A Quick Cluck

I'm deep in the incredibly layered and rich history of honey at the moment, so ... the honey posting I keep promising is not ready! I need more honey, more research, more sweetness before I can share it on here.

But I do want to share something else: chicken adobo. I've never been a huge fan of chicken, I think more than likely due to the pretty nasty growing practices they've been subjected to which does nothing for their taste let alone our health. However, a good chicken goes a long way and it's worth going the extra mile to find one. It is easier to digest than beef for one, and if you are weak and/or sick and you need a nice sweet warm protein to build yourself up with, then chicken it is. After Thanksgiving with all it's heavy richness, all I wanted was something simple with a little vinegar to cut the fat from the weekend (vinegar is an excellent way to move the blood and digestion). So I made adobo. Now adobo is much like making chilli, there seems to be a thousand ways to make it "authentically" (as you can see here in all these different pictures). I go with the way my roommate in college taught me. Chicken (preferrably with the bone and skin on), vinegar (apple cider or white), whole garlic cloves, whole black peppercorns, bay leaves, soy sauce, a little water, and that's it! So simple, and so so so so so so good. It's sweet, vinegary, salty, oozy, and fall-off-the-bone good.

Ingredients:

chicken with bone and skin (you choose but make sure you have enough meat to soak up the sauce)
bay leaves
garlic cloves
black peppercorns (whole)
soy sauce
vinegar (cider or white)

1. Brown the chicken in the pot first, add substantial amounts of garlic cloves (I used a whole bulb for two pieces of chicken thighs) so they lightly brown. Add water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pot). Add 1 part soy sauce to 1/3 part vinegar. You want the chicken to be at least half way covered. Add bay leaves. Bring to a boil.
2. Allow the chicken to simmer for a few hours turning it occasionally. You will know when it's done as the chicken meat falls off the bone and the sauce thickens into a caramely colored goodness. Serve over rice.

(some fun variations on this are adding potatoes, onions, or coconut milk)

Broccoli Pickles

Just a quickie here as I want to share my broccoli pickles I made this weekend! I was craving something pickle-y that wasn't in a jar made by someone else and overly brined and soft, my own fast healthy crisp pickle fix! I used broccoli because I had some leftover from a dinner on Friday that I had already cut up, so I threw it in a jar (I am one of those people that keeps almost all jars after their product is used, I wash them and store for future use of my own concoctions, very handy, good recycling use, and a cheap solution). I added a mix of rice vinegar, sugar, coarse sea salt, and Japanese chili powder, just enough to coat it all when I shook it up. I let the broccoli sit in the jar for two days, shaking it up a few times a day to coat it all again. Today I felt a bit nauseous from staying up too late and having a bit too much wine at a party and this worked perfectly, vinegar cuts nausea wonderfully when it's liver-related. In TCM, broccoli is a cooling vegetable which is handy in treating hot conditions (some examples are red eyes and heat stroke), and is also rich in chlorophyll the less you cook it - the brief pickling is perfect as it is still raw. Vinegar is warming in nature and benefits the liver as the taste which treats the liver is sour. I will do a whole posting on vinegar in the future but for now, that will suffice as it served my purpose well today: I was up late and had a bit too much wine (which created a "hot condition") and my liver was likely feeling sluggish - this pickled broccoli helped me feel 100 times better because of the broccoli cooling my "hot condition" and the vinegar waking up the liver. I had no idea I would be needing it when I spontaneously made it on Friday! I think I may keep some in the fridge for future use.


The jar with the raw broccoli.


Vinegar mix.


Vinegar + the broccoli (shaken).


The broccoli, slightly pickled but still crisp, two days later.

If you want to read more about pickles, there is a wonderful blog called "Pickle Freak" which I enjoy: http://www.picklefreak.com/