1. It's July 3rd and on this date in 1963, Carol was born. Carol loves her birthday. This year, she put Christy in charge of her birthday dinner and Christy gave us all cooking assignments centered around the Indonesian Ginger Chicken she decided to cook as the main dish.
Christy assigned Debbie and me to bring Asian side dishes. I got out a magazine I bought several years ago, Cook's Illustrated All-Time Best Asian Recipes.
For me, Asian cooking in Kellogg presents a bit of a challenge because we don't have an Asian grocery store nearby. Yes, Yoke's carries some Asian items and, if I go to CdA, I can find items in different stores. I enjoy Asian markets, though, and I miss the ones I shopped at in Eugene and Wheaton, MD.
All the same, I was pretty sure I could make this work and I told Debbie that I'd take charge of both side dishes.
First of all, I decided to try out a recipe called "Better Stir-Fried Broccoli" and decided to make the orange ginger option. To be honest, I wouldn't have exercised this option if I'd known (or remembered) that Christy's chicken dish was also ginger one, but no harm done.
So, in one little bowl, I put vegetable oil, grated ginger, and minced garlic and in another I combined chicken broth, fresh squeezed orange juice, and soy sauce.
I cut three pounds of broccoli crowns into smaller pieces and, in one Dutch oven, stir fried three batches of broccoli. Once fried, I put the pieces in a second Dutch oven, soaked them in the ginger-garlic oil and then added the orange sauce and cooked each batch until the sauce thickened and covered the broccoli.
2. To get things going on the other side dish called "Fried Rice, Indonesian-Style", I made what Cook's Illustrated calls "Faux Leftover Rice". The idea is that leftover rice is the best rice for fried rice, but we don't always have leftover rice on hand. So, I followed the instructions: rinse the rice, fry the uncooked grains in oil, add less water than usual to the rice, cook it until the rice absorbs the water, put a dish towel folded in half over the pot and put the lid back on, let the rice sit for a while, and then put the rice on a ridged baking sheet, let it cool, and then put the tray of rice in the fridge.
The "Fried Rice, Indonesian Style" directed me to get out the food processor and make a paste of green onion and garlic. I did that and then, in a small bowl, I mixed brown sugar, molasses, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Earlier, I had thawed a good amount of raw shrimp, so next I removed the shrimps' tails and then put the garlic/onion paste in a pool of hot oil in the larger Dutch oven, fried the paste for about three or four minutes and then added in the shrimp and cooked them for a couple of minutes or so. I pushed the shrimp up the side of the Dutch oven and poured the brown sugar mixture into a puddle and heated in up until it bubbled. I combined the shrimp with this liquid and then worked the rice into into the pot, working to make sure it was all combined well.
At this point, Debbie took over and made rolls out of egg to put on top of the rice and shrimp and she chopped stalks of green onion into small pieces to further garnish the dish. Lastly, she cut limes into small pieces and placed them around the inside rim of the Dutch oven, giving those who wanted to squeeze lime juice onto their serving the means to do so.
Fo family dinners, we keep our dishes mildly spicy, if spicy at all. Therefore, I did not include Thai chiles in this dish. The recipe called for them, but I had Paul put hot sauces on the table instead.
Someday, I'll make this dish again for Debbie and me and I'll include the chiles. I will enjoy the combination of heat, sweet, citrus acid, and saltiness. Sweet, salty, and acid-y was very tasty today. I would, however, enjoy the added dimension of the Thai chiles and the heat.
3. Our dinner itself was quite a feast.
We started with a Lemon Meringue Sangria and pieces of bruschetta Molly made. For dinner itself, we served ourselves helpings of Christy's Indonesian Ginger Chicken, the side dishes I described above, and a melon salad.
Zoe baked Carol a beautiful, moist, and delicious German Chocolate Cake served with vanilla ice cream.
Carol opened her gifts.
Then, because today was also Everett's birthday, we raised a shot of Fireball, poured in our shot glasses with Everett-isms etched into them, and toasted Everett, remembering and honoring him on his 92nd birthday.
We were going to have Grasshoppers as an after dinner drink, but I recommended we wait until July 4th. The Grasshopper is a sweet drink and I didn't want to add more sweetness to the cake and ice cream and shot of Fireball we had already consumed.
Carol consented to my recommendation and so we'll have Carol's birthday dessert drink after our hot dog roast on the 4th.
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