CASE: Make dinner for Brandon's dad and stepmom. Brandon's father has a small esophagus and Brandon loves bone marrow. Solution? Osso Buco! I feel like restaurants normally pair Osso Buco with pasta, and while I can see how that's perfectly tasty, I really prefer this dish with creamy, cheesy polenta. Call me a wannabe Italian, but I think the pasta takes away from the richness of the meat and sauce. The polenta makes you focus on the tomatoey, thick texture of the Osso Buco, as opposed to pasta, which soaks up the sauce and tries to compete for attention. This is probably the only time in history that I will discourage the consumption of pasta!
POLENTA
1 box of Italian-made polenta
1 handful grated parmesan cheese
5-10 basil leaves roughly chopped
salt and pepper
Boil water and cook polenta to the directions, make it as soup-y or thick as you'd like. Add the rest of the ingredients right after you turn off the heat, making sure to stir the polenta until all the cheese melts.
OSSO BUCO
1/2 stick butter
6 veal shanks, about 3 lbs total
1 large carrot, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
4 cloves diced garlic
4 T olive oil or vegetable oil
3/4 c flour
2 cups dry white wine
32 fl oz beef stock
1 large can of chopped tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
4 fresh bay leaves
3/4 T thyme
salt and pepper
Saute your sofrito in the butter. Use a nice wide, flat Dutch oven. When the vegetables are soft (5 minutes) add your garlic and cook a few more minutes. Set aside. In the same pan, pour in your oil and get it really hot! Dry off your shanks and flour them right before frying. Brown deeply. Set aside. Pour wine in and get up and all the bits (there shouldn't be much oil when you take out the shanks, if there is a lot of oil, take some out so that the wine doesn't splatter too much and just discard the extra oil). Simmer the oil, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Once it's simmered and nice and hot, pour into another container. Then, in your same Dutch oven, place your vegetables down and place your meat on top. Then pour your broth all back on the shanks. Make sure the shanks are well immersed in the liquid, if not, add more stock, tomato sauce, wine or even water. Simmer a few minutes, put the lid on, and then pop into the oven and 350 degrees for 2 hours. Check a couple of times to make sure they're still covered, and be sure to baste them if not. The meat should be falling off the bone.
NOTE: This is so, so easy to make. It's about 15 minutes of cooking, and then 2 hours of napping. The polenta cooks in 5 minutes. I served this with bread, fig jam, goat cheese, and prosciutto as an appetizer. Couldn't have been a better meal for a dinner party. I didn't bother with salad.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS! (We made some pappardelle for the kids to eat with the Osso Buco. Brandon's little sister, who 's 9 and recently became a vegetarian, accidentally got a little meat on her plate. She said she would eat around it. Well, the next thing she said was that she would just eat this little bit. That was the last we heard from her because she completely finished it off! In fact, all the kids LOVED this dish, which is such a great thing to know. It's good for adults and kids, be they 9 or in high school.)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Ann's Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwiches!
CASE: My first fan mail post! This is Ann's recipe, verbatim. Ann first made me these sandwiches a few years ago, and I have re-created them many, many times. I always add the basil and garlic to the tomato sauce, and add fresh basil leaves to the sandwich itself. As for those cutlets, they're perfect for vegetarian lasagna.
Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwiches
1 box frozen eggplant parmesean breaded cutlets
1 can organic tomato sauce
Thinly sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese
Chiabatta rolls
1. Cook eggplant cutlets according to box instructions until crispy as you don't want the tomato sauce to make them soggy. Keep oven warm.
2. Meanwhile, warm up tomato sauce in a saucepan on stove top (for extra spice you can add minced garlic or basil slivers; not too much spice as the cutlets are already seasoned).
3. Slice rolls in half and scoop out extra bread filling from top half so sandwich is not too tall to eat (I could have described it in less decorous terms but you get the picture).
4. Assemble sandwich by placing as many cutlets on bottom half of roll as you like (I recommend 3-4, depending on size). Pour 2-3 Tablespoons of tomato sauce over the cutlets and sprinkle/place slices of cheese on top. Put sandwich in warm oven to melt cheese (on foil lined tray for easy clean-up). When ready, place top half of roll on top to finish the sandwich.
NOTE: Yeah yeah yeah. So you like how organized Ann's writing is, and you wish I would number my directions as well. Tell it to the judge! I ain't doing it! You're just going to have to keep muddling through my jumbled directions. Sniff.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwiches
1 box frozen eggplant parmesean breaded cutlets
1 can organic tomato sauce
Thinly sliced or shredded mozzarella cheese
Chiabatta rolls
1. Cook eggplant cutlets according to box instructions until crispy as you don't want the tomato sauce to make them soggy. Keep oven warm.
2. Meanwhile, warm up tomato sauce in a saucepan on stove top (for extra spice you can add minced garlic or basil slivers; not too much spice as the cutlets are already seasoned).
3. Slice rolls in half and scoop out extra bread filling from top half so sandwich is not too tall to eat (I could have described it in less decorous terms but you get the picture).
4. Assemble sandwich by placing as many cutlets on bottom half of roll as you like (I recommend 3-4, depending on size). Pour 2-3 Tablespoons of tomato sauce over the cutlets and sprinkle/place slices of cheese on top. Put sandwich in warm oven to melt cheese (on foil lined tray for easy clean-up). When ready, place top half of roll on top to finish the sandwich.
NOTE: Yeah yeah yeah. So you like how organized Ann's writing is, and you wish I would number my directions as well. Tell it to the judge! I ain't doing it! You're just going to have to keep muddling through my jumbled directions. Sniff.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Boiled Potatoes
CASE: Create the perfect counter-point to coq au vin.
BOILED POTATOES
5 pounds medium-size or large Yukon gold potatoes
5 garlic heads, halved
5 bay leaves
3 T black peppercorns
1 cup white wine
1/2 stick butter
Put potatoes with the garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns into a big pot with unsalted cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer til nice and soft. Drain, then slice up to big chunks, 3x bite size. Quickly pour the white wine over, and stir gently or toss until it’s all soaked up. Then top with butter. Season with salt and pepper. The potatoes should break up a little bit, and have mashed bits. It should NOT look like chunky mashed potatoes, so be gentle with them. Use a plastic spatula.
NOTE: Brandon was responsible for making the boiled potatoes. He did such a great job! Perfect. Just like him! He was concerned for a little bit that the potatoes wouldn’t soak up all the wine. Just be patient and keep gently tossing the potatoes. Also, we kept the skin on, in keeping with the rustic nature of this dish. BTW, I just got him the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook and asked him to make me a meal from it. I can’t wait! (Hey, at least I didn’t give him a Charlie Trotter cookbook!) So I’ll keep you posted on what he makes me. Oh, and this recipe was a compilation of several “ideas.” I haven’t seen a recipe like this out there, so you saw it here first!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS! (Honestly, the white wine boiled potatoes are the ultimate counterpoint to the coq au vin. They soak up that oogy googy sauce and yet retain a brightness that’s lacking in dish, as is supposed to. It lends a nice freshness, seriously, to the coq au vin. I am ALL about these boiled potatoes! Brandon said his favorite thing I’ve ever made him are blue cheese soufflés, but that this was his next favorite!)
BOILED POTATOES
5 pounds medium-size or large Yukon gold potatoes
5 garlic heads, halved
5 bay leaves
3 T black peppercorns
1 cup white wine
1/2 stick butter
Put potatoes with the garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns into a big pot with unsalted cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer til nice and soft. Drain, then slice up to big chunks, 3x bite size. Quickly pour the white wine over, and stir gently or toss until it’s all soaked up. Then top with butter. Season with salt and pepper. The potatoes should break up a little bit, and have mashed bits. It should NOT look like chunky mashed potatoes, so be gentle with them. Use a plastic spatula.
NOTE: Brandon was responsible for making the boiled potatoes. He did such a great job! Perfect. Just like him! He was concerned for a little bit that the potatoes wouldn’t soak up all the wine. Just be patient and keep gently tossing the potatoes. Also, we kept the skin on, in keeping with the rustic nature of this dish. BTW, I just got him the Chez Panisse Café Cookbook and asked him to make me a meal from it. I can’t wait! (Hey, at least I didn’t give him a Charlie Trotter cookbook!) So I’ll keep you posted on what he makes me. Oh, and this recipe was a compilation of several “ideas.” I haven’t seen a recipe like this out there, so you saw it here first!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS! (Honestly, the white wine boiled potatoes are the ultimate counterpoint to the coq au vin. They soak up that oogy googy sauce and yet retain a brightness that’s lacking in dish, as is supposed to. It lends a nice freshness, seriously, to the coq au vin. I am ALL about these boiled potatoes! Brandon said his favorite thing I’ve ever made him are blue cheese soufflés, but that this was his next favorite!)
White Wine Sangria
CASE: For pre-dinner cocktails, I was thinking a French 75 or a French martini to keep the theme in a fun way. But then, I decided that it would be too strong. So although I was initially against serving sangria, as it is way, way too Spanish, I decided it would lend a nice, light touch to the heavy red wine of the coq au vin. So I recipe shopped (there are a LOT of sangria recipes out there), and created the recipe below. The dinner turned out fabulous, Susie loved her meal, and everyone had a great time.
SUMMERY WHITE WINE SANGRIA
1 cup of gin
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/4 cup Chambord
1 sliced navel orange
1/2 cup red seedless grapes cut in half
1 red pluot, sliced thinly
1 sliced yellow peach
1 gala apple sliced and de-seeded
1 T powdered sugar
1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc (Do NOT use Chardonnay!)
1 cup Seltzer or soda water
Pick really ripe fruit. Marinate the fruit in the hard alcohol for about an hour at room temperature, and sprinkle the sugar to taste. Add the wine and fizzy water right before people get there and serve over ice. You can definitely play with the portions to make it taste right.
NOTE: This is closest to a recipe I found in Martha Stewart, but hers was vodka-based. I served it both ways at my party and promptly finished off the gin one before everyone at the party got to try it. I mean, it tastes fine with vodka, but gin gives it a gingery goodness and sweetness. (I know gin doesn’t have ginger, but I am telling you, the result tastes…gingery!) Martha’s recipe also included raspberries, and again, I don't. I think Chambord is much, much better, because it gives this sangria a nice peachy color. It also makes it look like the fruit has been marinating much longer than it has, so it’s a nice visual trick. Raspberries have too strong a taste, and would make the drink look more girl-y than summery. If this was a bridal shower, I would have gone with the berries, though. I mean, the truth is, you could really get away with using any fruit in this recipe. You just have to keep a bit of citrus, because the point of sangria is a citrus and wine. Oranges AND lemons are the classic additions; some recipes go so far as to suggest squeezing them into the recipe by the cup. I think the oranges AND lemon work in a red wine sangria, but in a white, it overwhelms the flavors of the sauvignon blanc, so I judiciously left out the lemons. This drink is incredibly beautiful, and was a total hit. I will be serving it again and again!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
SUMMERY WHITE WINE SANGRIA
1 cup of gin
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/4 cup Chambord
1 sliced navel orange
1/2 cup red seedless grapes cut in half
1 red pluot, sliced thinly
1 sliced yellow peach
1 gala apple sliced and de-seeded
1 T powdered sugar
1 bottle Sauvignon Blanc (Do NOT use Chardonnay!)
1 cup Seltzer or soda water
Pick really ripe fruit. Marinate the fruit in the hard alcohol for about an hour at room temperature, and sprinkle the sugar to taste. Add the wine and fizzy water right before people get there and serve over ice. You can definitely play with the portions to make it taste right.
NOTE: This is closest to a recipe I found in Martha Stewart, but hers was vodka-based. I served it both ways at my party and promptly finished off the gin one before everyone at the party got to try it. I mean, it tastes fine with vodka, but gin gives it a gingery goodness and sweetness. (I know gin doesn’t have ginger, but I am telling you, the result tastes…gingery!) Martha’s recipe also included raspberries, and again, I don't. I think Chambord is much, much better, because it gives this sangria a nice peachy color. It also makes it look like the fruit has been marinating much longer than it has, so it’s a nice visual trick. Raspberries have too strong a taste, and would make the drink look more girl-y than summery. If this was a bridal shower, I would have gone with the berries, though. I mean, the truth is, you could really get away with using any fruit in this recipe. You just have to keep a bit of citrus, because the point of sangria is a citrus and wine. Oranges AND lemons are the classic additions; some recipes go so far as to suggest squeezing them into the recipe by the cup. I think the oranges AND lemon work in a red wine sangria, but in a white, it overwhelms the flavors of the sauvignon blanc, so I judiciously left out the lemons. This drink is incredibly beautiful, and was a total hit. I will be serving it again and again!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Coq Au Vin
CASE: So Susie turned 29 last night, and I decided to throw a dinner party for her (perfect 8). I personally love cooking for 8. If it's just four people, I think you can achieve a much more intimate dinner party, where people really get to know each other. And that's great too. But there is something about the 8-10 number that allows the cook to really go all out, and to make something really spectacular without worrying too much about the volume of food. Now, I hate cooking during dinner parties. Just hate it. So I always have an eye out for recipes that can be made in advance. There is so much to do at a dinner party without worrying about the food. First and foremost, I like to have fun! I like to drink at my own dinner parties! And if I have to cook or chop, I am definitely not drinking. Because drinking while cooking = burns and cuts. Now my cousin Ann is obsessed with all things French, and as a result, Susie and I have developed a partiality to French cooking. Ann makes The Most Amazing Cassoulet, so I certainly wasn't making cassoulet, besides which, I think it takes a week to make her cassoulet. So I wanted something I could cook in advance, and I wanted something French. I toyed with the idea of making a really fruity, summery menu, filled with peaches and watermelon and tomatoes. But I just couldn't get jazzed about it because I don't own a BBQ grill. A summery menu has to have something grilled. It's like a law. Hum. So while coq au vin is extremely heavy and rich and comforting, I thought, it really does fit the bill nicely and when will I ever again make coq au vin since it takes three days? I mean, it had really better be a special occasion to go to such an effort. And I felt sure Susie would love the dish, because her favorite thing that I make is chicken and dumplings. Coq au vin is not all that far off from chicken and dumplings, in my humble opinion.
So. I decided to go with the coq au vin, and there's a place in downtown LA's Chinatown that sells freshly killed chickens. I'm not kidding. And I really want to try it! It's called Peking Poultry and it's on the 600 or 700 block of Hill Street. Anyway, I didn't have time to go, such I just got some lovely chickens from Whole Foods in Pasadena instead. My plan is to make drunken chicken with those fresh chickens one of these days.
I wanted to make it a really French meal, so I decided to do a real cheese plate. The Whole Foods in Pasadena has The Best Cheese Selection in LA. No kidding! And amazing olives AND amazing bread points AND amazing fresh vegetables. I had a hand-crafted goat cheese (I want to say it was Haymarket Farms), a beautiful creamy decadent French cheese in its own little pot (it was called something like Marcellin), an amazing aged English white cheddar, and a creamy British blue...the blue was called something that starts with an "R" and is apparently incredibly famous. Anyway, the Whole Foods there was lucky to get two wheels of the stuff, so go fast! (BTW, I have about half the blue cheese left so I have big plans to make Brandon some hamburgers with it if we meet up during the week. I think some fresh arugula, caramelized onions, and a nice toasty brioche-type bun would be perfect. Either that or I might surprise him with a blue cheese cheesecake. Now THOSE are fun. They're so rich you make a little mini one and serve it with crackers and cheese. Add one of those rotisserie chickens from the market and pre-washed bag of spinach with a simple vinaigrette and you’re DONE.) Anyway, I picked up some fabulous green French olives, flat crispy bread, amazing salami and lomo-type meats, and decided to serve it with fresh grapes and fig jam. Pretty good right? I didn't want to do nuts (although I was tempted to add walnuts), and to keep it simple. It was a big hit, and everyone’s favorite was the hand-made goat cheese. (Well, I forgot to put out the fig jam, so maybe a different one would have tasted better. In any event, you will soon see a recipe involving fig jam!)
NOTE: I personally like making a schmancy dish less schmancy by making it fun. Susie and I went to Costa Rica and she loved it. So I put out monkey and gorilla napkins and paper plates with the cheese plate. I also put little plastic butterflies all over the cheese, the joke being to remind her of all the bugs in Costa Rica. My feeling is that it makes the whole thing less stuffy. Same feeling for serving sangria—it was so light and sweet, I think it made a nice counterpoint to the heavy wine feeling of the coq au vin.
COQ AU VIN
NOTE: This recipe is a combination of Anne Willan's classic coq au vin and Larousse Gastronomie. If you feel the need to make it with morels, as is classically required, please do! Myself, I just didn't want to pay like $400 a pound for the dried ones. Who knows how much the fresh ones cost. Especially at a Whole Foods!
Marinade
1 bottle of a full-flavored red (I used a Nebbiolo)
3 chopped garlic gloves
1 smashed garlic clove kept whole
3 stalks of onions, chopped in thin ringlets
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 T black peppercorns (I added an additional 2 t of white peppercorns too)
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped (I actually used 5 shallots. Big mistake. Sauce needed it.)
10 pounds of dark meat, add a breast or two if you'd like. Meat must be bone-in with skin
Saute your vegetables in a bit of oil, add the wine, and simmer for a good five minutes. Let it cool, then pour it all over your raw chicken in a non-metal pot. Marinate up to 3 days. Note, the longer you marinate, the more likely you'll be serving purple chicken. But if you like the taste of wine...
NOTE: I marinated 1 day, and then let the chicken sit for 1 day before serving. You can wait another 3 days after you've made this dish to really let the flavors meld.
Sauce and Chicken
1 pound of thick bacon or lardons (I used a combination of smoked and fresh, thickly cut)
1 bouquet garni (handful of parsley, 4 fresh bay leaves, 8 thyme sprigs)
3/4 c flour
1 whole box of chicken stock or make your own, you'll need at least 5 cups
Separate chicken from your wine and vegetables. Dry chicken thoroughly. In your dutch oven, saute bacon in a bit of olive oil until it's leaked its oil. Reserve bacon for garnish. Brown the chicken in the dutch oven, cooking approximately 15 minutes. 10 minutes initially, 5 minutes after the flip. (You can coat the chicken in flour too.) Don't crowd the chicken. Let it brown nicely, a dark rich brown, not burnt, but with yummy brown bits. Rest the chicken. Then saute just the vegetables from your marinade in that grease til they're nice and soft. Add your flour and stir it up. Cook for a few minutes to develop your roux. Then add your wine and let it thicken. Simmer 5 minutes. Add your chicken stock and bouquet garni. Season with a bit of salt. Really taste your sauce at this point, because it's really not going to taste drastically different than the way it does at this point. If you feel it's not wine enough, add some! If you feel it's not onion-y enough, add some onions. If it's too thin, reduce. If it's too thick, add more chicken stock. Remember, at the very last stage of this dish you can add cold, unsalted butter to make it glossy and delicious. But at this stage, it has to taste right.
Once you're happy with the taste, add the chicken and simmer a few minutes. Add the cover, and pop into a 325 degree oven for about an hour. The chicken should be falling off the bone, it’s so tender. At this stage, you can serve it and start on the recipes below, or let it sit for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Garnish
2 cups brown mushrooms kept whole, slice a little “X” in the top of the cap
1 1/2 cup button mushrooms thickly sliced
3 cups FRESH pearl onions
Saute onions in butter until they have a nice browning. Season with salt and pepper. Add to your reserved bacon. Sautee the mushrooms in butter til nice and brown until, again, they have nice cripsy brown bits. Season with salt and pepper. Add to your reserved onions and bacon. Toss gently together, adjust for salt and pepper to taste. These should look shiny and crisp, and taste perfectly delicious on their own. In fact, you know you did it right if you want to eat them on their own.
NOTE: I tried the recipe with both fresh and frozen pearl onions. Fellow cooks, it is well worth the effort to use fresh pearl onions, even though they are a mighty pain in the butt to peel. Seriously. And, contrary to what I’d hoped, you can clearly see the difference between the two kinds of onions: one is white and round, the other is oblong and grey. The fresh onions were fresh, oniony and crisp. The frozen ones were water-logged, translucent and mushy. They gave the crunch, but not in a crisp way. I mean, honestly, they still tasted delicious, but not as delicious as the fresh. Sorry!
SAUCE
2 shallots, sliced
2 T cold unsalted butter
If your chicken was in the fridge, get rid of any fat on top and warm up. Pull out the chicken from the sauce, carefully removing any vegetable bits. Strain the sauce, preferably pouring it into wherever you browned your onions and mushrooms. Anyway, brown your shallots in the pan, then add the sauce. Put the chicken back in, and gently re-heat.
To serve: Spoon your boiled potatoes on a plate. (See post above.) Put chicken at a nice angle, slightly atop the potatoes but still touching the plate. Pour some sauce on the chicken and potatoes til its pooling in the plate. Then add a nice big ladle of the garnish on top. Lastly, put a pretty thyme spring on top of the garnish. DEFINITELY serve in French plates, I use dark pinky-red toile plates. If you like, you can remove the skin and bones. I didn’t. I don’t like the idea of having chicken bits floating on the potatoes—I like that people can cleave the meat from the bones on their own and see just how tender the meat is. Honestly, I don’t have much patience for people who are grossed out by bone-in chicken, or the floppy chicken skin. OK, maybe the skin is kind of gross. I should have removed it.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
So. I decided to go with the coq au vin, and there's a place in downtown LA's Chinatown that sells freshly killed chickens. I'm not kidding. And I really want to try it! It's called Peking Poultry and it's on the 600 or 700 block of Hill Street. Anyway, I didn't have time to go, such I just got some lovely chickens from Whole Foods in Pasadena instead. My plan is to make drunken chicken with those fresh chickens one of these days.
I wanted to make it a really French meal, so I decided to do a real cheese plate. The Whole Foods in Pasadena has The Best Cheese Selection in LA. No kidding! And amazing olives AND amazing bread points AND amazing fresh vegetables. I had a hand-crafted goat cheese (I want to say it was Haymarket Farms), a beautiful creamy decadent French cheese in its own little pot (it was called something like Marcellin), an amazing aged English white cheddar, and a creamy British blue...the blue was called something that starts with an "R" and is apparently incredibly famous. Anyway, the Whole Foods there was lucky to get two wheels of the stuff, so go fast! (BTW, I have about half the blue cheese left so I have big plans to make Brandon some hamburgers with it if we meet up during the week. I think some fresh arugula, caramelized onions, and a nice toasty brioche-type bun would be perfect. Either that or I might surprise him with a blue cheese cheesecake. Now THOSE are fun. They're so rich you make a little mini one and serve it with crackers and cheese. Add one of those rotisserie chickens from the market and pre-washed bag of spinach with a simple vinaigrette and you’re DONE.) Anyway, I picked up some fabulous green French olives, flat crispy bread, amazing salami and lomo-type meats, and decided to serve it with fresh grapes and fig jam. Pretty good right? I didn't want to do nuts (although I was tempted to add walnuts), and to keep it simple. It was a big hit, and everyone’s favorite was the hand-made goat cheese. (Well, I forgot to put out the fig jam, so maybe a different one would have tasted better. In any event, you will soon see a recipe involving fig jam!)
NOTE: I personally like making a schmancy dish less schmancy by making it fun. Susie and I went to Costa Rica and she loved it. So I put out monkey and gorilla napkins and paper plates with the cheese plate. I also put little plastic butterflies all over the cheese, the joke being to remind her of all the bugs in Costa Rica. My feeling is that it makes the whole thing less stuffy. Same feeling for serving sangria—it was so light and sweet, I think it made a nice counterpoint to the heavy wine feeling of the coq au vin.
COQ AU VIN
NOTE: This recipe is a combination of Anne Willan's classic coq au vin and Larousse Gastronomie. If you feel the need to make it with morels, as is classically required, please do! Myself, I just didn't want to pay like $400 a pound for the dried ones. Who knows how much the fresh ones cost. Especially at a Whole Foods!
Marinade
1 bottle of a full-flavored red (I used a Nebbiolo)
3 chopped garlic gloves
1 smashed garlic clove kept whole
3 stalks of onions, chopped in thin ringlets
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 T black peppercorns (I added an additional 2 t of white peppercorns too)
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped (I actually used 5 shallots. Big mistake. Sauce needed it.)
10 pounds of dark meat, add a breast or two if you'd like. Meat must be bone-in with skin
Saute your vegetables in a bit of oil, add the wine, and simmer for a good five minutes. Let it cool, then pour it all over your raw chicken in a non-metal pot. Marinate up to 3 days. Note, the longer you marinate, the more likely you'll be serving purple chicken. But if you like the taste of wine...
NOTE: I marinated 1 day, and then let the chicken sit for 1 day before serving. You can wait another 3 days after you've made this dish to really let the flavors meld.
Sauce and Chicken
1 pound of thick bacon or lardons (I used a combination of smoked and fresh, thickly cut)
1 bouquet garni (handful of parsley, 4 fresh bay leaves, 8 thyme sprigs)
3/4 c flour
1 whole box of chicken stock or make your own, you'll need at least 5 cups
Separate chicken from your wine and vegetables. Dry chicken thoroughly. In your dutch oven, saute bacon in a bit of olive oil until it's leaked its oil. Reserve bacon for garnish. Brown the chicken in the dutch oven, cooking approximately 15 minutes. 10 minutes initially, 5 minutes after the flip. (You can coat the chicken in flour too.) Don't crowd the chicken. Let it brown nicely, a dark rich brown, not burnt, but with yummy brown bits. Rest the chicken. Then saute just the vegetables from your marinade in that grease til they're nice and soft. Add your flour and stir it up. Cook for a few minutes to develop your roux. Then add your wine and let it thicken. Simmer 5 minutes. Add your chicken stock and bouquet garni. Season with a bit of salt. Really taste your sauce at this point, because it's really not going to taste drastically different than the way it does at this point. If you feel it's not wine enough, add some! If you feel it's not onion-y enough, add some onions. If it's too thin, reduce. If it's too thick, add more chicken stock. Remember, at the very last stage of this dish you can add cold, unsalted butter to make it glossy and delicious. But at this stage, it has to taste right.
Once you're happy with the taste, add the chicken and simmer a few minutes. Add the cover, and pop into a 325 degree oven for about an hour. The chicken should be falling off the bone, it’s so tender. At this stage, you can serve it and start on the recipes below, or let it sit for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Garnish
2 cups brown mushrooms kept whole, slice a little “X” in the top of the cap
1 1/2 cup button mushrooms thickly sliced
3 cups FRESH pearl onions
Saute onions in butter until they have a nice browning. Season with salt and pepper. Add to your reserved bacon. Sautee the mushrooms in butter til nice and brown until, again, they have nice cripsy brown bits. Season with salt and pepper. Add to your reserved onions and bacon. Toss gently together, adjust for salt and pepper to taste. These should look shiny and crisp, and taste perfectly delicious on their own. In fact, you know you did it right if you want to eat them on their own.
NOTE: I tried the recipe with both fresh and frozen pearl onions. Fellow cooks, it is well worth the effort to use fresh pearl onions, even though they are a mighty pain in the butt to peel. Seriously. And, contrary to what I’d hoped, you can clearly see the difference between the two kinds of onions: one is white and round, the other is oblong and grey. The fresh onions were fresh, oniony and crisp. The frozen ones were water-logged, translucent and mushy. They gave the crunch, but not in a crisp way. I mean, honestly, they still tasted delicious, but not as delicious as the fresh. Sorry!
SAUCE
2 shallots, sliced
2 T cold unsalted butter
If your chicken was in the fridge, get rid of any fat on top and warm up. Pull out the chicken from the sauce, carefully removing any vegetable bits. Strain the sauce, preferably pouring it into wherever you browned your onions and mushrooms. Anyway, brown your shallots in the pan, then add the sauce. Put the chicken back in, and gently re-heat.
To serve: Spoon your boiled potatoes on a plate. (See post above.) Put chicken at a nice angle, slightly atop the potatoes but still touching the plate. Pour some sauce on the chicken and potatoes til its pooling in the plate. Then add a nice big ladle of the garnish on top. Lastly, put a pretty thyme spring on top of the garnish. DEFINITELY serve in French plates, I use dark pinky-red toile plates. If you like, you can remove the skin and bones. I didn’t. I don’t like the idea of having chicken bits floating on the potatoes—I like that people can cleave the meat from the bones on their own and see just how tender the meat is. Honestly, I don’t have much patience for people who are grossed out by bone-in chicken, or the floppy chicken skin. OK, maybe the skin is kind of gross. I should have removed it.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Lobster Rolls
CASE: B Cat had never tried a lobster roll, or at least not one that he could think of. Which is basically the same as saying, "I've never had full-fat yogurt. But I HAVE had Key Lime Flavored Yoplait!" Now, cousin Ann and I have an unhealthy fixation on lobster rolls. One year for Susie's b-day we were determined to serve lobster rolls, mainly because Ann was having a hankering for them. She purchased hers at the Santa Monica Seafood Company for price of $39.99 a pound. (I know, right? For God's sake, just make it $40!) After her initial sticker shock, she conservatively estimated a 1/2 pound of lobster per person. There was enough lobster leftover for me to say, "I can see how people in Maine could get sick of lobster after a while." Anyway, I re-made them with the same lobster from the Santa Monica Seafood Company, and in my greediness, I ordered not 1/2 pound of lobster per person, but 5/8 of a pound per person. I'm not kidding. We each had two lobster rolls, and another for lunch the next day, and STILL had leftovers! Then again, the abundance of lobster made me feel really happy. The following recipe sounds ridiculous, I know, because there's almost no cooking involved. Whatever! Guilty of being delicious!
Fresh chunks of cooked lobster
Expensive hot dog rolls
butter
1/2 c finely chopped celery, not diced, but in nice half-rings
homemade mayonnaise
butter lettuce
tomatoes
Toast the hot dog rolls in butter til they have nice, crisp brown bits. Meanwhile, toss the chunks of lobster with the mayonnaise and celery bits. Layer the lobster in between the butter lettuce and tomatoes. Sprinkle with a fresh ground black pepper and serve with a lemon.
NOTE: I have made fresh lobster one time. It was very sad and very unpleasant. I think I also somehow cut myself. I prefer to just buy the lobster meat. You're probably also thinking, "Expensive hot dog buns? Does that exist?" Well, as a matter of fact, you can just check with Whole Foods if you think that hot dog buns cannot too be overpriced! But seriously, cheap buns just disintegrate in the mouth. They taste gritty. Expensive hot dog buns taste like fluffy Wonder Bread. They taste creamy and have a slightly chewy texture. And, at $3.99 for 6 in a bag, I really think it's worth the $1 splurge. Also, I personally like my lobster roll with butter lettuce and nothing more. B Cat liked his with tomatoes too, and in all honesty, tomatoes in a lobster roll is a pretty classic combination. The other thing we experimented with was a bit of fresh herbs. Chopped basil or tarragon feel right, because they go with the fresh mayonnaise so well. Anything more, and you're really ruining the lobster roll.
Homemade Mayonnaise
1 egg white
2 egg yolks
1 c plain oil, like canola
1 1/2 t dijon mustard
1 t white vinegar
Juice of one lemon
salt
pepper
Bring eggs to room temperature. Break up egg yolks with a whisk. Then whisk in some oil. Dump it all into a blender, and then slowly add the rest of the oil and other ingredients, all the while blending on high in between. I personally like a little olive-oil-y taste, so I use a little olive oil.
FINAL NOTE: The best way to serve these is with KFC re-engineered cole-slaw on the side, lemonade, and potato chips. Natch.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS! (Honestly, this *just* might be The Best Thing I Ever Made For B Cat. He got really quiet while eating it and - now this is this is the real bit of hard, cold evidence - he ate more than me!)
Fresh chunks of cooked lobster
Expensive hot dog rolls
butter
1/2 c finely chopped celery, not diced, but in nice half-rings
homemade mayonnaise
butter lettuce
tomatoes
Toast the hot dog rolls in butter til they have nice, crisp brown bits. Meanwhile, toss the chunks of lobster with the mayonnaise and celery bits. Layer the lobster in between the butter lettuce and tomatoes. Sprinkle with a fresh ground black pepper and serve with a lemon.
NOTE: I have made fresh lobster one time. It was very sad and very unpleasant. I think I also somehow cut myself. I prefer to just buy the lobster meat. You're probably also thinking, "Expensive hot dog buns? Does that exist?" Well, as a matter of fact, you can just check with Whole Foods if you think that hot dog buns cannot too be overpriced! But seriously, cheap buns just disintegrate in the mouth. They taste gritty. Expensive hot dog buns taste like fluffy Wonder Bread. They taste creamy and have a slightly chewy texture. And, at $3.99 for 6 in a bag, I really think it's worth the $1 splurge. Also, I personally like my lobster roll with butter lettuce and nothing more. B Cat liked his with tomatoes too, and in all honesty, tomatoes in a lobster roll is a pretty classic combination. The other thing we experimented with was a bit of fresh herbs. Chopped basil or tarragon feel right, because they go with the fresh mayonnaise so well. Anything more, and you're really ruining the lobster roll.
Homemade Mayonnaise
1 egg white
2 egg yolks
1 c plain oil, like canola
1 1/2 t dijon mustard
1 t white vinegar
Juice of one lemon
salt
pepper
Bring eggs to room temperature. Break up egg yolks with a whisk. Then whisk in some oil. Dump it all into a blender, and then slowly add the rest of the oil and other ingredients, all the while blending on high in between. I personally like a little olive-oil-y taste, so I use a little olive oil.
FINAL NOTE: The best way to serve these is with KFC re-engineered cole-slaw on the side, lemonade, and potato chips. Natch.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS! (Honestly, this *just* might be The Best Thing I Ever Made For B Cat. He got really quiet while eating it and - now this is this is the real bit of hard, cold evidence - he ate more than me!)
Chickpea Stew
I love chickpeas!
CASE: This is a great wintry stew for cold nights, or for when you know you'll want leftovers for days. It's especially fun to make when all those dark, rich leafy greens are in season. I made this for Ann and Susie one day. I think I had leftover bacon and bread, and of course lots of cans of chickpeas. I just felt like eating something I could dunk the bread into and have it be hot and spicy and greasy and delicious. And honestly, I think one of these days I'll make a vegetarian version. I really think it could work.
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 t finely choped rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/2 pound chorizo
1/2 pound bacon
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth (store-bought is fine)
2 cans of chickpeas
Lots of leafy vegetables chopped up, even spinach is fine, but I prefer kale, mustard greens, even collard greens.
Saute the onion in olive oil and a bit of butter. Add the garlic, rosemary and bay leaf and cook for a minute or two more. Add the chorizo and bacon, cook for a minute or two. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until it gets hot! Add the pepper flakes, salt, tomato paste and chicken broth to taste and visual preference. (Myself, I like it looking brothy. I also prefer this soup spicy, although I am not a spicy food person.) Stir in chickpeas, and then stir in greens until they wilt up. Simmer and stew until it tastes right. I like a longer stew, so 30 minutes for me, but 10 minutes should be fine.
Serve with a nice chunk of bread. I *suppose* you could make big croutons and dump them on the top, but I like eating with my hands, thank you very much.
NOTE: This started from a Catalonia-n recipe, so it starts with a sofrito, and it's pretty important to not just toss it all in together. I am quite convinced that a sofrito is a critical step in building a "guilty" soup. It just makes the flavors have more depth and oomph. If you're adding collard greens, use your brain, stew it for longer or add them earlier.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
CASE: This is a great wintry stew for cold nights, or for when you know you'll want leftovers for days. It's especially fun to make when all those dark, rich leafy greens are in season. I made this for Ann and Susie one day. I think I had leftover bacon and bread, and of course lots of cans of chickpeas. I just felt like eating something I could dunk the bread into and have it be hot and spicy and greasy and delicious. And honestly, I think one of these days I'll make a vegetarian version. I really think it could work.
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 t finely choped rosemary
2 bay leaves
1/2 pound chorizo
1/2 pound bacon
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth (store-bought is fine)
2 cans of chickpeas
Lots of leafy vegetables chopped up, even spinach is fine, but I prefer kale, mustard greens, even collard greens.
Saute the onion in olive oil and a bit of butter. Add the garlic, rosemary and bay leaf and cook for a minute or two more. Add the chorizo and bacon, cook for a minute or two. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until it gets hot! Add the pepper flakes, salt, tomato paste and chicken broth to taste and visual preference. (Myself, I like it looking brothy. I also prefer this soup spicy, although I am not a spicy food person.) Stir in chickpeas, and then stir in greens until they wilt up. Simmer and stew until it tastes right. I like a longer stew, so 30 minutes for me, but 10 minutes should be fine.
Serve with a nice chunk of bread. I *suppose* you could make big croutons and dump them on the top, but I like eating with my hands, thank you very much.
NOTE: This started from a Catalonia-n recipe, so it starts with a sofrito, and it's pretty important to not just toss it all in together. I am quite convinced that a sofrito is a critical step in building a "guilty" soup. It just makes the flavors have more depth and oomph. If you're adding collard greens, use your brain, stew it for longer or add them earlier.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Judd's Green Goddess Dip
Who knew, anchovies!
Judd, BBQ Extraordinaire, made this for me and I spent the better part of 2 hours trying to guess the ingredients. All wrong! I thought it was a dill-based dip the whole time. Needless to say, Judd enjoyed himself immensely with my utterly wrong guesses.
3/4 c mayo
1 T anchovy paste (or use canned ones you've dried off)
3/4 c various herbs, snipped chives, parsley, basil, tarragon.
1 small garlic clove
1 scallion
3/4 c sour cream
1 T lemon or lime juice
salt
freshly-ground black pepper
Blend.
NOTE: This really tastes best with thick-cut fried potato chips. I suppose you could serve it with a crux d'ete, but why would you want to do that?
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Judd, BBQ Extraordinaire, made this for me and I spent the better part of 2 hours trying to guess the ingredients. All wrong! I thought it was a dill-based dip the whole time. Needless to say, Judd enjoyed himself immensely with my utterly wrong guesses.
3/4 c mayo
1 T anchovy paste (or use canned ones you've dried off)
3/4 c various herbs, snipped chives, parsley, basil, tarragon.
1 small garlic clove
1 scallion
3/4 c sour cream
1 T lemon or lime juice
salt
freshly-ground black pepper
Blend.
NOTE: This really tastes best with thick-cut fried potato chips. I suppose you could serve it with a crux d'ete, but why would you want to do that?
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
The Best - and I mean BEST - Red Velvet Cupcake You Will Ever Have
(Just ask my cousin Susie!)
CASE: Susienificent and I wanted to do something schmancy for Valentine's Day one year and for some reason decided to make red velvet cupcakes. Needless to say, Susie ate most of them and hoarded the remaining precious few. I created this recipe out of a hodge-podge of recipes, and felt convinced that a good red velvet cake must be all of the following things: slightly chocolate-y, moist, a bright brilliant red, and dense-loooking yet spongy. I nixed any recipe that did not contain chocolate powder or buttermilk, and any recipe that contained less than 2 oz. of red food coloring. This is, after all, a Southern dessert. Also, I noticed the best recipes were for cake, not cupcakes! So I edited accordingly. As for the cream cheese frosting, it needed to be sweet and thick but not crusty. The result is a creamy red cupcake of utter goodness that is so red, if you accidentally crumble a cupcake on a towel later it will stain it red!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2 1/2 c flour
1 t salt
1/2 c butter (soft)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 T cocoa powder
2 oz. water
2 oz. red food coloring
1 c buttermilk
1 t vanilla
1 t white vinegar
1 t baking soda
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs to the mixture. Separately, in a little cup or something, make a paste out of the cocoa powder and food coloring. Add your red paste to the butter. Separately sift the flour and salt. Add dry into wet. Then...one at a time...add the buttermilk, vanilla and water. Separately, in a different little cup or something, combine the vinegar and baking soda. It will fizzle in a most exciting way. When it's done fizzling, fold it into your batter. Don't beat it! Fold it in gently. Pour a nice amount into each cupcake cup. Bake for 15-20 minutes, cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then off to a rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 lb cream cheese
4 c sifted flour
2 sticks of butter, or 1 cup
1 t vanilla
Mix the first three ingredients, then beat on high for 5 full minutes. Stop mixing, add the vanilla and raise the speed again.
NOTE: Clean your hands right away. My cookbook still has red fingerprints and drips. Also - don't think I wasn't going to mention this Susie Pooh - but you really need to read the recipe before cooking this. You can't just go about recklessly adding food coloring and baking soda. This is a very technical recipe, and if you do not follow it, the result will not be creamy red cupcake of utter goodness that is so red, if you accidentally crumble a cupcake on a towel later it will stain it red. You will have to do the recipe over. And over. And over again. Yes, my young bright pup Susie and I made this 3 times. I won't say whose fault it was, but I will say that I made her swear not to tell anyone that we had over for dinner that night!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
CASE: Susienificent and I wanted to do something schmancy for Valentine's Day one year and for some reason decided to make red velvet cupcakes. Needless to say, Susie ate most of them and hoarded the remaining precious few. I created this recipe out of a hodge-podge of recipes, and felt convinced that a good red velvet cake must be all of the following things: slightly chocolate-y, moist, a bright brilliant red, and dense-loooking yet spongy. I nixed any recipe that did not contain chocolate powder or buttermilk, and any recipe that contained less than 2 oz. of red food coloring. This is, after all, a Southern dessert. Also, I noticed the best recipes were for cake, not cupcakes! So I edited accordingly. As for the cream cheese frosting, it needed to be sweet and thick but not crusty. The result is a creamy red cupcake of utter goodness that is so red, if you accidentally crumble a cupcake on a towel later it will stain it red!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2 1/2 c flour
1 t salt
1/2 c butter (soft)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 T cocoa powder
2 oz. water
2 oz. red food coloring
1 c buttermilk
1 t vanilla
1 t white vinegar
1 t baking soda
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs to the mixture. Separately, in a little cup or something, make a paste out of the cocoa powder and food coloring. Add your red paste to the butter. Separately sift the flour and salt. Add dry into wet. Then...one at a time...add the buttermilk, vanilla and water. Separately, in a different little cup or something, combine the vinegar and baking soda. It will fizzle in a most exciting way. When it's done fizzling, fold it into your batter. Don't beat it! Fold it in gently. Pour a nice amount into each cupcake cup. Bake for 15-20 minutes, cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then off to a rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 lb cream cheese
4 c sifted flour
2 sticks of butter, or 1 cup
1 t vanilla
Mix the first three ingredients, then beat on high for 5 full minutes. Stop mixing, add the vanilla and raise the speed again.
NOTE: Clean your hands right away. My cookbook still has red fingerprints and drips. Also - don't think I wasn't going to mention this Susie Pooh - but you really need to read the recipe before cooking this. You can't just go about recklessly adding food coloring and baking soda. This is a very technical recipe, and if you do not follow it, the result will not be creamy red cupcake of utter goodness that is so red, if you accidentally crumble a cupcake on a towel later it will stain it red. You will have to do the recipe over. And over. And over again. Yes, my young bright pup Susie and I made this 3 times. I won't say whose fault it was, but I will say that I made her swear not to tell anyone that we had over for dinner that night!
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
My Cousin Ann and Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
CASE: My pretty cousin Ann loves thin and chewy chocolate chip cookies, and I can't say I disagree. Then again, all her cookies are delicious, so I don't know what to say about that. Ann is the person I cook the most with. Get used to seeing recipes with her! We had mighty big plans to publish a cookbook, which may still happen. This is my favorite cookie she ever made...
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The batches will cook for about 10-12 minutes.
1 1/4 stick butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 large egg
1 c 2 T flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
Beat the butter with the sugar, add vanilla and salt. Beat in the eggs. Whisk the dry ingredients, add to the wet.
NOTE: These cookies look best when in a basket with a pretty dish towel.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. The batches will cook for about 10-12 minutes.
1 1/4 stick butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 large egg
1 c 2 T flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
Beat the butter with the sugar, add vanilla and salt. Beat in the eggs. Whisk the dry ingredients, add to the wet.
NOTE: These cookies look best when in a basket with a pretty dish towel.
VERDICT: GUILTY! OF BEING DELICIOUS!
Nina & Shanghai Dumplings
CASE: I first had shanghai dumplings in New York, at an amazing corner restaurant famous for them (Shanghai Cafe http://www.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?neighborhoodid=0&restaurantid=5483). I went with my equally amazing friend Nina, whom is newly engaged and probably moving to Baltimore and working on her dissertation and speaks five languages. She always knows the best restaurants and we have come a far way from being college roommates who loved to cook. (Nina, don't you miss the days when we'd buy each other a fancy dinner?) They are amazing, hot and steamy, you bite into them and this delicious hot broth bursts into your mouth. I could eat a hundred of them, and was desperate to figure out how they trap the broth in the dumpling. Solution? Aspic!
Need:
bamboo steamer (more about this later...)
1 package round dumpling wrappers, thicker the better
aspic:
2 cups chicken broth (made by reducing 10 cups of water, smashed garlic, ginger pieces, onion, soy sauce, and rice wine)
1 package gelatin
filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 small can water chestnuts
1 small can straw mushrooms
1 cup chopped green onion
1 raw egg
4 T soy sauce
4 T rice wine
1 pinch salt
2 chopped garlic cloves
2 T chopped ginger
3/4 cup choped Napa cabbage
Reduce chicken stock, be sure to remove ginger if the stock seems to be getting bitter. Strain out the vegetables. Add gelatin packet, then pour into a square pan. Refrigerate until firm, and then chop into little cubes.
Mix filling ingredients then add cubed aspic. Let sit for at least 3 hours.
When you make the dumplings, keep them covered with a damp towel and for heaven's sakes don't layer them. They stick.
Set bamboo steamer in hot water, line with green parts of Napa cabbage. Cook thoroughly, approximately 15 minutes. Serve hot.
These are also good frozen! Just freeze them carefully: don't let them touch, don't let them get too hard, and don't freeze them in a glass container because they don't want to come back out.
NOTE: If you get a brand-new bamboo steamer, they need to be seasoned! I did not season mine and ended up with bamboo-y tasting dumplings. I also used thin, square dumpling wrappers from the regular grocery store--big mistake! These need to be pressed together like a little cup; you cannot have them be that oblong, football shape. The result was a sideways mess! You could see the liquid through the wrapper; that is, if it didn't leak through the steamer already! And it didn't burst in your mouth like a hot delicious Shanghai dumpling...it dribbled.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. Cheaper and better in a restaurant. Then again, mine obviously tasted like bamboo and I honestly couldn't bear to eat my second batch. I am not a panda.
Need:
bamboo steamer (more about this later...)
1 package round dumpling wrappers, thicker the better
aspic:
2 cups chicken broth (made by reducing 10 cups of water, smashed garlic, ginger pieces, onion, soy sauce, and rice wine)
1 package gelatin
filling:
1 lb ground pork
1 small can water chestnuts
1 small can straw mushrooms
1 cup chopped green onion
1 raw egg
4 T soy sauce
4 T rice wine
1 pinch salt
2 chopped garlic cloves
2 T chopped ginger
3/4 cup choped Napa cabbage
Reduce chicken stock, be sure to remove ginger if the stock seems to be getting bitter. Strain out the vegetables. Add gelatin packet, then pour into a square pan. Refrigerate until firm, and then chop into little cubes.
Mix filling ingredients then add cubed aspic. Let sit for at least 3 hours.
When you make the dumplings, keep them covered with a damp towel and for heaven's sakes don't layer them. They stick.
Set bamboo steamer in hot water, line with green parts of Napa cabbage. Cook thoroughly, approximately 15 minutes. Serve hot.
These are also good frozen! Just freeze them carefully: don't let them touch, don't let them get too hard, and don't freeze them in a glass container because they don't want to come back out.
NOTE: If you get a brand-new bamboo steamer, they need to be seasoned! I did not season mine and ended up with bamboo-y tasting dumplings. I also used thin, square dumpling wrappers from the regular grocery store--big mistake! These need to be pressed together like a little cup; you cannot have them be that oblong, football shape. The result was a sideways mess! You could see the liquid through the wrapper; that is, if it didn't leak through the steamer already! And it didn't burst in your mouth like a hot delicious Shanghai dumpling...it dribbled.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. Cheaper and better in a restaurant. Then again, mine obviously tasted like bamboo and I honestly couldn't bear to eat my second batch. I am not a panda.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
