Tag Archives: Chinese

Sep 7 2013

Lao Sze Chuan Inspired Chili Potatoes

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Chili Potatoes

Chili Potatoes

I have been craving the Chili Potatoes from Lao Sze Chuan. “LSC” is a restaurant in Chicago’s Chinatown, but I don’t get down to that area very often. I’ve been impatiently awaiting their new Evanston location, which was supposed to open last month. I finally gave in and decided to figure out how to make the crunchy, sesame flavored potatoes myself (with the help of the internet). This recipe is perfect!

Chinese Shredded Potatoes with Chili and Vinegar

My tweaks: I quadrupled the potatoes because I wanted to have lots of leftovers. I doubled the vinegar/sugar/salt because I didn’t want to overwhelm the potatoes with too much vinegar. I used a combination of regular toasted sesame oil and korean sesame oil for more complexity. Instead of chilis, I added thinly sliced poblano, jalapeño and shishito peppers from my garden and put them in at the same time as the garlic so they would soften. The potatoes are supposed to be crunchy and just barely cooked. They are perfect when they start to look translucent. Serve over rice with a little tamari.

May 19 2013

Addictive Szechuan Green Beans

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Addictive Green Beans

Addictive Green Beans

It’s finally Spring, which means I’m getting more variety in my CSA box. After weeks of making a lot of the same old recipes, now I can get experimental with what comes in the box. This week’s box had 2 lbs of green beans, so I had to put them to good use. This recipe lives up to its name and these are truly addictive. Crunchy, spicy, sweet, salty!

Szechuan Green Beans

My Tweaks: Pretty much followed the recipe except substituted Gluten Free Tamari for the soy sauce and I made it spicier by adding extra Sriracha plus crushed red pepper and togarashi. **memo to self- this sauce would be great for filling for lettuce wraps!

Feb 8 2013

Chinese Orange Chik’n, Tofu and Broccoli

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Orange Chick'n, Tofu and Broccoli

Orange Chick’n, Tofu and Broccoli

I was craving Chinese Orange Tofu, but still haven’t found a good Chinese place that delivers to my house. I had a bunch of ingredients on hand that I thought I could put together to make something similar, so I went looking and found this recipe for Sweet & Sour Quorn & Vegetable Stir Fry. OMG. So good! Who needs a Chinese restaurant?

My Tweaks: I used the juice of 2 organic oranges and 1 clementine and added the zest of the clementine to the marinade to bump up the orange flavor. Also substituted Sake for the sherry. I added a block of tofu to make the recipe enough to stretch out as leftovers. I used the dry fry method for the tofu and marinated it with the quorn. I substituted celery, carrots, scallions and broccoli for the vegetables (bell pepper, baby corn, zucchini) in the recipe. Also used tapioca starch instead of cornstarch to thicken the sauce and served over steamed brown rice.