Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Jerky Chicken – Because I just can’t call it “Jerked Chicken” and keep a straight face!
Sunday, May 11, 2014
The “Jerk” style of cooking comes to us from Jamaica. The term “Jerk” actually comes from the term “Jerky,” which comes from the Spanish “charqui” (Char-key), which is basically meat dried over a slow wood fire. Today “Jerk” doesn’t refer to the cooking method, but the fiery spice mix that is rubbed on the meat before it’s grilled. The key ingredients in this spice mix are Allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers (one of the hottest peppers on earth!). Other common ingredients include Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Thyme. There are countless combinations, so I suggest you buy a high-quality pre-mixed Jerk spice mix (thats what I did – after carefully checking the ingredient list to make sure I was getting the real stuff). If you want to make your own Jerk mixture, you can certainly do a Google search and you’ll have a couple thousand formulas at your disposal.The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. It has just 3 basic ingredients and since the spice mix is so flavorful and intense, we don’t need to add much. Also, please note the trick I show before applying the “wet rub” when I “score” the chicken breast with the knife. This is a great trick for several reasons that I explain in the clip. By the way, I serve this tasty breast over my famous “12 second” coleslaw, which I will demo soon. I also mention garlic-infused oil which I used to sauté the chicken, and I will demo that soon as well. In the meantime, if you don’t have any garlic-infused oil, just add a couple crushed garlic cloves to the marinade.
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbl Jerk spice mix (usually allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg, and thyme)
1/2 orange, juiced
salt to taste
garlic oil to sauté
*if you don’t have the garlic oil, just add some fresh garlic to the wet rub and sauté in plain vegetable oil
MY RECENT ENCOUNTER WITH TIGERS I mean tiger prawns Bagda ChingDi
Saturday, April 26, 2014
The other day after finishing a marathon Prawn cooking session, I washed and cleaned the whole mess in the kitchen and thought, it was time to eat one piece before my wife makes a head count.
I picked up one prawn and was about to put it in my mouth, when suddenly the prawn smiled at me and said...
"Hi!!! thank you, I am so grateful to you!! I am so happy!! I never received such a nice treatment from any one during my last 100s of births."
" Hey I never met a talking Tiger prawn before".
" I am not a Tiger , I am a Tigress prawn".
" Sorry dear, now tell me why you are so happy!!"
" You human beings are very cruel and ruthless, people pull and tear off our heads alive, peel our skin mercilessly, then pull out our guts, which you call veins. Imagine some one doing it to you!! "
" But why you are happy ?"
"You are very considerate and affectionate. You treated us very kindly and delicately. I have taken some photographs and see for yourself."
You bathed us and arranged very nicely
You took out your Red handled scissors, which you used on me once in Vietnam and many times in Korea and Kuwait. You positioned the scissors at the right place and cut off the front part of my head gently. You Bongs are very fond of chewing our heads ( Chhele byala theke tomra parents der matha chibote abyastho).
You cut off the pointed middle part of the tail so that it did not hurt any one. You inserted a knife very carefully from the front and scooped out some unwanted material and you were very careful about not to spill my yellowish brain.
With your delicate move , you cut through my scale from the top all the way to the tail with the red scissors. And with that sharp Korean knife you removed my gut ( vein as known wrongly). You kept my skin in place with a slit on top.
You put us one by one in boiling salted water for 30 seconds and took us out one by one.Wao!! we came out of that water in crimson red attire.Why you dont saute us some times in oil and instead you put us in boiling water ?."
"Well when I remove your head and scale I saute you in oil else I put you in boiling water to solidify your semi liquid brain to a yellow mass, so that it doesnt flow out . Your brain is quite tasty. Moreover it imparts that crimson red color to your skin. You look so pretty and yummy!!!
"How sweet of you !!! I pray that in all my future births , God sends me to you only."
The Tigress continued with " You know dud, I was bit apprehensive about the recipe that you would use..you naughty guy, you know many ways of cooking us..but when you decided to use Sharmisthas recipe from COOKA DOODLE DO, I was so over joyed. It really makes us very tasty with that little variation she had used. Give our regards to her and we will drop by her kitchen in future. Now eat me quickly , cant wait any more".
So that was the recent encounter with the Tiger prawns.
IMPORTANT NOTE
I cook with head and scales some times, to make the dish look good. The head is kept for chewing, a delicacy for all Bongs. To cook the head, it must be well frozen and preserved and not spoiled.The heads degrade very fast and not fit for eating always.
The other important thing is, the typical prawn flavor comes from the scales and the head. I boil the prawn and keep the liquid as frozen cubes in refrigerator. I use it in Indian and Chinese dishes. If you are dressing the prawn at home i.e if you are removing head and scale at home, saute the skin and head for 30 sec in 1 tsp oil then boil them in water with salt, few piece of ginger, onion garlic pod, and one or two green chili. Remove the head and skins and preserve the stock. You can use it later while cooking dressed prawn, Chinese or Indian. The flesh of prawn is almost tasteless and aroma-less.
THE RECIPE
We all know how to cook prawn in many ways. So I am not going into big details. I will make Malai curry. No matter how you cook prawn with coconut milk, gram masala , ginger, garlic onion etc , it will be alway great. This Malai Curry is a funny name. It has nothing to do with Malai. Prawn is being cooked with coconut in Malabar area from time immemorial. Many say that the name has come from Malabar curry , which I dont think is correct. One popular theory is that the recipe was brought from Malay ( now Malaysia) by British to Calcutta then the capital of British empire. And over the years Malay curry has become Malai curry.
As shakespeare has said " whats in a name ? A prawn malai curry will taste like prawn malai curry no matter what you call"
I have many variations of Malai curry. But I decided to use the recipe of Sharmistha from COOKA DOODLE DO. I had never used Tomato in Malai curry before and also wanted to try out the roasted garam masla powder and ghee as a post seasoning/ addition.
The variation that I had to do was to use the prawns with head and skin by the order ( not request) of my wife. Sharmistha has used dressed prawns.
INGREDIENTSPrawns (medium sized) -700gms ( undressed)
Coconut - 1/2 (cream and milk extracted as usual)
( I had to use packed coconut milk 150 ml, it must not be used in Malai curry , unless you get a thin Thai variety milk, not coconut cream.)
*Onion - 1 medium size, finely chopped.
*Tomato - 1 medium- finely chopped
*Ginger paste - 1tsp
*Garlic - 1 tsp
*Bay Leaf - 1
*Whole Garam Masala - 3 elaichi; 2 cloves; 1 inch cinnamon stick
*Haldi - 1 tsp
*Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
*Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1tsp
*Salt - to taste
*Sugar - a pinch
*Roasted and ground Garam Masala powder - ( made from equal proportion of cardamom, clove and cinnamon) 1 level tsp
*Ghee - 1 tbsp
*Green Chilli - 4
*Potato - 1 medium - diced into small cubes (optional, normally not used in Malai curry ), sauted lightly in little oil.)
*Mustard Oil - 3 tbsp
PROCEDURE
*Clean prawn as described above by the Tigress.
*Take 3 cups of water in a pan, add salt, 2 green chili broken, 2 cubes of ginger 1cm X 1 cm. 1 small onion cut to 4 pcs, 4 puds garlic halved. (If you are sure , you wont use prawn stock for Indo-Chinese dish , then you can add 1 bay leaf, 2 cardamom, 2 cloves and 1/2 inch cinnamon ).
Bring to boil and reduce heat , add each prawn as soon as it is cleaned. ( This is to stabilize and solidify the brain and impart uniform crimson color.) and remove within 1 min. Material used here are in addition to the ingredients given above.
NOTE: Preserve the stock frozen in cubes for future use in dishes where you use dressed prawns). This stock is generally not necessary when you are using prawns with head and scales.
*Soak in 3 tbsp water, turmeric, chilli powder, kashmiri chilli , salt for 15 minutes and make a paste
*Heat Karhai and add mustrad oil.
* Add 1 level tsp sugar and caramalize ( will become light brown molten sugar)
*Add bay leaf and garam masala seasoning
* Add finely chopped onions and fry to light brown
* Add garlic paste , saute for 30 sec and add ginger paste.
*.Add the Masala paste and saute; add Tomato and keep frying till the Tomato melts and oil comes out.
* Add the fried potato and stir for 3-5 minutes on low heat..
*Add the coconut milk and 3/4 cup of water. Cook on low heat till the potato is almost done.
*Add the prawns, mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. If it is too thick add water to desired consistency
* Add the green chillies slitted..
*In a skillet heat the ghee and put the roasted and ground garam masala and immediately put it on the curry. Mix well and cover.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Sincere thanks to Sharmistha for this wonderful recipe. For details of this recipe visit http://cookadoodledo./2009/04/chingri-machhaer-malaikari.html
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Tour of Ireland Part I Dublin
Friday, April 4, 2014
Question: How many days does it take your body to recover from 7 straight days of binge drinking?
I left Ireland two weeks ago and yet Im still fairly certain my liver is working overtime to right the many wrongs I committed against it. But despite any damage I may have done to my internal organs, it was totally worth it to see the sheep (more on that in future posts), the landscape (ditto), and to drink unpasteurized Guiness (more on that in EVERY SINGLE POST I DO ABOUT IRELAND!).
The first stop on our itinerary was Dublin. We landed at 6 in the morning, Irish time, and immediately went to pick up our rental car. I then proceeded to scream in terror for the next 45 minutes during the drive to the city center. Irish roads are narrow as ish yall, and driving on the left side of the road is realllllllll trippy the first few times you do it.
After battling morning rush hour traffic, we arrived at the Four Seasons. I was really excited to see our room, not only because I had never stayed at a Four Seasons, but because I needed to pee like, real bad.
The beautiful fresh flower arrangement greeting us upon arrival at the Four Seasons
Ill say this: the Dublin Four Seasons IS incredible, but the room itself was fairly modest. It was quite large, but the bed was "springy" and the TV was pretty out of date (not that we spent any time in the room watching it, of course).
On the upside, however, I believe that any hotel worth its salt has great toiletries and a terry cloth bathrobe in the room, and in THAT way, the Four Seasons did not let me down.
Both Kyle and I had been to Dublin before, so we did less sight-seeing than we did eating and drinking, however, we did manage to stumble upon a real live bagpiping band...??? Is that a thing, what I just said? Ah, well, anywhere, here:
Both of us had done the Guinness brewery tour (which, btw, you must do, even if you arent a Guinness drinker), so this time we decided to take a tour of the Jameson Distellery. Iiiiiiiiiittttttttt...wasnt as good as the Guinness tour. Unless youre a big whiskey drinker DYING to see mannequin reenactments and a taxidermied farm cat (yes, really), save the 12 euro and just hang out at the bar and get a really well made Irish Coffee or Whiskey Hot Chocolate.
I even managed to find a paleo dessert amidst all the potatoes and beer!!
I was dying...DYING...to try this smoked goat cheese. I get the feeling it would be absolutely amazeballs in this.
On our last night, Kyle and I went back the The Pearl Restaurant, where we ate at on our first trip to Dublin. It was also the same night he told me he loved me for the first time. And in answer to the question youre asking? No, he did not propose to me. I know, right??? Oh, but anyway, the Pearl is fantastic French cuisine. Definitely go there and order the pumpkin risotto.
I can only assume it was my stunning good looks that compelled the bartender to invite me behind the bar for a personal lesson on Guinness pouring.
Clearly, I now run the bar.
And when Im not running Irish shit, Im drinking their cider.
The next day, we had to leave Dublin, but we made sure to fill our bellies with some hearty Irish meals. Kyle had an Irish stew:
While I proceeded to CRUSH a seafood pie. Covered entirely by mashed potatoes.
Like I said...DOMINATION!
Next up, Galway!! See you there!
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