Food

For some reason I had the idea of making some kind of corn patties -- the idea being to mix corn with a few ingredients to get it to stick together and then fry them in oil like pancakes or latkes. I wanted something with a nice corn flavor, plus a bit of spice. This was my first take, with mixed success.

Ingredients
2 c corn (about 2 ears' worth), cut off the cob and food processed
3/4 c white whole wheat flour
1 egg + the white from 1 egg, beaten
olive oil, salt, black pepper, white pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper

Directions
combine the corn, flour, and eggs in a bowl. add the spices to taste. heat the oil in a skillet to medium-high. drop the corn mix in by spoonsful, about two inches across, and flatten. fry for a couple of minutes on each side.

Verdict
first, I didn't get the oil heat just right. what I think I want is a bit crispy on the outside (but not burned) and well cooked through -- mine are softer and a bit mushy. also, I want the flavor to be primarily corn with a bit of pepper and spice. they somehow aren't corny enough. I'm thinking about trying it again with corn flour instead of wheat, adding shallots, and using fresh-ground black pepper (I didn't have any peppercorns around tonight).

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 06:38 PM | Permalink

I wanted to make a basic spaghetti sauce with meat, using our homemade chicken sausages. This one didn't quite work out -- it didn't quite come together as sauce, and instead was sort of chunky and raw tomatoey. Maybe if it had simmered for another hour.

Ingredients
4-6 tomatoes, pulsed in a food processor
1 14oz can crushed tomatoes
2 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
6 large crimini mushrooms
olive oil, ground fennel, ground anise, chopped oregano
three links spicy sausage

Directions
saute the shallots and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes. add tomatoes, herbs and spices, and mushrooms. simmer for a while. add sausages, prick each a few times with a knife, cover, and simmer. basically, simmer as long as you feel like it. when you're almost done, slice the sausages or open the casings and mix the meat in with the sauce.

Verdict
the sauce didn't really come together into the sort of thick, saucy texture I wanted, and didn't really taste fully finished. maybe a longer simmer next time, or a base of tomato paste or something more processed.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 07:52 PM | Permalink

A couple weeks ago we made proper spicy Italian pork sausages. They were really good. Our goal this time was to use chicken to make them healthier, but keep them juicy and tasty. Chicken (and pork) sausages you buy in the store have tons of sodium -- these have much less. The pork sausages seemed like a lot of work, but this round went a lot faster, thanks to our more experienced grinding and stuffing technique. The kitchenaid grinder and stuffer attachments make it all pretty smooth.

Ingredients
5 lbs chicken thighs & legs (about 7) w/ bones & skin, deboned & skinned
skin from 2-3 of the 7
1 medium onion, diced
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp white pepper
3 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped chives
5 springs thyme, 1 rosemary, 10-15 sage leaves
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp toasted fennel seeds
1/2 tsp toasted coriander
1/8 tsp smoked black pepper

Directions
mix everything in a bowl and run it through a meat grinder. now's a good time to fry up a patty and adjust the flavors if needed. stuff it in sausage casings.

Verdict
we actually put in 1 tsp of cayenne (actually extra-spicy mega-cayenne) and it had a bit too much burn, so next time we'd try 1/2 tsp.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 05:25 PM | Permalink

last week's lime-brined chicken worked well - I had it all week, and it stayed moist and tasty. this week I wanted to try something with more of a dark/sweet/smoky/spicy flavor. I used molasses and soy for a nice dark color, and complemented the molasses with garlic, smoked pepper, and cajun power sauce (you could use tabasco, cholula, or any similar spicy sauce).

Ingredients
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (about 2 lb)

brine
4 c warm water
1/2 c kosher salt
1/4 c granulated white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c "cajun power" spicy garlic/pepper sauce (or similar)
1 tbsp smoked ground black pepper
6-8 cloves garlic, minced

grilling baste
molasses, soy sauce, smoked ground black pepper, smoked salt, cajun power, red wine vinegar

Directions
put the warm water in a large plastic storage container. mix the salt and sugar with the warm water until dissolved. add the rest of the ingredients and mix. add the chicken and refrigerate for 6-24 hours. and wingettes into the container, seal, and let sit in refrigerator for six hours. when ready to cook, heat grill to medium. mix basting ingredients to a thickish consistency. brush the skin sides of the breasts with the baste and put on grill, skin side down. baste other sides. put wings on grill and baste. close grill top. flip after about 10 minutes, re-baste, then grill until finished, basting again if needed.

Verdict
I had a bit of trouble with the skin getting a little burnt, and trying to figure out when the chicken was done, and not a moment more. even so, the meat itself is pretty good, and fairly moist (though it could be a little moister). the flavor is unmistakably barbecue sauce-ish and very good. I'm not sure how much of the flavor is due to the baste rather than the brine, though the brine does seemed to have done its job preparing the meat for grilling.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 04:43 PM | Permalink

I wanted to make a bunch of chicken to have for leftovers during the week. I've been disappointed with leftover chicken from boneless breasts -- it always seems to be dry, even if it was moist and juicy when cooked. So I decided to grill some breasts with skin and bone, and brine them in advance. I wanted to try different flavorings (lately I've combined the brine with soy, garlic, and spicy peppers), and settled on lime and fish sauce. I also had some wing drumettes handy that I brined and grilled at the same time.

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts, with skin and on-the-bone (about 3 lbs)
1 lb chicken wing drumettes
4 c warm water
1/2 c kosher salt
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c fish sauce
1 c limeade
1 large lime (or 2 normal limes)
grilling baste: 1 large lime, fish sauce, honey, limeade

Directions
put the warm water in a large plastic storage container. mix the salt and sugar with the warm water until dissolved. add fish sauce and limeade. halve the lime and squeeze its juice into the marinade, plus grate it for zest. put the chicken breasts and wingettes into the container, seal, and let sit in refrigerator for six hours. when ready to cook, heat grill to medium. mix basting ingredients to a thickish consistency. brush the skin sides of the breasts with the baste and put on grill, skin side down. baste other sides. put wings on grill and baste. close grill top. flip after about 10 minutes, re-baste, then grill until finished, basting again if needed.

Verdict
the chicken tastes great. the lime is pretty subtle, but some of the fish sauce flavor comes through, though not too much. I used the limeade only because I didn't think I had limes; next time, I'll probably use lime juice or just squeeze more limes. the chicken was also a little pale; I might add some soy sauce (cutting the salt some more) for color. more sugar in the baste might also bring on better color. I marinated the chicken for about five hours, and it probably could have used some more time or a bit more salt. next time I'll try to intensify the lime, and might also add a bunch of serranos to the marinade. on the whole though, I haven't found flavors to come through a brining very strongly, so I'd probably just work on the baste or a sauce more. I think this chicken would be great with vietnamese-influenced flavors; the hints of lime and fish sauce would go perfectly.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 12:02 AM | Permalink

I just wanted to make a simple sauce to stir-fry some chicken in, to serve over noodles.

Ingredients
1 large chicken breast (about 0.7lb), thinly sliced
1 large tomato, diced
1 packet somen noodles
olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, black peppercorns, coriander, fennel seeds, cajun spice powder

Directions
Grind up the peppercorns, coriander, fennel, and cajun powder to taste. Heat olive oil on high in a skillet. heat water to boiling for the noodles. add the tomato to the oil and saute in the oil for a couple of minutes. add about half the spice mixture. add the chicken and stir-fry until just cooked. if the sauce gets too dry, add a little vinegar and mix it around; don't add too much liquid. add some more of the spice mixture just before done. meanwhile, cook the noodles and drain. add the chicken and sauce on top and toss.

Verdict
a very simple and tasty sauce. I used the cajun spice blend because it was handy and sounded good, but if I were doing it again, I'd probably use basil or oregano, more pepper, and cayenne or red pepper flakes. it would also be good with onions, shallots, garlic, and/or mushrooms. vermicelli (I use a good multigrain thin spaghetti from ronzoni) probably makes a little more sense than somen, but either's fine.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 09:32 PM | Permalink