Cashew Chicken, Yams, Trifle and Black-eyed Peas

Cashew Chicken

Another great recipe from Guest Chef Fiona Barnes. An English take on a traditional Chinese dish with chicken and cashews in a light soy/ginger/garlic sauce.

Fiona usually does this in a slow cooker, but we used the electric skillet set down to 200F. Cooked in about two hours. Serves 4.

4 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless, cut into short strips and pieces

4oz. Cashews - unsalted

3 Tbsp Corn Starch

4 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

4 Tbsp Ketchup

4 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

1” finger fresh Ginger, grated

2-3 cloves Garlic, minced

2 Tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce (I like Frank's Red Hot Sweet Chili Sauce tm)

1/4t tsp Red Pepper Flakes

Salt & Pepper to taste

Rice – we used Valencia because it was what we had on hand.

Cinnamon Baked Sweet Potatoes

Fiona served these as a tasty counterpoint alongside her Cashew Chicken. Our Thanksgiving guests will be having them alongside the turkey and ham. Just sweet and cinnamon-y enough! This recipe serves 4.

2 large Sweet Potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2” thick crescents

1/2s stick Butter

2 Tbsp Honey or Cane Syrup

1 tsp Cinnamon

Melt the butter, honey and cinnamon together in the microwave. Coat each slice of potato with the melted yummy. Stack in a 9x9 dish, 2 slices deep. Cover and bake at 400F for 30-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Traditional English Trifle

It seems no English dinner is complete without some form of dessert.    This is Fiona's take on a traditional favorite.

You need a large, deep glass bowl; called a Trifle Bowl. This is somewhat smaller in diameter but much deeper than a standard mixing bowl.

Start with Sponge Cake to cover the bottom of the bowl. Use store-bought cake like those strawberry shortcake things, or lady's fingers. If you can find lady's fingers, they are often stood up around the inside wall of the trifle, as well as to cover the bottom. Once the bottom is in place, some people add a layer of strawberry or raspberry jam on top or between two layers of thin spongecake. Sprinkle 1-3 tablespoons of Sherry on top the sponge.

Now add a layer of drained Fruit. Fiona used canned Mandarin Oranges, and reserved the juice for later. Here in Florida we could use any sort of tropical fruit to kick things up – kiwi, mango, banana, papaya, carambola, pineapple, etc.

Make up a batch of flavored Jello-O tm. Fiona used Orange, to go along with the mandarin fruit. She also used the reserved mandarin juice as part of the cold water added to the Jell-O. Gently pour the Jell-O over the layers in the bowl and put the bowl in the fridge to set up.

If you want a really big trifle, you can repeat all of the above for a second level of yumminess!!

Two last layers complete the trifle. First a layer of Custard. Brits usually use Birds tm brand powdered custard mix. Follow directions to make a pint of custard. 

 If you absolutely can't find Birds custard powder, you can, reluctantly, use a packet of vanilla pudding mix.

After the custard layer has set in the fridge, the last layer is real Whipped Cream – a 1/2 pint container of heavy cream whipped into stiff peaks and spread over all. You could wimp out with that imitation stuff from the freezer section, but it just would not be the same. Garnish the final result with a few bits of fruit, or sliced almonds, or shaved chocolate.

Blackeyed Peas Tex-Mex Style

Super simple. I created this as a side dish for watching the Gators beat the LSU Tigers in the last 3 seconds of a hotly contested game that was delayed from when Hurricane Matthew gave central and western Florida a close miss a month or so ago.

1 cup dry Blackeyed Peas

1 can Ro*Tel Chili Fixin's

Cook the peas about 1-1/2 hours on low, until tender. Drain. Toss with the Chili Fixin's and serve. The Fixin's adds a great smokiness from chiles en adobo and roasted tomatoes.  You can also mash this preparation, and make a great scoopable chip dip.