Author: cia

Jerk Chicken

I can now truly respect mothers who work full-time and still manage to cook a decent meal for her family at the end of the day. After work yesterday, I ran to Di Palo’s to get my usual cheeses and meats. I was uptown soon after picking last-minute grocery items. I had two hours to cook dinner for Tita Pat and Tito Square who are both in town from Manila. I have never felt so taranta in the kitchen. After a few fuck-ups, I paused and told myself to calm the hell down or nothing will ever come out right. So I poured myself a shot of Glenlivet 12 on the rocks to take the edge off. Then, I was ready. I multi-tasked in the kitchen for the next hour and a half. The bell rang as soon as I started heating up the Le Creuset for the jerk chicken. The dozen or so pieces took a while because I had to brown them before baking them, to get the marinade all sticky and, well, I guess, jerky. But the guest couple of the night brought their nieces and nephews with them, so all seven of us were chit-chatting while the chicken was cooking. I served these with yellow rice spiced with thyme and garlic. It was a lot of work, but expect high spirits while you watch your guests devour everything. Use disposable gloves when chopping the Scotch bonnet chiles and rubbing the chicken pieces because you don’t want to accidentally touch your face while you’re cooking. Trust me on that.

Ingredients:
12 pieces chicken, drumsticks and wings
3 fresh Scotch bonnet chiles, seeded and finely chopped
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
8 scallions, coarsely chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
3 tbsps fresh thyme, finely chopped
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tbsps ground allspice
1 1/4 tsps ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
salt, pepper

1. Make jerk marinade. Process chiles, scallions, garlic and thyme in food processor until pastey. Add brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, oil. Season with salt and pepper. Process until smooth.
2. Transfer 1/3 of the marinade in an airtight container and set aside for brushing chicken when ready.
3. Transfer the remaining marinade in a large bowl. Add chicken, coating and rubbing marinade all over chicken pieces and under skin. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Allow chicken to come to room temperature before cooking.
4. When ready, preheat oven to 350º. Heat a large skillet and add oil. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces to brown both sides, about 30 minutes. Do this a few pieces at a time to avoid overcrowding and use fresh oil for every batch. Discard used marinade.
5. Transfer browned chicken to a baking dish. Brush generously with remaining unused marinade and bake until cook through, about 15 minutes.

Related post/s:
Serve baked stuffed peppers beforehand

Blackberry-Red Wine Gelée

After my first successful try at making gelée, I decided to try this Martha Stewart Living recipe. I served it as dessert when family friends from Manila visited New York City. It didn’t match the jerk chicken main course but that’s why I think they were tickled to be eating it to end their night.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple juice
1 packet unflavored gelatin
1 cup full-bodied red wine, like Zinfandel
1/4 cup sugar
1 pint blackberries

1. Prepare an ice-water bath. Set aside.
2. Add 1/2 cup water and apple juice in a bowl. Sprinkle with gelatin. Let soften for about 5 minutes.
3. Combine wine and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat while stirring to dissolve sugar. Add blackberries, leaving some for garnish, and simmer in reduced heat. Crush blackberries as you stir.
4. Remove saucepan from heat. Slowly stir in hot wine mixture with the gelatin mixture. Transfer bowl to ice-water bath and stir gently to cool.
5. Pour mixture into a plastic bowl to mold. Chill until firm and ready to use.
6. When ready, unmold gelée and top with a blackberry and a mint leaf.

Related post/s:
Jerk Chicken

Momofuku Noodle Bar

163 1st Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets
212/475-7899
about $80 for two, with two drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

Updated, 2007: Momofuku has moved two stores down to make room for the third restaurant in their family, Momofuku Ko

Momofuku, which means “lucky peach,” is a nicely-designed noodlebar with mostly Japanese and Korean-influenced dishes plus a touch of Chinese. It reminded me of London’s Wagamama, which means “naughty child” in Nihongo, famous for their inexpensive and quick fast food as for their interior’s design.

We shared a plate of baby bok choy, flash-fried in hot oil, garlic and chilis–a good start to whet the appetite. Since it was almost a hundred degrees out, I picked the Momofuku somen with chilled noodles and dipping broth. My bowl came with mushrooms and very yummy shredded Berkshire pork which reminded me of leftover Filipino lechon, or roast pork. It’s a huge serving and more than enough for my hungry self. My companion opted for the pork neck ramen with neck meat and poached egg. It was also delicious. Both were served with scallions and menma, or bamboo shoots.

Even if it looks like a ramenya, a place that sells ramen in Japan, any new visitor would be glad to know that it just isn’t that. Dishes change seasonally, just like David Chang, owner and chef, learned at Craft. The noodles are not soggy and they have the right firmness and tenderness. There are buns, kimchi chigae, or fermented vegetables in soybean paste soup, and Sichuan-spiced crawfish in the menu.

I normally cook the baby bok choy at home when they are in season, so I thought the $8 price was pretty steep. Our tall Hefeweizens were also $10 apiece. In fact, everything is priced twice as much as its counterparts along St. Marks. Alas, this is New York City and this is the lower east side.

Corner Bistro

331 West 4th Street at Jane
212/242.9502
about $45 for two, with a few drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

Possibly the best burgers in New York City besides Le Parker Meridien’s, people wait at Corner Bistro not just for the $2.50 McSorley’s but also for the Bistro Burger, a slab of juicy beef so big you can barely flatten it to put it in your mouth. The best part of it all is that it comes with crispy bacon and onions.

Related post/s:
Le Parker Meridien Burger Joint

Falai

60 Clinton Street between Rivington and Stanton
212/253.1960
about $100 for two, with two drinks, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I rarely go to an Italian restaurant because I can’t, and don’t want to, eat a whole big bowl of pasta. Falai serves the familiar but transcends at the same time because of the imaginative use of ingredients.

Rich chicken livers were served with a fluff of polenta but also surrounded with chanterelles. The baby octopus did not come with vinaigrette but instead cooked with caramelized Gaeta olives for that mildly sweet taste. Eggplants fried in batter sounded off-putting in 90-degree weather but they were sliced so thin and done so lightly, perfectly. For our main course, we split the ravioli squid ink pasta stuffed with pine nuts, scallops, white asparagus fonduta and baked zucchini. It was heavenly.

Before chef Iacopo Falai managed the kitchen of Bread TriBeCa, he was the pastry chef at Le Cirque 2000. He pays tributes to his roots with the restaurant’s dessert menu, but alas, we had to settle for a dainty strawberry sorbet because we still had glasses of Veltliner and Tocai and Prosecco to finish.