In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
There’s this pretty well-known Taiwanese dish called Three Cup Chicken. The flavorful dish of dark meat chicken is flavored with sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil with a strong dose of Chinese/Thai Basil. My mom came up with a vegetarian version, Three Cup Tofu with the same flavor profile and it’s even easier to make. I was planning on posting Three Cup Chicken first, since it’s the original dish. That would have made more sense but alas, my body was just not willing to work with me on this…
Shishito Peppers are the best peppers ever! I just love them, want to marry them (sorry Lon), and eat them up all at once. You can just just blister them (see pic down the page) in olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. and they are already delicious. If you want to take it up just one teeny weeny baby step, you can try them with bacon and Thai basil. Mmmm good.
Do you want to know how I came up with this recipe? Remember my herb garden? Well, while we were in Maryland/DC this weekend, all of them died except for the Italian Basil and the Thai Basil. That’s all I have left. I decided on the Thai Basil and I actually think this recipe kicks butt, so I guess it was a mixed blessing.
Bacon Basil Shishito Peppers
~3 to 4 side dish servings
Instructions –
Heat bacon in a wok on medium heat ontil the fat releases. Once you get a little puddle on fat in the center, turn up the heat and add the Shishito peppers. Toss to coat the in the yummy bacon fat and stir around until they are blistered like this.
Add the Thai Basil and toss around for another 30 seconds. Season with salt and pepper. (Be careful if your bacon is salty.) Serve immediately.
Chinese cooking is all about mise en place. For many dishes, once you have all the prep ready, the cooking part only takes a few minutes. Seriously! This is a perfect example, as the stir-frying part literally takes 3 minutes, assuming you don’t have a weak stove.
Since I made the Carrot and Daikon Slaw, I’ve been anticipating a Banh Mi Sandwich, but when I started making dinner, I had a wild craving for some juicy red meat. The compromise was a Bahn Mi Burger. There’s no way that could be bad right? Not only was it not bad, Lon and I gobbled it down, barely coming up for air, and then agreed to make it again soon. We also contemplated opening a little shop that only sold Banh Mi Burgers and taro fries. Yes, we did have it with taro fries. It was perfect.
