Celebrating Qing Ming

This last week we celebrated Qing Ming (Clean and Bright). Qing Ming is a Chinese holiday for grave cleaning, which we celebrated by doing so. We went to the mausoleum with flowers and cleaned up around around my mom. It was nice to go since I haven’t been in a while, although I guess it should take a holiday to get me to go there. Anyway, for dinner we had a ghost feast and burnt ghost money. You can read more about the holiday here:

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/1993-ching-ming-festival-a-chinese-tradition

We had a lot on the menu, at least a lot for 2 people, but we still managed to eat it all. I have this problem where if there is food in front of me…it disappears :P. Anyways, today you get 2 posts! Sweet Chili Sauce and Chicken and Rice Pudding.

Chicken:

http://www.sidewalkshoes.com/2008/11/chicken-with-sweet-chili-sauce.html

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce
1/2 cup of soy sauce
peanut oil (or whatever you want to use for sauteing)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Method:
Mix 1/4 cup chili sauce and 1/4 cup soy sauce in a shall glass dish or zip lock bag, add chicken and turn to coat. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Add a tablespoon or two of oil to a pan and heat over medium high heat. Lift chicken from marinade and brown on one side for about 2-3 minutes (it may smoke a little from the sweet marinade). Turn the chicken over and brown for 2 minutes per this side. Cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and let it finish cooking for about 8 minutes.

Mix remaining chili sauce and soy sauce in a small pot and heat over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve over chicken.

Notes:

I really like this sauce! LIKE REALLY LIKE IT! Haha, and for once I actually followed the recipe as written! I have some left over and I want to try to mix it in with fried rice instead of just  soy sauce. I’ll let you know how it turns out :D. The sauce can get a bit thick, so you may want to thin it out with a touch of water.

Rice Pudding:

http://wordstoeatby.blogspot.com/2009/06/rice-pudding-and-mango-parfait-modern.html

Ingredients:
3 cups whole milk [I used 2%]
2 to 4 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (see Note)
1⁄4 cup white basmati rice, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, crushed
1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

Method:

In a deep saucepan, bring the whole milk and condensed milk to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly to prevent scorching.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the rice and cardamom and mix well. Continue to cook for about 50 minutes, until the milk has reduced by half and you obtain a creamy consistency [mine was done in about 35 minutes]. Stir frequently while cooking.

Remove from the heat and allow to come to room temperature.

Refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour.

Notes:

I really like rice pudding with mango. I’ve had it before at a restaurant, and even though I didn’t make it as a parfait it still came out really well. I tasted it with 2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk and thought it needed a little more sweetness, so I added another table spoon. I also put in about 3-5 tsp of vanilla because I accidentally poured too much in :). It burned a little bit on the bottom, but I found I like the burnt bits a little more :D. MmmMmm..burnty… Anyway, I served it immediately after with mango because when I ate it at the restaurant it was warm, so I figured this is what they did. Oh, and mangoes are my favorite fruit… you’ll have to guess the 2nd and 3rd 😉

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