All of our recipes lately are coming from Bon Appetit, and this is no exception. It sounded easy, so I ripped it out and here we are. The only catch is that it IS best to marinate it overnight, if you remember. I might also suggest making extra marinade and rubbing some under the skin of the chicken thighs. Serve it over ginger-scented rice (make basmati rice according to package instructions, but add some minced ginger to the party).
4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 Tbs kosher salt
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
3-4 pieces chicken with skin and bones
1 large onion, peeled, cut into wedges
Combine garlic, salt, olive oil, and Chinese five-spice powder in large bowl. Add chicken pieces; turn to coat. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange onion wedges in a 9x9 baking pan, and arrange chicken, skin side up, atop onions.
Roast until chicken is cooked through, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 50 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and let rest 10 minutes. Arrange chicken and onions on platter and serve.
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rice. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, August 6, 2007
Chicken Long Rice
This past weekend I threw my first luau with "Wife" (of Adventures in Newlywedland fame). We are both Leos and thought that this would be a fine time to celebrate our birthdays (which are so close together) with a massive pull-out-all -stops party. As often happens with these gigs, we ended up with a lot of leftovers which have started making the trip into work. Co-workers have asked questions (after hearing reports) and upon seeing this recipe in its Tupperware state have asked that I post it.
Original from here.
Ingredients
Directions
1. Soak long rice in warm water for one hour.
2. Soak mushrooms in warm water for 20 minutes, drain, then remove stems and slice caps.
3. Pour chicken broth into large pot, add chicken and ginger and simmer for five minutes.
4. Add onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and simmer for another 4 to 5 minutes.
Drain long rice and cut into 3-inch lengths.
5. Add green onions and long rice to pot and cook five minutes or until long rice becomes translucent.
A few words, my friends.
1. Do not arbitrarily double this recipe without checking to see if you have pots that can accommodate the extra food. Sasha and I thought we should make extra and found that we'd prepared more food than could be cooked in one pot (everything except the rice and green onions fit into my 6 qt. crock pot). We ended up dividing the noodles into two 4 qt. sauce pots and dumping half of the crock pot's contents into them.
2. The recipe does not tell you to cook the chicken first - but you really should. I don't believe that the simmer time is sufficient to fully cook everything. We grilled the chicken before cubing it and found that this saves a bit of time (but again, we were cooking 4lbs at a go).
3. I went looking for this recipe because my sister and I enjoyed it at a luau in Hawaii. The first time I had it, there was less "stuff" in it. It was just chicken & ginger flavored noodles. To duplicate that recipe, I would remove most of the "stuff" and drain the chicken stock prior to serving the noodles.
If I were to make this again, I still might drain the chicken stock. As served, this was more like a ginger, chicken noodle soup. Though very good and I'm glad to continue eating it - not like the experience that sent me looking for this recipe in the first place. It's a win, but a different kind of win.
Original from here.
Ingredients
Directions
1. Soak long rice in warm water for one hour.
2. Soak mushrooms in warm water for 20 minutes, drain, then remove stems and slice caps.
3. Pour chicken broth into large pot, add chicken and ginger and simmer for five minutes.
4. Add onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and simmer for another 4 to 5 minutes.
Drain long rice and cut into 3-inch lengths.
5. Add green onions and long rice to pot and cook five minutes or until long rice becomes translucent.
A few words, my friends.
1. Do not arbitrarily double this recipe without checking to see if you have pots that can accommodate the extra food. Sasha and I thought we should make extra and found that we'd prepared more food than could be cooked in one pot (everything except the rice and green onions fit into my 6 qt. crock pot). We ended up dividing the noodles into two 4 qt. sauce pots and dumping half of the crock pot's contents into them.
2. The recipe does not tell you to cook the chicken first - but you really should. I don't believe that the simmer time is sufficient to fully cook everything. We grilled the chicken before cubing it and found that this saves a bit of time (but again, we were cooking 4lbs at a go).
3. I went looking for this recipe because my sister and I enjoyed it at a luau in Hawaii. The first time I had it, there was less "stuff" in it. It was just chicken & ginger flavored noodles. To duplicate that recipe, I would remove most of the "stuff" and drain the chicken stock prior to serving the noodles.
If I were to make this again, I still might drain the chicken stock. As served, this was more like a ginger, chicken noodle soup. Though very good and I'm glad to continue eating it - not like the experience that sent me looking for this recipe in the first place. It's a win, but a different kind of win.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Fermented black beans? WTF?!?
Who would have thought that fermented black beans would give a dish such great flavor? Who would have thought that black beans are not just confined to Mexican cooking? (ok, people more culinarily enlightened than myself) And who would have thought I would have learned about black bean and stir-fry from guys named Ken and Curt? Seriously, WTF?!?
Ken and Curt are current and former coworkers of mine, respectively, and these two Chinese guys have started to show me the real way to do stir fry, fast, hot, and with tons of flavors. Curt introduced me to black bean stir-fry one day at lunch, and not long afterwards I tried making it on my own based on his recipe. I thought I was hot shit cooking with an ingredient that only had the nutrition information in English on the label, that is until Ken saw me eating it for lunch. After some mocking of my technique, he started letting me in on little secrets of the actual stir-fry technique, and supplying me with proper ingredients! So, after much learning, here is how to make some killer black bean stir-fry…
What you need:
Beef for stir fry, cut super thin (we use top round, because we buy it in bulk from Costco) ~1 lb
One onion cut into strips, again, thinner is better, ~1/4” wide
One red bell pepper, did I mention stuff should be cut thin?
Snow peas, these you don’t have to cut
Fermented Black Bean Paste (more on this later)
For the marinade
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2-cup soy sauce (go for the real stuff from an Asian grocery store that was actually made from fermented soy beans, so much more flavor!)
Garlic (~2-3 cloves diced fine)
What you do:
Mix up the marinade, and drop in the beef for at least an hour. Remember, slice the beef super thin. Start some rice cooking, and the clock is ticking at ~20 minutes, just enough time to bring it all together. Slice up the pepper and onions and set them aside for easy access.
Now, get your wok out and get it going at full blast, turn up the burner to 11, 10 just isn’t going to cut it. At this point you will want to turn on an exhaust fan, open a window and take the battery out of your smoke detector. Stir-fry is all about cooking food really fast, on super high heat. It keeps the meat from overcooking, and it gets the veggies hot, but they stay crisp.
Put some olive oil in the wok, and when it’s hot, drop in some of the black bean paste (a teaspoon full to start), break it up into the oil and let it cook for half a minute. This helps open up the flavors of the black bean. You can add it later, but it doesn’t taste as good. Now start cooking the meat, a little at a time, keep it moving in the wok, and as soon as it is almost done, dump it out into a bowl for holding for later (if you have a big arse wok, you don’t need to do this, but ours is small, and too much food in it drops the heat too fast). Each handful of meat should only take a minute or two. Cook up all the meat, adding oil and black bean as necessary to make sure all the meat gets seasoned.
Now, toss in the onions with whatever oil is left in the wok (shouldn’t be much), as soon as they are broken up in the pan, toss in the snow peas. Like the beef, keep them moving around in the wok, sitting=burning. The onions and peas will take 3-4 minutes to cook, but the peppers only need about 1-2 minutes tops, so… After 2 minutes with the onions and peas, toss in the pepper, and keep tossing in the pan. The rice should be just finishing up now, so toss the meat back in the wok and toss everything together. Serve it up and enjoy!
Black Bean paste:
You have some options here… We started out with pre-made paste, just scoop some out of the jar and you’re good to go. It tasted fine, but it had MSG in it. Then Ken gave me a package of just the fermented black beans, and suggested we make our own paste. It’s pretty easy, just take the black beans, and put them in a food processor and blend them with some olive oil, ginger and garlic. There is no precise ratio of the ingredients, so just go by feel, keeping in mind that the goal is to taste the black bean, not to mask it with garlic or ginger! You should be able to get either at a good Asian grocery store.
Ken and Curt are current and former coworkers of mine, respectively, and these two Chinese guys have started to show me the real way to do stir fry, fast, hot, and with tons of flavors. Curt introduced me to black bean stir-fry one day at lunch, and not long afterwards I tried making it on my own based on his recipe. I thought I was hot shit cooking with an ingredient that only had the nutrition information in English on the label, that is until Ken saw me eating it for lunch. After some mocking of my technique, he started letting me in on little secrets of the actual stir-fry technique, and supplying me with proper ingredients! So, after much learning, here is how to make some killer black bean stir-fry…
What you need:Beef for stir fry, cut super thin (we use top round, because we buy it in bulk from Costco) ~1 lb
One onion cut into strips, again, thinner is better, ~1/4” wide
One red bell pepper, did I mention stuff should be cut thin?
Snow peas, these you don’t have to cut
Fermented Black Bean Paste (more on this later)
For the marinade
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2-cup soy sauce (go for the real stuff from an Asian grocery store that was actually made from fermented soy beans, so much more flavor!)
Garlic (~2-3 cloves diced fine)
What you do:
Mix up the marinade, and drop in the beef for at least an hour. Remember, slice the beef super thin. Start some rice cooking, and the clock is ticking at ~20 minutes, just enough time to bring it all together. Slice up the pepper and onions and set them aside for easy access.
Now, get your wok out and get it going at full blast, turn up the burner to 11, 10 just isn’t going to cut it. At this point you will want to turn on an exhaust fan, open a window and take the battery out of your smoke detector. Stir-fry is all about cooking food really fast, on super high heat. It keeps the meat from overcooking, and it gets the veggies hot, but they stay crisp.
Put some olive oil in the wok, and when it’s hot, drop in some of the black bean paste (a teaspoon full to start), break it up into the oil and let it cook for half a minute. This helps open up the flavors of the black bean. You can add it later, but it doesn’t taste as good. Now start cooking the meat, a little at a time, keep it moving in the wok, and as soon as it is almost done, dump it out into a bowl for holding for later (if you have a big arse wok, you don’t need to do this, but ours is small, and too much food in it drops the heat too fast). Each handful of meat should only take a minute or two. Cook up all the meat, adding oil and black bean as necessary to make sure all the meat gets seasoned.
Now, toss in the onions with whatever oil is left in the wok (shouldn’t be much), as soon as they are broken up in the pan, toss in the snow peas. Like the beef, keep them moving around in the wok, sitting=burning. The onions and peas will take 3-4 minutes to cook, but the peppers only need about 1-2 minutes tops, so… After 2 minutes with the onions and peas, toss in the pepper, and keep tossing in the pan. The rice should be just finishing up now, so toss the meat back in the wok and toss everything together. Serve it up and enjoy!
Black Bean paste:
You have some options here… We started out with pre-made paste, just scoop some out of the jar and you’re good to go. It tasted fine, but it had MSG in it. Then Ken gave me a package of just the fermented black beans, and suggested we make our own paste. It’s pretty easy, just take the black beans, and put them in a food processor and blend them with some olive oil, ginger and garlic. There is no precise ratio of the ingredients, so just go by feel, keeping in mind that the goal is to taste the black bean, not to mask it with garlic or ginger! You should be able to get either at a good Asian grocery store.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Kickin' Jambalaya
This is a recipe I've been adjusting for about a year and a half. It rose out of a desire to cook spicy foods and take my time doing it. I'm quite confident when making this recipe and enjoy sharing it with others (it makes a lot of food) as an introduction to the kind of foods I make. I apologize in advance for linking to Wikipedia for some of these definitions, it just seemed easier (the historian in me protests, but the lazy slob in me wins).
1 lb spicy sausage (andouille is perfect but hard to find sometimes, I usually go with a 'hot italian brat' or the good old Bob Evans 'spicy italian sausage' in a tube)
1 lb chicken, cubed
1 lb shrimp peeled and de-veined
"cajun seasoning" (2 tsp Cayenne, 1 tsp Black Pepper, 1 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Oregano, 1 tsp Thyme)
2 cup rice
8 oz can tomato paste
8 oz can chicken stock
14 oz can diced tomatoes (I like the getting the kind with the jalapenos inside for this, but do as you will)
Trinity
-1/2 cup celery, chopped
-1 red or yellow bell pepper, chopped
-1 yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbsp garlic
1 Tbsp chili flakes or red pepper flakes
Start by browning your sausage in a 10 inch skillet (med high heat). Let the grease collect in the pan and when you're satisfied that the sausage is mostly done, transfer it to a 12 inch 'meat' skillet on low heat (you're going to keep the sausage and chicken warm here while you saute the trinity).
After you've transferred your sausage, add the chicken to the greasy pan. Salt to taste, and add your chili flakes. When the chicken is white and cooked through transfer to the large skillet holding the sausage. Now you're ready for the veggies.
Still using our first skillet, we're going to add the garlic and maybe some olive oil if there isn't enough grease left over from our first two steps. When the garlic is looking a little brown it's time to add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Wait until the onions are clear and the celery is soft before adding the tomato paste. Now you're going to let it brown in the skillet for awhile, and you should get out a large sauce pot (at least 4 quarts, 6 might be better).
Heat the tomatoes and chicken stock in the sauce pot with the rice until it boils. Now...you ready? Add everything to the sauce pot: meat, veggies, spices, and shrimp. Cover that sucker up and let it simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes (or until the rice is done). If you're worried about over cooking the shrimp you can wait until the rice is 1/2 way done to add them, but I've never had a problem with it.
When this comes off the stove it's going to be hot and practically overflowing out of your sauce pot (that's why 6 quart may be better than 4). I've served this with beer but I prefer a Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay. Hope you enjoy.
1 lb spicy sausage (andouille is perfect but hard to find sometimes, I usually go with a 'hot italian brat' or the good old Bob Evans 'spicy italian sausage' in a tube)
1 lb chicken, cubed
1 lb shrimp peeled and de-veined
"cajun seasoning" (2 tsp Cayenne, 1 tsp Black Pepper, 1 tsp White Pepper, 1 tsp Oregano, 1 tsp Thyme)
2 cup rice
8 oz can tomato paste
8 oz can chicken stock
14 oz can diced tomatoes (I like the getting the kind with the jalapenos inside for this, but do as you will)
Trinity
-1/2 cup celery, chopped
-1 red or yellow bell pepper, chopped
-1 yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbsp garlic
1 Tbsp chili flakes or red pepper flakes
Start by browning your sausage in a 10 inch skillet (med high heat). Let the grease collect in the pan and when you're satisfied that the sausage is mostly done, transfer it to a 12 inch 'meat' skillet on low heat (you're going to keep the sausage and chicken warm here while you saute the trinity).
After you've transferred your sausage, add the chicken to the greasy pan. Salt to taste, and add your chili flakes. When the chicken is white and cooked through transfer to the large skillet holding the sausage. Now you're ready for the veggies.
Still using our first skillet, we're going to add the garlic and maybe some olive oil if there isn't enough grease left over from our first two steps. When the garlic is looking a little brown it's time to add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Wait until the onions are clear and the celery is soft before adding the tomato paste. Now you're going to let it brown in the skillet for awhile, and you should get out a large sauce pot (at least 4 quarts, 6 might be better).
Heat the tomatoes and chicken stock in the sauce pot with the rice until it boils. Now...you ready? Add everything to the sauce pot: meat, veggies, spices, and shrimp. Cover that sucker up and let it simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes (or until the rice is done). If you're worried about over cooking the shrimp you can wait until the rice is 1/2 way done to add them, but I've never had a problem with it.
When this comes off the stove it's going to be hot and practically overflowing out of your sauce pot (that's why 6 quart may be better than 4). I've served this with beer but I prefer a Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay. Hope you enjoy.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Mexican Rice
This goes really well with tostadas or enchiladas but it also is quite tasty just on its own. Make sure to use decent rice (Meijer's own doesn't work well with this) and the tomato sauce IS essential.
Olive oil
1 cup uncooked rice your choice
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 cups cold water
Coarsely chopped small roma tomato, chopped into about 4 pieces
Hot pepper of your choice, sliced lengthwise
Tomato sauce (I'd say a little less that 1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt, to taste
Put a little olive oil (Tbsp or so) into a medium-sized pan and heat to a medium temperature, add the rice, uncooked, and brown in the oil. Make sure all the rice is lightly coated with the oil. You do not have to stir the rice around very much at first, while browning, but as the rice becomes browner you want to be stirring it around to make sure it all browns evenly and doesn't burn. It will turn brown, but it's not burning unless it's turning dark/black. Towards the end of the browning, add the garlic so that it is sort of sauteed/browned.
Next, dump the water on the rice (it will steam up loudly) and add the remaining ingredients. Stir well and cover (with a small air escape). Reduce heat to medium-low to medium, and let cook for 20-30 minutes. (Cooking time and temperature varies with your stove. Check after 20 minutes to make sure you don't burn.)The essential rule of this recipe is "Do Not Peek" while the rice is cooking. When it is ready, all the water will be absorbed, the rice will fluff, and each grain will be "split open" because of the browning. It should be dry, not saucy. You can adjust the spices/peppers to your taste. The recipe can be changed by keeping with the 1 cup rice/2 cups water ratio, and adjusting remaining ingredients.
Olive oil
1 cup uncooked rice your choice
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 cups cold water
Coarsely chopped small roma tomato, chopped into about 4 pieces
Hot pepper of your choice, sliced lengthwise
Tomato sauce (I'd say a little less that 1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt, to taste
Put a little olive oil (Tbsp or so) into a medium-sized pan and heat to a medium temperature, add the rice, uncooked, and brown in the oil. Make sure all the rice is lightly coated with the oil. You do not have to stir the rice around very much at first, while browning, but as the rice becomes browner you want to be stirring it around to make sure it all browns evenly and doesn't burn. It will turn brown, but it's not burning unless it's turning dark/black. Towards the end of the browning, add the garlic so that it is sort of sauteed/browned.
Next, dump the water on the rice (it will steam up loudly) and add the remaining ingredients. Stir well and cover (with a small air escape). Reduce heat to medium-low to medium, and let cook for 20-30 minutes. (Cooking time and temperature varies with your stove. Check after 20 minutes to make sure you don't burn.)The essential rule of this recipe is "Do Not Peek" while the rice is cooking. When it is ready, all the water will be absorbed, the rice will fluff, and each grain will be "split open" because of the browning. It should be dry, not saucy. You can adjust the spices/peppers to your taste. The recipe can be changed by keeping with the 1 cup rice/2 cups water ratio, and adjusting remaining ingredients.
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