photo by S x 2

There was a time when I regularly followed the New York Times Magazine's food column.  A friend that's a chef told me she would cook whatever they published each Sunday.  The column seems to have gone downhill over the last couple years.  These days, I barely read the food section and never seek it out.

The upside is the travel section.  Every couple weeks the Sunday Times publishes a great story about food on the road.  The stories are wonderfully written, with great photos and completely make up for the Magazine falling off my reading list.

Back in December there was a great article on street food in Bali.  I've never been there, but I've heard or read about the roasted pig.  I've also had Whole Food's terrible version of Bali chicken.  The article peaked my interest in how to do Bali chicken correctly.  After a few tries, this is what I came up with.

Maybe I am too heavily influenced by pollo asada, but I think this recipe should be grilled.  I think the grill adds the right amount of smoky flavor to the meat.  My proximity to Mexico influences the ingredients too - dried shrimp are a common ingredient on the border, so I used them to recreate the shrimp paste used in Bali.

These make for a fantastic appetizer or snack, and don't take long to make.  They are best as chicken wings, but a whole chicken would well too.

Ayam Taliwang

1 small whole chicken or 2 lbs chicken wings

Salt

3 Tbsp oil

2 shallots

4-5 cloves garlic

2 tsp red chili pepper or 2 small, hot green chilies.

2 tsp ground shrimp

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Juice from 1 lime

Directions

1. If using a whole chicken, cut into pieces.  Salt the chicken and set aside.  Pre-heat a broiler.

1. Grind the shallots, garlic, chilies, shrimp, sugar and salt into a paste.

1. Heat the oil over a medium heat.  Add the paste and cook for 3 minutes.  Add the lime juice and set aside.

1. Broil the chicken for 3 minutes under a hot broiler.  Turn once if the broiler is very hot.

1. Brush the chicken with the paste.  Be sure to cover it well.


2. Grill the chicken until cooked.

1. Brush the chicken with any remaining paste.

photo by Wha'ppen

As I've mentioned in other posts, I've spent a little time travelling New Mexico and southern Colorado in search of snow.  Before Frontier Airlines started shuttling folks into Denver for a song, that meant driving around New Mexico.  Besides going out of my way to hit Las Vegas (the other one), distance driving included stopping at truck stops, roadside stands and any spot that didn't look like a chain.  Especially in northern New Mexico, you can get some excellent green chili just about anywhere.  After all - this is pretty much where those beautiful green chilies come from.

If you can avoid the digs of the Truck Stop Women, what you'll find is chili made for locals and served to travelers - a perfect bowl of green.  Green chili is not anything like its Texas peer - lots of variety and, if you're lucky, lots of vegetables.  Green chili is a cheap meal that warms you up and gets you back on the road.

There have been times I have made this recipe for no reason other than I wanted to make some stock, but for the most part, this rolls out when the chilies appear in September.  The chili harvest in Hatch, New Mexico is a big event.  Local grocery stores will set up propane burners and roast them on the spot.  When I am feeling organized I will buy some for freezing.  Then I can have a steady stream of green chili well into winter.

Admittedly, this recipe assumes you have a source of excellent smoked chicken.  If not, its time to break out the big green egg and get to work.

Green chili with smoked chicken

3-4 slices of thick cut bacon, diced

2 small onions (about 2 cups)

3 cloves garlic

1 can fire roasted tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock

2 Tbsp masa harina

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

6-8 green chilis, roasted, stems and seeds removed

1 whole smoked chicken, skin and bones removed, diced

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a medium sized pot over medium heat until the bacon is cooked (brown)


2. Add onions and garlic.  Cook until the onions begin to soften and become translucent.


3. Add the tomatoes, stock, masa, salt, pepper and chilies.   Bring to boil, lower heat to a soft simmer, cover and cook for 2 hours.


4. Uncover and cook for another 10 minutes.  Thicken with more masa harina or thin with water.


5. Add chicken and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Serve hot.

photo by Darwin Bell

While I am no huge fan of Apple products, I do like my iPhone.  It’s a mostly useful device with some entirely useless applications.  Some time back I picked up an interesting app - Distant Shore.  I liked the company's other app, Koi Pond.  Distant Shore is a simple concept - you walk along a beach picking up shells.  Along the way you might find bottles with messages in them.  When you've collected 5 shells you get an empty bottle you can fill with any message you like.  Other users reply to your messages and you to theirs.  Simple idea.  Distant Shore is the kind of game a four-year-old can enjoy.  I know one and he loves picking up bottles and shells.

I send the same message every time; "what's the best street food where you are?"  Not everyone replies, and not every reply makes sense.  But in the replies come, from all over the world.  Its was from Distant Shore that I learned about "garbage plates".  Thanks - now I know how bad American food can get if you really try.

By far, the most enthusiastic responses, besides "hot dogs!", are about Xiao Long Bao.  The incredibly small number of users out there collecting virtual shells simply love soup dumplings.  I can't really blame them - they truly are amazing.

Thinking about soup dumplings got me thinking about an obvious fusion that would be wonderful - Gumbo Dumplings.  I make gumbo on a regular basis, so I know what happens to leftovers.  When chilled the gumbo becomes fairly gelatinous.  A perfect fit for these fantastic little packages.

Unless you have a dinner party that you're working on, I would recommend only making enough gumbo aspic to make the number of dumplings you plan in one sitting.  That said, these would be a huge hit at any dinner party, assuming you have the time and energy to make the gumbo.

Gumbo dumplings

2 cups gumbo

Frozen dumpling skins (get these at your local asian market)

Directions

1. Strain the solids out of the gumbo and put the liquid in a glass bowl.  Put in the refrigerator, in the crisper drawer, and allow to gel over night.


2. Dice the solids from the gumbo to a small/fine dice.  Store in the refrigerator overnight.


3. When ready to make the dumplings, put the skins out on a board.  Run a wet finger around the edge, making sure the entire skin has water on the edge.  Form the skin into a bowl (see picture above).


4. Into each skin, drop a bit of the sausage/chicken and a bit of the gumbo  liquid.  Don’t overfill.


5. Seal each dumpling with a little twist.  Make sure each dumpling is sealed tight.


6. Finish as you would Xiao Long Bao, but cook for just 8 minutes.

photo by wallyg

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival happens each year in the spring.   The event is at the Fairgrounds Race Track, near a large city park.  It's multiple days of excellent music and food.  I'm sure some big names have played Jazzfest, but my visits have focused on gospel and food.

The Jazz & Heritage Festival has roots in Southern gospel music, and it shows with the quality of bands that play each year.  Maybe the acoustics aren't the same as a small church, but the music makes up for it.

The other highlight is the food.  Its one of the best ways to try different cajun and creole dishes, some that aren't very common outside the fairgrounds.  The list is long, and I hope to eventually cover most, if not all of them here:

• Crawfish bread


• Crawfish balls


• Natchitoches meat pie


• Crawfish pie


• Muffuletta

I have never found a crawfish bread that comes even close to what you can find at Jazz Fest…

Prejean's Restaurant serves an excellent gumbo at the Jazz & Heritage Festival.  This is not their gumbo, but it’s a good one.  Its simple and it never fails.  The only trick to this recipe is that you'll need a whole smoked chicken - easy where I live, perhaps not everywhere.  There are ways to smoke a chicken yourself, but when I realized how fantastic the local version was, I quit doing it myself.

I serve large bowls of gumbo with a lump of packed rice dropped on top.  The heat of this gumbo is heavily dependent on the sausage, so pay attention to what you decide to use.

Smoked Chicken Gumbo

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cumin

2 cups white onions, minced

1 cup green bell peppers, minced

1 cup celery, chopped

10 cups chicken stock

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp thyme

2 bay leaves

1 pound andouille sausage

1 whole smoked chicken

To make the gumbo:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Don't let it smoked.  Add the flour a little at a time.


2. Let the flour cook, stirring almost constantly, until it is a dark roux, the color of good coffee.


3. Add half the onions, peppers and celery and cook about 5 minutes.  Add the seasonings and cook another 5 minutes.


4. Add 8 cups of stock to the roux, bring to a boil and cook 30 minutes.


5. Add the rest of the vegetables, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, sausage and remaining stock.  Simmer another 30 minutes.


6. Remove the sausage from the gumbo and slice into 1/4 in slices.  Return to the gumbo and cook for another 30 minutes.


7. While the gumbo is finishing, remove all the meat from the chicken and dice.  Set aside.


8. Add the chicken and let the gumbo cool for 10 minutes.  Spoon into bowls with rice.

photo by Ingorrr

Stock is something I make as a reaction to another meal or recipe.  If I happen to be making something that requires a whole chicken, I will go ahead and make some stock.  Its not hard, and it makes a huge difference. 

I have a couple posts that require stock, so I thought I would post this.

The vast majority of the time, the stock I make is chicken.  For the most part, its what I have the building blocks to do.  If I have a serious chili day coming up I might make some beef stock, but its rare.

The only variation I make is the chicken.  If I need a rich stock, I keep some frozen chicken wings on hand to add to the chicken - that really takes it over the top.

Stock freezes.  When I thaw it, I generally boil/simmer it for 10-15 minutes before using it.

Chicken stock

Bones, neck and back of a whole chicken (I don't use the organs)

For a rich stock, I add about 1.25 pounds of chicken wings

Greens from a head of celery

1-2 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 onion, quartered

2 slices of ginger

To make the stock:

1. Put everything into a stock pot and add water to cover.  Pay attention to how full the stock pot is.


2. Bring everything to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for 4-8 hours.


3. I leave the cover askew if I can.  When the stock boils off I add water to keep it at about the same volume.


4. Strain all solids.