Chicken – Page 8 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Nepal: Stuffed Chataamari

Ubin gave me a lecture about the Newar people of Nepal when he gave me this recipe. They are the indigenous people of Kathmandu and the largest ethnic group according to the 2001 Nepalese census. He grew up eating chataamaris–what he would translate as rice crepes–and drinking San Miguel beer to match. He claims that Newari food is the best cuisine in Nepal but grounding the rice and lentils was laborious. I can imagine that a powerful mixer or blender would have been beneficial to use instead of my old-school mortar and pestle.

Dal is what the Nepalese use to refer to lentils, split and skinned. But they also use the term for all peas and beans that go through the process. Split lentils don’t hold their shape well, so they’re usually used for purÃ©es. I bought a package of black beluga lentils from Whole Foods. Even though the instructions said I didn’t need to soak them, I did anyway to follow the recipe. I also found a block of paneer cheese at Whole Foods. I also found it easier to make the chataamaris separately and serve the stuffing on the side instead of making them empanada style like the recipe originally suggested. We ended up tearing the chataamari and eating it like bread, scooping and soaking up the chicken while we ate.

Ingredients:
2 cups long-grain rice
1 cup black dal or lentils
1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted, crushed
4 pieces of boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1 cup paneer cheese, crumbled
3 stalks of scallions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and crushed
2 fresh chilis, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
clarified butter
oil, salt, pepper

1. For the chataamari, soak rice and black lentils in water overnight. Rinse the soaked rice and lentils mixture thoroughly. Using a mortar and pestle, ground mixture into a smooth batter-like paste, one small batch at a time. Pour into a large mixing bowl and add cumin seeds and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and add more water as necessary to keep that batter consistency. Let the batter rest for at least six hours, covered, in the fridge.
2. When ready to prepare, take out the batter from the fridge and let it come down to room temperature. Make the stuffing. Heat oil in a skillet and sautÃ© garlic and ginger until light brown. Add chicken with some salt and pepper. Brown the meat under medium-heat. Add chilis, tomato, cheese and scallions. Stir for a few minutes in low heat until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. To assemble chataamaris, heat a tablespoon of clarified butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Pour in some batter and spread out into a paper-thin crepe. Cook until the bottom has crisped up. Scoop some of the chicken stuffing and add on top of one side of the chataamari. Using a heat-resistant spatula, turn over the other half of the chataamari to cover. Turn and cook the other side until crispy. Repeat until you finish the batter.

Thailand: Ka Prow

Pritsana manages to cook and cater for about thirty people when she’s not busy designing print materials and Web sites for non-profit organizations and for-profit companies. Now, if only her mother would believe that she can actually cook.

Parents are always looking out for their children, so whenever Pritsana would visit them with dishes she cooked, they refuse to eat them because they’re thinking that she needs to eat more than they do. Sometimes, parents never realize that their children can get food without their help.

Ka Prow translates to the Thai holy basil, one of the staples of Thai cooking and the main spice to this dish. (You leave off the R when you pronounced the prow.) We used chicken here and Thai locals would refer to it as Ka Prow Gai in which gai is the chicken.

You can find kaffir lime leaves at a well-stocked Asian grocery store. They usually have them in the freezer so ask one of the clerks to make sure they’re not hiding the goods from you. There really isn’t a perfect substitute for them, but if you can’t get them dried, try using lime zest. You can also get Thai holy basil at the same store, but you can substitute the tinier, more purple sweet basil. Italian basil will do, too, if you don’t have access to Asian produce. You can also use brown sugar instead of the palm, and less soy sauce if you’re not using the semi-sweet kind. Thais cook this dish with ground pork and I can imagine you can use shrimps as well. Top with fried egg and you’ll be smiling.

Ingredients:
8 pieces of boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
1 bunch of Thai holy basil
2 Thai chilis, seeds removed
2 kaffir lime leaves
half a red onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced and finely chopped
semi-sweet black soy sauce or kecap manis
1 tbsp palm sugar
a splash of fish sauce
2 tbsp peanut oil

1. Heat some oil in a heated large wok. SautÃ© garlic until light brown and cook onions until translucent. Add chicken and enough soy sauce to cover half of them. Cook chicken while stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
2. When chicken is almost done, stir in the rest of the ingredients and cook for another 5 over medium-low heat or until basil leaves are wilted.

Roasted Chicken

Adapted from Anthony Bourdain’s Poulet Roti

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, about 4 pounds, washed throughly and patted dry, excess fat removed, giblets reserved
half a lemon
1 medium onion, halved
1 sprig of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
a handful of parsley, finely chopped
half a stick of butter, sliced
1 1/2 cups of white wine
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven 375º. Season the inside cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper. Put the lemon, half of the onion, thyme and rosemary inside. Truss the chicken with twine, “knees up, ass out.” (Check out the Les Halles Cookbook for a really good explanation.) Insert a slice of butter underneath the skin so that a few lumps sit on the bird’s breastbone. Season the outside with salt and pepper. (Try not to rip the skin.)
2. On a roasting pan, put the giblets with the other half of the onion and 1 cup of the wine. Place the chicken on a rack and on the pan. Roast for 30 minutes while basting often.
3. After 30 minutes, turn up the heat to 450º and cook for another 25 minutes. Poke the fat part of the thigh to see if the liquid that runs out is clear which means your bird is cooked. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest on a chopping board for 15 minutes before carving.
4. Meanwhile, place the pan on the stove over high heat. Stir in remaining white wine and scrape the bottom to collect the fond. Bring the wine to a boil and cook until it is reduced by half. Discard the giblets and the onion and whisk in remaining butter. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. Serve with chicken slices.

Silkie Chicken with Pomegranate

The Chinese man and I understood each other with just hand signals. I waved my hand against my throat to ask for the head to be chopped off. I shook my hands so that he would understand that the legs also have to go. I had no clue what the gray chicken was in the store until another customer told me it was Silkie chicken. Do I cook it like regular chicken? I asked. Yes, she said, but it’s silkier inside; that’s why it’s expensive.

When my mother saw it this morning, she recognized it as the manok ng Intsik, Chinese chicken. They’re poofy and they look like they wear pajamas. She said that one of my grandfathers, the Chinese one from her cousin’s side, used to cook the black chickens all the time. Do I cook it like regular chicken? I asked. Yes, she also said, but the meat is moist and it doesn’t dry up like normal chicken. Oh, that’s what the man meant by sirr-kee.

I Googled it and sure enough, they are from Asia and they are white and poofy. Pajamas aside, Silkies are a rare breed because they have black skin and bones and their feathers look like hair. They are also able to sit (how cuuuute!) and they have five toes (aaaaw!). Because they’re docile, they make good pets.

Mario Batali had a recipe using game hen. After being convinced that Silkie is just like regular chicken, I went to the grocery store to buy sage, pomegranate and a bottle of Marsala. Never have I needed only three ingredients that took two hours to accumulate. It was almost 2pm when I got back home. I ate some prosciutto and baguette for lunch in between soaking the pomegranate seeds and preheating the oven.

The recipe was so easy to follow, it took less than an hour to cook. Too easy in fact, that I was skeptical it was going to taste good. I should never doubt my ability to cook because this turned out to be delicious and, well, sirr-kee.

Ingredients:
1 Silkie chicken, rinsed and patted dry
seeds of large pomegranate
1 cup Marsala
12 sage leaves
zest of an orange
1 stick of butter
salt, pepper and olive oil

1. In a small bowl, cover the pomegranate seeds with the Marsala. Set aside, covered, for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375Âº. Season the chicken inside-out with salt and pepper.
3. Drain the pomegranate seeds and reserve some of the liquid. Stuff the birds with half of the seeds. Tie chicken legs together with kitchen twine.
4. In a large ovenproof sautÃ© pan, heat some butter with the olive oil over high heat. Add 3 sage leaves and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and add the remaining 9 sage leaves and the rest of the pomegranate seeds.
5. Tranfer the pan to the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and drizzle 3 tbsps of the reserved Marsala liquid. Dot the chicken with some more butter and baste with the pan juices. Roast for another 15 minutes or until the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced.
6. Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, melt the remaining butter over low heat. Add the zest and cook for 5 minutes so that the zest absorbs the butter. Remove from heat.
7. Transfer the chicken to a serving dish. Sprinkle with the zest and drizzle pan juices with pomegranate seeds over it.

Indian Chicken Curry

Adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe using lamb

Ingredients:
For the curry rub:
a few pieces of cloves
2 tbsps cinnamon powder
2 tbsps cumin
2 tbsps fennel seeds
2 tbsps ginger powder
1/2 cup curry powder
salt and pepper

12 pieces of small chicken legs
1 tbsp butter
2 small red potatoes, peeled and diced
3 small carrots, peeled and sliced
a handful of okra, washed
1 small can of sweet peas, washed and drained
1 large tomato, diced
lime juice
olive oil

1. Salt and pepper chicken pieces. In a large Dutch oven with hot oil, brown chicken on all sides over medium-high heat, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from pot. Pour out some of the oil when cool. Reheat remaining oil and brown potatoes and carrots for a few minutes. Remove vegetables from pot.
2. In a heated small pan, toast non-powdered curry rub ingredients. Let cool. Transfer to a mortar and ground with a pestle. Combine with the powdered ones in a small bowl.
3. In a different large Dutch oven, melt butter and add curry rub. Stir in tomatoes and 1/2 cup of water. Simmer for a few minutes until tomatoes are mushy. Add the chicken and cook until soft, about 25 minutes while checking to make sure they donâ€™t dry up. You may need to add a bit more water.
4. Cook the vegetables while occasionally stirring. Add the potatoes and the carrots. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the okra. Simmer for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the peas, cooking in remaining heat. Pour in lime juice and add salt to taste.