I have to admit that when it comes to cooking, I sometimes cheat. I buy rotisserie chickens instead of fresh chicken breasts. I buy frozen broccoli that I sprinkle liberally in pretty much everything. And yes, it sometimes sacrifices the taste, but some days, Mondays, we just survive and focus on keeping it healthy. So tonight I pulled both these tricks out for our meal. And even though I was cheating, my selection from Extending the Table was pretty great.
Tonight's recipe was a success before it even hit the table. Given it's name, Bang Bang Ji (chicken), it was bound to capture my boys' interest. One, it's fun to say. Two, it's accompanied by action and noise. Three, it's pretty delicious. As an added bonus a main component of the sauce was peanut butter, which is an ingredient I can sell to my kids any day of the week!
The recipe came with a story about street vendors in China banging sticks to attract customers, which led to the name. The boys thought that was great, especially when I enthusiastically banged the counter to get them to the table. John naturally had to tell the story about how his mom rang a cow bell to round up the four kids at dinner time, which the boys enjoyed hearing even as they stuffed their mouths with the chicken and rice.
And tonight I had a bit of a cooking revelation. This recipe called for cucumbers in the stir-fry. I honestly did not realize you could cook cucumbers (beyond pickling them) in a way that was as tasty as this dish. The combination of the cucumber and the peanut sauce was interesting and very well balanced. As John put it, this one is a keeper!
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