On the Fly Stir Fry: Chicken with Fresh Chickpeas and Orange

The beauty of cooking is that if you learn the method, you can take any set of ingredients and transform them into a great dish without a specific recipe. Many nights, dinner is the result of choosing a method – in this case, stir fry – and the available ingredients that make the most sense together. Or, sometimes, I experiment.

I had some chicken breast meat and some fresh chickpeas. I knew those two ingredients would work together well. My usual m.o. is to add green onions, garlic and soy sauce. Easy, quick and a sure thing. But I wanted a twist tonight.

I had two blood oranges and wondered what would happen if I sliced them thinly and flash fried them. So I tested one slice and the pulp disintegrated and the rind charred – which is a waste of a blood orange. I decided to try charring the slices in a dry, hot wok to see what would happen.

Then I added the chickpeas, some green onions, a couple of cloves of smashed garlic.

I added some water and soy sauce to cook the chickpeas and create a sauce. I squeezed the juice from the second orange into the sauce and added some freshly cracked black pepper. I added the chicken and continued to stir fry. (I had sliced the chicken into slivers and then marinated with a dash of soy sauce, blood orange juice, crushed garlic, and a touch of corn starch. Then I oil blanched the chicken and set it aside while I cooked the chickpea mixture.)

I tasted the dish and decided that there wasn't enough orange flavor. So I added the juice another whole orange (I had one navel orange left, so I used that).

Tasting notes: I liked this dish. But if I were to make it again in order to write an actual recipe, I'd eliminate the sliced oranges and go straight to adding the juice to the sauce. Or, my initial instinct was to segment the oranges and add the flesh to the stir fry. That may have been the better call, especially since that would have  featured the dramatic quality of the blood orange color. I also would have punched up the garlic. This would work with regular peas, snow peas, sugar snaps, pea vines, etc.

It was fun to play.

Garlic Eggplant

This dish can go in any number of directions depending on the ingredients. In this version, I used bacon because that's what I had in my refrigerator. Normally, I brown a little bit of ground pork to flavor the eggplant. Some diced Chinese sausage, with its sweetness, would taste great, too. You can adjust the amount of chile paste and garlic according to how pungent you like it. Sometimes, I'll add a splash of rice vinegar to get some hot-and-sour action. Traditionally, the eggplant is oil blanched, but I find that roasting the eggplant in the oven minimizes the amount of oil you have to use.

GARLIC EGGPLANT

Serves 4

4 Chinese eggplant

1 teaspoon salt

3 slices bacon, optional

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon crushed garlic

3 stalks green onions

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon chile bean paste

3 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon red wine

2 tablespoons water

Drizzle of sesame oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the eggplant into roughly 2-inch chunks. Spread pieces on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, and roast in oven for about 30 minutes, or until soft.

Meanwhile, if using bacon, cut crosswise into slivers. Render bacon until browned and just to a light crisp. Set aside.

When the eggplant is done, you are ready to stir fry. Heat wok over high heat. Add the 2 tablespoons oil and let heat for a few seconds. Add the garlic, green onions and ginger. Quickly stir the aromatics around for about 15 seconds. Add the bacon, if using, chile paste, soy sauce, wine and water. Stir for a few seconds to combine. Add the eggplant. Toss the eggplant in the sauce. Continue to stir fry for about 1-2 minutes or until the eggplant has absorbed the sauce. Add a drizzle of sesame oil, toss one last time and remove from heat. Before serving, sprinkle the chopped fresh cilantro over the top.

Something from Nothing

It is a constant refrain: There’s nothing in the fridge.

Perhaps. But a cook can create something from nothing. When I say “cook,” I don’t mean “professional chef.” That implies a level of restaurant refinement that most home cooks have neither the need nor the skill to achieve. Besides, few of us have the time or the battery of specialty tools required to make restaurant food.

Knowing how to cook certainly requires a base knowledge about ingredients and techniques. But in the context of a home kitchen, knowing how to cook means being open to the possibilities and not being bound by recipes. This is when understanding cooking principles is important.

For example, my husband once wanted to make pot roast, but there were a couple of ingredients that he didn’t have. He started to agonize about what to do and threatened to make a special trip to the store at the eleventh hour for items that, in my opinion, weren’t significant enough to warrant the effort. My question to him: What is a pot roast? I proceeded to explain that a pot roast is essentially a braise and that based on one of his previous experiences preparing a recipe from Molly Stevens’ “All About Braising,” he already had everything he needed in order to make a delicious pot roast. Instead of relying on the seasoning packet that he had intended on using, my husband was able to create flavor through technique: searing the meat, sautéing the savory vegetables, enriching the sauce with red wine and fresh herbs, letting the constant heat of the oven do the work.

On days when there is “nothing” in the refrigerator, I take it as a challenge to create something. How do I do it? From the perspective of a Chinese kitchen, it starts with some basic ingredients: soy sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, wine, ginger, green onions, garlic, sugar, peanut or vegetable oil, sesame oil, white pepper, rice, noodles, dried shiitake mushrooms. There’s something to cover the hot, sour, salty, sweet and umami (savory) flavors. A few other items I usually have on hand: Chinese sausage, Chinese (or napa) cabbage, carrots, celery, baby bok choy and yu-choy.

With these ingredients on hand, the possibilities are many.

If I’m in a position to have to make something from nothing, it usually means that I’ve had a long day and I didn’t have time to stop at the store, or it’s just one of those frugal weeks. We are a meat-eating family, so when there’s nothing, it probably means there’s no significant piece of protein that’s ready to use. While I don’t cook Chinese for every meal every day, it’s what I rely on for a something-from-nothing situation.

There are two issues you have to consider: What combination of the ingredients on hand will build the most flavor and how best to allocate your ingredients in order to create enough quantity to feed your family and maybe even have some leftovers. Say I opened the fridge and had the following staples: Chinese cabbage, Chinese sausage, carrots, celery, eggs, green onions, tomato. I could make one dish or I could make three. I’d go for three and make a pot of rice, which would yield leftovers for my husband’s lunch the next day. The options:

• Cabbage with Chinese Sausage: Sliced Chinese cabbage and sausage stir-fried with soy sauce, maybe a drizzle of sesame oil at the end.
• Celery and Carrot Stir-Fry: Julienned carrots and celery with soy, red pepper flakes or a jalapeno (whatever is on hand), touch of rice vinegar.
• Tomato Egg: Scrambled eggs with chopped green onions in a sauce of tomatoes and soy. OR, instead of the stir-fry, the tomato and eggs can become a tomato egg drop soup (sauté the tomatoes until soft, add soy sauce, add water, bring to boil, add beaten eggs, stir, adjust seasoning).

Don’t fret about not having a recipe. Just remember the basic technique behind a stir-fry:

• Cut all your ingredients first. Vegetables should be in pieces that are of similar size so they cook evenly. Meats are thinly sliced or cut into small chunks so that they will cook quickly.
• Heat pan or wok. Add oil.
• If you are cooking meat, do so now. Remove from the pan or wok. Scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any bits. Then, add a little more oil and let it heat through before adding savory items.
• Add savory items: If you are using ginger, garlic, green onions and/or chilies, add them now to the hot oil. This will help release the flavors.
• Add vegetables and stir-fry. Add meat back in. Stir.
• Add sauce: soy and a little water, if needed. Depending on the flavor profile, you can add vinegar, bean sauce, hot sauce, white pepper, sugar, etc.
• Finish, if needed, with a drizzle of sesame oil.