My birthday is February 16th so Valentine's Day is often lost in the shuffle. However Aaron wants it to be special and makes the effort to separate the two. I say that, as long as he is making my birthday special . . . I can work on Valentine's Day. However, it truly was a team effort this year. Our menu came from a page torn out of a Bon Appetit magazine, who knows what issue. Sorry about that! However, we had Five-Spice Roast Chicken, Snow Peas with Toasted Almonds, and Ginger-Scented Rice for our meal.
The chicken was too salty and too sweet for our taste, however the rest of the menu was delicious and we look forward to repeating it with a new roasted chicken recipe. It makes four servings and we had two as you see above and the other two as rice bowls Monday night.
Five-Spice Roast Chicken
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed
- 2 T. coarse kosher salt
- 2 T. EVOO
- 1 t. Chinese five-spice powder
- 1 cut-up chicken, 3 - 4 pounds
- 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 16 wedges
Combine garlic, salt, olive oil, and five spice powder in a large bowl. Add chicken pieces; turn to coat. Cover and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Arrange onion wedges in a 9 by 13 pan. Place chicken pieces atop onions. Roast until chicken is cooked through, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and rest 10 minutes.
Like I said, we found this both too salty and too sweet. I believe for a chicken this size, 2 teaspoons of salt would have been plenty. Also, I use five-spice powder in baking so tasting the cinnamon, star anise, and cloves on the chicken made it too sweet for me.
Snow Peas With Toasted Almonds
- 1 T. unsalted butter
- 1/4 C. sliced almonds
- 1/2 pound snow peas, trimmed
- 2 t. minced shallot
- 1 t. fresh lemon juice
Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and cook until golden, fragrant, and the butter begins to brown about 90 seconds, stirring frequently. Add snow peas and shallot; saute until snow peas are crisp=tender, another 90 - 120 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and add lemon juice. Season to taste with salt before serving.
We have no complaints with this recipe and will definitely make it again.
Ginger-Scented Rice
- 1 3 inch long 1 inch thick piece fresh ginger
- 1 C. jasmine rice, rinsed
- 1 T. butter
- 1 t. coarse kosher salt
Peel ginger and cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces. Use a garlic press and squeeze enough fresh ginger to measure 1 1/2 T. juice with pulp. Transfer to a small saucepan. Add as much water as necessary for jasmine rice (brown takes more than white), rice, butter, and salt to same pan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until rice is done. Again, brown will take longer than white. Remove pan from heat, let rice sit for 10 minutes, then uncover and fluff with a fork.
Again, no complaints from us on this one and we look forward to making it again.
Tomorrow, we'll tell you about the Chocolate Stout Snacking Cake we had for dessert.
Comments