Jerk Chicken Salad

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It had been One Of Those Days and I decided to reward myself with jerk chicken from one of the best spots in Brooklyn for that sort of thing. I hadn’t been there for a couple of years (feels like I haven’t been anywhere for a couple of years) so my visit was long overdue.

I got a large order, brought it home, and proceeded to chow down – but after a few ravenous chomps, I realized that somehow its distinctive mojo had dwindled during the long hiatus.

Apparently it was still One Of Those Days.

So I stashed the remainder in the fridge with an eye toward reinvention; jerk chicken salad sounded like a plan. But when I embarked on the task, after tasting a bite, I became aware that most of the character had resided in the now flabby skin – definitely not a component for chicken salad of any stripe – hence the Jamaican accent would need to come from the dressing.

I always have a can of coconut milk in the pantry, but the base required something tangier. So I combined buttermilk with one of my “secret” ingredients, coconut milk powder; I never use the stuff to reconstitute into coconut milk, its intended destination, but rather for augmentation purposes like this. I tossed in a succession of ingredients with my customary reckless abandon, tasting along the way. (If you’re curious: I ended up with a little jerk seasoning that had been languishing in a jar in the fridge, Pickapeppa sauce, Jamaican curry powder, allspice, a few drops of liquid smoke, sugar, salt and pepper; the herbal element consisted of minced fresh hot pepper, cilantro, and fresh thyme, all allowed to rest so the flavors could meld.)

When the dressing was ripe, I folded it into the diced chicken along with diced mango for sweetness, diced jicama for crunch, and the white parts of chopped scallion for zing, let that mature for a while, and then plated it topped with cutting celery (aka leaf celery), the green parts of the scallion, and a sprinkle of smoked paprika.

Turns out there was no need to be concerned about how much cash I had shelled out on the original – I was delighted with the outcome. I should have heeded those Jamaican words of wisdom: “Don’t worry…be happy!”
 
 

Chinese Tea Tree Mushroom Spin-off

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Picking up from two posts ago when I wrote about some leftover Chinese restaurant takeout goodies my friend and neighbor had dropped off: The parcel also included something the menu listed as “Dry Braised Agrocybe Cha Shu Gu”; the truncated Latin Agrocybe Aegerita and transliterated Chinese 茶树菇 apparently refer to what’s known in English as tea tree mushrooms, aka willow mushrooms. The cap is small (about ¼ to ¾ inch) and the thin, striated, tough, crunchy stem is about 6 inches long. The flavor is purported to be woody or earthy, but the dish was so spicy that the true character of the mushroom didn’t penetrate the heat.

Like last time, I decided to stretch the leftovers into something lunchworthy, but the burn from the dried red chili peppers, hot green peppers, chili oil and the like was considerable. What to do? I remembered the famous quote, “Noodles hath charms to soothe a savage breast,” or something like that, so rice noodz from the pantry were pressed into service to temper the fire. I added homemade char siu (the last of the freezer supply), sliced onions and celery, the customary seasonings, and came up with what you see here.

Mission accomplished.


I isolated a few mushrooms at the outset so you could see the genesis of the dish.

Just curious: have any of you ever tried these?
 
 

Chinese Bitter Melon Spin-off

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A friend and neighbor was kind enough to drop off some leftovers from Famous Sichuan on Pell St in Manhattan’s Chinatown. One was described on the menu as Sautéed and Dried Bitter Melon which consisted of exactly that, sans embellishment. I decided that instead of consuming it straightaway as a snack, I’d stretch it into a proper lunch using whatever I had on hand. (You’ve heard me sing that song before.)

Perusing the interwebs, I found that both Chinese and Vietnamese cuisines (among others) include stir fried bitter melon with eggs in their repertoires – fair game for me to riff on. Now, what would harmonize with those two ingredients? If you’re savvy about such things, you’re familiar with Tomatoes & Eggs, the epitome of the homiest of Chinese home cooking; I had some grape tomatoes with unusually thick skins, rather tough for eating raw but perfect for stir frying. I incorporated some reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms for umami and scallions for bite and happily, it turned out to be a great combination.


Here’s the “before” photo in case you’re curious about what started the ball rolling.

Stay tuned to check out what I did with the other leftover dish!
 
 

Fry Me a Liver

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Feel free to singe along!

Time for a little post-holiday-cooking-frenzy clean up, starting with spices. If you’ve ever visited the Home Cookin’ section of my website you’ve seen a photo of my custom made spice rack; there are 136 within easy reach – more if I have the energy to bend over to access the bottom shelf. But with that embarrassment of Rich’s comes the obligation and responsibility to purge the aging members from time to time; dried herbs and spices have a limited shelf life. (It’s one of the reasons I don’t offer recipes – is my powdered cumin the same vintage as yours?)

In addition to single spices, I also keep some commercial and custom spice blends that come in handy if I’m pressed for time. (Read: lazy.) Sometimes, I’ll grab one of those and amplify it with a hit of an ingredient that’s already in there to emphasize it, sometimes I’ll modify it with a spice that’s not present to bring a different character to the mix. Today I did both.

The base was baharat, a Middle Eastern heavenly, warm spice blend; I make my version with ground cumin seed, coriander seed and black pepper plus cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice. Because it was viable but weakening, I adjusted it with additional cumin, coriander, and cardamom and then transformed it with some turmeric for earthiness and color. (Another example of modification: if I had wanted to go Turkish, I would have incorporated mint.)

That would be the dominant seasoning for the beef liver which I had soaked for a few hours in buttermilk and dredged in seasoned flour (garlic powder, salt and pepper). I pan fried it with sliced onions and a liberal dose of toasted, kicked up baharat. The side dish was long grain rice with julienned fresh basil and fennel – seeds as well as fronds.

And if you’re going to singe along, be careful to pay attention when toasting the spice blend.

You’ll never get to heaven with burnt baharat.
 
 

Two Flaky Treats from Jade Bakery

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From my last visit to Jade Bakery, 6223 8th Ave, Sunset Park, Brooklyn: Chinese egg custard tart (蛋挞, dan tat among other English spellings) and a pink winter melon pastry.

The inner workings:

The egg custard was rich and dense, firmer than others I’ve sampled, harmonizing perfectly with the flaky, tasty crust. A cut above.


Closeup of layers upon layers of layers! The filling was definitely sweet but with a subtle savory note at the same time; its texture was that of thick jam pointed up by an occasional unexpected shred of winter melon, a welcome contrast.

Suggested by my Number One Spy, who is never wrong.
 
 

Cooking with Canned Water Chestnuts

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Sticking with Chinese home cookin’ for the Lunar New Year (so I used sticky rice 🙃), this dish was cobbled together from hyperlocal sources: bok choy, leeks, and red bell pepper from my previous trip to the supermarket, lap cheong (Chinese sausage) ever-present in my freezer, and canned water chestnuts from the pantry.

Some advice about cooking with canned water chestnuts:

Don’t do it. Just Don’t.

Otherwise, it was a tasty dish.

(The same can be said for canned bamboo shoots, regardless of brand.)

But seriously, if you can make a case for using the godforsaken things, I’d like to hear it.

This message has been brought to you as a public service. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author. 😉
 
 

Chinese New Year 4720 (2022)

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(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)The two-week long Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year begins today – it’s 4720, the Year of the Tiger. The Tiger is known for his strength, bravery, and particularly his ability to purge evil – and if ever we needed that specific set of superpowers, it’s now.

But even COVID can’t stop us from embracing all of the traditions that make this holiday so extraordinary. One that I particularly enjoy is the way in which wordplay and homophones factor into the selection of traditional foods specially prepared to mark the occasion. For example, at festive gatherings a whole fish will be served, because the word for fish (yu) is a homophone for surpluses.

So since I could definitely use some surpluses right now, I’ve made a whole steamed fish stuffed with ginger and scallions and bedecked with even more julienned fresh ginger, scallions, chives, and cilantro for the centerpiece. Accompanying the star of the show were snow peas and black mushrooms in black bean sauce, and char siu fried rice (homemade char siu, to be sure).

Now, if you read me, you know that of course there’s a backstory that involves the preparation of this feast, and I’m going to save the near miss details for a future post. But there is a Lunar New Year story I would like to share with you now, one I wrote a few zodiac signs ago, a mystery involving a particular nian gao (the traditional sweet rice cake and a homophone for high year) that resonates to this day. It’s all in my very short story, “The Case of the Uncrackable Case!”

新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè!
恭喜发财! Gong hei fat choy!
 
 

Brooklyn’s Homeslice Pizzeria – Revisited

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Someone once said that the best pizza in New York is in New Haven. And no, it’s not because I went to college there; it’s because there is simply none better. Anywhere. I freely admit it: I pledge allegiance to Pepe’s for their bacon pizza and Modern for their sausage. (And of course, be sure to grab a bottle of Foxon Park’s white birch beer soda to wash it down.)

But sometimes you just can’t travel two hours to satisfy a craving. Fortunately, there is some outstanding pizza to be enjoyed in NYC as well; it’s easy to stay abreast of the best and most iconic via email missives from subscriptions to favored foodie websites. Each has its own bespoke style: there’s no mistaking a Paulie Gee’s pizza for a Kesté’s, for example, so you can’t really compare one with the next.

But even then, there are times when you don’t want to go out of your way to hit up one of those vaunted venues. Sometimes, you just have to consider the local neighborhood pizza joint, you know, the one you sail past on the way home, some of which are, um, less than stellar.

However, I’m fortunate because one, about seven blocks from my apartment, actually does a good job. (And yes, I know that by NYC standards seven blocks to a pizza parlor is a hike.) Two years ago I posted about Brooklyn’s Homeslice Pizzeria at 567 Vanderbilt Ave.

What makes them unique is their crust’s edge covered with panko crumbs that provide a crispy crunch.


That attribute in conjunction with its thin, flavorful crust, easily folded over on itself (as pizza is meant to be consumed), a slender but sufficient layer of cheese (the kind you used to peel back as a kid) and a naturally sweet and tasty tomato sauce contribute to this pie’s success.

Since I always go plain on the maiden voyage, I promised that I’d be back to try the toppings and having returned more than once, I’ve found a combination that I think is baller delicious: Bacon, Onions, and Extra Cheese (first photo and below). Now, this particular pizza with this particular configuration of toppings is as unique as any other pie I’ve mentioned and therefore should not be compared to others of note.

I do understand that the ideal topping is in the mouth of the beholder: one man’s pepperoni is another man’s anchovy, one man’s meat is another man’s poisson.

But my current comfort-food crutch notwithstanding, major props to this one!
 
 

Canned Fish Don’t Get No Respect!

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They may well be the Rodney Dangerfield of lunch foods. I’m not talking about tuna, salmon, sardines and the like; obviously those have earned a seat at everybody’s table. I’m referring to the enormous variety of canned piscine treats hiding in plain sight in international markets.

But are you supposed to just open the can, dump the contents onto a plate and consume them undressed? (I mean the fish, not you.) You wouldn’t open a can of tuna and just eat it straight and unadorned, right? We make tuna or salmon or sardine salad which can optionally graduate to sandwich status, or we combine them with noodles in a hot or cold configuration or perhaps work them into a casserole. The list goes on; entire books have been written on the subject. We probably all have favorite treatments, perhaps even family recipes passed from generation to generation; my grandmother used to make something she called Salmon Corn Loaf – not bad IIRC.

So why not spend a minute to create something memorable? And that’s part of the fun – figuring out what to do with the stuff.


Today’s case in point – Chinese canned roasted eel.

Here’s what I came up with: I figured that eel would go well with the sticky rice I had on hand, prettified with a sprinkle of furikake. The liquid in which it was packed was surprisingly flavorful, clearly intended to be used as a dressing, not just as a medium for packing like the oil used in standard issue sardines. It was spicy and a little sweet and had a couple of tiny rings of red pepper floating in it so I added more red pepper rings plus green scallion rings. The fact that the label depicted leafy greens suggested that I lay down some lettuce, top it with the eel, and pour the kicked up sauce over. That’s the photo you see here. But the eel was still a bit dry, so I broke it up, shredded the lettuce and microwaved it along with the rice for a few seconds, just to warm it up and hopefully soften it a bit. Stirred it all together and it was delicious. But it was so not pretty; that’s why there’s no photo of the final dish!

A different kettle – er, can – of fish awaits on the shelf. More to come….
 
 

Tilapia Masala Curry and Paneer

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👨‍🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨‍🍳

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Part Three of Tilapia, Three Ways.

As I write this, I’m realizing that this post and the two before it comprise an object lesson in dealing with diminished resources: a scarcity of supermarket selections, a food budget that is less lavish than it once was, and an energy level that seems to have gone missing in the light of living in 1984 in 2022.

So today’s tilapia challenge is a cheat as well.

I concocted a sauce that was akin to an Indian masala curry using canned tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, fresh chilies, garlic, ginger, yogurt, cream, and cilantro. The spices were ground, toasted cumin and coriander seeds, ground tellicherry peppercorns, turmeric, garam masala, cardamom, and mace plus a couple of Indian blends I had on the shelf.

The basmati rice was spiked with chopped onion sautéed in ghee along with a cinnamon stick, a clove, and some cumin seed and mustard seed. Raita and paratha on the side.


Paneer was an unplanned afterthought, but there it was in the cheese section of the supermarket and I’m not one to look a gift course in the mouth.

I pan-seared the fish and the paneer (paneer doesn’t melt) separately to get some serious browning and let them simmer in the sauce respectively.
 
 
So there you have it: three posts involving a three-pillared object lesson – and perhaps three wishes to grapple with it.
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️