Sichuan Banquet

Our good friends Rachelle and Sid came over for dinner last night and I made a Sichuan banquet.  On the menu was bang bang chicken, fish fragrance eggplant, cumin lamb with hand pulled noodles, red braised pork, cauliflower with bacon and smoked tofu, and water spinach with garlic and ginger.

Timing got a bit away from me.  The noodles were a huge time sink, but they were really delicious.  I wasn't so happy with the lamb visually, that may have been because I used ginger garlic paste instead of minced/grated aromatics...trying to save a bit of time here and there.  The picture on the website Omnivore's Cookbook looked so much better.  I used her recipe for the hand-pulled noodles as well.  Here is a link to that recipe from the Omnivore's Cookbook for hand pulled noodles.  

Cumin Lamb and Hand Pulled Noodles

The eggplant recipe can be found here.  It was the big crowd pleaser last night once again. My husband is not a big fan of eggplant, but he loves mushrooms, so I added a few king mushrooms that I sliced coated with cornstarch like the eggplant, and fried.

Fish Fragrance Eggplant and Mushroom

The big loser was the water spinach with ginger and garlic.  There are 2 types of water spinach, I used the thin leafed last night, there is a larger leaf that more resembles spinach leaves.  It may have been tastier with that type.  I found it was a bit stringy and difficult to manage chewing. Turns out I didn't get a photo of that. Just as well will probably not make that dish again.  Maybe sub in pea shoots instead of the water spinach.

I used a Fuchsia Dunlap recipe from "Land of Plenty", her food of sichuan book.  Her recipes are always really good. Cauliflower with smokey bacon recipe link.  I added smoked tofu to amp up the smokey flavor, not sure that concepts worked but it was a very tasty dish. I had a few asparagus spears hanging around that needed to be cooked, so I threw them in as well.  I blanched the veggies first and they cooked the bacon and tofu before adding the aromatics and vegetables.  A very satisfying dish.

Cauliflower with smokey bacon

I used another Fuchsia Dunlop recipe for the red braised pork one that usually uses beef.  I subbed in 2 pork shanks for the beef.  The dish turned out too salty and I am trying to figure out what caused the overload.  My first idea was the reduction in the liquid in the dutch oven over the cooking time.  What was almost 2 quarts of liquid at the start became about 1/2 deep pool at the end.  That is probably the reason it was so salty.  The flavor was good and in small quantities over rice it was very good.

Red cooked pork

The bones in the shanks just fell out and the skin came off in gelatinous sheets.  It was a very pretty and authentic looking dish.  Next time I will use unsalted stock.

Bang Bang Chicken is another Fuchsia Dunlop dish and it's served cold.  It consists poached chicken shredded by hand and a sesame based sauce.  I liked this dish.  The cold/room temp was a refreshing change from the fresh off the stove stuff.  I steamed chicken thighs, traditionally it is with breast meat, and after they cooled down a bit I shredded the meat discarding any remaining fat and unappetizing looking bits.  I stored the shredded meat in the fridge over night in about 1 cup of the steaming broth which was incredibly flavorful.  I got out the instant pot and put a steaming basket in and filled up to the basket with water.  I removed the basket and added 3 scallions, 2 big slices of ginger, a couple of sichuan peppers and 2 cloves of garlic.  I steamed them for 15 minutes on LOW pressure.  

Bang Bang Chicken

I urge you to read Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks they are truly amazing and every time I peruse through my copies I get jonesing to return to China and eat my way through difference provinces than when we were there for 3 months in 2016.  Not a bad meal was had over that time period.  We were the floor-show in a hot pot place in Chengdu because google translate was useless as all the items on the paper menu translated to something like "star and moon pieces" or "princess eating roses"  Not very helpful in terms of choosing what you want to dip into your bubbling broths. We ended up asking google to translate "chef's choices" and we got some very interesting bits of unidentifiable animal origin and bodily location.   All in all it was a very memorable experience and we still laugh about it 9 years on!

Dateline: April 1, 2021 What to do with leftover chicken?

We had quite a bit of chicken left over from the buttermilk brine experiment, so I needed to get creative with it.  I decided on Chicken Pot No Pie.

I created a mirepoix of veggies: carrots, green pepper, onion, and sautedd in butter and olive oil.  After the veggies had softened, I added flour and cooked until the raw taste was gone, and then added the left over veggies form the previous night.  I added chicken stock and cooked until the stock thickened and then added in the cut up chicken meat.  Brought it to a boil, and put it covered into a 350°F oven for 45  minutes until hot and bubbling.  I removed the lid, and let some of the liquid cook off to thicken things up a bit, and dinner was served!

I used some herbage in it as well, savory and marjoram, along with salt and pepper.  It was quite passable and satisfying for a chilly evening.

Dateline: March 20, 2021 Rotisseried Chicken on the Grill -- Welcome to Grilling Season

So I was going to make some squid, but I didn't know when Bill was going to be getting home, so I went with chicken on the grill....not just any chicken, but done on the ROTOQ-360, as my first foray into the grilling season, which seemed fitting on the equinox.

I coated the chicken with Galena Street rub from Penzey's.  Inserted the prongs and wound it up about 40 times.  I am thinking that in future, I need to wind it up for more that 50 times, it took longer on the grill, and I had to use the crank to wind it up again.

In the little pan that comes with the ROTOQ I put some little potatoes, mini peppers and broccolini with dusting of salt and pepper.  The got coated in chicken juice and Galena Street as well.  I took it off the grill when the thigh reached 180°F and the breast was around the same temp.  The chicken was very moist and perfectly cooked.  The veggies were not over done.

Chicken

veggies

Dateline: March 2, 2021 Korean Rotisserie Chicken with Vegetables

After yesterday's lack of spice, I was really wanting a good dose today.   There in the fridge was a lovely little chicken just begging to be marinated in something and twirled around the oven on a spit.

For the marinade:  3 T gochujang, 3 cloves chopped garlic, 1 T dark soy sauce, 2 T sesame oil, 2 T white wine or water.  Mix well and slather all over chicken after putting it on the spit.  (If no spit, then it can be split open and spread on a backing sheet, or just placed whole on baking sheet.  Rub the vegetables,  with oil and a generous amount of the spice marinade.  

The surrounding vegetables were broccoli, cauliflower, celeraic root, and cherry tomatoes.  Be sure to salt and pepper both the chicken and veggies.  The sauce will be quick spicy at this point and you may think it too spicy, if so, add 1 t sugar or agave syrup to tame it a bit.  

Roast at 350° F and after 40 minutes, raise temperature to 400° F for another 1/2 hour.  Test the inner thigh of the chicken to be sure it has reached at least 180° F.  If you split the chicken, your timing will be different, the chicken will cook faster, so cook for 30 at 350° before bumping up to 400° 15-20 minutes.

The cherry tomatoes came out nice and jammy, they added just enough moisture to keep the veggies from burning.  The marinade on the veggies, however, did get a bit charred, but it added some textural and flavor interest.

Finished Chicken

Roasted Veggies

Dateline: February 22, 2021 Rotisserie Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

I had a very cute small chicken that needed cooking.  I wanted rotisserie chicken, so I stuffed the cavity with some fennel stalks and fronds and a tiny half onion left over from another night.  For the vegetation over which the chicken would slowly rotate I had some cubed up rutabaga, aforementioned fennel, onion, brussel sprouts, red bell peppers, carrots, and a couple of small white potatoes.  

Everything got chopped up and doused with olive oil, garlic, red finger pepper, and a chopped up preserved lime.  Yes, a preserved lime.  I tried out preserving citrus fruits other than lemons in saline solution and have limes and oranges sitting in the fridge.  The limes add a level of sourness that the preserved lemons do not.  In judicious amounts it will work.  Because I preserve mostly Meyer Lemons, the sharpness of the acid was a bit of a surprise when I tasted a tiny piece before dumping it into the veggies.  In the finished product, it did not overpower at all, in fact, it seemed to be a factor that pulled everything together a bit tighter.

As I was prepping things for the meal, I was also making chicken stock.  I read an article in Cook's Illustrated that discussed the differences between bone broth and stock.  Who knew, I have been making bone broth for 30+ years, OG hipster here!  It seems that the big difference is the amount of collagen that is present in the finished product.  Bone broth has lots of it, stock, not so much.  How do you know if you have collagen in your stock/broth, let it cool after cooking.  Does it set up, and look like Jello, you have a lot of collagen in that batch.  You can always cheat and add powdered collagen to a finished product to duplicate that particular umami-ness.

As a music history professor would tell us, "Label that digression in your notes".  Back to the chicken.

I rubbed it with some oil, and salted and peppered it, ran the skewer through, tightened the prongs and poked the end through the hole in the back of the oven.  I never had a built in rotisserie in an oven before, I will never be without one going forward.  I started the temp at 400° F for about 35 minutes, or until you could smell the chicken.  I lowered the temp to 350° F and added a cup of chicken bone broth to the sheet pan below.  Set the timer for another 30 minutes, and voila!   Chicken-y nirvana with unctuous roasted veggies with a touch of char to them.  It hit every bell for me!

Roasted Veggies

Rotisserie Chicken

Dateline: January 13, 2021 Moroccan Chicken Tagine

I was in Kalustyan's and saw this packet of Tagine spice.  Brilliant, I thought, I have whole chicken legs at home that need to be cooked.

The recipe on the back of the package was simple and it turned out fantastic.

Ingredients

4 whole chicken legs, or assortment of dark meat chicken parts, with or without skin

2 onions, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 c pitted green olives, I used pitted castelvetrano  olives

Olive oil

2 T tagine spice mix

saffron, optional, just a sprinkle of threads

juice 1/2 lemon

2 small preserved lemons, chopped

2 T chopped coriander

Salt to taste

1 cup chicken broth

1 14 oz can of beans, I used pinto

Method

1.  Heat tagine or large casserole on stove, add 2-3 T olive oil and saute onions and garlic until soft.  

2.  Sprinkle over the onions and garlic 2 T of spice mix, saffron threads, lemon juice, and preserved lemons.  Mix together.  

3.  Add chicken parts to the pan and spread green olives over them, pour in the chicken broth and cover with lid.  Simmer until chicken is cooked and tender.

4.  If you used skin on chicken, then after it is cooked, put under the broiler for about 5-8 minutes until skin is browned and crisped up.

 

December 21, 2020 Doro Wat

I came across a recipe for Doro Wat, (Ethiopian Spicy Chicken) and decided to give it a whirl.  Previously, I had made something akin to it, and it was an epic, inedible fail.  It was just too spicy and bitter for me; and I love spicy and bitter, generally.

Reading the comments, I decided to use mostly shallots rather than onions.  That decision was a good one.  I baked the chicken thighs for 20 minutes, removed to a bowl, and proceeded with the recipe of browning the onions before adding the spices.  I also used the last, sadly, of my brodo.

Here is the onion/shallot mixture draining a bit, as per a comment, and the onion/ginger/garlic juice that drained I poured over the thighs sitting in the bowl.

This is the berbere spice mixture.  I couldn't find my cayenne pepper, so I used some dried and ground habanero pepper.  Big no no!

The dish came together well, and had a good consistency and color.  When I tasted the sauce, OMG it was SPICY.  I'm a chili head, but this was over the top, hence the issue with the habanero pepper.  I added a good squirt of honey and it tamed it a bit.

The chicken thighs went back into the pool, got coated with the sauce, and I put it in the oven for about 30 more minutes.

The final dish, served over rice was ok, not bitter, but plenty spicy.  This was the first time, EVER, that the spice level bothered me and NOT BILL.  Normally, I am not wimping out on spice, but this was just at the edge for me, and not in an addictive way.

I think cayenne would have been the way to go and use less than suggested.  I had halved the recipe, but used almost 1 T of habanero pepper, instead of 1/2 T to start.  So the error is strictly mine, not the recipe.

Would I make this again, not sure, it was a nice change from the usual chicken thigh dishes I keep in rotation.  Bill really liked it, and went back for seconds, so perhaps it will make a return.

 

Dateline: December 12, 2020 Indian Redux

 Our buddy, Servet, was coming over for dinner and tasting weird beers.  What goes with beer, Indian Food!  I made Achari Chicken, Aloo Gobi, and Baingan Bharta.  Recipes came from Urvashi Pitre.  

The Baingan Bharta is an eggplant stew that is cooked down until the eggplant has broken down completely and it is finished with a dash of cream.  I can't say that it was the best that I have ever eaten, but it certainly held its own.

The Aloo Gobi is a mixture of cauliflower and potatoes with indian spices and some tomatoes.  I was totally happy with how it turned out.

The Achari Chicken, is from Hydrabadwallah website and is an absolute favorite of mine.  A go to chicken dish that never fails to please.

Of course, as we were tasting interesting, and some not so interesting beers and hard seltzers, I only took a photo of the chicken dish.

Dateline: November 19, 2020 ROTOQ-360 Test Spin

I have been trolling and backing things on Kickstarter for a couple of months.  My backings range from pillows to exercise equipment.

A recent product was just delivered.  ROTOQ-360!  I have been doing the happy Homer dance.  In the box came the basic set, motor, stand and rotisserie spit, but wait, there's more, a circular cage, a shish kabob wheel, a sausage wheel, and a rectangular cage.  I am in heaven.

Tested it out a whole chicken on the grill.  

You can see the motor unit on the left, which is wound up prior to cooking.  There is a drip pan below the chicken, and then the frame which holds the motor and spit.

I learned some things during the test run.

1.  crank up the motor fully before the cook

2.  center the food on the spit to facilitate rotation

3.  do not truss the bird

4.  If it's cold out, it will take longer than you think.

The final product was beautifully crisped and browned and was perfectly cooked.  It was juicy and moist.  Just plain yummy.  I used my friend Lyn's suggested brussel sprouts recipe.

Brussel Sprouts with Marmite

Brussel Sprouts

2 T unsalted butter

2 t marmite or vegemite

salt and pepper

Method

1.  Halve the brussel sprouts and steam for 3-4 minutes.  Place on a towel to dry off a bit.

2.  Heat a large pan and add the sprouts.  Char them a bit on all sides.

3.  Add butter and marmite and swirl around the sprouts until they are all covered and cooked through completely.  Sprinkle with pepper.  

4.  Taste before salting as marmite or vegemite is quite salty.  You may not need any further salt.

These were really good.

Thank you, Lyn!

Dateline: Ocotober 15, 2020 Jambalaya with the Spellbergs and Kia

We just arrived in Rehoboth Beach for Claire and Jon's wedding.  Phil, Dianne, and Kia looked exhausted, so I cooked dinner, using the kielbasa that I brought down, along with bell peppers, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, chicken thighs, and assorted spices.  It was finished up with mixing in left over rice.   

Photo is too close up, but you can see the chicken and sausage along with the vegetation.  

For Dianne 

Method

1.  Heat up the instant pot on saute and high heat.

2.  When hot, add oil and sausages and chicken to brown a bit

3.  Add aromatics and any hot pepper flakes, if using.

4.  Add veggies and tomatoes.  Mix together well.  Rinse tomato can with some wine and add to pot.

5.  Cancel saute.

6.  Press pressure cook on high pressure and set time for 25 minutes.

7.  Close lid, made sure valve is in the sealing position.

8.  When time is up, let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.

9.  Open lid stir well and mix in rice.