Chinese New Year Plum BBQ Chicken

Since Sunday is the Chinese New Year - The Year of the Pig, I thought we'd get started off right with an interesting recipe for some grilled Chinese Plum BBQ Chicken. I found this recipe on the Oregon Chickens website, but what really caught my eye is that this was written by Daniel Blankenship. I have a distant cousin Daniel Blankenship, whom I've never met. I wonder if it's the same guy.

Chinese New Year Plum BBQ Chicken
Submitted by: Daniel Blankenship Corvallis, Or
Serves 4

• 1 fryer chicken, cut into pieces

Pre-Grilling Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Chinese mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon wasabi powder
• 1 tablespoon sesame seed oil
  

Barbecue Sauce:

• 1 cup Chinese plum sauce
• 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
  

Garnish:

• 1/4 cup mandarin oranges

Combine the pre-grilling sauce ingredients and brush on chicken pieces. Grill on medium hot fire until almost done. Combine all the barbeque sauce ingredients. During the last few minutes of grilling, baste chicken liberally with barbecue sauce on both sides. Garnish with mandarin oranges and serve.

Potatoes In Space......

While, you'd probably expect a story about pigs in space on a barbeque blog, here's an interesting story, courtesy of the AP, about how the Chinese are eating and enjoying mutated space potatoes in the trendiest restaurants of Shanghai.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Having boldly gone where no spud has before, Chinese space potatoes are now the latest culinary fad to hit the country's ultra-trendy commercial hub of Shanghai.

Slightly sweet and purple in color, the potatoes, named Purple Orchid Three, are bred from seeds that mutated while being carried aboard a Chinese spacecraft, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported Monday.

Grower Haikou Purple Orchid Co. Ltd. is promoting them as a unique food option, and restaurants in the city are offering them for Valentine's Day dinners, served crispy fried, or in salads, desserts and even iced drinks, the newspaper said.

China's space program claims to have produced numerous mutated fruits and vegetables by exposing seeds to space radiation, capsule pressure and weightlessness.

Chinese agricultural experts say plants grown from such seeds can be hardier, more nutritious and produce higher yields, although many scientists say similar effects could be achieved in ordinary laboratories.

The space program, which has successfully completed two manned missions, is a source of massive national pride for China, and companies marketing everything from milk to magazines have bought the rights to be endorsed by it.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.