Dark Chicken Stock

I do a lot of cooking in stocks; I do this for two reasons both Dad and I are sodium sensitive and Dad is mostly a vegetarian. I say mostly because he has given up meat except around the holidays and he eats some fish. As long as I don't rub his nose in the fact I'm cooking with stock he doesn't comment on it. If you're trying to go light on salt stock brings a lot of flavor to the party.

I make three types of stock: turkey stock, and two chicken stocks. Alton Brown's recipe is fine for my standard chicken stock. I do have some modifications but they are mostly due to the number of people I cook for and my location. We eat a lot of broiler chickens, which are around 3 lbs, when I'm making stock I use a 5 quart soup pot that I put the chicken in, along with the vegetables, amount reduced appropriately. Then I cook the chicken until it's falling off the bone. I remove the chicken from the pot, pull all the meat off and return the bones to the pot to finish making the stock. I use the pulled chicken for things like chicken salad sandwiches. The other thing I do differently is I cook my stock with the lid on. I can do this and still have the stock form a gelatin because of the smaller pot size.

This requires watching the pot a little more attentively to make sure it never boils over. I go through this extra hassle because of heat and humidity. I live in Florida and right now, in December, when much of the North East is experience a "White Out," I'm sitting here in shorts. I know you are all rushing to get out your smallest fiddle. Not to worry, I'm not expecting sympathy I like the heat, if I didn't I know which direction to go to find the state line, but when you live in this much heat and humidity you should take the climate conditions into consideration when cooking. Cooking in an open pot takes longer over higher heat and the evaporation that occurs as a part of the cooking process adds moisture to the air. Trust me I don't need any extra moisture in the air in my house, it's sticky enough around here as it is.

The third type of stock I make, the second chicken stock, is a dark chicken stock. I collect all the gizzards, hearts and livers from the broiler chickens I use and put them in the freezer when I have the parts from four birds I make this stock.

This makes 4 quarts of stock.

• Gizzards, hearts and livers from 4 chickens
• Bones from 1 chicken
• 1 Smoked turkey wing (I know that turkey isn't chicken, but I like the smoky flavor)
• 1 Hot pepper halved (heat and flavor to your taste)
• 1 Ginger root cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 Onion quartered
• 1 Green bell pepper quartered
• 1 Head of garlic separated
• 3 Lemon grass stalks
• 1 Lime halved (If you have access to Kaffir Lime leaves use 3 of them instead)
• 3 Cinnamon sticks
• 1 handful of cloves
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 handful of cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

Put all the ingredients in a stock pot and add enough water to cover. Bring pot up to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 4 to 5 hours. Strain liquid and discard solids. Refrigerate stock overnight. Remove fat layer. Put stock into appropriate size containers and store in freezer until the stock is needed.

I use this stock for most of my Oriental and Indian dishes.

Caribbean Chicken

I was going through my Foodbuzz mini-feed the other day and I came across The Hungry Mouse's recipe and technique for Rosemary Scented Roast Broiler Chicken. I tried it and it was very good. For the basic technique I don't have anything to add but she suggested several variations for the flavor of the bird. I'd like to add one more.

One of the reasons I add this is that I have seen quite a few jerk rubs but none of them add soy sauce as an ingredient. In my time in South Florida I encountered a lot of Jamaican and Caribbean jerks and most did include soy sauce. There was an influx of Chinese in the late 1800's to the Caribbean and although they are a small minority they have made their influence felt in the preparation of Caribbean foods. There is actually a Jamaican soy sauce that can be bought in stores that specialize in Jamaican foods. Once you know the soy sauce is there, you can taste it in Caribbean fish and poultry dishes.

This is for rubbing one 4 lb chicken

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 teaspoon of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root
  
• zest of 1 1/2 limes
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1 or 2 dashes of red pepper flakes (depending on how hot you want your bird)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Prepare the chicken per The Hungry Mouses instructions.

Stuff the chicken with crushed garlic and the limes that you have zested and juiced. Combine all the ingredients above and coat the chicken.

Cook at 450 degrees for 45 min.

Sweet Potato Risotto

I think I was watching Iron Chef America and Chef Mario Batali explained that risotto is a cooking method not a dish. He may have been explaining this as he served sweet potato risotto to the judges, I don't remember. That made me think and since then I've been playing around with starches that could make risotto. The primary reason for this is that I can't get Arborio rice in Chipley. Big surprise there, I really can't get any short grained rice. That left experimentation as my only alternative. I've seen other Sweet Potato Risotto recipes on the web but they use the sweet potatoes as an addition to the rice risotto not as the primary starch. My recipe uses the sweet potato as the risotto and the rice as the additive.

This recipe would also work with yams, cooking pumpkin or butternut squash. I'm using sweet potatoes because they have come in season and you can get them by the crate around here this time of year.

In this recipe I use Basmati and wild rice because it was the only white rice I had in the house. However, you can use any long grain white rice. No, you can't get Basmati rice in Chipley either. I picked it up on a trip to Atlanta. I do quite a bit of grocery shopping in Atlanta. I know that's quite a commute to go to the grocery store and sometimes it makes the green side of me feel guilty, but I can usually get over it.

This recipe makes 6 servings.

• 1/4 of a cup of long grained white rice
• 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed into 1/4 inch chunks
• 1/4 of an onion diced
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/2 of a cup of Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon of Garam Masala
• 3 or 4 cups of chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste

Sweet potatoes are a Southern staple but as a kid I didn't like them. The traditional way to serve them is to bake them and then add about half a stick of butter or margarine. There was no way I was going to add that much fat to anything I ate and without it sweet potatoes taste bland. At some point in my adult life my sister explained to me that it wasn't the butter that the sweet potato needed, it was the salt in the butter. I have been adding salt since then and enjoying my sweet potatoes. I've said all that to tell you when cooking this add the Parmesan cheese and then taste the risotto. You may need to add a lot of salt to keep the sweet potatoes from tasting bland.

Put your chicken stock on the back burner and bring it up to a simmer. While the stock is coming up to temperature put a little olive oil or butter in a skillet and sweat the onions until their almost translucent. Add the rice to the skillet and cook that until it begins to be pearly. Begin adding the chicken stock one ladle full at a time. The first time you add the chicken stock you will need to add two ladles full. Once you've done that stir the rice constantly until the stock is absorbed. After the stock is absorbed add another ladle full of stock and stir the rice until the stock is absorbed. Do this twice more until the rice begins to get tender then add the sweet potatoes. Continue adding stock one ladle full at a time and stirring until the stock is absorbed, adding the next ladle full of stock until the sweet potatoes turn soft. Add the cup of milk and the Parmesan cheese and stir the sweet potato until the milk is absorbed. The sweet potatoes should start to break down a little and form a cream with the milk. Salt to taste and serve.

I use plain low fat milk in this recipe, if you want to use half and half or heavy cream instead, then reduce the amount by half. Instead of using the milk as the last bit of liquid to form the cream of the risotto continue to add chicken stock until the sweet potatoes begin to cream then finish the risotto with the heavy cream.

Tomato and Okra

Okra is a Southern love not much shared by the rest of the USA, a fact that was brought home to me recently when I looked up okra on Nutrition Data a website dedicated to nutritional information about food. They only had six entries which isn't much if you stack it up against the carrot with 37 entries or French fries with 31 entries. In all of the cooked options they specify "drained," I've never heard of draining cooked okra. Still even drained, Nutrition Data gives boiled okra a completeness score of 90 in the nutrient balance data section. If you don't drain the okra and you add tomatoes I'll bet okra would rock the nutritional house.

Tomato and okra is a Southern classic, this recipe combines the traditional elements of the dish with some modern up-dates. A common Yankee compliant about okra is that it is slimy. I have never had slimy tomato and okra, something in the tomatoes deals with the slime in the okra, so if you're feeling adventurous give this recipe a try.

Traditionally this dish is made with pork fat and a little nutmeg and allspice. I come from an area of the south that is close to the coast so my recipe uses clam juice instead of pork. Clam juice can be bought in most grocery and big box stores in a jar. Nutmeg and allspice are expensive spices here in the South and tomato and okra are traditionally made with them when you're making the dish for company. I have the luxury of being able to consider them common every day spices but I have substituted them in this recipe with Garam Masala. You should be able to pick this up in the spice aisle if you don't have it. I can get it in Chipley, you should be able to get it.

This recipe calls for combining the onions with the tomatoes and okra without sautéing them first. This is a common Southern cooking technique not used as much in the rest of the country. Cooking the onions this way allows the "raw" onion flavor to be part of the dish. If you don't like this by all means saute them first. I recommend following the recipe "as is" the first time though, the tomatoes and okra can stand up to the onion no problem.

This is one of those recipes that has greatly benefited from modernization. One of the things I love about okra and the tomatoes I use in this recipe, cherry, is that I can grow both. I have a very black thumb so this makes me very happy. Unfortunately about the time the tomatoes and okra stop producing, clam season starts. Viola, flash freezing and canned clam juice to the rescue. This recipe also benefits greatly, in my opinion, from Garam Masala and anchovy paste two things that did not exist in my Mom's kitchen when I was growing up but I find indispensable in mine.

This recipe makes 6 servings.

• 1 16 oz bag of frozen okra or one pound of fresh
• 8 oz bottle of clam juice
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 4 oz of tomato paste
• 1/4 medium onion finely diced
• 1/4 teaspoon of Garam Masala, smell this before you add it. If it doesn't smell of allspice add another 1/8 of a teaspoon if it smells strongly of allspice subtract 1/8 of a teaspoon you can really overwhelm the dish with Garam Masala if you are not careful.
• 1 anchovy finely chopped or a dab of anchovy paste.
• a dash of red pepper flakes, you can use more if you like spicey, but the point of adding them is not to make the dish hot but to highlight the Garam Masala
• Salt and pepper to taste

I always go through my frozen okra and take out the tops. You can do this or not. If you are using fresh okra cut it into 1/2 inch pieces. Lots of people like to cut the okra lengthwise and leave it at that, I do not. I want a couple of pieces of okra and a couple of tomatoes on my spoon at the same time.

Recipes that call for 4 ounces of tomato paste used to aggravate me to no end. Cans of tomato paste start at 6 ounces. Once you have opened the can, what are you to do with the other two ounces? Freeze them. I now take a piece of wax paper and put the rest of the tomato paste on it in one ounce rounds then cover them with another piece of wax paper and flatten them. Then I put the wax paper in the freezer, once they are frozen I cut out the rounds, put them in a ziplock bag and return them to the freezer. You can get tomato paste in a squeeze tube now, but my way cost less.

Combine all the ingredients and cook covered until the cherry tomatoes burst.

Tonight I'm going to serve mine with Rosemary Scented Roast Chicken, thank you Hungry Mouse, and brown rice cooked in turkey stock.

Bread Day, Bread Day, Glorious Bread Day

I love making bread. The process has so many elements to it that I love. I love the precision. I love the chemistry. I love the smell when I'm done.

I use a bread machine to make most of my breads, so the recipes are geared for that. However, I have adapted many of them from non-bread machine recipes so they can be converted back if you wish. For all of you who read bread machine and think, "cheater, cheater pumpkin eater..." My response is, "So? Whoever has the freshest bread wins."

I don't have one of those really nice mixers with a bread hook attachment, because that is what bread makers use, nothing beats a bread hook for kneading. If anyone would like to give me one I will certainly put it to good use, but to be perfectly honest I would probably still use the bread machine for making bread. This is due to a personality flaw in me I will freely admit to, I am the Queen of too. Too much, too fast, too many, too everything if it can be over done than I can over do it. It is one of the things that took me a long time to overcome in cooking, when a recipe would call for something to be simmered over medium heat, I would crank the heat all the way up under the assumption that you could not have too much heat. The bread machine takes the kneading process out of my hands guaranteeing that I can't knead the dough too fast or too long. This is a very good thing.

I cook for my parents and we all have very different taste. Dad wants ultra healthy food, whole grains, no sugar, very little salt. Mom wants what she grew up with, white breads, super fluffy and rich. I want something I haven't had before. In every other aspect of cooking these very different tastes drive me crazy. In bread making it just means I get to make three different kinds of bread. Hooray, you can't have too much bread.

I've put the bread recipes below in separate post so that they can be looked up individually.

Poppy Seed Lemon Egg Bread

This is both a bread recipe and a book plug. This recipe is modified from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger the link on the title will lead you to a well written review, to which I will add an Amen. You can buy it from Amazon if you don't already have it. One of the things I do that allows me to make as much bread as I want without having bread flow out my ears is I make rolls instead and freeze them. If you would like a whole loaf simply select the right bread type on your bread machine and let it go through to the finished product.

This makes about a dozen rolls.

• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon gluten
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients into the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacture. Set the machine to dough cycle.

Once the machine beeps, put the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead once or twice to insure that it is knocked down. Pinch off 1/4 cup pieces of the dough, roll them smooth and put them on a pan lined with parchment paper. You must do this quickly because the egg in this recipe will make the dough rise quickly and if you don't hurry the dough will be double in size again. Once you have all your rolls put the pan in the freezer for two hours. After that you can transfer your rolls to a ziplock bag and store in the freezer.

When you're ready to cook them take the rolls out of the freezer and allow them to defrost and rise a second time. I often take my rolls out before I leave the house in the morning and they are ready to go when I get home.

Cook them for 15 min. at 400 degrees.

Sweet Potato Rolls

This is a recipe that I modified from a recipe I found on the web site The Fresh Loaf. What attracted me to it was the nice orange color of the rolls. This recipe will not give you orange rolls because I use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose but it is still very good.

This makes about a dozen rolls.

• 1 sweet potato, baked, skin removed
  
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 brown sugar
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

Put ingredients in the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacture. Set the machine to dough cycle.

Once the machine beeps, put the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead once or twice to insure that it is knocked down. Pinch off 1/4 cup pieces of the dough, roll them smooth and put them on a pan lined with parchment paper. Once you have all your rolls put the pan in the freezer for two hours. After that you can transfer your rolls to a ziplock bag and store in the freezer.

When you're ready to cook them take the rolls out of the freezer and allow them to defrost and rise a second time.

Cook them for 15 min. at 400 degrees.

Using this method I can give Dad his whole wheat roll, Mom her fluffy white roll, and me any odd thing I like.

A Very American Walnut Whole Wheat French Bread

I was spelunking around on The Fresh Loaf the other day and found a picture of Dan Lepard's Walnut Bread I looked around for the recipe but couldn't find it. He probably wants you to buy his cookbook to get the recipe. Silly man, trying to make a living, the very idea. Since I couldn't find the recipe I fell back to my old friend "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger where I found a recipe for French Whole Wheat Bread. From that and the information I read about Dan's recipe I used my imagination to come up with this.

There are a couple of important things to note in this recipe:

The first is that I use a mixture of grape juice, unfiltered apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar. I do this because I live in a "dry" county, for those of you who don't know what that means, you can't buy alcohol here. If you live some place where you can get wine use a sweet red instead. I could drive the hour necessary to buy wine myself, but I'm having fun with the vinegar and grape juice.

The second is that I call this a French bread because I use French bread making methods. Most of those I will outline here, but if you want a good explanation of the differences in French verses American bread techniques you should buy "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" (TBLBMCB) I have learned a lot from Beth Hensperger and I won't pretend that I can teach you as well as she can in her book.

• 1/2 cup grape juice
• 1/8 cup unfiltered apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

Mix these ingredients in a resealable container and allow to set covered for two to three days. If the liquid sits for longer than that and starts to grow mold discard and start again.

This makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread.

• 3/4 cup of sweet red wine or above mixture
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tablespoon gluten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients into the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacture. Set the machine to dough cycle. A note here most bread machine recipes call to add the nuts in after the dough has gone through the dough cycle. I ignore this, can you put too many ingredients into your bread machine? If you know that your bread machine isn't high power or if it starts walking off the counter, the next time you make this you probably want to add the nuts after the dough cycle.

Once the machine beeps, unplug it and knock down the dough. You will want to use a greased spatial for this as the dough will be very sticky. Allow the dough to rise another 30 minutes.

Pour the dough onto a floured surface and knead once or twice and form the dough into a flattened football. This will be tricky because the dough is so wet. There are techniques to do this the proper French way, you can read them in TBLBMCB, but I haven't mastered them yet so I stick with the standard kneading method and bread forming methods my Mom taught me.

Allow the bread to rise another hour.

Put baking rack on lowest rung and pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. snip 4 diagonal cuts into the top of the dough. Cook the bread about half an hour.

About a Potato

I was in the Big Box store the other day and saw the most amazing thing. Mashed Potatoes in a butter tub. Who would buy that? I understand the need for fast and easy but potatoes? Give me a break. I get powdered potatoes, you take the water out and they're lighter to carry which makes them good for camping or combat. Mashed Potatoes in a butter tub isn't lighter than a potato and they have probably added things to keep the potatoes from growing stuff.

To some extent I blame all the cooking shows for this. When you see them baking potatoes they always salt and oil the skin and stick the potato in the oven for 45 min. Why? Because it makes better TV. Don't do that, put your potato in the microwave and cook it for 5 min.

Ok, look, I'm all about "slow food," don't eat food like substances, stay green etc... I'm also all about don't throw the baby out with the bath water and all things in moderation. The microwave is a tool in your cooking arsenal use it wisely.

• Potatoes - Microwave cook time 5 min. Oven 45 min. at 400 degrees.
• Sweet Potatoes - Microwave cook time 5 min. Oven 45 min. at 400 degrees.
• Spaghetti Squash - Microwave cook time 7 min. Oven 45 min. at 400 degrees.
• Acorn Squash - Microwave cook time 10 min. Oven 30 min. at 350 degrees.
• Butternut Squash - Microwave cook time 20 min. Oven 1 hour at 400 degrees.

Do you know how hot cooking these items in the oven will make your kitchen. I live in the South this is important to me.

Time and energy cost money, why waste these precious resources when you have the microwave sitting right there on your counter. Potatoes cost about 80 cents a pound cooking them in the microwave cost another penny. Cutting them open scooping them out adding butter and milk cost about 5 minutes more. How could 45 min. in the oven, half an hour on the stove, or a store bought tub be better than that?

If your cooking sweet potatoes all you need to make a complete meal is to add a little protein and your done. Personally I like to top mine with grated mozzarella cheese. It's not possible to come up with a better one dish super meal, go on try it I dare you.

I recently listened to Michael Pollan's You Tube lecture on "In Defense of Food," if you haven't I recommend it. He points out a lot of things about how Americans look at food that makes you think. However, he said a few things that were wrong. He said that no fat sour cream doesn't have anything that looks like milk in it. I thought, "Really," and got up, walked into the kitchen, opened the frig, pulled out my tub of no fat sour cream and read the label. The top two ingredients are milk. My tub of no fat sour cream does have additives but I wonder if it has any more than regular sour cream. He also mentions great grandmothers and a tube of yogurt and would she think it was toothpaste. Well my Great Grandmother would not recognise plastic, never used toothpaste and probably didn't know what yogurt was. My kids great grandmother would know all these thing but not mine and I'm willing to bet not Michael's either. However, once again don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because he's not perfect doesn't mean you should completely ignore him.

The same thing goes for your microwave.

A Very Foodie Christmas Gift Idea

Are you wondering what to give the Foodies in your life for Christmas? I have an idea. To be perfectly honest more than anything this is what would make me happy for Christmas.

Bulk Dried goods.

Seriously, the price of everything is going up. The experts are telling us that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. One of the things I cherish as a cook are the little packets of specialty items that you buy by the ounce and pay for through the nose. Like... Sun-dried Tomatoes, Dried Mangoes, Dried Mushrooms, Dried Cranberries etc...

You can buy these items in bulk on the Web for much less than you pay at the store, but what are you going to do with 5 lbs of Sun-dried Tomatoes or 5 lbs of Dried Apricots. Give them as gifts. It's great you get to keep a pound for yourself and you give the Foodies in your life a pound as well. It's an everybody wins kind of thing. You get dried this or that at a good price. You get to give your friends a present you know they will use and enjoy at a good price. If you tell your friends about this idea they may give you dried foods you can enjoy. If things work out perfectly you may get to enjoy some of the things your friends make with your gift. What could be better?

I know it's a little weird, but it's just a suggestion...

What did you do with your Turkey bones?

I made stock with mine.

Thanksgiving was over and I was way tired of looking at that big bird taking up space in the frig. So, Mom carved all the meat from the bones, she is better at that than I am. I stuck what was left in my stock pot and cooked it and cooked it until all the goodness was out.

You might think in these tight economic times that's a good way to get the most out of your turkey purchase. That may be true but I would have made turkey stock even without the economic squeeze.

Turkey stock has a unique flavor profile that can't be duplicated with something out of a can. It's rich hardiness lends itself to combinations with the more rustic whole grains such as brown rice and quinoa that overwhelm chicken stock. Substituting a cup of turkey stock to soup recipes that call for chicken stock will add a soulfulness to the soup that's the essence of comfort food.

If your left with the impression that I really like turkey stock, you're right. Once you start cooking with turkey stock there's no going back.

This is a simple recipe that makes about 20 cups of stock.

• The bones of one turkey, no giblets I've put those in the freezer to save for another purpose
• 3 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 onions
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 handful of peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 handful of dried oregano
• 1/2 handful of cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 handful of dried sage
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar

Put turkey in a 16 quart stock pot, cut carrots, celery and onions into big chunks that will fit in the pot add enough water to cover the turkey. Put the pot on high heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring pot to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Cook with the lid on until the last hour then remove the lid for the last hour of cooking. Remove turkey, carrots, celery and onions. Strain stock through a colander into storage containers. Allow to cool then refrigerate overnight. Remove the congealed turkey fat before storing the stock in the freezer.

If the refrigerated turkey stock has not geltinized then return it to the stock pot and cook without a lid for another half hour and repeat the cooling process.