10 Ingredient Shopping List

Patrick sent me a link to this great New York Times article about making a week's worth of dinners on just 10 items from the grocery each week.
I tried it this week. I checked to make sure I had all the pantry suggestions and then went and hit Plaza Extra which might possibly be the WORST, most dirtiest, scariest grocery store in all of the Caribbean. Oh what I would give for a moment in my beloved Publix. With their free cookies for Piper, clean bathrooms, sale items, recipe cards, fresh flowers, kind and friendly staff, pristine white floors, bright, clean lighting...I could go on, but I'm afraid I might cry.

Ahm, where was I?
So here is the suggested list of pantry items that every wanna-be gourmet cook should already have on hand:
spices
good cooking oils and vinegars
long-keeping carbs like pasta, rice and udon noodles
(no idea what Udon Noodles are, so I'm just using regular angel hair)
soy sauce
garlic
lemon
butter
Parmesan cheese


The 10 Ingredient Shopping List:
Chicken breasts (4 boneless)
Bacon (1/2 pound)
Shrimp (1 pound)
Spinach (1 pound)
Tomatoes (6)
Ginger
Onions
Asparagus (2 pounds)
Button mushrooms (1 pound)
Loaf of good country bread (if you guys were smart you would be making the 5 Minute Artisan Bread that I have been begging you to try. I have made a loaf every.single.day since we've been in St. Thomas. I don't think I can go back to regular store bought bread now. Patrick agrees with me, right Patick?)

So last night (Monday) I made this recipe:
Stir-Fried Chicken With Asparagus
Makes: 4 servings
Time: 30 minutes

Rice from the pantry for steaming or boiling
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1/2 pound), cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch chunks or thin slices and blotted dry
1 onion, halved and sliced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
1 pound asparagus, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook the rice while you prepare the chicken and vegetables.

2. Put a large, deep skillet over high heat. Add half the oil, swirl it around, and when it’s hot, add the chicken. Stir once, then let it sit for 1 minute to sear. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken has lost its pink color, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and lower the heat to medium-high.

3. Put the remaining oil in the pan (it should heat immediately) and add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook for about 30 seconds, stirring, then add the asparagus. Raise the heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the asparagus scorches a little in places and just starts to become tender, but not soft, about 2 minutes.

4. Turn the heat down to medium and return the chicken to the pan, and toss once or twice. Add the sugar if you’re using it, along with the soy sauce, and toss again. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add 1/2 cup water. Raise the heat to high and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the liquid is reduced slightly and you’ve scraped up all the crisp bits of chicken and vegetables. Serve over the rice.

It was SO GREAT! Super easy - I'd say the entire process took me 20 minutes, start to finish. I added some sesame seeds at the end just to make it look nice and served it over brown rice. I thought it would be a bit boring and bland with just sugar and soy sauce as the stir fry "gravy" but it was actually really nice not having the sauce all bogged down with the usual stir fry stuff like cornstarch/terriyaki sauce/oyster sauce/etc. Patrick and I both had seconds and ended up eating the entire pan full of stir fry (bummer, no leftovers).

Tomorrow night: Shrimp with Aspargus and Noodles