The One About Newfound Family or Two Ginger Related Recipes
Family is a funny thing.
If, like yours truly, you don’t have a big one by blood, it can come in some unexpected places.
Neighbors for an example.
A few years ago, there was a joke in passing in the neighborhood that because I have the same name as a neighbor’s son, I actually was the neighbor’s son, leading me henceforth to jokingly start calling a couple “Mom” and “Dad.” And while my new found Mom is a year younger than me, the term stuck.
Yet they lived up to their names, and saw me through good times and bad. They celebrated victories, and cursed losses. They laughed at corny jokes, they invited me over for a beer after work, or a Sunday dinner.
Like family.
Last year, Mom became pregnant, and I coordinated meals for a few weeks amongst their friends. I debated about what to make for them, and decided that they didn’t need was something in a casserole dish. They also didn’t have the time to be dealing with component parts to assemble a meal. They also needed something that was light, nutritious and comforting. What I made them I dubbed “Future Teri Chicken Bowls.”
It is a two step process, whereby you make a marinate chicken overnight, then cook and assemble bowls the next day and place in microwaveable reusable plastic storage containers.
I guarantee you it will save you time in the long run, as you cook once en masse, then reheat from frozen at work, or in the case of Mom and Dad, after putting my brother to bed for a nap.
Recipe follows…
Future Chicken Teri Bowls
Marinade
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I cup Soy Sauce (I go with Aloha Shoyu)
½ Cup Water
¼ Cup Mirin
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
Pinch Black Pepper
1 TBS Pressed Garlic
1.25 TBS Grated Fresh Ginger
Wait. What? Fresh ginger? I can’t use the powdered stuff that has been sitting on my shelf for lo the millennia? No my friend. Don’t be scared of fresh ginger. Buy a hand in the market, and take a carrot peeler to it to remove the woody skin from it. Use what you need for the recipe then pop in a sealable plastic freezer bag. You can then slice or grate straight from the freezer.
Meanwhile, back to the marinade.
Combine all ingredients into a bowl and stir until sugars dissolve. If they don’t, you can pop the concoction into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until it does. Make sure you have the marinade cooled before adding anything to it.
For the bowls I used:
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5-6 Chicken breasts (smacked a bit with the not sharp side of a tenderizer then cut into 1” cubes and marinated overnight)
2 Sweet yellow onions (Diced)
3 Sweet Red peppers (Diced)
3 Large Carrots (Cut in Chunks)
A Good handful of Green Beans (Cleaned and cut into 1”chunks)
A batch of Calrose rice from your National/Panasonic Cooker
Start steaming the carrots, and then add the green beans until both are cooked through. Don’t desiccate them. Keep them still fresh with a bit of give. Add to a large bowl.
Sauté peppers first, followed by onions until they are golden. Add to same bowl as carrots and beans.
With the same sauté pan, add drained and patted dry marinated chicken. Cook until chicken is done, and outside caramelizes, add to the bowl with the veg, and stir well to mix all ingredients.
Assemble a layer of rice, then the chicken and veg mix into reusable individual portion sized microwavable containers, and freeze. Reheat when hungry.
With more ginger to be used, I decided to do something else for my neighbors.
Ginger Limeade
1 c squeezed lime juice (about 10-12 limes worth)
3 tbs thinly sliced fresh ginger
4 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
Add liquids and sugar until dissolved. Toss in your ginger and leave to steep in your fridge for at least 5-6 hours, then pluck those slivers out with a strainer, squeezing the liquid from them back into the limeade. Less sugar? More sugar? Add more lime? More heat from more ginger? Sure. Do what you like. Regardless, store in fridge and serve over ice.
Both recipes are really satisfying stuff, and were apparently a lifesaver to my new found family.
It was the least I could do as they have been a lifesaver to me.
