Last weekend Katie and I hosted our first Cooking Club get together. Only one other couple was able to make it – short notice and we didn’t ask what was a good time for the other people.
The theme for the night was Chinese. Katie made her family famous Chicken Fried Rice and Beef Egg Rolls. I decided to make some Sesame Chicken that Katie had found a recipe for, and some Sweet Potato Poppy Seed balls for desert. Our guests brought a broccoli dish with an Asian flair that was really good. It fit very well with the rest of what we had.
I have always liked Katie’s Fried Rice. The Egg Rolls where new to me. She kept talking about them, but never made them for me.
No event can go without it’s drama, and the egg rolls where the drama for the evening. Egg roll wrappers are near impossible to find. Katie had thought she had some, but they turned out to be spring roll wrappers. A last minute trip to 2 stores came back with no egg roll wrappers. So, spring roll wrappers it was. To boot, we forgot to dig the bean sprouts out of the fridge. Best tasting disaster I ever had I think. We ate them all!
When the guests arrived, I made some egg drop soup to cover for Katie while she was tearing the stores up. It tasted fine, looked horrible. I mean, it looked like cream of egg drop soup or something. Closed your eyes, it was all good.
I fried up the Sweet Potato Poppy seed balls while we where playing Dominoes. Fun game! Decent snack.
I think the Sesame chicken was the surprise of the night. It was very very good. About 30 minutes, start to finish, including a 20 minute marinade. Well, maybe an hour when your as disorganized as I am. Luckily I started early.
The chicken was so good, I made it again today. I think it’s going to be a standard of mine. The recipe is found at http://www.recipezaar.com/Flawless-Sesame-Chicken-Restaurant-Style-129598
I have left over sauce this time. That’s going into a jar, going to see how long it lasts in the fridge.
I am looking at it, and I think I will try a sugar-free version at some point. See how that turns out. I am guessing I will need to have some sugar in it for it to be the right texture, but maybe end up with a low-sugar version?
