In the Kitchen: Chicken Hekka

I'm so happy to post another In the Kitchen segment! To be honest, I'm not sure how often this section will be updated as I suck at cooking. Sometime last month, I attempted to make a carbonara with a recipe I found in the newspaper. It didn't turn out that well lol. Luckily, I found this recipe in the Today section in the Honolulu Star Advitiser either before or after the carbonara failure and this came out pretty well!

Chicken hekka is basically a "whatever's available" type of dish. Similar to a sukiyaki, it is a meat dish mixed with veggies such as watercress, noodles, bamboo, etc. This dish originally calls for chicken, but pork or beef can be used as a substitute. Also, a lot of the veggies can be substituted for other such as choi sum or another leafy green. Here are the original ingredients:

Ingredients

1/4 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons mirin or sake
8 ounces boneless chicken thigh or breast, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, sliced or julienned
4 cups watercress, cut into 2-inch lengths
8-10 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
3/4 cup sliced bamboo shoots
1 (7-ounce) package shirataki (yam noodles)
20 ounces firm tofu, drained and cut into cubes
8 stalks green onion, cut into 2-ince lengths

First, you mix the shoyu, sugar, and mirin in a small bowl. Then in a different bowl, marinate the chicken with 2 tablespoons of the liquid mixture for at least 10 minutes. Heat a large skillet or wok on high and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and onions and sear for 3 minutes. Add the remaining sauce and bring to a boil. Next, add in the carrots, watercress, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Cook for another 2 minutes while tossing and turning ingredients. Add the shirataki and tofu to gently combine and cook for another 2 minutes. Lastly, add the green onions and mix. After that, serve it over hot rice and you're finished!

Here are the results:

My review of this recipe is that it's a pretty easy dish to make. I did make the mistake of adding too much green onions. I thought that 8 stalks of green onion meant 1 bunch so it turned out a little too green oniony hehe. Also, I would add a little more shoyu because I think the taste needed to be a tad bit stronger. The sauce is only the shoyu, sugar, and mirin and I don't think 1/4 cup of shoyu cuts it for the amount of ingredients in this recipe. But hey, that's my opinion. If you want a light, fresh taste, keep to the original amount, but if you want it more savory, I say increase the amount of shoyu.

I hope you try out this recipe! It's kind of representative of the local food here in Hawaii. It's very typical to eat this at home. I love it because of the mix of veggies and the use of lean meat, like chicken. If I find anymore recipes in the newspaper that are worthy (and successfully made on my part lol), I'll be sure to post it!

Thanks for reading!
-LAUREN

In the Kitchen: Pasta Risotto with Peas & Pancetta

Hello all! 

One thing about me is that I'm quite rubbish at cooking. So for me to be able to cook something not only edible but tasty is quite the feat! While I'm not good at cooking, I'm always interested in looking at random recipes in the newspapers. The recipe that I'm going to share with you today is pasta risotto with peas and pancetta. I found this recipe in the USA Weekend insert in Sunday's newspaper.

I believe this recipe is out of Nigella Lawson's Nigellissima cook book. She is a British cook and I remember I used to enjoy watching her cooking segments early in the morning on the Travel channel when I was either in intermediate or high school. This is a super easy meal to make. I kind of liken it to fried rice!

Ingredients

2 Tbs. garlic-flavored oil (alt. cook a peeled garlic clove in oil until golden brown and discard the clove)

6 ounces cubed pancetta (alt. thick-cut bacon)

1 1/4 cups frozen petite peas

8 ounces orzo pasta

2 1/2 cups boiling water

Salt, to taste

1 Tb. soft butter

2 Tbs. grated Parmesan

Pepper, to taste

Once the oil is hot, cook the pancetta until it's crisp and bronzed (I used thick-cut bacon instead) and add peas. Stir the peas around for a minute or so until the frozen look leaves them. Add the orzo pasta and mix in with the pancetta and peas. Pour in the boiling water and turn down the heat to let it simmer. Every now and then, mix to avoid pasta sticking to the pan. Add more water if necessary. After 10 minutes, add butter and Parmesan and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Then serve! Here is the finished product:

It's quite fun to make and quite delicious. I would like to look for an alternative meat besides bacon just because I'd like to make it even more healthy! If you have any suggestions, leave a comment down below!

Thanks for reading!
-LAUREN