Here are some Cheap and Fast Recipes or ideas for recipes that you learn in my Sous Chef Certification Class, along with some knife skills and Chef Tips.
- Plant based or Pork Egg rolls
- Lemon Broccoli
Lemon Broccoli - Plant Powered Salad
- Iceberg with Pine Nuts and Dates (for the younger crowd that hates Romaine)
- Garlic Hoison Baked Chicken Thighs/how to crush garlic
- Green Beans Almandine
And then there’s Sweet and sour Chicken Tenders with onions and peppers, which we will talk about today.
I went in search of my egg roll recipe. With over 500 blogs here, I couldn’t find it. You know what that tells me?
NO, WHAT CHEF?
That I need to change up my categories and clean this blog up! This gives me an opportunity to do that…. though not today. lol
The point of teaching you and getting you certified as my sous chef is two fold: to give you the opportunity to find work based on having some important skills down and to also be called upon to assist at a Chef Marian Event.
Let’s give you three interesting and fast things to incorporate into a meal.
We start with Egg Rolls.
Buy the large Egg Rolls Wrappers at Ralph’s. Take your food processor out. Process cabbage and carrots. Once the ingredients are not pointy or able to tear the skin of the Egg Roll Wrapper, scrape it into a big bowl. Add Toasted Sesame oil as a seasoning (and I like to chop up asparagus).
You can also add any protein you like: pork, ground beef, chicken, etc. I prefer to keep it clean with just vegetables only and sometimes add avocado.
I was doing that long before the restaurants started doing that. So I’m the real champion of the Avocado Egg Roll!
Back to the recipe: Take a sauté pan and start on high. After you roll up your Egg Rolls (you learn that in the class), place each one down in the pan (pointy closure side down). The key here is to cook them on high for 5 minutes or so and when they start to brown, turn them and put your fire down to medium. Do not overload the pan. I get 6 – 8 Egg Rolls from a 13 inch sauté pan.
So that’s Egg Rolls.
We also made Prosciutto Wrapped Panko Asparagus. We seasoned our Panko with Parmesan Cheese, Salt and Pepper and pan sautéed it on the stovetop. We broke one asparagus, to its’ ‘sweet spot’ and then cut all the others to that length. We flash cooked them in rolling water for a minute or two and put them into ice water to stop the cooking.
Ever wonder why broccoli and asparagus are so easy to eat in a restaurant? Peel the ends. In the case of broccoli, peel the stems.
Wrap the asparagus in prosciutto, top your wrapper with the panko and cook in a 375 oven for 10 minutes. Now that’s a great side dish! (To make this vegan, like I do, leave out the prosciutto and the parmesan cheese).
Since we started with a Chinese dish, let’s end with one: Sweet and Sour Chicken. You can
buy ‘tenders’. Dredge them in flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), shake off any excess – then dredge through the egg covering every part, then dredge again through panko (seasoned with salt, pepper and parmesan).
Put into a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. In a separate pan, sauté onions in a couple of teaspoons of Grapeseed oil until they are brown. Add small squares of red and green peppers. (It’s the sausage, peppers and onions concept substituting the chicken and flavoring it up with a sauce).
You can do this same dish with tomato sauce. But this time, we have decided to use a small jar of sweet and sour sauce (to taste) remembering to add it slowly, because you can always add more, but you can’t take away less.
And you’re done!
How about Garlic Hoisin Chicken next time? Ready to learn more?
Well, I must say it’s not easy teaching old recipes I created from the days of being a carnivore, but I promise you one thing: every dish will be way healthier than if you got it from a restaurant or attempted it from a recipe. And you will learn things you will not get from anyone else.
So that’s my small contribution to you being able to cook for the people that hire you, or just the family and contribute to their good health! And YES. I will make you take off that skin! It’s just holding the garlic in place for the baking process!
Healthy Happy Eating,
