Chicken Chow Mein

I love Chinese takeout. The morning after a night out drinking I get a craving for grease, cornstarchy sauces, steamed dumplings and anything deep fried. Lately though, I have been interested in trying more authentic food, which is nothing like what you get at takeout restaurants. I think there are some common misconceptions about Chinese cuisines that discourage people from attempting too cook them. Mainly that they are super complicated and include hard-to-find ingredients. This may be true for some dishes, as it is for any cuisine, but there are also a lot of great, simple dishes.

This recipe uses chinese five-spice powder. Five-spice is a common ingredient in a lot of Chinese cooking. As you can probably guess, it includes five different spices. Apparently, there are a couple different kinds of five-spice powder, which I was unaware of when I went to buy it. The most popular type includes star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and ground fennel. Unfortunately, I got another kind which has star anise, anise, cinnamon, cloves and fennel. I really wanted the Sichuan peppers in it, which isn't really pepper and causes a numbness in your mouth, but more on that another time. I was just ecstatic to find five-spice powder in the supermarket. Too often I strike out on ingredients like that. It just tasted like anise, which I really don't like that much. But if you like that flavor, you should try this recipe.

Chicken Chow Mein

adapted from Ching-He Huang

5 oz. dried, wheat flour noodles (the ones I used were called Chow Mein noodles)

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil, plus more if needed

11 oz. skinless chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips

Dash of dark soy sauce

1 tsp. five-spice powder

1 tsp. chile sauce

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 Tbsp peanut oil (or other groundnut oil)

1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely sliced

1 large green onion, sliced lengthwise

2 Tbsp. light soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Cook the noodles in salted, boiling water until al dente. Then drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drizzle a little of the toasted sesame oil onto the noodles and toss them around. This helps flavor the noodles and keeps them from sticking.

Season the chicken with the dark soy, chile sauce and five-spice powder. Then, coat the strips with cornstarch.

Heat up your wok (or pan) and add the peanut oil, it should be super hot. Add the chicken strips and cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Then, add the bell pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the onion and cook for 1 more minute. Add the cooked noodles and season with light soy, 1 tsp. of sesame oil and black pepper. Enjoy if you like anise!

Notes:

1. Chow mein is a traditional Chinese takeout dish which literally translates to "stir-fried noodles."

Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It is so delicious and incredibly simple to make. It's perfect for a busy night when you don't have much time to be in the kitchen. I think it takes 20 minutes start to finish, it would be a lot less if you didn't have to boil water.

I think what I love most about this dish is the taste of the Asiago cheese. It tastes a little like parmesan cheese, it has the same nuttiness, but I think it's tangier. It's also not as crumbly and salty as parmesan. Luckily there are lots of both in this recipe, so you get the best of both worlds.

Fusilli with Spinach and Asiago Cheese
recipe adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

1 pound fusilli pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (9-ounce) bag fresh spinach, roughly chopped
8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup grated Asiago
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add the pasta and cook for until al dente (about 8-10 minutes). When finished, drain the pasta, saving about a half cup of the cooking liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until you can begin smelling it, about 2 minutes. Add the spinach and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach begins to wilt. Next, add the cooked pasta and toss. Finally add the cheeses, salt and pepper, and cooking liquid and stir tpgether.


Notes:
1. Be very careful with the salt in this recipe. The cheeses, especially the parmesan, are salty. This dish doesn't need much extra.
2. I love asiago, but if you dislike it for some reason there are alternatives you can use. You could make the whole thing with parmesan, but then I think it would be a really one-note dish. Pecorino-Romano would work, it is tangy (like asiago) because it is made from sheeps milk. Also, a dry jack cheese could be good in this dish. I really recommend the asiago. If I can find it around me, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it in the supermarket.

Dulce de Leche Brownies

I had never even heard of dulce de leche until I read this post by my cousin Kate. When I read that a few months ago I thought that I had to try that sometime, it looked delicious! Well the other day I was on another blog when I saw this recipe, so I decided to try it. This were so good! Now I have to admit that I didn't make the dulce de leche from scratch like Kate did, I took a short cut which I've seen talked about in a few places. I put a can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie plate, sprinked it with a little kosher salt and covered it tightly with tinfoil. Then I placed the pie plate in a large roasting pan and filled it halfway up the pie pan with hot water. I baked this for an hour and fifteen minutes at 425 degrees and got this...

Not exactly what I was expecting. I mean, it was delicious, but I eat sweetened condensed milk out of the can so how couldn't it be? I think this needs to be baked another 15 minutes or more. I think it would carmelize more and be more like dulce de leche. Now that I had the dulce, I put it in brownies!

Dulce de Leche Brownies

adapted from David Lebovitz

8 Tbsp (115 g) butter, cut into pieces

6 ounces (170 g) semisweet chocolate

1/4 cup (25 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

3 large eggs

1 cup (100 g) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup (140 g) flour

1 cup Dulce de Leche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 inch square glass pan. I've given my rant on the importance of weighing ingredients before, so I won't do it again here, but just remember it's important and produces a much better product.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and then, over very low heat, melt the chocolate pieces into the butter. You don't need to use a double boiler set up if the heat is really low and you stir it constantly. After all the chocolate is melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder. Then add the eggs one at a time while stirring, followed by the sugar, vanilla and flour.

Add half the batter to the greased baking pan. Take a third of the dulce de leche and drop it into the batter (try and get it evenly spaced). Take a knife and drag it through the leche and swirl it all around.

Now pour the rest of the brownie batter over the first layer and dollop the rest of the leche onto it. Again, swirl your knife through the dollops until it is nicely marbled.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the center is just firm. These were so delicious! And they received a number of compliments at this weeks happy hour. These brownies were so thick and rich, and the stayed warm and gooey in the center for hours (maybe because it was 90 degrees outside). I think these would be very good with bittersweet chocolate too. The slight bitterness would be offset by the sweetness of the dulce de leche. 

Frijoles Refritos and Arroz a la Mexicana

Well, this picture looks familiar. I told you to get used to it. Refried beans and Mexican rice, these two sides are served with just about every Mexican meal I've had at restaurants. According to some reading I've done in my Mexican cookbook, the main meal of the day in Mexico is set up kinda like an Italian meal. The sopa seca course is served after the appetizer and before the main course and is like the pasta course in an Italian meal. However, in Mexico, 70 percent of the time this course will be a rice dish. There are many different kinds of rice dishes served in Mexico, but this one is the most popular and seems to be the one most often served in the United States. I got this recipe of the internet and I have to admit, it didn't do it for me. It was alright, but it needs work. The main thing was that it was a little soggy. I don't know how they get the rice so dry not lumpy in the restaurants but I must be missing on some technique. I didn't even realize my Mexican cookbook has an authentic recipe for this, I should have checked first.

As for the beans, the style I cooked them in is more traditional to Northern Mexico because I used pinto beans. There are many different styles of cooking beans, and many different types of beans you can use, so find one you like. No matter what kind of bean, or how they are cooked, beans are served with almost every meal in Mexico. Sometimes beans make it onto the plate three times a day. The reason for this is pretty obvious, beans are cheap. Luckily they are also delicious (and nutritious!).

Arroz a la Mexicana

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the rice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the grains are golden and puffed. While the rice cooks, add the garlic salt and cumin.

Stir in the onions and allow to soften. Stir in the broth and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Frijoles Refritos

This is as traditional and simple as you get with these beans. I love this cookbook, I'll talk more about it later.

First you have to make the Frijoles de Olla (or pot beans) and then fry them.

1/2 lb. dry pinto beans

1/4 white onion, roughly sliced

1 Tbsp of pork lard

Kosher salt

I did this the easy way and did not soak the beans overnight. In fact my book tells me not to do that; apparently bean skins give off an unpleasant flavor when soaked, who knew? I just added all the ingredients (except the salt!) to a pot with enough water to cover the beans by about 3 inches. Bring the beans to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the skins are soft, then add the salt. DO NOT add the salt at the beginning because it will make the skins tough. Legumes are the only thing you don't want to salt during cooking. Continue cooking until the beans are very soft and the broth is soupy. Now to fry them!

3 to 4 Tbsps of pork lard

1 Tbsp finely diced white onion

All the beans you just cooked

Heat the lard in a frying pan. Add the onion and cook until transparent. Add a cupful of the beans and broth and mash them over high heat. As they reduce, add more beans and broth and keep mashing until you have added everything. Continue frying, and constantly mixing, until it becomes a thick paste. Enjoy topped with some melted Mexican cheese.

Notes:

1. The pork lard is really necessary here. You can use oil or butter but you are not going to get good flavor. The lard adds an amazing pork flavor. I also do not recommend bacon fat, I think it would overpower the beans.

2. Don't throw away the broth you cooked the beans in, use it when you fry them. When you boil the beans, a lot of the minerals and nutrients are released into the water and you do not want to lose them.

3. The Mexican cookbook I keep talking about is Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking. Kennedy is considered an authority on authentic Mexican food and this book is great for all sorts of authentic recipes. Sometimes I find the recipes a little to simple though.

Pork Chile Verde Enchiladas

The weekly "Happy Hour" party was at our house this Wednesday and I decided I wanted to cook an authentic mexican meal for 20 people. Not the easiest thing I've ever done. After quite a bit of planning I decided on red and green enchiladas, refried beans, rice, chile rellenos, guac and pico de gallo. All made from scratch. I don't think I realized just how long this was going to take me. Needless to say with all the running around I was doing trying to get people fed, I didn't stop to take any pictures. This picture was taken the next day with the little leftovers I had (hence the sorry looking beans). But take my word for it, it was delicious. I'm just writing up the green enchiladas (the best part of the meal) right now. I'll do the rest later, so get used to that picture, you'll be seeing it again.

These enchiladas were absolutely delicious. They were by far my favorite part of the meal. Tender pork simmered with Anaheim chiles, onion and garlic, shredded and rolled in tortillas, and smothered in fresh salsa verde and cheese. I love Mexican food.

Pork Chile Verde Enchiladas

for the pork

8 Anaheim chiles

2 tsp ground cumin

2 Tbsp safflower or other flavorless oil

1 cup chopped onion

2 lbs. pork shoulder or country-style ribs, cut in chunks

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

4 cups water

Salt and Pepper

Char, peel, seed and chop the chiles, I've shown this before. Heat oil in heavy pot or dutch oven and saute onion for about 3 minutes. Add the pork chunks and brown while the liquid evaporates, about 15 minutes. Add chiles, cumin and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with water and simmer, covered, until meat is tender about an hour and a half. Then uncover and reduce the liquid a bit (otherwise you'll have soggy enchiladas). When you are ready to stuff the tortillas, shred the meat. I find a potato masher makes quick work of shredding meat. Place a bit of the meat mixture into a flour tortilla (I used soft taco sized because I was feeding a bunch of people) and roll it up. Place in a roasting pan and cover it with the salsa...

for the salsa verde

3 fresh Anaheim chiles

5 tomatillos

15 oz. chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 jalapeno, deseeded and chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

Char, peel, seed and chop the chiles like before. Combine the broth, tomatillos, jalapeno, garlic, and onion in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes and cool to room temperature. Transfer to a blender, add the chile, cilantro and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Whisk in the sour cream and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the rolled enchiladas, cover in some mexican cheese (I recommend asadero, chihuahua or oaxacan) and bake until the cheese melts.

Notes:
1. If you want to go real traditional then you can use corn tortillas and dip the tortillas in the sauce, shake off the excess, then roll the enchiladas. I think that the flavor of corn tortillas kinda bullies everything else in a dish, so I like flour. And I'm not spending all that time dipping and rolling.
2. If you can't find anaheim chiles, canned green chiles are usually anaheims or something pretty close. Get the whole canned chiles, they are already roasted, peeled and seeded.
3. If you want to add some texture to these enchiladas you can add some raw chopped onion on the inside and maybe sprinkle some chopped tomatoes ontop.

Crispy Lemon-Fennel Chicken

A  perfectly grilled steak, tender melt-in-your-mouth pork, a freshly picked juicy piece of fruit. These are simple things which I really enjoy. Add crispy chicken skin to that list. You can have the best recipe and most amazingly flavored piece of chicken in the world but if you bite into a big piece of chewy, fatty skin it just won't matter. Food is all about flavor and texture, and that is what this dish is all about.

Crispy Lemon-Fennel Chicken

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

4 chicken legs

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

Salt and Pepper

Crush the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle or put them in a plastic bag and smash them up with a rolling pin. They don't need to be a powder, just do it roughly. Mix all the ingredients in a big, resealable plastic bag and throw in the chicken. Massage the marinade into the chicken and then place in the refrigerator

for at least a half hour (a couple hours would be better) and turn occasionally.

Preheat your grill to high heat. Put the chicken on skin-side down and render the fat out of the skin until it is crisp (about 5 minutes). Flip the chicken and give the other side about 3-4 minutes, just for a sear. Then move the chicken to medium heat to finish cooking, about 10-12 more minutes.

This chicken went really well with a simple grilled asparagus. I tossed the asparagus in olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Put the asparagus on the grill about 5-7 minutes before the chicken is finished. They should still be a little crunchy, and the pepper flakes give it a nice bite.

Italian-style Pizza

I had been looking forward to this day for nearly five years and I didn't even know it. Well I suppose I kinda knew, at least I knew I have been craving real Italian pizza since I got back from Italy. It is something I ate many times while I was there and ever since I haven't tasted anything with the same flavor or texture. The flavor here was pretty spot on. The herbs out of the garden gave it an amazing freshness and I finally found a crust which tasted right! However, it wasn't a total success because I still have not got the texture of the crust correct. The greatest part of good Italian pizza is how thin and crisp the crust is. Not just thin like New York style pizza, but almost wafer thin underneath. In Italy this comes from a super thin pizza being cooked in a scorching hot wood burning oven, unfortunately I don't have one yet.

After some researching about how the best way to cook this would be I came up with the pizza stone. The idea of the stone is to get it preheated and then put the pizza on it. The stone holds the heat well and begins cooking the crust as soon as the pizza is put on it, hopefully getting it nice and crispy. Obviously a wood burning oven is already lined with brick, so this is supposed to mimic that. So I set the oven for 475 degrees and heated the stone up, then baked away. The crust never got as crispy underneath as I wanted. I don't know if I should cook at a higher heat or toss the dough even thinner, maybe both. The crust could have been a product of the weather. I don't recommend making any sort of dough when it's over 90 degrees in the kitchen and you're practically swimming because it is so humid, the dough rises to quickly and stays to sticky. Also, having an almost 500 degree oven running while you are standing next to it isn't as enjoyable as it sounds. 

Pizza dough

adapted from Jamie Oliver

800 grams high gluten bread flour or tip '00' Italian flour

200 grams Semolina flour

2 - 7 gram dry yeast packets

650 mL of luke warm water (try for between 105-110 degrees)

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp sugar (or honey)

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Mix the water, oil, sugar and yeast together in a container and let sit a few minutes while you start the dried stuff.

Sift the two types of flour and salt together onto a flat, clean surface. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the liquids.

Take a fork and begin mixing in some of the flour. As the dough begins to come together, start adding more and more flour until you can begin mixing it with your hands (make sure they are clean, dry and floured). Knead until you have a nice, elastic dough. Place the dough in a floured bowl and cover with a damp towel, place somewhere warm to rise.

After the dough has doubled in size (it takes about an hour). Remove it from the bowl and knead it to remove the air bubbles. Cut off a chunk of the dough for the first pizza (this dough will make about 6 medium sized pizzas). Roll out the chunk of dough on a floured surface until it is about an eighth of an inch thick. It is good to get this done about 15 to 20 minutes before you make the pizza. It lets the dough rest a little, I think it makes the dough lighter.

The Sauce

5-6 Tbsp olive oil

5 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

A good handful of fresh basil leaves, torn

A smaller handful of fresh oregano, torn

1200 grams skinned and canned plum tomatoes (1 1/2 big jars)

Salt and Pepper

A few shakes of red chili flakes

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and throw in the garlic, when it starts to color toss in the herbs and tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes with a spoon as best you can. Season the sauce with the salt, pepper and chili flakes and bring to a simmer. Let it go for a little while to get all the flavors into the sauce.

I differed a bit from the recipe with this sauce. The recipe said to strain the sauce through a coarse sieve to get rid of the garlic and basil chunks. When I did this I ended up with a bowl of tomato water, both in consistency and taste. So I put all the stuff back in and just used it that way. It was really good and I don't mind a bit of chunks and color in my sauce. The one nice thing was that the sieve basically ground up the tomatoes and garlic to make the sauce relatively smooth.

Now take one of your doughs youve got rolled out and get your sauce and any other ingredients you want on your pizza ready. Take the pizza stone out of the hot oven (remember it has been preheating) and put your pizza dough on it. Get your sauce and cheese and toppings on as fast as you can and get it back in the oven. The pizza will not take very long to cook, just watch the crust. When it is golden brown and crispy, pull it out. I pulled the pizza in the above picture out a little early, it could have used another 2 minutes I think.

Notes:

1. I know I know, this is all in metric units. If you've ever been to Europe, especially France, you've probably had bread or pizza dough or croissants. Ever wonder why they are just so much better than what you get here? Largely that is because of the metric system. The proportions just aren't the same in our imperial system. Try converting the dough recipe to imperial. 800 grams of bread flour translates to 1.7637 pounds. Well thats fine but someone might say, "the proportions can be kept the same, 4:1 bread flour to semolina." Sure that's true but what about the salt? What about the water and sugar? You just can't get the same proportions, so I recommend going out and buying a cheapo digital scale. I got mine for 20 bucks.

2. I made two kinds of pizza. One I put on sauce, fresh sliced mozzarella and fresh basil leaves (the traditional pizza margherita). The pizza a made into a garlic pizza. I quickly dimpled the dough all over with my fingers and then spread some extra virgin olive oil over the dough. The dimples make little wells for the oil to sit in. Then I finally minced 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and sprinkled it on with some more chopped, fresh basil leaves. Delicious.

A Tale of Two Dips

Two food staples, opposite sides of the world. To call these "dips" is really a misnomer, or at the least a significant cultural misconception, because in their perspective countries they are not usually eaten as a dip. Tzatziki is a yogurt based cucumber sauce eaten around the mediterranean and middle east, but it's most well known in Greece. When I was in Greece, and everytime I've had a gyro or souvlaki since, this sauce was served as a side dish with the meat. Like I said, it is not usually a dip. The acidity of the sauce is used to cut the fatiness or to brighten up many dishes. We aren't in Greece though, so I serve this as an appetizer with bread or vegetables and it is delicious. 

Tzatziki Sauce

2 cups (16 oz.) of Greek plain yogurt

1 cucumber peeled and grated

3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

2 tbsp chopped dill

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Salt

Grate the cucumber and place in some paper towels. Squeeze as much liquid out of them as you can. Add everything else and stir it up. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour before you eat. Give it a stir right before serving.

Guacamole is one of my all time favorite things. I love it. I could eat it everyday. Because of this, I've eaten my fair share of guac. Now I don't mean to be immodest but my guac is the best I've ever had, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. The thing is, I don't do anything special. When people ask me what's in my guac, I tell them, and they wonder why mine tastes different from theirs. Everybody uses the same stuff; avacados, lime, onion, cilantro. What's my secret? Salt! I am blown away by the number of people who do not salt things. I put salt in almost everything I make. I even put salt in fruit dishes. I've even heard of people putting salt in their wine. The salt isn't there to be tasted and, if it is used correctly, does not make things taste salty. Salt is a natural flavor enhancer which intensifies all the other flavors in a dish.

My dad asked today, over a bowl of this deliciousness, "why is it called guacamole?" I said it probably means avocado in spanish, but I really had no idea. It turns out it is the Aztec word for "avocado sauce," which I should have known because I know "mole" means sauce. Now I said in the beginning of this post that these aren't usually eaten as dips. This is more true for the tzatziki than the guac, although guac is usually used as a topping for many dishes in Mexican cuisine. The coolness and fattiness of the avocados balances the spice of many mexican dishes in the same way I have described before. This fattiness of the avocados is another reason for using the salt. Avocados are kinda bland on their own and just adding other veggies isn't going to change that much, it needs salt. And lots of lime juice.

Guacamole

4 ripe avocados

2-3 limes (to taste), juiced

1/2 a medium spanish or sweet onion, diced

1 medium tomato, deseeded and diced

1 jalapeno, deseeded and diced

A handful of fresh cilantro (to taste), chopped

Salt and pepper

Cayenne pepper

Open the avocados by cutting around them the long way and then placing in the palm and twisting the top half opposite the bottom. To remove the pit, hold the half in your palm and smack the base of your knife blade into the pit so it sticks (watch your fingers). Twist out the pit. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon into a bowl. Add the lime juice right away because avocados brown very quickly. Add the onion, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, pepper and cayenne and mash it all up with a fork or potato masher. Leave it a little lumpy for textural purposes. Then add the tomato and stir with a spoon. Give it a taste and adjust the lime and salt. I like mine nice and limey. I recommend eating this right away because it really will brown fast. If you can't, put it in an airtight container to try and stop it. Enjoy!

Notes

1. I deseed the tomato because I want to keep as much liquid out of the guac as I can. It already has a bit with the lime juice and you want it thick and creamy, not mushy. To deseed the tomato, cut it in half and scoop out the middle with a spoon.

2. You can use any type of onion for the guac really, but I like the sweet onion the best. I used to use red onion but I had a few that were pretty harsh and I didn't like how they overpowered this avocados.

3. I add everything but the tomato and mush it up because I think it gets all the flavors incorporated. Add the tomato after so it doesn't get squashed and change the color of the guac.

4. Lime juice, like all citrus, slows down the browning of many foods (avocados, bananas, apples). The citurs acid in the juice denatures the proteins which cause oxidation of certain foods.

5. In the tzatziki I use english cucumber (seedless) to cut down on the amount of water. You could do this with a regular cuke by cutting out the seeds.

6. You can use mint instead of dill in the tzatziki if you want. That is more traditional of Cyprus and some of the middle eastern countries. For some reason I just haven't gotten into the whole mint thing. People put mint in a lot of things nowadays, including hearty meat dishes. Maybe I've got to try eating it more, I don't know, but I'm not big into the flavor.

Thai Chicken Curry?

 

Mom, what are we having for dinner? That's a question I ask just about everyday when I'm home from school. I would say 85% of the time I get "chicken" as an answer. This usually means grilled chicken breasts or chicken fajitas, but not today! I have been wanting to make thai food ever since the only thai restaurant in my town closed a couple weeks ago. I've also been eyeing all the fresh basil I've got growing. So, tonight was the night for thai.

I had originally wanted to make a thai green curry. Take a look at the picture above and you can probably figure that didn't work out (it isn't green!). Needless to say, I ran into a few roadblocks. I went to the store to grab a couple things I didn't have on hand. Green curry paste, all sold out... Well this wasn't that big of a deal, they had two rows of red curry paste right next to it. People in this town should diversify a little. So, thai red curry it was going to be. I just needed fish sauce. All sold out. Well here I panicked a little. Fish sauce isn't so easy to replace, nothing else tastes like fermented fish juices. First, my mind jumped to anchovies. I struck that out of my mind pretty quick because if I told anyone in my family there were anchovies in something they would declare it inedible before even trying it. I was to far into this to change the menu though, so I started scanning the condiments. Soy sauce, no, hoisin, no, oyster sauce, well... They don't taste at all alike but they both come from the ocean, so what the hell.

So what we have here is something kinda like a thai red chicken curry. Luckily, it was really good! My sister even said, "it's okay." That's onpar with a michelin star in my book, she is the pickiest eater ever and usually refuses to try anything new. She did tell me, "don't start making it everyday." Don't worry, I won't.

Thai Red Chicken Curry
adapted from bon appetit magazine
takes about 25-30 minutes

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (don't use olive oil)
3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
2-3 teaspoons oyster sauce (adjust to taste)
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 sliced hot chili
1/4 cup fresh basil and a little extra for garnish, chiffonaded
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus wedges for garnish

Heat oil in large wok or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots, bell pepper, most of the hot chili and curry paste; stir until softened, about 3 minutes. Add coconut milk and oyster sauce, bring to a boil. Add chicken and stir until just cooked through. Stir in basil and lime juice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve curry in bowls garnished with some more basil, hot chili slices and a wedge of lime for squeezing. I served this with white rice on the side for sopping up the broth.

Notes

1. I used a long hot chili for this, it was red and was about as spicy as a jalapeno. The curry paste itself is not really spicy. Peppers and chilis are spicy because they contain a compound known as capsaicin, which basically binds to pain receptors. Capsaicin is not water soluble, which is why water doesn't really help when your mouth is burning, they are fat soluble. Thai coconut-based curries are generally the the milder form of thai curry because the fat in the coconut milk binds to, and removes, the capsaicin in chilis.

2. I would not use olive oil in this dish, it has a low smoke point and may get a burnt taste at the high heat.

3. Much of this recipe is season to taste. I ended up adding a little more basil and lime juice. I also like my food spicy so I added a lot of chili. You can adjust all these things to your own taste. Also, coconut milk is pretty bland. I tasted this before adding the basil, lime, salt and pepper and it was incredibly bland. As soon as the salt was added it enhanced all the other flavors. So don't panic before everything is in the pot.

4. Chiffonade is when you layer a few leaves ontop of each other, roll them into a tight cigar shape, and slice across thinly. It produces long, thin strips. I did it this way so the green basil would be in strips like the bell pepper and scallions.

Delicious Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Rhubarb and strawberries are two foods which just scream summer for me. You haven't had a strawberry if you haven't had an inseason upstate New York berry. Those things you can buy year round in the supermarket are not strawberries, they are something flavorless and sad. And let me say that if you have never had rhubarb, you are missing out. This is one of my all time favorite flavors but it is hard to describe, which is probably why I like it so much. When you eat it you get tartness right away, but that is followed by a completely unique flavor that you just have to try.

Rhubarb is a vegetable (no matter what the US courts say) which originated in China. Traders and explorers brought it to different parts of Europe where it eventually found its way to the US, where it was quite popular. It is unfortunate because it seems rhubarb is no longer very popular among young people. Most people I know either haven't heard of it or have never eaten it. I have only seen it in the supermarket a handful of times, usually when they have local farm-direct produce. The thing is, it is so easy to grow! Stick it in a box in the garden and it comes back every year. We never weed or water ours and it is always fine. It is the first thing ready to harvest in the spring and if you don't pick too much at once it will last all summer.

Delicious Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling

1 cup sugar (I like mine a little more tart, add another 1/4 cup if you'd like)

1/4 cup tapioca (I think)

1/3 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

3 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2 in. pieces

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled

1/2 a fresh lemon, squeezed

First make the crust. Mix the flour and salt in a food processor and then add the shortening and pulse until the mixure looks like crumbs. Add a tablespoon of the ice water and pulse a couple times. Add the water a tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together between your fingers. Divide the dough in two pieces, one just a little smaller than the other. Shape into discs and refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Make the filling by mixing the tapioca, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice.

Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out the larger pastry disc to approx. 1/8 of an inch thick. Handle and roll the dough as little as possible! And do not roll out more than once because it will get tough. Put the rolled out dough in a 9 inch pie pan and trim the edges to a 1 inch overhang.

This is where I prebaked my crust for 5 minutes. However, doing this will make it difficult to crimp the edges with the top crust and make it all pretty. I did it anyway because I don't really care about crimping and I don't like soggy crust. Since this isn't a custard filling, it isn't entirely necessary to prebake, so do whatever you feel like.

Spoon the filling into your crust and roll out the remaining dough to approx. 1/8 inch thick. Lay ontop of the filling and crimp the two together the best you can. I like to sprinkle a little sugar ontop of my crust so it carmelizes in the oven, but don't put a lot.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 45-50 minutes until golden and delicious. Let cool completely and serve with some fresh berries and ice cream.

Notes:

In the recipe I said I was not sure how much tapioca to put in. Use whatever it says on the back of the tapioca box. I ran out and threw the box away, so I don't remember exactly.

Don't eat rhubarb leaves, they are mildly poisonous!

Chicken and Corn Burritos with Poblano Peppers

I absolutely love peppers. They are one of my favorite ingredients and I especially like poblanos. The poblano is a dark green pepper from Mexico which has a waxy skin and a mild heat. You may know them from Mexican Moles or Chili Rellenos. The flavor of a poblano is deep and earthy/fruity. I know that doesn't really make sense but the flavor is hard to explain, I'll just say they are really good. This is a very quick and easy texmex dish which features the poblano.

Also, please forgive my pictures. I am amazed at how awesome the pictures are on some blogs. I'm not much of a photographer, but I promise I'm working on it.

Chicken and Corn Burritos with Poblano Peppers

adapted from bon appetit magazine
takes about 30 minutes

3 tablespoons safflower oil

3 poblanos, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, diced

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 3/4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 3/4 teaspoons chili powder

3/4 cup homemade or store-bought red taco sauce

2 cups cooked corn kernels

6 burrito-size flour tortillas

Grated Mexican cheese blend or queso fresco

Chopped fresh cilantro

The original recipe called for the poblanos to be added without being roasted. I think this would have been a mistake because of the waxy, tough skin on the pepper. Whenever I use poblanos I always roast and peel them. Not only does this remove the waxy skin, but it intensifies the flavor of the pepper. If you have never roasted a pepper before, it is simple. Rub the peppers with some oil and place on a hot grill or underneath the broiler. Rotate the peppers until all the skin is black and blistered.

After the peppers have been blackened, remove from grill, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This will steam the pepper, allowing it to finish cooking and loosen the skin. After the peppers have sat for 10-15 minutes, remove them and pull the skin off. Finally, remove the stem and seeds and chop the meat of the pepper.

Place the oil in a large pan and add onion, cook until softened. Add the chopped poblanos, chicken, cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook the chicken until almost cooked through, about 2-3 minutes. Add the taco sauce and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the corn and heat through. Adjust your seasonings and remove from the heat.

Heat your tortilla on the burner or in the microwave to make it nice and pliable. Add the chicken mixture, cheese and chopped cilantro. Enjoy!

A couple things:

1. When I made this I scaled down the recipe a little and only used two poblanos. Their flavor was slightly lost in the dish and I think it would have been much better if I had used another pepper. For the full recipe I think four poblanos would be fine to use.

2. I used my favorite jarred taco sauce for this but I think it would be better with a homemade one. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a recipe for a taco sauce I like better than the store bought one.

3. If you have never had cilantro, I wouldn't add a lot. Cilantro is a very pungent flavor which can easily overpower everything.

4. I use safflower oil when I cook Mexican food because it has no flavor or odor. I think Mexican food is all about the ingredients and spices so I try not to mess with them to much. I do the same with Asian foods. They have safflower oil at my local supermarket in the specialty foods section. However, if you don't feel like owning another oil, you can just use olive oil.

The Alton Brown Smoker

Few things in life satisfy more than creating something delicious or useful with your own hands. Yet it seems these things are far more satisfying when they take a long time. This may be the reason that barbecuing becomes an obsession for so many people. It is something you must work at and wait for. The nice thing is, it seems pretty hard to screw up.

I first saw the "Q" episode of Good Eats a few years ago but didn't think twice about it. Over the last couple years I have gotten more involved with food and a few months ago I saw the episode again. I had never tried smoking anything, but I love barbecue and I'm always looking for something to spend some time and money on. I should explain that, in the episode, Alton builds a smoker out of ceramic pots and an electric hotplate. This appeals to me, a college student, who cannot fork over 700 bucks for a ceramic smoker. So far the smoker works great so I thought I would share how to make it.

Things to buy:
2 - 18" terra cotta pots

An electric hotplate (I recommend the $10 one from Walgreens)
22.5" replacement grill grate
Replacement grill thermometer
Heavy duty metal pie pan
3 bricks
Wood chunks of your choice (I recommend having hickory and a fruit wood like apple)

Everything here can be found at Lowe's or Home Depot, except the hotplate and pie pan. You may see other people using a 17" pot with a 17" terra cotta bowl used for the lid. You can do this too, just buy a 16" grill grate instead. I went with the 18" pots because of the increased cooking space. They don't make 18" terra cotta bowls so don't waste your time looking (I wasted a lot of time) just buy 2 pots. The hotplate from walgreens is nice because it is cheap and easy to take apart, which I will explain in a second, but any open coil electric hotplate will probably work.

Now to put it all together. First, take apart the hotplate. With the Walgreens version it is very simple and will allow you to control the temperature of the smoker from outside the pot. This will limit the number of times you must open the smoker and lose your heat. Follow these simple steps:

1. Unscrew the middle screw that connects the burner to the plastic base.

2. There are two wires inside the base which are connected by simple tabs. Pull these apart to seperate the burner from the base.

3. Place the base of the plate between the bricks and thread the wires through the hole in the bottom of a pot. Place the burner inside the base and reconnect the wires.

Now the heating controls are outside the smoker!

Place the pie pan on the hotplate and the grill grate in the lip of the bottom pot. Invert the second pot ontop of the first and plug the hole on top with the thermometer. Now you are ready to barbecue and you didn't spend $700 to do it! Of course you could always go out and buy a cheapo metal smoker for around $50, but metal smokers do not hold heat very well. The key to good barbecue is consistent low heat and the ceramic pots insulate well and the hotplate doesn't require fuel. Also, what fun is there in just buying something? Altogether this smoker cost about $70. I recommend that anyone who has considered barbecuing go and build one. There will be plenty of barbecue recipes to come!