Hoisin Ginger Chicken Skewers with a Mango Mayo Sauce

These chicken skewers are delicious and great for parties. I love marinating these the night before I plan to serve them. That way half the preparation for the dish is already done and I can relax before the dinner guests arrive. This makes my life a whole lot easier and yummier!

Skewered Hoisin Ginger Chicken with Mango Mayonnaise Sauce

This recipe makes 25 to 30 skewers

Ingredients

1/3 cup hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon minced ginger

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 whole, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

25 to 30 bamboo skewers

Mango Sauce:

1/4 cup mango chutney

1 lime, juiced

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted, garnish

Cooking Instructions

1. Combine hoisin sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and rice vinegar in a medium bowl and add the chicken. Turn to coat and marinate at least one hour or up to overnight, refrigerated.

2. Heat the oven to 400F. Meanwhile make the dipping sauce.

3. Combine the mango chutney, lime juice, and cilantro in a food processor and puree. Transfer the puree to a small serving bowl.

4. Skewer the chicken two pieces to a skewer and place on two baking sheets. Bake until cooked through about 7 minutes. Serve on a platter sprinkled with the toasted sesame seeds and the dipping sauce.

The chicken skewers can be made ahead and frozen. Wrap the entire baking sheet in plastic wrap and freeze for up to three months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Cook as above.

Tasty Pad Thai

(Photo courtesy of Basykes)

This is my favorite Pad Thai recipe. I love making it on cold nights when I'm craving a one dish wonder. It is absolutely a perfect combination of spicy and sweet and the best part is that there are hardly any dishes to clean afterwards!

* For vegetarian pad thai omit shrimp and eggs and substitute 1/2 pound firm tofu cut into chunks, drained and pressed dry then marinated with 2 Tb. soy sauce and tossed in with the sprouts.

Pad Thai

Serves 8

Ingredients

1/2 pound ½ inch wide pad Thai dried rice noodles, soaked in warm water 20 to 25 minutes

¼ cup fish sauce

¼ cup plus 2 Tb. sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 Tb. white vinegar

1 Tb. ketchup

2 Tb. red curry paste

4 scallions, sliced in thin diagonal slices

½ cup canola oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 pound large shrimp, peeled, de-veined, cut into thirds (ground pork or boneless skinless chicken breast sliced into strips can be used)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups mung bean sprouts

1/2 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts, finely chopped

1 lime, cut into wedges, garnish

3 scallions, sliced into brushes, garnish

Procedure

1 Drain the noodles thoroughly. Combine the fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, ketchup and curry paste in a small bowl. Set aside.

2 Heat a wok over high heat and add the oil, scallions and garlic, cook 30 seconds over high heat. Add shrimp or pork and cook 2 minutes. Add noodles and toss lightly, add the sauce bring to a boil and fold noodles over being careful not to break them, allow the noodles to absorb the sauce.

3 Lift noodles to one side, add the eggs into the wok and fold carefully into the noodles until coated.

4 Add sprouts and nuts and carefully fold in. Transfer to a large serving platter and garnish with lime wedges and scallion brushes.

Sign up for my Thai class on April 22nd to learn more delicious recipes like this. Go to Amanda Cooks to register.

Bakeries Galore!

Bakeries are popping up all over Los Angeles and have taken desserts to a new level. Gone are the days of terrible store bought baked goods with sugary cakes smothered in pastel colored icing. Heavy tasteless cookies with sub-par ingredients are now found in economy supermarkets and bulk shopping stores such as Costco and B.J’s. I seem to find a new bakery every week these days and thought I would check out two local spots that offer wonderful tasty treats.

Of course for me doing a story on cookies, brownies and tiny cakes is a dangerous proposition. I am a true addict when it comes to dessert which is why I rarely make it and ask people to bring the leftover dessert they contribute home with them. I especially love cookies and anything made with chocolate so this story was quite a love/hate type of experience. Hate- only because I don’t want to eat sweets often for the simple reason that I don’t want to get fat. That is it- if I could let myself go it would be death by chocolate for me.

So that said I have tried three of the places within 10 minutes of where I live in Mar Vista.

There are bakeries and then there are fine bakeries I will start with the former, Angel Maid Bakery on Centinela right past Washington Boulevard. It is a Japanese bakery so the goods are not too sweet, which, from reading all the reviews on Yelp about them, is their claim to fame, so to speak. The place is a no frills working bakery with nothing fancy about it but they crank out some very nice items. I went in there about a month ago to buy a few dozen cookies for a meeting I was going to and they were very yummy; Chocolate chip, peanut butter chip and one that was half chocolate and half vanilla in a swirl type of pattern. All of the cookies were delicious and tasted homemade and buttery. I hear their chocolate mousse cake is the real deal but didn’t try it yet, as I said I don’t want to get into this research too deeply.

Then I went to Schmerty’s Cookies on Ocean Park near 28^th Street in Sunset Park. I have walked by there a million times and resisted the temptation and aroma to go in but finally in honor of this piece I broke down.

They are a family run business that have been around since 2001 and specialize in very delicious cookies. I know the owner as we both go to the same Pilates class so she hooked me up! I was treated to a large box of every cookie they make plus a brownie, lemon bar and their latest flavor cranberry.

First of all the place is so sweet and appealing that you want to sit there all day eating cookies and milk. It is a small space with a few tables and is clean enough to eat off the floor. They do have the ability to serve coffee and sell small bottles of milk for the true cookie lover. I really loved the soft chewy texture of all the cookies and my favorite was the chocolate, chocolate chip- what a surprise.

I also enjoyed the oatmeal, peanut chocolate chip- the only one that wasn’t my taste was the red velvet cookie, too buttery and there was no real taste to it and the heaviness made me not want to finish it. The cranberry bars were really good, surprisingly so, rich and dense. They do have the trendy cupcake featured with many flavors and icings and sell cookie dough to take home if you want to make your own cookies.

The name is an inside joke kind of deal so get over it and stop in!

I was lucky enough to find a true gem on Washington Boulevard in Culver City named Platine. The retail store opened in 2009 ( although the business has been around since 2002) with chef/owner Jamie Cantor at the helm. She has taken baked goods to a new level; elegant, refined and unique, this place was my favorite. It is a working kitchen which you see from behind the small display case, and delivers some of the finest cookies, pastries and tarts I have seen outside of Paris or New York. I had a sampling of their artisan cookies, fancy cookies and mini pastries, all done with subtle flavors and twists that made me want more. For example there is a chocolate gingersnap that I loved- what a perfect combination of ginger, spices and chocolate. They have created a Ho- Ho(remember those?) in a mini “updated” version that was to die for, a cheesecake cup that has seasonal flavors such as; blood orange, pumpkin and fleur de sel and seriously addictive new twist on an Oreo- with a soft dark chocolate cookie filled with thick vanilla bean frosting. This stuff was so much more refined than the previous two that it was like night and day. The cookies were delicious without being overly buttery or too sweet so you could taste the vanilla bean, chocolate chips, currants and nuts used. The bars, mini tarts and “fancy” cookies were just like you would find in a Parisian bakery.

I recall my last trip to France having a pastry every day and savoring each bite- Platine can take you back to such a memory or create a new taste experience if you have never been across the pond to enjoy baking as it meant to be.

Of course there are many more establishments worth visiting and endless goodies to taste all over the city such as; Thyme Café, the new Bite Bakery on Pico and 32^nd Street and Hotcakes also on Centinela and Washington Boulevard, so venture out for your next sweet treat and enjoy!

Going Japanese!

I have had more down time in the past few weeks – not many cooking classes going on due to tax season, so for my husband and I eating out has been one of the fun things to do. We discovered a new spot on Saturday night in Westwood; a very small Japanese place called Wakasan

This is a cozy intimate place with maybe 8 tables and a very authentic Japanese menu. On the phone when you call to make reservations they speak Japanese so you have to leave a message in order to get your table. We arrived at 7:30 and had a long wooden table for our party of six people. The staff was friendly and spoke perfect English and we ordered a la carte since we had a large group two of whom had been there before.

Wakasan is known for its omakase, which is a prix fixe menu of small dishes for a reasonable price of $35. This is a great deal considering they give you eleven dishes including the requisite red bean ice cream.

We had a number of courses including; ohitashi, sautéed eggplant, fried chicken (tatsuta age) kurobota pork sausage, assorted sashimi including toro and shima- aji, fried tongue, a grilled whole black cod with a ponzu dipping sauce, rib eye steak with three kinds of dipping sauce and jako-meshi (white rice mixed with tiny anchovies). We washed it all down with sake called 'Dewazakura, Dewasansan'. It was all delicious except the black cod which had very little meat on the bones and not much flavor. My favorite dish was the grilled rib-eye, it was tender, juicy and very flavorful. I was surprised by the fried tongue having recalled my mothers tongue sandwiches as a child; something I found not only gross as just the thought but the texture always turned me off. This was the only way to enjoy tongue- fried to a crisp and although chewy, quite delicious.

Our dinner was not inexpensive; double the price fixe menu, but this was mainly due to the many bottles of sake we ordered. I especially enjoyed the pace of the meal, they brought out each course slowly and then asked when we wanted the next one so that we could savor our meal and didn’t feel rushed in the least. In fact we took over the place for over two hours and were very comfortable with hanging out way beyond the last course. I recommend checking this place out for authentic Japanese food way beyond sushi and sashimi. They offer their omakase at 4 rates; $35, $50, $75 and $100 but need 2 days notice to offer the rates over $35 per person. The rate increases deliver more food and higher quality as you go up in dollar amount; something worth considering for our next visit to Wakasan.

I have no recipes to offer to compete with the above mentioned dishes which is why I will definitely return to enjoy another wonderful Japanese food experience.