Gluten Free Chinese Sesame Chicken

For my last post of the gluten free and dairy free weekend, we have Sesame Chicken and Broccoli over White Rice. Mmmmm....

I followed this recipe at Gluten Free Mommy but would made a few changes to her recipe and would still make a little more. Don't get me wrong, the dish was delicious and it's a recipe keeper. But I'd have less seasame seed and less sugar, even though I already cut her sugar in half. So doing this all over again, here's what I would do.

Gluten Free Chinese Sesame Chicken
4 servings

2 large chicken breasts cut into large chunks
1 tbsp of Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce
1 tsp of white rice vinegar
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 cup cornstarch

Mix soy sauce and rice vingear in a bowl and marinate chicken for about 20 minutes. Once marinated, add egg whites and cornstarch. Mix until well-blended. This gives the chicken a crispier coating.

Cook chicken in a wok. When cooked, remove chicken and set aside in a bowl.

Sauce:
1/4 cup Gluten Free Tamari Soy Sauce
2.5 tbsp white rice vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 - 1/4 cup of sugar
[The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup. I took it down to 1/4 cup and still thought it was a bit sweet. Hubby and I decided to cut the sugar next time but maybe not down to 1/8 cup.]

Sautee 1 diced garlic clove and 1 tsp of hot peppers (optional) in wok. Add the sauce and let ingredients incorporate. Stir in 2 tsp of cornstarch with a little bit of water to thicken the sauce. Keep stiring until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Add the chicken and 1/8 cup of sesame seeds. Stir until chicken is well coated with sauce and seasame seeds. Top with green onions and enjoy!

San Francisco Food!

Koi Palace in Daly City for dim sum. Steph said it was the best... they had a lot of usual things in addition to the typical dim sum fare. You order both from the menu and the few carts that pass by. Although not as "fun", I kind of like the idea of ordering from a menu because then you're sure to get the items you want and they're fresh.

Some favorites were the red bean paste crepes (accidentally ordered because we thought they were something else) and the Shanghai dumplings (notice how there is only one left!).



Other unusual things were tried were the pumpkin red bean mochi:



and the durian puff pastry:



No one cared for this. I thought it was okay but you probably have to like durian to like this (I do).

The place is PACKED so it's a good thing we got there right when they opened at 10 am.

...



We went to The House for Jon's birthday. It's tiny so it's a good thing we had a reservation. Everything was presented beautifully and the service was great. They had 2 or 3 specials for the night but we ended up ordering off the menu.

ahi tuna tartare with roasted nori chips:



Jon had the wasabi noodles with angus flatiron steak and Kameran and Stephanie both had the grilled sea bass (no photos - they came out blurry!).

I ordered two "small" dishes, the deep fried salmon roll:



and the crab cake:



That's some crab cake! I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a pear or a volcano?

Everything was DELICIOUS. Seriously.

...

For dessert, Steph took us to Chaya for chocolate croissant bread pudding:



It was like creme brulee! Caramel ice cream slowly melting on top of a sweet custard dotted with pops of chocolate. Heavenly.

Mapo Tofu

Yum, yum, yum! I love Mapo Tofu.

Dumplings

Dumplings made with 0.5 lbs ground turkey, 0.5 lbs shrimp, 1/2 head of cabbage, 1 cup mushrooms, and 3 green onions (white part only). Seasoned with Chinese pepper, salt, and sesame oil.

Glad you were able to help me finish them.