January 29: Asian Chicken Fondue

Today we only had power in half of our house, so the Internet, TV, and x-box were down. So I got some journaling done in my scrapbook. It's amazing what you can do without the Internet to distract you. I did have power in the kitchen, so I was able to make today's dinner. It is from the patio party foods section of the cookbook. It's not really a real fondue per se, where you actually cook the food at the table, it's just a mixture of already-cooked pieces of food that you can scoop out and serve yourself. I started at about 11:30 this afternoon gathering the ingredients:

I put a cup of shiitakes, a can of chicken broth, a tbsp of teriyaki sauce, a chopped leek, a chopped baby bok choy, 2 tbsp oyster sauce and 1 tbsp mirin in the crockpot and set it on low to cook while I followed the remaining instructions:

I cooked 2 lbs of cubed chicken breasts for 4 minutes on both sides in 1 tbsp of canola oil. Then I added the chicken and a cup of cubed butternut squash to the crockpot. That cooked on low for about 5 hours:

I mixed up 2 tbsp cold water with 1 tbsp cornstarch:

I added that to the crockpot with a can of baby corn and a can of water chestnuts and it cooked for 20 more minutes:

The recipe says, "Serve with bamboo skewers, fondue forks or tongs so guests may serve themselves as desired. Broth may also be served in small soup bowls." I got out some forks and tongs and let my kids serve themselves. They thought that was fun, and I think it got them to eat more than they would have. They really liked it... especially the baby corn. :) The baby liked it too. DH didn't like it and only ate a few bites. I don't know if he really didn't like it, or if the fact that he was upset about the power being out caused him to not like anything. I'll have to see if he eats it for lunch tomorrow.