4th of July...Asian Style!
With an English wife, the 4th of July has never really been a big "party day" for us. I'm not quite sure why, but I am guessing it is simply a case of bad memories...dating several hundred years old!
For an incredibly different spin this year, we decided to go Asian. We have enough cookout plans in the next four days, we thought some true homemade Asian food would be a nice change of pace. I think the most difficult think about cooking Asian food is the prep time and of course, only having two arms. For three dishes, prep took almost two hours. Granted I'm slow, but it does take a while. Although like anything else, you have to get all off the prep done ahead, because there is no time once your wok is fired up.
I love Asian food...but I often find "commercialized" Asian to be so heavy. For instance, I love General Tso's, but the chicken is always 90% breading. Using a recipe for the General from Emeril Lagasse, you use no breading...just chicken. The end product is fabulous.
Thanks again to Nancie McDermott, we whipped up some Thai Fried Rice and Paht Thai.
Although pictured last, for an appetizer we fired up some crab rangoon with a homemade sweet and sour sauce.
The only thing missing was some Singha!
For an incredibly different spin this year, we decided to go Asian. We have enough cookout plans in the next four days, we thought some true homemade Asian food would be a nice change of pace. I think the most difficult think about cooking Asian food is the prep time and of course, only having two arms. For three dishes, prep took almost two hours. Granted I'm slow, but it does take a while. Although like anything else, you have to get all off the prep done ahead, because there is no time once your wok is fired up.
I love Asian food...but I often find "commercialized" Asian to be so heavy. For instance, I love General Tso's, but the chicken is always 90% breading. Using a recipe for the General from Emeril Lagasse, you use no breading...just chicken. The end product is fabulous.
Thanks again to Nancie McDermott, we whipped up some Thai Fried Rice and Paht Thai.Although pictured last, for an appetizer we fired up some crab rangoon with a homemade sweet and sour sauce.
The only thing missing was some Singha!
Mike Lang
