The Class Itself:
Ever since I graduated college I have become really interested in cooking. I am always checking out Pinterest for new recipes to try and my attempts to make these dishes have been an overall success! So I was thrilled when I discovered a coupon for a Stonewall Kitchen Class waiting for me underneath the Christmas tree! THANKS MOM!
I quickly began looking to see what classes* were being offered to figure out what new skills I would be able to learn. There were so many classes with themes such as "Polynesian Luau," "The Taste of the South," "Wine and Chocolate Pairings," and so many more. Each class had at least four courses and all the options sounded amazing. However, I came to the realization that I wanted to learn how to cook something that I would actually make again! Thus I quickly decided on the "Chinese Take-out Fake-out" class.
I absolutely love Chinese Food and the menu had all my favorites and more: orange chicken, crab rangoons, sesame noodles, egg drop soup, and a coconut sorbet. I made sure to arrive early so I could get a front row seat and took lots of notes during the class. What I loved about the class was that the instructor was not pushing you to buy the Stonewall Kitchen Products. In the five recipes the chef made that day, NONE of them required any special products from the company, however you could most certainly add their products if you wanted to. Also the instructor offered advice, not just on the meals we were making, but on generic cooking lessons she picked up along her career. I really appreciated that, especially as someone who is relatively new to cooking!
Our chef cooked in real time, but the food we received was cooked in advance by the Stonewall Kitchen Team. This makes total sense because since you have to reserve your seat for a class in advance, the staff knows how much food to make. Also this allows for no wait time to be served (Imagine if you had to wait 20 minutes for something to bake, you would be there all day!)
Here are some pictures of the amazing food we were served. Hopefully my replication will look just as good! ;)
My Recreation:
I decided I was going to prepare this meal for my aunt and uncle when they visited my apartment for the first time! They housed me all summer for free after I graduated college and so I thought it would be a perfect way to pay them back. I decided I would recreate the orange chicken, green beans, crab rangoons, and sesame noodles! I don't have an ice cream maker so the sorbet was out of the question, and thought the soup would be too much for just one evening of dining.
I had a lot of worries about recreating these dishes. Although I would be hosting during the weekend, I was nervous about creating multiple courses at once. I am really bad at timing everything out so it is ready at the same time. I also didn't want to be cooking the ENTIRE day so I decided I would prepare some of the food ahead of time. Finally, I had never fried anything before, and this recipe called for frying the chicken as well as the rangoons. So I was definitely in for a learning moment when it came to frying on my apartment stove!
SESAME NOODLES:
The noodles were actually way easier to make then I thought they would be! You just cook & drain the noodles, combine the ingredients for the sauce, then pour the sauce over the noodles...Easy! My advice would be to cut this recipe in half, especially if you are making for only 2-3 people. This recipe could easily serve 6-8 people, so unless you intend to freeze some of your noodles for another time, don't make one pound of noodles.
GREEN BEANS:
The green beans were the easiest part of this menu to re-create. What helps is that the recipe calls for the green beans to be blanched, thus making it easy to refrigerate and reheat when you are ready to serve!
Blanching refers to a cooking style where you cook the beans in boiling salted water for about 5-7 minutes, then immediately submerge the beans into ice water. Once the beans are cooled, remove them from the water, pat dry, and refrigerate! Blanching halts the cooking process, allowing the beans to maintain their bright green color. When you are ready to serve, sauté the beans in olive oil! Then they are ready to serve.
CRAB RANGOONS:
Again, I prepared the filling for the rangoon ahead of time. That way I could focus on the chicken the day of the meal. These are best served fresh, so keep the leftover filling in the refrigerator until you are ready to use! Chinese wanton wrappers come in about 40-50 wrappers to a package, so you will definitely have leftovers!
Also as much as I love a rangoon with lots of filling, make sure you don't overstuff them otherwise they will burst when you are frying! Use a melon scoop if you have one, or a regular teaspoon. Also if you are uncomfortable with frying, bake the rangoon for 8-10 minutes at 425 degrees F.
ORANGE CHICKEN:
This recipe is easy because it can be cooked in steps. First I cut up the chicken into small pieces, created the batter mix, and then I coated the chicken with the batter. While I let the chicken drip dry, I started on the sauce. One interesting step in the sauce is that you slice off part of the orange zest, microwave it do dehydrate it, and chop it up. Make sure you mince the orange peel slices so that they are not too big, as they will remain in the sauce. I also added Stonewall Kitchen's Blood Orange Marmalade, about 3 tablespoons, to the sauce for added flavor. Although this is not a necessary ingredient it really adds a great flavor and helps to create a glaze in the sauce.
Take the sauce off the heat once you are finished and start frying! The chicken should take about 5 minutes in the oil. Once you have fried all the chicken, heat up the sauce and coat the chicken in the sauce. Then it is ready to serve!
The End Result
I definitely created quite a mess but the end result was absolutely worth it! Every course was delicious, and I think it was just as good if not better than what I had during my class! This was definitely the most complex meal I have ever created, just because there were so many ingredients and so many steps, but I am so happy I was able to successfully replicate the meal. I will definitely be making these dishes again, but maybe not all at the same time.
My Insight and Tips
I learned a lot in the process so I hope to enlighten you with the tips I learned along the way!
1. Buying specialty ingredients gets expensive
When you want to create a specific recipe, you often have specific ingredients, most of which you may not have in your cabinet. Check to see what is essential to the recipe, and what can be substituted for something else! For example, instead of fresh oranges you can use orange juice. So CHECK YOUR FRIDGE! I bought a huge bottle (the only size the store had) of Chinese cooking wine, when in reality I only needed 1 teaspoon...
2. When frying, keep your eyes on the smoke
I was so busy trying to cook all four courses at once that I wasn't even paying attention to how much smoke I was creating. Although my oil temperature was lower than what it needed to be, my apartment was filling with smoke. Luckily my aunt noticed, we opened a window, and avoided an oil fire! Safety first, folks!
3. See what you can prepare ahead of time!
It is extremely difficult to cook four courses from scratch! So see what you can prepare ahead of time. Luckily for me the Sesame Noodles could be served hot or cold, so I decided to make them in advance and just plate them when the time was ready to serve. I also prepared the rangoon filling and the mixtures ahead of time, so when it was time to piece everything together it was just there waiting for me!
4. Time everything out ahead of time
One of the hardest things about cooking multiple courses is making sure it is all ready at the same time, and it's still hot! So plan it all out the day before. Know how long everything takes to cook, and what method of cooking it needs. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, plan to fail!
HAPPY COOKING!
The Recipes
Orange Chicken and Sauce- 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
1-2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces
4 egg whites
2 TBL cornstarch
1 TSP salt
1/2 TSP ground white pepper (I used black pepper)
About 2 cups canola oil for frying
For the Sauce:
2 oranges
2 TSP cornstarch
1 TBL canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 TSP minced ginger
1/8 TSP red pepper flakes
1 TBL soy sauce
1 TSP Chinese Shaoxing Wine or dry sherry
2 TBL sugar
1 TSP rice vinegar or cider vinegar
Directions:
Start the Chicken:
In a shallow, medium bowl, combine egg whites, cornstarch, salt and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces in the picture and remove them to a rack set over a sheet pan until ready to fry.
Make the Sauce:
Using a vegetable peeler, remove 4 lengthwise strips of zest from 1 orange- each one should be about 3/4-inch wide and 3-4 inches long. Arrange the zest in one layer between paper towels and microwave on high in 20 second increments until dry and brittle but not browned, about 60-80 seconds total. Let the zest cool and then mince it.
Squeeze enough juice from oranges to measure 1/2 cup. In a small bowl, whisk together the juice and 2 TSP cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved.
In a 10-inch skillet, heat 1 TBL oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, ginger, and dried orange zest and stir-fry until golden, about 30 seconds. Add soy sauce, wine, vinegar, and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves, about 5 seconds. Add the orange juice mixture to the skillet, bing to a boil, stirring, then reduce heat to low. Mix in Blood Orange Marmalade if desired. Remove heat from skillet and set it aside while you fry the chicken.
Fry the Chicken:
In a 20-inch cast iron pan, heat 1/2 inch oil until a deep-fry thermometer registers 365 degrees F. Carefully add the coated chicken to the hot oil, spacing the pieces apart from each other. Fry the chicken, turning it over once or twice, until deep golden, about 5 minutes. While frying, adjust the heat as necessary to keep the oil at 365. Using a metal spider or slotted spoon, transfer the chicken to the rack over the sheet pan. Continue to fry the chicken in the same manner.
Once the chicken is fried, place the skillet of the orange sauce over moderate heat, bringing it to a simmer. Add the chicken to the sauce, coating it with a spoon.
Garnish as desired, with sesame seeds, scallions, red chili flakes, or orange zest. Serve over rice or with noodles.
Crab Rangoons- 40-50 pieces
Ingredients
8 ounces softened cream cheese
6 ounces minced crab meat
6 scallions, whites only, minced, about 1/2 cup
1 pack square wonton wrappers, about 40-50 pieces
2 cups vegetable oil of frying
salt
Directions:
Combine cream cheese, crab, and scallions in a medium bowl and combine with your hands. Lay one wonton wrapper out on a cutting board, a place about 1-1.5 TSP of crab filling in the center. Moisten the edges with a wet fingertip, then seal by either folding it in half in a triangle shape, or bring all four corners together to form a tent. Be careful not to allow any air inside. Create the rangoons and refrigerate until ready to fry.
Heat oil in a pan and heat to 375 degrees f. Add a few rangoons to the pan at a time until golden brown. About 3 minutes. Transfer to rack over a sheet pan to drain oil. Serve with sauce of your choosing!
Sesame Noodles- 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound Chinese eggs noodles
2 TBL sesame oil
3.5 TBL soy sauce
2 TBL Chinese rice vinegar
2 TBL Chinese sesame paste, or tahini
1 TBL peanut butter
1 TBL sugar
1 TBL minced ginger
2 TSP minced garlic
Half a cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut into strips for garnish
Peanuts for garnish
Sesame seeds for garnish
Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook aldente, about 5 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again, then add a splash of sesame oil to keep noodles from sticking together.
In a medium bowl, whisk 2 TBL sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame paste, peanut butter, sugar, garlic, and ginger. Pour the sauce over the noodles.
Garnish with cucumber, peanuts, and sesame seeds.
Sautéed Green Beans- 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 TBL soy sauce
1 TBL honey
1 TBL unsalted butter
2 TBL canola oil
12 oz. green beans, trimmed
1 TBL minced garlic
Directions:
Combine soy sauce, honey, 1 TBL of water in a small dish and set near the stove. In a 10-inch sauté pan, heat the butter with olive oil over medium heat. When the butter is melted add the green beans and 1/2 TSP of salt. Toss with tongs to coat well. Cook beans turning occasionally, about 7-8 minutes.
Reduce heat to low, add garlic and stir for about 15-20 seconds until garlic is fragrant. Add the soy mixture to the green beans, stirring until the consistency coats the beans, 30-45 seconds.
Transfer to serving dish and serve.
IF PREPARING IN ADVANCE:
Cook green beans in pot of boiling water for about 5-7 minutes. Once the beans have reached peak color, immediately remove them to a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking process. Pat the beans down and store in fridge until ready to sauté.
*NOTE: Stonewall Kitchen Classes are demonstration only but you get to taste everything that is made by the professional chef.
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