Chao Ga (Chicken Rice Porridge)

By request: chicken rice porridge. I still remember years ago, four of us were playing Cranium. I had to list three comfort foods and our friend MA had to list her three comfort foods. I think I wrote mashed potatoes, mac + cheese, and rice porridge. She wrote chocolate, ice cream and cookies. The goal was to think alike.  It was pretty hilarious how differently we were thinking, but chicken rice porridge is definitely a comfort food. By request, here's my way of making chicken rice porridge.

optional

Chicken stock (makes about 3 quarts)

2.5 pounds chicken bones

2 chicken quarters (drumstick and thigh)

1 onion

half head garlic

1 tablespoon salt

Put all of the ingredients in a big pot and pour enough water so that there's a 1-2 inches above the stuff.  Heat on high until it reaches a boil and then reduce to medium-low to maintain a simmer. You don't have to peel the garlic because the stock is going to be strained anyway. I peeled the dry layers off of the onion. In about 30 minutes, the meat on the chicken quarters should be done. Take out the meat and let it cool.  Peel the meat off of the bones and put the bones back in the pot.  Cook for a minimum of 1.5 hours.  I cooked it for about 3 hours. Strain the broth out and recover any more meat that you see.

The broth, merrily piping along

The finished product!

Rice porridge: (makes a LOT, maybe 24 servings)
3 cups white rice (we use long grain Jasmine rice)
1/4 cup oil
6 cups water
8 cups chicken stock, plus 4 cups reserved
1 teaspoon salt
1 small cabbage head (optional)
4 cups bean sprouts (optional)
2 lemons or limes, sliced (optional)
fish sauce to taste
 
1. Optional: I had a lot of chicken skin so I cooked it in a pot on low heat for 20 minutes.  I used the fat for cooking and Lionel made a crispy chicken skin sandwich.

Looks good though, doesn't it?

2. Heat the pot on medium heat with 1/4 cup of oil and 3 cups rice.  Toast the rice until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally, every few minutes. Towards the end (last 8 minutes or so) reduce to low heat because the rice may burn if the heat is too high.

After 10 minutes, some of the grains are still white and others are browned

After 20 minutes, some of the grains are light brown and others are dark brown, but none are black!

3. Be prepared for dramatic sizzling. Pour 6 cups of water into the pot of rice all at once. Stir. Let it cook for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat. You'll see that it absorbs a lot of water. Add 8 cups of chicken stock. Let it simmer until it reaches a desired consistency. I like it chunky with some broth, so I cook mine for about 20 minutes.  Others like it very watery and will cook it until the rice is broken down into small specks and add extra liquid.  As the porridge cools down it may absorb more liquid, so reserve some broth to add into the pot the next day.

If you didn't make homemade stock, open up some cans of chicken broth and cook some pieces of chicken in it until the meat is cooked.  Shred the chicken meat and use that broth for the porridge.

Yum yum yum

4. Prepare the toppings.  I did this while the porridge was cooking.  Slice the cabbage into fine shreds.  Wash the bean sprouts. You don't have to snip the browned root off of the bean sprouts, but some people do it to make the bean sprouts look nicer.

5. Top with whatever you want. I used chicken, lettuce, bean sprouts, fish sauce, and lemon pepper.

Salmon with Lentils and Chive Butter

Waiting to go home this week seems to have some-what zapped my cooking inspiration. I am really excited to cook but not so invigorated about thinking about what to cook. Kind of a catch-22 there. Yesterday I sat down determined to figure out what I wanted to get at the store before I went to sleep and this was one of the recipes that came from it. I got it from epicurious.com, I believe from an old Bon App. magazine. Speaking of which I hear their revamped style is interesting...it's something I'll have to check out later this summer.

As a heads up this recipe calls for French lentils which I know can be hard to find. At least it always takes my mom about 3-4 stores back home to find them...maybe they are more common over here in St. Louis since Katie and I found them in bulk at Whole Foods. Super exciting and super cheap! Lien, if you can find these when you get back to the states it is a super easy recipe. You should still make the salmon part though since you can do that without fancy stuff.

Ingredients:

Salmon:
two Salmon fillets (enough for two people to eat)
2 tbl butter

Chive Butter:
4 tbs butter
1 tbs chopped chives
2 tsp mustard (preferably whole grain)
1 tsp lemon juice

Lentils:
1 cup French lentils
4 cups water
2 medium size leeks, chopped white and pale green part only
1 tbs butter
1 tbs lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Make the chive butter. Combine all the ingredients. If you did not take out your butter to come to room temp. beforehand you can just zap it in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Season to taste.

2. Start the lentils. Add them in a pot with the water. Bring them to a boil and then lower it to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes until the lentils are tender. Take off the stove and let them sit for about 5 minutes. Then reserve 1/2 cup of cooking liquid and drain the rest of the lentils.

3. Towards the middle of the lentil's cooking time, slice the leeks, thinly and then wash them. Its easier this way since leeks some times have dirt one-two layers down. In a skillet melt 1 tbs of butter, and then saute the leeks for 6-8 minutes until soft.

4. At the same time, melt the 2 tbs of butter for the salmon. Pat the salmon dry and then season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook the salmon until done. About 6-8 minutes depending on the thickness.

5. While the salmon is cooking, add the lentils to the leeks when they are soft. Add three tbs of the chive butter and season with lemon juice and salt and pepper. Cook until lentils are warm through.

6. Once the salmon is done serve on top of the lentils with chive butter.

Yum, yum.

Ropa Vieja

Well, there are no great pictures of this feast but it was tasty. I was more excited about the burnt carrot salad than the ropa vieja at the time, and then I tasted this and thought well that was a great meal I did little to make!

Lien, I have no idea if you could make this in a rice cooker...probably but who knows, I would just say you should get a slow cooker/crock pot when you get back to the states since you aren't on that tiny island much longer. 

I took this recipe from Food and Wine's website though, so they should get the credit.

Ingredients:

2lbs flank steak halved length wise and cut into four pieces each. I'll describe what I mean here later Lien, I am sure you are confused.

Salt and pepper

28 oz can of diced tomatoes

1/4 cup water

2 bell peppers diced

1 medium onion diced

1 jalapeno diced

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1 bay leaf

Warm tortillas and rice to serve with.

Food and Wine also calls for:

1/2 cup pitted green olives

2 tablespoons of capers

3 tablespoons of coarsely chopped cilantro

Chris doesn't like the first two on that, and the cilantro I just completely forgot about, though I am sure it would have been a delicious addition.

1. Take the flank steak and figure out how you should cut it. Since you are slow cooking the meal it should be in relatively medium-large chunks, thats the point of the cutting. I ended up having about 2-3 inch by 1-2 inch chunks of meat. So you don't have to follow the cut it length-wise bit, Lien. And now just chucking the whole piece of meat in the slow cooker, then it WONT cook! Well it would just take a really long time to cook.

2. Season the steak with salt and pepper. This means you should put more salt and pepper than you would think Lien. Don't like slather it on, but a good amount. It is also what will go towards seasoning the whole dish before you add more and helps to "tenderize" the meat.

3. Then add everything else except the tortillas and rice to the slow cooker. Add the flank steak and cook on high for 5 hours. You know it is done when the meat is basically falling apart. Take the meat out and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then shred it with two forks and return to the slow cooker. Season the sauce if need be with salt and pepper.

4. Add the olives, capers and cilantro if using.

5. Serve with tortillas and rice. Yum, yum

Here is the very blurry picture of it, without the beef added in again.

Burnt Carrot Salad with Arugula and Goat Cheese from Food and Wine

My mom made this salad when my aunt came to visit, she is vegan. Since my mom put goat cheese on hers and my dads portion she figured that I would love it as well. Turns out she was right, so despite the fact that it now feels like 100 degrees in my apartment, I am very very happy with the salad. Plus it is a great excuse for me to eat goat cheese! We ate it with slow cooked ropa vieja which was also really good, I'll blog about that one later though.

Ingredients:
8 larger carrots
1 bag of arugula
9 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
4 oz. of goat cheese
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

Preheat the broiler.

Take your carrots, cut them in half length-wise and then cut them into two inch segments. I just used baby carrots and cut them in half. Put the carrots in a baking dish, like a pirex, and put 3 tablespoons of olive oil on them, the thyme, and then salt and pepper to season. Put them in the broiler for about 3-5 minutes until they are starting to brown. Turn them over and then let the other side brown. They should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside when you take them out. About 5-10 minutes total.

Combine the rest of the olive oil, the vinegar, and salt and pepper. Whisk until the oil and vinegar are intermingled.

Take your arugula and put it in a bowl. Then put the parsley in. Add the carrots, then the goat cheese. Swirl the dressing over it and serve.

Super delicious.

Technically this is all supposed to be done on the barbecue, but I dont have one and it worked just fine this way!