Dinner #6: Fresh Chicken Wantons, Chicken Stir Fry, Mini Cherry Pies

Step 1: Appetizer -- Fresh Chicken Wontons

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts
1 Small Scallion
1 Jalapeno Pepper
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Ketchup
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tbs soy Sauce
1 Tps Fresh Cracked Pepper
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
Wanton Wrappers (or, you can make your own)

Directions:

Cut up Chicken into smaller pieces. Chop Scallion and Jalapeno into several smaller pieces. Add Chicken, Scallion, Jalapeno, egg, Mustard, Ketchup, Garlic, Soy Sauce, & Pepper into a food processor and pulse several times until thoughtfully blended but not too liquidity. Place oil in a frying pan and heat on medium heat. Separate wanton wrappers, as many as you want to use. Spoon some of the chicken filling into the center of a wanton wrapper. wet the edges and then fold the wanton wrappers from corner to corner. Fry until golden brown and then serve with spicy mustard dipping sauce or soy sauce.

Step 2: Main Course -- Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:
2 Boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 zucchini, chopped
1 squash, chopped
3 mushrooms, chopped
3 Tb Asian salad dressing
3 Tb soy sauce
3 Tb Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper


Directions:

Heat oil in fry pan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add dressing, garlic powder, soy sauce and vegetables. Cook for about 10 minutes until vegetables are soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!=

Step 3: Dessert -- Mini Cheery Pies (Taken from www.brooklynfarmhouse.com)

Ingredients:
For the crust:

2 1/2 cups pastry flour or all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes and well-chilled
6-8 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:
3 cups sour cherries, washed, stemmed, and pitted
3/4 cup raw or granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

For the crust:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Pulse once or twice to blend.
2. Add the butter and pulse several times, or until the the mixture has a course, sandy texture but still has chunks of fat about the size of a pea.
3. Add 6 tablespoons of the ice water, and pulse again to combine. Pinch a bit of the dough mixture between your fingers. If it holds together, the dough is ready. If not, add additional tablespoons of ice water, one tablespoon at a time. The dough will not form a ball (you will do that later).
4. Dump the mixture on a large piece of parchment or wax paper and divide the pile roughly in half. Combine each half of the dough bits into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Roll the disks’ sides on the counter to smooth (this will keep your dough from forming cracks when you roll it out).
5. Wrap each dough disk in plastic wrap, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray, or lightly butter each muffin cup.

For the filling:

1. Combine the pitted cherries, the sugar, and the cornstarch in a large bowl. Stir gently to combine.

To assemble and bake:

1. After the dough has chilled in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, take one dough disk out.
2. Roll out to 12-inches in diameter (I roll my dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to make life a little bit easier).
3. Cut out as many 4-inch circles as you can, then re-roll the scraps and cut additional circles until you have 12. If it is very hot in your kitchen, you may have to periodically refrigerate your dough to keep it from sticking. (Note: if you don’t have enough dough with the first disk to make 12 four-inch circles – it’s OK. You can use the second dough disk to finish making the rest.)
4. Fit each 4-inch dough disk into the muffin cups, gently fitting the dough into the corners of each cup. Refrigerate the muffin tin while you roll the remaining dough.
5. Take the remaining dough disk out of the refrigerator. Roll to 12-inches in diameter.
6. Cut out as many 3-inch circles as you can, then re-roll the scraps and cut out additional circles until you have 12. Refrigerate the dough disks if they become too soft to work with.
7. Remove the dough-lined muffin tin from the refrigerator. Spoon in the prepared filling (I used a size 40 ice cream scoop).
8. Top each cup with a disk of dough. As best you can, pinch together the top and the bottom dough disks. (I just sort of gently pushed them together as best I could.)
9. Cut vents in the top of the dough with a sharp knife.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is golden brown.
11. Cool completely on a wire rack. Run a flexible, sharp knife around the sides of the muffin tin to release your mini-pies.

Closing Remarks:

Brian: I really had a good time with this dinner. The Wantons were great! My favorite for this meal. The Chicken Stir Fry was also really good. Although the Cherry Pies really tasted good, the presentation was not too great. I attribute that to the poor muffin pan that we have. I really need to buy a new one. The live tweets worked out much better this time, although I cannot wait to have a better following.

Suzy: I thought this meal was great. My favorite part was the wantons. They were so good! You can serve the stir-fry over rice but I left it out since we were having wantons and cherry pie, as well as a bottle of wine :)=