Here’s what I did:
Roasted mushrooms, tossed with a touch of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Served at room temperature.
The canned crab found its way into a salad of white beans, red onions, rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mint oil. Next time, I’d substitute canned tuna if I couldn’t come up with anything better than canned crab. Or nothing at all.
And on to the chicken. I’d tossed the skin- and bone-free pale crescents of protein in the freezer anticipating that I’d neatly slice it all up while half-frozen, but I forgot to remove them before they were as hard as ice cubes. And I’d go on to learn another lesson: the Cuisinart is useless when it comes to slicing up frozen chicken breasts. Thirty minutes on the counter rendered them sliceable and ready for the soy-ginger-sake marinade to which I’d stirred in some cornstarch and baking soda. Twenty minutes later, I sautéed them in the cast iron frying pan that’s become my current favorite for some odd reason. After the nearly-done chicken was removed from the pan, I stir-fried scallions, serrano chile strips, mangos, and half-inch slices of unpeeled Persian cucumbers for a few minutes, adding the chicken back in for the final minute. And I served that over a bed of baby arugula.
And now for the postprandial analysis. The crab salad was mediocre. I was pleased with the chicken dish, which would’ve been better had I served it over rice or mixed in some rice noodles or bean threads instead of over arugula. The roasted mushrooms were the real sleeper: so easy, so obvious, and I wondered why I’ve never made them before.
There were two more lessons I took away from this evening’s encounter: stir-frying in canola oil isn’t a ticket to hell and perdition, and you really can cook with cucumbers. Thank you, Dan, for the advice and encouragement. It’s always a blast to cook with you and Kevin.