Stirfried Chicken and Peppers with Spiced Lemon Honey

Where have I been for all these months? Life, as it does sometimes, exploded all over the place, quite literally in a couple cases. I came home from a nice trip up to the Silicon Valley to discover that the plumbing had backed up, and everything that had been flushed away had exploded into my bathroom and bedroom. This was a major cleanup operation, while I camped out in someone else’s bedroom for the duration. Our handyman took forever to finish it up. I had only sporadic access to a connected computer during that time, since my computer was in my bedroom. By the time our handyman finally finished with the cleanup, repair, and remodeling, the true heat of summer hit. My wimpy little wall-mounted air conditioner could not cool the oven my room becomes during the summer. It’s made worse by the fact that my room is a converted garage and has no insulation. So I continued to camp out and live on the ten days’ worth of clothing I’d taken on my trip.

At long last, it began to cool off enough that I could start to think about moving back into my room. I was back in college, my classes were going well, and everything seemed to be going pretty well. Right up until I came home from class one day, anyway. In spite of the previous work done, the replacement of bathroom fixtures, the cleaning of the pipes, it happened again. A brand new explosion of raw sewage into my bedroom. I have continued camping out and living out of my suitcase. Come February, it will have been a year since the first incident drove me out.

I used to say every summer when the heat got to be too much that my room was really shitty. I didn’t expect to be taken quite so literally.

The process is under way to move me into a different room. My old one will have the plumbing capped off and become storage. Before I can move into it, though, the heater needs to be repaired. It’s down in the 20s at night currently, and hypothermia doesn’t sound like the best way to spend the winter break.

Meantime, cooking is a good way to take out frustrations, though I don’t think that it’s helping anyone’s opinion of my sanity. I start prepping something, my cat comes along to attack my right foot, and before long, there’s quite a scene developing. The cat lies on his side, swiping at my right foot, which I’m holding up just out of his reach while I balance on one foot. I’ve got a deadline, a time dinner has to be prepared by, so I just keep working like that. Once in a while he’ll make a more energetic lunge, and give me the cat claw equivalent of a paper cut. I yelp and holler for help, which no one hears or pays attention to. In between, “OW! Hey, HELP!” I slice and chop enthusiastically, still balanced on one foot, and accuse whatever I’m cutting as the source of my bedroom’s woes. “Take that! And that!” is periodically sprinkled through the accusations. (Hey, I need to take the frustration out on something other than the housemates!) If I’m not talking to the ingredients, I’m singing opera while prepping and balanced on one foot. Another cat hops up on a stool near the kitchen island and tries to steal scallions, and I start smacking her fat little paw away from the food. In response, the cat stands on her head on the stool. Eventually, she does a somersault and almost falls off. I start laughing so hard that I almost fall over, since I’m not at my most stable while balanced on one foot. This usually scares away all cats in the vicinity, and I think I can get some uninterrupted work done, but it’s at this point someone else in the household comes in to do something right where I need to be next. I wind up sitting and waiting for them to get done, by which time the cats have gotten over being spooked. The whole thing starts all over again, beginning with the cat with the foot fetish.

It’s a good thing that I normally thrive on chaos. There’s no other way to describe what attempts at cooking around here always degenerate into.

In spite of it all, good food still comes out of the kitchen chaos, such as this experiment.

This dish is a fusion of Asian and North African flavors. The techniques, the aromatics, and some of the sauce ingredients are a part of the repertoire in Chinese cuisine. The spiced lemon honey was inspired by my favorite Tunisian sweet potato dish. They meld very well, making a wonderful sweet-sour dish that leans a little more toward the sour than the sweet. If something sweeter is what you’re looking for, reduce the lemon juice by 1 tablespoon and add 2 more teaspoons of honey. Reds are the sweetest of the bell peppers, so remember when making adjustments that they will add to the sweetness of any mouthful they’re in.

Stirfried Chicken and Peppers with Spiced Lemon Honey

6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 teaspoons clear honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sherry or rice wine
a 3-inch piece of fresh gingerroot
6-8 cloves garlic
4 large or 6 medium scallions
1 1/2 lbs. skinless boneless chicken breasts, sliced thin across the grain
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch squares

1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, for stirfrying

In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, the honey, the cinnamon, and the chili powder until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

Combine the remaining lemon juice with the soy sauce and sherry and set aside.

Remove the white and pale green parts of the scallions. Mince finely with the gingerroot and garlic either in a food processor or by hand, and set the minced aromatics aside. Slice the dark green scallion tops into rings.

Heat a wok or heavy skillet over high heat until hot enough to evaporate a bead of water on contact. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot enough to sizzle a piece of bell pepper on contact, add the peppers. Stirfry, tossing briskly, until the pepper pieces are hot and evenly glossed with the oil, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape the peppers into a heatproof bowl, wipe the wok down quickly, and return the wok to the heat.

When the wok is again hot enough to evaporate a bead of water on contact, add the remainder of the oil. Swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot enough to sizzle some of the minced aromatics on contact, add all the minced aromatic, adjust the heat so they sizzle merrily without scorching, and stir briskly until fully fragrant, about 30 seconds. If the pan gets dry, dribble a little more oil down the side of the pan.

When the aromatics are fully fragrant, add the chicken and the peppers. Stirfry with quick scooping motions to tumble the ingredients and keep them in constant motion, for 1 minute. Add the lemon, soy, and sherry mixture and cook, stirring and tossing, for 1 minute. Add the spiced honey mixture and continue to toss and stir for 1 more minute. Give the cornstarch mixture a stir to recombine. Pour evenly over the chicken. Stirfry until the sauce thickens and becomes glossy. Sprinkle over the scallion rings to garnish and serve immediately over steamed rice.