Szechuan Stirfry Chicken

I thought I would post this one too. It came out tasting average. Decent enough for home cooking, not good enough to serve at a potluck or hosted dinner party. Good thing I only used a pair of chicken breasts for it. 

Also known as Sichuan pepper, Szechwan pepper, Szechuan pepper, or huajiao these are the dried berries of the prickly ash plant. It is not related to either the chili pepper plant or the black/red/pink/white pepper trees. The spice was banned from US imports from 1968-2005 due to a plant-based disease the raw, dried peppercorns carried that could potentially spread to citrus crops. In 2005, the USDA and FDA lifted the ban (source: NY Times) if the peppercorns were heated prior to import. This is one of the five spices that make up Chinese five spice powder, by the way.

I have not noticed the "numbing" sensation that this spices gives to the spicy-hot dishes it is often served with. Maybe my problem was that there weren't any spicy chilies in the dish.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, skin removed and cut into 1/2" pieces
1 c broccoli florets, cooked or blanched
1/2 c dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
2 green onions (scallions), diagonally sliced

2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
2 tbsp olive oil, for frying
1-2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns, whole (will grind later)
kosher salt, to taste
hot chili paste (optional)
1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp cold water (optional, for sauce thickening)

Directions

1. Remove the skin from the chicken breasts, slice into small pieces and set aside. Cut the chicken into 1/2" pieces and set aside. 

2a. Heat skillet, wok, or frying pan until hot. Add Szechuan peppercorns and toast, gently shaking the pan so that the spice does not burn. If the spice burns, toss it out and try again. Remove peppercorns to a mortar and pestle and grind until it is a powder.

2b. In a small bowl, mix the ground peppercorns with chili paste (optional), soy sauce, and wine. Set aside.

3. In the skillet, add olive oil and heat until it is hot. Add garlic, ginger, green onions, and stir fry for about a minute. Add chicken pieces and chicken skin (if using) and fry until the chicken  has turned white and no longer shows pink, about five minutes. Next, add the shitake mushrooms and broccoli.

4. Add the peppercorn sauce (in step 2b) and stir into the chicken, broccoli, and mushrooms. Remove from heat. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Spinach with Sumac

I've always wondered about sumac and how it is used, and now I have a better understanding of its flavoring properties. Sumac spice is made from the berry of an edible sumac shrub. It is commonly used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. It can be found in grocery stores as a ground powder, coarsely ground spice, or as a whole dried berry. The most common application is as a coarsely ground spice, with hummus, vegetables, or as part of a spice rub for meat. It has a tart, sour taste. 

In retrospect, this vegetable dish wasn't that great. Heck, it wasn't that good. I am blogging about it as a reminder to never make it again. It was a recipe experiment where I could have stopped at just the olive oil, spinach, and garlic and had a fine dish. Anyhow. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 lb fresh spinach, rinsed and chopped into 1" pieces
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
up to 1 tbsp coarsely ground sumac spice
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
pine nuts, lightly toasted and chopped (optional)

Directions

1. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil until hot. Add the garlic and half the sumac spice. Stir until fragrant, until the garlic is lightly browned.

2. Add the spinach and lemon juice. Saute until the leaves wilt and turn a dark green color. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

3. Remove from heat and serve spinach on a plate. Sprinkle the remaining ground sumac on top of the spinach. Serve hot.

Ingredient Sourcing: Fat Tuesday

This was not as challenging as I thought it would be. Most of the recipes of the dishes we had planned to make for Mardi Gras were readily available. The only two ingredients that were somewhat harder to acquire, but not really, were frozen okra and andouille sausage. Both of these ingredients I found at Fred Meyer, though the latter was more of a fluke and I managed to snag the last package of Aidell's Andouille Style Sausage.

Because we were also cooking for toddlers (in addition to the adults), really spicy foods are frowned upon because young digestive systems simply cannot handle it. Gives 'em diaper rash. Anyhow. I substituted a smoked turkey sausage I found at Trader Joe's for the andouille. By breaking out the missing ingredients by recipe, it was easy to create a shopping list.

For example:

New Orleans rice & beans:
1 medium onion
1 green bell pepper
1 lb red kidney beans (2-3 cans)
celery ribs
1/2 lb Andouille sausage / smoked sausage

bread pudding:
1/2 gallon organic milk (4 c for the bread pudding)
1 qt heavy cream (2 c for the bread pudding, 2 c for the whiskey sauce)
day old French or white bread

langostino etouffe:
1-2 lb langostino
4 c chopped onions (if using Emeril's recipe), so roughly 2-3 onions

I did have to look up a conversion for the beans, from dried to cooked. Because we simply lacked the time, I opted for canned red beans instead of the slow cooker method.

Also, all the recipes called for Creole seasoning, which excluding the salt, I had just taken out all the traditional Creole seasoning spices and set them on the kitchen counter. Then we could just flavor by approximation.

Besides salt, black pepper, and onions, the Creole seasonings used for Fat Tuesday's dinner were: cayenne powder, garlic powder, oregano, paprika, and thyme.

New Orleans Style Beignets

When I researched recipes to make this deep fried doughnut/fritter, I came across two distinct recipe ratios. One looked far more unhealthy than the other and included ingredients such as evaporated milk and vegetable shortening. Sure, evaporated milk isn't that unhealthy but it is a far cry from being fresh. And shortening? Ugh. Perhaps the locals to New Orleans see it differently during Mardi Gras. I'm speculating that the shortening (versus butter) would make the dough a little bit more airy in texture. My only comparative taste sample were the ones I had at Toulouse Petit in Seattle. 

The recipe ratio comes from a Los Angeles Times recipe by chef Bryan Gilmore of the Creole Creamery in New Orleans.

Making Fat Tuesday fatter with fresh beignets

Ingredients


1 teaspoon plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
1 envelope active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 cups flour, divided
1 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg, at room temperature
powdered sugar, for dusting

Peanut oil and/or vegetable oil for frying, heated to 370 degrees F.


Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine 1/4 c warm water (110 degrees F) and 1 tsp sugar. Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit for 5 minutes. If the yeast is alive, it should be foamy and/or poofy looking.

2. In a stand mixer, whisk together remaining sugar, 3 cups of flour, and salt.

3. In a small saucepan, combine milk and butter. Gently heat until butter is melted. Pour warmed mixture into the flour and mix using a dough hook in the mixer. Add the egg, yeast mixture, and remaining cup of flour. Mix until a soft dough forms. Cover with another bowl or plate or plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.

4. Divide dough into thirds and roll out until it is 1/4" thick. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 2" wide strips, and cut the strips into squares. 

5. Heat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven until the temperature reaches about 370 degrees F. Gently drop in 2-3 pieces of dough at a time. Use a metal slotted spoon to turn beignets over when browned on one side. Should take no more than 1 minute per side.

6. Remove fried beignets to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar. Serve hot.

New Orleans Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

Bam! Emeril really knows how to kick a dish up several notches. I made a 9x13 bread pudding with a half batch of the whiskey sauce and there are no leftovers. Devoured. *poof* In one evening party. Strangely enough, despite Trader Joes having a lot of different types of freshly made bread, it is all sourdough based. I wanted just a general "white" bread that didn't scream, I'm a white bread. You know? 

Ideally day-old French or Italian bread would have done it, so I picked up a loaf of shepherd's bread. Trader Joes either changed their supplier or the recipe ratio for their private label shepherd's bread. It's no longer one of those rustic-looking, mop-up-the-stew loaves of bread. It looks -and tastes- like it was mass manufactured. Anyhow. It did the trick for this bread pudding.

This recipe ratio comes from the cookbook: Emeril's Potluck (HarperCollins, 2004). The whiskey used for the sauce was Makers Mark; though, I suppose any whiskey could do or bourbon.

Already hacked into before I could photograph it.

Ingredients

3/4 loaf shepherds bread (originally 24 oz), sliced into cubes (about 14 cups)

2 c (1 pint) organic heavy cream

4 c organic whole milk

6 large eggs

1 1/2 c brown sugar

4 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 c raisins

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Place bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish with unsalted butter.

2. In another large bowl, combine cream, milk, eggs, sugar, spices, salt, and raisins. Whisk to mix. Pour this into the bread bowl. Stir to combine. You can let this sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes or until you're ready to bake.

3. Transfer bread mixture to baking dish and bake for 50-60 minutes, until the center has set.

4. Pour some of the whiskey sauce (see below) over the top of the bread pudding. Reserve the rest in a small bowl so that guests may add more sauce if they like.