Chicken Tarragon And Eryngii Mushroom

It had been a hectic schedule lately for the family. My kid was sniffing and it's not looking good... no thanks to the crazy weather lately (I tried to boost up his immune system with vitamins and rest but in the end the cold bugs won!). So, the stove was not much of smoking even though I got lots of recipes to try out... :-(

Still, I managed to sneak into one (or two) of the local supermarkets on my way out to fetch my kid from kindergarten :-P. This time, I found new batches of Eryngii Mushrooms a.k.a King Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) at quite low price (less than 2 €/pkt of 250 g)! It had been quite sometime I didn't serve this mushroom and buying them in Europe is really expensive as it's considered 'exotic' food along with Oyster Mushrooms, Abalone Mushrooms, Enoki, etc. To read more about this Eryngii mushroom, you can read it here with recipe and an added flavour Ginseng Eryngii Mushroom (haven't find this one for more than 1 year!)

For this hearty 'One Pot' European style recipe, I used deboned chicken thighs and breast meats with smoked bacon. It's easy to make and you can add on other side dishes to it like rice, potatoes, bread, salad, etc. I cooked some left over carrots and zucchini with a knob butter, pinch of salt and few twist of black pepper. Give a quick toss and serve with steamed rice. Oh... one more thing... instead of the usual White Wine used in such recipes, I broke the rule by using Brandy a.k.a Cognac :-P That's what I can find on the shelf at that moment. This French Brandy can be found mostly in Chinese households. You can say that if you want to win the hearts of your potential in-laws of your lady love, this got to be IT when you pay them your first visit and also for birthdays and Chinese New Year (Martell is the best choice so far I'd seen ;-D).

I can say the dish turned out gorgeously creamy, juicy with a hint of brandy and the tender chicken thigh meat was a great substitution that I preferred more from the usual whole chicken! Enjoy cooking it for your next fuss-free meal! :-)

Chicken Tarragon With Eryngii Mushroom

Serves 4

4 pcs Chicken Breasts Fillets/Thighs (about 450 g)

4 rashers Smoked Bacon - cut into strips

150 g Eryngii Mushrooms - thinly sliced

50 ml Olive Oil

80 ml Brandy (or generous amount if you like it more!)

80 ml Fresh Cream

1 Tbl Tomato Paste (15 ml)

1 Tbl Fresh Tarragon - picked, firmly packed (about 4 sprigs)

2-3 stalks Spring Onion - finely chopped

Salt and Freshly grounded Black Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash chicken pieces thoroughly and trim off excess fat. Remove the skin and debone, if using chicken thighs or you can leave the bones in.

2. Preheat oven to 180 ºC.

3. In a large heavy pan, heat the oil to medium high. Add in the chicken pieces and cook about 2 minutes on each side, turning once. Remove from pan and drain excess oil.

4. In the same oil and pan, add in the sliced smoked bacon. Stir for 2 minutes and add in the sliced Eryngii Mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms slightly wilted.

5. Add in the brandy, tomato paste and tarragon leaves. Stir until mixture boils. Reduce heat and add in fresh cream. Simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat.

6. Stir in chopped Spring onions and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. Arrange chicken pieces in a shallow ovenproof dish. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Covered and baked in the oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Note:

You can use Button Mushroom or any seasonal mushrooms of your choice for this recipe. Besides using Brandy, you can also use Dry White Wine or Dry Sherry. If you want a healthier version, replace the fresh cream with plain natural yoghurt :-)

Bon Appétit!

Torch Ginger Flower (Etlinger Elatior)

I love flowers whether is just for decoration or edible flowers but there's one flower that needs to be included in certain Southeast Asian dishes; in fact without this flower there's no 'ooomphh' and no 'marriage' in the dish. Even if you can find dried version of this flower, it simply won't do compared to fresh flower. Sometimes, because I can't find this 'special' flower, I won't cook the dish that have this ingredient in it, no matter how much I crave for that dish :-( 

I'm referring to... the edible Torch Ginger Flower (Zingibier Etlinger Elatior) or Bunga Kantan (Malay), Ang Hua/Red Flower (Hokkien), Kaalaa (Thai), Awapuhi-ko `oko` o (Hawaiian), Bunga Kecombrang/ Bongkot (Indonesian), Asam Cekala (Karonese) to name a few but mostly known as Laksa Flower. There're other names for it as well such as Sceptre of the Emperor, Rose de porcelaine, Torch Lily and Philippine Waxflower. Don't be confused with Heliconia... The stalks may looked the same but the flowers are totally different. The Torch Ginger came in several colours as well; Pink, Red, White. The one I had and most commonly available in Southeast Asian fresh market is Pink Torch Ginger.

The Pink Torch Ginger buds on its stems...

Inside the bud: very colourful pink shades petals with yellow corolla in the centre.

The taste is unique... it has sourness (tangy), astringent, aromatic with a hint of galangal (will discuss about that in future entry) and colourful to be use as decoration in the garden as well as in ikebana which I had seen been used by some Japanese ikebana specialists.

There's only one thing that caught my attention about this flower. The very young bud looks like myoga and since both were from same family, that made me wonder if I can use the tender young buds like myoga... :-D

Usage of this flower mostly as condiment in seafood-based dishes of Nyonya/Peranakan and Malay, Thai cuisines; like Assam Laksa, Fish Curry, Noodles or Salads to impart that unique aroma and taste to cooked dish besides colouring the dish with its pink petals... The seeds are used in soups for its sourness to replace tamarind rinds and tamarind pulp. I may try to add it to rasam next time... :-D Some local remedies include drinking the filtered juice of finely pounded seeds with warm water to fight fatigue and increase appetite. Besides the buds as food, fresh long stems (after cutting of the flower buds) are use to get rid of body odor; chop the long stem into shorter lengths, pound into pulp and boil in water. After the mixture is cool, filter the mixture and use the water for bathing (that I need to try out :-P ) 

The best and faster way propagates this plant is from cuttings compared to seedlings which may took several years before the plant starts producing flowers.

PS. Southeast asians - mostly women, love to eat raw herbs and vegetables with sambals and dips in their daily food supplement. It's believed that eating raw herbs and vegetables preserves the youthfulness of individuals. The knowledge is passed down from great-grandmothers to grand-daughters... That's why, we look younger than our age...Hahahahaa... ;-) Well, as long as we can sustain the supply of such produce, we will keep up with the tradition. That's why I planted such herbs in my little terrace 'garden' as much as possible. The natural resource for such herbal remedies is fast depleting. Concrete jungle is growing faster than the plants themselves... :-( I always advice my friends to eat raw herbs and plant them in their homes.

cheers!

Roasted Yogurt Chicken In Ghee

I love Indian food because of the cuisine's usage of herbs and spices that I grew up with. When you mentioned Indian food, first thing came into people's mind was images of red chillies floating in reddish coconut milk gravy, grounded spices, sweating red faces and tongue wagging with glasses of cold ice water (a bucket, maybe?) or lassis in one hand. I even have friends/relatives whom mentioned the word 'curry' would made them pale-faced and avoid any shops or restaurants that serve 'curry' like plague! They rather starved than tasting it...even if it's only Kurma based dishes! Is not like that at all... There are other dishes that's not going to make you swallowed that bucket of ice in front you at a gulp! 

The meaning of 'Curry' is derived from South Indian - Tamil word 'kari' which means sauce or relish for rice. It refers to wide range of spicy-sauced dishes as accompaniment to rice and bread. Another red alert word for newcomers in Curry World is 'Spicy'. It's a magic word that sends out for a fire brigade on stand-by... :-D It actually means seasoned with or containing spice that ranges from aromatic, sweet, sour, peppery, zesty to piquant or pungent like cardamom, cinnamon, tamarind, black pepper, asafoetida, chillies, tumeric, etc, etc,etc. That means you could have Rasam which is sourish to peppery taste next to Meen Curry Fish -  a Kerala dish with thick and quite spicy-hot gravy. See what I mean? Yet this couldn't bring the house down compared to Thai Red Curry or Thai Curried Beef... :-D 

I'm not sure of other foodies taste buds regarding spicy and hot cuisines but from my own experiences and friends, it's a hate-love situation. You would have a group with eyes lit up with 'Where? Where?' sign written on their foreheads and even could hear slurping sound somewhere by just mentioning the word 'curry' and another group, frowning their faces, ready to get a roll of toilet paper. Well, I do have friends who are a bit sensitive to curry but... it's ok if it's Tandoori. I don't know why... I do felt sorry for them that I kept 1 - 2 toilet paper rolls wrapped up nicely inside one of the back side compartment of my car. You know, on the safe side when the gang suddenly changed their minds in last minutes to go Indian or Thai food instead of Chinese fare... I do say that we're a bit... no, too spoilt of choices in food in Malaysia and I LOVE IT!!!

Anyway, I wanted to share this dish. It's a family favourite and I usually served it with Briyani Rice and vegetables.

Roasted Yogurt Chicken in Ghee

500 g chicken/breast meats, drumsticks or your choice (clean & cut into chunks)

150 ml Ghee

1 nos. Green Lime (extract the juice)

2 nos Red Onion/Bombay Onion (sliced thinly into rings)

2 cloves Garlic } blend/pound together 

3 cm  fresh Ginger  } until fine paste

250 ml ready-made Natural yogurt (plain & no sugar added)

2-3 medium size potatoes-cut into wedges

1 nos medium size carrot - cut into rounds/wedges

300 ml Water or as needed

3 nos Cloves

2 nos Cardamom

3-4 cm Cinnamon bark

1 nos Star Anise

1 Tsp Tumeric powder

1 Tsp Chilli paste

Chilli powder to taste

1 Large Ripe Tomato - cut into quarters

Onion cripies (fried crispy shallots)

Salt to taste

Oven-proof pot/deep casserole dish (like Pyrex/Corningware)

1. Pre-heat the oven @ 180 ºC.

2. In a casserole (that's big enough for the chicken) heat the ghee until is hot.  

3. Add in the chicken, lime juice, big onion, tumeric, chilli paste and a little salt. Stir and leave it for few minutes until it boils.

4. Add in the potatos wedges and carrots. Stir until well mix and let them cooked until soften a bit.

5. Pour in the yogurt and add in some water (adjust to your liking if you prefer to the dish to have more gravy or less because vegetables will give out juices as well.) Cook until meat is tender.

6. Add in the quarterd tomatoes, chillie powder and fried crispy shallots. Bake in the oven @ 180 º C for 10-15 minutes until brown.

Serve hot with rice or naan, bread, chapatis...

Note: If you like it more hot or spicy, just add extra chilli powder or fresh chillies.. :-D Sometimes, I used extra spoonfuls of Ghee I made myself by using unsalted butter. If you can't find unsalted butter, you can use salted butter to make Ghee but reduce the amount of salt required in the recipe. More Ghee means better aroma your dish is but watch out the cholesterol level...

Thai Sweet Basil (Horapa)

Thai Sweet Basil or 'Horapa' is one of the common cultivar group of basil. It's a common herb used widely in Southeast Asia region especially in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It's easy to grow them from the cuttings you purchased off the supermarket shelves. Just soak the cuttings in some clean water and change the water every 2 -3 days until you can see some rootings protruding from the stems. Then you plant it in quality soil in pots or garden. I planted in large pots with organic soil by itself because they root very fast and  agressively just like Lemongrass. Their roots will 'choke' other plants so, it's advisable to let them have their own territory...To have more leaves, cut the flowers off before they bloom or you can add the flowers to your Thai recipes or salad -  the colorful pinkish-white flowers add another dimension to your dishes! By the way, different species of basil has different color of flowers, smell/fragrance and leaf textures. For example, the Basilicum that is common in Europe has white flowers and broad green, soft leaves and lesser anise taste compared to Southeast Asian varieties.

Here's one my pots of Thai Basil with it's flowers and green-purple leaves...

The tiny seeds can be made into Basil Seed drinks (Nam Mangklak) like Falooda or Sherbet/Sharbat, you can mix it with honey or Bubble Tea... I also like mine added to fresh coconut juice with a little bit of rose syrup. It's also a common remedy for fever or during hot season to cool down the body heat and aids digestion. Besides it's important usage in various cuisines and in essential oils, basil plays important role in cultural aspects of ancient civilisations, even today, it's highly regard in religions and beliefs...

Another FUN part is... the basil seeds looked like frog's eggs because the seeds became gelatinous when soaked in water with its' tiny black dot in the centre, wobbly,oogly... ok, ok, ok no more details... :-D

Oh, have a read of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron and John Keats' narrative poem Isabella or The Pot of Basil. 

One thing for sure, basil is always welcome in my kitchen and its within reach means I can enjoy my favourite Basil dishes anytime I want... from simple sambal or salad to fried rice! The choices are endless...