, onions, and for Lawrance’s pizza frozen corn (that I purchased at the bakery store too–just for his pizzas).

I then bake them two at a time at 160c for about 10 minutes on our nifty pizza pan that was wedding gift from Sarah and Kevin (thanks guys!!).

a sprinkle of cheese, then they are ready to be baked

Like the Americans who hear Lawrance’s answer, I had always assumed that making pizza (in Taiwan) would be hard. I guess if I had to make the crust and sauce from scratch that would totally up the difficulty factor making it a very special, rare treat. But, the way I do it right now takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish–that’s faster than ordering from Pizza Hut!

I know it is no culinary masterpiece, but I share this here because I am constantly searching for how to easily make things both Lawrance and I enjoy eating, and I thought others who live in Taiwan might be too.

"pizza without corn just isn't real pizza" --Lawrance

apricot chicken delight

The first half of this semester was hard.  Weird schedule, lots of new pressures and responsibilities, and a lack of energy.

Unfortunately lack of energy is a vicious cycle--no energy to cook good stuff = eating out; eating out = not always eating the best foods; not eating healthy = no energy. 

So, during the midterm week, when I wasn't grading tests or catching up on laundry.  I searched for some recipes to turn into the 30 meals project that Carrie, my RD in college (well, and my college roommate's sister-in-law) told me about on this post. (BTW, thanks Carrie!!)

My requirements were that the recipes:

• could be made in less than 20 min,
• needed to be low-carbish,
• needed to delight mine and my husband's taste buds, and
• could be made with things easily found in Taiwan.

Finding meals that meet all four requirements was no small task!

Although Lawrance is generally easy going and not too picky about food, finding things we both love to eat often has proved to be a challenge.

So, my first recipe test was something I found at Cooking During Stolen Moments: Apricot Chicken.

It was SO easy and best of all packed full of flavor!!

I kinda went a bit overboard using freshly cracked black pepper and might have used extra garlic--so our's was not only tangy, but spicy too--she does say to season to taste. :)

This is probably the least low-carb recipe I collected since it uses apricot jam, but it is definitely something I'll be making again before too long.

Side-note to anyone in Taiwan wanting to give this a try: I used half of a jar of Carrefour brand apricot jam (french name on bottle) to cover 6 chicken breast quarters.