Sweet and Sour Chicken

One of the hazards of cooking is that sometimes things just take longer than you expect.  Dinner tonight was one of those recipes.  It said 25 minutes.  I knew there was a good amount of prep that was required first, so I figured 20 minutes extra would be enough.  False.

I found Sweet and Sour Chicken with Green Beans in one of the Everyday Food magazines that Mimi gave me this summer.  It looked like it was going to be easy.

But that apparently doesn't factor in cutting up the peppers, snapping the green beans, realizing the chicken wasn't defrosted and defrosting it, grating the ginger, and chopping the scallions.

That took longer than 25 minutes right there.

I have a love-hate relationship with fresh ginger.  I love how flavorful and fresh it is, but it's so hard to deal with.  I had recently read that it's better to peel it with a spoon.  And I thought to myself, "yeah right, like that will work."

I am now a believer.  It is so easy.  Now if only I had a better option to grate it than a dull nutmeg grater.  I realized I probably had a better grater upstairs with my school kitchen utensils.  After dinner.  Oops.

Once I finally got all that done, it was a really easy recipe.  Basically, you cook rice.  Easy.

You make sauce.  Also easy.

You stir-fry veggies and chicken.  I love peppers.  So this recipe is great on that account.

Then you add scallions, ginger and garlic and cook it through.

Then you add the sauce to thicken and warm up and finally, serve.

So, moral of the story, if you have a sous chef and don't have to worry about so much prep, it's a fairly quick recipe.  Otherwise, it takes a little while.  (Speaking of a sous chef, I'm accepting applications.  Pay is nonexistent, but it includes the benefit of free food sampling.) But it tastes pretty good.

We also took a visit to our town's Farmer's Market today.  Even in the rain, there were a lot of people there.  This is encouraging.  I hope it is going to take off.  Today's spoils: eggs, corn, blueberries, raspberries and Finnish coffee bread.