January 30, 2010

Hot Pot

Cook 1
When you think of a stew, what do you picture? A delightful pot of tender meat, rich sauce and exquisite flavor? Or do you think of a gluey, dull, beefy mess that requires endless prep work and then cooks for hours only to end up tasting like not much? Well, I'm raising my hand here for the latter. I have always wanted to love stew, but the truth is - well, I don't. The flavor has always seemed lacking somehow - I love the idea of stew, but not necessarily the realized product. If you're in my camp (and even if you're not), take this recipe for a spin and see if you don't find all the idealized qualities of a stew (steamy, cheery, delicious, easy) and then some.


As my boyfriend and I took our first bites of this fragrant coconut chicken stew, we couldn't help but gaze upon the ceramic pot holding our dinner as if it were the Holy Grail. Tender, bright, unctuous, creamy, toasty and sensual - this stew was re-arranging my brain circuitry and carving new pathways in my taste buds. We fell upon our meal in a trance-like state as we lapped up more and more of the tantalizing broth and covetously licked our plates clean like a couple of cats with bowls of cream. We polished off the chicken, sighing with delight, but also with the slight annoyance that our coconut high was coming to an end; and we swore that this would be our last meal on Earth if ever we could choose.
The magic of this recipe is that with a minimum of effort you infuse the chicken with a ton of complementary flavors. The coconut milk creates a spa like environment that yields a seriously moist piece of poultry. This chicken is all about the meat and not at all about the skin, so don't get sulky that it's not crispy - just push it to the side and mov
e on. This can be a light or a heavy meal, depending on how you accessorize it. To eliminate some calories, use light coconut milk and skip the potatoes; instead throw some spinach into the pot to wilt at the last minute or serve the chicken over a bed of thinly sliced red cabbage. To make this a heavier meal, add vermicelli or Chinese noodles into the pot to cook in the broth - they will soak up all that delicious flavor and round out the meal. If you don't have lemongrass on hand you can skip it, but I do recommend sticking with as much garlic as you can tolerate since it imparts a muted but seductive element to the broth. You can also use canola oil in place of the sesame oil without any major repercussions in flavor.

Chicken in Coconut Milk (adapted from Apartment T
herapy's recipe)
serves 2 extremely greedy people and 4 less greedy people

One 3-3.5 pound whole chicken sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 pound fingerling potatoes
2 cans (13 - 15oz) regular or light coconut milk
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

10 whole garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Zest of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons chopped lemon grass stems
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Season the chicken with salt and pepper at a rate of about 1 tablespoon salt per pound and 1 tablespoon pepper per three pounds
.
2. Heat the butter and sesame oil in a pot that will fit the chicken snugly, like a Dutch oven, and set the chicken in the hot oil. Cook, turning the chicken to get an even golden color on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and dispose of the fat left in the pot.
3. Return the chicken to the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven, basting with the cooking juices every 20 minutes, for 1 - 1.5 hours. It is done when the meat pulls away from the bone without much effort and the potatoes are tender when pricked with the end of a paring knife. Check the temperature of the mea
t until it reaches 175 degrees and then pull it out of the oven.
4. To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide with potatoes between plates or serve on a platter. Spoon over a hefty helping of the milky sauce. Mind the cinnamon stick.


...................................................................................................................................

Cook 2
: Goulash

Between the holidays and starting a new job this post has been a long time coming...but trust me it was worth the wait! It was really cold in Philly this January, and this meal is the perfect way to fight the cold...hot, hearty, and with a little kick to warm you up. My boyfriend has been making goulash ever since his trip to Hungary last year, and he gets full credit for this post. The best part about it is that there's no real need to measure, chop precisely, or even use a timer! As he says its really the technique that's important, and the rest is simple. The technique he's referring to is the same for most stews: first sear the meat on all sides to get a good caramelized crust (this is where most of the flavor will come from), then remove meat, throw in the veggies for a bit, put the meat back in and liquid (if needed--you don't for goulash) and cook at a simmer for a few hours. The essential tool here is the dutch oven. We just got a nice red one--unfortunately not Le Crueset but it works just as well.


There are a lot of variations of goulash, and according to my boyfriend if you can get your hands on some traditional smoky Hungarian sausage called csabai it is an amazing addition. We also attempted to make csipetke, a lentil-shaped spaetzle, but it was a time consuming process that was not worth the effort. Pasta (egg noodles or orzo) or rice are just as good.

 Goulash

2-3lb meat (beef chuck, pork butt or lamb shoulder)
3 large onions
5-6 large bell peppers
2 large cans whole tomatoes, seeded and drained (keep juice)
3 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
a lot of paprika (maybe 1/4 c)
3 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp caraway seeds
1 tsp cayenne pepper
wine vinegar

1. Cut meat into large cubes and brown in a little oil in the dutch oven over medium heat. Remove and set aside.
2. Slice peppers (we used green but a mixture of red and green gives a great visual) and throw in dutch oven (no extra oil or fat needed).
3. While peppers are cooking slice onions, then add to peppers.
4. Cook peppers and onions until softened, stirring regularly.
5. Add all the spices (except the caraway seed) and the garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes.
6. Add tomatoes. Cook for a couple of minutes until they start to break up, stirring regularly.
7. Add the meat, caraway seeds, juice from the drained tomatoes and vinegar.
8. Heat oven to 250 degrees, cover dutch oven and put in oven. The goulash should be kept at a simmer until the meat is tender (probably around 3 hours). The temperature required to keep it at a simmer will vary (probably between 220 and 300) so check it regularly until you know. Stir occasionally.
9. Serve over pasta (I like egg noodles or orzo) or rice with sour cream.  And an extra dash or two of paprika on top!
10. Enjoyed curled up on your couch!