A fusion dinner

My daughter was one of those at our small dinner party on Saturday. I started with the salad that I described in my post for August 11. At her request I'll include the rest of what we did for the dinner.

For the main course I used the frozen chicken breasts I get from Trader Joe's. When they were just partially thawed I diced these into small cubes and marinated them in a Kung Pao sauce from Williams Sonoma. Using a large wok I stirred and cooked these in sesame oil until the the chicken was done. (I finally learned that the best way to get off the film from the oil that had spattered on my ceramic glass cooktop was, after using a regular cooktop cleanser, to wipe the area with rubbing alcohol and let dry.) Since I cannot eat peanuts, I just made these available in small dishes for my guests to add them in on their own.

To go with the chicken I sauteed a couple of diced onions with kosher salt, a pepper mix I brought back from Australia, and some ground lemongrass. After the onions were done I added in a couple of cups of diced celery and a diced red pepper (for color), then let these cook together until the celery was less crunchy. This I served on the same platter for anyone who might want to use it as a bed for the chicken.

I also made a few cups of a Thai black rice that I had on hand. Most of the recipes I've seen for this black rice show it as a dessert, but here I was using it as a side dish. The rice itself does take a while to cook (I used a slow cooker for it), and when it was soft enough I added a can of coconut milk and some Thai seasoning and also some sliced frozen papaya pieces, then let it cool. ( I also made a package of Near East brand long grain and wild rice for anyone less sure of my Thai adventure.)

For dessert (and to complete the idea of a fusion menu), I served Greek yogurt with sliced figs and some honey I had brought back from Israel.

What I would do differently the next time around is make my own sauce for the chicken. The key reason is that in looking at the ingredients on the bottle I found sugar right up there at the top. I think that with the right blending of the other components (soy sauce, a chile oil, ginger) it should not be necessary to sweeten it up.