Bon Bon Chicken Salad

Blessings Darlings!

I now have 7 cucumbers harvested from the garden, patiently waiting in my kitchen to be used.  While green salads are a great place for cucs, as are watercress sandwiches, for using LOTS of 'em we need a main course dish.

Bon Bon Chicken is my go-to main dish for cucumber season. My husband brought this recipe into our marriage with him.  He got the original recipe from the Chinese cooking classes he took with Pansy and Chu-Yen Luke before we even met.  We've modified it for our tastes.  It does take some ingredients that many folks don't keep around their kitchen .... but since I DO keep them around it's not a problem for me.  If gluten-free matters to you, it's easy to make this gluten free, you'll just have to make sure that your light soy sauce is gluten free.

BON BON CHICKEN SALAD

4 oz. bean thread
1 lb boneless chicken
1 lb. small cucumbers (think kirby, not 'salad' cucs)
1 Tbs salt

4 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, well chopped
4 Tbs Tahini
3 Tbs light soy sauce
3 Tbs Chinese black vinegar
4 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 Tbs chili oil .... or more to taste, but this is powerful.

If you're like me, and boning cheap leg quarters for the chicken, you'll get a pound from 2 meaty leg quarters.  But the Chubby Hubby says that the Luke's adapted their REAL Chinese recipes by adding more meat, for American tastes, so reducing the meat may well be more authentic.

Soak the bean thread in water to cover for half an hour.  While that soaks, bring a couple of cups of water to a boil, add the raw chicken, and simmer 'till it's cooked thru'.  Take out the chicken and let it cool to room temperature, then cut it into thin and short strips.  Salad size, you might say!

Cut the cucs the long way, then slice those halves the short way into thin slices.  Remove water from them by sprinkling them with the salt and letting them sit while do make the salad dressing.  You make the salad dressing by combining the rest of the ingredients.  Squeeze the water from the cuc slices.  If you are avoiding salt you might want to rinse them, too, I do.

Cut the hydrated bean thread 3 inches long. Drop them in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Now everything goes into a big serving dish and gets tossed, plated, and eaten.

Serves 4.

I want. I want. I want.

Blessings Darlings!


I'm having one of those days where my personal 'wants' list is growing exponentially. 


I want a new used car (since our current only car is STILL not running in the rain).
I want a new bicycle, that actually fits my under 5 foot tall frame instead of being too big. And that has fenders so I can ride when it's wet. 
I want a bike trailer.
I want to learn how to maintain my bike on my own.
I want to learn how to do my own at least basic car maintenance.
I want the hardware to do my own basic car maintenance once I learn how to do it.
I want to split another grass-fed organic steer with friends.
I want a share in an organic local CSA.
I want to own my own home.
I want to live where there is no HOA.
I want goats.
I want chickens.
I want a really good deer fence around my garden.
I want to lose 70 pounds.
I want to be able to bike 40 miles a day, on hills.
I want dental insurance.
I want my son to make more money, so he can pay off the university and then save money to pay for those two more semesters he needs to get his Bachelors Degree.  In Psych. Which is marginally more useful than a BA in Philosophy.

Too many of these need money.  But I'm working on the ones that need my efforts.  I'm biking regularly .... even if today I could only do 4 miles on the local hilly roads.  And I'm afraid to bike to Suz's, since the road she lives on is hillier than the one I live on!  I'm exercising and eating better, which should eventually lead to weight loss.  I've signed up for my first bike maintenance/repair class.  I've looked for local (like, within 35 miles) classes on car repair and haven't found any yet, but I'm still looking.  I'm taking the existing car back in to the shop this week, to point out that it still dies in the rain (but that's going to include money.  OTOH, it will include less money that getting another car). 

Oh, the car. I admit it only died in the INCREDIBLE rain we had, not a normal rain.  But we haven't been driving in normal rain because we're afraid.  This time the rain hit while the Spawn was at work.  I suppose I should have driving him since there were thunderstorms predicted.  He waited an hour after it died to see if it would start, then had it towed home.  $90 for the tow. Should he have waited in the dark another hour?  Dunno. 

Spawn is applying for jobs in OUR town, instead of the larger/busier town he works in now, so we can get around the car problem.  It's not like he's making a penny more than minimum wage, so if he gets one his hourly wage won't go down.  And since the restaurant isn't getting much business he's getting sent home early a lot, so he's likely to get a job with as many hours.  Since there doesn't seem to be any advancement where he is - heck, he hasn't even been allowed to watch all the training videos for HIS position since they don't want to have him on the clock due to their low sales - darn near any other job will have as much promotion potential. 

He's not likely to get one locally until fall, when the students get back.  But if he applies every fortnight over the summer they'll get used to seeing him AND learn that he's persistent.  Okay, what they'll really learn is that *I* am persistent in kicking his butt out the door to apply for jobs. 

Anything you want?  What are you doing to get it/them?

Frondly, Fern