Recipes From Heather’s Hiking Hiatus Journals

Yesterday I marinated chicken for about 16 hours in a Thai inspired goo. I used it to make spicy chicken satay on a stick, with spicy peanut dipping sauce.

The Recipe, more or less:
(I don’t measure, so these are guestimations of what I used)

6 cloves garlic
1/2 an onion
Golf ball sized chunk of ginger

- Chop by hand, then whir above stuff in food processor until well minced -

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Chinese cooking wine
However much peanut butter sticks on a knife when scooping twice from the jar
Juice of one lime
1/4 cup of pure, Vermont maple syrup
1 mounded teaspoon each of; cayenne pepper, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander, basil.
A big tablespoon of tumeric

- Whir all together at high speed. Oooh and ahh at the cool color -

Take 2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken breasts and slice into strips no fatter than 1/4 of an inch. Pool small amount of marinade in bottom of bowl or pan. Place chicken stips on bottom. Cover with marinade. Lay down more strips. Repeat until end of marinade/chicken. Cover, and place in refridgerator at least 8 hours in advance of cooking. Overnight is even better.

Take chicken out, and skewer strips in a serpentine fashion onto pre-soaked bamboo skewers. (Pre-soaking the skewers for at least 20 minutes ahead of time prevents them from burning and bursting into flame)

Cook the meat on a grill, or in an oven. When cooking in an oven, suspend the skewers on the rims of a nice baking pan. Make sure the chicken doesn’t touch bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for a while. Rotate the pan every 10 minutes or so. When it starts to look done, taste test one. Proclaim to the folks in the living room that it needs more time. Eat more.

When officially done, serve to everybody else with the peanut dipping sauce.

Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe:

1 can of coconut milk
Enough peanut butter to make it taste peanutty (A small jar?)
Soy sauce
Cooking wine
Chopped garlic, ginger, and onion
Splashes of maple syrup
1 juice of lime
Tumeric
Curry powder

- Whir together in food processor. Realize there is way too much sauce for the chicken. Make more chicken to go with the sauce tomorrow, after everyone begs for more -

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Tropical Breeze Mahi-Mahi

2 lbs mahi-mahi, cut into 6 pieces
olive oil
1/2 head garlic, chopped
handful scallions, sliced
juice of one lime

Put some olive oil in a baking dish. Arrange fish peces. Drizzle olive oil on top. Sprinkle garlic and scallions on top. Squeeze lime over all of it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 until fish flakes softly.

Meanwhile, saute one huge sweet onion and the other half head of garlic in olive oil. Remove from pan. Add strips of colored peppers, carrot match sticks, some fresh bean sprouts and whatever other vegies look good. Add some sesame oil and saute. Sprinkle on rice vinegar, a dab of honey, some sesame seeds, half a bunch of cilantro and the juice of one lime and it’s zest.

Serve fish with vegies. We also had a big salad with Annie’s dressings and bowls of fruit and yogurt for dessert. Really yummy Serves 3 hogs or 6 normal people.

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Thai Chicken Chunks

3 chicken breasts
handful scallions
1/2 head garlic
splash of olive oil
glug of Chinese wine
juice of one grapefruit
a few dashes of Crazy Mixed Up Salt
jolt of toasted sesame oil
3 dollops of leftover peanut sauce
healthy bump of curry powder

Let sit awhile. Put in cast iron pan. Bake at 400 until bubbly and done. Serve with extra spoonfuls of cool peanut sauce.

Waldorfy Cabbage Salad

1/2 bag sliced cabbage
2 handfuls baby carrots, chopped
2 handfuls raisins
1 chunked golden delicious apple
juice of one grapefruit
quick pour of Vermont maple syrup
large glob mayonnaise

Stir up and chill.

Fried Plantains

Heat cast iron pan. Add olive oil. Add 3 sliced plantains. Fry on each side until browned.

Divide all this up on 3 huge plates. Pig out!!!!!!!!

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Tonight was the night of fancy supper. I sauteed country ham in butter with shallots, garlic and ginger, then steamed down a gallon ziploc’s worth of fresh mustard greens and topped it with crumbled con queso, black walnuts, and chopped apples. DROOL!!! Had gingersnaps and hot cocoa for dessert.

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