Yakitori Chicken – My Way

For a while now I was craving Yakitori Chicken after reading about this traditional

Japanese street

food. If done right, the meat is tender, juicy, sweet and salty with crunchy green onions.  When Yakitori is eaten with rice and cucumber salad on side, it turns the street food into good dining. Since I was at Poultry Specialties two days ago I picked up some chicken thighs, besides couple of bags of chicken feet for my Ultimate Stock that I have posted earlier.

Unfortunately, when I have decided to finally make it, the BBQ was out of question because of 40km/hour wind and I didn’t want to use broiler for 6 short skewers. Then it hit me: I’ll do it just like duck breast in cold skillet. If it works for duck with skin then why not for chicken thighs? The meat was already cut into strips and lightly marinated (just a 1 Tbs. of Yakitori sauce for 4 thighs). I coated bottom of a skillet with 1/2 tsp. of peanut oil with few drops of sesame oil, put the thigh strips skin side down in a skillet, placed the pan on my large gas burner and turned the heat on medium high. I shook the pan almost continuously to make sure that the skin doesn’t stick to bottom. If it does, just move it with spatula.

When the skin got nice color, turn over and cook for another 4 – 5 minutes. Pour in 1/2 cup of Yakitori sauce, move the meat around and reduce the sauce until it is thick.  Never raise the heat above medium hot. Remove to serving plate and enjoy.

Yup, it was that good!

Yakitori Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Mirin

1/4 cup sake

1 garlic cloves, crushed

1 slice fresh ginger, peeled (1/8 inch thick)

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

In a small saucepan, combine soy sauce, sugar, Mirin, sake, garlic and gingerroot.

Cook over medium high heat 3 to 4 minutes.

In a small bowl, blend water and cornstarch.

Stir cornstarch mixture into soy sauce mixture.

Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

Strain sauce.

Keep at room temperature for up to 24 hours.

Refrigerate.

Ultimate Chicken Stock

I might shock few readers but there is no better chicken stock then one made with chicken feet. Yes, the feet, not foot-less legs or any other part. If done right, the stock is super rich with incredible mouth feel and so gelatinous that after cooling it will have a consistency of cold aspic.



Chicken Feet Stock at room temperature.



The secret to very clear stock is always to blanch the meat for couple minutes, drain and wash the meat under running hot water to remove rest of the scum and fat and only then put it in stock pot and simmer on low heat for hours. Never let the stock boil or the fat in stock will emulsify and will be cloudy with an off taste. Since I was making Chinese stock I used just green onions, ginger and garlic and for aromatics I used little bit of soy sauce, star of anise and cassia bark. Since I used slow cooker it was completely trouble free. Six hours on low and I had incredible stock.

Spicy Beef & Broccoli with Rice Noodles

What a nice and relatively easy meal this is. Just marinade the beef and prepare vegetables, soak rice noodles and you are on your way. I can publish detailed recipe if you ask for it. We just love anything that has rice noodles in it. I just wish I had access to fresh rice noodles like I had back in High Park area in Toronto.

Pacific Cod Tempura

I know, it looks just like ordinary fried fish with potatoes and Tartar sauce, which it is but, since I used Panko instead of some sore bought regular stale bread crumbs, I have decided to call it Tempura. I call it tempura despite the fact that I did use the regular 3 layer method of seasoning with flour (flour, salt, chili powder, white pepper), egg wash and Panko and fried in 350 °F oil till golden brown on all sides. It wasn’t oily at all and as you can see on the picture, very, very crispy. I have served it with Tartar sauce made from scratch with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Wasabi and chopped capers, gherkins and pinch of sugar. On side I had boiled potatoes with caraway seeds.

Crockpot Beef Goulash

If it wouldn’t be for me on insisting on completely caramelizing 3 large onions, this meal would need only about 10 minutes of work before slow cooker takes over. To slowly caramelize that many onions takes about half an hour but, is it ever worth it! This recipe is quite simple.

Since I was planning on leftovers for freezing I used:

Ingredients:

3 Lb of beef shank with bones and marrow

3 large or 5 medium onions, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 Tbs. sweet Hungarian paprika

1 Tbs. hot Hungarian paprika

1 cup dry red wine

1 24 oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 Tbs. oil

Flour for dusting beef

Salt and pepper

Direction:

Coat beef in flour, salt and pepper.

Put 1 cup of crushed tomatoes in Crockpot and turn on High - 4 hours.

Heat a heavy frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil on medium high heat.

Brown the beef pieces on all sides in batches and move them to Crockpot.

When all the meat is browned remove oil leaving only thin film.

Add 1 Tbs. of oil and return to heat

Cook onions on medium heat till golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Add sweet and hot paprika and cook till fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add carrots and cook till soft.

Scrape content of frying pan into Crockpot.

Deglaze the pan with wine and reduce until only about 2 Tbs. of liquid remains.

Scrape into Crock pot.

Reheat the frying pan again and bring tomatoes to boil.

Transfer tomatoes to Crockpot, turn the heat control to low 8 hours and relax.

When done, remove the bones.

As with almost any other stew, this one is better next day.

Serve with potatoes, pasta or dumplings (my preference).

Note: For richer taste you can add chopped green and red peppers and sliced cremini mushrooms about an hour before the end of cooking time.

Lasagna

Made with No-Cook Noodles

I didn’t bake Lasagna for at least 4 years! I don’t know why, but I just didn’t. We both love lasagna but I guess that with only two people at the table it is a bit too much. So, I got a smaller Pyrex pan and made one. I bought No-cook lasagna noodles to make it a bit easier but then made meat sauce and béchamel sauce from scratch. For meat sauce I used ground veal because that’s what I had in freezer. I also used my own frozen tomato sauce and four-cheeses shredded cheese mix. It turned out really well and I am glad that there are leftovers! As a bonus, I ended up with a lot of meat sauce that we had next day with spaghettini.

One note: If you use no-cook noodles make the sauce little bit thinner because the noodles need it. They will soak it up like a sponge and are much better then noodles cooked in plain, salted water. I will never use regular dry pasta again but I will use fresh pasta, of course. Also, for diet’s sake I had only one layer of cheese – on the top – instead my usual 3 layers and we didn’t miss it one bit.

Recipe is quite simple. For 9-1/2” X 6” X 2” deep baking pan you will need:

9 no-boil 2” wide lasagna noodles

1/2 cup thin tomato sauce

1-1/2 cups meat sauce of your choice mixed with 1/2 cup thin tomato sauce

2 cups Béchamel sauce

1-1/2 cups shredded melting cheese (Mozzarella, Provolone, Swiss etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Butter or spray the bottom and sides of baking pan with cooking oil.

Put down thin layer of tomato sauce then noodles. Layer of meat sauce topped with Béchamel sauce. Repeat with noodle/meat sauce/Béchamel sauce and again noodle/meat sauce/Béchamel sauce and topped with cheese.

Cover loosely with aluminum foil making sure it doesn’t touch the cheese and bake on middle rack in oven for 45 minutes.

Remove foil and bake another 20 – 30 minutes or till sauce is bubbling and cheese is golden brown.

Let rest for 10 minutes and serve with lettuce salad and garlic bread.