Fried Chicken

The holiday season brings out the best in all of us. Cheer, goodwill toward (wo)men and all those warm and fuzzy things. It also brings out the glutton in all of us. I celebrated this wonderful season by making fried chicken. Because nothing brings good cheer like a big 'ol pile of fried chicken.

The fried chicken really came out of necessity more than anything else. My father bought a whole chicken for dinner and we were all simply tired of roast chicken. There also happened to be a pot of oil on the stove from my sister's doughnut-making episode the day before. Being the green enthusiast I am, I couldn't possibly let all of that good oil go to waste. Frying was the solution!

My father dutifully pieced the chicken from its whole form (which for never having done it before, did a pretty nice job) then we bathed each piece in some beaten eggs and then a coating of flour, seasoning the pieces at each step in its fried chicken journey.

You know, if I were this free-range, organic, hormone-free chicken I would feel pretty darn good that I was going to finish my existence on earth as some crunchy fried chicken. A good life, indeed. Just saying.

After dredging in the flour, we placed the pieces into a large pan of 350 degree oil and let them fry until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes on each side depending on the piece. We had about 2 inches of oil in our pan, hence the need to turn them over.

The result was a deliciously crispy bird we all enjoyed with, what else, wing sauce! Because my family has an odd obsession with this spicy sauce, we smothered the chicken with it and served it up with the classic accompaniment celery and carrots and a homemade ranch-like dipping sauce.

The ingredients we used (from the chicken to the flour to the veggies and even the sour cream for the ranch dip) were all organic and organic fried chicken never tasted so good!

Happy (belated) Hanukkah!

I know it's a little late, but my family did our Hanukkah dinner last night. It's never too late for latkes though, right?

Here's a look at the grand plate of latkes we served last night...homemade from scratch with love from, er, Trader Joe's. Hey, no judging!

My cousin also brought the most amazing Hanukkah cake for us to indulge in. The delectable, dark chocolate ganache was such a light, refreshing end to such a light meal...if you don't count the fried latkes....or the schnitzel...or the tri tip...or the jelly doughnuts. Gym time for me today! 

(BTW my cousin is a professional pastry chef. Don't try this at home kids.)

It's also never too late to share a little Hanukkah history! So, here's a brief overview of the holiday for those of you that don't follow the way of the tribe. And no, I didn't make this up myself. It's a little excerpt from the all-knowing resource known as the internet. The internet is always right, right? Read all about the history of Hanukkah after the jump, as well as a link to a latke recipe.

Scallion Pancakes

One thing I've never seen in "mix" form is scallion pancakes. You've probably had these delightful, fluffy and flavorful pancakes at a Chinese restaurant or maybe at Korean BBQ along with the plethora of salads. These heavier-than-a-crepe pancakes are so easy to make and great with a dash of soy, ponzu or even teriyaki sauce.

In order to inject some umami (the 5th taste) into the "Everything But The..." line of baking mixes, we've come up with a lovely "Everything But The...eggs" recipe for scallion pancakes. Here's the recipe I tested today. I still have some more tweaking to do, but the pancakes had a soft, delectable texture while really delivering an punchy green onion flavor, accented by some sea salt.

Whisk together in a large bowl:
2 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil (or any vegetable you have around)

Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once packaged, Everything But The will include all of these dry ingredients, pre-mixed, in our fantastic, eco-friendly containers so all you have to do is pour into the wet ingredients above!

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Dash of chili powder
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper
1 cup chopped scallions 

Whisk everything together so that there are no lumps. The great part about the rice flour is it provides a smooth, thin consistency very quickly.

Next, heat a large pan to medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil (vegetable oil works just fine). Pour in about 1/2 cup of your batter mix and pan-fry on one side for about 1-2 minutes, then flip and fry the other side. Watch the pan closely and lift the side of the pancake to check for doneness before flipping.

Once done, transfer to a plate and serve it up with any variety of Asian toppings. Any of the following combinations are great:

• Ponzu with lemon zest
• Teriyaki sauce with orange segments
• Soy sauce with grated ginger and cilantro
• Wasbi mayonaise 

Next time I'm going to test these with dried shitaki mushrooms to see how I can inject another umami ingredient into the mix. I'm sure I'll have to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes so the mushrooms can re-hydrate in the batter, but I have high hopes for the outcome.

If you try this at home, let me know your thoughts and leave a comment below.

Nuclear Rice!

Have you tried these delicious little morsels from Trader Joe's? Baked Rick Snacks (Yaki Onigiri).

Yaki Onigiri

Everyone that knows me, knows that I sing the praises of Trader Joe's on a regular basis, but this item is a new favorite! Small (about 2 inch corner to corner) rick snacks that are lightly caramelized and easy to heat and eat. I mean, you microwave for a minute and they taste fresh from the steamer.  Hello awesome.

So, how do I like my nuclear rice? Today I pan-fried some tofu and made a quick cucumber salad to accompany them. (I also devour them on their own in slightly more than one minute).

I love rice wine vinegar, so I dressed the cucumbers in simply that, along with some diced scallions for added crunch. For the tofu, I put a little regular and sesame oil in a pan and fried each side of the tofu "fillets" for about 2 minutes on each side until they brown slightly.

And here's lunch. Notice the nearly fat-free nature of this meal...gotta do something to make up for the pounds of butter, flour and sugar I'm consuming with all the baking I'm doing (more posts on that later).

Pan-fried tofu, deglazed with a little ponzu

Nuclear lunch!