June 13, 2012 – Chicken and Lima Bean Stir Fry

CURSE YOU LIMA BEANS I WANT TO EAT OTHER THINGS NOW!!!  As no doubt you may have gathered despite my regard, or rather dis-regard, for Baby Lima Beans at the moment, I still love Asian food and most especially the stir fry.  What other dish could provide you with protein and Asian-ness at the same time?  Scratch that, there’s a lot of things...but stir fry is easy.  It’s easy and it’s quick and when we’re in summer hours at work so I’m not getting home until 7pm (at the earliest!)  stir fry is a good fix.  Plus I hoped that it would mask the baby lima beans (it didn’t).

Chicken and Lima Bean Stir Fry – from my brain and needing to use up the chicken and stir fry in my fridge

Ingredients:

• Two portions of chicken thighs – check
• Half a cup of lima beans or more – check
• Sliced orange peppers (roughly 1/4^th of a cup) – check
• Sliced cucumbers – check
• Veg oil – check
• Sesame seeds – check
• Two packets of Soy Sauce – check
• One tbs Rice Wine Vinegar – check
• One tbs Terriyaki Sauce – check

Step 1: Cube the chicken thighs into even-ish pieces.  Slice cucumbers and orange peppers into thin slivers (about the size of crunchy Asian yummies).

Step 2: Heat a tablespoon or so of oil and sesame seeds in a medium large skillet or saucepan. 

Step 3: Throw the chicken cubes into the saucepan.  Add the Rice Wine Vinegar, Terriyaki Sauce, and Soy Sauce to the pan and mix.  Allow to cook for a minute or so.

Step 4: Throw in all the veggies and beans.  Mix well without letting any of them escape their personal caldron of doom…I mean the saucepan. Allow to simmer 10-15 minutes while you clean dishes etc, or basically until it is cooked. 

Step 5: Cool and serve.

I have two-ish things to say about this dish.  The first is that I love Asian food and let’s face it, stir fry of any variety is the easiest thing to make.  Especially my stir fry which is always a decision of “well which sauces should I use, and what meat and veggies will I throw in?”  Second, I think I hate Lima Beans right now.  Too much of a food you’re not particularly fond of to begin with is WAY TOO MUCH of that food. Next time, no Lima Beans. Luckily I made enough to eat some for lunch, and also luckily I was done in time to eat, do the dishes, do my hanging laundry, and meet the lovely Ang for some vino and cheese.  This foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, + for Asian, -4 for Lima Beans, +8 for lunch tomorrow, +5 for vino with Ang!  Happy Sperimenting!

Chicken and Lima Bean Stir-Fry...I am in a fight with Lima Beans

June 10, 2012 – Baby Lima Bean Hummus

In my attempt to expand my palate and my cooking skills, I decided to start making beans.  Beans have never been something I’ve been particularly fond of so this felt like a huge step for me.  It was this palate expansion that prompted me to buy some Baby Lima Beans, and it was my lack of experience which prompted me to make an entire bag of Baby Lima Beans in one sitting.  Needless to say that’s a whole lot of Lima Beans.  After trying to down as many as possible during lunches, I decided to speriment a little.

I figured that hummus is made from chickpeas, and chickpeas are kind of a bean right?  Google says they are anyway.  With that in mind I figured I could make a hummus from Baby Liima Beans.

Baby Lima Bean Hummus – from my brain and accidentally way too many baby lima beans.

Ingredients (all proportions are completely a guess):

• 1 ½ cups of lima beans – check
• ½ cup of water – check
• Salt – check
• Garlic salt – check
• Lemon juice – check
• Red pepper flakes – check

Step 1: Put the baby lima beans in a small food processor and pulse until you realize that you’re going to need water to get them to grind to a fine paste.

Step 2: Add water to the lima beans and continue to pulse until there’s a reasonable paste.  I imagine that if you pulse for long enough it will become a fine paste, or if your lima beans are well cooked, or if you add enough liquid but any way mine didn’t work quite like that.

Step 3: Add some salt, red pepper flakes, and garlic salt to taste.  Pulse together.  Taste test, and add more water/garlic salt/etc at your discretion.  Add lemon juice also at your discretion.

Step 4: Serve with Pita Chips or something else of the cracker nature.

I seriously need more patience.  If I could have waited until the paste was fully pasty instead of being a little more chewy, it would have been better.  I loved that it was a little spicy but there was something slightly off. Regardless, I ate it, and so did the lunch crowd at work who enjoyed it.

This foodsperiment gets a +5 for using up ingredients, +5 for innovation, +3 for taste, -3 for my lack of patience.  Happy Sperimenting!

Baby Lima Bean Hummus and Pita Chips