Buttermilk Baked Chicken

I am not sure if I have mentioned, Mr. S and I just bought our first house! We are(or just I am) enjoying the kitchen a lot because the house has a gourmet kitchen. This weekend, Mr. S's parents came to visit us, so I decided to make a very good meal to impress them.

Making buttermilk chicken is very easy. I got this pastured chicken from a farm a while ago. The hardest part is to cut the whole chicken into pieces. I just used my creativity to cut the whole chicken into 10 pieces and then marinated it in buttermilk in the morning and then cooked it in the evening. The chicken was very juicy and tender. The skin was crispy despite baking instead of deep frying it.


Ingredients
* 2 cups buttermilk
* Juice of 1/2 lemon
* 1 tablespoon hot sauce
* 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
* 5 sprigs fresh thyme
* 3 cloves garlic, smashed
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 (3 pound) chicken cut into 10 pieces, rinsed and patted dry
* 2 cups crushed corn flakes
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

Directions
1) Mix together buttermilk, lemon juice, hot sauce, onion, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper to a large bowl. Add chicken and coat with mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 12 hours.
2) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Fit a sheet tray with a wire rack and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
3) Mix corn flakes, Parmesan cheese, and thyme together. Season with salt and pepper.
4) Remove chicken from the marinade, letting the excess drip off, and dredge through the corn flake-Parmesan mixture, pressing to help it adhere.
5) Place on the wire rack-fitted sheet tray and bake for 45 minutes until golden and crisp.

Black Bean Spare Ribs

I was in a mood again to cook a week of Chinese/South East Asian food. I was checking out different recipe websites to get some ideas and I decided to make some of my all time favorite dishes for a week. Today we had black bean spear ribs. Safeway had natural pork ribs on sale so it was perfect timing to make this dish!


Ingredients
*1 tablespoon oil
*1 1/2 pounds pork spare ribs, cut to 1-inch pieces
*1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
*2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
*1 medium-sized leek, thinly sliced
*Thinly sliced scallions, optional

Sauce
*3 tablespoons spicy black bean sauce
*2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
*1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
*1 teaspoon brown sugar
*1 teaspoon cornstarch
*1/2 cup water

Direction
1) Mix together ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.
2) In a wok or frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add spare ribs and stir-fry until brown on all sides, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic, and leeks and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Pour in sauce mixture. Cover with a lid and simmer for about 10 minutes. Sauce should be reduced enough to coat the spare ribs. Transfer to serving plate, garnish with scallions, and serve with rice.

Quinoa with Chard and Bacon

Mr. S and I went to the Ballard Farmer's Market on Sunday and got a big butch of chard. Mr. S was hesitant to try chard, so I wanted to cook it as deliciously as possible. I saw the recipe of Red Chard and Rice on foodnetwork.com from Rachael Ray and thought Mr. S would like it because it has BACON in it.

I changed the rice to quinoa to increase the fiber and protein of this dish.


Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 3 to 4 slices bacon, or 1 (1/8-inch thick) slice of speck, finely chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, grated
* 1 small bunch red chard, stemmed and chopped
* Freshly grated nutmeg
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika or sweet paprika
* 1 cup quinoa
* 1 3/4 cups chicken stock or water

Directions
Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a saucepot over medium heat. Add the bacon, cook 2 minutes, then add the garlic and stir 1 minute. Add the chard and season with a little nutmeg, salt, pepper, and paprika. When the chard is wilted add the quinoa and stir 1 minute more. Add the stock or water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Cook 15 to 18 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Fluff with a fork and serve.

*Recipe from food network.



We had the quinoa dish with tri-tip steak from the grass fed cow share that we ordered last year. I bought a bottle of steak marinate from the store and marinated it over night. Then I baked it for around 30 minutes and seared it on a grill pan. It was very tasty, but next time I will try to make the marinade myself.

Homemade Sauerkraut Part II

It is time to report the progress of the Sauerkraut. I started the fermentation about 1 and a half weeks ago, you can find the recipe here. Due to the cold weather in Seattle, my house's temperature has been probably around 60 degrees, so the fermentation took a little longer than most of the books recommended. Honestly, I think the best way to know if the kraut is done is to taste it yourself. Also, some people might like it more sour and some people might like it more mild. I have my in home tasting judge Mr. S to ensure the quality meets our standards before bottling it.

I put a pot filled with water on top of a plate as a weight to create a brine.


The color of the brine and the cabbage got darker. It turned into light dark yellow.

I put some of the kraut juice into the bottle as well. Enjoy the delicious natural probiotics!

Kombucha Part II

After waiting for 10 days, finally the Kombucha is ready to enjoy. You can check out here to read how I started brewing Kombucha.

The weather in Seattle has been cold, so it took a longer time than the Sally Fallon's recommendation to wait for 7 days. I tasted it on Day 7 and it tasted sweet. So I waiting a couple more days and today, is the day that the Kombucha tasted like Synergy drinks(A Kombucha brand that you buy from the store).


You will see yeast in the tea. My friend used a cheese cloth to filter the Kombucha. I used a colander to drain the tea, and the tea is somewhat filtered. Then I bottled them into swing top bottles. I stored the bottle in a cool area of my house. When I am ready to drink them I will put them in the refrigerator.

Homemade Sauerkraut

I have been in a ‘homemade’ mood lately. First, it was the Kombucha, then the u-pick organic strawberries and waiting to make jam, and now, I am making sauerkraut. Last year, I attempted to make my own sauerkraut but it ended up too salty. This year, I want to try it again. I was waiting for the summer to come, so I could get some in season organic cabbage from the local farm. I got a box of Full Circle produce this week and it included cabbage.
Recipe is modified from Nourishing Tradition

Ingredients
1 medium cabbage, cored and shredded
1 tablespoon sea salt (I use Redmond Real Salt)

Tools
a meat hammer

Directions
1) In a bowl, mix cabbage with sea salt. Pound with a meat hammer for about 10 minutes to release juices.



2) Place the cabbage in a mixing bowl and press down using a weight on a plate until juices come to the top of the cabbage. Keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.

I will report on how it turned out in 3 days. So excited!

Kombucha

Have you ever have Kombucha? Kombucha is a fermented tea drink using a Kombucha culture, SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). When you add sugar in the tea, the SOCBY acts on sugar and tea to produce some acid, including gluceronic acid. According to Nourishing Tradition by Sally Fallon, Glucuronic acid is a potent detoxifying substance. This drink is originally from the Ural mountain region of Russia.

The one that you get from the store usually comes with different fruit flavors and it would cost around $3-4 per bottle. But brewing Kombucha is very easy and cheap! First, you will need a jar. I bought a one gallon jar off craigslist. Then I got my SCOBY from a friend. You can get the rest of the ingredients very easily. The last thing you need is a warm safe place, where you can put the Kombucha and forget about it for a week.

Sally Fallon also mentioned, it is best to use white sugar instead of honey or Repadura. Use organic black tea, instead of flavored tea, because it has the highest amount of glycuronic acid and non-organic teas are high in fluoride.



Recipe from Nourishing Tradition.

Ingredients
3 quarts filtered water
1 cup sugar
4 tea bags of organic black tea
1/2 cup kombucha from previous culture
1 kombucha SCOBY

Directions
1) Bring 3 quarts filtered water to boil. Add sugar and simmer until dissolved. Remove from heat, add the tea bags and allow the tea too steep until water has completely cooled.
2) Remove tea bags. Pour cooled liquid into a gallon jar and add 1/2 cup kombucha from the previous batch. Place the SCOBY on top of the liquid. Cover loosely with a cloth or towel and transfer to a warm, dark place away from contaminants and insects.
3) In about 7-10 days, the kombucha will be ready, depending on the temperature. It should be rather sour and possibly fizzy, with no taste of tea remaining. Transfer to covered glass containers and store in the refrigerator.
4) When the kombucha is ready, your SCOBY will have grown a second spongy pancake. This can be used to make other batches or given away to friends. Store the SCOBY in a glass or stainless steel container, never plastic. The SCOBY can be used dozens of times. But if the kombucha doesn't sour probably, or if there is mold growing on top, discard the SCOBY and the kombucha and order a new clean one.


I will report on the Kombucha end results.