CHUCKMAN ORIGINAL RECIPE: CHICKEN, RED PEPPER, AND NOODLE NON-ASIAN STIR-FRY TURNED INTO A NUMBER OF DISHES – SOUP – HUNGARIAN – ITALIAN FRITTATA – ALFREDO SAUCE – INDONESIAN – HOW FOOD-LOVERS THINK
Here is a fairly simple and tasty dish that I develop
several ways. The exercise offers not only a number of recipes, but I think
some insight into the way food-loving people think about cooking.
We start with a non-Asian stir-fry, strips of sautéed chicken
and sweet red pepper tossed with egg noodles
BASIC STIR-FRY
INGREDIENTS
Four boneless Chicken Breasts, cut into short, slightly thickish
strips.
Two very large, or equivalent, Red Sweet Peppers, cleaned and
cut into short strips.
Flat Egg Noodles of medium width. Something like Barilla
Tagliatelle will do nicely. Use enough pasta so that it will be an important
ingredient when combined with chicken and peppers, like rice in fried rice.
METHOD
IMPORTANT NOTE: you will need a very large pan for the
quantities given here. As is always the case, too, when you toss a large amount of noodles.
Prepare the pasta according to package directions. When
ready, al dente, drain thoroughly.
Oil a sauté pan generously and stir-fry chicken and peppers
over reasonably hot burner. Salt and pepper lightly and turn frequently with spatula.
When chicken and peppers are nearly done, add some oil to
the drained noodles and toss lightly, and then add them to the chicken and peppers.
Begin turning and mixing vigorously until noodles are all heated and chicken
and peppers are well distributed.
It is ready to serve immediately.
Simple and delicious, but there are many things we can do
with this basic stir-fry.
SOUP
Although it is not the way I normally make Chicken Noodle
Soup, this stir-fry makes a quick and tasty one. Simmer some Chicken Stock with
a bit of White Wine in it for some minutes. Then simply add some portion of the
stir-fry to the broth, making a soup as thick as you like. Simmer briefly.
HUNGARIAN
We can make quite an imitation Hungarian dish of this.
In this case, before you add noodles, sprinkle chicken and
peppers well with Paprika, either mild or hot, as you prefer. Make sure you add
the Paprika only while there is plenty of oil in the pan, at the early stage of
cooking. Paprika mixes with the hot oil and nicely coats meat and peppers while
cooking itself. Some extra salt is appropriate. Then toss in the noodles, just
as you did before.
Use a half container of whole-fat sour cream and add half a
cup of flour (or double both, if you prefer). Whisk thoroughly together and
toss into the Paprika-ed meat and pepper and noodles. Stir together well. Add some
chicken stock to thin a bit, stir in well, and simmer for about twenty minutes.
Voila, the dish is ready. Hearty and delicious.
ITALIAN - FRITTATA
Frittatas are among the tastiest and most useful of all
relatively simple dishes. They suit both formal and informal meals.
I think we could do an interesting, slightly oddball
Frittata with this stir-fry. Yes, noodles have been used on Frittatas, although
they are not common. Since potatoes are among the most common ingredients,
noodles do not seem so out of place.
FRITTATA RECIPE
A basic Frittata – a kind of open-faced baked omelette which
gets cooked ingredients on top just like a pizza – is simple.
Six large eggs
Quarter cup of heavy cream
Whisk egg and cream and cook in a well-oiled heavy,
oven-suitable skillet in a 350-oven on the order of 8-10 minutes. Sometimes
longer with lots of ingredients. All toppings are cooked ahead, as is our stir-fry.
They are placed on top of the raw egg mixture before baking. Quite typically, a
cheese is sprinkled on last.
And a nice grated cheese suits our stir-fry ingredients
handsomely.
ITALIAN – ALFREDO SAUCE
Alfredo Sauce does sound a little overly elegant for this
kind of food, but the ingredients are suitable, so why not?
ALFREDO SAUCE RECIPE
1 cup of heavy cream
1 and a half cups grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons butter
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook
one minute without browning.
Whisk in the Heavy Cream and gently heat for about 5
minutes.
Remove pan from stove and gradually whisk in Parmesan
cheese.
Heat the sauce gently for about 5 more minutes.
Some people add a touch of grated Nutmeg and/or a small bit
of chopped Parsley.
The sauce is finished. Now is the time to turn warm pasta
into the sauce. Serve immediately.
I’ve not tried this, but it just has to be good.
INDONESIAN
I have long relished Indonesian food, and I’ve cooked many
of its dishes. The delightful and extremely savory Indonesian condiments – Oelek, Brandal, and Manis – are available in many
specialty stores and readily available on-line. So, we could easily do with one
of these what we did with Paprika, above.
This is not wildly inappropriate, a noodle dish being a
national staple. One of these condiments would be added at the stage when
frying the meat and peppers so that it spread in the oil. I think Oelek might
be most suitable. Careful, it is pretty hot. In
this case, it would be appropriate to serve the stir-fry with a couple of fried
eggs on top. Yum.
