Category: Shabbos

3 Ways with Duck Sauce Chicken

Recently, I was given the opportunity to develop some recipes for the Joy of Kosher Gold’s Pure Foods Campaign. Being a huge fan of many of Gold’s products, I was right on board. While Gold’s is mostly known for their horseradish, they actually produce a wide variety of products including their fantastic wasabi sauce, bbq sauce, and my favorite, their amazing collection of duck sauces.

Since Gold’s duck sauce plays such a huge part in my recipes, I decided to do 3 ways with 3 different types of chicken, and 3 different types of Gold’s duck sauce. Fun, right? Gold’s actually makes 4 varieties of duck sauce including sweet & sour, spicy garlic, snappy ginger and hot & spicy. My husband is not a fan of spicy foods, so I knew just which ones to choose.

In the following post, you’ll find recipes for:

>Chicken wings, using snappy ginger duck sauce
>Chicken breasts, using sweet & sour duck sauce
>Whole chicken quarters, using spicy garlic duck sauce

I hope you enjoy my 3 ways with chicken and 3 different duck sauce varieties. Check out more Gold’s recipes on Joy of Kosher.

STICKY GINGER CHICKEN WINGS

For my first recipe, I decided to do a sticky ginger chicken wing recipe. This makes use of Gold’s delicious Polynesian style ginger duck sauce and brightens up the flavors with fresh ginger, garlic and soy sauce. If you’ve never tried fine shreds of fresh ginger in a sauce, you’re in for a huge surprise. Finely julienned threads of ginger, practically melt into the sauce, giving it a bright and refreshing finish.


First, I sear the chicken wings in sesame oil with a light ginger-scented coating. I saute some finely julienne fresh ginger and minced garlic, adding snappy ginger duck sauce, chicken stock and soy sauce, to create a delicious sticky coating. I bake the chicken wings with the ginger glaze until crisped around the edges. These chicken wings make for the perfect appetizer at your next dinner party!


For the complete Sticky Ginger Chicken Wings recipe using Gold’s Polynesian-style snappy ginger duck sauce, visit this post on the Joy of Kosher website.

SWEET & SOUR PINEAPPLE CHICKEN

For my next recipe, I decided to do a take on a classic Chinese dish – sweet and sour chicken. Growing up, my mom would often fry up shnitzel for dinner, always serving it alongside a bowl of Gold’s sweet & sour duck sauce for dipping. When I got older, and started eating out, I was shocked to find that all people did not eat their shnitzel that way! As an ode to my childhood, I prepared this dish shnitzel style, instead of in little nuggets. It saves you on frying (and calories!)

I started off this recipe with classic Chinese takeout food in mind, and I couldn’t believe just how close it came to the real thing. This dish tastes like a perfect cross between sesame and sweet & sour chicken. I started off sauteing some onion, pepper and pineapple chunks until tender. I fried up the shnitzel in a crispy tempura batter, and prepared a sauce with Gold’s Cantonese-style sweet & sour duck sauce, ketchup, brown sugar and pineapple juice.


For the complete Sweet & Sour Pineapple Shnitzel recipe using Gold’s Cantonese-style sweet & sour duck sauce, visit this post on the Joy of Kosher website.

SPICY GARLIC CHICKEN

Finally, for our last recipe, I’m bringing up a not-so-old recipe for spicy garlic chicken using Gold’s Oriental-style spicy garlic duck sauce. This recipe went viral on Pinterest (4500+ repins), when a famous Pinterest user repinned the recipe here. It has become my blog’s most popular recipe, and you’ll see why when you revisit the recipe here.

What is your favorite recipe using Gold’s duck sauce? Share it with me in the comments below!

Moscato, Honey & Vanilla Poached Apricots


When the Kosher Connection team (a group of Kosher Food Bloggers that I belong to) decided on the theme of “cold soups” for this month’s Link-Up challenge, I was thrilled. I had made these poached apricots a few times already, and I knew I just had to share them. Granted, poached apricots in moscato, honey & vanilla bean syrup is a bit of a stretch for a soup, but I think we’re covered. Cold fruit soups are all the rage in the summer, and this elegant take on a fruit soup is the perfect way to celebrate apricots – summer’s sweet and tart bounty.


Fresh apricots are available from mid-June to mid-July and are best tree-ripened (it doesn’t ripen after it’s picked). Try to find them at your nearest farmers’ market for optimum flavor. Apricots should be purchased ripe or slightly under-ripe, yielding slightly to gentle touch.


Poaching is one of the best ways to prepare apricots, but they can also be grilled. The addition of honey helps to balance out the apricot’s tartness. Vanilla bean and Moscato wine add an amazing depth of flavor that complements the apricots perfectly. The syrup is so unique and flavorful, you’ll want to drink a cupful all by itself!

What is your favorite way to prepare apricots? Share your ideas with me in the comments below.

For more great cold soup recipes, check out the Kosher Connection Cold Soup Link-Up Challenge below! You can also view my recipe for cold strawberry rhubarb soup here.

Moscato, Honey & Vanilla Bean Poached Apricot

10 fresh apricots
2 cups Moscato wine
1 cup water
1/2 heaping cup honey
1/2 vanilla bean
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Cut apricots in half and remove pits. Scrape the seeds off the vanilla bean and place the seeds and the bean in a pot. Add moscato, water, honey, and lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to make sure the honey and vanilla bean seeds are incorporated throughout. Add the apricots and reduce to a simmer. Cook for approximately 5 minutes (depending on ripeness) until apricots are fork-tender. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the apricots from the pot. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook over high heat until it is thick and syrupy (reduced by half). Set the apricots and syrup aside to cool. Add to a jar and refrigerate until chilled. Serve with frozen yogurt and chopped nuts.

NOTE: If desired, you may gently remove the skins of the apricots after poaching. I prefer to leave them on as they are quite thin and don’t bother me.

VARIATION: To make apricot sauce, do not remove the apricots from the sauce. Instead, let the apricots continue to cook until they fall apart and the sauce begins to thicken. If you prefer to peel the apricots for the sauce, poach for a few minutes, remove and carefully take off the skins. Return to the pot and continue to cook until apricots fall apart and sauce thickens.  Serve over ice cream or yogurt.

1 year ago: shlishkes
2 years ago: tuna salad with a twist

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Miso-Glazed Eggplant


If you’re anything like me, you might go home from a restaurant and dream about a dish you’ve had that was simply, stunning. (Forgive my adjective but having just watched a double episode of MasterChef, I must have heard Gordon Ramsay use it to describe food at least 5 times). Recently, I dined at the uber chic Prime Ko with my mom to celebrate Mother’s Day. This is not something we do yearly, but my mom broached the idea, and since I love eating out (especially at upscale Japanese restaurants), I was more than happy to oblige. The food was so good, I’m thinking we  should make it our thing.

My mom frequents restaurants pretty often, so she was quite familiar with Prime Ko’s menu. She highly recommended their eggplant dengaku, a roasted eggplant dish with a yuzu-sesame miso glaze. Her recommendation was spot on. The eggplant was so good, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The next day, I promptly googled “Dengaku sauce” and began my research for a copycat recipe. 4 eggplants and 2 bags of miso later, I hit the jackpot.

This was my first time working with Japanese ingredients like miso and sake. Miso is a fermented soybean paste mixed with rice or barley. The longer the miso is aged, the deeper the flavor. Young miso is white, light and sweet, while older miso is thick, dark and rich. Kosher miso is available through Eden Organics, ranging from Shiro and  Genmai (light) to Mugi and hacho (dark). Miso lends an amazing depth of flavor to dishes, giving food an umami flavor that keeps you coming back for more.

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin that is made from fermented rice. It is also referred to as rice wine. While sake is used in Japanese cooking, it is also served as a chilled beverage from ceramic flasks called tokkuri. You may have seen it served in small cups (called choko) in some Asian restaurants.

Miso-Glazed Eggplant

1 eggplant
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp white miso
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup scallions, thinly sliced

Method:

Preheat oven to 400. Cut eggplant in half lengthwise. Using a small knife, score four or five diagonal cuts into the eggplant flesh, taking care not to cut through to the skin. Repeat at a 45-degree angle to get a diamond-shaped pattern. Brush the eggplant with sesame oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake, cut-size-up for 30 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the oven and turn it cut-side-down. Bake an additional 20 minutes.

While the eggplant is roasting, prepare the glaze. Put the miso, sugar, soy sauce, sake and mirin in a pan and bring to a simmer. Whisk the glaze and cook for several minutes, until thickened,

Remove eggplant from oven and turn cut-side-up. Brush the eggplant generously with miso glaze. Return to the oven and broil 3-5 minutes until caramelized.

Garnish the eggplant with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve immediately.


1 year ago: spaghetti squash with sauteed spinach & mushrooms
2 years ago: turkey & pastrami wrapped asparagus

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Kani Caesar Salad with Nori Croutons

When the Kosher Connection team decided on “croutons” as the link-up theme for May, I was so excited to finally try out a recipe that I’ve been dreaming of developing for months now. Truth be told, I am not the biggest nori fan. I mean, I wouldn’t eat the stuff if it didn’t hold my sushi together. It’s got that fishy quality about it that’s just kind of, well, stinky. But you know what? when you use it to top off a kani caesar salad, it just sorta, goes.

Talking about dislikes, I used to have a serious aversion to surimi, those orange-colored mock crab sticks. But after I tasted this salad at my cousin’s house a few months back, I was hooked. You see, it’s all a matter of how you serve it. Pulling the kani apart into shreds and coating it in a spicy sriracha dressing takes it from what-is-this-spongy-orange-stuff-in-my-california-roll to what’s-in-this-amazing-salad?! Seriously people, kani salad has changed my outlook on surimi forever.

So that’s sorta how this happened. At first, I came up with the brilliant concept of a nori-flavored crouton. But who would want to eat a nori crouton on a standard lettuce salad? I knew I had to incorporate some kind of seafood to bring the whole sushi concept together, but it also had to have greens to hold up the whole croutons thing. Alas, I figured I would do a take on a salmon-caesar salad with a Japanese-inspired recipe. This Kani Caesar Salad combines the classic Caesar concept with the awesomeness of kani salad, with nori croutons and a sriracha caesar dressing to round it out. If you think this salad looks good, just wait until you taste the dressing. It’s got an amazing depth of flavor from the anchovies that is only made better by the Asian hot sauce, it’s heat  balanced by the addition of sweet rice vinegar.

So, if you’re looking to wow your guests with a nontraditional twist on a classic Caesar salad, give this Kani Caesar Salad with nori croutons a try. And don’t forget to check out the Kosher Connection Link-Up below for more fun & creative twists on croutons!

Kani Caeser Salad with Nori Croutons

2 heads romaine lettuce
1/2 package surimi (8 mock crab sticks)
6 oz. leftover bread, cut into cubes
2 sheets nori seaweed
1/4 c. neutral-flavored oil, such as canola
sriracha caesar dressing (recipe follows)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place nori sheets in the food processor and process until a dust forms. Place bread and nori into a large mixing bowl and drizzle with oil. Toss the croutons to coat with the nori dust. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until croutons are golden and toasted.

To prepare the salad, wash and dry romaine lettuce. Chop or tear the lettuce to desired size and place in a salad bowl. Pull the surimi sticks apart into shreds and spread over lettuce. Drizzle with dressing and garnish with nori croutons.

Sriracha Caesar Dressing:

2 cloves garlic
3-6 anchovy fillets
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tbsp sriracha
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup canola oil

Method:

Add everything except for oil to the food processor. Turn the food processor on and slowly pour in the oil until a creamy dressing forms. Add more oil, if needed, to reach desired consistency.

NOTE: anchovies are what gives Caesar salad dressing it’s unique salty/umami flavor. If you’re scared away, start with 1 or 2. Alternatively, you can add a few shakes of fish sauce.

1 year ago: cream of leek soup
2 years ago: home-made fish sticks

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Sweet Hawaiian Chicken

Sometimes I’m so busy dreaming up new dishes to wow you all, that I forget about the oldie but goody recipes like this one. This sweet and delicious chicken is a recipe I grew up eating. My mother has been making it for years, and it’s just one of those dishes that’s a keeper. The pineapple and maraschino topping provide a lovely garnish, making this the perfect chicken dish to serve over the holidays or at your next party.

If you’ve got leftover pineapple, try this delicious tropical smoothie for dessert!

Sweet Hawaiian Chicken

8 chicken quarters, skin on
1 can pineapple rings
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drain the juice from the can of pineapple rings into a bowl. Whisk in the ketchup and brown sugar. Place the chicken skin-side up in a baking dish and top  with a slice of pineapple and a maraschino cherry. Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover, baste with the sauce, and bake for an additional 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.

1 year ago: rice pilaf
2 years ago: pretty perfection, headbands in a pinch!

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