This is the dish at China Village with some modifications to make it tastier according to me. I'm including instructions on how I get my white, opaque chicken broth which is the key ingredient to this dish.
Stuff
+1.5-2 lbs swai fillet (or rex sole)
+1 TB cornstarch
+1 x 7 oz package of shirataki, drained and rinsed (the real stuff, not the tofu noodles at Safeway)
+1 cup of dried Sichuan red chilis
+2 green onions cut into 4" strips
+.5 inch ginger cut into discs
+2 cloves garlic, smashed
+4 cups of opaque white chicken broth, recipe follows
+.25 cups white rice wine
Process
In a large claypot, heat one tablespoon of canola oil with the green onions, ginger, and garlic until all are browned and the vegetables are very fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the broth and rice wine and boil for 15 minutes.
While the broth is boiling, cut the fish into thin slices (about 3mm)following the angle of the segments and cutting with the grain. Salt the fish. Once the salt is absorbed, coat in 1 TB of cornstarch
Strain out the aromatics from the broth. Season with salt (probably need about 1 TB of DCK). Add the shirataki and boil for another 5 minutes. Add the fish and turn the heat to low, stirring until the fish has just turned color. Be mindful of the mass of your cooking vessel and estimate how much carry over cooking is going to occur.
Meanwhile, dry toast the dried chilis until all are blistered, darkened, and extremely aromatic (this may hurt). Add the chilis on top of the soup and close the lid of the claypot. Wait for about 5 minutes.*
To serve, bring to the table, remove the lid, and using chopsticks and a ladle, remove the chilis to the lid.
Soup should have the fragrance of chilis and a slight, back of the throat spice.
*I'm still figuring this part out. I know if you boil them with the soup, it gets nuclear hot. I also know that if you steep them in the finished soup for less than 2 minutes, none of the fragrance enters the soup. This is the difficult part that requires secret kitchen kung fu. If you figure it out, let me know.
To make the chicken broth:
-at least 1 chicken carcass and any skin you don't want
-crapload of water
Roast the bones in an oven proof pot at 450 degrees for 1 hour. Cover in water and bring to a boil for 5 minutes- take this stock, strain, skim, reduce, and use for something else (this is closer to a French stock that is clear and roasty in flavor). If you don't mind your 潑辣魚 tasting like that, you can just keep boiling and follow directions below.
Add water to the bones again and boil them for an hour. Strain and skim this broth and reduce it on its own. Add more water to the bones and repeat. This lets you get opaque broth faster, as the rate of reaction slows down when you approach super-saturated stock. Combine both of the opaque stocks and reduce together- it should be very milky and taste very rich. You'll end up with about 1 quart of stock per carcass.
Friday, March 28, 2014
宮保雞丁 1.1 (Kung Pao Chicken 1.1)
You can have fun going crazy figuring out what's different- I've probably made this dish with another 30 pounds of chicken and am putting some fine adjustments on it now. I've tried using peanut butter, whole chilis, crushed chilis, toasted and non-toasted spices, etc.
I think this is as good as its going to get without a revolution in my approach.
The stuff
-To get peanuts roasted, dry toast in a wok or skillet on medium heat until fragrant. Or, put in a 350F oven, stirring every 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes, or until fragrant.
-Dry toast the peppercorns until fragrant, then remove. Do the same to the crushed chilis. Take both and grind in a spice grinder until very fine. Warning: this step may make you want to die from the volatile fumes.
-Once chicken is brined, thoroughly wash chicken and drain. Mix with just enough cornstarch that the chicken starts sticking to itself, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons. You should err on the side of too much starch- during this step, you really need a "batter" as opposed to a coating so that the pancake maintains its integrity for flipping. This allows an otherwise impossible thing to do without sauteing the breast whole- establishing a flavorful crust.
-Heat a well seasoned wok with about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and green onion whites and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and spread out into a single layered "pancake" (if your wok is small, divide the chicken into appropriate sized batches). Cook for about 2 minutes or until you can see the chicken start turning white from cooking up to about a third of the thickness. Shake the wok to make sure the pancake is loose- if it isn't, gently use the spatula to loosen trouble spots until the whole thing is sliding around your wok like a giant puck. Flip the pancake (or slide the chicken out onto a plate and flip the whole assembly back into the wok uncooked side down). Cook another 2 minutes or until this side starts showing white coming up the sides of the chicken as well. Break the pancake with the spatula and then wait for another 30 seconds for the freshly exposed starch to set. Toss in the wok until the chicken is just tinged pink in most areas, about another minute or two. Reserve chicken. You want it slightly undercooked (90% ish) so that rolling it around in the extremely hot kung pao caramel will bring it to perfectly cooked.
-Heat the sauce ingredients excluding the 1 reserved tablespoon of lemon juice on high until it turns into a very thick, dark caramel with lots of small bubbles forming. Add the ground chilis/peppercorns. You want this to be REALLY thick because the juices and oil on the exterior of the chicken will dilute the sauce when you mix it. Add the chicken, half of the peanuts, and remaining lemon juice and coat the chicken and finish cooking it, about another 30 seconds to a minute. Plate the chicken, sprinkle with remaining roasted peanuts and green onion greens and serve immediately.
I think this is as good as its going to get without a revolution in my approach.
The stuff
- 1-1.5 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed to L = 15mm, brined. If you're not sure what 15mm looks like, get a ruler. This dish works with pieces up to 1" cube in size.
- 1/3c coarse crushed peanuts, roasted (see below)
- 2 green onions, whites thinly sliced oblique and greens reserved for garnish
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- .5" ginger, grated
- 2 TB soy
- 2 TB 紹興酒 Shao xing rice wine
- 2 TB dark brown sugar, packed
- 1+1 TB lemon juice, divided (Using a sour grapefruit also works)
- 2 TB crushed red chilis
- 1 TB 花椒 (Sichuan peppercorns)
- OPTIONAL: zest of a half a lemon (or grapefruit zest if using for the acid)
-To get peanuts roasted, dry toast in a wok or skillet on medium heat until fragrant. Or, put in a 350F oven, stirring every 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes, or until fragrant.
-Dry toast the peppercorns until fragrant, then remove. Do the same to the crushed chilis. Take both and grind in a spice grinder until very fine. Warning: this step may make you want to die from the volatile fumes.
-Once chicken is brined, thoroughly wash chicken and drain. Mix with just enough cornstarch that the chicken starts sticking to itself, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons. You should err on the side of too much starch- during this step, you really need a "batter" as opposed to a coating so that the pancake maintains its integrity for flipping. This allows an otherwise impossible thing to do without sauteing the breast whole- establishing a flavorful crust.
-Heat a well seasoned wok with about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil until shimmering. Add the garlic and green onion whites and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and spread out into a single layered "pancake" (if your wok is small, divide the chicken into appropriate sized batches). Cook for about 2 minutes or until you can see the chicken start turning white from cooking up to about a third of the thickness. Shake the wok to make sure the pancake is loose- if it isn't, gently use the spatula to loosen trouble spots until the whole thing is sliding around your wok like a giant puck. Flip the pancake (or slide the chicken out onto a plate and flip the whole assembly back into the wok uncooked side down). Cook another 2 minutes or until this side starts showing white coming up the sides of the chicken as well. Break the pancake with the spatula and then wait for another 30 seconds for the freshly exposed starch to set. Toss in the wok until the chicken is just tinged pink in most areas, about another minute or two. Reserve chicken. You want it slightly undercooked (90% ish) so that rolling it around in the extremely hot kung pao caramel will bring it to perfectly cooked.
-Heat the sauce ingredients excluding the 1 reserved tablespoon of lemon juice on high until it turns into a very thick, dark caramel with lots of small bubbles forming. Add the ground chilis/peppercorns. You want this to be REALLY thick because the juices and oil on the exterior of the chicken will dilute the sauce when you mix it. Add the chicken, half of the peanuts, and remaining lemon juice and coat the chicken and finish cooking it, about another 30 seconds to a minute. Plate the chicken, sprinkle with remaining roasted peanuts and green onion greens and serve immediately.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Basic Gumbo, Beta v0.1
There's a part of me that chuckles slightly when I see a "gumbo" without any roux. Funny thing is you make gumbo pretty much the same way you make Japanese curry from scratch- this is an area that is under development. Warning: this is even more labor intensive than the other dishes I make that people complain about, though if you have students with you a lot of the labor is unskilled.
Protein:
1 x whole chicken, about 6-ish lbs. prepared*
1 lbs andouille sausage or other smokey, cheap sausage
Roux:
Generous .5 cup APF, (or 75g)
Oil as necessary (will combine with sausage drippings: total should be .5c)
Other:
2 celery ribs
1 medium yellow onion
.5 green bell pepper
1-2 quart stock**
1 tsp dried thyme
.5 tsp dried basil
1 tsp cayenne
2 green onions sliced thin
Salt
Blackpepper
Chicken: *Preferably the day before: Brine the chicken. and poach OR pressure cook the thing until its done: breast should be at 155 final temp, so you want to pull out at 145. If you are pressure cooking, do under high pressure for about 15 minutes- the brine increases the internal heat transfer coefficients.
Once the chicken is cooked, reserve the skin and shred the meat (don't turn it into sawdust, just pull it apart so it's not giant bricks). If you get some undercooked pieces near the dark meat that's fine- just set them aside for now. If you like (I do), roast the bones and make chicken stock for the rest of the gumbo (if you're lazy use this). Take the skin and cook it under low heat to make chicken skin cracklings for garnish. Yes, you can use a Costco rotisserie chicken in a pinch and this dish becomes a lot more manageable, but it's not going to taste like mine.
Roux: Dice the onions, bell pepper, and celery (we're going to blend this gravy eventually so don't worry about making it look nice). Get your stock boiling. Slice the sausages into .25" discs and fry them under medium-low to render the delicious smoky fat. Reserve sausages. Add enough oil so that you will have .5c oil in the pan. Heat it until it smokes, then add the flour and whisk together. Cook while continuously whisking until you get a very dark roux: I prefer to take it off heat when it looks like melted chocolate so that the carry over cooking takes it to very, very dark red-brown. If you're not sure on this part you can look it up online somewhere- you can do it faster under higher heat but the risk of burning it is higher. BTW you should realize at this point that if you use teflon pans this dish isn't possible to make.
As soon as the roux is the right color, including carry over, add the onion and dried spices and return to medium heat until the onions caramelize. Add the bell pepper and celery and cook until everything is soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Use an immersion blender or food mill to puree the gravy. Add 1 quart of stock slowly while blending, (or whisking if you used a food mill) so that you get a nice smooth texture.
**Depending on whether you want a thick gumbo that's more like a sauce or a thinner one more like a soup, add up to an additional quart of stock.
Return the sausage to the gravy and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.
To serve: put some steamed long grain rice in a bowl and then invert this bowl into a shallow dish to get a neat mound of rice in the middle. Pour the gumbo all around the rice. Add the shredded chicken all around the plate, mixing white and dark meat. Garnish with the sliced green onion and chicken skin cracklings. Serve with Tobasco or Frank's (or some other sour hot sauce- it's to offset the fat).
You can stretch this out further by adding a poached or fried egg on top of the rice sprinkled with some salt and/or a small pat of butter.
Protein:
1 x whole chicken, about 6-ish lbs. prepared*
1 lbs andouille sausage or other smokey, cheap sausage
Roux:
Generous .5 cup APF, (or 75g)
Oil as necessary (will combine with sausage drippings: total should be .5c)
Other:
2 celery ribs
1 medium yellow onion
.5 green bell pepper
1-2 quart stock**
1 tsp dried thyme
.5 tsp dried basil
1 tsp cayenne
2 green onions sliced thin
Salt
Blackpepper
Chicken: *Preferably the day before: Brine the chicken. and poach OR pressure cook the thing until its done: breast should be at 155 final temp, so you want to pull out at 145. If you are pressure cooking, do under high pressure for about 15 minutes- the brine increases the internal heat transfer coefficients.
Once the chicken is cooked, reserve the skin and shred the meat (don't turn it into sawdust, just pull it apart so it's not giant bricks). If you get some undercooked pieces near the dark meat that's fine- just set them aside for now. If you like (I do), roast the bones and make chicken stock for the rest of the gumbo (if you're lazy use this). Take the skin and cook it under low heat to make chicken skin cracklings for garnish. Yes, you can use a Costco rotisserie chicken in a pinch and this dish becomes a lot more manageable, but it's not going to taste like mine.
Roux: Dice the onions, bell pepper, and celery (we're going to blend this gravy eventually so don't worry about making it look nice). Get your stock boiling. Slice the sausages into .25" discs and fry them under medium-low to render the delicious smoky fat. Reserve sausages. Add enough oil so that you will have .5c oil in the pan. Heat it until it smokes, then add the flour and whisk together. Cook while continuously whisking until you get a very dark roux: I prefer to take it off heat when it looks like melted chocolate so that the carry over cooking takes it to very, very dark red-brown. If you're not sure on this part you can look it up online somewhere- you can do it faster under higher heat but the risk of burning it is higher. BTW you should realize at this point that if you use teflon pans this dish isn't possible to make.
As soon as the roux is the right color, including carry over, add the onion and dried spices and return to medium heat until the onions caramelize. Add the bell pepper and celery and cook until everything is soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Use an immersion blender or food mill to puree the gravy. Add 1 quart of stock slowly while blending, (or whisking if you used a food mill) so that you get a nice smooth texture.
**Depending on whether you want a thick gumbo that's more like a sauce or a thinner one more like a soup, add up to an additional quart of stock.
Return the sausage to the gravy and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.
To serve: put some steamed long grain rice in a bowl and then invert this bowl into a shallow dish to get a neat mound of rice in the middle. Pour the gumbo all around the rice. Add the shredded chicken all around the plate, mixing white and dark meat. Garnish with the sliced green onion and chicken skin cracklings. Serve with Tobasco or Frank's (or some other sour hot sauce- it's to offset the fat).
You can stretch this out further by adding a poached or fried egg on top of the rice sprinkled with some salt and/or a small pat of butter.
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