Chicken thighs again!

Next up is one of my favourite cookbooks, Alton Brown's 'I'm only here for the food':

It's not just a book of recipes - in fact, I take it back, it isn't a book of recipes at all. It's a cookbook: it's a book which tells you how to cook. It's got a wonderful introduction in which Alton describes his approach to writing about cooking. He contrasts giving someone directions to your house with giving them a map: in the first case, they might arrive safely, but they wouldn't know what to do if a tree had fallen in the road and they couldn't follow the directions any more.

Anyway, there were lots of recipes to try. As a teaser, we made 'Scampi 2.0', a quick fried shrimp recipe with roma tomatoes and persillade added at the last moment (I like the description of persillade on that Wikipedia page: 'when it is added at the end of cooking or as a garnish, it provides a garlicky jolt'):

But the main recipe we did was 'Chicken in Garlic and Shallots':

The principle behind this recipe is that you bake chicken thighs with lots of olive oil, garlic (ten cloves), shallots (ten shallots), fresh parsley and thyme. The baked garlic and shallot are nice and mild, so he recommends adding them to mashed potatoes, which is what we did.

Start, as usual, with one baby and one mother:

Then take some seasoned chicken thighs:

Brown them, add garlic, shallots, and herbs, and you have a beautiful pan ready for the oven:

Well, it looks beautiful now. But at the time, I was very annoyed, because once again the chicken thigh skins stuck to the pan as I was browning them. This happened to me once before, when I was doing Thomas Keller's chicken thighs. I still don't know what the explanation is, but I think it might have something to do with trying to brown the thighs in oil alone (rather than with a little butter). Anyway, when the thighs came out, I separated out the pan juices, reserving the scented oil for another time and keeping the chicken jus for this dish:

As I said earlier, the mashed potatoes have garlic stirred into them. We also had the ubiquitous broccoli:

Verdict: good, but not spectacular. I blame myself for not browning the thighs properly. And Katherine didn't really like the shallots. Other than that, a great success!

Postscript: we also did Alton Brown's Melanzane alla Parmigiana, which was absolutely delicious. So out of the three dishes we did from the book, two were excellent, and one was good. Not a bad hit rate. But what else would you expect from good old Alton?

Truly Mexicanly Deeply

This next book was a gift from Helen, Truly Mexican:

But it's Kathrya whom we have to thank for the all-important ingredient: guajillo chiles. This recipe was not straightforward at all, but - as you'll see - it was absolutely worth it. First for the guajillo adobo:

Take 12 guajillo chiles:

We think they are guajillo chiles.

And one small child:

Definitely a small child.

Trim, deseed, and devein the chiles:

Toast in a skillet (the chiles, that is):

This is not bacon. Move along. No bacon to see here.

Then soak chiles in cold water for 30 minutes. Next, give one iPhone to the child:

'Da!'

I told you the recipe was complicated! Time to start work on the main dish, Pork in adobo:

Brown pieces of pork shoulder:

While they are browning, finish off the adobo by adding the drained chiles to garlic, sugar, vinegar, cumin, and water in a blender:

 

Once this has been blended together to make a smooth paste, we have the famous "guajillo adobo", which can be used as a marinade or a cooking sauce (which is what we are doing here). Add the sauce to the pork:

Fry the sauce with the pork pieces for a few minutes and then add stock:

Simmer for a couple of hours (we put it in the oven at 350ºF). The result is extraordinary:

The cooking liquid has almost evaporated away entirely. As the book says, you'll find pools of oil on the surface, indicating the sauce is 'seasoned' ('sazonada'). The meat was so tender it was impossible to lift out without the pieces coming apart. The spiciness of the dish was lovely: deep and warm without being fiery. With some plain rice and some side (can't remember what), it was truly heavenly.

Next up, Alton Brown. Could he top this amazing dish?

A culinary success, and a photographic disaster

"Slow cooking curry and spice dishes". Even the title of the book tells you the recipes are going to be wonderful:

The book was a gift from Judy when we lived in Oxford to go with the crock pot she gave us. What a good present! When in England, we often made lamb curry with spinach and raisins. This time we had 'Pork chiang mai curry'.

Now, you start by making a paste out of yellow bean sauce, green curry paste, fish sauce, chiles, onion, garlic, lemon grass etc.

This is a still from the film loosely based on this blog.
In this picture, my character, played by Ben Affleck, is crushing all the ingredients for the paste from scratch.

Cut pork shoulder into pieces and toss with the paste:

The 'tossing' scene didn't make it into the final cut of the film,
but here is a shot of Ben Affleck (actually, his stunt double), cutting the shoulder up.  

Put the pork pieces into the crock pot, and then add boiled coconut milk:

Our Hamilton Beach crock pot is being played by a younger Cuisinart model. Typical Hollywood!

After six hours cooking, we transferred the pork curry to the fridge, because pork shoulder is very fatty and we wanted to be able to remove the solidified layer of fat the following day. That was a success:

At this point, normal photographic service is resumed.

Then, chop up lots of cilantro:

Warm through, add cilantro, serve over noodles with peas as a side:

This was a truly perfect meal. The pork was so tender - completely falling apart, and the coconut milk sauce was a lovely nutty colour with a very complex taste. Oh, I forgot to post pictures of the table which I set:

Luckily, we got a shot of us enjoying the wonderful dinner:

Next up, Mexican Cooking!

Ken Hom! Ken Hom!

I had been looking forward to this book for a while. I remember watching Ken Hom's cooking shows on TV with my mother and father when I was a kid.

Then...

Now. The amazing thing is, I didn't age in the meantime.

He basically did for Chinese cooking what Madhur Jaffrey did for Indian cooking in the UK. The book I cooked from is in fact the book from the BBC series:

Can you see the BBC logo in the top RH corner?

The recipe I chose was Shredded Chicken with Sesame Seeds, from the Sichuan region. (Hom says style of the dish is the 'Western' school: 'The distinguishing aspect of the culinary style is its reliance on very strong flavourings and hot spices'.) 

First things first. Cut the chicken into strips and mix with egg whites and cornflour, and put in the fridge for a few minutes. Why, I have no idea:

Then fry them for a minute and put aside to drain, while whisking together all the lovely sauce ingredients such as soy, Chinese black vinegar, chilli bean sauce, sesame oil, sugar, sherry, french onions:

Stir fry the sesame seeds (not pictured, because I had to be very careful not to burn them), then add the sauce and boil it down, and then put the chicken back in:

"Quick, take the picture before it all burns!"

Meanwhile, as a side, we had stir-fried broccoli with Hoisin Sauce. Separate the broccoli into florets and peel and slice the stems:

Was this really worth it?

 Then blanch the broccoli:

I can't even see the stem pieces.

Stir fry with garlic, and add hoisin sauce and water:

With rice, this made a delicious meal:

Sweet, tangy, not overly spicy (if anything, a little too tame?). Also, because the chicken was drained after being stir-fried, it wasn't too oily. A real success, and a dish to add to our normal rotation.

Lamb tfaya, nothing twrite home about

Our next book is Arabesque by Claudia Roden:

The recipe I chose has an unprepossessing title, 'Couscous with Lamb, Onions and Raisins', but sounded insanely delicious from the description: 'the special feature of this dish is the exquisite mix of caramelized onions, honey and raisins called tfaya which is served as a topping to the long-cooked, deliciously tender meat'.

The thought of all that, together with some couscous, and maybe some bread to soak up the meat broth, and a nice glass of red, spurred me on.

One immediately striking thing about the preparation of the dish is that the lamb is poached, not roasted. So you start by putting boned leg of lamb ($39 at McCaffreys!) into a Dutch Oven with water, and unusual seasonings: ginger, cinnamon, cloves.

This should cook for a couple of hours, with saffron being added half an hour before the end. I should say right now that two hours wasn't long enough; the lamb was still a little tough, and definitely not 'meltingly tender', or whatever the description was.

The tfaya was fun to prepare. Start by cooking down nearly 3 lb of onions with butter and oil:

5.00 p.m.

5.15 p.m.

6.30 p.m.

Soak some raisins:

Then add some honey, the raisins, and some cinnamon to the now caramelized onions:

7.30 p.m.

 Keep on cooking!

8.00 p.m. VERY sticky!

In the meantime, take the meat out of the broth:

Not very appetising...

And strain the broth:

One other crucial ingredient is fried almonds:

Too much! It's just a garnish!

So now for the all important preparation of the dish. Start with some lamb:

 Surround with couscous:

 Cover with tfaya:

 Sprinkle on a few fried almonds and pour round the broth:

It looks good! But the lamb was just not quite right. It tasted OK, but it was a little tough. The broth was very fragrant and the tfaya was indeed exquisite: like an explosion of sweet chutney. But I think next time I will use lamb shoulder not leg, and I will cook it for longer. The real giveaway was that we had some leftovers in the fridge which did not get eaten and had to be thrown away a few days later. Not a hit. But not a disaster either.