We have some friends here that don’t cook. At all. So of course when I invited one of them over to see the new place I opted to grace them with a home-cooked meal. There are a few things that I cook very well. They are usually dishes that are hard to mess up, staples that I put my own personal touch on by making slight changes. But who feels like boring same old same old, right?
I learned to cook sort of through the restaurants. I liked the guys that created the evening special out of whatever there was too much of, but made it delicious. What I never was good at was following a recipe. But I tried the other night, and made a Balsamic Vinegar Chicken recipe I found online. I followed it very closely.
I stir fried veggies according to their stir fry directions. The chicken marinated well and was super moist, but the recipe was put online by a lady who admitted she was sick of eating “chicken that didn’t taste like anything”. Well, lady, your chicken didn’t taste like much either. We decided a sauce of some sort would have helped. My stir fry veggies got wimpy instead of crispy. I don’t know what I did wrong. Of course I didn’t take a picture, there wasn’t much to see. Here’s hoping my friends aren’t all “No thanks!” the next time I invite them over!
In case the title confused you...
April 29th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
off topic, but speaking of chicken…
I don’t think robot fighting chickens go softly
April 29th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
EXACTLY…
April 29th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
This is strictly hearsay from all the food network I’ve watched over the years… I think the key to crispy stir-fried veggies is very little oil and very little time in the pan at a good high heat. Too much oil and/or too long in the pan, they get soggy.
Kudos for trying something new! The name sounds delicious anyway.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I think the secret is a more expensive new pan, which is the story I’m telling MK! It wasn’t the worst, really. Just underwhelming.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It does help if the pan bottom doesn’t resemble a sin-wave.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Also – remembering it’s not a gas stove, it’s got crappy coils dying to mess up your cook times, no walking away or opening beers ALLOWED.