Yogadad World

Sometimes you cook a dish for the first time and you know that you're going to do it again because the first time is just the trial run. This was one of those times. Not that it turned out bad. We both liked it. But there were some variables that made me think that I'd want to do it again.

This recipe is from the January/February issue of Cook's Illustrated. I  enjoy reading the magazine and watching the TV show. In the article accompanying the recipe, the author talks about his time in a Bangkok cooking school and his attempt to recreate the dish when he got back to the states. It's a good story.

He says his version is relatively mild but it's hard to tell looking at a recipe whether 6 Thai chiles is going to make it unbearably hot or agreeably spicy. I didn't have 6 Thai chiles in the kitchen anyway so I opted for one medium jalapeno, one serrano, and a couple Thai chiles. I seeded the jalapeno but not the other two. Turned out to be a good decision as the dish came out hot & spicy but not enough that we didn't enjoy eating the chicken. And we weren't constantly reaching for the water glass. 

The peppers were all a bit old and most were pretty wrinkly. They didn't cut up so well in the food processor. Next time, I will use only fresh peppers.  But this does seem to be the right amount for us. You may find this way too spicy or maybe not spicy enough. See what I mean about trying it out a couple of times?

The recipe calls for medium low heat to cook the basil and shallots, but also says they should cook until the shallots begin to brown. I cooked a few minutes more than the recipe calls for but they never browned up.  think that's from the low heat. I wonder about increasing it to medium. In his text, though, he talks about the value of slow cooking the basil and infusing the chicken with flavor. I gotta admit: it works. This was a very tasty dish. But I might experiment with the cooking temperature a bit next time.

Last, we had jasmine rice as a side dish. Tonight, instead of cooking the rice with water, we used coconut milk. About halfway through cooking the rice, I noticed the liquid was gone but the rice was still crunchy. So we added a bit of water, which allowed the rice to plump up. The coconut milk added a very nice sweetness to the meal and complimented the heat in the chicken.

All in all, a successful first time for this recipe. I'm sure it won't be the last.

Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves , tightly packed
3 medium garlic cloves , peeled
6 green or red Thai chiles , stemmed 
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast , cut into 2-inch pieces
3 medium shallots , peeled and thinly sliced (about 3/4 cup)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Red pepper flakes , for serving

Process 1 cup basil leaves, garlic, and chiles in food processor until finely chopped, 6 to 10 one-second pulses, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula once during processing. Transfer 1 tablespoon basil mixture to small bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar; set aside. Transfer remaining basil mixture to 12-inch heavy-bottomed nonstick skillet. Do not wash food processor bowl.

Pulse chicken and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in food processor until meat is chopped into -approximate 1/4-inch pieces, six to eight 1-second pulses. Transfer to medium bowl and refrigerate 15 minutes.

Stir shallots and oil into basil mixture in skillet. Heat over medium-low heat (mixture should start to sizzle after about 1 1/2 minutes; if it doesn’t, adjust heat accordingly), stirring constantly, until garlic and shallots are golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add chicken, increase heat to medium, and cook, stirring and breaking up chicken with potato masher or rubber spatula, until only traces of pink remain, 2 to 4 minutes. Add reserved basil-fish sauce mixture and continue to cook, stirring constantly until chicken is no longer pink, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining cup basil leaves and cook, stirring constantly, until basil is wilted, 30 to 60 seconds. Serve immediately, passing extra fish sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes, and vinegar separately.

This was one of those nights when neither of us wanted to spend time in the kitchen. I arrived home later than usual from work, not feeling especially creative or energetic. Often, dinner on nights like these turn into "Let's send out for pizza." For us, it meant turning to the potato and leek soup that I had started on Sunday and stashed in the refrigerator, knowing that a night like this was likely sometime during the week.

The recipe is from Michael Field's Cooking School via my friend Dave Brunell. In mid-January, we spent a few days in Colorado skiing with Dave and his wife Susan Fayd. We had a lovely time. The weather was perfect, temperatures in the high teens and 20s during the day and lots of snow.

We arrived on a Friday, around noon. After Dave and Susan fetched us from the shuttle bus depot, we had lunch at Freshies, a little restaurant in Steamboat Springs. The menu that day featured a potato leek soup. Three of us ended up ordering it and it didn't disappoint. While we ate, Susan volunteered that Dave had a version of potato leek soup that was just as good as Freshies. I immediately demanded a recipe. Shortly after we got home, Dave obliged.

Dave's version is different from Freshies. At the restaurant the soup was a clear broth with herbs visible in the soup. This version is more like a cream of potato with leeks. It's a great soup. I'm still looking for something similar to what we had at Freshies.

I added a bit of cream during the reheat. And I added a pinch of red pepper flakes. Just enough to give it a bit of a bite. Be careful it you run the veggies through a food processor. If you give it more than a couple of pulses, you'll end up with a puree very quickly. I like the chunks of potatoes and leeks in the bowl.

Ingredients
4 cups of good chicken stock  
4 tablespoons of butter  
2 large leeks, cleaned & chopped (1-1 1/2 cups)  
1 medium onion (about 1/2 cup)  
1 small stalk of celery, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)  
3 cups of potatoes diced  
Salt & pepper to taste  
1 cup cream (or half & half) optional
2 tablespoons chopped chives  

Melt the butter slowly in a large, heavy pan.  Add the chopped onion, celery & chopped leeks. Cook slowly for about 20 minutes until the veggies are soft & translucent. 

Transfer to a 3 or 4 quart saucepan, add the chicken stock & potatoes & bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat immediately, partially cover & keep the mixture at a simmer until the potatoes are soft. 

Put vegetables into food mill or pulse once or twice in a food processor. 

Cover the bowl of soup & chill over night, adding the cream & chives to the bowls just before serving. 

It's a snowy night in mid-Michigan. Not as snowy as further south & east, but enough to be troublesome. After getting home from work, the first order of business was shoveling the sidewalk and driveway. Our driveway is rather long and wide and it takes awhile to get done. Shannon helped so it wasn't too onerous. But we did have an appetite by the time we finished. Fortunately the meal we had discussed in the morning fit the bill perfectly.

This recipe is from one of my favorite food writers, Mark Bittman. He's a New York Times columnist, writing the Minimalist column and a blog, Bitten. He also has written a first rate cookbook and a non-cookbook about food, among other things.

The starchy rice, along with the egg topping, was great comfort food after coming in from the cold, covered with snow. The dish cooked up fast and was quite hearty. Dessert was a few orange slices, the sweetness nicely complimenting the saltiness of the soy sauce and sesame oil in the rice.

If you watch Bittman's video, you'll see he uses two pans - one to brown the ginger and garlic, the other to soften the leeks and heat the rice. He uses the first pan to also fry the eggs. I used one pan for the garlic and ginger, then put the leeks and rice in that pan, using the second to fry the egg. Too late I discovered that the Calphalon pan that I had assumed was non-stick had egg stuck to the bottom. After grumping around about the lack of quality in these pans, which are not inexpensive, I managed to pry the eggs, mostly intact from the pan, and get them on top of the rice. What I find a bit ironic is that the best non-stick pan I have is some no-name skillet that I think I got at Kroger for probably $10. Takes a licking and still no sticking. So next time we make this, I'll use el cheapo pan for the eggs and the other for the rice. Doesn't matter if that sticks a bit.

Ingredients
1/2 cup peanut oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
Salt
2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, rinsed and dried
4 cups day-old cooked rice, preferably jasmine, at room temperature
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons sesame oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce.

In a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and salt lightly.

Reduce heat under skillet to medium-low and add 2 tablespoons oil and leeks. Cook about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very tender but not browned. Season lightly with salt.

Raise heat to medium and add rice. Cook, stirring well, until heated through. Season to taste with salt.

In a nonstick skillet, fry eggs in remaining oil, sunny-side-up, until edges are set but yolk is still runny.

Divide rice among four dishes. Top each with an egg and drizzle with 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Sprinkle crisped garlic and ginger over everything and serve.

No Super Bowl here today. Instead we made an Indian dish with skinless chicken and a yogurt-based marinade. It made for a super platter, if not a super bowl. The recipe is from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. We loved it. Just the right amount of heat from the chilis. I used 2 serrano and 4 Thai chilis. Any more and it would have been too hot for us. Your taste will vary. If you don't like much heat at all, cut way back on the peppers. And if you like it very hot, add a couple more. One more tip. Don't try to cut a corner and leave the skin on the chicken. You won't like it nearly as much. Removing the skin is a bit of chore but shouldn't take more than a few minutes. The wings are the hardest, legs second hardest and the rest is a piece of cake. Just grap a corner, lift, and it pretty much slides off.

The recipe calls for grinding whole spices. I used a mortar & pestle. I have a cast iron model that we picked up at a garage sale last summer. It's very heavy and did a great job grinding the corriander, cumin, and cardamom. I used ground cloves, not having whole cloves in the cupboard. The fragancy of the freshly ground cloves adds another dimension to the dish. 

A couple of notes. The bread came out of the oven this afternoon. Shannon uses the almost No-Knead bread recipe made famous by Jim Lahey and publicized in the New York Times, Cooks Illustrated and elsewhere. She added garlic, rosemary, and cheese. It was perfect with the chicken.

The yogurt was homemade, too. That came out of the yogurt maker yesterday. Very smooth and tasty.

Marinade Ingredients:
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds
6 lengthwise slices fresh ginger (each 1 1/2 in. long, 1 in. wide, 1/4 in. thick
6 large cloves garlic
5 - 7 in. fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed
1/4 c finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tb coriander seeds, ground
2 tsp cumin seeds, ground
2 tsp coarse kosher or sea salt
1/2 tsp cardamon seeds, ground
1/2 tsp whole cloves, ground

Other ingredients
1 chicken (3 1/2 lbs) skin removed, cut-up
4 Tb canola oil
1 medium-sized red onion, cut in half lengthwise & thinly sliced
4 fresh or dried bay leaves
5 oz fresh baby spinach leaves

Combine yogurt, almonds, ginger, garlic & chiles in a blender & puree. Sauce should be smooth, but slightly gritty. Pour into medium bowl and fold in cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, cardamom, and cloves.

Add the chicken pieces to the bowl & coat well with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Heat 2 Tb of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion & bay leaves. Cook, stirring, until the onion slices are soft & light brown around the edges, about 3 or 4 minutes. Transfer the onion & bay leaves to a plate

Pour the remaining 2 Tb oil into the same skillet. Remove the chicken from the marinade (it's ok if some of the mariade clings to the chicken) and add it to the skillet, meat side down, in a single layer. Reserve the remaining marinade. Sear the meat until it is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the pieces ove and sear the other side unti lightly browned, about 3 mins.

Spread the reserve marinade over the chicken, add the cooked onion and 1/4 cup water. Lift the chicken pieces & allow the liquid to flow underneath them; it should deglaze the skillet, releasing any bits of browned chicken & spices. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and braise the chicken, basting it wi the sauce occasionally, until the meat in the thickest parts is no longer pink inside & the juices run clear, 25 - 30 mins. Transfer chicken & onions to a serving patter.

Raise the heat to medium-high & boil the sauce, uncovered, stirring occasionally until it is slightly thickened 5 - 8 mins. Then stir in the spinach, a handful at a time. Cook just until the leaves have wilted, 1 - 2 mins.

Spoon the spinach sauce over the chicken pieces & serve.

Tonight's supper was a soup I made Sunday afternoon and stashed in the refrigerator for later in the week. The recipe was from Sunday Soup by Betty Rosbottom. This wasn't my first soup from the book. Rosbottom's recipes for Russian Vegetable soup and Butternut Squash and Apple soup with Cider Cream were both very good. (I froze the Russian Vegetable and am just now finishing it up. It freezes very well.) I'm not sure what happened with tonight's soup, Cold Weather Potato Chowder with Caraway Cheese. I have a couple theories. But first the recipe.

Ingredients
4 slices bacon, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup diced celery
1 lb red-skin potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2 in. dice
1 Tb minced garlic
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups whole milk
1 cup (4 oz) Harvarti cheeese with caraway seed, coarsely grated
1 Tb unsalted butter @ room temp.
1 Tb all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tb chopped fresh chives for garnish

Saute bacon in large heavy pot, medium heat, until browned & crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towel to drain, save 2 Tb bacon grease & discard the rest.

Add onion & celery to the bacon drippings and cook until softened, about 5 mins. Stir frequently. Add diced potatoes & saute for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add chicken stock & milk to the pot & bring mixture to a simmer. Cook soup at a simmer until the potatoes are tender, for 10-15 mins. Do not boil soup. (Soup can be prepared to this point 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, & refrigerate. Reheat over low heat & proceed with recipe.)

When ready to serve, add the cheese, a little at a time, stirring until melted after each addition. In a small bow, mist the butter & flour with a fork to make a paste. Whisk into the soup, a little at a time, and cook until completely blended, for 1 to 2 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle each service chopped chives & bacon.

Sounds great, eh? Mine wasn't. Not even close. It had a bitter, sour taste to it. I think I went wrong when I didn't follow the recipes admonition to add the cheese and the flour paste just before serving. Instead, I shrugged, and added both on Sunday, then stuck the soup into the refrigerator. I think that somehow the cheese & potatoes weren't good together in the fridge. Alternatively, it could have been the cheese. I couldn't find Harvarti with carraway seeds at the store so I picked up some Havarti dill cheese. It's possible that dill was not the right herb to use in this soup. A third possibility is that the milk was just a little bit off. It'd been in the fridge for a while but it smelled ok. Normally, my nose doesn't go wrong. This time it might have.

I think I'll give this recipe another go sometime and correct all those things. Maybe next time, it'll be the tasty treat that it should be.

Right now, I'm heading back to the kitchen to find something a bit more satisfying than this soup.

Tonight's dinner came from The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern cookbook. This was our first recipe from their book and it was a resounding success. We paired the fish with a glass of Sutter Home Gewurtztraminer, which nicely balanced the acid from the lemon. Normally I'm not a big fan of wines made from this grape, but for our meal tonight it worked quite well. The trout were frozen and came from the Lansing City Market. Serves two. From start to finish this took about an hour. The book says 20 minutes, but that's very, very optimistic.

Ingredients:
2 Tbl all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 trout fillets (6-8 oz each)
4 Tbl unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 large lemon segmented
2 slices bread, toasted, crusts cut off, cut into fine dice
1/2 mixed fresh herbs such a dill, mint, & parsley
2 Tbl good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar

In a small bow mix flour, salt & pepper. Sprinkle over both sides of the trout fillets.

Melt the butter in a medium saute pan, cast-iron preferred, over medium heat until the froth begins to subside. Place the fillets in the skillet, skin side down and cook until the skin is crispy, about 5 minutes. You'll see the sides of the fillet begin to turn brown when it's done. Turn over and cook for about 3 minutes

While the fish is cooking, toss the lemon segments, diced toast, and herbs in a bowl. Dress with the olive oil & vinegar, and set aside.

When the fillets are completely cooked, place the lemon-herb mixture on each plate, lay a fillet, skin side up, over it and serve immediately.

The fish was very tasty, and we rate this recipe a keeper. We thought we'd need a side dish so cooked up a bunch of jasmine rice, which was unneeded. The bread, lemon, and herb concoction was all we needed to accompany the fish. The rice was schlepped off to the refrigerator, to await another day. We have plans for it later this week.