Every now and then, I have odd cravings that don’t jive with one another, so something new is born. In this case, I wanted Indian and barbecue. There just isn’t much cross-over in that realm (as far as I know). My compromise? A whole chicken, halved, marinated tandor style, smoked, and then slathered with a tangy, strongly spiced sauce that borrows from both barbecue and Indian cuisine for style and flavor.
In reality, this is quite simple and that’s why it’s so darn good (but such is barbecue). The chicken is slowly smoked–richly flavorful, crispy skin, and surprisingly tangy from a simple marinade. Plus, whole chicken is the best (I always love a good roast chicken).
What made this different was the sauce glazed on at the end. It’s a simple barbecue sauce, but tinged with a generous helping of Indian flavors–cinnamon, cardamom, tamarind, fenugreek, cilantro, etc. The total combination worked wonderfully and had me licking my fingers clean.
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Posted by mike on May 16th, 2009 in Asian, Barbeque, Chicken, Indian, Main course, Sauce
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love paella. This Spanish cousin-of-risotto leaves itself wide open to modification and reinterpretation, and so in keeping with my recent interest in Mexican flavors, I decided to focus this paella on a bunch of my favorite green Mexican produce, grabbing peppers, limes, avocados, and tomatillos before seeing where this took me.
I was originally worried this dish would come out almost too green in color, but instead, the rich, chili flavored stock colored the rice with a fantastic brown/amber that made the other components of the paella really pop out visually (and when it comes to paella, appearance matters since you typically serve it straight from the pan).
Discussions about appearance aside, what about the flavor? The paella was delicious! It had a surprisingly full, earthy, nutty, solid foundational flavor brought by a rich chili-centric stock. The tomatillos added pockets of sweet/sour tanginess while the avocado added nice, creamy relief. The poblanos gave
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Posted by mike on May 4th, 2009 in Chicken, Main course, Mediterranean, Mexican
Biryani is probably one of my wife’s favorite Indian dishes. For the longest time, I didn’t really understand biryani. To me, it just seemed like somewhat spiced, brown rice with dry bits of meat thrown in. If that’s been your experience, I promise, there’s much better biryani out there–deep, complex, tangy flavors, tender chicken, and enough mixed in so it doesn’t feel like your plate is 95% rice. Biryani is a classic for a reason, and I thought I’d spread the good word now that I’ve been won over.
So in case you never have had biryani (or good biryani, for that matter), this is a popular dish in many countries with many different styles of preparation. I only know it through Indian cuisine, so that’s the perspective I bring to this. You have long grain basmati rice, cooked like any other rice with a handful of spices infusing the grains for flavor. But this is merely a foundation–not the most
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Posted by mike on April 10th, 2009 in Chicken, Indian, Main course, Sauce
I’ve mentioned before that this is a year of change for my wife and I. One of those changes is my wife’s graduation from medical school. We’ve had a somewhat infrequent tradition with some of her friends from school where we’d have them over and I’d go to town fussing over a nice meal. Before everyone heads in different directions to the next step of their careers (side note: we’ll be headed to the Raleigh/Durham region of North Carolina and I’m looking for new opportunities), we thought it would be nice to have one more of these nice meals so everyone could enjoy good food, good company, and just spend some time relaxing and catching up in ways that just aren’t so possible in the day-to-day hustle and bustle.
So for this meal, given my newish interest in Mexican food, I decided to center this dinner around a Mexican theme where the focus would be some really nicely done enchiladas. Now
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Posted by mike on March 29th, 2009 in Beef, Chicken, Main course, Mexican, Sauce
Chicken is a protein that most people seem pretty comfortable with, and given that, its dressed up and enjoyed in countless ways. Given all of the variety, some times, returning to the basics almost seems like something new and indulgent. Kind of like having that perfectly roasted chicken. Well even then–that one simple, back to basics kind of dish–there’s a twist to try. And not only is it fun to do, but its also fun to say (if you’re as mature as I am): spatchcocking.
Some of you might be wondering, what on earth does spatchcocking mean? Its a simple technique that basically amounts to flattening a whole bird. Essentially, you remove the major structural bones (backbone, breast plate), and with care, you can then, still keeping the bird entirely in one piece, press it out flat and cook it that way however you see fit (e.g. on a spit, roasted, on the grill, etc).
Since my time seems to be more
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Posted by mike on March 11th, 2009 in Chicken, Main course
This is one of those Asian dishes that probably isn’t authentic or even originally Asian…but even still, we’ve all devoured take-out versions of this dish before and relished every last bite. Now some of you might wonder, why on earth would you go to the trouble trying to recreate something you could easily get via takeout? Well, then you wouldn’t have eaten some of the awful food near where I live, lol! Even if your options are better than mine, its also kind of fun–trying to recreate something you enjoy and making it a whole lot better. Plus, you can skip the stuff you don’t like (I never enjoyed all the broccoli this is normally served with…yea, I’m gonna be a great dad! lol). Anyways, whatever your reason, back to the food: Orange Chicken!
I’ve been enjoying over-indulging in oranges (winter is citrus season in Florida), so it seemed like a happy coincidence when I saw the original inspiration for this
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Posted by mike on March 3rd, 2009 in Asian, Chicken, Fruit, Main course, Sauce
