Giant in the Kitchen: Awesome Cast Iron Chicken
Ok, I'm about to blow your mind. I have the best technique for cooking food indoors. Seriously, your mind is going to explode. Take a deep breath.
I'm demonstrating this with chicken breasts, but it works for just about any meat or vegetable you throw at it. Case in point, using this magical technique, I made shrimp taste good. I know, I know, you're thinking, "What??? But shrimp is boring. It HAS no taste. When I got that spinach and shrimp salad at Applebee's last year, the gummy shrimp made the salad unpalatable!" You're exactly right! Shrimp is like the wonder bread of the sea - chewy and uninspired. Arianna and I were making shrimp spring rolls, and the shrimp ended up being the best part of the rolls because of my wundiferous technique. (It's a good thing the shrimp was awesome, ‘cause the spring roll wrappers had the consistency of a condom...)
The only hardware you need is a cast iron skillet and an oven mitt. You can use whatever ingredients and seasonings you have around. It really works for anything.
Here is the fantastic chicken breast recipe using the technique:
I made a simple marinade for the chicken using 1 part soy sauce (maybe ½ a cup), 1 part olive oil, 2 parts orange juice, 2 tablespoons of grated fresh ginger and 2 diced garlic cloves. The measurements are approximate. I really just eyeballed it. (This part is totally up to you. For vegetables or a good steak, don't worry about a marinade; just give it a good dash of salt. For shrimp, go with a flavorful marinade)
Set an oven-rack at the top level and turn on your broiler to full kick. Heat your cast iron skillet on the stove top until it starts to smoke. At this point put on the oven mitt, quickly toss the chicken into the skillet, and transfer the skillet to the oven-rack, right under the broiler. This is going to cook the chicken extremely fast because it is getting seared both on the top and the bottom. This locks in the moister and keeps the chicken juicy and succulent. After about 5 minutes, flip the breasts. Let cook for another 4-5 minutes until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
The whole point of cooking food this way is getting this amazingly intense heat and applying it to very basic ingredients. It is the closest thing to grilling you can do indoors. This is important for me because I live in an apartment and don't have the room to store a grill. The cooking technique is quick and has always worked for me. Be aware that it can be really smoky, so make sure to open a window or turn on a kitchen exhaust fan. Also, make sure you are using cast iron. Not much else can handle this kind of high heat.
Awesome, right?
Giant in the Kitchen: Odd Sushi Fillings
My friend Tory had a sushi making party last night. It was mostly filmmakers at the party, and we ended up having some pretty interesting filling combinations. You should try some of these out following the basic sushi recipe.
I brought over roasted red peppers and homemade sweet potato fries. These actually worked really well. For the fries, I just sliced some sweet potato into strips and sautéed them for about 2 minutes. Take a look at the pictures - it's dead simple.
Initially I was attempting to make some sort of sweet potato tempura strips. I tried to bread the fries in whole wheat panko bread crumbs, but that didn't work at all. It ended up being a hot, delicious, mess. I used scrambled egg as an adhesive, but the panko bread crumbs are a bit too chunky to get a good grip on the thin slices of potato. Next time I make the fries, I want to try baking them. I don't really like frying food, and I bet the potatoes will crisp up nicely in the oven.
We also had red cherries and a couple jalapeno peppers. The cherries were awesome paired with cream cheese and sweet potato. I know it sounds strange, but it was a very subtle flavor - it kind of tasted like summer.
The jalapenos were just a pain in the ass. In the rolls, they looked just like green onion, so it was always a surprise when you got a bite of one. I definitely tried to wash away a bit of the heat with my drink. The thing is, all we had to drink was wine, so I think the jalapenos led to a bit of drunkenness for all involved.
Giant in the Kitchen: Let’s Talk Tortillas
I'm a huge fan of tortillas. I like corn tortillas. I like flour tortillas. I like those green wraps that are labeled spinach but are probably flour tortillas with green food coloring. I used to go through about a pack of whole wheat tortillas a week until I started to read the labels. It turns out that store-bought tortillas have about 10% of your daily recommended intake of sodium. Those giant (and delicious) wrap style tortillas are closer to 25%. Now don't get me wrong, I love salt. It is the single most important spice, but you can only eat so much of it.
Consider a typical day for me. I'm a big guy with a two burrito for dinner kind of appetite. With the store bought wraps, I've just eaten half of my sodium for the day. And, you know I've put salt in the fillings, so considering the beans, rice, chicken, sour cream, shredded cheddar, I'm at 80, maybe 85% of my daily salt intake. Add that to the 30% I had at breakfast and lunch, and I'm way over. I'm screwed. I know I'm gonna have stove top popcorn for a snack later on, and there's no way to eat that without a dash of salt. This is the kind of thing that will crawl into the back of my head, and slowly piss me off. My day is ruined, (RUINED!) because I'm all salty from the damn tortillas.
A few months ago I decided to show the tortilla companies who's boss by no longer procuring their tasty consumables. Three days later I woke up in the woods completely naked with no recollection of what had happened. Withdrawal is a hell of a thing...It was then that I decided that I needed to make my own low-sodium flour tortillas. I haven't looked back since.
What Ingredients You'll Need:
- Flour
- 2 cups unbleached white (preferably organic)
- 1 cup whole wheat (you could probably use any non white flour, but ww is the most low-key as far as flavor)
- Salt
- Your pick of style. I use 1 tsp of ground sea salt. This is optional, but I'd put in at least ¼ of a tsp.
- Oil
- A scantly filled ½ cup
- Water
- 1 cup at room temp.
This really is a simple recipe. I've adapted it from The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook. The book is decent if for no other reason than the flour, corn, and hominy tortilla recipes. It's also selling used for 46 cents on amazon, which is basically free (if you round to the nearest dollar...).
The How To:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Stir in the oil with a wooden spoon. Large clumps will form, this is normal, just break them up with the back of your spoon. Add the water. Stir until you get a gooey ball. Knead the ball on a floured cutting board until it comes together. It should be a very manageable ball of dough (maybe 4 minutes). Stick the dough back in the bowl and let rest, tightly covered on the counter, for at least 30 minutes. At this point you can stick the bowl in the fridge and it will keep for a couple of days.
After the dough has rested, heat a big dry skillet, preferably cast iron, on the stove over medium high heat. I use cast iron because the tortillas are cooked dry, and the dough doesn't stick to the cast iron. You can probably also use a non-stick skillet. I'd avoid aluminum because the tortillas might cook onto it.
Take out the dough and use your hands to shape it into a 1 inch thick oblong squareish shape - i.e. a rectangle (Check the pictures). Cut into 10 to 12 even sized pieces. If you want bigger tortillas go for 10, if not, you know, do 12. The choice is yours. Make each piece into a small ball and roll it out with a rolling pin (or a clean wine bottle), making them as thin as possible. If you are careful, you will get nice round circles, if you aren't careful you'll have amoeba looking tortillas. I like the variety of making both. This dough is really forgiving, so if you mess any part of this up you can just reball it and roll it out again. Keep in mind that there isn't any leavening agent, so it's not like you're going to slaughter the yeast by not being caring enough.
Take a rolled out piece of dough and carefully lay it out in your hot skillet. Cook for about 40 seconds on the first side and 30 seconds on the second side. You want to get little brown spots, but you don't want to burn it. (Again check the pictures) The tortilla will have bubbles puff up. This is normal, just press them down with a spatula.
The process of cooking the tortillas takes about 20 minutes, but you can cut that time in half by using two skillets. The tortillas will keep for a few days if wrapped well in foil or tupperware. Just reheat in the microwave covered with a wet paper towel. The tortillas freeze well, so once you get the hang of the recipe, double it up and you'll have enough for a couple of weeks.
Giant in the Kitchen: Padron Peppers
My mom mail-ordered me some peppers because, well, she's a bit of a foodie, and so am I. (This is my mom and aunt's food business definitely unique and definitely worth checking out.) She ordered me Padron Peppers (Pimientos de Padrón for you bilingual types) from Tienda.com. These peppers are a standard Spanish tapa and are common in bars all over Spain. Mature Padrons are fairly hot peppers somewhat comparable to a jalapeño. When picked young though, and this is where things get fun, only about 1 in 8 are hot. The rest are really delicious and mild. This is a great snack for a group when you're waiting for dinner to be ready or if you're just throwing back a few. Most will have a tasty appetizer, but 1 or 2 people are going to be running to the sink to chug some water. This is fun. This is what eating should be.
Preparation:
Cooking these is dead simple. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and then toss in the peppers. You're just heating up the peppers and blistering the skin. When the peppers are hot and the skin is crispy, remove to a plate and season liberally with coarse sea salt. It should only take you about 3 minutes tops. Open a beer and you're ready to roll.
I used a non-stick skillet to reduce the amount of oil used, but that is purely optional.
I'm thinking about saving some seeds so that I can grow some Padrons in my closet garden, but I'm a little worried about cross pollination with my bell pepper plants. Anyone know more about this? I definitely don't want spicy bells.
Update: So I've been eating a ton of these and started mixing it up a bit. Try it on a cracker with some brie. It is very much delicious.
Giant in the Kitchen: Easy As Scratch Pizza
I've been making my pizza from scratch for about a year now. It's fun and easy to make with a group of people, and an easier sell than sushi with salami. It takes about 1.5 hours, but for me, most of that time is spent drinking beer while I wait for the dough to rise, so it goes pretty fast. If you're well organized, you can make the dough a day or two ahead of time, but it's easy enough that I tend to make it when I'm ready to use it. I've adapted the dough recipe from Myra Goodman's Food to Live By and Michael Smith's Chef at Home TV series. Pizza dough tends to be made with all refined white flour (read: unhealthy), but I always use some combination of white and whole wheat flours. Lately I've been using 2 ½ cups white flour, 1 cup whole wheat bread flour, and ½ a cup rolled oats. This is really just a basic bread recipe with a lot of yeast. Bread dough is often at the proportion of 4 cups of flour and whole grains to 1 ½ cups of water.
Here's what you'll need for the dough:
2 packets active dry yeast (5 teaspoons if you're using a jar of yeast)
3 tablespoons sugar or honey
1 ½ cups of lukewarm water
4 cups of flour (2 ½ cups white, 1 ½ cups other)
1.5 tablespoons salt
2 table spoons olive oil
¼ cup semolina flour or corn meal for dusting
A pizza stone is optional, but I recommend it if you want a real crusty bottom. I bought mine for 15 dollars at Bed Bath and Beyond, and it came with a pizza peel. It isn't a high quality stone, but it gets the job done. You can also use a preheated baking sheet or put the pizza directly on the oven rack. It doesn't really matter as long as your oven is really hot.
Making the dough: In a large measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the 1 ½ cups of lukewarm water (over 100° F and less than 115° F if you're using an instant read thermometer, which I highly recommend) with the yeast and the sugar. Let this sit for 4 or 5 minutes until it starts to bubble. While the yeast is doing its thing, mix the 4 cups of flour and the salt in a large mixing bowl. When the yeast is frothy, gently pour it into the bowl of flour and add the olive oil. Stir this concoction with a wooden spoon until it is mixed together and is starting to look like sticky dough. At this point you want to knead it for about 5 minutes. (Check out this video if you don't know how to knead. She's a lot gentler than I am, but then again she probably has a better idea of what she's doing. Keep in mind that pizza dough isn't artisan bread, so it isn't really very delicate) Knead the dough in the bowl if you are limited on counter space, or use a floured countertop.
When the dough stops sticking to your hands and is easy to manage, you're done! Roll it into a ball and then place it back into the bowl. Coat it with a bit of olive oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Leave it to rise in a warm, draft free place for about an hour and a half. When the dough has been rising for about an hour, preheat your oven to 550. The hotter the better - pizza ovens are often around 7 or 8 hundred degrees.
When the dough is doubled in size, punch it down to get the air out of it and cut it in half. Pick up a half and roll it into a ball with your hands. Dust a pizza peel (or a cookie sheet) and place the ball onto it. Roll it out into a circle with a rolling pin or a washed wine bottle. It doesn't really matter if it is perfectly round, just make sure the dough has an even thickness. Tuck in the edges to make a crust (check the pictures). At this point, the pizza is your canvas. I've got a list of toppings below, but it is really up to you. Make it your own! Just be sure that the toppings that might burn, like fresh herbs or mushrooms, are under the toppings that like the heat (i.e. meats and cheeses).
Topping Ideas
- Bases
- Olive oil
- Jarred or homemade tomato sauce
- Likewise pesto
- Canned diced tomatoes
- Veggies
- Sliced bell peppers,
- Sliced mushrooms
- Fresh baby spinach
- Diced garlic
- Dried Oregano
- Kalamata olives
- Fresh herbs like basil, sage, or parsley
- Sliced onion
- Meats
- Prosciutto
- Pepperoni
- Deli Ham
- Canadian Bacon
- Browned Bacon
- Pancetta
- Browned Sausage
- Shredded cooked chicken breast
- Cheeses (really whatever you have around, but atleast one melty cheese like Mozzarella or Provolone)
- Mozzarella
- Feta
- Parmesan
- Manchego
- Provolone
Top your pizza and carefully slide it onto the hot stone. Bake it for 6 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown. Pull it out and you have pizza. Eat it right away and burn your mouth, or let it cool for a few minutes while you start the next pizza. Either way, it will taste good.
Giant in the Kitchen: Crispy Corn Salad
Well, it's corn season. Nice SWEET corn...
Yeah, so we drove into the country to go blueberry picking on the 4th, but the farmers turned us away because the blueberries weren't quite ready to be picked. As we were driving back, we saw a farm stand and picked up some sweet corn.
The thing is, it isn't really sweet corn unless it's Midwest sweet corn. (By the bye, there's nothing quite like sweet corn from the Midwest. I've gotten sick from eating too many ears of Missouri sweet corn at one sitting, but I keep going back to it. It's way too delicious.) I knew I wouldn't REALLY be satisfied just eating it off of the cob, so I decided to cut off the kernels and make a salad out of it. The thing is, I didn't really want to cook the corn too much. What's the point of eating fresh corn if it's lost that great raw crunchy texture?
For the salad, I shucked 4 ears of corn and then cut off the kernels. I then microwaved the corn for 90 seconds. This didn't cook the corn so much as get it hot enough not to be raw. While it was nuking, I sliced up a few jarred, roasted red peppers and cut some fresh basil from one of my window plants. I let the corn rest for another 90 seconds so that it wouldn't wilt the basil completely. As it was resting, I seasoned it with a dash of cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, and a ton of black pepper. The seasoning gave it a bit of kick, but mostly made it taste like salted and peppered corn on the cob. Once it had cooled a bit, I tore the basil leaves and mixed them into the corn with the red peppers.
Not only is this a tasty little salad, but it looks damn pretty.
Giant in the Kitchen: Cool Summer Sangria
I forgot to mention the sangria! We made some awesome sangria to go with the sushi…because Spain is kind of close to Japan, right?
Sangria is a great way to have a classy summer drink when you have no money. You can make it as extravagant as you like, but basic sangria is just cheap wine, and some citrus fruit. The wine can be cheap because the fruit flavors overpower any subtleties in the wine. I used a bottle of cheap shiraz that I got off of a clearance shelf at Target. (I’m talking 3$ here)
Here is a simple sangria recipe:
Wash two oranges and a lemon. Cut into bite size pieces and place all of the lemon and 2/3rds of the orange into a large pitcher. Press the pitchered fruit with a wooden spoon to release some of the juices. Pour in a single 750 ml bottle of wine and stir together. Put this concoction in the fridge for a couple of hours, garnish with the remaining orange slices and you have basic sangria. I like to mix in about 6 ounces of frozen limeade concentrate. This makes it a bit sweeter and really gives it a punch of citrus.
Try some of these variations:
- Mix in a cup of dark rum with the wine.
- Make it a fizzy drink by filling a glass 1/3 with seltzer and 2/3 sangria.
- Use a white wine and substitute peaches, apples and grapes for the citrus fruits. Sprigs of crushed mint can be delicious here as well.
- Withhold the limeade concentrate and use a cup of simple syrup instead. For simple syrup, mix 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Let cool before mixing into the sangria.
- Grate 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger into the sangria.
- Use a cup of orange or apple juice as a sweetener.
Giant in the Kitchen: Sushi
Arianna's friend Kajsa is in town visiting this weekend. We had a sushi night last night which turned out to be kind of awesome. I doubt that someone from Japan would recognize it as sushi, but we all dug it. We used brown rice and whatever else was lying around in the fridge. This included speck (kind of a smoked prosciutto, I guess...it was cheaper than real prosciutto) and salami which, while decidedly un-Japanese, was pretty tasty. We also used smoked salmon, avocado, cucumber, and cream cheese in varying combinations. I never do raw fish, not because I don't like it, but simply because I don't think that I can afford fish that is good enough to eat raw. Imitation crab meat is always a good alternative.
For me, sushi is a great hangout-let's-make-dinner-as-a-group sort of deal. It gets everyone involved and you end up knowing the people you're with a little better - and everyone likes knowing people! I figured out how to do sushi from my pal Tory a few years ago, so this is basically her approach.
Here are the basics:
Use short grained brown rice, it tastes good and brown is better for you. Make sure it is short grained or else it won't get sticky. You need ½ a cup of rice and 1 cup of water per person. Put it all in a sauce pan, cover, and bring to a boil. When it begins boiling, reduce to a simmer and leave it to do it's thing for about 50 minutes. You'll know it is done when it is no longer soupy and is somewhat sticky. At this point remove the cover and let it rest and cool off for at least 10 minutes. While it is cooling mix together about half a cup of white wine vinegar and a few tablespoons of sugar (this is what we did for three people, adjust to your numbers). These proportions are really up to you, if you want it a bit sweeter add more sugar, if it is too sweet, you know, cut back on the sugar. Remember, this is completely Americanized, so make it your own. Mix the vinegar mixture into the cooling rice.
While the rice is cooking, give everyone a knife and a board and get your fillings sliced into thin strips. You can really use whatever you want in whatever combination you like. Just try to go for texture variety - something crunchy with something soft.
To make the sushi rolls, take a sheet of nori (you can get this at the grocery store in the foreign foods section - it's probably next to the Mexican salsas and below the soy sauce) and lay it, smooth side down, on a sushi roller or a large piece of plastic wrap. Cover the nori with a thin layer of rice, leaving about an inch clear on the top and bottom of the square. You want to be able to see the nori through the rice so get it spread really thin with the back of a spoon. Pick your fillings and line them up on the rice near the bottom strip of unriced nori. Wet the clear strips of nori with a bit of water, and roll the bottom up to the top using the roller or plastic wrap. You want a tight roll so take your time and use the roller to really tuck it in. This isn't the easiest thing in the world to do and it takes a bit of practice to get it right, but keep at it
I tend to accidentally overstuff the first roll and it always ends up looking like an ugly burrito. We ended up with about 6 or 7 rolls and most of them looked even and normal. Once you've used up your ingredients, slice the rolls with a sharp, wet knife. Rewet the knife often to help it cut through the dry nori. Try to cut the slices about 3/4ths of an inch thick. If you get to the end of a roll and the last piece is a bit thicker, don't try and halve it. You'll just end up with two rounds of goop.
When you've sliced the rolls, break out the wasabi and soy sauce. You've made sushi!
