Cuban Braised Chicken

This recipe was inspired by Paladar's Fricasee de Pollo. I "researched" that dish innumerable times last year, so I was thrilled to discover the key to the dish: achiote seeds (a/k/a annato).

Ingredients

Fresh:
boneless chicken thighs - 2 lbs
castelvetrano or kalamata olives - handful
golden raisins - 2 handfuls
yukon gold potatoes - 2+ large, chopped bite-sized
carrots - 1 bunch (or 3+ large carrots), chopped bite-sized
red onion - 1 large, diced
lemon - juice from 1 lemon
orange bell peppers - 2 large, chopped bite-sized

roma tomatoes - 6, chopped bite-sized
garlic - 4 cloves, smashed
frozen peas - half a bag
optional: 1 jalapeno pepper, 1 sausage or 1 slice of bacon (browned before chicken)

Pantry:

dried oregano - 1/2 tablespoon

olive oil
white wine, rose or beer - 1 cup or more
salt and pepper

rice (steamed)

cumin - 1 teaspoon, ground

Put in a cheese cloth bag:
achiote (annato) seeds - 1 teaspoon
bay leaf - 2
2 whole dried red chili peppers, stems removed and chopped

peel from half a lemon

Cook

Prepare steamed rice.
Brown chicken in french oven with olive oil for 7 minutes on each side (in 2 batches). Salt and pepper. Remove.
Brown onions in french oven with herbs and spices for 5 minutes.
Deglaze with wine/beer.

Add all ingredients (except peas), add hot water to barely cover. Bring to a boil.

Simmer for 25 minutes.

Add tomatoes, simmer for another 15 minutes.

Add peas, simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve over steamed rice with jalapeno peppers for garnish.

Chinese Pork Noodle Soup

Put in the oven, at 325 F:
2 lbs pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
1 yellow onion, cut in half
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tsp brown sugar
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 cup Chinese rice wine
hot water to cover
spices (see below)

In a cheese cloth bag:
4 star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick
black peppercorns
1 ginger root, sliced
orange rind strips - half the skin of a mandarin orange
1 red chili pepper

Add the following after the first two hours (and remove the yellow onion), and put back in oven for another hour:
2 daikon roots - cut into thin disks
1 bunch scallions, light parts chopped
1 bunch carrots, cut into thin disks
1 bunch collard greens, stems removed and cut into small pieces
a generous amount of fresh shitakes, stems removed

Serve with noodles

Notes:
- It probably tastes even better if cooked for an extra hour.
- Spanish version: tomatoes, leeks, red onions, potatoes, ancho chili, chipotle (or red chilies), oregano, red wine, cumin, paprika, thyme. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spanish-Pork-Braise-235849

Buttermilk Biscuits

Here's my adaptation of Alton Brown's Phase III biscuit, last edited on June 23, 2010.

Dry Ingredients:

9.5 oz all purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon (or less) Maldon sea salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 oz unsalted butter (frozen)

8 oz buttermilk

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1 large egg

Optional:
Grated parmesan cheese
Butter and jam

Tools:
Medium bowl
Large, shallow bowl
Whisk or fork
Sifting tool
Grater - larger holes are better, but micro-plane works too
Silicon spoon
Parchment paper
Baking pan

Sift flour and whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

Grate butter into dry mixture.

Toss butter flakes into the flour mixture with your hands.

Using the tips of your fingers, rub butter into dry mixture, until half the butter disappears into the flour and the rest looks like bits the size of peas. (This should take less than a minute.)

Stick mixture in the freezer.

Combine the rest of the wet ingredients and beat well. Combine wet mixture with dry mixture gently with a silicone spoon.

Put batter into a large, shallow bowl. Flatten batter against sides of the bowl with the silicon spoon until it's about an inch thick. Bring edges to the center, and do it again 3 more times. Be gentle.

Refrigerate batter for at least another 20 minutes.

Use the silicon spoon plus another spoon to drop balls of dough (around 3") on a parchment lined baking pan. (Optional: Add grated Parmesan to the top of each biscuit.)

Bake at 450 F for 16 minutes. They should rise and won't spread much.

Turn the biscuits out into a basket lined with a kitchen towel and serve immediately.

Banana Bread

Ingredients (2 loaves)

Dry Ingredients:
20 oz unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1.5 oz buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 oz grapeseed oil
12 oz turbinado (or brown) sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
16 oz ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork

Extras:
5 oz toasted walnut pieces

Directions:

Sift the flour into a medium bowl, add all other Dry Ingredients, whisk together and set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter, oil, salt and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in the egg, buttermilk, vanilla extract until incorporated. Whisk in the mashed bananas.

With a rubber spatula, add Wet Ingredients to the Dry Ingredients and fold with spatula until just incorporated, being careful not to over-mix. Fold in the nuts.

Lightly coat two loaf pans (9 x 5 x 3") with grapeseed oil. Transfer the batter to the prepared pans.

Bake for 70 minutes at 350 F. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on a rack. Wrap in foil.

Cooking FAILS

I generally post my successes, but I realized that I must also post my fails so that I won't repeat them.

Healthy oatmeal cookies (involving very little butter and mashed apple) - This cookie tastes obnoxiously healthy. Plus I also screwed up by using steel cut oats instead of rolled oats. Dur.

Cheap cioppino - with canned sardines and canned tomatoes. Ugh. Bad bad idea. Should have just made carrot / fennel / tomato soup, with anchovy for an accent if I really needed something fishy. Also, I give up on canned tomatoes. It's better for my health to avoid BPAs anyway.

Daikon soup

2 Daikon roots (large), sliced into disks and cut in half
1 ginger root, sliced
5 dumplings per person
1 bunch of carrots, sliced large
1 bunch of green onions, light parts chopped, rest chopped for garnish
a few handfuls of fresh shitakes or pioppini mushrooms
roasted seaweed strips for garnish
soy sauce
salt

kombu
2 packets of bonito flakes
water

Make dashi - see Alton Brown
Saute scallions with ginger in sesame oil for a few minutes. Then add dashi, daikon, carrots, mushrooms, soy sauce and salt. Simmer for 30 minutes, then add dumplings, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Garnish with scallion greens and roasted seaweed strips.

Shortbread Cookies

Adapted from Ina Garten:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 6 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 oz demerera (light brown) sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/16 teaspoon ground Maldon salt
• 14 oz all-purpose flour

Directions

In a small bowl, mix together the vanilla, egg and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined.

Add the vanilla/egg/salt mixture. Mix.

Add flour. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together.

Place the dough on parchment paper and form it into a roll. Place in the freezer.

Cut into uniform disks.

Preheat the toaster oven to 375 F convection. Bake on parchment paper for 14+ minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Sticky Rice

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sticky-Rice-with-Chinese-Sausage-230998

I made this dish with a little bacon instead of sausage. It tasted all right, but the texture was wrong. I used sushi rice, which might have been the problem. Oh well, back to buying sticky rice from the takeout dim sum spot near my muni stop.

Chinese Sticky Rice

Ingredients

3 cups Japanese sushi/sticky rice
1 cup Chinese dried black mushrooms or dried shiitake mushrooms (1 1/2 oz)
1 handful fresh shitakes
1.5+ slices of bacon
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallion (white and pale green parts only; from 1 bunch)
6.5 oz whole peanuts
1/3 cup Chinese rice wine or medium-dry Sherry
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

Preparation

Cover rice with cold water by 1 inch in a large bowl and soak at least 2 hours. Drain in a sieve and rinse well under cold running water.

Soak mushrooms in warm water 30 minutes, then drain, squeezing excess liquid back into bowl, and discard liquid. Rinse mushrooms to remove any grit, then discard stems and coarsely chop caps. 3Quarter sausages lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

Heat Le Creuset. Add peanut oil and heat, swirling, until just smoking. Add bacon. Add ginger and scallion and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and stir-fry 1 minute. Add peanuts and stir-fry 1 minute. Stir in rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt, and white pepper and remove from heat. Add drained rice and stir to coat.

Add broth (broth will not completely cover rice). Bring to a simmer, stir once, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 25 minutes more, then remove from heat. Stir from bottom to distribute ingredients and let stand, covered, 10 minutes before serving.

Lamb Stew

ONE
3 lbs lamb stew meat (shoulder), roughly cut into 2 - 3" chunks
sea salt
ground black pepper
olive oil

TWO
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 leeks, chopped

THREE
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 thyme sprigs, tied in a knot
2 bay leaves (entwined with the thyme)
red chili seeds (from 1 or 2 peppers)
1 cup red wine

FOUR
1 bunch of carrots, cut into large chunks
6 yukon gold potatoes, cut into large chunks
5 roma tomatoes, cut into large chunks
1/2 a bag of frozen peas

1. Clean and coat lamb chunks in salt and pepper, put back in fridge (ideally overnight) in Le Creuset.

2. Brown lamb chunks on medium heat with olive oil for 8 minutes. Remove.

2. Brown onions and leeks with bay leaf, red chili seeds for 3 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 F.

3. Deglaze with wine. Add garlic, thyme and hot water to cover. Bring to a simmer.

4. Place in oven, covered, for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 325 F.

5. Add tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and water to cover. Bring to a simmer. Put back in oven, covered, for 60 minutes.

6. Separately boil frozen peas and add to stew when complete.

(Total cook time: 30-40 minutes prep, 13 minutes stove top, 2 hours and 45 minutes in the oven.)