Stir-Fried Szechuan Chicken with Mushrooms and Snow Peas

 

November 5, 2026 by richardlfloyd

This is an old favorite of our family. This classic flavorful sauce is often paired with a fish fillet, but we usually use chicken breast. If you’ve ever wondered how Chinese restaurants get those beautiful tender white slices of chicken breast, the secret is called “velveting.” It adds an extra step, but it is worth it. I tend to avoid fussy recipes, and I admit this one is a little fussy, since you have to velvet the chicken before stir frying. So, make it when you are not rushed and want to cook something special. You’ll be glad you did!

For the Marinade

1 TBS Chinese Cooking Wine (ShaoxIng rice wine)

1 1/2 TBS Peanut Oil

1 1/2 TBS Corn Starch

1 Large Egg, White only

1 tsp. Sesame oil

Pinch of salt

Ingredients

lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced

2 TBS Peanut Oil

8 oz. Snow Peas

8 oz. White Button Mushrooms, halved

2 Scallions, shredded

2 cloves Garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 TBS Ginger Root, chopped fine

For  the Sauce

1 TBS. Dark Soy Sauce

1 tsp. Brown Sugar

¼ tsp. Roasted and Ground Szechuan Peppercorns (Optional, but good!)

Pinch of White Pepper

2 tsp. Chenkong Vinegar

1 tsp. Szechuan Chili Oil

1 tsp. Corn Starch dissolved in one TBS. of water

Velveting the Chicken

Whisk the marinade to blend, but don’t over whisk. Slice the chicken breast into thin slices across the grain. Put it in a bowl with the marinade, stir to blend, and let it sit at room temperature for at least a half hour and not more than an hour. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add the marinated chicken. Let it return to a boil, gently stirring until all the slices float to the top. Drain and put aside.

Recipe

Blanch the snow peas for a minute or two in boiling water, rinse with cold water, drain and put aside. If your mushrooms are big, cut them in half. Put aside.

Heat your wok over high heat, put in 2 TSP. oil. When the oil shimmers, add garlic, ginger and scallion and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for a minute. Add the velveted chicken slices and toss until they are covered with oil, about a minute. Add the sauce, and stir and toss until everything is hot and coated with sauce. Add snow peas, toss a few times, and put it all into a warm serving dish. Serve with white rice. Enjoy.

Slow cooker Chicken Cacciatore

October 24, 2026 by richardlfloyd

This is a great comfort food meal you can make in the morning and have it ready when you come home from an evening meeting. Serve it over tubular pasta or polenta.

Ingredients

2 TBS extra Virgin olive oil

4-6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

2 yellow onions, sliced

2 carrots peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery, washed and chopped.

1 red bell pepper, cored and sliced

8 oz. white mushrooms

8 oz. Kalamata olives, pitted

3 TBS tomato paste

½ cup dry white wine

1 14oz. can chopped tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock or broth

1 TBS Worchester Sauce

2 tsp each of thyme, oregano, rosemary, basil

Salt and pepper to taste

chopped parsley for garnish

 

Recipe

I have a browning setting in my slow cooker. If you don’t, you will need to do the first part on the stove with a skillet.

Salt and pepper the chicken. Brown the chicken in the olive oil, and remove to a plate. Add the chopped onions, carrots and celery to the pan and stir over medium high heat until they take on some color. Add the peppers and mushrooms keep stirring for a few minutes.

Add the tomato paste and stir it in. Stir in the herbs. Stir in the wine and keep stirring for several minutes. Add the chicken stock and the tomatoes and stir for a minute or two until in simmers. Put the chicken pieces and their juices on top of the vegetable and put the lid on the slow cooker. Set it on LOW for up to 10 hours (8 is fine). Serve over pasta or polenta.

 

Shrimp Pad Thai

 

 

This Pad Thai is relatively easy stir-fry to make, but it requires a bit of time for chopping and prep.

Ingredients

 

12 oz wide rice sticks

3 TBS peanut Oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or put through a garlic press

4 scallions cut in 2 in. pieces

½ TBS finely chopped fresh ginger

1 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 Eggs, beaten

4 oz snow peas

½ sliced red bell pepper

1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained

½ cup chopped roasted peanuts (for garnish)

½ cup of chopped cilantro (for garnish)

Lime wedges (for serving)

Red pepper flakes to taste (optional)

 

Sauce

1 TBS fish sauce

1 TBS tamarind paste

1 TBS Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry

 

Recipe

 

Place the rice sticks in a large bowl and cover with hot tap water for 30 minutes. Chop the garlic, scallions and ginger and place on a small plate and set aside. Slice the bell pepper and set aside. Bring a small pot of water to a boil, poach the snow peas for one minute, drain and spray with cold water. Set aside. Beat the eggs and set aside.

In a small bowl mix the fish sauce, tamarind paste, and cooking wine and set aside.

You may use a wok, but I prefer to use my 12 in. stainless-steel skillet. Heat oil in the pan over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, toss in the ginger, garlic and scallions and stir fry for 30 seconds. Toss in the red pepper. Toss in the shrimp and stir-fry until pink, about 3 minutes. Stir in the sauce and mix well. Reduce heat to medium low and add the drained rice noodles and toss and fold them into the pan. Repeat with the drained bean sprouts. Keep stir-frying for several minutes until everything is coated with the sauce and is hot. Turn the Pad Thai into a warm serving dish and top with the peanuts and cilantro. Serve with lime wedges. An Alsatian Riesling or an Asian beer would go nicely with it.

(Photo by R. L. Floyd, 2026) 

 

 

Rick’s Nearly Indian Black-Eyed Peas with Mushrooms

November 5, 2017 by richardlfloyd

In our house we love mushrooms, and there were some beautiful white button mushrooms in the market this week. Many years ago, when our kids were little, this dish was in regular rotation. I got the original recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking, the first Indian cookbook I owned and still a good one. She called this dish Lobhia aur khumbi and back then I followed her directions slavishly, soaking and cooking the black-eyed peas and using fresh tomatoes. Lately, I’ve been using canned black-eyed peas and canned diced tomatoes and it is still pretty darn good, and it is low-fat and vegetarian for those of you who like that sort of thing.

Ingredients

1 15.5 OZ can of black-eyed peas.

1 14.5 OZ can of diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glenn)

8 OZ fresh button mushrooms cut through the stem into 1/8th inch slices

3 TBS Canola oil

1 TSP whole cumin seeds

A 1 inch stick of cinnamon

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine

2 TSP ground coriander seeds

1 TSP ground cumin seeds

½ TSP ground turmeric

¼ TSP cayenne pepper

Salt and black pepper to taste

3 TBS chopped fresh cilantro

Recipe

Heat the oil over high heat in a non-stick frying pan. When hot add the cinnamon stick and whole cumin seeds and let them sizzle for a few seconds. Put in the onion and sauté until it browns a bit. Add the mushrooms and stir and fry until they wilt and give off their juices. Add the garlic and stir.

Put in the tomatoes, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Stir and cook for a minute until it bubbles. At his point I transfer it all to a saucepan. Bring it back to a simmer, turn the heat to low, cover and let it get happy for ten minutes.

Then add the un-rinsed black-eyed peas and a can of water (use the tomato can and get the last of the goodness), stir and bring back to a robust simmer. Let this cook down for 30 minutes or so, adjusting your simmer and stirring from time to time so it doesn’t stick.

When it is nicely thickened add chopped cilantro and serve over Basmati rice and/or with Indian bread and assorted chutneys.

(Photo: R.L. Floyd,, 2017)

Roast Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Raspberry Sauce

 January 5, 2025

My granddaughter celebrated her eighth birthday right before Christmas, and we asked her if she had any requests for her birthday dinner. She said, “I want Bompas’ (that’s me) pork tenderloin!” Somewhere she was served a memorable one with raspberry sauce, and I’ve tried to reproduce it for her several times with varying critical responses. She deemed this one pretty good, so I will share it with you.

The recipe for the pork is derived from Ina Garten’s “go-to dinners” and is simplicity itself.  She serves hers with mango chutney, but the requested raspberry sauce is my own invention.

Ingredients

For the pork:

2 pork tenderloins

1 TBS extra virgin olive oil

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 TBS coarsely chopped fresh rosemary

For the raspberry sauce:

2/3 cup of seedless raspberry jam or preserves

1 TBS of Balsamic vinegar

½ cup of raspberry liqueur such as Framboise

Recipe

Place an oven rack in the top third of your oven.  Turn on your oven fan. Pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees. Make sure it’s clean or it will smoke up the kitchen. Put the pork on a baking sheet smooth side up. Pat the meat with paper towels until dry. Brush the pork with olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper. Ina tucks and ties the tail ends with kitchen twine, but I don’t bother.

Place the tenderloins in the hot oven for exactly 5 ½ minutes. Turn off the oven, but don’t open the door for one hour. Slice the tenderloins thickly. Place on a platter and dribble the sauce over the. It’s as simple as that.

While you wait for the pork to finish you can make the sauce. Put all the ingredients in a small pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and keep it warm until serving.

(Photo ©R. L. Floyd, 2024)

Tofu with Hot Bean Sauce (Mapo Tofu)

 November 21, 2024

I’ve been making various versions of this dish since my children were little. They loved it and would request it. I had a good vegetarian tofu dish as well, but that was a hard sell. I think of it as Chinese comfort food. The original recipe came from the superb The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kao, but I’ve tweaked it over the years. Some of the ingredients are probably not in your pantry, but they’re worth seeking out at an Asian market. You can substitute ground beef for the pork, but it will be heavier. Make sure you have every ready before you start cooking as the actual cooking takes very little time.

Ingredients

1 14oz block of extra firm tofu

½ LB of ground pork

An inch long piece of fresh ginger, minced

2 TBS Shaoxing Wine or dry sherry or saki (divided)

2 TBS dark soy sauce (divided)

1 TBS hot bean paste

1 TBS fermented black beans

1 cup chicken stock

2 tsp corn starch dissolved in 1 TBS water

2 tsp dark sesame oil

½ tsp Szechuan peppercorns

2 whole scallions chopped

2 TBS peanut oil

Recipe

Cut the tofu into ½ inch cubes. Place in a large  bowl and cover with hot (not boiling) water while you prep your ingredients. Mince the ginger. Strain the black beans and put them in a cup with one TBS of the wine.

Have two more small bowls ready. In the first, add the other TBS of wine, the hot bean sauce, and 1 TBS of the dark soy sauce. Stir to combine.

In the second bowl, add the other TBS of dark soy sauce, the sesame oil, and the cornstarch in water. Roast the peppercorns for 5 minutes in a skillet on low heat. Crush in a mortar. Chop the scallions and put the scallions and peppercorns on a small plate.

When you have everything ready and nearby heat the skillet over high heat until hot. Add the peanut oil and when it begins to smoke add the pork, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Add the ginger to the pan and stir until all the pink is gone from the pork. Add the wine, bean paste, and soy sauce from your first bowl, add the black beans in wine, stir briskly for a minute, add the chicken stock and lower the heat to a simmer.

Drain the tofu well in a colander and add to the pan. Stir gently to even out the pan without breaking the tofu cubes. When it starts to bubble adjust heat so that it keeps a good simmer. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover and pour in the cornstarch, dark soy sauce and sesame oil from your second bowl. Give it a big stir and stir  until it thickens, add the scallions and the peppercorns. Serve over white rice (I like Jasmine.) Enjoy!

Rick’s Homemade Peach Ice Cream

July 28, 2024 by richardlfloyd

We have a great farm stand around the corner from us, and this time of year we revel in fresh sweet corn and ripe tomatoes. They also always have the best peaches which they import from various places. The ones they have right now are from Pennsylvania, and they are juicy and ripe. I love peaches, but have stopped buying them in the grocery store, because they are either hard as a rock or mealy in texture. If you have good peaches available, I recommend making peach ice cream. This recipe is easy. No eggs, you don’t have to make a custard, and you don’t have to peel the peaches. The ice cream tastes like summer. You will need an ice cream machine.

Ingredients

5 ripe peaches pitted but skins left on

1 and 1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

A pinch of salt

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp real vanilla

1 Tbs Grand Marnier (optional but good)

Recipe

Put your ice cream maker’s  freezing bowl in the freezer at least 24 hours before making the ice cream.

Wash your peaches, pit them and cut into small pieces or slices. Put them in a medium sized bowl with a cup of the sugar, the lemon juice and salt and let them macerate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour.

Meanwhile, put your heavy cream and milk in a medium sauce pan, add the vanilla, and cook on medium low heat for a few minutes to melt the sugar, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

When the peaches are done macerating, strain any juice and add it to the cream mixture. Place the preach pieces in a blender (or food processor) and pulse. You want something close to puree, but not quite, so that some small pieces remain. When it looks right to you, pour the peaches into the cream mixture and stir to mix. Put it in the refrigerator for several hours. You want it cold when it goes in the ice cream machine.

When it time to make the ice cream, put your mix into the machine’s bowl and start it up. It typically takes 15 to 20 minutes to make ice cream. Follow the instructions for your machine.

Don’t over churn or you’ll get ice crystals. If you use Grand Marnier, add it with a few minutes to go. If you add it earlier it will lower the freezing point, and your ice cream will not harden.

When it’s done it will be like soft serve ice cream. If you want it firmer put it in a container and put it in the freezer for 2 hours, or up to 6 hours. Serve and enjoy!

(Photos by R. L. Floyd, 2024)