sweet and sour awesome

hello, lonely blog, would you feel better if i put a recipe in your tummy?


by request, and by my own excitement, i give you a sweet and sour chicken dish that is allergy-friendly (well, depending on your allergy because some of you all are super-freaks.) chinese takeout, once filled a hole in my soul, right up there with tator tot cassarole on the comfort food scale, but when soy became my nemesis, obviously EVERYTHING on that menu was OUT. so i spent some time, learning to make fried rice and beef with broccoli at home since it was something we could all eat. recently, mayan added eggs back into her diet with great success, and now more windows are opening up for us. i decided that a true crispy, sticky sweet and sour chcken was in order, since the nourishing traditions recipe didn't not possess that take-out quality that i so desire. this may not qualify as health food, but i made it as healthy as possible.

so it is gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, dairy-free, and nightshade-free. check it:

2-4 chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1-2 eggs
1/2 cup rice flour (i used brown but whilte might be finer, if gluten is not an issue just use wheat!)
1/2 tapioca flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspooon garlic powder
black pepper

-add the flours, salt, garlic powder, and pepper to a large ziploc bag, and mix--set aside. beat the egg or eggs in a pie dish, then add the chicken chunks to coat. pick out the chicken pieces and throw into the flour mixture. seal up bag with a little air, and shake, baby, shake! make sure all of the pieces are well coated with flour.

-heat 1/2 inch of oil for frying (whatever you like: peanut, canola are my faves) and fry until the pieces are golden brown and cooked through, turning if you need to. (if the heat is med-high, the chicken will absorb less oil.) remove from oil and place on paper towels. keep warm until ready to serve.

while the pieces are frying, take a small saucepan and add:

(this should make enough for 2-3 chicken breasts, but double it if you are using 4)
3 TB apple cider or white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
6 TB Rapadura (whole cane sugar--Rapunzel brand makes this) or mixture of brown and white sugar
1 TB tapioca flour
1/2 cup of water
1 1/2 TB oil of choice

-bring to a boil and stir until thick, about 5 minutes. the Rapadura gives it a nice dark color.

finally transfer your golden crispy chicken pieces to a platter and pour the sweet and sour sauce over, toss if you'd like or don't leaving some areas more saucy than others, so family members can choose how much they want. you can also keep a little extra sauce on the table for those that like it really saucy.

optional: sprinkle chopped green onions over the dish for a little crunch and presentation. serve over steamed or fried rice. also a GREAT time to make LUMPIAS, since you have the hot oil and dipping sauce already done:D

can you guess what this is?

* hint: it's NOT tomato sauce....

























give up?

it's MOCK tomato sauce! i just *whipped* up a batch for Mayan's birthday--i want to make her a pizza so this will make a great red base. i stress *whipped* b/c it is actually kind of a pain to make so i only do it once or twice a year. this batch will give me enough for her pizza, some spaghetti later in the week and a few containers to freeze. so what gives it the rich red color? Beets! it has a very vegetable-y flavor, pretty yummy really, but it has a pinky color unlike real red sauce. she loves it though! for this batch i went heavy on the italian herbs, but i have also given it a less-italian flavor to use for enchiladas. got the recipe from a vegan book years ago:

mock tomato sauce:

steam 7 cups of orange yams or butternut squash (peeled and cubed) and 2 medium beets (peeled and chopped--i use rubber gloves to protect my hands from beet stains)

meanwhile saute 1 yellow or white onion (chopped) and 2 or more garlic cloves (minced) in olive oil until transcent.

other ingredients:
6 cups of stock or water
2-3 Tbsp of soy sauce (i DON'T use this--i use 1 Tbsp of fish sauce since we can't eat soy)
2 tsp liquid sweetener (maple syrup, honey...)
2 tsp apple cider vinager
1 strip of Kombu sea weed washed and minced (this is too hard so i didn't do it and added some salt instead)
3 tsp chopped parsley
chopped herbs: rosemary, marjoram, basil, oregano, thyme

blend all of this together--i use a food proccessor so i split it into two batches. then put the red sauce into a big pot with 1 bay leaf or two and simmer for 20 minutes or so, until it is heated through and the flavors can "mingle." keep close to stir frequently, b/c it tends to bubble and "pop!" leaving nice reddish-pink splotches on everything:-) don't forget to take out the bay leaves when done.