Kung Pao Cauliflower

Kung Pao chicken is Mr Minx's favorite Chinese dish. He also uses it to measure the worthiness of a Chinese restaurant--if their kung pao is to his liking, we'll most likely eat there again. So when I saw this recipe for kung pao cauliflower in Bon Appetit, I bookmarked it for future use. Mr Minx isn't the biggest fan of cauliflower, but I thought the kung pao-ness of it would sway him.

Cauliflower is becoming the new Brussels sprout. Not all that long ago, the lowly miniature cabbage was relegated to horror stories about hated childhood foods of the 60s and 70s, now they're on trendy restaurant menus everywhere. Or at least they were. Nowadays, cauliflower is popping up instead, usually in some sort of preparation with East Asian origins. Though East Asian cuisines celebrate most members of the brassica family, cauliflower isn't especially popular. However, cauliflower is sturdy and meaty and has a fairly neutral flavor, as far as cruciferous vegetables go, and can be adapted to many types of cooking methods and flavorings. Why not kung pao?

We had a somewhat large cauliflower in the fridge, so I decided it was time to try the Bon Appetit recipe I had bookmarked last year. I changed the method and the ingredients a tad. I felt there was not enough sauce, nor was it going to be sweet enough for our tastes, so I added a bit more sugar and hoisin. The recipe called for sherry vinegar, but we always have a bottle of Chinese black vinegar in the cupbard, so I used that instead. More authentic, as if authenticity matters here. The original recipe also calls for a serrano chile in the stir fry, but rather than buy additional types of chiles (we had the dried japones chiles on hand), I simply added some sambal to the sauce.

If you like the idea of kung pao but are not into the heat of it, you can omit the dried chiles. They aren't just for show--cooking them in the hot oil imparts heat to the oil. Leave out the sambal too, if you're wimpy like that. Not everyone has the same tolerance to chiles and you shouldn't be judged on it.

The dish was a huge success. The kung pao sauce is so good, I think I'll use it on a protein next time, perhaps chicken thighs or tofu. It would probably be work on other vegetables such as broccoli, or hey, even brussels sprouts.

Kung Pao Cauliflower (adapted from Bon Appetit)

For marinade:
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce

For sauce:
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar (sherry vinegar may be substituted)
4 teaspoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons sambal oelek
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce

For cauliflower:
1 medium head of cauliflower (about 1¾ pounds)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
6 dried japones chiles, chiles de árbol, or other red chiles
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns or ½ teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
3 scallions, dark-green and white parts separated, thinly sliced
1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup unsalted, roasted peanuts

Steamed white rice

To make marinade: Stir wine, cornstarch, and soy sauce in a large bowl and set aside.

To make sauce: Stir vinegar, hoisin sauce, sugar, sambal, sesame oil, and soy sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

To make cauliflower: Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Remove leaves and cut cauliflower into medium florets. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, turning once, until cauliflower is browning in spots. Stir the marinade with a fork to reincorporate the corn starch and add the cauliflower to the bowl. Toss to combine and set aside.

In a large saute pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the dried chiles and peppercorns, stirring regularly, until fragrant. Remove the chiles and peppercorns to a plate and set aside. Add the marinated cauliflower to the oil in the pan, discarding excess marinade. Cook the cauliflower for a few minutes to rewarm. Add the white part of the scallions, the ginger, garlic, and peanuts and toss. Pour in the sauce and toss again. Cook until the sauce is fragrant and the cauliflower is coated.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the scallion greens.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Jerk Chicken Cassoulet

There are some foods that I consider blank canvases: pizza, tacos, pasta. You have to admit, pretty much anything tastes good in those applications. Pulled pork and hmmm...smoked gouda...would work equally well on pizza, in tacos, or on pasta. At least I think so. I have come to think of cassoulet in much the same way. A classic French dish of white beans enriched with fatty garlic sausage and even fattier duck, cassoulet is seasoned with herbs like bay leaves and thyme. Thyme is also a main constituent of Jamaican jerk seasoning, commonly used on chicken. I've made cassoulet with Chinese sausage and black vinegar before, so why couldn't I make it with jerk seasoning and chicken?

I could and I did. It was a fine activity for a windy Sunday afternoon.

A friend brought us some fairly mild jerk seasoning as a souvenir from Jamaica. We'd been using it for a while so there wasn't much left, but definitely enough for this dish. You could use a spicier commercial seasoning or make your own. You could also add more than I call for. Since there's no real standard spice mix, and I used a non-commercial blend, it's one of those things that should be up to individual taste. My final dish didn't taste exactly like jerk chicken - it wasn't nearly hot enough - but it was really delicious. The beans with their savory, lightly sweet, and vinegary cooking liquid would have been lovely on their own, even without the crisp-skinned chicken. Maybe even without the sausage, although as a carnivore, I really liked the sausage part.

Jerk Chicken "Cassoulet"

2 leeks
2 stalks celery
Olive oil
Salt
1/2 pound cured garlic sausage (like Hickory Farms kielbasa), diced
Jerk seasoning
2 (15-oz) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Fresh thyme
6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Hot sauce
Butter
Panko
Chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 325°.

Trim the ends off the leeks, cut a deep slit from top to bottom and rinse the inside layers very well to remove any sand. Cut leeks into quarters and slice thinly. Trim the celery stalks and dice. Cook leeks and celery in a large skillet with a small glug of olive oil and a pinch of salt over medium heat until wilted. Add the kielbasa and cook until it starts to render out a bit of fat, 3-4 minutes. Season with a couple teaspoons of jerk seasoning and remove from heat. Stir in the beans.

Pour the bean mixture into a 9x13-inch baking pan. Top with 6 sprigs of fresh thyme. Set aside while you cook the chicken.

Place the same pan that you cooked the leeks in over high heat. Add the chicken, skin side-down, and cover pan to prevent splattering. Cook until skin is browned, 3-4 minutes. Turn chicken and sprinkle chicken skin with a teaspoon or so of jerk seasoning. Cook until bottoms of thighs are browned. Using tongs, remove chicken and place on top of the bean mixture in the baking pan.

If there seems to be a lot of chicken fat in the frying pan, blot it up with paper towels, being careful to leave any bits of chicken that are adhering to the bottom. Turn the heat to high and add the chicken stock, scraping up those browned chicken bits with a wooden spoon. Add the dark brown sugar, vinegar, and hot sauce to taste. Season with a few teaspoons of jerk seasoning. The sauce should be piquant, spicy, and have a nice thyme/allspice flavor. Feel free to add more ground allspice and ginger if you feel the seasoning needs to be kicked up a bit. Remove liquid from heat and pour over the beans in the pan, trying not to soak the chicken skin.

Cover the pan with foil and place in the preheated oven. Cook for 1 hour. Remove foil, turn oven down to 300°F and cook for an additional hour, until beans have absorbed most of the liquid and chicken is very tender.

While the chicken is cooking, melt a pat of butter in a small skillet. Stir in half a cup or so of panko and cook over medium heat until the panko is coated with the butter and nicely crispy. Season with a pinch of salt. Remove from heat and spread on a plate to cool. When cool, stir in a few tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.

To serve, mound beans in a shallow bowl and top with a piece of chicken. Garnish with some of the panko/crumb mixture. Serves 4-6.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Braised Duck Legs with Winter Squash

We Minxes love duck. If we see it on a restaurant menu, one or both of us will order it, but we don't make it at home very often. It's not a particularly difficult protein to work with, but unless we're talking whole ducks, it can be quite expensive. (Whole ducks aren't exactly cheap, but they're not outrageous.) Raw duck breasts are a fairly elusive creature; Wegman's usually has the D'Artagnan brand in stock at a cost of around $30 per pound. Legs would probably be cheaper--if they sold legs in any form other than pre-confitted.

We end up buying our duck legs at Great Wall, a Chinese supermarket in Catonsville. I have heard that they sell breasts, but I have never seen them there. Tongues, sure. Feet, ok. But not breasts. I've also heard that H Mart sells duck, but again, I haven't found it there. So Great Wall it is. A pack of two legs sets us back a bit over $6, which I suppose isn't insane, but considering they have about as much meat as a chicken thigh, it's not cheap, either. In any case, we love duck and will buy it when the mood strikes/when we happen to be at Great Wall.

In the past, I've made cassoulet-type dishes with duck legs. I wanted to do something else this time, so consulted the Oracle (aka Google). The recipe that leapt out at me was one for braised legs with figs, star anise, and winter squash. The combination sounded good, but our grocery store didn't have any dried figs. We had a bag of dates in the pantry, so I decided to use them. Since I was already making substitutions, I looked for a way to make the dish mine. I didn't like the idea of having big chunks of vegetables in the finished dish, or serving it with rice. It would remind me too much of my mother's pot roast. While I loved the meat itself, I wasn't fond of the giant chunks of stewed celery and carrot, both of which my mother made me eat. Instead, I'd turn the winter squash into a puree and dice the other vegetables finely, so they'd merely flavor the sauce rather than serve as a vegetable. I was unsure of the flavorings though. I liked the idea of star anise, but would it be better in the squash than in the duck? Would it be redundant if I used it in both? So I consulted with my other Oracle, Mr Minx, who has the occasional flash of culinary brilliance. He suggested adding a smoky and spicy element, so I added chipotle to the duck along with the star anise. I seasoned the squash with salt and pepper only, so its mild sweetness could stand on its own.

The result was pretty terrific, if I do say so myself. The chipotle, while adding a good deal of heat, played nicely with the star anise, and the creamy squash helped soften the impact of the chile. The dates broke down in the sauce completely, adding a subtle sweet creaminess. We served the dish with pieces of crisp sourdough toast, which added a bit of textural contrast and was useful in mopping up the luscious sauce.

The dish seems a bit fussy, and maybe it is, but it's worth the effort. As a plus, the duck perfumes the whole house.

Braised Duck Legs and Winter Squash Puree (Adapted from Fine Cooking)

2 (12- to 16-oz.) fresh duck legs, trimmed of excess fat
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium stalk celery, diced
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
8-10 dates (8 if you're using the large medjool variety, 10 if smaller, like barhi or halawi), pitted and chopped roughly
1 whole star anise
1 chipotle en adobo, minced, or 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
2-3 cups chicken broth
1 medium winter squash (such as red kuri, buttercup, or kabocha)
Heavy cream
1 teaspoon Champagne vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat the oil in a large (8-quart) pot over medium-high heat. Add the duck legs, skin-side down, and cook until the skin is very well browned and crisp, turning once or twice to make sure they are browned all over. Use tongs to transfer duck legs to a large plate. Drain off most of the fat from the pan and add the carrot, celery, and onion. Cook, stirring often, until vegetables soften, 5 minutes or so. Stir in the garlic, the chopped dates, the star anise, and the chipotle. Cook for an additional minute or two. Put the duck back into the pan and pour in enough broth to just about cover the duck. Increase the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer the duck until tender, 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

While the duck is cooking, preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the squash in half, scoop out and discard the seeds. Place the squash, cut side down, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until the squash is very tender. Set aside and allow to cool until it can be handled without burning oneself.

Scoop flesh from squash into a blender container. Add heavy cream, a few tablespoons at a time, and puree squash until it's the consistency of baby food and very smooth. If you're using a squash with a fluffier, drier consistency, like buttercup, you might have to add water to help the blender along--I used about 2/3 cup of water and 1/4 cup of cream to my buttercup. Season puree with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a small saucepan and set aside.

When the duck is done, remove it from the pot. Turn the heat up to high, uncover the pot, and reduce the remaining liquid to about a cup. If there's a lot of fat floating on top, skim it off, but I find that the combination of the dates and the boiling emulsifies everything nicely. Once liquid is reduced, use a stick blender to puree the vegetables and dates into a smooth sauce. Add the champagne vinegar and season the liquid with salt and pepper to taste. Add the duck back to the pot and turn the heat to low.

Reheat the squash puree. Place a puddle of it in the center of each serving plate. Top with a duck leg and a few spoonsful of sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Serves 2, with extra squash puree and sauce.

Posted on Minxeats.com.