Food

I've been grilling a lot of chicken lately, but I seem to be out of gas for the grill, so tonight I used the oven instead. I just got some new spices and so did a little experimenting. I also added some roasted fennel, onion, and garlic to the mix. I've been making chicken breasts, so I decided to try thighs this time, and since I was using the oven, I decided to try a dry bake to get the skin crispy. I coated the chicken with flavored corn starch, to add flavor and get a good texture. I read a somewhat similar recipe that called for brushing the chicken with olive oil, so I tried that as well.

Ingredients
chicken
4 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
olive oil
corn starch, ground cardamom, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground black pepper

roasted vegetables
1 fennel bulb, chopped in inch pieces
1 white onion, chopped in inch pieces
6 cloves garlic, peeled and halved/quartered (depending on size)
olive oil, red wine vinegar, chicken stock, ground black pepper, ground celery seed, kosher salt

Directions
grind the spices for the chicken in proportions to taste, and mix in a wide bowl with some corn starch. dredge each chicken thigh through the corn starch mixture until the outside is coated. set aside. put the fennel, onion, and garlic in a bowl and toss with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and chicken stock. add the pepper, celery seed, and salt and toss until evenly distributed. spread the vegetables and liquid in the bottom of a roasting pan (lined with foil for easy cleanup). put the roasting rack on top and put the chicken on the rack. brush both sides of the chicken lightly with olive oil. bake at 450 until the chicken is done, about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Verdict
the chicken looked beautiful, with a perfect golden-brown skin, with a bit of the texture of fried chicken. it was tender and juicy all through, but unfortunately didn't acquire much flavor from the coating, and the skin wasn't actually crispy. I suspect simply leaving the chicken dry instead of brushing with oil would help that (or perhaps brushing much more lightly, or with a little butter). as for flavor, marinating would probably be the right thing. also, though chicken thighs are good variety, and excellent for stir fries, I'll probably go back to breast pieces for things like this -- you get more meat on the bone for less work. the roasted vegetables were very tasty, though it was too much fennel; the usual mix of fennel, parsnips, carrots, etc would be better, with the additional variety. I find I like the smell of fennel and the seeds more than I like the bulb in too high quantities.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 11:45 PM | Permalink

The shrimp-stuffed peppers weren't exactly a success, but the paste was pretty tasty when scooped out of the pepper and spread on bread or something. So I decided to try making some straight and working on the flavor. I decided to experiment with a cakier consistency, on the theory that I could put the cakes in spring rolls or stir fry or something.

Ingredients
1lb shrimp, raw; shells, veins, and tails removed
1/4 c fish sauce
3-4 cloves garlic
1/2 c roasted unsalted peanuts
1/4 c olive oil
1/8 c granulated sugar
1-2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions
food-process the shrimp into a paste. do the same to the garlic and peanuts. combine everything and spread in a baking pan. bake at.. well, I don't remember exactly. something like 300, until it looks like a reasonably firm cake.

Verdict
this did successfully achieve a more cakey consistency, and the shrimp flavor was brought out nicely. but I ended up concluding I'd like the more spreadable filling from the stuffed peppers better, and I haven't found many things to do with the cakes. also, the shrimpy flavor got a little too strong, overwhelming other flavors. I'll probably experiment again with more of a shrimp stuffing, playing with the flavors some more (and probably avoiding the excessive oil and peanuts of the stuffed peppers).

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:25 PM | Permalink

I was making grilled chicken and salad for dinner and wanted a good flavorful vegetable side. This one was simple and came out pretty good. I'd just finished drying the jalapeno guts left over from my stuffed peppers, so I used those along with black pepper, cumin, and fennel.

Ingredients
5-6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
black peppercorns, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, dried jalapeno pepper seeds (or cayenne powder)
olive oil, red wine vinegar, soy sauce

Directions
grind the spices and seeds. heat some oil in a pan on medium-high. add the shiitakes, sprinkle with the spice mix, and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. if the pan dries out too much, add a splash of vinegar or soy to keep it from burning. add the carrots and celery. keep cooking, adding spices or a little of the vinegar or soy to keep it just from burning -- don't add so much it gets soggy. cook until the mushrooms are soft but the carrots and celery are still a bit crisp (or however you like it).

Verdict
perfect! a nice little side dish. actually, it kind of ended up as an appetizer, since the chicken was taking too long. but that was good too.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 09:53 PM | Permalink

Another week, another brining experiment. This was one more experiment to see how much flavor could soak in the with brine. But even a whole bunch of jalapeno peppers didn't have much effect. Even after brining for over 24 hours. So I think the overall verdict is: just brine it simply, and save the flavor for the basting sauce. As an experiment, I also added a little red food coloring to the brine to see how much it would soak in.

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

brine
4 c warm water
1/2 c kosher salt
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1/4 c fish sauce
7 roasted de-seeded jalapeno peppers (red, yellow, green), minced

basting sauce
minced apricots, molasses, soy, red wine vinegar

Directions
as usual, mix the salt and sugar into the water in a plastic container, until dissolved. add the other stuff. add the chicken. put on the top and put it in the fridge for 6-24 hours. take it out, make the basting sauce, and baste the chicken. grill it, basting regularly, and enjoy.

Verdict
good, but the jalapeno flavor was pretty vague. brining isn't the way to add flavor. the red color did color the skin, and it was visible in the cooked chicken, but it didn't soak into the meat at all. in case you were curious.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 12:02 PM | Permalink

So I had the idea somehow of stuffing peppers with a sort of vietnamese-flavored paste of, like, shrimp and stuff. The basic idea sort of formed in my mind, and then I just picked up the ingredients and made it up as I went along. The basic elements are: stuffed jalepenos, ground-up shrimp, and a sort of peanut sauce of peanuts, oil, and fish sauce. I might as well say up front that it was a failure, but an interesting one, and I'll reuse at least some parts of the recipe, maybe the whole idea with a few changes.

Ingredients
16 jalapeno peppers (green, red, and/or yellow)
12 oz shrimp, raw; shells, veins, and tails removed
1/8 c fish sauce
3-4 cloves garlic
1/2 c roasted unsalted peanuts
1/4 c olive oil
1/8 c granulated sugar
1-2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions
1. prepare the peppers
I generally prefer red (i.e. ripe) peppers to green or yellow (unripe) ones. however, the red ones tend to be smaller and scrawnier, and can be harder to stuff than the larger greens and yellows. for each pepper, lay it flat on a cutting board, and cut a slit from near the stem to 1cm or so from the tip. at each end, make a crosswise cut about halfway through the pepper; the three cuts together should form an "I" shape. fold back the two flaps (like bomb-bay doors on a plane) and cut out the ribs and seeds, scraping as much as possible out of the inside with the knife or a small fork. you may want to save the seeds for the future. this method works fairly well for larger, rounder peppers but can be a pain with smaller ones. another way of doing the peppers is to chop the top off, cut down inside along the ribs, and scoop and scrape out the insides. by the way, while you're handling all those pepper seeds, don't forget to keep your fingers away from your eyes and other sensitive areas. update: actually, just wear gloves.

2. prepare the filling
grind the garlic in a food processor and put it aside. grind the peanuts in the food processor until there aren't many large chunks and a lot of the nuts are powder. add in the olive oil and pulse a few times to mix, giving a peanut butter consistency. add the fish sauce and sugar and pulse to mix. remove to a bowl and mix in the garlic and black pepper. clean out the food processor. pulse the shrimp until ground into a sort of paste. combine with the peanut butter mix.

3. stuff and bake
stuff each pepper to the brim with the filling mix. if the peppers are cut bomb-bay door style, press them shut and scrape off any extra filling that oozes out. lay the peppers out on the rack of a roasting pan lined with foil. bake in the oven at 300 for 30 minutes. let cool and eat.

Verdict
unfortunately, they were totally inedible. it turns out, which I should have expected, a jalapeno is too hot to just pop in your mouth, even if you do scrape out all the ribs and seeds. one was enough to have me diving for something to drink -- though I don't have the highest pepper tolerance; if you do, you might enjoy the experience. but even that aside, they weren't really the easiest to eat. the peppers are still kind of tough and take some biting, which tends to squeeze out the filling. I checked some stuffed pepper recipes, and they all involve blanching the peppers first; I should try that.

aside from the pepper issues, the filling itself was pretty good. when it was still hot, it didn't seem to have much flavor, but once the peppers had cooled, the filling had a good flavor of shrimp and peanut. it would make a good filling for a wonton or spring roll, or some kind of fried patty (I actually tried patties with the excess filling, with mixed results). still, I'd like to experiment to bring out the shrimp and peanut a bit more and give a stronger hint of the other flavors. I'd also thought about adding cilantro, green onion, and/or red onion.

I think for a next try I'll do it with milder peppers. I don't want to use bell peppers though -- they're too big, and I want it to be more like a finger food. anaheims or poblanos maybe. I might also try the filling in wontons, or making little meatballs to eat with noodles, or in a pho-type dish. the peanut sauce, before adding the garlic and shrimp, was also pretty tasty -- like a peanut sauce or peanut butter, but the sugar and fish sauce gives it a definite vietnamese slant. it would be good with noodles.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 07:25 PM | Permalink

E had the idea of making ice cream sandwiches for July 4th, and I suggested coconut ice cream with ginger snaps. Coconut ice cream turns out to be very simple, and we added diced crystallized ginger to the ice cream just because it sounded like a good idea. Based on this ice cream recipe and this cookie recipe.

Ice Cream
ingredients
1 c milk
1 (14 ounce) can cream of coconut (the sweetened stuff)
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1/2 c crystallized ginger, diced

directions
blend the milk and coconut. stir in the cream. put in an ice cream machine and let run for a while. once it's thickened a bit, add the ginger. let the machine thingy finish it.

Ginger Snaps
ingredients
2 c sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp baking soda
1/2 c shortening
1/4 c butter
1 c granulated sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c light molasses
granulated sugar

directions
cream the butter and shortening. gradually blend in the sugar. add the egg and molasses. mix the dry ingredients and gradually blend in. roll into 1-inch balls, roll in sugar, and bake 8-10 min at 350.

Assembly
once the ice cream is reasonably solid but still spreadable, put a spoonful on a cookie, then top with another cookie, to make a sandwich about 3/4" thick. freeze them for at least a while, until ready to eat.

Verdict
the ice cream is really tasty. The crystallized ginger tastes great, though the consistency is a little weird -- the pieces are a little chewier than you expect to find in ice cream (sort of how the bubbles in bubble tea kind of seem wrong). The cookies are good, though the final result doesn't taste as good as the dough did -- a little of the ginger spice seems to have been baked away (though it comes back as they cool). the consistency is perfect for ice cream sandwiches -- flat and chewy without being too crispy or crumbly. but for standalone cookies, you'd probably want more thin-and-crispy than thin-and-chewy -- substituting butter for the shortening and reducing the baking soda should do it.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 01:50 PM | Permalink

This recipe comes from someone at Luna's 4th of July party. Dates, nuts, and bacon in one simple appetizer? I have to try this.

luna: yesterdays big hit appetizer was bacon wrapped dates
lens: see bacon is the cant-lose ingredient
luna: with almonds in the dates
lens: whoa
lens: thats brilliant
luna: yea
lens: were the almonds candied
lens: for good measure
luna: i dunno
luna: i asked her the recipe and she said its real easy
luna: just shove the almond(s) in the date, wrap the suckers up in bacon, and bake at 400 for about 15 mins
lens: hot damn
luna: deeeelish
luna: and so easy

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:46 AM | Permalink

I made the bacon lemon-balm salsa again today. I doubled the recipe and used a large jalapeno instead of the red pepper flakes. Otherwise, it was the same, and it was still good.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 05:36 PM | Permalink

My routine on gym nights is usually an apple or a piece of bread before going, and then something simple and homey like noodles after I get home. I'm a sucker for noodles with peanut sauce, but haven't really hit on something great. Combining peanut butter with soy and sriracha and so on can pass for something quick, but I've been experimenting with ground peanuts a lot more lately and wanted to try making a peanut sauce from that. I used ronzoni healthy harvest whole wheat thin spaghetti because they're hearty and tasty, and fairly healthy compared to other noodles. Since I brined a grilled a bunch of chicken on sunday (my standard sunday activity lately), I added some shredded chicken and green onions.

Ingredients
a handful of noodles
a pot full of water
about half a chicken breast, shredded by hand
a few green onions, chopped crosswise
roasted unsalted peanuts
sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sriracha

Directions
heat the water to high and drop in the noodles when it starts to boil. meanwhile, drop about a handful of peanuts into the food processor. once it's been ground down fairly finely, add sesame oil and soy and continue grinding. it will start to clump. transfer to a bowl and add a bit of vinegar to get a smoother consistence, and add sriracha to taste. when the noodles finish (about 7 minutes for the ronzoni), drain them in a collander and run under cold water briefly. transfer to a bowl and toss with the peanut sauce. add the chicken and green onions and toss.

Verdict
yum.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 10:41 PM | Permalink

basically another try at my last grilled brined chicken recipe. I skipped the cajun power this time, but it was otherwise pretty close.

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 red wine vinegar
2/3 head garlic, minced
4 serrano peppers, minced

grilling baste
molasses, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, smoked salt

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. 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. flip after about 12 minutes, re-baste, then grill until finished, about 25 minutes, basting again if needed.

Verdict
not very different from the previous recipe. I did a better job not overcooking the chicken (though the skin still ended up somewhat blackened). tasted good this time too. I think I have to conclude that putting garlic and peppers in the brine doesn't really do much -- the main thing is the salt, and maybe the soy and molasses for color as much as anything.

Posted by Mike Perkowitz at 09:03 PM | Permalink