Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 43 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Chicken Afritada, Filipino Chicken Tomato-Bell Pepper Stew

We’re in a recession, right? Even the Swai fish price in Harlem is up a few dollars. For last week’s bento lunch, I used pork because buying for ten people was still under budget compared to buying enough fish that would feed the entire group. This week, I used chicken–and you know something’s off when I start buying chicken. I rarely order chicken from a restaurant menu (except for a good fried chicken, of course), but I do like cooking with it. I’m a sucker for the Dr.’s roast chicken anytime.

So with six chicken breasts and almost two pounds of peppers from my last few farmer’s shares, I turned to the Filipino cookbook I bought in Manila last August called Fiesta! Fiesta! Festival Foods of the Philippines for a tomato and bell pepper-based stew. The recipe’s most important step called for a store-bought Afritada mix (wenk, wenk) which I obviously altered in my version. Why go for a short cut when the real way is already easy?

Ingredients:
6 boneless chicken breasts
4 large red bell peppers, seeded, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil and brown chicken on both sides. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. Using the same pot and oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add the bay leaves and stir in tomato paste. Add tomatoes and bell peppers and cook until peppers are tender.
3. Add the chicken pieces back and add 4 cups of water. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked and water is reduced to a thicker consistency.

Kalbi Tang, Korean Beef Rib Soup

I hurried home on Sunday afternoon because I was in the mood to spend the rest of my weekend cooking. The Dr. bought fresh perilla leaves from Koreatown before we left for Montauk in preparation for all the sashimi that we were going to eat after a planned fishing trip for striped bass. We didn’t catch any fish that weekend (neither did anyone on the entire boat), so he saved the leaves to use it for something else. His kalbi tang, or Korean beef rib soup, last Tuesday was so comforting that I badly wanted to recreate it at home.

It reminded me of the Filipino bulalo, or bone marrow soup, only less fatty. Browning the short ribs made the stock beefier and toastier. The perilla leaves added an interesting kick to it–I don’t know how else to describe the taste but medicinal. And really, after a pot of this soup with some warm white rice and kimchi, you’d feel a hundred per cent better already.

Ingredients:
6 pieces of beef short ribs
1 napa cabbage, chopped
10 pieces perilla leaves
2 tbsps soy bean paste
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
oil

1. In a large Dutch oven, add some oil and brown all sides of the beef ribs. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the used oil. Try to get the darkest bits out from the oil. In the remaining oil, sauté the garlic until light brown and the onions until soft. Add the soy bean paste and stir.
3. Return the browned beef ribs in the pot and add 5 to 6 cups of water. Cover and simmer for about 2 to 3 hours. Check after 20 minutes to remove the impurities that float to the top. It’s okay if you discard some of the onions.
4. When the meat is almost falling off the bone, add cabbage and perilla leaves. Cook for another 10 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Season with some more soy bean paste if it needs extra salt.

Spiced Turnips, Shalgam Masala

I can tell that the cold weather is here to stay with the most recent bounty from my CSA farmer share. Solid and heavy produce like apples, carrots, turnips and broccoli dominated the weight of my two carry-ons. I still have a jar of homemade kimchi in the fridge so I wanted to do something different yet familiar with the turnips. I turned to my copy of Monisha Bharadwaj’s India’s Vegetarian Cooking to try her spiced turnips recipe after I remembered doing a similar take on kohlrabi.

Ingredients:
4 medium turnips, peeled, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
2 tbsps ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
a small handful of cilantro leaves, finely chopped
oil, salt

1. Heat some oil in a pot and sauté the onions until soft. Add the ginger-garlic paste and the chili flakes. Add the tomatoes and all the spices. Season with a little salt. Stir until well blended.
2. Mix in the turnips and add about 3/4 cup of water. Stir to combine everything. Cover and bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until turnips are tender.
3. Remove from heat and add in the cilantro leaves.

Related post/s:
I use a similar recipe using kohlrabi

Apple Peel-Brined Pork Loin with Baked Purple Figs

When trying to figure out our September apple menu for Supper with Strangers, I naturally turned to pork because pork and apples make a good combination. A more recent New York Times recipe featured duck and figs that looked very autumnal and just made me feel warm and fuzzy all over. Duck breast was out of our Supper budget, so I found some nice pork loin and stole the idea of figs from the recipe.

The apple peel brine came from watching the Dr. marinate pork chops when we closed the summer season in Montauk a couple of weekends ago. The sweetness of the brine penetrated the pork meat and made it juicy; cooked just right and the meat is succulent and moist. The baked apples and figs were a nice side to make the meal complete. A Coast of Spain blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Tempranillo was the perfect match.

Ingredients:
1 pork loin, tied in butcher twine
1 apple, sliced thin
1 apple, peel and meat peeled using a peeler
1 small tub of figs, sliced in half
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp juniper berries
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
oil, salt

1. Two days before cooking, make the brine. In a small saucepan, boil apple peels and meat with sugar, juniper berries, all spice, black peppercorns, bay leaves in 4 cups of water. Season with salt. Simmer until water is reduced to about half. Remove pot from heat and let completely cool before adding to pork loin.
2. In a glass baking dish, marinade the pork loin in the brine. Just use enough brine to submerge the pork almost halfway. Turn pork loin over after a day.
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 300º. While preheating oven, remove pork from the brine. Heat a large skillet with some oil and brown the pork loin on all sides. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with foil and roast for about 25 minutes or until the pork feels like the meat below your thumb.
4. In the meantime, combine figs and apples in a separate baking dish and drizzle some oil. Bake for 15 minutes. Set aside. Save the juice.
5. Remove pork loin from oven to a chopping block and let rest for about 15 minutes before slicing into 2-inch thick rounds. Serve with baked apples and figs and drizzle the fruit juice over them.

Peach Cobbler

When I try to cook something and it comes out of the oven fragrant and then it actually tastes good, I always wish I baked more. I got my hands on some ripe and bruised peaches today. I knew they wouldn’t hold even if I just ate them with yogurt for breakfast, so I thought cooking them was the way to go. I’ve tried this recipe before and for some reason I added more flour and it came out bread-y. This time, I was vigilant about following the measurements and waiting for it to bake on its own. Spain…On The Road Again on CBS kept me company until I had to eat a piece of Cia dessert.

Ingredients:
8 ripe yellow peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/2 inch thick wedges
1 cup sugar, divided 2/3 cup and 1/3 cup
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tbsps lemon juice
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (6 oz) butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2/3 cup whipping cream

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In a large bowl, combine peaches, 2/3 cup sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice and vanilla. Let stand at least 15 minutes, stirring several times.
2. In another large bowl, combine flour with remaining 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder and nutmeg. Using your fingers, incorporate butter into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cream and stir just until dough holds together.
3. In a greased shallow square baking dish, spread fruit at the bottom. Using your hands, crumble dough evenly over fruit.
4. Bake oven until fruit mixture bubbles in center and topping is golden brown, about 1 hour.