I'm baaaacckkk!!!

I have to sincerely apologize for being MIA for like actually an entire year. But I come bearing gifts for y'all - a gift specifically in the form of the perfect replica recipe for Uchiko's amazing brussel sprouts.

If you live in Austin (and now maybe Dallas I think too), you have probably heard of Uchi and/or Uchiko and how "you totally have to get sushi there" - which you do - but the real draw is the brussel sprouts, trust me. They are like crack. I have gone to dinner with my girlfriends and ordered bowl after bowl after bowl of these babies.

So it's no wonder that while I was pregnant, and the rare times I felt like eating, I wanted these delicious nuggets of heaven. However, Uchiko can be a bit...uppity? and denied me my lifeline through Favor and I was woefully unable to have them whenever I wanted.

Now that I am post-partum and climbing back to my old self, I got in the kitchen and got to work. I wanted these sprouts and I made it happen! These are insanely easy and outrageously good - even my kids chow down.

Uchiko Brussel Sprouts

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh brussel sprouts
Vegetable oil
Kosher Salt
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
Juice of one small lemon
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 tbs. Sriracha sauce (or more to taste)

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Trim the stems off the sprouts and halve them, top to bottom. If the sprouts are large, cut them into quarters. You want them to be bite sized pieces. Rinse the sprouts with water in a colander and turn out onto paper towels to dry while the oven heats.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicon baking mat (or foil). Spread the sprouts out on your prepared baking sheet and drizzle with oil and season well with kosher salt. Toss with tongs to coat the sprouts evenly. Bake on the top rack for 45-60 minutes, tossing the sprouts every 15 minutes. Bake until browned and crispy.

While the sprouts cook, prepare the sauce. Combine the soy sauce, maple syrup, lemon juice, garlic and Sriarcha sauce in a small sauce pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, bring to a boil and reduce the mixture to half, stirring constantly.

Remove the sprouts from the oven. In a bowl, toss the sprouts in half the sauce. Taste and add more sauce to taste.

I spend a lot of time extolling the virtue of NY Italian food and the impact it had on my culinary development. However, there is a dish that I grew up with, that was not homemade, but an important thread in my culinary history: Chicken Lo-Mein. When I was growing up we only had a couple of places we ordered take-out from (far less than my family does now) - there was Joe's Pizza and Imperial Wok. We had pizza at Joe's once a week on Thursdays after tennis lessons with our friends and about twice a month my dad decided we would order Chinese.

I had two staples that I liked to order; chicken fried rice and chicken lo-mein. I don't think my tastes were wild and crazy at the age of eleven so I kept it simple and easy. And since then, I have lived in San Francisco and been exposed to the insanely wide variety of Asian cuisines, fell in love with Thai fried rice with tofu and Pad Kee Mao and so on and so on. But my basic, simple, chicken lo-mein could never be replaced in my heart.

Unfortunately however, there weren't that many great Chinese places in San Francisco (lots of Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Japanese, etc.), Chinese take-out seemed to almost be unique to New York. When I moved to Austin, the situation only got more dire. We have even less Asian take-out and just about one decent Chinese place. No offense to some of the staples here like Mama Fu's and Madam Mam's, but its just not the same. Thank goodness for Titaya's Thai Cuisine that absolutely hits the mark for Thai fried rice and Pad Kee Mao, but I am sorely out of luck on Chicken Lo-Mein. It just constantly blows my mind that I just can't get it here - you can walk in to almost any Chinese place in New York and get a solid serving of Chicken Lo-Mein that tastes the same.

Anyway, I am getting too deep on my feelings for Chinese take-out. The point is, I only get to eat lo-mein when I go home to see my mom, which is just not enough. This was the first year we didn't go to New York for Christmas in my entire life (which was wonderful for some reasons and sad for others, but that's another story for another day) and so I didn't get an opportunity to feed my craving. I've been thinking about it for weeks and finally decided to give it a go making it at home.

Y'all it was so worth it. SO WORTH IT. This was an insanely easy concept once I didn't some reading and comparing of recipes and decided on a game plan. I wanted chicken in mine, so I chopped up the chicken into bite sized pieces and tossed it in the crock-pot and let it ride all day until I was ready to make dinner. Then it was as simple as boiling the noodles and then sauteeing the veggies and tossing it all together.

Chicken Lo-Mein

Serves 8

For the Chicken:

4 skinless chicken breasts (or breasts and thighs) sliced thin into bite sized pieces
1 cup Teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil, divded
1 tbs. ground ginger, divided
2 tbs. sugar

For the Sauce:

1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 cup sesame oil
2 tbs. ground ginger
2 tbs. Sriracha mayo

For the Lo-mein:

16 oz. Lo-Mein egg noodles
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup chopped green cabbage
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas)
1/2 white onion, diced
2 tbs. minced garlic
1 cup snow peas (optional)

Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce in the bowl of a crock-pot. Add the chopped chicken and stir to coat. Cook on low for 4-6 hours until cooked tender. Remove from crock pot with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Bring a large stock pot of water to a boil and cook the lo-mein noodles according the directions on the package. Drain cooked noodles into a colander and rinse well with cold water. Set aside.

Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce together in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large saute pan or braiser over medium-high heat. Add a few tablespoons of sesame oil and the garlic. Saute until fragrant, just a minute or two. Add the onion, carrots, mushrooms and snow peas. Saute until onions are translucent. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Add the cabbage and saute until wilted. Pour 1/3 of the sauce over the veggies and chicken and saute until evenly mixed.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the lo-mein noodles, using tongs to toss the noddles with the veggies and chicken. Add the remaining sauce as you go, tossing to distribute the sauce evenly and cook for a few minutes more until the flavors are blended.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate and consume in the morning after a rough night out.