Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 61 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Tandoori Chicken with Peach-Blackberry Chutney

I’m still in shock when I find that most of the ingredients I need for a certain recipe is already in our kitchen. That’s the good thing with store-bought spices: you only have to buy them once in a while because you can store them for up to a year. For this one, all I had to do was buy the chicken, the yogurt and a couple of peaches. I used the blackberries I picked from North Fork after our trip to Montauk. They were in a Tupperware inside the fridge, but even after a few weeks, they were still good to go.

All I really wanted was to use the blackberries before they went bad. I found this chutney recipe online and thought of matching it with pork chops because of the cherry chutney I made earlier this season. But then something Indian-spiced came to mind after I bought several lamb pieces from the Halal store around the corner.

Ingredients:
8 chicken breasts and legs, skinned
1 cup of nonfat Greek yogurt
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted, ground
2 tbsps paprika
2 tbsps garam masala
2 tbsps turmeric
2 tbsps cardamom, ground
2 tbsps cayenne pepper
salt, pepper, oil

For the peach-blackberry chutney:
1 cups of blackberries
2 peaches, peeled, seeded, diced
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 onion, chopped
2 coves of garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, chopped
1 small jalapeÃ±o, seeded, chopped
salt, oil

1. Make the marinade by mixing all the spices and yogurt together in a bowl large enough to fit all the chicken. Add the chicken pieces and make sure the marinade covers them all. Marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Make the peach-blackberry chutney. In a saucepan, heat some oil and sautÃ© the onions and the garlic. Add the jalapeÃ±o and ginger and sautÃ© a few minutes more. Add in the cinnamon, vinegar, brown sugar and peaches. Keep sautÃ©ing until the peaches are soft. Add blackberries. Cook, stirring occasionally and crushing the fruits with the back of a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and let cool. Strain to a container and serve with tandoori chicken.

Salt-Encrusted White Croaker

I received a packet of flor de sal, or flower salt, and a packet of sea salt from Terras de Sal in Portugal last week. What good timing, too, because I ran out sea salt and have been using the grocery store type the last two nights. The Terras de Sal sea salt looks and feels like a handful of rough diamonds. It tastes like they were just filtered from the ocean. The flor de sal is more fine, and because it is traditionally applied to food before serving, its saltiness is less strong.

Terras de Sal mines its salt in Castro Marim, or Castle by the Sea, in the surrounding natural marshland of Reserva Natural do Sapal de Castro Marim. The area is a breeding ground for many species of birds and the salt mines are known to keep its surroundings balanced with the natural environment. All the salt they produce are mined by hand with the aid of wooden instruments and techniques used from a long time ago. When the package from Portugal came, I was very intrigued since I’ve never really distinguished the different kinds of salt available in fine stores today.

I searched for a recipe that uses a large quantity of salt. I used a fish I’ve never heard of: croaker. They were among the newly delivered fresh fish in the Harlem supermarket one Saturday morning and were going for only $2.80 for a whole one. I read later that croakers live in shallow lagoons and therefore eat a lot of shellfish, so they’re meat is considered to be pretty good even though a lot of fishermen think they are a nuisance. (Feel free to substitute with a sea bass.)

When done, the Terras de Sal salt not only gave the fish some flavor, it also gave this dish a uniquely presentable look.

Ingredients:
1 white croaker, cleaned and scaled
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 lemon, sliced, plus some zest
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 cup sea salt
olive oil, pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425Âº. Meanwhile, sprinkle the inside of the fish with pepper and stuff with lemon slices.
2. Make the salt mixture. In a bowl, combine the thyme and rosemary with the sea salt, lemon zest and egg white. You can add a little water to get a coating consistency. It shouldn’t be too crumbly.
3. Coat the fish. Spread some of the salt in a roasting pan and place the fish on top. Completely cover the fish with the rest of the salt mixture. Make sure the whole fish is concealed by the salt as this will seal it and keep all the aromas and flavors inside.
4. Bake the fish for about 35 minutes. When done, remove the fish from the oven and carefully crack the salt case using a heavy knife and remove the fish. Serve the fish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Recommended purveyor/s:
Buy your salt from Terras de Sal

Lemon Sorbet with Blackberry Simple Syrup

From Montauk, we paid $10 to get the car onto a ferry to Shelter Island. From there, we paid another $10 to exit through North Fork and avoid the Hamptons traffic. We stopped by one of the farms on the side of the road to pick our own blackberries for $5 a pint.

If you can get your hands on some fresh blackberries before summer ends, this is a great and easy recipe to end that perfect meal you’ve just whipped up for your friends. Cameron made it for us when we came over her apartment for dinner one night. The Dr. loves tarty desserts, so she easily won him over.

Ingredients:
1 pint blackberries, washed
white sugar
1 star anise
lemon sorbet
mint leaves

1. In a small pot, make simple syrup. Simmer some water with white sugar and star anise. I use about three cups of water with two cups of sugar, but feel free to make it sweeter if you like. Add blackberries and continue to simmer. Stir slowly and ocassionally to avoid burning. Remove the pot from the heat when blackberries are just a tad soft and bruised. Set aside to cool a bit.
2. To serve, scoop sorbet in a small bowl. Spoon over the warm simple syrup and a couple of the cooked blackberries. Garnish with mint leaves.

Ginatang Isda, Fish in Coconut Milk

This is my second contribution to Lasang Pinoy 20: Binalot, All-Wrapped Up! Binalot comes from balot, which means “to wrap”, while isda is Tagalog for “fish”.

If you live in the Philippines, I’m sure you can go to your neighbor’s backyard and find a banana tree. All you have to do is wipe the leaves down with a wet paper towel to make sure they’re clean. Here in New York City, I bought mine frozen in Chinatown. I thawed the few rectangles I knew I was going to use. If you’re surrounded by concrete buildings and there are no banana leaves around, you can use parchment paper which should be available in your baking goods supermarket aisle. If you can’t find bluefish, you can use cod or even salmon.

Using coconut milk is common in some parts of the Philippines. I grew up calling it gata. The important ingredient here is the dried chiles–the coconut milk needs to have some oomph!

Ingredients:
1 bluefish, scaled and cleaned
half a can of coconut milk
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
a handful of basil leaves, chiffonade
a few sprigs of cilantro, finely chopped
a few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
dried chiles, crushed
salt, pepper
frozen banana leaves, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 375Âº. Season the fish inside out with salt and pepper.
2. Using a bowl, combine all the ingredients and whisk together to make marinade, except for the fish and banana leaves. Marinate the fish for about 30 minutes.
3. Lay banana leaves large enough to cover the fish on your working table. If they are already in squares, make sure you overlap two leaves for your “base”. Put the fish on top and spoon the coconut mixture inside and outside the fish. Discard the rest. Using another banana leaf square, cover the fish and fold with the base to seal. Use toothpicks to hold the leaves together.
4. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, discard the toothpicks and uncover by removing the top leaf. Return to the oven and cook for another 7 minutes. To serve, leave the fish on the banana leaf; just transfer to a plate.

Pinangat na Isda, Bluefish in Tomatoes

This is first my contribution to Lasang Pinoy 20: Binalot, All-Wrapped Up! Binalot comes from balot, which means “to wrap”, while isda is Tagalog for “fish”. Simmering in tomatoes is referred to as pinangat, although in my family, it also meant sour broth. It was too hot for soup, so I decided to make this even more simple by wrapping the fish in parchment paper. I wanted something easy and quick, preferably using ingredients that didn’t require me going to the supermarket. I found everything I needed in the fridge and the herbs I wanted on my windowsill. Under half an hour, we were eating dinner. Shortly after, we were ready for bed.

In French, this is also known as poisson en papillote, or fish in paper.

Ingredients:
1 bluefish, scaled and cleaned
a handful of white mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1/4 stick of butter, half of it melted
salt, pepper
parchment paper

1. Preheat oven to 375Âº. Season the fish inside out with salt and pepper.
2. In a small pan, heat half of the butter. SautÃ© onions until translucent. SautÃ© tomatoes until mushy. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. Season with herbs and with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Lay parchment paper large enough to cover the fish on your working table. Brush one side with melted butter. Spoon half of the sautÃ©ed tomato mixture onto the paper. Put the fish on top. Stuff remaining tomato mixture inside the fish and spoon the rest on top. Fold the parchment paper over and seal all sides. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. Move to a large plate and unfold the sides of the paper in front of your guests.