Enchilada Sauce

28 oz canned stewed tomatoes
1/2 large white onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
serranos to taste, chopped
2 dried guajillo chiles, toasted and cut into smaller pieces
1 tbsp olive/grapeseed oil
salt to tast
3 green onions, chopped
handful fresh cilantro, chopped
about half a lime

1) Heat oil in a 3 quart saucepan over medium-high heat.
2) Add onions, sauté for a couple minutes.
3) Add garlic, then a minute or so later both chiles.
4) Cook down for a few minutes, deglaze with some of the liquid from tomatoes and cook until nearly dried.
5) Add remaining tomatoes and cook 10-15 minutes until tomatoes and dried chiles are tender.
6) Add salt and blend with hand blender. Reduce if necessary.
7) Remove from heat and mix in the green onions, cilantro and a good squeeze of the lime.
8) Use, refrigerate, freeze or just eat with a spoon :)

Butter Chicken

Chicken prep for night before:

-  Cut 2.2 lbs of chicken in large chunks (bone-in dark is best, i.e. thighs cut in half)

-  Mix your marinade

     1 tsp chili powder

     salt

     1 cup greek yogurt

     Juice of 1 lime

     ½ tsp turmeric

     Roast then grind:

      -6 cloves

      -10 peppercorns

      -1” cinnamon stick

      -4 cardamom pods

      -1 heaping tsp whole coriander seeds

      -2 tsp whole cumin

-  Add the chicken to the marinade

-  Keeping the marinade for later use, sear the chicken the next night just before starting the sauté section. Don’t cook it through, just sear it and remove from heat. You can put the chicken back in the marinade as long as you’re moving on to the next step soon otherwise store them separately.

The night of:

Sauté:

-  Coconut oil for pan

-  2 large chopped yellow onions

-  Chopped garlic and ginger to taste

-  Chilies to taste (indian, thai or whatever you can get)

-  Add:

     3 tsp ground coriander seed

     1 ½ tsp ground cumin seed

     ½ tsp turmeric

-  Cook until onions are getting

Add 1 can of diced tomatoes, marinade from chicken and chicken.

Cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through

Remove from heat and mix in:

-  2 Tbsp of Kasuri (fenugreek leaves) – you really, really need this, I can’t stress this enough. Storage advice: you will want to double bag the leftovers and put it in a plastic container so your whole kitchen doesn’t smell like it!

-  3 Tbsp of butter or margarine

Garnish with fresh coriander (cilantro) and serve with Naan.

Mango Chicken

Sauce:

2 fresh ripe mangos

3+ thai chilis

1 tbsp rice vinegar

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 cubic cm of ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1/2 cup cilantro

2 kaffir lime leaves (no stem or vein) or 1 bay leaf and zest of lime

Combine and hand blend

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of chicken thighs chopped (marinate in oyster sauce, soy, garlic and black pepper)

3+ thai chilis

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 bunch green onions

2 bell peppers

1 red onion large chunks

2 mangos cut in large chunks

flour

cashews

cilantro

Directions:

Combine ingredients for sauce and blend. Set aside.

Dredge marinated chicken chunks in flour and pan fry for a few minutes in coconut oil to brown/cook about 70%. Evacuate chicken to a bowl.

Add remaining coconut oil to pan and add thai chilis, letting char a little.

From this point on if things are getting too dry deglaze with the chicken stock.

Add bell peppers and red onion, cook for a minute or so.

Add mangos and cook for a minute or so.

Add chicken and cook for a minute or so.

Add the sauce and cook until everything is to desired level of cooking.

Add the green onions.

Serve on top of brown jasmine rice and garnish with cashews and cilantro.

--

dk  | BBM: 333DA348

The hottest chicken ever

Last night I decided to make some crazy spice drumsticks. Started with a little spicy Valentina and about a quarter cup of Crystal hot sauce and beefed it up with home blended mix of dried Trinidad Scorpion, Ghost, Habaneros and a single Chipotle for a little more smoke. The drums were marinated for about 12 hours in about 2/3 of the sauce and then grilled for about 35 minutes using the marinade bag to reapply sauce since I figured I'd be able to cook the raw chicken germs off and there was enough spice to kill any wimpy salmonella that survived... since that's not how it works, I just made sure it was done early enough to cook ;)

When the chicken hit 158 degrees it came of, rested for about 5 min and covered them with the last 1/3 of the sauce (that hadn't contacted raw chicken) and served it with broccoli and bulger. 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.

Homemade Better Than Swiss Chalet Chicken

On an extended stay out of Canada we started having a craving for the magic that is Swiss Chalet chicken. I know it's a chain and I hate chain restaurants but as a Canadian this one gets a pass. There's just something about it that makes me feel like if I don't have it I've done my country a disservice. So, I started doing research and came up with the following like to Bea's Swiss Chalet Style Rotisserie Chicken Marinade: http://www.food.com/recipe/beas-swiss-chalet-style-rotisserie-chicken-marinade-415018

The first time I made it I followed the recipe pretty closely but since I don't buy soup mix I had to substitute, choosing V8 instead. It was great, very close but I decided it needed some changes, not necessarily for authenticity but because I wanted a slightly different taste. What I've come up with is, in my opinion better than the original. We need to invite some people over at some point who are familiar with the original to get a good opinion, though we've recently done the Festive Special (with Toblerone, not Lindt!) for guests and it seemed well reviewed:

We did use a packet of the sauce mix but did do homemade stuffing and Rach made the bread.

So... on to the chicken:
In a stainless steel container or bag with container combine:
3 cups Spicy V8

2 cups water

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1.5 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp dried shallots
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp savory
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp allspice
Mix thoroughly

Add:
1 5-6 lb washed whole chicken

If the liquid doesn't cover the whole bird add water and V8 in a 4:1 ratio until you are able to cover the chicken.

Let the chicken sit in the brine, refrigerated, for up to 24 hours. If you're brining for 6 or less hours stab the chicken a few times so the brine can get in.

Remove the chicken from brine and coat lightly with a rub of:
2 parts brown rice flour
1 part hot paprika
1 part thyme
and a dusting of salt and pepper

You will probably want to fire up the grill at this point, high heat beside the bird, burner off directly below.

Next up, remove a 355 mL can of beer from the fridge and drink approximately 160 mL. Get your beer can chicken holder out and assemble - I usually actually do this before applying rub but it might be easier to apply the rub if the chicken isn't standing upright with 195 mL of beer in it.

Now, with that assembled and hopefully with your grill running around 400 degrees, put that chicken on and remember, not over direct heat.

And finally, the most important part, turn the chicken 90 degrees every 5-10 minutes to ensure even cooking. Believe it or not, after 50-60 minutes, this thing will be done and then it's just cutting and eating.

Specialty Burgers

Two of my recent burgers I've been working on and have to the point where I'm very happy with.

Bacon Bourbon Burger
1 lb ground beef 85/15 (or 80/20 if you trim the bacon)
1-2 oz bourbon (use something with a lot of flavor, like Wild Turkey 101)
2 slices of thick cut bacon
2-3 tbsp panko
kosher salt
pepper
1 tbsp finely diced onion

Bite Back Burgers (Habanero Burgers)
1 lb ground beef 80/20
1 large habanero diced with seeds
1 tbsp diced onion
2-3 tbsp panko
1 egg or 1-2 tbsp soy milk (egg if using soon, milk if they're in the fridge for 4+ hours)
1/2 tsp of
ground coriander
ground cumin
kosher salt
pepper
oregano

With both of these I like to soak the panko (either in the bourbon for the first the milk or egg in the second) and just mix everything together by hand.

Now make sliders or regular burgers:

Sliders preparing for formation.

Full sized burgers on the grill

Food of the May Europe Trip: Part 6 - Munich

So embarrassingly we did go to Hofbräuhaus three times in Munich. I would do it again! So let's get to the food...

Okay, it's Hofbräuhaus, of course the first picture is of some of our beers!

Dinner 1: Half roasted chicken with potato salad; the pork knuckle with grated potato dumpling and some sides: spaetzle, bavarian sauerkraut and red cabbage. This made coming back a second night necessary.

Dinner 2: Pork knuckle up close and personal!

Dinner 2: Sauerbraten with bread dumplings and cranberries.

Sauerkraut.

More beer! A Dark Radler and a Ruß'n.

Pretzel and sausages.