Ingredients

• 1 clove of black garlic – chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander seed
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
• 2 servings of spaghetti
• 5 ounces of chicken breast, cubed (marinate overnight with extra virgin olive oil and salt for more tenderness)

Instructions

• Cook the pasta and keep 1/2 cup of the pasta water for later.
• Heat up the olive oil on low heat and sauté the black garlic for a minute
• Add the chicken and cover.  Cook for about 2.5 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken when done.
• Set the heat to high and deglaze the pan with the pasta water.
• Add the turmeric, salt, and coriander.  Let the liquid reduce by 25% (more or less).
• Add the spaghetti and toss well.
• Transfer to a plate, top with the chicken and garnish.

The black garlic might be hard to find, but it looks like certain Whole Foods and Korean supermarkets do carry the item.

Before you read this post, go ahead and list out what you think are the top ten most common ingredients in fast food.  Here’s my list, in no particular order.  Beef, chicken, bread, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo, and salt.

Based on the list from HowStuffWorks.com, only 2 of the items I listed matched those listed on the website.  The findings might surprise you.

10.  Citric Acid – used as a preservative

9.  High-fructose Corn Syrup – a cheap sweetener

8.  Caramel Color – a color additive

7.  Salt – makes the food tasty

6.  Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) – a flavor enhancer

5.  Niacin – one of the many nutrients fortified in bread

4.  Soybean Oil – great for frying and other common uses

3.  Mono- and Diglycerides – emulsifiers to prevent and stabilize food

2.  Xanthan Gum – used as a stabilizer or thickener

1. Chicken – the most common fast food meat product.

Lots more information can be found at the site.

I wonder if chicken sausage is any healthier than pork sausage?  Somehow I doubt it.  But it does sound healthier, and that’s good enough for me.  I picked up a package of Brat Hans Chicken Sausage: Spicy Andouille flavor, a couple of days ago at where else, Whole Foods.  I don’t usually eat sausage because it is loaded with preservatives, nitrates, and a heaping dose of sodium.  However, this brand of sausage doesn’t contain nitrates and monosodium glutamate.  It also follows  the trend of listing “no antibiotics” on the packaging.

The directions call for grilling the sausages.  Since I don’t own a grill and I didn’t feel like busting out the stove-top cast iron grill, I cooked it in a stainless steel pan, with a bit of oil.

I didn’t have high hopes at first.  I envisioned the sausage to be bland and mushy.  To my surprise, it wasn’t so.  It definitely had that smoked sausage flavor, it  just wasn’t as strong as that of a pork sausage.  The texture was firm, and the bit of spiciness gave some depth.   All in all, not bad at all, in fact, it was good.

Sausage doesn’t have to be boring.  Set on a bed of guacamole, a perfect complement to the andouille flavor.

Brat Hans Chicken Sausage
$5.99 for a pack of 4 at Whole Foods

The problem that I face has plagued me for many years.  After a good three-minute bath in the microwave, the rice still remains soft and the broccoli stays crunchy, but the chicken is one step away from turning into jerky.  I even substituted white meat with dark meat for a while, but I really wanted a lunch that was lighter on cholesterol and saturated fat.

Long story short, I was watching a cooking show where this Japanese guy was coating chicken in flour before he put it into boiling water to cook.  He didn’t explain why he did it, but it did strike my curiosity.

Some days ago, I decided to give it a try.  After a few days of doing so, I can tell you that not only does coating the meat in flour produce a more tender cooked cut of chicken breast, but it also helps seal in the moisture, especially if you plan on reheating it in the microwave the next day.  Update: whole wheat white flour works better than all purpose flour.

So here’s what I did:

I marinated 2 pieces of chicken breast (cut into cubes) with salt, pepper, garlic powder, a splash of sake, chopped garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.  I marinated the meat for about an hour in the refrigerator.

Next I boiled a pot of water.  You don’t need too much water, just enough to cover the meat.  Lightly coat the chicken in flour.  I used whole wheat flour because it’s healthier than white flour.  The pieces on the left side are coated just right, the pieces on the right had a little too much flour.  You want to lightly coat the meat because when it is used in sautés, it prevents loose flour bits from caking up.   Just use less flour next time if you notice too much flour runoff. When the water boils, reduce the heat to medium high and slowly place the floured chicken into the water.  Cook for 4 minutes.

Remove the chicken  and set aside.  Now the chicken is ready to be added to sautés.

I like to sauté chicken with chopped garlic and onions, with a bit of black pepper and salt, and kissed with a touch of fresh lemon juice.  Simple is best sometimes.

Set on a bed of basmati rice and garnished with a few baby greens.  Well, there’s lunch!

Well, let’s start out with the Cheeseburger in a Can.

This product was making the blog waves early last year, and the folks at AVClub.com managed to get their hands on one from Ebay.  A few initial reactions before the taste testers took a bite were: “Oh, that looks so gross. It’s so grey. It’s the greyest meat ever,” “It looks more greenish to me, ” “It’s got this horrible film on it.”

More pertinent than the taste is the texture. The bun is only very slightly soggy on the bottom, and surprisingly fluffy and ordinary otherwise. The cheese is clammy and clumpy. The burger itself is weirdly, unpleasantly smooth, again something like a bad grain-burger. It lacks the chewiness of actual meat; it’s grease-slick, smooth, and eerily regular. Imagine modeling clay lightly dipped in meat drippings. We’re not sure what kind of meat drippings. Horse, maybe?

As you can see, the product looks nothing like the product picture.

And here are some post taste test impressions:

• “No, it really is the meat that’s the problem. Oh God.”
• “When I first tasted it, it didn’t bother me, but it festered.” “Really? I gagged the second it hit my tongue.”
• “It’s pretty much like a dog-food patty.”
• “It’s like this chicken-fried steak that I got once at a disreputable diner, then left in the fridge for three days, then ate in a drunken stupor. No, it’s a little worse than that.”

This product isn’t available in the states, probably for good reason.  If you happen in Germany though, go nuts.

Next up is the Whole Chicken in a Can, yes, you read right.  Man, that picture of the chicken sure does look delicious, and I sure am hungry!

Foodnetworkhumor.com has the complete article and I think the writer has a great description of the product:  “I don’t know about you guys, but I wouldn’t eat anything that looked like forgotten leftovers from the “Neo Being Birthed In The Matrix” scene…”

Serving suggestions are as follows:

Remove chicken from the can.  Be sure to save the delicious broth.  Place chicken in an uncovered pan, baste well with  some of the broth.  Place in a hot oven, 475 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Baste two or three times while heating.  To prepare a delicious gravy, brown two tablespoons of flour, mix in a cup of broth.  Allow to thicken over burner until desired consistency, A delicious chicken soup may be prepared by adding rice, cooked noodles or dumplings to the broth.

Wee!  Lookout world, here I come!  Wait, is that amniotic fluid?

The results after being cooked in the oven.  It looks like the crows and buzzards got to it first.  Was it chicken in a can, or carcass in a can?  Pass.

Wait, where’s the toy?!?!

Check out http://thisiswhyyourefat.com

I spray the inside of my kitchen trashcan with Lysol disinfectant spray every time the garbage bag is replaced. As clean as my trashcan is (or so it seems), there are certain foods that can turn my recently sanitized trashcan into a harbinger of noxious odors, and I always end up throwing away a new garbage bag with barely anything in it.

For me, the culprits are disposed apple peels, apple cores, raw chicken parts, and the foam tray the chicken meat is placed in.  The disposed apple parts, especially the Red Delicious variety, oxidize extremely fast, causing rapid browning, decomposition, and the release of that rotten fruit odor.  It can wreak havoc inside the trashcan and the smell sticks to the inner walls even when the garbage bag is thrown out.  The same goes for disposed raw chicken, and within 24 hours of being thrown out, that rotten meat odor starts to leak out of the trashcan, even with the lid on.

My solution to prevent this from ever happening again is by placing an ordinary plastic shopping bag in the freezer to serve as a secondary trash bag that only houses disposed food that cause offensive odors.  By the time I’m ready to throw out the garbage, I just take the bag out of the freezer and stuff it inside the larger garbage bag.  Don’t worry, since the disposed food freezes quickly, there’s no risk in odor transference.

I’ve been doing this for a week and it’s worked out rather well.

~ Kin

I’ve been asking myself why I didn’t post this recipe up ages ago.  I make this dish two to three times a week.  It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s tasty.  The ingredients couldn’t be simpler, yet the flavors on the chicken fuse really well together.

Ingredients

• 6-8 chicken drumsticks
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  Sprinkle an even coat of the mixture all over the drumsticks.  You might have some of the mix leftover, depending on the size of the drumsticks.

Line a baking pan with foil and spray it with a layer of cooking spray.  Place the chicken on the pan and spray a thin layer of cooking spray on the chicken to help the skin crisp and brown a bit.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, this will depend on the size of the drumsticks.  The juices should run clear from the deepest part of the chicken.

~ Kin

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a recipe, so here goes.

I learned this cooking technique from watching Alton Brown on one of his Food Network segments.  It’s a great and fast way to cook that yields excellent results.  On the downside, the preparation of the dish requires a panini-press or equivalent, and something heavy, say close to fifteen pounds, to keep the panini-press closed tight.

Roasted Garlic Paste

Peel of all the extra skin.  Chop of the top of the garlic to expose the cloves.  Drizzle a teaspoon of olive oil over the cloves and then wrap in aluminum foil.  Place it on a baking pan and into a preheated 375 degree oven for thiry-five minutes.  Once the garlic is cool, squeeze out each clove from the bottom into a small bowl.  Start mashing up the cloves, I find the bottom of the spoon quite handy for this task.  There might be some hardened burnt layers of garlic, just remove them and eat them if you want.  Add about 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and mix with your fingers until a paste forms.  If it is too thick, just add more olive oil.  The paste needs to be vicous enough to be applied with a brush.  Set aside.

pics from http://www.elise.com

Roasted Garlic Pressed Game Hen

First, you will need to butterfly (spatchcock) the game hen.  Here are excellent instructions on how to do that.  Sprinkle liberal amounts of salt, pepper, and garlic powder onto both sides of the bird. Apply cooking spray to the panini press cooking plates.  Set the bird onto the panini-press that’s set on high heat.  Close the panini press and press down to flatten the hen.  Set a heavy, non-flammable object on top of the panini press to keep the pressure on for the duration of the cooking process.  I used a cast-iron grill plate.  Be careful not to hurt yourself!  Cook the chicken on high heat for about 5-6 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium.   Cook for another 6-7 minutes.  Brush the hen with the roasted garlic paste and serve with lemon wedges.

Korean Chap Chae Noodles – Made with reduced sodium soy sauce

Simple and Clean – Grilled Chicken, red onion, and peppers

~ Kin