I am trying to find recipes that Mom would like (she is bored with her standards) and would also be willing to cook (not complicated, that is), and this one was a winner. It’s from an old cookbook by Marian Burros called “Keep it Simple”. You simply boil the defatted chicken thigh meat (I cut it into about 2″ pieces this time, which worked well) in a mixture of water, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, and cayenne (not much 🙂 ) – and boil it a lot longer than Ms. Burros (who used to hire me to babysit in the mid-60s) would have you do it, so it gets really flavorful. We once tried this recipe with chicken breast meat, and it was flavorless, so use thighs.
I made a pilaf using Uncle Ben’s rice (which is all Mom uses) and found I really needed to use the usual Uncle Ben’s proportions of water and rice (started with too little water but added a bit to steam the rice more late in the game). I used too much butter, but it was ok. I used a cube of veggie bouillon to flavor the water, but later realized I should have used turkey stock. Dumb.
Mom is allergic to fresh vegetables, so we had frozen mixed veggies, which I cooked according to the package directions (did not boil forever, as Mom always wants to do) and Mom really liked them.
They are a perfectly decent taste, really, I just can’t imagine choosing frozen when you can have fresh food. She can’t imagine why you would want fresh when you can have frozen, so I guess we will just have to take turns or something 😉 Nice, bright colors on these, for sure. Seems to be the Giant Food house brand.
I see there’s a tomato chunk on the plate up there in the dinner photo, too.
I opened a Cotes du Bourg, which I really enjoyed. Brother thought last night’s wine more to his liking, interestingly.
{Written the 30th}
