Seared Bean Sprouts w/ Beef and Sesame Orange Sauce {the Food Matters project}

I'm pretty sure this winter will go down as one of the strangest, weather-wise, in Northwestern Indiana.  We didn't have very much snow.  A couple of good days, but that's about it.  Not a single snow day for the kiddos.  We've had lots of rain.  Recently some crazy wind and storms...fortunately tornadoes have passed us by, but completely ravaged some Indiana towns to the South.  I kid you not, we even had a couple of days when it threatened to hit 70.  Degrees.  Fahrenheit.  Strange.  

I believe it was this past Thursday when it hit 68°.  Yeah.  That was March 1st.  The next day it rained and it rained and it rained.  And I made a big bean-sprouty meal for dinner.  To celebrate the rain.

Okay, not really.  I do love rain.  But I'm not the kind of girl that celebrates with bean sprouts.

I just happened to be planning this meal in honor of today's The Food Matters Project choice: Seared Bean Sprouts w/ Beef & Sesame Orange Sauce chosen by Dominica of Food Wine Love.

In addition to the bean sprouts and beef, I decided to add a good heaping handful of both julienned carrots and snow peas.  I was feeling the need to add extra veggies.  Plus, I almost tripled the beef to keep up with the full pound of bean sprouts in the dish.  Overall, I thought this dish was decent...but not memorable.  The "sauce" was more of a watery pool at the bottom of the bowl, so I scooped everything out of the wok and whisked in a little slurry...just to add a little body to the sauce.  Surprisingly, what I thought actually "made" this meal?  The toasted sesame seeds.  They added a deep, nutty finish.  Dimension.

I wound up eating it over rice, though I think soba noodles would have been a good accompaniment, as well. And honestly, the kids...all three of them...didn't care for it.  Hubs thought it was okay, like myself.  I can honestly say this is the first non-memorable Bitty-inspired dish I've ever made.  It was bound to happen one day...

So. Two days ago- rain.  Today- snow.  Two days from now- predicted 54 and sunny.  Strange days, I say.

This post is part of the Food Matters project: hosted by Dominica of Wine Food Love this week (where you can see the original Mark Bittman recipe).

Chinatown Chicken Salad

Remember me saying that I love salad that contain warm elements?  Well, this is another one of my favorites.  I just love the different crunchy elements all lubed up in an amazingly flavorful vinaigrette with warm, tender bites of chicken throughout.  Actually, I suppose you don't really have to serve it with warm chicken...it really doesn't even "call" for it, but I always seem to use warm chicken.  But I have had leftovers and enjoyed it equally as well with all of the ingredients at the same temperature.  So.  That blows that point right out of the water.  It definitely doesn't change how amazing this salad-a-meal is.  The first time I tried this salad was about 6 months ago when Nigella's new book first came out and I chose it as one of the recipes to try while I was reviewing it.  It's stuck ever since.  I've made it using leftover poached chicken, rotisserie chicken, and grilled chicken.  I've made it by shredding a head of lettuce and by opening a bag of pre-shredded lettuce.  I've even subbed honey-roasted peanuts when I realized we were out of regular old salted peanuts.  Each addition/substitution was just as good as the rest.  I've never switched out the color of bell pepper just because I love those bright red strips laced throughout the salad, but of course you could.

Chinatown Chicken Salad 

adapted from Nigella Kitchen
serves ~6

~12 wonton wrappers
oil, for frying

for the dressing:
1 red or green chile, seeded & finely chopped
2 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
4 tsp. rice vinegar
3 Tbs. soy sauce
splash sesame oil
½ tsp. sugar

for the salad:
½ c. salted, roasted or honey roasted peanuts
1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded (or use an 8oz. bag of pre-shredded)
~6 oz. bean sprouts
4 scallions, sliced thin
1 red bell pepper, seeded & cut into thin strips
handful cilantro, chopped
4 c. shredded, cooked chicken (or ½-1 breast per person*)

Heat ~½" oil in a frying pan and fry the wonton wrappers in batches.  Move to a paper towel once they've turned golden and crisped up.

Place all of the ingredients for the dressing in a small jar with a tight fitting lid and shake vigorously to combine.

In a large bowl, toss the peanuts, lettuce, bean sprouts, scallions, bell pepper, and cilantro.  You can also toss the shredded chicken in at this point.  (If you're using sliced breasts and want to lay them on top to serve, then hold off on adding them now.)  Pour the salad over and toss again.  Divide among serving plates and crumble some wonton chips over each serving.  (Add chicken now if you didn't add it before.)  

Enjoy!

*Adding a half or whole breast per person is quite a bit, but if it's your meal, I do not think that it's too much. This salad is very versatile...just try it out and adjust it to your personal tastes.

I am sharing this post with:

Grilled Asian-inspired Chicken Legs + Special Fried Rice

Well, here I am...no longer on borrowed (computer) time {yippee}. Now...still playing catch-up. It's just so hard to get things done when pesky little things...like jobs...get in the way. The only good thing about not having a working computer in the house for a few days was that I got so many other things accomplished.

I finished our latest Cook the Books Club selection in 2 days (now what to make!), I cleaned up the dust bunnies, er ah...cat hair whisps... in places I had been neglecting, I even watched some t.v.