Thank you Lesley Blackner for helping me to decide what to fix for dinner last night

I was talking to my friend Lesley yesterday and she asked me if I had any good vegetarian recipes.

I have a pretty good collection of them since Emily and I used to have vegetarian summers when Emily, Ryan and I spent their school vacations in North Florida without William around to complain about the lack of meat.

Looking though my recipes gave me the inspiration for last night's peanut noodles. I decided to try Soy Sauce Chicken to go with them to keep my husband happy.

It's the first time I've made this chicken and it was excellent.

Peanut Sesame Noodles

For peanut dressing:

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup hot pasta water

2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons rice-wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes

For noodle salad:

1 lb dried linguine or spaghetti

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

1 small head of broccoli cut into florets and steamed

Directions:



for dressing:

Purée dressing ingredients (except the pasta water ) in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl.

Add the scallions, bell peppers, and broccoli to dressing.

for salad:

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender. Reserve a cup of  the pasta water for the 1/2 cup water to add to the sauce plus a little extra to thin the sauce if necessary. Add the hot pasta water to the sauce. Drain pasta in a colander and add to the bowl with the sauce. Toss to combine and serve immediately.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Ingredients:

1 small chicken  -  3 to 4 pounds

1 cup soy sauce

3 cups water

3 tbsp sherry

1 tbsp sugar

1  bunch chopped scallions

8 slices of ginger

4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients except the chicken in a small heavy pot. You want the pot to be small enough so that the chicken fits in the pot with the liquid reaching at least halfway up the chicken.
Bring the sauce to a boil.
Place chicken in liquid and continue to boil over high heat, covered, for 15 minutes.

Turn off heat and let chicken sit in liquid, covered, 20 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the cooking liquid and place in  a roasting pan and roast 15 to 20 minutes at 500 degrees.

To reuse the poaching liquid, strain the sauce and keep in the freezer until the next time. Just add fresh ginger, garlic and scallions the next time you use it.