So as you all know I had a special request to attempt to make Chinese Food for my blog. I will fully admit that I have always been pretty intimidated by Chinese Food-especially due to the ingredients and cooking style as I am not familiar or comfortable with any of it. However, I took this blog request as a challenge and I decided it was time for me to face my fears. As you can you probably imagine based on seeing the picture of my cookbook collection I do own a Chinese cookbook or 2, however for this 1st attempt I decided to try a Chinese recipe that came from Better Homes and Gardens as it allowed me to ease into the ingredients in a one toe into the water at a time fashion.

During this quest to conquer my fear I did my research as every good journalist should. So the other day at work I asked the room,"does anyone know how to cook Chinese food?" After all 6 ladies stopped laughing at me they pretty much answered in unison with a "no." However, one did seem to have some knowledge about cooking styles, using a wok in particular. So she asks me,"well don't you have a wok?" And I answer,"um no why would I have a wok?" She goes on to tell me that," everyone who has gotten married has a wok. You always get one as a wedding gift." Well to that I have to say what the hell friends and family...I have been married twice and I have never received a wok...so I have to say that you all who have loved and cared for me over the years have definitely let me down as none of you have gifted me a wok. Thanks a lot!!!  I told my husband about this as if I add him into the mix this is his 2nd marriage as well...and still we have no wok.

Ok so here it goes I decided to try and make Ginger Lemongrass Chicken with Cilantro Rice Noodles. http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/ginger-lemongrass-chicken-with-cilantro-rice-noodles/ My first concern was where was I going to find lemongrass and rice noodles, however the Asian food section of the everyday grocery store has really improved and truly does have a lot of common Asian food ingredients. The lemongrass I found at Albertsons and they had both paste form in a tube and it whole in the recipe section of the produce department. The rice noodles and fish sauce were also at Albertsons and actually the biggest challenge I had was deciding which noodles to buy because they came in different thicknesses and there were rick sticks, Thai rice noodles and something else. I ended up with Thai rice noodles because they looked the most like the picture.

So the recipe first asks you to make a paste in the food processor of lemongrass, ginger, garlic, lime, green onions and oil. Easy enough I thought. I roped my friend Jen into helping plus I figure if I am going to make Chinese food for the first time might as well have the added pressure of other people eating it so her whole family was over. However, we did order pizza for the kids and if it went poorly it could have been pizza for the adults as well.

My first batch used the whole lemongrass and after it blended it just looked kind of stringy and when I put it in my mouth it kind of got stuck in the back of my throat...kind of like how I imagine a hairball would be. And I just didn't think that was what I was going for in a main entree. So I made a 2nd batch using the lemongrass paste and that was much more successful and it tasted better. I rubbed the paste into the chicken and then grilled the chicken.



Meanwhile on the other side of the kitchen Jen was making the sauce for the noodles. She said that at first she was turned off by the thought and smell of the fish sauce but once it was blended with the other ingredients she thought it smelled a lot better. The noodles were super easy to make as they just get tossed into boiling water for 3-4 minutes and then they are strained and tossed with the sauce, shredded carrots, cilantro and peanuts.

Granted I know this dish isn't completely authentic Chinese food but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with the outcome. Next time I will get more brave and tackle something a little more technical. And now that I have fish sauce in my fridge I am practically a pro.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!