If you hired a cheap maid or babysitter back home you probably ended up with a Mexican or Central American. In Taiwan, those roles are filled by Filipinos, Thais and, to a lesser extent, Indonesians. Ethnic restaurants are a powerful way for displaced foreigners to stay connected to their homelands and I am always excited when I discover the janky ethnic eateries working-class laborers frequent. Good enough for the members of the ethnic minority, good enough for me!
Anyhow, Indonesian fried chicken. I don't know much about Indonesian food so I am going by what I saw and tasted. A marinated chicken leg was brought out and, given its color, turmeric was clearly involved. Also, ginger and maybe some coriander seed. Maybe a touch of coconut milk to loosen the marinade? At any rate, throw the chicken leg into some hot oil and fry. This is what you end up with:
Crazy delicious stuff and it was fun watching what appeared to be a small, tight-knit Indonesian community greet each other. I have a general rule that if you eat alongside ethnic laborers, you will generally eat very well. This meal was no exception.
Definitely on my short list of places to return given how delicious it is and how different the flavors are from my usual Taiwanese fare.
All right, a bunch of random stuff in here. Christmas Eve was basically Meatfest. For instance, this is what I had for lunch:
Food courtesy of Memphis Minnie's. Other than the B+ sausage, the rest of the meal was uniformly awful. Let's talk about the ribs for a second because this takes real talent. First of all, the meat still had a deathgrip on the bone which would imply that it was undercooked, right? However, the majority of the meat was already dry and stringy implying that it was overcooked. I just don't get it. Anyhow, several people had told me to avoid this joint but I just had to go see for myself. BBQ FAIL.
In addition to the BBQ plate, we ate a ton of meat later that night. I've been pretty obsessed with a cooking technique called "sous vide" which I'll detail in an upcoming post. This post is dedicated to simply giving you an overview of the technique and my X-Mas Eve dinner.
Sous vide hanger steak. One of the great things about sous vide is that it gives you a lot more control versus cooking over high heat. For instance, say you like rare steak. Normally, you might season it and throw it in a hot pan, right? But notice...there is a ring of gray, overcooked meat surrounding the rare interior. Compare this to sous vide cooking. The temperature for rare steak is between 120 and 125 degrees Fahrenheit. All you have to do when cooking sous vide is to set your water bath at the desired temperature, drop in your steak and the steak never cooks past the preset temperature. This technique is used in many high end kitchens but it is also very practical for home cookery. I've sous vide cooked two hanger steaks and they've both been amazing. For the X-Mas Eve dinner steak, I flavored it with garlic cloves, thyme and a few bay leaves. In addition, I also added a ton of butter. I probably went a bit overboard with the butter but you do need some fat to help carry and disperse the flavors. After you cook it in the bag (I use Ziploc brand bags...I've read that cheap plastic bags use cheap plastic. Whether or not this is true is beyond my knowledge but I figure it's only marginally more expensive to use brand-name plastic) you need to sear the steak because it comes out sorta gray. After that, slice and serve.
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In addition to the hanger steak, I cooked a turkey leg sous vide. I packed the bag with all sorts of aromatics...oregano, orange peel, garlic, ginger, star anise, a few cloves etc. Very Christmas-y. Throw in the turkey leg (rubbed with allspice and a bit of salt) and cover with duck fat. BAM. Turkey leg confit. 176 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 or so hours. When cooked, I shredded the meat and folded it into some lentils.
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Given how heavy the rest of the meal was, I decided that a light salad was necessary. Lots of citrus in the market this time of year so that made my choice easy. Mint, olives, a little red onion and romaine hearts finished it off.
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This just gives you an overview of sous vide. I'm doing research for an upcoming post which will be more detailed but I hope this whets your appetite for more. Hardy har har. :)
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All right! Given that I am unemployed, I am 1. Cooking more at home & 2. Have tons of time so you can expect lots of future excitement! And can any of you tell me why custards are baked in an oven but custard sauces are cooked on a stovetop? I need answers people, not excuses!
This recipe is from The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky. It's an interesting book which has a unique view on food and taste. In it, the authors dissect taste into 14 distinct profiles. For instance, "Tastes that Push" contains 3 subdivisions: Salty, Picante and Sweet and each one of these subdivisions has a few recipes which demonstrate the characteristics of the subdivision. It's an intellectual approach to flavor which is quite different from other cookbooks. Additionally, there are "Taste Notes" on how each recipe tastes. Here's the "Taste Note" from this chicken recipe:
First a tangy vinegar aroma and, right along with it, nuttiness from the almonds and butter. The crunchiness from the chicken skin and intense saltiness follow. There's a smooth overall sweetness from the maple syrup, cut by the bitter cranberry and the nuts. The cranberry also has tang, which works with the vinegar to pull out more meaty taste. The flesh of the chicken gives texture and punctuation, plus a full meaty aroma. The end notes are sweet, meaty, and salty.
Neat, right? I really like the perspective this book provides but, at the end of the day, would not recommend it to beginning cooks. The recipes are a little bit complicated and it lacks the kind of clear instruction beginners need. Furthermore, the food might be a bit too adventurous for middle-America. Although today's recipe seems fairly benign, this book contains recipes such as "Poached and Crisped Turkey Leg Provencale with Lemon Pickle and "Okra-Bell Pepper Ratatouille with Mung Bean Curry Crepe." Not the kind of food most people crave on a busy weeknight. And we're off!
Sauce 2 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup chopped shallots 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/3 cup cider vinegar 1/3 cup maple syrup
1. Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. 2. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally until they are soft and transluscent. 3. Add the pepper and nutmeg. 4. Add the vinegar, bring to a boil, then add the maple syrup. 5. Return the sauce to a boil and reduce by half. Set aside.
Chicken 1 3-4 pound spatchcocked chicken Salt and Pepper Vegetable Oil
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. 2. Make an incision in each of the chicken's thighs, then tuck in the legs. Season chicken with salt and pepper. 3. Heat oil in a large heavy ovenproof skillet. Place the chicken, skin side down in the hot pan and transfer pan to oven. 4. After 10 minutes, flip the chicken. Continue to roast until the thigh juices run clear. This will take somewhere around 30 minutes. 5. Remove chicken from pan and allow it to rest. 6. Pour fat from the roasting pan. See all those little brown bits crusted to the bottom of the pan? Those taste good so we're going to deglaze the pan with the pre-made sauce. Pour the sauce into the hot pan. You should be able to scrape up the brown bits. Set the sauce aside.
Topping 3/4 cup slivered almonds 3 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup leeks, sliced and THEN measured 1 tablespoon dried bread crumbs Salt and Pepper
1. Combine almonds and butter in a skillet. Heat and cook the almonds until they turn golden brown. 2. Add the cranberries and leeks. Cook for another minute. 3. Add the bread crumbs, stir, and season with salt and pepper.
Cut the chicken into serving size parts. Arrange the chicken on a plate, spoon the sauce over the chicken, then the topping and serve.
Done!
Cost- I forget. I made this a while ago. Serves 4 hungry adults. Time- Mebbe 45 minutes? It doesn't take long.
Super duper basic chicken stir fry. This recipe uses very few odd ingredients. I'm writing on a weeknight so no time for an introduction--I'll get straight to the recipe.
This recipe is from "The Breath of a Wok" by Grace Young and Alan Richardson. If you're interested in how to cook in a wok, this is the book for you. Stir-frying, steaming, smoking, this book shows you how to use your wok in a multitude of ways. Although I've mostly only cooked the stir-fry recipes, they've all been dependable and delicious. Recommended, although the scope of this book is rather narrow. Definitely an enthusiast level cookbook but, if you're into the subject matter, it's fantastic. Does that make sense? I hope so.
4 small whole shallots, peeled (about 1/2 cup) (I used large pieces of diced onion)
1/3 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth, I used water and it was fine)
1 green onion, chopped
Combine the chicken, tablespoon of soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, salt and white pepper in a bowl. Mix to combine. Add the corn starch and mix. The mixture should be slightly sticky.
In a small bowl, combine the black beans, garlic, ginger and dash of soy sauce. Mash with a fork.
Heat up a wok over high heat. Toss in a few tablespoons of oil. Add the chicken mixture and spread flat. Allow the chicken to brown. Depending on your heat source, temperature of the chicken, how long you allowed the wok to heat up etc., this might take a few minutes. When brown, stir fry for a few minutes, just so the chicken changes color on all sides.
Toss in the black bean mixture and onion (or shallot). Stir-fry for a few minutes. Toss in the broth and bring to a boil. You'll see it thicken and give the rest of the dish a glossy sheen. Toss in the green onion, give it a quick stir and you're done!
Time-15 minutes
Cost-3 bucks for the chicken, 1 dollar for the rest. Will serve 2 as a single course stir-fry dinner or more depending on how many other dishes you serve.
Did you know that my original chicken, tofu and black bean post is the most widely read page on this blog? Even if you take into account that that post has been up the longest, it still kills every subsequent entry. Given that I think the original chicken/black bean post sucks (not the recipe, just the post), I decided to do another chicken and black bean stir fry. Is this redundant? I don't think it is because the flavors are very, very different. Also, it involves an interesting technique. Chinese food aficionados already know that the Chinese LOVE to cook things multiple times. There are countless examples of this in Chinese cookery and, in this recipe, the chicken is twice cooked in hot oil and then stir-fried.
This recipe is from "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook" by Fuchsia Dunlop. I absolutely love Dunlop's cookbooks because they focus on under-represented regions and cuisines. Her masterpiece on Sichuanese cooking is considered one of the all-time English language Chinese cookbook classics. While her volume on Hunanese cuisine doesn't quite scale those literary heights, it is still an excellent addition to any Chinese cooking enthusiasts' library and comes highly recommended.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. boneless (and skinless, if you like) chicken thighs salt 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 head of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled, larger cloves cut in half 2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced 4 scallions, green parts only, cut into 1.5 inch segments 4 tablespoons of fermented black beans, rinsed and drained 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing rice wine or other Chinese rice wine 3 teaspoons of dried chili flakes (I used Korean chili flakes...they provide an outrageous amount of color to the final dish but you can use whatever you have on hand even if it's leftover chili flakes from pizza) 2 teaspoons unseasoned, rice vinegar ( I actually used more because I like a bit of vinegar tang) 1 teaspoon sesame oil (I omitted the sesame oil from my version because I was out) 2 cups of oil
Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Add to a bowl and season with salt and the soy sauce. Mix well.
Organize all of the other ingredients, other than the oil, into little ramekins or bowls. The cooking process goes quickly so you want to be prepared.
Heat up the oil in a wok. Wait until it is good and hot or, if you have an oil thermometer, until it's 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the chicken and cook until the color has changed. Remove the chicken. Allow the oil to heat up to 350-400 degrees and add the chicken. This time, cook the chicken until it's golden-brown. When done, set the chicken aside.
Pour off all of the oil except for a couple of tablespoons.
Put your pan on medium heat, toss in the garlic and ginger. Stir-fry until the garlic is soft. Toss in the black beans and rice wine. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Toss in the chili flakes and stir-fry until they've colored the oil.
Add the fried chicken to the pot along with the vinegar. Stir fry. Add salt to taste. At this point, the chicken should be mostly cooked but grab a piece and check. Toss in the green onions and stir-fry for 30 seconds. The onions should be slightly wilted, not cooked through.
Turn off the heat, add the sesame oil and serve with plenty of rice.
Time- 15 minutes. Fast enough for a weeknight dinner.
Cost- Chicken- 3 bucks. Incidentals- 2 dollars 5 bucks total, will serve 3-4 people as part of a multi-dish stir-fry dinner. Or two people as a single-dish dinner.
I had a craving for something homey and delicious so I decided to make a few roasted chickens. This first one features a sweet, sour and spicy glaze. The next, which I won't discuss today, is brined in a Mexican flavored brine. I'll discuss the chemistry behind brining in a future post. Anyhow, for this chicken, I asked the butcher to spatchcock it but they just butterflied it. The distinction, AFAIK, is that a spatchcocked bird has the backbone and sternum removed and a butterflied bird is just cut in half. Anyhow, the reason to do either one is so that it cooks more evenly.
The Glaze: 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice 1/4 cup honey 1.5 tablespoons of Ancho or Guajillo chile powder .5 teaspoon of ground coriander .5 teaspoon of ground cumin .5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 4-5 pound chicken, cleaned Salt and peppr
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Liberally season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the bird, skin side up on a baking sheet or roasting pan.
Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze. I found that microwaving the honey to melt it and then whisking in the other ingredients made for an easier mixing process.
Toss the bird into the oven. Let it cook for, say, 1/2 an hour. I'm sorta improvising the cooking times. The recipe says to start brushing the bird with the glaze after 20 minutes but I disagree because the bird still has 30 minutes before the thighs are cooked through and the glaze has a tendency to burn if left on the bird for that long. After the initial glaze, keep brushing more on every 10 minutes. Don't let the glaze puddle on the skin. Just paint the bird with the brush...it's actually pretty cathartic.
After 50 or so minutes of total cooking time (poke the thighs and see if the juices run clear), remove the chicken and let it rest for 10 mintues. Cut it up and serve. If you want, keep a little extra glaze on the side to use as a dipping sauce.
Time- About an hour. Price- REALLY depends on the price of the bird. My naturally raised chicken was $3.99/lb. So, about 20 bucks for my monster roaster. The rest of the ingredients are cheap.
Some of you may have noticed fava beans showing up in your local grocery stores. Because they are kind of funky and a bit intimidating, I thought I'd put together an instructional blog-post. It's actually kind of weird that I'm putting this together because I'm not the biggest fan of fava beans in their fresh, natural state. However, they ARE a major component in doubanjiang, my favorite Chinese hot bean paste. You'll find versions made with soybeans but those are inferior. *rubs fabric...Polyester, no good.* Inside joke.
So. This is a fava bean. Actually, this is the outer pod.Split it open and you'll see the individual beans. I suppose the pod could be edible but I'm not brave enough to try...just the beans for me: See how nature has created a cozy little home for the beans? They've even got their own fuzzy padding!
Pluck out a bean:Did you think you were done? Not yet! The beans have their own skin which must be peeled! Some cookbooks blanch the beans before peeling the skin but in the French Laundry cookbook, TK tells us that gases can get trapped underneath the skin and cause discoloration. So, peel the beans before you blanch them.
Peeling: The finished treat!Yes, slightly tedious but it's mindless enough so that you can do this while watching tv. So, what to do? I am definitely not the right person to ask but there are plenty of resources for online recipes.
In addition, I finally perfected crispy chicken skin. The technique? I first dried the chicken thighs with a paper towel and then left them to dry, skin side up, in a fridge. The fridge helps evaporate even more moisture from the skin...probably did this for about an hour. Then, a HOT cast iron pan and patience. I let them brown, skin side down for probably 8-10 minutes.I then flipped the thighs, scattered some thyme and chunked zucchini among the chicken and finished cooking it in a HOT oven. Around 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Yes, the zucchini was HELLA overcooked. Finished product: Just look at that skin. Perfectly crispy, salty, delicious chicken skin. Soooooooo good. Ignore the zucchini. Blech. Dipping sauce for the chicken was meyer lemon juice, honey, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
Lastly, I've run out!!! This stuff is amazing. Blis maple syrup...you might think it's plain maple syrup but this is AGED IN BOURBON BARRELS!!!! Yes, you can taste the difference. Someone send me more!!!! See ya!
Sorry about the lack of updates...most of my free time was spent watching a Star Wars marathon and the rest of it was reserved for Champions League soccer games/NCAA Basketball. Hopefully, I've gotten back on the blogging horse and won't (again) fall off!
This is one of my favorite Indian dishes. It's not your typical red, tomato-y, turmeric-y stewed chicken. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those kinds of dishes but I prefer the intoxicating/exotic aroma of curry leaves. There's really no way to describe them....to me, they're one of those unique ingredients that defy description, sorta like truffles. In addition, this dish, like most Indian dishes, is great due to the carefully calculated combination of spices. I neither understand how Indians build flavor nor do I understand the thought process behind it. The Indians believe that some foods warm the body, others cool the body and other foods stimulate the body etc. Apparently, this stems from the Ayurvedic belief system but I don't really get it. Furthermore, I am uniformly awful at creating my own spice blends...I've tried to improvise Indian food but it turns out crappy. I just don't have the necessary knowledge and am much better cooking from a recipe. Speaking of recipes, this one is pretty much ripped straight from Indian Home Cooking A Fresh Introduction To Indian Food.
I used to have an issue with this book because the author is a vegetarian but has included recipes for meat dishes. I couldn't fathom publishing a recipe that I hadn't tasted. It seemed....irresponsible. However, I've since learned that cooking meat dishes is fairly common for vegetarian Indians. In fact, one of the most well-regarded Indian restaurants in North America, Vij's (Vancouver), only hires vegetarian women to cook a menu full of meat dishes!!! In addition, I've cooked lots of the meat dishes from the cookbook and they're mostly delicious! So, if it tastes good, I'm going to cook it. End of story. Having made peace with this cookbook, I can now heartily recommend it. Whew. Glad I got that off my chest!
Ingredients, slightly annotated. I am making a double recipe: Juice of one lemon, two teaspoons of black pepper: 4 pounds of skinless chicken thighs. Mix well with the lemon juice/pepper. Set aside for half an hour. Spices...click picture for specifics: Curry leaves!So, what is a curry leaf? Well, it's NOT the secret behind the yellow powder that you find in the spice aisle at your local grocery store! Here's the Wikipedia page which informs us that the curry leaf is the leaf of a tree native to India. Ummm, not especially informative, no? Oooooh, I just remembered about this article from the SF Chronicle. I have an amazing memory for weird things like this. Anyhow, I buy mine fresh but keep them in the freezer until needed. Availability is somewhat spotty so I usually try to stock up whenever I find them in the market. This recipe calls for a total of 80 curry leaves but, for this step, we only need 40 of them. Dry roast the spices and curry leaves in a dry pan. Roast until fragrant. It's gonna smell GREAT, trust me. All done:Let the spices/leaves completely cool and then grind to a find powder:I usually run freshly ground spices through a fine sieve. Whatever sediment doesn't make it through the sieve I re-grind and run through the sieve. I repeat until all of it is powdered.
More prep work...click picture for specifics: Heat a pot over medium-low heat, add oil, toss in the sliced green chile and the whole cardamom pods, red chile etc. Cover with a lid until you can hear the mustard seeds popping...they will pop and jump. One issue here...I HATE eating whole cardamom pods. It's like swallowing a cupful of perfume. However, I've not yet come up with a way to remedy this unfortunate situation...for this batch, I laboriously picked through the dish and manually removed the cardamom. Maybe a muslin bag would be a good idea. Once you've heard them pop (or if you're impatient), toss in the ground spice mix and cook/stir for 30 seconds.Add 1/2 cup of grated, dried coconut. UN-sweetened, please.Cook for another 30 seconds and then add the chicken. I try not to add the lemon juice marinade. I don't like the flavor it imparts to the final dish but you can do as you please. Cook the chicken for 5 minutes or until it changes color. Add 27 ounces coconut milk. I love the green oil that's rising to the top. I imagine that if I were able to capture a sample of The Incredible Hulk's sweat, it would look something like that green oil. Mix it all up, turn the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Halfway through, add salt to taste. And...that's it! Easy!
*Bonus* Fresh Mango Chutney Just a little condiment to serve with the above dish. The chicken is quite spicy and rich so it's nice to have something sweet and refreshing to counter it. Here is what you need: Mince the jalapeno. Here's what I do. Stem the pepper and cut in half:For this, we're going to remove the core and seeds: Press flat: Cut lengtwise into strips and then cross cut to mince: Set aside.
For the 2 mangoes: Cut: In the center is the mango pit. We're not going to use it for this recipe so you can do whatever you want with it...I suggest peeling the skin off and nibbling around the pit: Use a spoon to loosen the skin from the mango flesh: Peel the skin off: Et voila! Cut into chunks.
Mix the mangoes with the jalapeno and a handful of cilantro leaves. Season with a pinch of salt and fresh lime juice. If your mangoes suck (like mine), you can add a bit of sugar to create more sweetness. I finished the meal with some stir-fried cabbage. A simple, somewhat neutral foil to the stronger flavors of the mango and chicken. Just halve, quarter and de-core a cabbage. Thinly slice half of the cabbage. Heat oil in a wok, toss in 3-4 flattened garlic cloves. Toss in the thinly sliced cabbage and cook until wilted. I don't like it crunchy...I like it soft. Not mushy, but soft...there IS a difference. Serve with rice.
Time (for the chicken)- 30 minutes of prep, an hour or so of inactive cooking time. Food cost- Chicken-$5.00 (Costco!) Coconut milk- $2.00 Incidentals-$1.50 Total-$8.50...This recipe made 12 chicken thighs. I usually eat one thigh per meal so $0.71 per serving. Cheap-o.
Let me start by saying that I do not recommend re-creating this dish. Seriously. Don't do it.
I was reading another food blog and came across an entry about a maniacally spicy Thai curry. The blogger mentioned how the dish was so spicy it created an altered state of mind. That got me thinking about my past experience with spicy food and I decided that I, too, wanted to get "high" through chilis.
So, this is an attempt to create my spiciest dish ever. However, I also wanted something that would taste good so I thought long and hard about chili-loving cuisines and how chili heat can be incorporated in a multitude of ways. I think I ended up striking a pretty good balance between flavor and raging, vengeful heat.
I came up with a blueprint for the dish. From Indian cuisine, I would start with an onion/ginger/chili puree and use that as a marinade for boneless chicken. The fresh chilis in the marinade would be roasted which is a very typical Mexican technique. A large handful of chopped garlic and Thai chile is how I usually make my Thai chicken stir-fry so I stole that from my SE Asian playbook. When I make Chinese mapo tofu, I usually toss in some powdered, dried chili and I thought that I could incorporate that idea in this dish so I came up with a special, proprietary blend of dried, powdered chilis. This addition gives the dish a rich, red color and fragrant aroma.
But what kind of chilis? There are a bewildering number of available choices...I rooted through my pantry and here is what I found:
See what I mean by a bewildering number of choices? Anyhow, the first step is to make the dried chili powder blend: I started with a few Sichuanese chilis, a few Chinese dried chilis and some dried Thai chilis. To that I added Korean ground chilis, Mexican ancho chili powder, paprika and cayenne pepper. A good deal of heat, but, more important, an intriguing flavor. Don't ask for proportions because I just added a bit of this, a bit of that and constantly tasted until I came up with something that made me happy. Notice the cup of water...yep, I was already feeling the burn. Roast some fresh chilis...I used two jalapeno and two serrano chilis. To roast them, just turn on the broiler and place the chilis under the broiler for a few minutes. Turn the chilis to roast the other sides...you're looking for somewhat blackened, blistered skin. The roasted chilis will be a little soft and mushy. Stem the chilis:Chop up half of an onion and mince a one inch piece of ginger. Roughly chop a few cloves of garlic: Place the ginger, onion, roasted chili, and garlic into a food processor and blend until smooth. If the mixture creeps up the side of the food processor, just scrape the sides down with a spatula and continue blending. Add a bit of water if it doesn't want to blend. Taste for seasoning. I used fish sauce and vinegar. Vinegar because I wanted some tang, like an Indian vindaloo. Empty the blended mixture into a large bowl. At this point, I tossed in two tablespoons of my dried, ground chili powder mixture. I also tossed in 2 teaspoons of freshly ground black peppercorns. Stir to combine.Yes, it is pretty spicy.
Chop up some chicken into bite sized pieces. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Roughly 1.5 lbs. Combine with the marinade and mix well. Set aside to marinate for a few hours. When you're read to eat, it's time to finish the rest of the prep work. Mince 15 cloves of garlic: Chop 30 little Thai chilis. This is a significant number of peppers...I usually roll with 10-15 when I'm making a spicy stir-fry.And check out this multi-colored delight!Proof positive that a red chili is just a matured green chili!
Slice two fresno chilis: Pick the leaves off of 1 bunch of Thai basil: I also measured out some additional seasoning, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and a fish sauce, soy sauce mixture...probably 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and 2 teaspoons of soy sauce.Gather all the ingredients: This is in order of when they go into the pot...garlic/minced chilis, then some dried chili powder, then the meat/onion mixture, then the fresno chilis, soy/fish sauce/sugar and Thai basil to finish.
Hot wok, oil (use quite a bit...maybe 1/3 of a cup), toss in the garlic/minced chili: Cook until fragrant. When the chili hits the oil, you'll probably start coughing/sneezing.
When fragrant, toss in a few tablespoons of the dried chili powder blend: Cook the chili powder in the oil. Look for a rich red color.
Toss in the onion/chicken mixture. Mix well and cook for a minute or two. Toss in two cups of chicken broth:Bring to a boil and cook for a minute or two.
Toss in the sliced fresno chilis, brown sugar and the fish sauce/soy mixture. Mix well and taste for seasoning. Go fish sauce, salt, whatever you think it needs. It might be spicy. Chuck in the Thai basil and stir just so the basil leaves wilt.Done! Now that I think of it, some fresh squeezed lime juice would be a nice addition.
So, yah, this dish was pretty spicy. It wasn't AS spicy as I had hoped but I was nearly hyperventilating as I ate it. My stomach wanted to kill me. I was sweating profusely. It packed quite a punch. However, I think I can make something even spicier...we'll see if I get around to it anytime soon...my body is still punishing me for eating that much spice in one sitting. And like I said at the top of the post, please don't make this dish. I have a pretty high tolerance for spicy food. This dish might've killed a lesser man.
Final tally: 2 jalapenos, 2 serranos, 2 fresno chilis, 30 Thai chilis and approximately 4 tablespoons of chili powder. I also garnished my serving with extra chili powder and some bottled chili sauce.
Time- 30 minutes of chopping and all that. A few hours to marinate. Cooking time is around 10 minutes.
Food Cost- Chicken-$2.00 Chili-$0.75 Basil-$0.99 Incidentals-$0.50 Total- $4.75...probably serves 4-5...a little of this goes a long way. About $1.00 per serving.
