Really Slow Food

You may or may not know about the Slow Food Movement in the US (and around the globe -it started in Italy), but we seem to be setting a record in our house. A few days ago, we had a "freezer incident" that touched off a flurry of cooking.

One of us [Cough! Not me! Cough!] didn't check to make sure the freezer door was all the way shut. The food in it slowly defrosted until we found it, freaked out appropriately (My quarter cow! My ten chickens! Aiee!) and then went into Food Triage. Which food did we think was most at risk? Everything on the door. On the door were a few steaks, a couple of tenderloins and...a beef brisket.

What to do with beef brisket in summer? Brisket is mostly a winter food. Also, brisket isn't the kind of meat you can just toss on the grill and have it be fabulous. It needs to cook slowly in order for the meat to become tender. And this isn't just any old summer either, but a record-making heat wave summer. Ack! Quickly flipping through a few cookbooks, we decided we wanted Corned Beef for a fantastic Corned Beef Hash (So far away from the stuff in the can it is mind blowing!) recipe we made in the spring. However, you may not realize it, but corned beef is most often available around St. Patrick's Day and is very hard to find after that time of year. So if we want corned beef, we'd have to make it. From scratch.

That's when we found out there were several steps involved in what we wanted to do as follows: brisket --> brining/pickling --> corned beef --> final recipe.

Oh and that brining/pickling step? Seven days. Seven.

Being insane, this didn't stop us.

Today is Day Seven. The brisket has been removed from its pickling brine, boiled (Oy! The English and the boiling of meat!) and is now roasting in the oven.

It's one hundred degrees outside. We're roasting brisket in the oven.

And this isn't even the final step; this is just the mid-way point in our plans. First we'll eat this for dinner and then take the leftovers and make the hash tomorrow.

I think the heat* has addled our brains.

Hash browns, at last!

* And the lack of sleep. The twins are waking twice a night again. ARGH!

Grilled Thai Chicken

Vegetarians: avert your eyes!

Everyone else: this is the best chicken that I have ever eaten. I swear. Hell, I pinky swear. No, I even really, totally mean it. This is not, however, a fast recipe. This recipe puts the Slow in the Slow Food Movement.

Was it the chicken? Was it the recipe? Was it the fact that it was cooked with love by Eric? Was it the hunger at the end of a long day? I don't know, but whatever it was, I'll be making this recipe again. It was fanTAStic! I'm not kidding: I had a hard time stopping myself from finishing my 1/2 of the chicken the first night.

OK! OK! Enough build up!

First, you need to get yourself a yummy all natural chicken from your local Farmer's Market. Failing that, get a good chicken from the grocery store. Expensive? Yes. Worth it! Also, did I mention that I'm reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma? Yeah. This book is having the same effect on me as Fast Food Nation did: we no longer eat from fast food restaurants. I now will no longer eat chicken/pork/beef raised in a feedlot (Confined Animal Feeding Operation = CAFO), if I have any other choice. It's bad news all the way around. The book, by the way, is awesome and eye opening. A total kick in the head, too.

Anyway! Get a good, whole, chicken. Then brine it.

What?!

Brining is key. While not called for in the recipe, let me tell you a secret: all natural, unconventional, minimally processed chickens can be a bit dry when cooked, since we've all become very used to more processed chicken which has been injected with broth. Which makes it moist. Natural chickens are killed, plucked, washed and frozen. That's it. Brining the chicken only takes 1 hour to do and locks in a lot of moisture, which ensures yumminess like you wouldn't believe.

Brining chicken

1. Take 1/2 cup table salt and dissolve it in 2 quarts cold water in a large, lidded pot.
2. Rinse chicken, place in pot, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Finally, rinse chicken in colander with fresh water and drain/pat dry.

Grilled Thai Chicken
From Fine Cooking magazine, July 2003, No, 58, pp. 63.
Serves four. (If you're good about sharing, that is.)

Marinade:
15 cloves garlic (You know it's going to be good right now, don't you?)
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbsp white peppercorns, toasted and ground
3/4 c minced cilantro stems and leaves (from about 1 large bunch)
1/4 c soy sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil

In a food processor, mince the garlic with the salt. Add the ground coriander seeds, ground peppercorns, cilantro, soy sauce and oil; puree until completely blended, 1 to 2 minutes. You'll have about 1 cup of marinade. Transfer to bowl, cover and set aside. Refrigerate if working ahead.

For the chicken:
1 chicken, 3.5 to 4 lbs, preferably kosher (Note: if kosher, do NOT brine), fat trimmed and discarded, chicken rinsed and thoroughly patted dry
Vegetable or olive oil spray

Butterfly the chicken (Or do what I did, purchase two halves.). Rinse and pat dry. Marinate chicken (Separate breast and thigh skin from flesh and slip a bit of marinade under the skin. Put chicken and remainder of marinade in a large zip-top bag, seal the bag and massage it to distribute the marinade all over the chicken.), refrigerated, for a least 1 hour and up to 8 hours (We did 8 hours.). Half an hour or so before grilling, remove from refrigerator and bag and put it on a platter.

Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire with the coals banked to one side or heat a gas grill to high on one side and medium low on the other.

Spray the chicken generously with vegetable oil spray and set it, breast side down, on the hottest part of the grill. Cook the chicken uncovered, turning once, until the skin has deep golden grill marks, 7 to 10 minutes. Move the chicken to the cooler side of the grill. Cover the grill and grill the chicken indirectly, turning every 5 minutes or so, until the juices run clear when the spot between the thigh and the breast is pricked and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh registers at least 165 degrees F, another 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and tent with foil. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with Sweet & Sour Sauce.

Sweet & Sour Sauce
Yields 1/2 cup.

1 tbsp dried red chile flakes
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c plus 2 tbsp rice vinegar
7 cloves garlic, minced

In a small, dry, saucepan, toast the chile flakes over high heat until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the salt, sugar, and rice vinegar; cook over medium-low heat until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Stir in the garlic. Remove the sauce from the heat and let cool completely.

It was sooooo good that I never took a picture of it. I had to make myself stop eating it to save some for lunch the next day. Even cold it was fabulous.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but most of that time is spent sitting in the fridge. It is definitely worth trying: just the smell of the marinade made my mouth water. I only wish I had some right now.

Oh, and the twins gave it four tiny thumbs up.

I bet you're hungry now, aren't you?

Care Package!

I received a care package from my older sister (via my younger brother) last night. Yay!

In it were a pair of cans of Ackee*, a pair of spice buns, a can of some very odd processed cheese food object (apparently fabulous on the spice bun, but I have a strange dread of cheese in a can!), a pair of cans of Milo (I can't explain it too well - malted chocolate energy drink from our youth), salted cod (to go with the ackee) and three loaves of Hard-Dough bread. Yummmm!

I immediately climbed into the spice bread and Milo. Added a slice of cheddar cheese with the spice bread and ahhhh! Cheers all around.

Unfortunately I didn't notice a small detail about the Hard-Dough bread - it had gone moldy.

Moldy!?!

My brother drove all the way to NYC, saw my sister, got fresh made bread, drove back and then didn't stick it in the freezer until he saw me. Argh! My bread! Manna from Jamaica via NYC - ruined!

I could've wept. Instead, I sprung (sproinged? lumbered?) into action - I called my sister. I'm not ashamed to say that I begged. No, not me! The power that is hard-dough bread....If you tasted it, you would know. If you tasted it fresh and still warm from the oven, you'd be a slave for life!

Dawn promised to Fed-Ex me some fresh loaves in exchange for the Jamaican breakfast recipe. The one from our mother that involves saltfish and ackees.

Dawn: here it is.

Ackee and Saltfish (Traditional Jamaican Breakfast)

1. Soak salted cod overnight.
2. Pour off the water and boil cod in fresh water until tender.
3. Drain and tear into bite sized pieces.
4. Cook 2-3 slices of bacon, crumble and set aside.
5. Open 1 can of ackees, strain into colander, rinse with cold water and let drain.
6. Saute 1 large onion, garlic to taste and chopped tomatoes in olive oil.
7. Add black pepper, 3 Allspice seeds (or if ground, use 1/8th tsp), thyme (sprinkle to taste).
8. Add bacon crumbles, saltfish and ackee to sauted onion mixture and heat through. Do not over cook or the ackee will go oily.

Enjoy with fresh hard-dough bread, fried breadfruit, fried green plantains or fried bammy.

Toast? Toast is for pansies!

P.S. Hey Dawn, while you're at it, send some tamarind balls and guava jelly! Yeeha!

* If terms like ackee, bammy, plantains, breadfruit, tamarind and saltfish leave you scratching your head, have a look here or here.