chicken

Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, Part 4: Traditional butchery in Spain, and chickens

maki — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:34:01 +0100

In the fourth and final episode of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, they reviewed and summarized the previous 3 episodes, visited a small poultry ‘processing’ plant, and showed how a pig is butchered in the traditional way - no stun guns - in Spain.

(Warning: potentially disturbing details follow)

Chickens

The conventional-method poultry farm they showed was fairly small, but the chickens were still grown in what I thought were very crowded conditions. The chickens had a little room to move around, but not much. They said that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as at larger farms…which a disturbing thought. The farmer said that he preferred this enclosed method of rearing chickens to free range since he was afraid of the birds picking up unknown viruses if allowed outside.

Since the ‘red meat’ abattoir where the big animals were slaughtered doesn’t do poultry, the members of the public who participated in the show took a field trip to a small poultry processing plant. The killing process is similar to the bigger animals, but the whole process shown was more mechanized. The chickens are hung upside down on a conveyor-belt type contraption, then, according the the government expert vet/commentator, basically killed when their heads pass through an electrified water tank. Then the most disturbing part to view: the chickens are bled by slitting their throats. The birds are then passed through some hot water that loosens their feathers, passed through a contraption that sort of massages off most of those feathers, then the cleaning is finished by hand.

Personally I’m rather traumatized by chicken heads and feet, ever since an incident when I was about 12. My mother was buying vegetables and things directly from a farm cooperative, and once time they delivered some chickens to our house. She told me to cut them up since she was delayed at work. Little did I know (and she didn’t know either) that the birds would come with the heads and feet still intact. It still gives me shivers just thinking about those beady eyes looking at me.

Yet…I love to eat chicken, and we have it on average at least twice a week. I still can’t handle chicken feet at a dim sum though. (Max loves then however.)

In any case, I was glad they showed the chicken slaughtering process as well. But I can see why chicken is the cheapest kind of meat we can buy, since even at a small plant the ‘processing’ is quite automated. A lot of things can go wrong I think when they are processing so many chickens that you can barely tell one bird from another. (This page from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Structural change in U.S. Chicken and Turkey Slaughter, states as of the year 2000 that poultry plants are growing bigger and bigger. I’m sure that hasn’t changed much in 2007.)

(Sidetracking a bit - the standard size to which chickens are grown in Britain is 2.2 kilo, or about 5 pounds. I think they are even bigger in the U.S. though I can’t find any document online that specifies standard sizes. In Switzerland, the whole chickens we can buy at the supermarket usually around 1 kilo in size, at the most 1.5 kilo. Farm-grown chickens from the open markets are around that size too.)

Traditional butchery

In another segment, they showed how a family-reared pig in Spain is butchered. In rural parts of the country, many people still rear their own pigs. To cut to the chase, the pig is not stunned before the throat is slit - it’s bled alive while being held down by several people, and takes about 3 minutes to die. It’s not pretty to watch…but that’s the way it’s been done for hundreds of years. It’s possible that coming EU regulations will put a stop to such methods. I’m not sure if this is a shame, or a good thing. (Chef Antonio Carlucci, who was in the audience, mentioned that maybe 40-50% of the pork sold in Italy is still butchered in the traditional way. Something to think about when buying proscuitto or pancetta.)

The blood that is bled from the pig is turned into blood sausage, using the intestines from the same pig as the casing. Later on, the family was shown tucking into it with gusto. The kids cheerfully said that the killing of the pig didn’t bother them at all since they’ve seen it being done all their lives.

Summing up

I am really glad that this program was made, and I’m glad I watched it all too. It may have turned quite a few people towards vegetarianism. The one way it’s affected me, is to make me resolve to only buy meat and poultry from reputable sources, with the full realization that it’s going to cost more. No more stocking up on frozen chicken pieces from the Budget section for me. If we choose to continue to eat meat, and I think for now we will, we’ll do that and buy less quantity to compensate for the more expensive prices.

Lets GourMets! '80s retro cooking with the New York Mets

maki — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:19:23 +0200

In the corner of the world where I live right now, the Major League Baseball playoffs are not exactly a hot topic. 99% of Swiss people do not know, or care, anything about baseball.

When I moved here several years ago, I tried to follow baseball via the internet and other means, but it wasn't the same. MLB.com started offering streaming video and radio of some games, but the time difference was just too tough. Staying up night after night for games that broadcast in the wee hours of the morning here became too much. So, I lost touch.

Until this past week. Our local cable company suddenly announced that they were switching many channels to digital only. So, reluctantly we switched over from good old analog. Lo and behold, the digital package came with NASN, the European equivalent of ESPN. And it's showing all the baseball playoffs! The games are repeated during the day too, so I don't have to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks.

Yes, I'm a masochistMets fan. I once lived in Flushing, Queens, with windows facing towards Shea Stadium, and the fact that the Mets played there was a big part of why I stayed there for a couple of years. My 18th floor apartment in a typical Queens apartment block was not exactly ideal - I had mice as roommates, and a hellish downstairs neighbor, and the commute to school took me an hour. But oh, the beautiful view when the Mets were playing at home! Shea glowed like a jewel in the darkness. Never mind that more often than not the Mets didn't sparkle on the field. I loved them anyway.

This year of course, they are a good team again. (As I write this, they have just defeated the L.A. Dodgers 3 games to 0 in the divisional playoffs.) I don't really know this team at all, and I suddenly feel old because half the team look like kids to me - except for the ageless Julio Franco, who is way older than me and everyone else in the world. Still, the uniform is right, and the stadium is right, and the fans in the stands with their witty signs look just like the Mets fans I used to know.

Back in the '80s, before the 1986 World Series winning team, when they were very bad, the Mets tried a lot of promotions and gimmicks to try to get the fans into the seats. One of them was a cookbook put together by some of the players' wives, called GourMets.

I bought my copy sometime in the early '90s at a baseball card convention (yep, I was that kind of girl) but when I flip through the pages I do remember many of the players . Several of the pages are signed by the players' wives. My copy has an updated section from 1983 - the original part is from 1982.

In format and content, GourMets is basically a community cookbook in the tradition of the ones that have been put together by church congregations and Junior Leagues all throughout America. Proceeds from sales of the book went to the March of Dimes. It's in a ring binder with a bright orange wipe-clean plastic cover. Each entry has a picture of the player, a short bio (including how he met his wife, if he's married), and the recipe, most of which are submitted by the wife or a mother. In typical '80s fashion, most of the recipes are of the kind with ingredients like cream of mushroom soup and pre-made pie crust. Sandra Lee didn't invent the "semi-homemade" way of cooking, folks - it's been around for a long time. A few are bit more sophisticated, like a salad made with a real vinegarette (from Ralph Kiner of all people), not to mention a very complicated recipe for something called Veal Zingara from Rusty Staub. (Rusty went on to open his own New Orleans style restaurants after retirement.)

It's amazing how much our food tastes have changed since the early '80s. But while I didn't exactly grow up eating such food, they are rather charmingly nostalgic. I have tried out a few of the recipes, and some are surprisingly good, while others...are not.

So, in honor of the 2006 Mets making the playoffs, and for my memories of Mets Ghosts past, here are a few recipes from GourMets. Some of them I've actually tried and can vouch for, others I present here for the sake of curiosity. Besides, the '80s are back, aren't they?

My comments are in [square brackets] below.

Mookie Wilson (wife: Rosa)

Mookie Wilson was not really a great player I guess but boy, was he exciting! Always upbeat, always hustling his butt off, he was a true shining light even when the team around him was dismal. And he is forever remembered for hitting the ground ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6. (If that means nothing to you...never mind, it never will. People who do remember Game 6 will do so for eternity.) His son, Preston, plays for the St. Louis Cardinals.

This recipe from the South (Mookie is from South Carolina) is sticky, brown and sweet. The recipe doesn't mention salt but it's much improved with it. It's not exactly low-carb, or low-fat, or low-anything. It is presented as a side dish for pork chops. It's actually quite yummy, if you like sweet side dishes that is.

Mookie's Quick and Easy Candy Yams

6 sweet potatoes, sliced
1 cup sugar
4 Tbs. butter (or 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of water

Place butter in a 2 quart sauce pan over medium heat. Place sliced potatoes in melted butter, add 1 cup of sugar, pour water over sugar and potatoes. (This will spread sugar through the potatoes). Cover and cook over medium heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour (checking pot occasionally).

Ron Gardenhire (wife: Carol)

Did you know that the manager of the Minnesota Twins used to play for the Mets? I didn't remember either.

I haven't tried this recipe, but it's typical of many of the dessert recipes in GourMets - put together some package mixes and canned or frozen fruit, with a ton of butter or margarine (also called "oleo").

Cobbler (the easy way)

1 can fruit pie filling
1 box dry Jiffy Cake mix (or one layer mix)
1/2 stick margarine
nuts or coconut

Place fruit filling in well greased baking dish. Pour cake mix, or sprinkle, over fruit filling. Melt margarine; pour over cake mix and run a fork through cake mix, punching openings over the top for the margarine to run through. [Mmm, margarine.] Do not stir or mix. To with desired nuts or coconut. Bake for 45 minutes or until brown in a 375°F [190°C]. oven.

Keith Hernandez (wife: Sue)

Ahh, Keith Hernandez. His coming signaled the resurgence of the moribund Mets, and led to their championship year of 1986. My teenage self briefly had a mad crush on him.

This recipe, however, is not quite top-class. I hate Crescent Rolls - to me they have an odd chemical taste. But if you like them it could be good. Pillsbury still makes them after all these years...maybe they've improved the formula since I last tried them sometime in the '90s. This uses one of the favorite ingredients of the Mets' wives, cream cheese.

Beef and Broccoli Pie

1 lb. ground beef
8 oz. cream cheese
10 oz. broccoli [I assume they mean frozen]
2 pkgs. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, uncooked
1/3 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
sharp cheddar cheese, grated (as much as you want)
1 onion, chopped

Cook the broccoli in a separate pot. While the broccoli is cooking, brown the ground beef and chopped onion in a skillet. After the ground beef mixture is browned, reduce heat to a simmer. Add the milk, cream cheese, one beaten egg and mix until creamy. Add the broccoli (cooked) and mix well. Turn off heat.

Roll one package of crescent rolls on a floured surface. Lightly pinch the seams together and mold in a pie pan. Add the meat mixture. Sprinkle the grated sharp cheddar cheese over the top. Roll the second package of crescent rolls in the same manner as the first package, forming a top crust now. Brush with the second beaten egg.

Pre-heat oven to 425°F [220deg;C]. Bake at this temperature for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F [180°C]. and cover with aluminum foil if it browns quickly. Cook an additional 20 minutes and serve. Enjoy!

José Oquendo (wife: Zeneida)

The third base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals was 20 years old in 1983, and playing second base for the Mets. This classic Puerto Rican recipe is one of the few in GourMets that I have made several times because it's really good. I do however add several ancho or jalapeño peppers. It could be that Mrs. Oquendo omitted them for her audience - elsewhere in the cookbook, a "super spicy beef enchilada" dish has one jar of "enchilada sauce" in the whole thing.

Notice the unusual lack of branded packaged food.

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)

2 1/2 to 3 lbs fryer chicken parts
4 Tbs. olive oil
1 8-oz. can of tomato sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cups raw long grain rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
1/2 tsp. sazõn (saffron)

Hint: It is preferable to blend onion, green pepper, garlic and cilantro in blender as this will truly enhance the flavor of this dish.

Wash chicken; pat dry.

Heat oil in pan over moderate heat. Add tomato sauce, onion, green pepper, garlic, 1/2 cup water and cilantro; sauté until tomato sauce thickens. Add chicken parts and cook well on all sides (about 20 minutes). Remove chicken from pan. In same pan add rice; sauté for 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups water, salt and sazõn. Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and cover pan. After rice is cooked, add chicken parts and cook until chicken is heated up again.

Serve with salad and bread. Makes 4 servings.

Craig Swan (wife: Sandy)

Craig Swan was a pitcher for the Mets during the early '80s, one of their Dark Periods. This recipe is presented here as a curiosity and sign of its times. A molded gelatin salad, made with Lemon Jello and ginger ale, marshmallows within...and a topping of thickened pineapple juice, whipped cream and cheddar cheese. Yipes.

I'm been too scared to try this out myself so far. Please let me know if you do.

Frosted Salad

2 pkg. lemon Jello
2 cups boiling water
2 cups 7-Up or ginger ale
No. 2 can crushed pineapple, drained, save 1 cup juice [not sure what a "no. 2 can" is]
1 cup small marshmallows
2 bananas, sliced
1/2 cup nuts [doesn't specify what kind of nuts]

Prepare the Jello as directed on the package using the 7-Up or ginger ale instead of water. Allow it to partially set. Add the pineapple, marshmallows, bananas and nuts and let it set.

Topping

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 cup pineapple juice (from what was saved)
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Combine the egg, sugar, butter, flour and pineapple juice,. Cook until thickened and cool. Then fold in one cup of whipped cream and spread over the Jello mixture (after it has set). Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.

Darryl Strawberry (his mom Ruby provided the recipe)

Not many long time Mets fans can think of Darryl Strawberry without mixed emotions. He was the Great Hope...for a while it seemed like he would fulfil his potential, but...he never did.

I think the 7-Up in this recipe is supposed to make it lighter, or something? In terms of ingredient proportions though, this is sort of a pound cake.

7-Up Cake

3 sticks butter [12 oz. / 340g]
2 cups sifted flour or Wondra [an instant-blend flour]
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 cup 7-Up soft drink

Pre-heat oven to 325°F [160°C]. Mix together softened butter and sugar. Add eggs, stirring in one egg at a time. Mix in flour until mixture is smooth. Add lemon extract. Add 7-Up. Mix well with mixer. Grease and flour tube pan. Bake at 325°F. for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Cool for one hour. Remove from pan.

A week of miso soup, day 4: Hokkaido-style corn, chicken and cabbage soup with miso

maki — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:38:21 +0200

Today's miso soup may not look like miso soup, but it does have miso in it. It shows how to use miso as a background flavoring, instead of the predominant one. Since it has milk and a little butter in it, I've called it Hokkaido style after the northenmost main island in the archipelago that makes up Japan.

Hokkaido is quite different from the rest of the country, since it has large stretches of flat, farmable land (unlike the rest of Japan which is very mountainous) that is ideal for farming. The climate is that of Northern Europe or Canada, and much of it is used for dairy production and crops such as wheat and corn. Sapporo is the largest city in Hokkaido, so whenever you see Sapporo on Japanese food (such as Sapporo ramen), it usually means it has some milk, cream or butter in it.

This soup also shows a way of clearing the refrigerator. I had half a cabbage and some spring onions in the fridge, plus a frozen half of a chicken breast, and I always have canned corn around. So it all came together for this soup. It makes a great one-bowl kind of meal, with some rustic bread. You can put in leftover rice or potatoes in the soup too. The miso adds an intriguing sort of meaty flavor to the milky soup. I've given vegetarian alternatives in the recipe.

I have used a vegetable stock cube that has salt in it instead of dashi for this, so go a little easy on the miso. Taste and adjust!

The Official Testers liked this so much that they ate 5 big bowls of it between the two of them for lunch.

Hokkaido style corn, chicken, milk and miso soup

Note that this makes 6 cups of liquid + the ingredients, so there is more miso than for the previous recipes.

4 cups of water
1 vegetable stock cube
2 cups milk or soy milk
1 cup white cabbage, finely shredded
The white part of 1 green onion, finely sliced
1 cup of fresh, canned or frozen corn
1 Tbs. butter or sesame oil
6 oz. / about 200g chicken breast or leftover cold chicken, cut into pieces (vegetarians use firm tofu, TVP or quorn)
1/2 cup of white miso (or more or less to taste)
chopped parsley for garnish
A sprinkle of white or black pepper

Heat up the water in a pot and dissolve the vegetable stock cube. Slice up the vegetables in the meantime.

Sauté the cabbage and onion in a frying pan with the butter or oil until it's just turning limp. Put in the soup stock and simmer until just tender.

Briefly sauté the corn in the frying pan (you don't need more butter, but you can add more if you like). Add to the soup. Add the milk, and bring up to a simmer. Add the cut up chicken - if you add raw it will cook almost immediately

Add the miso to the soup following the directions for day 1. Taste and add more miso if needed. Garnish with the fresh parsley and the pepper, and serve.

Note: if you go for the vegetarian option and use sesame oil and tofu (the preferred replacement for the chicken), it will be much tastier if you briefly sauté the well drained tofu in the sesame oil before adding to the soup.

Weekend Project: Poach a chicken (or two)

maki — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:53:38 +0200

The weekend project is back after a brief hiatus! Before I proceed however, I'd like to alert you to the charity blogging efforts of Ms. Sam over at Becks and Posh, who is participating in the Blogathon charity fundraising event tomorrow (that's Saturday). She is even offering prizes! If you're in the San Francisco area in particular, be sure to go over and donate.

After you have donated to a worthy cause and are basking in the glow of your own goodness, it's time to focus attention back on your own (and your family's) food needs. As I've mentioned in the past few days, the summer heatwave makes it hard to get up the appetite, let alone cook anything. One thing I can always eat is a fresh, cool chicken salad. The key ingredient for a good chicken salad is homemade, moist poached chicken. The best tasting poached chicken is made by cooking a whole, preferably organic bird, or two of them if you want and have a big enough pot. The chicken(s) can then be stored in the refrigerator for a few days or for longer in the freezer. You'll also end up with a bonus potful of chicken stock.

Poaching chickens is quite easy, but if you overcook it you will end up with stringy, tough, dried out meat, which is not too nice. The method I use results in very moist meat every time. I think I read the method of leaving the chicken to cook in the residual heat of the pot first in Today's Cooking, my favorite Japanese food magazine.

The flavor of the chicken is controlled by the aromatic ingredients you put in the pot with it. In my case I always use onion, celery, ginger, bay leaf, parsley, and lemon: this gives a very clean and fairly neutral tasting chicken and stock that can be used for any dish that calls for cold chicken. Note that no salt is used, because salt can toughen up the meat. The good thing is that you don't have to watch the pot after the first few minutes, thus getting you out of your hot kitchen. Don't forget to set the timer so you go and do what you have to do to the pot when called upon.

The one messy part of the process is de-skinning and de-boning the chicken, which is most easily accomplished with your hands. Other than that it's very simple to do. And once it's done you have enough meat ready to go for several meals, depending on the size or quantity of the birds you cooked. Some ideas for using cold poached chicken include:

Salad, with the classic mayonnaise, or with any other dressing (Try chicken salad as a filling for choux buns...delicous!)
On hiyashi chuuka instead of ham. The sesame dressing for hiyashi chuuka makes a great salad dressing, by the way!
For sandwiches
For tacos and wraps

You can also heat up the chicken briefly and toss it into spaghetti sauce, etc.

How to poach a chicken (or two)

1 large or 2 small, organic and happy chickens (I use 2 1.5kg or approx. 3 lb each organic free range chickens)
1 celery stalk, including the leaves
1 large onion
1 bay leaf
1 thumbsize piece of fresh ginger
1 bunch of parsley
1/2 organic lemon

Equipment needed: a pot that is large enough to hold the chickens plus water to cover, with a tight fitting lid. An enameled cast-iron or heavy stainless steel pot are ideal.

Remove any giblets, etc. from the birds and wash them under running water. (If your birds came with neck pieces you can add that to the water for additional flavor to the stock.) Place in the pot.

Peel the onion and cut into quarters. Slice the ginger fairly thickly. Put all the vegetables. bay leaf and lemon into the pot. Fill with water enough to completely cover everything plus about 2 cm / an inch.

Bring the pot to a boil on high heat. When it's come up to boiling point, lower the heat to medium-low (it should still be bubbling but not rolling). Skim off all the scum that comes up for 15 minutes. At the end of that time, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a tight fitting lid, and let it sit for at least 1 hour, up to 90 minutes. (If you are using a ceramic or electric stove, pull the pot off the heat.)

Open the pot and cut into your bird around the legs. It should be perfectly cooked through, with no red or pink, but still moist. If it still seems raw, put the pot back on the stove, bring up to a boil again, then turn the heat off and leave with the lid on for an additional 30 minutes.

Take the chickens out of the pot, letting the liquid drain back into the pot (careful, it's very hot!). Let cool enough to handle. Remove the skin, and take off the meat in as big chunks as you can manage.

Store the meat, well covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze it.

If you want to keep the stock, fish out the flavoring ingredients and put it in the refrigerator until it's cold and the fat has congealed on top. Strain and store in the freezer until you need chicken stock in a recipe.

Chicken karaage, the urawaza challenge!

maki — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:10:30 +0200

There's a popular program on Nippon Television in Japan called Ito-ke no shokutaku (The Ito Family's Dining Table). It's a how-to / household hints type of show, which tests out viewer-submitted tips and tricks, which they call urawaza.

So...why am I talking about a Japanese TV show that you can't watch outside of Japan? The NTV website blocks the viewing of the video clips on their site from non-Japanese IPs, boo, hiss. But there's no need to despair, Japanphiles - someone is posting clips from this show on YouTube, and they are very popular.

Someone sent me the link to them and I spent a good couple of hours over the weekend laughing myself silly watching all the videos. In spite of the hilarious presentation style and overall cheesiness, I was rather intrigued by the urawaza techinques. Like this one , for chicken karaage, or Japanese-style fried chicken.

Translated in a nutshell, they are saying that your chicken karaage will turn out a lot juicier if you toss it in some plain yogurt, and let it sit for 10 minutes before dusting them with the coating (in Japan, it's usually katakuriko or potato starch, but here I use cornstarch) and frying. (Ignore the YouTube comments that say it makes it oilier; they don't know what they are watching obviously. That's meat juice oozing out, not oil!) I know that chicken is often marinated in yogurt in Indian cooking, but would it really work for deep-fried chicken bits? The challenge was on!

I used my basic chicken karaage recipe. After I had tossed the chicken pieces in the marinade of soy sauce, sake, and grated ginger, I coated them in some plain yogurt and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then, I coated them in cornstarch and fried them as usual.

The result? Yes, the chicken does turn out juicy! And there's no yogurt taste!

I failed partially in my attempt at scientific accuracy though since 1) I didn't reserve a few non-yogurt-coated pieces for control purposes, and 2) I failed to capture an adequate picture of the "juiciness". Actually the karaage disappeared as fast as I could cook them and there were none left to photograph. Therefore I determine this to be a success, and give this urawaza two thumbs up.

The video also claims that the chicken will remain juicy even when it's at room temperature, making it perfect for obento.

I may try out a few more of those urawaza, though I do draw the line at this one.

[Update, Sep. 6 2006]: Unfortunately all the 'urawaza' videos have been taken down from YouTube and the uploader's account has been suspended... :( The thing that really kills me about this is that NTV blocks all non-Japanese IPs from the archives area of this show, so you can't even access the recipes and hints, let alone the video clips, if you live outside of the country. The YouTube video clips had tons of fans, and I think even helped to spread Japanese culture around the world in their own small way. I will never understand the backwards thinking and narrowmindedness of traditional media...or should I say, of their lawyers.

Masterchef challenge day 23: Tarragon Chicken and Spinach pie, Mushroom Lemon Soup

maki — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 10:57:06 +0100

Despite being discouraged by the previous day's ingredients, day 23 revived my interest. The ingredients are:

Puff pastry
Spinach
Brie cheese
Leeks
Wild mushrooms
Pear
Chicken breast

Now, I have not bought readymade puff pastry in years. I have this general philosophy that certain very rich foods should only be consumed in its best possible incarnations, because the taste has to be worth the caloric sacrifice one makes. Things like pastries, cakes, ice cream and fois gras fall into this category. The last time I had something made with storebought puff pastry, it was flaky all right, but had a rather dry texture and a very slight acrid, chemical undertone. It had none of the buttery, unctuous goodness that a proper puff pastry should have.

Nevertheless I went to the store to discover what is out there in readymade pastry land, and was pleasantly surprised to discover one that has real butter in it. I know, I am probably way behind the times in this arena. I don't think this will convince me to buy more readymade pastry, but for those of you who are similarly snobbish about pastry but are afraid or too time constrained to make your own, you should know that decent stuff is out there now.

What to make with this pastry? I did ponder doing something sweet, but once again faced with a totally out-of-season fruit (pears and March do not even belong in the same sentence) I decided to do a savory freeform pie. Savory pies are called pastete in Switzerland. This one is filled with chicken that has been gently cooked in a creamy-leeky sauce flavored with fresh tarragon, layered with simply sautéed spinach.

The creamy filling went marvelously with the tender, buttery crust. Consumed for Sunday lunch, it disappered with amazing speed.

To accompany the rich pastete I made a light mushroom consommé with lemon. Mushrooms with lemon? you might wonder, but sour and mushroom do go quite well together. Just think of pickled or marinated mushrooms. The soup is not nearly as photogenic as the pie, but was tart and delicious. I didn't have wild mushrooms (again, the seasonal thing) so I just used brown mushrooms, otherwise known as chestnut mushrooms.

Unused ingredients: brie, pears (if pears were in season, I'd just serve a juicy fresh one with a wedge of ripe, runny brie as a cheese course / dessert).

Technorati Tags: masterchef, mushrooms, pastete, pie, soup, spinach

Mushroom-lemon soup

250g / about 8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly
Beef or vegetable stock cube, or canned or homemade stock
6 cups of water (if you're using stock cubes; use the same amount of liquid stock if you're using that)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup dry white wine
about 1 cup of the white part of leek, finely chopped (you can use onion instead)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Butter
Salt and pepper

Sauté the leek and garlic in butter until limp and translucent. Add the mushrooms, and sauté until the volume reduces considerably and the mushrooms are quite brown.

Add the water with stock cube (I find beef works best, but vegetable is fine too) or canned or homemade stock. Bring up to a boil, then reduce the heat. Add the white wine, parsley and thyme, and simmer for 20+ minutes.

Add the lemon juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper. You can optionally swirl a spoonful of creme fraiche, sour cream or yogurt on top of each bowlful.

Chicken and spinach pie

1 readymade puff pastry sheet made with butter
300g / 10 oz. boneless chicken breast, sliced thinly
200ml / about 1/2 pint cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
about 1 cup of the white part of leek, finely chopped
1 Tbs fresh tarragon, finely chopped
300g / 10 oz (well, like 3 BIG handfuls) fresh spinach leaves, well washed and stems removed
Pinch nutmeg
Butter
Salt and pepper
1 egg

Note: remember to keep your pastry sheet in the refrigerator until you need to roll it out.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F. Line a baking sheet with a silicon non-stick sheet.

Sauté the chopped leek in butter until soft and transclucent. Add the wine and cream, bring up to a boil then simmer over low heat until it has thickened considerably. Add the tarragon, and season with salt and pepper.

While the sauce is cooking, heat up some more butter in a very large pan. Add the spinach; you may need to add it in stages. Stir about until the spinach has reduced to a little pile. (I always find it amazing how much the volume of spinach goes down when it's cooked.) Season with salt, pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Drain into a colander or sieve. Set aside to cool a bit.

Add the chicken to the sauce, and turn off the heat. This is to prevent the chicken from overcooking - it cooks from the heat of the sauce, and it will also continue to cook in the oven.

Beat up the egg.

Open up the refrigerated pastry sheet on the lined baking sheet. Put the spinach down the middle of the sheet. Layer the chicken-sauce mix over the spinach. Carefully bring up the pastry sheet over the filling to cover, and crimp up the ends. Slash the top with a sharp knife, or poke all over with a fork. Paint the top with the beaten egg.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Some of the sauce may leak, but don't worry about it.

To serve, cut into wedges. This is good piping hot or at room temperature.

MasterChef challenge, Day 1

maki — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 20:51:22 +0100

The ingredients for the first day of the MasterChef preliminaries were:

Chicken. On the show, a chicken leg was used, but I got unboned thighs.
Onions
Tarragon
Blue cheese - the kind of cheese was not specified, so I used Gorgonzola.
Potatoes
Radish. On the show, only red radishes were used. Red radishes are rather expensive at the moment and I could only get a very small bunch, so I supplemented it with white daikon radish (mouli). But the salad I made could be done with just red radish too.
Black pudding. I had to skip this - you cannot get English style black pudding in Switzerland.

The picture shows what I came up with. From the left corner going clockwise: potato and onion galette; a white and red radish salad with tarragon vinegarette; and chicken stuffed with Gorgonzola.

It was pretty tough to actually finish within 40 minutes (especially since I kept getting distracted by phone, laundry, and all those things that get in the way on a weekday evening) but I think if I had just cooked straight through, I could have finished on time.

The best item was the radish salad. I used red radishes and a fairly slim white daikon (or mouli). The aniseed-ness of the tarragon came through quite well in a simple oil-and-vinegar dressing. It was very refreshing and a nice foil for the rather rich galette and chicken.

The potato and onion galette was basically gently sautéed onions, cooked until they are limp and slightly caremelized, baked in a 'shell' of potato slices - sort of like a mini onion pie with a potato crust. This also turned out very nicely, though I put a bit too much butter on the potato slices for fear that they'd stick to the little ramekins.

The chicken was the only item that didn't quite go to plan. The cheese was a very mild Gorgonzola, and it almost all melted out while the chicken cooked, leaving only a hint of its flavor behind. I think I would use a stronger blue cheese such as a blue Stilton or a Rocquefort next time, and also tie up the chicken a bit better for less leakage. It did taste excellent however.

The directions below are for two portions.

The order to make these three items is as follows:

Turn on the oven for the galette and the chicken
Slice the onion and start sautéeing it. Keep stirring it occasionally as you do the other things
Slice the radishes and chop all the tarragon you will need for the vinegarette and the galette
Make the vinegarette, and toss the salad; put in the refrigerator
Slice the potatoes and melt the butter
Assemble the galettes and put in the oven
Bone the chicken thighs and season; stuff with the cheese and tie up
Brown the chicken
Take out the galettes and turn out onto the plates
Put the salad in the mini-bowls
Take out the chicken, let sit if you can for a few minutes before taking off the strings.

Potato and onion galette

2 small boiling type potatoes (not baking potatoes)
2 medium onions
2-3 Tbs melted butter
Olive oil
1 Tbs finely chopped tarragon (optional)
salt and pepper

Special equipment: 2 small ceramic or glass ramekins, each about 8 cm / 3 inches or so in diameter

Preheat the oven to 180° C / 360° F.

Slice the onions as thin as you can. Sauté in a pan with some olive oil over medium-low heat until limp and a lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and toss in the tarragon.

In the meantime, peel and thinly slice the potatoes lengthwise. Melt the butter, and if you're using unsalted butter lightly season it. Dip each potato slice in the butter, and line the bottom and sides of each ramekin so that they overlap.

Spoon the onions into the potato lined ramekins. Top with more butter-dipped potato slices (you may have to cut the slices in half if they are too big).

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until the tops are browned. Take out and run a small knife around the rim (be careful, the ramekin is hot) and very carefully turn it out into another ramekin. Then, flip the contents onto the serving plate. The idea is to have the browned top on top. You can also serve it right from the ramekin too.

Red and white radish salad with tarragon vinegarette

1 cup of peeled and thinly sliced white daikon radish (about 10 cm / 4 inches )
4 red radishes, tail cut off and thinly sliced. Leave a bit of the green top on the final top slice, to use for decoration
2 Tbs. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbs. finely chopped tarragon
1 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper

Whisk together the vinegar and oil with the salt, pepper and sugar to make a dressing. Stir in the tarragon.

Toss with the sliced radishes, cover and chill until serving time.

Chicken thighs stuffed with blue cheese

2 chicken thighs, boned if possible, or bone them yourself (note: boned chicken thighs are rather unheard of here in Switzerland so I've gotten into the habit of boning them myself, but if you can get boned thighs by all means go for those.)
2 Tbs. strong blue cheese such as blue Stilton or Rocquefort
Salt, pepper
Butter or olive oil for cooking

Equipment needed: kitchen string

Put the boned thighs skin side down and flatten them slightly with the side of your knife. Don't season the inside, because they will be seasoned by the cheese. Place a tablespoon or so of cheese mushed together into a lump in the center of each thigh.

Wrap the chicken around the cheese and tie them up with kitchen string tightly.

Heat some butter or oliver oil or a combination in a frying pan. Place the chicken skin side down (cut side up). Don't move it around until it's thoroughly browned! Carefully flip it over, then put the pan in the still hot oven. Leave the chicken in there for 10-15 minutes.

Take out and let rest for at least 5 minutes, then cut off the strings and plate up.

Karaage: Japanese-Chinese style fried chicken

maki — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:34:00 +0200

I haven't posted many Japanese recipes in a while, so it's about time I did. This is one of my favorite chicken recipes, karaage. The word kara refers to China, meaning that this method of preparing chicken originated in Chinese cooking (age means deep-fried). However I really haven't encountered a Chinese dish that is exactly like this, though there are many deep-fried chicken dishes there (such as my favorite takeout, orange chicken.) The method of marinating meat in fresh ginger to get rid of any gaminess or so, which is quite disliked in both Japanese and Chinese cooking generally, is fundamentally Chinese I believe.

This is a very simple and very tasty way to do chicken. Unlike other kinds of fried food, it tastes quite light, and maintains its crispness quite well because of the cornstarch coating. It's great piping hot but is equally as good cold. It was a frequent ingredient in the obento (boxed lunch) my mother used to make for us.

You can make karaage with breast meat, but I think it's much better with the dark thigh meat. I would make this a lot more often, except for the fact that here in Switzerland boneless chicken thighs are impossible to get, and so I have to bone them myself, which is sort of a bother.

Chicken karaage

2-4 boneless chicken thighs, depending on how big they are
A piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, grated
3 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sake or sherry
cornstarch
peanut oil for deep frying (you can use another kind of oil; I just prefer peanut oil)

Cut up the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. You can take off the skin if you like, though it does make the chicken crispier.

Put the chicken pieces in a bowl. Add the grated ginger, soy sauce and sake, and mix well. Let marinate for a minimum of 1/2 hour, and up to about 1 hour (not too long or the salt in the soy sauce will toughen up the chicken.)

Heat the oil. Toss in enough cornstarch into the marinated chicken so that each piece is completely coated. Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time until a deep golden brown.

Drain well, and eat with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Japanese basics: teriyaki

maki — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 01:00:00 +0100

The term "teriyaki" is used a lot these days. Usually it indicates that a sweet-savory soy-sauce based sauce called teriyaki sauce has been used. However, teriyaki is actually the word for a cooking method - and it's very easy to do.

The term teriyaki means shining (teri) broiled or panfried(yaki). The goal is to make a shiny surface to whatever has been panfried, with a sauce that contains sugar and a sweet fortified rice wine called mirin. This is available at Japanese food stores, and may be available in the gourmet food section of department stores. If you can't get a hold of mirin, you can use sake, or failing that, a sweet sherry would do.

You may notice that quite a few Japanese savory dishes use sugar. This is a feature of many dishes that originate from the Kanto region (Tokyo metropolitan area and environs), which is where my family is from.

The following is a recipe for chicken teriyaki. You can adapt this method to other meats, and fish such as salmon, cod, sea bream, swordfish, etc - anything with firm flesh. I don't think teriyaki is well suited to tofu, or most vegetables, since it is quite strong in flavor. You could try it out with quorn and other meat substitutes with a firmer texture, though I've never tried them as teriyaki myself.

Chicken teriyaki

4 small or 2 large chicken thighs, boned
4 Tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 Tbs. mirin
1 Tbs. sugar
Vegetable oil for panfrying
Salt
Sansho (optional)

Cut the chicken into about 2" / 5cm pieces if necessary. (you can leave small thighs whole.) You can leave on the skin or take it off.

Heat up a frying pan with oil. Salt the chicken pieces very lightly and sear them on both sides in the oil.

As soon as the surface is golden brown, add the soy sauce and ginger, mirin and sugar. Lower the heat to medium-low, and cook the chicken, turning several times, until the sauce is reduced and syrupy. Sprinkle with sansho (Sansho is a kind of spice. You can use white pepper instead, or just omit this.)

This is excellent with plain white rice. Steamed or blanched vegetables, such as broccoli, make a nice accompaniment - plus a bowl of miso soup.