"Country" Chicken with Unnecessary Quotes

 

 Suzie So

Serving size: 3-4

• your meat: 6-8 oz per person
• 2 cans of cream of chicken
• 1 can of cream of mushroom
• 10-12 oz mixed frozen veggies (diced carrots, peas, green beans, and corn)
• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 can of pillsbury (flaky kind) biscuits (or rice)

you can prep it two ways

1, in the oven at 400 degrees, pour everything into a baking tray, and bake for 20-30 minutes

2. on the stove, medium-high, bring to a bubbling state and then simmer. making sure to stir so that the bottom doesn't burn

FOR THE CHICKEN:

you can use either chicken breast or chicken thigh.

IF YOU USE CHICKEN BREAST,

brine (1/4 kosher salt, 1/4 white sugar, 3 cups water) for 3 or more hours

butterfly the chicken breast

lightly flour, and cook on the pan with some butter at medium heat

serve either whole or large pieces

you can use a thermometer for chicken (supposed to be 150 final temp)

IF YOU USE CHICKEN THIGH,

you can salt the chicken thigh and either

lay on top of the mixture if you use the oven method

or cook on a pan.

口水雞 (mouth watering chicken a.k.a saliva chicken)

Chicken (prepared):

1 lbs chicken, prepared however you like it (traditionally steamed bone in skin on chicken breast cut into 1" cubes- chicken breast is preferred because it tastes like nothing and allows you to taste more of the sauce).  This might be a good place to use rotisserie chicken breast.

Preferred: sous vide, brined chicken breast cooked to 150F.  It will not need searing as it will be served cold and caramelization will interfere with the sauce flavor.

 Sauce:

2-3 tbsp chili oil (depending on strength of the oil/desired spiciness)

1 tbsp soy sauce (if serving with salted or brined chicken: add up to an additional 1 tbsp if using unsalted chicken for some strange reason, but I don't know why you would have cooked it that way...)

1 tbsp sugar (or the same amount as the soy sauce if you modify that to taste)

1 tsp rice wine

1 green onion, sliced paper thin

.5" grated ginger

1 garlic clove, crushed

t tsp sesame seeds

Optional: 1/2 tsp black vinegar

Optional: 1 tsp sesame paste

Optional: Cilantro to taste

Mix the soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar so that the sugar dissolves (cook lightly if you want to get rid of all the alcohol, or leave in the alcohol to give your tongue an interesting sensation).  Add the chili oil.  Mix in the green onion whites, ginger, and garlic.

Plate the chicken in a shallow vessel and pour the sauce over.  Garnish with the green onion greens and sesame seeds.  If using cilantro, add it now on top (i.e. don't soggify it with the sauce: that is t3h newbs)

If you want to add some acid to the dish, mix the vinegar in when you're mixing the soy sauce and rice wine.  If you want to use sesame paste (which makes this more like 棒棒雞 when combined with dark meat) mix it in at the same point as you add the chili oil.

dan dan noodles

8 oz fresh noodles

2 TB chili oil

1TB soy sauce

1 TB shao xing rice wine

1 cup broth (such as the blowtorched fish sauce broth or white bone broth or just use MSG)

1 t tahini sesame paste

1 t gochu jiang

2 cloves garlic

.5 inch ginger, minced

4 oz ground pork

optional:

2 stalks green onion, finely sliced for garnish

-Boil salted water for the noodles

-In a mixing bowl, whisk the chili oil, gochu jiang, and tahini to make an emulsified spicy death paste.  Add the garlic and ginger.

-Boil the 1 cup broth with the rice wine until you've boiled out the alcohol.  You may need to adjust the salt level depending on the sodium content of your specific rice wine/soy sauce (i.e. taste it and either dilute it with water or add salt).  The final total volume should be between .75-1 cup.

-Marinate the ground pork in the 1TB soy sauce for at least 15 minutes.  Stir fry it into meaty crispies.

When the noodles are done, mix into the spicy death paste directly out from the water.  Pour in the broth/wine mixture.  Top with ground pork and green onion.  Drizzle with additional chili oil if feeling like you want to nuke your face off.  Add noodle water if necessary- the consistency should be something a little richer than milk, but not as thin as soup.

If you want to make this vegan, skip the pork and use dried shitake broth.

Pork in milk

• Brine the pork loin for at least a day.  It needs all the help it can get.
• Preheat oven to 300F (or get your sous vide ready)
• Bring 4 cups whole milk to a boil and add .5 cup lemon juice (2 big lemons).  It will curdle, but you'll blend it together once the dish is finished.
• Wash the brine off of the pork and stick it in a cooking vessel with the curdly milk stuff.  Use a cooking vessel that is similar in shape to the loin.  Make sure the milk will cover the pork loin.  Add about 10 fresh tarragon leaves.  If using sous vide, stick all that junk in a bag and toss into the water bath.
• Cook until pork reaches 140F (or to whatever temperature you believe is safe.  If using sous vide, I'd have the temp at 138-148f)

After the pork is done, drain the liquid off.  Brown the pork loin with a blowtorch, grill, or under the broiler.  Take out the tarragon leaves and blend the remaining liquid until you get a creamy sauce.  If you sous vide the pork, you're going to have to take all the liquid out and boil at high heat until reduced to half, then blend it.  While the meat is easier to make in the sous vide without screwing up, you'll miss out on all the subtle caramelization of the milk proteins in the oven if you had braised it.

Cut the pork loin into chops, keeping the the slices somewhat together.  Pour half the sauce on a long plate and arrange the chops on the sauce.  Then pour the remaining sauce on top in an aesthetically pleasing fashion.  Garnish with parsley (or don't, whatever).

Marinara, again

-Recipe is per pound of pasta (8 light servings, 6 adult servings, or 4 big boy servings).

-Use spaghetti or thinner noodle- thinner pastas = more surface area for sauce.  Cook the pasta only once the sauce is ready, as you want to toss the hot pasta into the sauce immediately when ready (washing the pasta is the best way to guarantee your sauce slides off your noodles and onto your plate, so don't do it).  Undercook pasta slightly (al dente) because it will continue to cook and absorb liquid from the pasta sauce.  Doing these two things is probably as, if not more, important than having a decent tasting sauce.  The reason a lot of marinara cooked at home is bad is that you can't get any of it onto your noodles since there isn't any starch to stick to.  Or, the pasta is too thick or overcooked.

-1 x 28 oz can whole peeled tomato

-1 tbsp tomato paste

-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

-.25 cup olive oil + 2tbsp for finishing(first cold pressed extra virgin- fruity and peppery leaning one is better)

-4 garlic cloves, whole

-salt, pepper, and more olive oil to taste

OPTIONAL: 2 tablespoons julienned sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil

OPTIONAL: 1 tablespoon fish sauce (instead of salt).  This will add the umami like anchovies do in some other people's recipes.  If you're not intentionally trying to make this vegan, this is recommended.  If you want to add vegan umami, try adding some kelp and dried mushroom to the tomato juice when it's reducing, but pull it out before you add the whole tomatoes.

OPTIONAL: basil leaves, as needed.  OR, just use 1 tablespoon of dried oregano, since dried basil tastes like nothing.

• Crush the cloves in the skin, then discard the skin
• Heat oil with garlic under low heat, getting the oil slightly foamy (but not browning the garlic).  Add freshly ground pepper at this stage if you want pepper flavor throughout the sauce.
• Add the juice from the tomatoes, the balsamic vinegar, and the tomato paste and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce on medium heat.   Add the oregano, if using, at this stage.  Add the fish sauce, if using, at this stage.  The oil should turn kind of orangeish, otherwise the final sauce may be very pale and unappetizing
• Add the whole tomatoes and simmer through for an additional 10 minutes
• Take off from heat.  Blend it all with a stick blender.  Salt and pepper to taste.  If you don't have a stick blender, you could have crushed the tomatoes by hand before adding in the previous step.
• Boil pasta.  When it has just the faintest amount of unpleasant bite to it, take the noodles out and put immediately in the sauce.  You stop cooking it not when it's the texture you want, but slightly before it's the texture you want, because it's going to keep cooking.
• Drizzle final dish with more olive oil.  Add grated parm if you want.

If using, add the sundried tomatoes after blending.  Also add basil at this point, if using.  I found out after visiting Milan that the reason most traditional recipes call for only a couple basil leaves is that Italian basil tastes like a deathstar laser of herby goodness.  American "Italian" basil will probably require x4 or x5 the quantity for the same effect.

[make]new Italian menu

Menu:

Salmorejo
Vegetarian Marinara
Basic Marinara + Meat Sauce
Roasted Broccoli
Gorgonzola Alfredo

Bread (?)


Salmorejo:

1 whole can San Marzano tomato (28 oz)
1 cup olive oil
.5 small white onion, diced
1 clove garlic
8 oz el cheapo white bread (if you can find vegan version, then this dish is vegan)
4 eggs, poached however you want
Optional: 4 oz bacon, crisped(ideally, some kind of cured, not cooked pork like jamon iberico, but that's okay... no meat it's fine)

-Combine liquid from tomatoes, olive oil, and white onion.  Bring to a simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until oil is tinged orange and onion is translucent.

-Add tomatoes, minced garlic, and bread and allow mixture to sit (ideally about an hour).  Blend thoroughly, pass through sieve to remove chunks if time allows for smoother final product.  Season with salt.

-If using, crisp the bacon to desired doneness.

-To serve, put a poached egg in 1/4 of the soup topped with pork product if using.


Basic Marinara:

1 lbs angel hair (or some other thinner noodle: spaghetti is maximum thickness pasta recomended)
8 oz spinach
1 can San Marzano tomatoes (28 oz)
.25 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4 cloves garlic
Optional: 8-10 basil leaves
Optional: 1 tube-o-meat (supermarket sausage canister)

-Get lots of water boiling, salted.  You will both blanch the spinach and cook the pasta in this.

-Bring the tomatoes plus juices, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic to a boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until slightly reduced.  Add tomato paste and cook until thickened.  Blend thoroughly.

-If using meat, brown in a skillet or wok or whatever over medium/high heat.  Combine with marinara.  Add the fat: it helps make ppl full. 

-Meanwhile, blanch the spinach.  Combine with the sauce at the very end: do not overcook.

-Boil the pasta.  Note: if using angel hair, it will cook extremely quickly.  Have the sauce ready before the pasta is done so that you can strain it, then immediately combine with the sauce.  The reason for this is that the noodles are most receptive to sauce straight out of the sticky pasta water: especially for a marinara, you need all the help that you can get so that the sauce sticks to the pasta.

Gorgonzola Alfredo:
ute
1 lbs thicker pasta (fettuccine is ideal, linguine is okay, anything thinner will not work so great)

3 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour, sifted (i.e. 3 packed tablespoons)
(OR if you want to do butter/flour by weight, since its more reliable, its 50 grams each butter and all purpose flour)
2 cups milk, warmed up in the microwave (lukewarm)
.5 lbs gorgonzola or roquefort cheese

-Make the roux.  While whisking, heat the butter and flour until it makes a very uniform, wet looking paste.  Do not brown it.

-As soon as the roux is combined, begin adding the milk while whisking.  Add it in incremental amounts, whisking thoroughly, otherwise the sauce will become clumpy and may burn.

-Once all the milk is added, simmer until it thickens, about 15 minutes.

-Turn the heat off the sauce.  Add the cheese and whisk in thoroughly.  Try not to destroy all the delicate flavors (this is why this should be done off heat).

-Meanwhile, boil the pasta.  As soon as it is done, combine it with the ready sauce


Roasted Broccoli:

Cut broccoli into bite sized pieces.  Saute on oiled skillets until charred on all sides.  Salt to taste.

[make]new Friday Meal for 2017.08.25

For 50 people:

Coffee braised pork:

25 lbs boneless pork shoulder meat (30 lbs bone in)

1.25 cup instant coffee

80 cloves garlic, smashed (do the metal bowl trick to peel!)

2.5 cups pack dark brown sugar

Collard Greens:

3 lbs bacon

6 TB apple cider vinegar

12 lbs collard greens

12 cloves garlic, minced

Cauliflower:

12 heads

-have someone make 25 cups of rice.  Brown or long grain preferred.

-Preheat oven to 500F

-Combine insant coffee, smashed garlic, and some water in pressure cooker

-If necessary, debone pork

-Cube pork to 1.5" pieces.  Salt and let rest

-When pork has absorbed salt, add to pressure cooker.  Add hot water until almost covering.  Lock lid and pressurize.  Pork should be cooked at high pressure for 20 minutes, natural release.

-Meanwhile, quarter cauliflower and remove the thick stem, trimming to edible pieces.  Put in a single layer in a baking tray and salt.  Drizzle with vegetable oil

-Roast for 30-45 minutes at 500 or until spotty and tender

-When cauliflower is done, switch oven to broiler, maximum heat

-Meanwhile, cut bacon into 1/8" matchsticks.  Render in a large pot on medium low heat.

-Twist off the thick stalk of the collard greens and discard.  Chop the leaves into fourths, (about 2" segments.)

-When bacon is completely rendered, turn heat to high and add all the greens

-When liquid has boiled off, deglaze the bottom of the pan with apple cider vinegar.

-After deglazing, cook on low-medium heat, covered, until tender.  Adjust salt.

-After pressure cooker is depressurized, strain liquid into a pan on the stove top, add dark brown sugar, and reduce until very thick and coats back of spoon.

-Meanwhile, arrange pork in a single layer in a tray.  Place under broiler until crispy and sizzling.

-When sauce is reduced, drizzle over the pork and put back under broiler to glaze.  Blow torch if necessary.