Chinatown Be Damned! We'll Make Our Own Cucumber & Chicken

KELLY * August 9 * Dinner

So, the evening was a little up in the air. Plans were unclear. I was lazy. Liz had a meeting. I'm incredibly impressed that we (okay, Liz) went ahead and made dinner. (I fully admit that I have made promises of laundry tomorrow so I did not have to help and so I could consequently watch Mad Men. I make no claims of being remotely helpful except once upon a time saying, "Do you think you could make that cucumber and chicken that we had at Joe's Shanghai?") Anyway, we still have a mess of cucumbers. They seem to come non-stop. That said, I could care less about a cucumber. I have no specific reason for not liking cucumbers. I just don't. The chicken and cucumber from Joe's Shanghai, however, has been a personal fave for years. So, Liz whipped up a bit of tasty loveliness. It was light. It was tasty. I braved the chopsticks while Liz totally copped out with a fork. (It's like I don't even know her anymore, honestly.) Anyway, it was a perfect light dinner for a warm summer night.

ELIZABETH * August 9 * Dinner

The thing that's so awesome about that Joe's Shanghai dish is that you can't really tell why it tastes so good, it just does. I did not make something as good as that, but I feel like it was an important step in the right direction! Discoveries:

This recipe is close. I made a few adjustments:

* I cut things in little cubes like at Joe's instead of the strips in the recipe. (Hence the fork. Those little cubes are impossible with stix - although Kelly still somehow managed to finish way ahead of me despite my fork. But then again, I chew.)

* I replaced the rice wine with cider vinegar, mostly because I read the recipe wrong and we were out of rice wine vinegar. Oops, but I don't regret it. I actually think the vinegar was the right choice, but I would use rice wine vinegar instead.

* I left out the soy sauce. The Joe's dish is totally white.

* I added 1 tsp hot chili oil in with the sauce at the end.

I would make a few more:

* There was a shortage of sauce. I added a little water, but I think next time I would add even more chicken broth as liquid. The sauce also could have used the richness of broth.

* Joe's might be so good due to MSG. I salted several times, and black peppered. Chicken broth might also help this issue.

* I put in garlic instead of ginger. Next time I'd do both.

This one is certainly a work in process, but I would for sure try it again, and it was all the way gone, so I guess it was good enough! Actually very tasty, and with a pleasant heat. Cooking cucumbers sounds wierd but it's actually not. As Julia says, "Don't crowd the pan" and use a good high heat, and they sear instead of getting squishy. Yum cucumbers!

oh ps - At the Glenwood Sunday Market, I bought a lemon cucumber. It looks like a lemon that's been zested. I said to the guy, "So this is a cucumber?" and he said "Totally". It was the totally that sold me. Well, I ate it for lunch today like an apple and it was awesome. More lemon cukes for me next week!!!