Thai Fried Chicken Wings

If I had a dollar for every time I said I love fried chicken wings...

I finally made Pim's Thai Fried Chicken recipe using chicken wings. I had a family sized package in the freezer and have not fried anything in over a month (unheard of!). I like cooking with wings since I seem to have a better handle on cooking it just right. Besides, how can you resist those cute little and delicious drummettes.

I didn't do anything too different from Pim's original recipe. I do, however, like my fried chicken (wings and other parts) very crunchy. So instead of putting straight into the oil after dredging, I let the wings sit a bit to help crust formation. I then dredged it one more time and then shaking off excess flour before putting them into the oil. While one batch was cooking, which took about 7 minutes to cook through and to get a nice golden brown, I would dredge the next batch and let them rest. Then while the oil was getting back up to temperature (350 degrees), I'd dredge them again and then into the oil. If you like the thinner crust, just follow Pim's original directions. Either way, I think you'll love these.

Here's what I modified for the chicken wings.

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs of chicken wings, separated, discard tips
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 Tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro stalks
1 Tbsp ground black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt (or other course salt)
6 Tbsp oyster sauce
1/3 cup fish sauce
2 cups of rice flour, you might need more if double dredging
Canola oil for frying

In a small food processor, ground cilantro stalks, garlic and salt until you get a rough paste. You can also do this in a mortar/pestle or using the flat side of a wide knife to grind into paste.

In a large container or food storage bag, combine paste with oyster sauce, fish sauce and ground pepper. Add chicken wings and mix until all wings have been coated. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. About half way through the marinating time, retoss to make sure all the wings get equal marination.

In a Dutch oven, add about 1 - 1 1/2" of oil. Heat oil to 350 - 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit; put a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet into the oven. This will keep the cooked wings warm and crispy as you finish frying all the wings.

Put rice flour in a medium to large bowl for dredging. Dredge the wings and let rest for a few minutes. I did this while the oil was just reaching 350 degrees F. Dredge the wings again and shake off excess flour and gently put it into the hot oil. I was able to get about 9-10 wing sections into my DO and adjusted the heat to keep the temperature around 315 degrees F. The wings were done around 7-8 minutes.

Drain the wings on paper towel for a minute or two before putting it into the oven. I did this to remove any excess oil that might have been on the wings. Let the oil temperature come back to 350 degrees before putting in the next batch. Continue frying up remaining wings in the same way.

The wings were not greasy at all and were wonderfully crunchy and mouth-smacking good! We had them with some macaroni salad and steamed white rice. Delicious! The Mister said these were the most crunchiest chicken to date and called them "money." What more can I want? Okay, maybe a vacation to Hawaii but I'll take what I can get!

Hope y'all are having a wonderful week. Now go and eat well.

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Brownie #5

I just couldn't leave well enough alone. It's not as if I had too much time on my hands or something but I decided to tweak Brownie #4, slightly. I've seen some recipes that call for adding instant expresso or coffee to boost the chocolate flavor in chocolate desserts. Instant coffee/expresso is not something I keep on hand. So instead, I decided to try cold coffee (Kona coffee to be specific since that's what we had that morning). Other than some minor modifications to the ingredients, I also baked these a bit longer than the other recipes. In reality, these probably could have withstood another 2 minutes or so since the overall texture is fudgy-soft. As I'm biting into a piece of it right now, I kind of like the fudgy, softer texture this one has.


One thing to note, the batter on this one will be a bit wetter than the previous 2 recipes. Other than that, directions are still the same. One bowl, quick and easy.

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C packed dark brown sugar
3 Tbsp Canola oil (or vegetable oil)
3 Tbsp cold coffee
1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 C unbleached AP flour
3/4 C dutch-processed cocoa powder (Callebaut)
1/2 tsp table salt
3/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven at 350°F oven.

In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, oil, butter, coffee and vanilla (hand mixed with a wooden spoon). Add both sugars and mix. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

In a large sifter (I use a large fine mesh strainer), combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together. Sift directly into the wet ingredients. (Add optional chopped nuts at this point.) I think sifting the dry ingredients help with a lighter texture, I don't think it's absolutely necessary and can be skipped if you don't have a sifter.

Mix until everything is combined. Try not to overwork the batter at this point.

Lightly spray Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan (or an 8" x 8" pan) with oil. Spread mix into pan. Bake for 22-26 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out with light crumbs. Cool completely in pan and cut into squares.

Taste Results:

CAB: Chocolate taste seems smoother than than Brownie 5. Softer and fudgier in a good way. The top has a bit more crust that I like. Don't taste any hint of coffee, as expected. Very nice mellow chocolate aftertaste. Maybe baking another 2-3 minutes will make it more chewy. When I compared the photos to previous experiments, I noticed that this brownie is darker, richer in color. Had to be the coffee.

GP1: Really good chocolate flavor. I think the chocolate taste is better than [Brownie #4]. It's softer and good but maybe needs to be a little chewier. Maybe. It's really good, rich.

GP2: Oh I love all the brownies and this one is really really good. I like the texture of it, soft and rich. Definitely the moistest of all of the brownies so far.

GP3: (MIA)

GP4: I like this one, good flavor. Would be really good with a cup of coffee. Like the texture.

GP5: I think I like the last one better [Brownie #4] but this one is good. I can really smell the chocolate. I like the aftertaste. Might be a bit too soft for my taste but my daughter would love this version.

GP6: This would go really well with nuts (here we go again!). I think the flavor would round out nuts. I like the flavor, it seems to fill my whole mouth and smoother tasting than the last one. Really good, I like the texture, soft but still a bit crusty on top.

Guest GP: This is exactly the way I like my brownies. I love the soft brownies that taste like fudge. You made this from scratch? Really?

Conclusion: Looks like it was split between the panel on the texture, some liked it more than others. I think I'll make this again this weekend and bake it a bit longer to see how the middle sets up. But it was pretty unanimous that the coffee did enhance the chocolate flavor, considering that this version had 1/4 cup less cocoa powder and the exact same amount of sugar.

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Brownie #3 and #4

The delay in making Brownie #3 got the Brownie Guinea Pig Panel grumpy and anxious. As a matter of fact, one of them was quite demanding on getting his brownie fix, me being sick or not. Sheesh. It's not like there's crack in these brownies or anything (as far as they know).

Brownie #4 - Winner!

To get back at the demanding bunch, I decided to do something a little different, bwahahaha! Instead of tweaking Brownie #2, I decided to make Cook's Illustrated Chewy, Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies. I wanted to make these not just to mess with the BGPP but to see how brownies that use melted chocolate taste compared to only cocoa powder.

I used Baker's semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate since it's what I found at the grocery store, and the Callabaut cocoa powder. Well, I was quite disappointed with the CI brownies overall on 2 counts. From a preparation standpoint, it took twice as long to make than any of the other brownies (double the amount of bowls and utensils) and the recipe's bake time was way too long to actual bake time (actual 25 minutes vs the recipe's 35-40 minutes). I can't imagine what they would have tasted like if I would have gone the full baking time that the recipe called for. Thank goodness I checked it when I did.

From a taste standpoint, it was chocolaty but it lacked depth and sweetness, and it left a funny aftertaste. This could have been a by-product of the chocolates I used. But the biggest thing, IMHO, was the amount of sugar to the amount of chocolate was not right. For me, brownie needs to have a good sweet to chocolate ratio, CI's brownies didn't have it. As a matter of fact, I rate these just slightly above Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies, which is not very good.

The BGPP feedback was almost unanimous that CI brownies were not anywhere near as good as Brownie #2. GP2 was the only one that thought this was good. GP5 and 6 also thought there was kind of a weird aftertaste. But GP5's comments summed it up perfectly, "These brownies didn't make me want another piece."

So with my disappointment hanging over me, I had to immediately work on Brownie #4. The Mister said my reputation was at stake and I had to redeem myself. Guess I got my payback for wanting to mess with the BGPP.

For Brownie #4, I went back to Brownie #2 and decided to work on increasing the chocolate factor without losing the texture or the simplicity. I also wanted to try to simplify the ingredients list, if I can.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C packed dark brown sugar
1/4 oil (Canola)
1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 C unbleached AP flour
1 C dutch-processed cocoa powder (Callebaut)
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven at 350°F oven.

In a medium bowl, mix eggs and vanilla (hand mixed with a wooden spoon). Add sugars and mix. Add oil and butter, mix well.

In a large sifter (I use a large fine mesh strainer), combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together. Sift directly into the wet ingredients. (Add optional chopped nuts at this point.) I think sifting the dry ingredients help with a lighter texture, I don't think it's absolutely necessary and can be skipped if you don't have a sifter. Mix until everything is combined. Try not to overwork the batter at this point.

Lightly sprayed Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan (or an 8" x 8" pan) with oil. Spread mix into pan. Bake for 22-26 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out with light crumbs. Cool completely in pan and cut into squares.

* If you want to add nuts, add 1 cup of chopped nuts after sifting dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Taste Results:

CAB: Chocolate taste is more intense than Brownie 2. Had a very good texture, slightly crunchy on top but soft and chewy in the center. Still maintained the good slight fudgy mouth feel on the inside. Very nice chocolate aftertaste.

GP1: Mmm, really good. I like the soft texture in the middle. Good chocolate flavor. Definitely better than Brownie 3, think it's better than Brownie 2.

GP2: Oh, this is good, really good. I like the texture.

GP3: (MIA)

GP4: Thumbs up on this one. Don't ever make that CI brownie again.

GP5: Wow, this one stays with you, like a brownie should. I really like the texture of the outside and then the chewiness on the inside. Really good, I think I like this one better than Brownie #2. I would make this one at home. I want the recipe. (A little later: This is good. Yup, it's good. I want the recipe.)

GP6: Really good. I like the flavor of this one.

So there you have it. Brownie #4 is the winner in taste and quick preparation. Almost as easy and just as tasty as Betty Crocker brownie in a box. It took <10 minutes from set up to final batter. Then another 24 minutes in the oven. I don't think I can streamline it to be any easier than this for homemade brownies. The hardest part is waiting for these to cool.

Maybe the future of the Brownie Experiment is to play around with variations of brownies (e.g., cheesecake brownies). We'll just have to wait and see.

Looking forward to the weekend. Now go and eat well.

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Homemade Pasta

I dusted off the manual Atlas pasta machine this weekend and made sure everything still works (just like new!). Dinner plan was simple, bake some French bread, make fresh fettuccine pasta tossed with some Bolognese sauce. The only thing left was to decide which pasta dough recipe to use.

After looking through some cookbooks and searching online for some recipes, I settled on a very simple egg and flour recipe. One author in an Italian cookbook suggested not using Semolina (Durum) flour since it has a tendency to be gritty. She found that home cooks have better success with unbleached all purpose flour. Her description of gritty was exactly the experience I had with Semolina flour so I decided to follow her advice.

I followed the 1 cup of flour to 1 egg formula but also decided to add a pinch of salt to each cup of flour. Some recipes called for salt, some didn't. I chose to add salt because I felt without it, the pasta might not be as tasteful. I think salting the water would add flavor when cooking but I wasn't sure how much since fresh pasta only takes about 2 1/2 minutes to cook. The following recipe will yield about 1 pound of fresh pasta and feeds 3-4 people. I also used my standing mixer to do the initial mixing and finished with hand kneading.

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour plus extra for dusting
2 pinches of salt
2 large eggs

Directions:

In a electric mixer fitted with the paddle, combine flour and salt. I used the paddle since it mixes ingredients better than the dough hook and I was going to knead by hand. Add the eggs and mix until all the flour is combined. You may need to scrape down the sides to get all the flour incorporated.

If you don't have a mixer, you can do everything by hand. Mix the flour and salt together and form a mound on a flat work surface. Make a well in the center. Add eggs into the well and lightly beat with a fork. You can use your hands too, if you prefer. Gradually beat in flour from the inside wall of the well in a circular motion. Try to keep the sides of the well intact with your other hand as you're beating. Continue until all the flour is incorporated and you can form a ball.

Flour the work surface and begin kneading the dough. There are several good videos on YouTube that shows how to mix and knead the dough. Knead the dough until it is elastic and smooth, about 8-10 minutes. Dust the work surface and/or dough with flour during kneading to prevent sticking; a bench scraper is useful to scrape sticky dough off the work surface. You can also get a plastic bench scraper for about $1, and they work great too. The end product should not stick to your hands.

Cover the dough with a cotton kitchen towel and let rest for at least 30 minutes. You can also wrap the dough in plastic wrap but you might want to brush the surface with a very light coating of olive oil to prevent sticking.

Cut the ball of dough into thirds, cover the pieces you are not using to prevent drying. Dust the work surface with flour. Press a piece of dough into a rectangle and sprinkle both sides with flour. On the widest setting (#1 on my Atlas), roll the dough through the pasta machine. Fold it over on itself into thirds (like a business letter), dust the sides and roll through the pasta machine. Repeat 2-3 more times. The surface of the dough should be smooth.

Reduce the roller width by 1 setting and roll the pasta through through 2-3 times on each setting. Continue reducing the rollers width until the desired thickness is reached (#5 on my machine for fettuccine). Dust the sheet of pasta as needed to prevent sticking to the rollers.

Once the desired thickness is reached, roll the sheet of pasta through the pasta cutter. The pasta can also be cut by hand: dust the top of the sheet with flour; starting on a shorter side, roll the pasta sheet like a jelly roll; using a sharp serrated knife, cut into the desired width. For fettuccine, cut about 1/4", wider for parpadelle (5/8" to 1").

Separate the cut pasta and dust lightly with flour to prevent sticking. You can dust with cornmeal. The cornmeal will separate from the pasta when cooked and won't affect the end result, but you'll have cornmeal floating in your pasta water. I prefer to dust with flour.

Lay out the pasta on a cotton towel to dry a bit or hang from a pasta drying rack. Finish remaining pieces of dough. An interesting trick I read on a food forum for a make-shift drying rack is to cover a broom stick with plastic wrap and then laid out on the back of 2 chairs. Then hang the cut pasta on the broom stick.

You can also freeze extra pasta. If you are going to freeze, make sure the pasta is completely dry (will take several hours) before storing in freezer bags. You can make small birds nest (like the picture below) and let them dry that way. When ready to cook, you can put the frozen pasta directly into boiling water (no need to defrost) and will take about 3-4 minutes to cook.

The results: I really enjoyed the fresh pasta, it had a very nice tooth and I thought the thickness was just right. It was perfect with the bolognese sauce. Got thumbs up from the Mister and one of the Eating Machines. I think this pasta dough will work nicely with ravioli (next on the list).

On a side note, I got a little crazy with bread making that day. I made 2 batches of French bread baguettes, 1 sourdough, 1 regular. Guess I was making up for time lost for those 2 weeks I was sick (hehe). Most of the loaves found loving homes to go to since there's no way we could have eaten through all of these.

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend. Have a great week. Now go and eat well.

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Brownie #2

Encouraged by the taste of Brownie #1, Brownie #2 was focused on the texture more so than the flavor. My original thought was just to add some leavening (i.e., baking powder) which I believe would solve the height issue and give the texture a bit more...fluff without being cakey. On the morning of testing, I decide to also adjust for volume also since I was going to use the Baker's Edge pan.

I started out with 2 tablespoon of water but after mixing everything together, the batter seemed a little dry, so I added an extra tablespoon of water. Hard to say whether it needed it or not but the batter was a little easier to spread. I also changed the white sugar to dark brown sugar ratio since brown sugar is suppose to help with the chewiness.

Since I wanted to increase the batter amount, I had to adjust the egg content to compensate for the increase in flour. I used a Cook's Illustrated trick for chewiness by only adding egg white. This should also keep the brownie from getting cakey (ick). I think the adjustments were spot on as to what I thought they would produce. Taste test results are after the recipe.

Brownie #2

Ingredients:
1 whole egg + 1 egg white (large eggs)
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C dark brown sugar
1/4 oil (Canola)
1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)
3 Tbsp water
1 1/2 C unbleached AP flour
3/4 C dutch-processed cocoa powder (Callebaut)
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven at 350°F oven (using Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan pictured below).

In a medium bowl, mix eggs and vanilla (hand mixed with a wooden spoon). Add sugars and mix. Add oil, butter, water and mix well. Don't worry if there is a bit of separation of the melted butter and/or oil on top. It'll all get blended together.

In separate large bowl, sift flour, cocoa pwder, baking powder and salt together. I sifted this time to help with the height. I think you can get away without sifting. You can also sift all the dry ingredients directly into the wet ingredient bowl (saves on clean-up). Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until incorporated.

Lightly sprayed Baker’s Edge (or an 8" x 8" pan) with oil. Spread mix into pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out with light crumbs. Cool completely in pan and cut into squares. Here's what it looked liked in the Baker's Edge pan.


For the taste test of Brownie #2, I had 2 extra volunteers. So there will be 2 additional Brownie Guinea Pigs to this taste test panel (hehe).

CAB: Chocolate taste is still good, but not as intense as Brownie 1 (expected since the flour ratio is a bit higher). The baking powder really gave a good rise and improved the texture with a little bit of fluffiness, almost with slight fudgy mouth feel on the inside. Sides were chewy, but delicate, not tough or hard. Probably could be a little more chewy for me. Adding egg white did not make it cakey. Really enjoyed the feel and taste of brownie. Good chocolate aftertaste.

GP1: Really good texture. Lighter than the first one. Good flavor. Like it better than the last one.

GP2: Really like this one. Tastes really good and is a little fluffier than the last one. Liked it better than Brownie #1.

GP3: This one is good just the way it is. Really good. Wouldn't change this one.

GP4: Really good but maybe a bit too sweet? I don't know. Maybe it's because I just like my brownie with nuts in it.

GP5 (new): Really good. Not too sweet, chewy, really nice flavor. Not cakey (a good thing). I'd make this one at home.

GP6 (new): I think this one is really good, wouldn't change a thing on this. Maybe add some nuts.

So it was unanimous from the GPP (Guinea Pig Panel) that this was "The" recipe to stay with. I'm a bit surprised that it only took 2 recipes to reach this stage. I think I would like to try to see if I can turn up the chocolate taste in this one a bit more since it wasn't as intense as the first one. Also, every GP liked nuts in their brownie, I'm the odd one out.

So for Brownie #3, I'm going to add a traditional nut and a not-so traditional one. I threw my thoughts out to 2 GPs and they both agreed the nontraditional nut might be very interesting and potentially really good. I'll also work on increasing the chocolatiness, too. Maybe using an Ina Graten trick that she's used in the past for her baked chocolate goods.

Postscript: I completely forgot to mention how I liked the Baker's Edge Pan. I thought it did a great job baking the brownie evenly. Every portion I cut was the same as the others. I was a little surprised by the weight of it , much heavier compared to my square baking pan. Although this "might" be a uni-tasker pan for now, I really like it.

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Oxtail Noodle Soup

Here's the picture from the last post as a teaser. Well, it was sort of a tricky one since it's not duck noodles but rather stewed oxtail noodle soup with roasted duck! Surprise!!

See if I posted this picture (without the duck, of course), it would have been a dead giveaway. hehe.

A couple of weeks back, I decided to get some oxtail from 99 Ranch since they looked so good, even with the sticker shock of $3.99/lb. Sheesh. I haven't had oxtail since I was a little girl (long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away....) and since The Mister has never had oxtail soup, I thought I'd make it (it took a bit of convincing). I followed my Mom's recipe, which was from a very old Chinese cookbook. The recipe is very easy and quite good.

We had one of the eating machines over that night and since I wasn't sure I had enough oxtails for 3 people, I decided to heat up some leftover roast duck from Jasmine Seafood as a supplement. The pairing of the duck and the oxtail was really good! Baby bok choy was the choice of greens that night.

Ingredients:
2 lb oxtail
5 large slices of ginger root
2 green onions (scallions)
1 Tbsp Szechuan peppercorns (I didn't toast mine)
1 star anise
3 Tbsp cooking wine (I used Shao Xing wine) or sherry
8 C water
1 Tbsp kosher salt
Baby bok choy, quartered (I had 3 bunches per person)
1 lb of Chinese dry noodles
Water for blanching oxtail and bok choy

Garnish for each bowl:

1/2 Tbsp green onions, chopped
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil (optional)
pepper to taste

Directions:
Fill a large pot about 2/3 with water and boil. Blanch/parboil the oxtails in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Supposedly this is to get rid some of the "stuff" that you don't want in your soup (blood, impurities, etc.). Remove the oxtail and dump the water.

In a 5 quart dutch oven or heavy pot, add ginger, 2 green onions, Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, cooking wine, 8 cups of water, kosher salt, and blanched oxtail. Bring to boil and then simmer for 2 hours until the meat is soft and the liquid has reduced down to about 6 cups. Add more salt to taste. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring 6 cups of water to boil. Blanch the bok choy until just tender. Remove. Using the same water, cook noodles according to package instructions. The ones I used call for boiling for 4 minutes.

In each bowl, add garnish ingredients. Ladle oxtail broth into each bowl. Add cooked noodles, oxtail and bok choy. And if you just so happen to have some leftover roast duck or chicken, top off with a couple of pieces to finish the dish.

Even though The Mister is not a gelatinous meat type of person, that's my department, he did enjoy his oxtail noodle soup. Eat Machine1 liked it and for once, she didn't finish everything. Those oxtails are pretty filling.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Aloha Friday and a terrific weekend!

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Brownie #1

As I mentioned in the last post, I was ready to test out recipe no. 1, which I will call Brownie #1 (original, isn't it?). I had some handwritten notes using Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie mix as a guide. I made notes as I went along the baking process, adjusting ingredients here and there. This is what I came up with. The ingredients I used were what were on hand (like dark brown sugar vs. light brown sugar). I hand mixed everything with a wooden spoon. Review follows the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C dark brown sugar
1/4 Canola oil (any vegetable oil would do)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), melted
2 Tbsp water
1 C unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 C dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp table salt

Preheat oven at 325 degrees F.

Grease a square 8" pan. I didn't use a foil or parchment paper sling but you can do that if you prefer. I didn't have a problem getting the brownie out of the pan without a sling.

In a small bowl, mix egg and vanilla. Add sugars and mix well. Add oil, melted butter, water and stir until everything is incorporated.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa and salt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until everything is incorportated. It's okay if there are lumps. The reason why I did it this way is because I find that sometimes it's easier and a bit faster to incorporate ingredients this way.

Spread mix into greased pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares.

First impression: the brownie had absolutely no rise (not surprised but more on this later), had a great dark color (yea, Callebaut!), and the top was nice and crackly, like Betty Crocker's brownies.

First taste: Very nice chocolate flavor, rich, good sweetness/chocolate balance, very dense, a tad overbaked--the sides were too crunchy but the center cuts were nice and moist. Surprised how rich it tasted with only 1 stick of butter. A slight fudge texture in the center squares.

I had thought about doing a whole "taste test" questionnaire but bah, I was too lazy. I did, however, bring some to work and solicited some of my friends, a Brownie Guinea Pig Panel if you will, to help rate the recipe. No official questionnaires, just verbal feedback. The BGPP consists of 5 guinea pigs, GP1 through 5, me included. Here are the feedbacks from the other 4.

GP1: Edges were too dry, but the flavor was really good. Didn't think it was too sweet, just right. The center cuts were moist. Good texture. Thought would hold up nicely to ice cream without getting all soggy.

GP2: Like it just the way it is. Perfect for brownie sundaes. Tasted really good, and loved the textured. Doesn't want anything changed. Will be a guinea pig for anything I want to bring in for a taste test. (That's so sweet!)

GP3: Mmmm, really good. Can't talk, I'm chewing. When's the next batch? (Okay, I see how this GP is going to be.)

GP4: Tastes good, dense but doesn't seem heavy. Chewy. I like it.

Adjustments for Brownie #2: As I mentioned, there was no rise whatsoever and I think adding some baking powder might help. Reduce the cooking time to 25 minutes (down from 30 min) and when the toothpick comes out just a little crumbly. I also might increase egg to 2 but it might require an adjustment on the flour. I will keep the cocoa to sugar ratio as it for right now since taste was rated pretty high across the panel.

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Pim's Thai Fried Chicken

What can I say, I love fried foods. And the latest new recipe I tried was Chez Pim's Thai-Marinated Fried Chicken. Pim's secret is using rice flour. I tried rice flour once with the Korean Fried Chicken Wings to see what kind of crust it produced. Rather than mixing in the rice flour with the sauce, I marinated the wings in the sauce alone and then dredged in rice flour. The resulting crunch was nice but the color of the crust had a whitish/grey color. This is what happened with my Thai fried chicken, too.

If you look at Pim's pictures, hers are nice and golden brown.

And you see here mine, it's got some golden brown but didn't turn out as pretty as Pim's. The slight white/grey coloring, almost powderish looking crust was on all of the drumsticks. But it sure tasted good and the crunch was very nice! Maybe I coated mine a little too much with rice flour and should have been more of a dusting, now that I compare my picture to Pim's. In Pim's, you can see some of the chicken and meat, where mine is completely coated. The oil temperature may have been a little too low too since it was taking almost 15 minutes on the first side and another 8 minutes on the second side. I'll have to play around with the heat a bit more. (I figured out why this happened! See my postscript at the end of the post.)

But even if my drumsticks aren't as pretty, they sure were tasty! As a matter of fact, The Mister said he'd rather have these over the Korean Fried Chicken Wings! I don't know if I'd go so far to compare the two since they are 2 different birds (ahem, sorry for the bad pun). They both deserve their own spotlights I think. The Thai fried chicken is salty, savory, and you can just make out the garlic and cilantro taste. The Korean fried chicken is all about the spicy-sweet balance. Different tastes, different crusts. Both really good.

So if you like Asian-style fried chicken, this is one you're got to try!

Postscript: SO! I figured out why my drumsticks were getting the gray color after frying. Thinking about it now, I feel kind of silly that I overlooked such a simple thing. I was at 99 Ranch last week and decided to pick up a new package (different brand) of rice flour. As I was looking over the brands, it dawned on me that the rice flour I had at home which I used for these drumsticks were probably glutinous (mochi) rice flour. I decided to buy a Thai brand of rice flour and when I came home, compared the two and sure enough, that was it! That was my problem, wrong kind of rice flour. Sheesh.

I made a batch with the correct rice flour and it turned out golden brown just like Pim's and tasted even better than with the glutinous rice flour. It was so crunchy and it didn't really matter how much rice flour I had on the drumsticks. I have to agree with The Mister now that I think I like these over the Chicken Alice-style fried wings.

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Sourdough French Bread (Baguette)

Sundays are good days for me to bake bread since they are typically quiet, nonstressful, relaxed kind of day. On this particular Sunday, The Mister was working and I had the day all to myself, a good day to bake bread!

I've had my sourdough starter (from Breadtopia) for almost 5 months now, taking care of it every week or so. Although not neglected in feeding, I have only used it a couple of times in no-knead breads. Haven't been too successful with sourdough NKBs so I decide to try my hand at a sourdough French Baguette using the regular recipe but substituting with sourdough starter. Before I get to the bread, here's a picture of the glass jar that the starter lives in, kept in the back of the refrigerator. You know, in case anyone is curious.


Here's a shot of the inside, bubbly and alive! This was after feeding it 2 times in preparation for the bread.

Instructions are exactly the same as the regular French baguette recipe except the substitution for the starter so I will only list the ingredients and spare the redundancy in directions. Since the sourdough starter has water in it, I had to adjust the amount of water in the recipe. How much is kind of a guess. But it's okay since the amount of flour will increase or decrease to get the right dough consistency. For this one, I over adjusted a bit based on past breads. I didn't take out a 1:1 ratio (reduced liquids by 1/4 C) but a bit more (by 2 Tbsp). Doesn't seem like much but sourdough can be finicky for me.

I also added an extra amount of dry yeast because I wanted to help the dough develop, although according to Breadtopia and my bread book, this isn't necessary. But I thought I'd better since my starter has been somewhat dormant.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup sourdough starter
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/8 cup (~2 Tbsp) warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 3/4 cups cool water (45-55 degrees F)
5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
Cornmeal (if using baguette loaf pan)

The results were pretty darn good, by far better than the KNB results. The bread didn't have an extremely sour taste as the very first bread I made with the starter but that can be remedied if I feed the starter more the next time. But I liked the overall taste it had. What was interesting is that the bread tasted saltier than the regular so I think I'd cut that back to 1.5 tsp next time. The crust wasn't as crusty as the regular baguette but I had expected that. I noticed the same thing with Panera's regular and sourdough baguettes so I'm thinking it's a sourdough thing.

I think my next sourdough experiment might be a loaf using the basic white recipe. That might be interesting to see how the crust will turn out. It would be great to have sourdough bread without the long wait. But I'll have to see how the taste is without the longer proofing time.

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Ina's Brownie Pudding

You know how sometimes a craving hits you when watching/reading something? Okay, so it happens to me more often than not. This time, it was Ina's 40th wedding anniversary dinner episode. I started to watch it for the Italian Wedding Soup but it was the Brownie Pudding that captured my attention. I love a good brownie, one that's crusty on the outside but still chewy on the inside. So the thought of a molten-style brownie sounded really good!


I looked through the pantry didn't have any good dutch-processed cocoa powder, just Hershey's plain ol' cocoa powder. It'll have to suffice (sorry Ina). I didn't have to look through the liquor cabinet to know that the closest thing I had to framboise liqueur was Framboise beer and that wasn't going to cut it. Although the recipe says it's optional, I decided to add in another liqueur, Cointreau, since it also has a sweet flavor, although not like framboise. I also didn't want to invest $29 in a bottle since I don't have any other recipes that calls for it. I guess I could always use it in mixed drinks. Let's see how the recipe is first.


The recipe came together very quickly. The longest part was waiting for it to cool down and debating whether to wait until The Mister got home before spooning into it. If you guessed that I couldn't wait, then you might know me too well. I had to try a little bit of it to see how the Hershey's and Cointreau tasted. The piece I took (in the first picture) was from the side so the inside was a little more set up than what I would expect from an almost "molten" center. But it looked more set up than actual. And it really did have a slight pudding mouth feel. I couldn't taste the Cointreau and the chocolate taste was decent, though I'm sure it would taste better with good dutch-processed cocoa powder. This will really go well with some vanilla ice cream!

Even before I finished this post, I place my order for some Callebaut Cocoa Powder, enough to last me a whole year athough I think I overdid it a bit (ya' think?). And next time I'm at BevMo, I'm going to pick up some Chambord liqueur (love it in mixed drinks) and maybe framboise liqueur see how each works in the recipe.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday. And did you remember to turn your clocks forward today?

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Hungarian Goulash (Gulyás)

When I received the recent issue (#118) of Saveur last week, I quickly flipped through to find the article on the glazed Hawaiian-style baby back ribs (cover feature). But something stopped me before I could get there. It was the piece on Gulyás, also known as Hungarian Goulash. The Mister immediately came to mind since he loves these type of dishes. So I asked him if he's ever had Goulash.

The Mister: Oh, I love Goulash! My uncle used to take me to this place where they had the best Hungarian Goulash! I would always order it and then have the cheesecake for dessert. You know my grandfather was Hungarian.

Me: He was? I thought he was German?

The Mister: He was, but he was also Hungarian!

Ah, so that makes The Mister German, Croatian, Polish, maybe some Italian, and now, Hungarian. And possibly some other Slavic heritage thrown in here and there!

So after reading the article, The Mister threw a challenge at me to make an authentic Goulash. Huh, I wasn't even sure what authentic Goulash was before reading the article. I, apparently like so many mislead Americans, thought Goulash was just another style of beef stew. Even the mother-in-law was eager to hear about the results when she found out about the challenge.

As usual when trying a new recipe and not really sure how authentic Goulash should taste like, I followed the recipe exactly (you can find the recipe here). The recipe is pretty straightforward. The only thing I couldn't find from the ingredients list was the Italian frying pepper. Not sure what Italian frying peppers were, I did a quick search and found that they are similar to Cubanelle (Anaheim) peppers. Now I was set.

Right off the bat, I had to adjust the heat on my old stove when cooking the onions. The recipe calls for cooking the onions, covered, on medium heat. The heat was too high and started to brown the onions too much, so I adjusted it down one notch.

I tasted the broth after adding the 5 cups of water. It seemed quite bland to me so I added a bit more salt and fresh ground pepper. I also thought it needed it to help flavor the beef while it cooked. After 40 minutes of simmering with the lid on, I added the potatoes. This is what it looked like at the 40 minute mark. There's just a slight layer of oil on top but the broth was starting to get a brown coloring and the meat was starting to get tender. I tasted the broth again and I still felt it needed a bit more salt.

In looking at this, I can see why some people think Goulash is a tomato based soup. The Hungarian sweet paprika really does provide a wonderful rich color as the recipe states.

After another 25 minutes of simmering with the lid off and the potatoes were tender, I added the pepper and tomato. I tasted the broth and it was perfectly seasoned for me. I think that last salt add was just the touch it needed. Cooked it for the final 2 minutes and then plated it up with some fresh sourdough bread.

The Mister said it was awesome. Guess he really meant it because he didn't say a single word while eating 2 bowls of the Goulash. The meat turned out really tender, the parsnip added a wonderful flavor (it might be my new favorite vegetable), and the depth of flavor from the soup was outstanding. Now I love Hungarian paprika but I never knew it could be so good as the primary seasoning.

This was the best beef soup I've ever had. And in all honesty, I wasn't convinced in the beginning that I was really going to like it because I never really got into beef soup or stew (I know, Goulash isn't stew). As a matter of fact, I had 2 bowls of it too.

So there you have it. A winner from Saveur and many thanks to Carolyn Bánfalvi for sharing her mother-in-law's wonderful Gulyás recipe.

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Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Almonds

Braising is a technique that I've really become quite fond. I've used it on short ribs and whole chicken. Since The Mister and I are dark meat fans, I thought I'd try a braised chicken dish with just dark meat. Anne Burrell's recipe for Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Almonds sounded perfect since we love mushrooms (you can find the recipe here). When I first read the recipe, it was a little confusing to me as to how long it would take to make since I wasn't sure if the total prep time (40 min) included the "inactive" prep time (35 min). I don't really know what is meant by inactive prep time. I thought maybe it was watching the chicken cook while sipping on some white wine, or not. In the end, it took about 2.5 hours, which includes all prep time and cooking time (with a few sips of wine thrown in!).

I only had 6 chicken thighs for the recipe and used the following assortment of mushrooms (starting from upper right): Shiitake, Oyster, Button, Portabella, and Cremini also known as brown mushrooms (center).


Here's what the thighs looked like after searing (searing took about 6 minutes on each side). The skin is very crispy with most of the fat rendered out.

I used about 2 lbs of mushrooms like the recipe calls for but it was a bit more than what the dish needs. That is unless you like a little chicken with your mushroom dish. I'd say you can get away with 1 - 1 1/2 lbs of mushrooms.

After cooking down the onions, mushrooms, and garlic, it was time for the wine. I used the whole 2 cups of wine but think I'll reduce that to 1 1/2 cups of wine the next time since I like a little more milder wine flavor. Once the liquid has been reduced by half, I added about 3 cups of broth to just cover the thighs. Here's what it looks like right before simmering for 30-35 minutes.

I decided to make more garlic mashed potatoes since my Yukon Golds were getting a bit old. And I thought the sauce from the chicken would go really well with mashed potatoes.

Here's another shot of the final dish plated. A large scoop of garlic mashed potatoes, layered with 2 braised chicken thighs, some sauce and lots of mushrooms.

It was a very tasty and hearty dish. The almond puree added a lot of flavor and pop to the sauce although I had an "ah-ha" moment when I added it. Wonder if I could substitute it with almond paste or almond butter? Might try that next time to save time on blanching the almonds (I had to blanched my own almonds because I couldn't find any when I went to the store, a bit time consuming). Definitely a dish I'll make again and with some minor adjustments on wine and salt, it could be outstanding.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Now go and eat well.

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Da Mister's Breaded Pork Chops

One of my all-time favorite is The Mister's breaded pork chops. Thin cut, juicy pork chops fried to perfection. When he makes this dish, I make sure I stay out of the kitchen to let him do that voodoo that he do(es) so well. I've only helped with this recipe a couple of times but soon realized that it was best to just stay the hell out of his way and not mess with his OODA loop if I want my pork chops.


The recipe is similar to other recipes except that the chops are dredged in flour and bread crumbs separately. Many of the recipes out there calls for combining of flour and bread crumbs. Some only call for bread crumbs. But I believe The Mister's method (IMHO) creates the best crust I've ever had. Also, using thin-cut pork chops eliminates the need to finish off in the oven after frying, ultimately requiring less time to cook and ensuring juicy chops! (Who wants to eat dry flavorless chops?)

I will try my best to convey his method and the amount of ingredients but like me, he likes to eye-ball things and adjust accordingly as things progress. The amount of flour and bread crumbs will need to be adjusted depending on how heavily you coat your chops and how large the chops are. The recipe can be halved but we like to have leftovers. These are thin-cut chops so 8 chops will feed about 3-4 people.

Ingredients:
8 thin-cut bone-in pork chops
All purpose flour (~2 1/2 cups)
Italian seasoned bread crumbs (~2 1/2 cups)
3-4 large eggs, lightly beaten
Oil for frying (he likes Canola oil)

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot (he uses a 7-quart Dutch oven), pour enough oil to come up the side of the pot about 1". Heat oil to 375 degrees F.

Dredge pork chop in flour, shaking off the excess. Dip the chop into egg and coat completely. Dredge chop into bread crumbs. Pat down gently on the bread crumbs to ensure coating is even. Set aside and repeat on remaining chops.

When oil reaches 375 degrees F, add breaded chops into the pot, making sure not to crowd the pot. He can usually get 3 fairly good size chops in our 7-quarts DO. The oil temperature will drop down to around 320-325 degrees (this will vary depending on the pot used), adjust the heat to keep the oil temperature around 320 degrees. Fry the chops until bottom is golden brown, about 6-7 minutes. Flip chops over and continue to fry until second side is golden brown, about another 4-5 minutes. The chops should register 160 degrees F when done. Make sure to check the meat near the bone since if any part of the chop will be undercooked, it will be near the bone. Remove chops to paper towels. Continue frying the rest of the chops. Serve hot. We usually have the chops with steamed sweet corn and stuffing. It would also go great with garlic mashed potatoes.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Now go and eat well.

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

I remember having a blast at the Old Spaghetti Factory as a kid with my then-best-friend and her family. We used to get the spaghetti and meatballs with a Shirley Temple chaser. A couple of kids thinking they were so cool. Ahhh, good times. Somewhere along the path of growing up, meatballs fell out of favor. But then, several foods from my youth just doesn't have the same appeal now. But I still have the fond memories and you know what they say, you can't go home again.

The Mister still loves pasta and meatballs. Frozen store-bought meatballs are a common thing in the freezer although he doesn't make them much anymore. Having a ready supply of bolognese sauce doesn't help the meatballs' case either. But maybe store-bought has been the problem all along. Maybe my eschew to bland clumps of dry meat has given meatballs an unfair reputation. And with Anne Burrell's help, maybe I can go home again, at least just to visit for a short while.

Linguine and Meatballs in Marinara Sauce

You can find Burrell's recipe here. Fair warning, she likes to use a lot of salt, I mean *a lot* of salt. I'm a salt-aholic but even her proportions are a bit much for me. I recommend starting with what you're comfortable with and then increase as you see fit.

I couldn't find any ground veal and wasn't in the mood to grind my own. So I decided to make ground beef and ground pork meatballs. I used a 2:1 ratio of ground beef to ground pork, yielding the 1 1/2 lb of meat that the recipe calls for. (BTW, to the person who commented on the recipe that her family doesn't eat pork or beef and made it with turkey and veal, you might want to look up what veal is before you make anymore meatballs.) Other than the meat changes, I pretty much followed the recipe. The size of the meatballs were a bit larger than golf balls and yielded 22 meatballs. Here are the ingredients that I used.

Ingredients:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, 1/4-inch dice
Salt
2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
Pinch crushed red pepper
1 lb ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
2 large eggs
1 cup grated Parmigiano
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup water

The onions are cooked in olive oil until very soft and aromatic, then garlic and pepper flakes followed. I knew when the onions were done cooking that there was a tad too much but I added it all to the meat mixture anyway (building the baseline). I even used a medium sized onion but maybe Burrell and I have different perspectives of what a large onion is.

When browning the meatballs in the pan, the surface onions were falling off the meatballs, which required removal after each batch. I didn't roll the meatballs tight, just enough to give shape and they would hold together. So maybe some of the surface onions didn't adhere as well.

It didn't take long to brown the meatballs since the purpose is just to brown and not to cook them all the way through. So don't worry if parts of the meatballs are still pink. The oven will take care of the final cooking. Keeping the pan lubed with olive oil will help keep the meatballs from sticking. If they do stick, don't try to move them. Once they are sufficiently browned on the bottom, they will release on their own. A little trick I found that helps prevent meatballs from sticking is to shake the pan back and forth as I'm adding the raw meatballs. This will coat the meatballs in oil.

Once browned, the meatballs go into a preheated 350 degrees F oven for about 15 minutes. My meatballs were on the smaller side, so I checked them at 12 minutes and they were done. Here they are out of the oven. The whole house will smell amazing at this point!

I also decided to make Burrell's marinara sauce since I'm sure her sauce is suppose to match well with the meatballs. I used thick cut smoked bacon since I still can't find a source close to home that carries pancetta. The other thing I changed was using crushed tomatoes instead of canned Italian plum tomatoes. I don't have a food mill and really didn't want to go through all that hassle. I thought the marinara sauce turned out pretty good but was a bit on the acidic side. I added a pat of butter, which help reduced the acidity a bit.

Funny thing I noticed is that although we have frozen meatballs as a stock item, we didn't have spaghetti on hand. So linguine it was. Here's a close-up of the final dish.

So did I go home? Did I travel back to the giddiness of sipping cherry sweetened nectar of youth? Not quite but it was pretty good. I think I need to adjust the meatballs more to my liking. They were tender and very flavorful but the taste is not quite where I would like it. Things that I would adjust are: amounts of onions, salt, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. I think I'd also like to try to cook some tomato paste with the onions the next go around to give it more depth. And if I ever can find a good source for ground veal, I'd add that too. I'll report back the results, of course.

The recipe made more meatballs than what we could eat that night but leftovers, including the marinara sauce, made for good meatball sandwiches the next night (post to come). Extra meatballs can be frozen for later use, too.

On a side note, Anne Burrell's Secret of a Restaurant Chef has been the only new show on Food Network's new line-up that I found enjoyable. Maybe it's her quirkiness and wiggly style but I think it's more of her approach to food that appeals to me. Hopefully she'll provide some much needed inspiration for some new dishes (with my own adjustments, of course).

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French Chicken in a Pot with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

The weather has been cold and wet and what better way to stave off dreary weather blues than a hearty chicken dinner. I saw this recipe either on Cook's Country or America's Test Kitchen (I can't remember which one) and knew immediately that The Mister would love it. A very straightforward slow cook recipe that results in a very tender and juicy chicken.

The recipe states a chicken between 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lb will take about 1 hour to cook, while a 5-6 lb will take between 1.5 to almost 2 hours. I used a 5 1/2 lb chicken, which took approximately 1.5 hours.

I'm sure chicken parts can be used instead of a whole chicken but just make sure you check on the meat temperature for doneness a littler earlier since chicken parts will cook faster than a whole chicken. The recipe also recommends not using a chicken larger than 5 lb if cooking in a 5-quart pot.

The only change I made to the recipe is adding 2 carrots and increasing the celery to 2.

Ingredients:
1 whole roasting chicken (4 1/2 to 5 pounds), giblets removed and discarded
2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used extra virgin)
1 small onion , chopped medium
2 small stalk celery , chopped medium
2 small carrots, chopped medium
6 medium garlic cloves, smashed, peeled and trimmed
1 bay leaf
1 medium sprig fresh rosemary (optional)
1/2 - 1 teaspoon juice from 1 lemon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F and adjust the oven rack to the lowest position.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Season the entire chicken with salt and pepper. I like to season the inside cavity, too.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven (I used a 7 1/2 quart DO) at medium heat. When the oil is just smoking, add the chicken breast-side down. You should hear a good sizzle. Add the celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaf, and rosemary into the pot. Cook until the breast is lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes.

Flip the chicken over. I used a large, sturdy wooden spoon inserted into the cavity to flip it. Continue cooking with breast-side up until chicken and vegetables are well browned, ~6-8 minutes more. Here's what it looked like after flipping.


Remove DO from heat. Place a large sheet of foil over the pot and cover tightly with the lid. This will ensure all the steam stays within the pot. Transfer the DO to the oven and cook until the breast registers 160 degrees F in the thickest part and 175 degrees F in the thighs. See above regarding roasting time.

Take the chicken out of the DO and onto a carving board that has grooves to catch juices. Tent with foil and rest for 20 minutes. I just reused the foil from the pot. I was nicely surprised that the majority of the browning stayed on the breast (the show stated that the chicken would lose quite a bit of the browning).


Strain chicken juices from the pot through a strainer into fat separator. I pressed on the solids to extract some of the yummy liquid goodness. This should yield about 3/4 cups of juices. Discard solids. You should have about 3/4 cup juices. Allow liquid to settle 5 minutes, then pour into saucepan, leaving out the fat, and set over low heat.

Carve the chicken and adding any accumulated juices to saucepan. Add lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon at a time into jus to taste. I added about 1 teaspoonful. Serve chicken with jus on the side. You'll have plenty of jus leftover but don't throw it away. See note at bottom of post.

I served the chicken with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. The garlic mash potatoes are very easy to make. The following will make about 2-3 servings.

Ingredients:
2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
4-6 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled (add more or less to taste, we like a lot of garlic)
~1/3 cup heavy cream
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Place potatoes and garlic into a large pot and cover with water. I usually add enough water to come up about 1" above the potatoes. Salt the water (I add about a good tablespoon). Bring everything to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook the potatoes until a parring knife can go through the potato fairly easily with no resistance. Be careful not to overcook the potatoes.

Drain the potatoes and put back into the pot. Don't forget to put the garlic back in, too. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes and garlic together until no more lumps. Add heavy cream to mixture. Use the masher to incorporate the cream into the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

If you like your mashed potatoes creamier, you can add another 1/4 cup of heavy cream.

Side note on leftover jus: The jus contains a lot of flavor (from all those broken down connective tissues!) which can be used to flavor many things (soup stock, sauteed mushrooms or onions, etc.). It will congeal when cold, which makes defatting so much easier, and can be stored up to a week in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it, too. I used some leftover jus to heat up some leftover chicken for sandwiches the next day (post to come).

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Now go and eat well.

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Braised Short Ribs

Every time I've opened the freezer door the past 3 weeks, 2 packages of frozen thick short ribs have been staring up at me. They've been begging to be cooked. I originally bought them for Dr. Pepper Pineapple Short Ribs, and since I haven't been in the mood for DPPSR (sounds like some kind of condition), I had to come up with something else since I couldn't bear another weekend of those darn ribs staring at me. Besides, The Mister asked, "What are you going to make me for dinner that's tasty?"

Shaaaa, everything I make is tasty. Well maybe not everything but if he says that again, I'm going to give him something...oh never mind.

The great thing about short ribs is that they can be wonderfully delicious if cooked slowly, creating fall-off-the-bone tender and buttery meat. But since it was a work night, time was not a luxury so I had to work fast.

I dug through various recipes and once again, didn't find one that inspired a whole lot. So I pulled together some ingredients and using some tried-and-true cooking methods, came up with a pretty darn "tasty" dish. (How ya' like them apples, da Mister?? I'll give you something tasty!)

Most braised short ribs recipes called for serving with mashed potatoes or rice. I didn't have any potatoes and wasn't in the mood for rice (What? An Asian not in the mood for rice???) I was actually in the mood for some pasta so decided to serve the braised ribs with elbows. You choose the starch you want, of course.

I only had time to slow cook the short ribs for 2 hours but probably needed another 1/2 hour for the meat to be completely falling apart. But no matter because it was long enough for the meat to become buttery (ah, like butta) and tender enough. The sauce was excellent with Marsala wine and a touch of vinegar, although I couldn't taste the vinegar. Just nice, beefy flavor, good depth. Went nicely with the elbows but would have been great too with rice or mash potatoes.

As The Mister polished off his 4th short ribs, he muttered, "Mmmm, I'll definitely have this again. Delicious, Honey!" Uh, he forgot to say tasty.

I had some Creole-style seasoning already made so I used that as a rub. It consists of Hungarian paprika, kosher salt, garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, dried oregano and thyme leaves. But feel free to use whatever seasoning you have around but try to add some Paprika and cayenne pepper on it.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4-5 pounds short ribs with bone
2 tablespoons seasoning
1 cup chopped onions
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (Hunt's recommended)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/4 cup rice vinegar (can substitute regular vinegar or red wine vinegar)
1/2 cup Marsala wine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons black pepper
~2 quarts beef broth
Chopped flat leaf parsley, for garnishing

Directions:
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or a large, heavy pot over high heat.

Cover short ribs with seasoning, patting seasoning well into the meat.

When pot is nearly smoking, add the ribs and sear on all sides until they form a brown crust. Don't overcrowd the pot so do it in batches if you need to. Remove the browned ribs from the pot.

If there's a lot of oil left after all the ribs have been browned, drain out excess oil, leaving about 2 tablespoon in the pot.

Add onions, celery and carrot; saute about 2 minute to brown lightly. Add in garlic and saute for another minute so the garlic becomes aromatic. Add back the ribs and stir in tomatoes, rice vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Marsala wine, bay leaves, pepper and enough broth to just cover ribs. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until very tender, about 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

Serve over your choice of starch. Be sure to spoon some sauce over everything and garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.

Here's a close-up of the final dish. Tasty, indeed!

Hope it's drier for you than it is for me here in San Diego this weekend. Nonetheless, have a good weekend. Now go and eat well.

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Clams Casino

This recipe for Clams Casino was a favorite of my father-in-law. It's a favorite appetizer for us and the best part is that it can be made ahead of time and then baked just before serving.

The Mister thinks the recipe came from a friend of his father's who got it from a restaurant owner. So, uh, guess that's a friend from a friend.

We love this recipe but where this recipe can go wrong is adding too much breadcrumbs or vegetables. I recommend adjusting both of those to your taste. Also, Clams Casino tends to be on the salty side. So if you want to cut down on the saltiness, use lower sodium bacon.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb bacon, chopped finely

1 medium onion, chopped finely

1/2 red or orange bell pepper, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 small carrot, diced

3 (6 oz each) cans of clams (minced, chopped, whole, combination of)

1 tsp parsley flakes

1 Tbsp lemon juice

3/4 - 1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, more to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

Sauteed bacon in large pan until crisp. Add onion, red bell pepper, celery and carrot. Cook at medium heat until vegetables are soft (about 4-5 minutes). Drain and reserve the juice from 1 can of clams. Add clams with juice from 2 cans and 3/4 cups of breadcrumb to pan. Cook mixture for 2 minutes. If the mixture is too wet, add 1/8 cup of breadcrumbs at a time, mixing well after each addition. The texture should be similar to stuffing. I don't like too much breadcrumb filler but need enough to bring everything together. Add parsley, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. Mix well.

Transfer mixture to baking pan. I use a 9-inch Pyrex pie pan. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, the edges will turn slightly darker than the center. The main thing here is to heat everything all the way through and to slightly crust the top.

After removing from oven, if the mixture is too dry, pour some of the leftover clam juice over the mixture. At this point, it can be served as is with crackers or toasted bread (or anything else you like for that matter). Here's a picture of the center of the mixture after baking (sorry, a little unsteady with the camera).

Or if you want to get all fancy, put cleaned halved clam shells on a baking sheet and fill each shell with a scoop of the mixture. Then broil the clam shells for a couple of minutes to brown the top. Serve hot with lemon wedges and/or hot sauce.

We love it with lots of various hot sauce and Ritz crackers. This is how I eat it. You can see the chunks of clams, bits of vegetables and bacon.


Hope y'all are having a good week. Now go and eat well.

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Strawberry Cream Cake

I typically only post recipes that I like but I'm going to make an exception this time because there was part of this recipe that I really liked and a part that I didn't like, at all. I've been craving a fruity dessert, maybe a fruit tart or something. Then I thought about the Asian cakes that my Mom used to buy for me when I was little. One of my favorite was a strawberry cream cake. Whipped cream filling and icing with lots of fresh strawberries. I've also had pineapple and other fruit ones but there's just something about strawberries and cream

I came across a recipe on Cook's Illustrated online called (wait for it) Strawberry Cream Cake! Huh, whatta y'know? After reading through it, I knew I had to try it. This was the result.


I think the cake is very pretty and simplistic. But what you can't tell from the picture was that the cake sucked. I mean, I didn't like it at all, hated it so much that I ended up discarding the cake and just eating the strawberry and cream.

I was very disappointed with the cake's texture, heavy, dense, and bland. Now I know adding whipped egg white to a cake batter produces a lighter, almost spongy like texture. It was spongy, but firm and not quite the light fluffy cake I was expecting. Maybe I overmixed the batter or didn't do something quite right in the folding. But beyond the texture, which I didn't think complemented the strawberry and cream at all, the cake was just blah on flavor.

The cream, on the other hand, was a winner! I don't recall having whipped cream with cream cheese combine but it was delicious. The cream cheese was subtle that creates a distinctive taste, heavier than stiffed whipped cream. It complimented the strawberries (which were quite good for this time of the year). I'm not sure how many people have tried it this way but I highly recommend it if you like strawberries and whipped cream.

Whipped Cream-Cream Cheese:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 cups heavy cream

Instructions:

In a standing mixer bowl with the whisk attachment, combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Whisk everything at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. How long will depend on your mixer. It took mine about 3 minutes with a couple of scrapings. Reduce the speed to low and add heavy cream in a slow and steady stream. After adding all the cream and when the mixture is almost fully combined, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, scraping bowl as needed. This took about 4 minutes for my mixer. You should have about 4 1/2 cups of the final cream mixture.

The cream mixer is pretty thick and holds well to spreading. I'm actually thinking about trying the cream as a frosting on cupcakes and maybe adding some sliced fruit on top. It might be good with the cake recipe from the vanilla-vanilla cupcakes since that cake is pretty light and fluffy. Or if I'm being really lazy, have it with some Sara Lee frozen pound cake (love that pound cake!). Mmm, think I'll go scoop some leftover strawberries and cream for an afternoon snack now!

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Pumpkin Pie (Recipe Review)

I know it's a little late to be posting this since holidays have long past. But with all the craziness of the holidays, I haven't had time to do this post. But this was definitely one that I had wanted to blog about.

I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin pie. So why would I definitely want to blog about it? Granted that I've always had the premade frozen crust with the filling made from the gloppy, orange mass from a can. They were decent, especially with a mound of whipped cream on them but it wasn't a necessity for me at Thanksgiving, unlike the Mister.

I've been so uninspired by pumpkin pies of the past that I've relegated making of these pies to my MIL. But with my heightened enthusiasm this past Thanksgiving, I decided to try Cook's Illustrated "best" pumpkin pie. What hooked me was their dissatisfaction of the run-of-the-mill pies (exactly how I felt) and how they used candied yams from a can to make the best pie ever. Sounded very promising.


Due to copyright issues, I'm only going to review the recipe. If you're still intrigued to try it after reading this, send me an email and I'll share it with you. Let me warn you though, this recipe requires the cooked mixture to be strained through a fine-mesh strainer and it was a major pain in the ass. But this pie knocked my socks, I mean slippas off! No kidding. It was so good I didn't need any whipped cream on it. The pie crust was fantastic, once I figure out that the amount of water/vodka had to be adjusted (not mentioned in the recipe) to get the perfect consistency and to churn out a perfect crust. Yes, I would put myself through straining hell again to have this pie.

What made the difference was that the recipe uses 1 15-oz drained candied yams in conjunction with 1 15-oz can pumpkin puree. And the mixture was precooked before baking. Lots of steps. Oh, and did I mention it was a pain in the ass to make? I did? Hmmm....

The biggest problem with the recipe was straining the cooked mixture which did not want to go through the fine-mesh strainer without a considerable amount of force from me and my spatula. I even tried to puree it in a food processor, hoping it would help. Alas, it did not. After 20 minutes of working the mixture and my forearm burning from the workout, finally done. I don't recommend skipping this part because straining is a key component of this recipe. It is what provides the silky and smooth characteristics that makes this pie so wonderful. Otherwise, it would be, well, like any other run-of-the-mill pies. Can't forgo the straining, painful as it is.

The other thing is that when baking, the filling looked to be undercooked, maybe too soft. You can see in the picture above where I kept testing the top of the pie. But I did pull out the pie according to the recipe and after cooling, the filling firmed up, although still very soft and unlike other conventional pies. But that was the beauty of this pie. The silky texture that melted in your mouth along with the buttery flavor of the perfect flaky tender crust. The precooking brought out all the flavors of the yams and pumpkin and fills your senses with aromatic nutmeg and whatnots. It was beyond words for me and the family. Indeed my toes were wiggling with every bite.

My MIL said (several times) it was the best pumpkin pie she's ever had but she would never (emphasizing the never) go through the trouble to make this pie. I don't blame her and perhaps she would think I'm crazy to ever make this pie again. But then she doesn't spend her free time blogging about food either. No, we're 2 different creatures and in some deep not-so obscure subdural way, it gives me comfort knowing the Mister didn't marry a girl just like Mom.

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