Deep Fried...Something

Basic Phở Gà (Instant Pot Chicken Pho)

One of my friends recently got an Instant Pot, and posted asking for recipe recommendations.  Sarah shared this post with her before I could, but several other people also posted things and this recipe intrigued me.  I love pho, but have never made it before.  Several ingredients required a trip to the Asian grocery store, but it was well worth it.  This was delicious, and not at all complicated.  The only changes I've made are to clarify a few of the steps, and to change one of the ingredients based on the recommendation of the clerk at the Asian grocery store I went to.  Enjoy!

Basic Phở Gà

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken leg quarters
• 1 medium daikon (peeled and halved) – Optional but highly recommended
• 1 large onion (toasted to slightly charred)
• 1 large knob of ginger (peeled or unpeeled, halved and toasted to slightly charred)
• 1 bag of dry Pho Seasoning (I used Gia Vi Pho Hoa Vietnamese Soup Seasoning Spice)
• 5 Tablespoons Quoc Viet Chicken Pho Soup Base
• 2 Tablespoons rock sugar
• Boiling water (to speed up pressure building time)
• Pho noodle (can be fresh or dry, cooked according to package instructions) – 1 bag usually makes 4 bowls

Garnishes, vegetables and condiments

• Bean sprout
• Basil and/or cilantro (Ngo Gai)
• Chopped green onion
• White onion (thinly sliced)
• Sliced jalapeno pepper or fresh chili of choice
• Lime wedges
• Hoisin sauce
• Sriracha sauce
• Ground pepper
• Salt

Directions:

1. In the inner pot, add chicken, daikon, onion, ginger, pho spices bag, soup base, and rock sugar along with 7 cups of boiling water (or more to cover all ingredients). Cook at high pressure for 8 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes, then release remaining pressure.
2. Once pressure is released, open lid and pull out chicken, place in a colander and immediately flush it with cold sink water for about 2 minutes. This step stops the chicken from being overcooked and the skin from turning brown. Drain and set aside to cool. De-bone and shred chicken.
3. Discard onion, daikon, ginger, and pho spices bag.
4. Add about 7 more cups of boiling water. Cancel “Keep Warm” and switch to “Saute” mode to bring the broth to a boil. Season to taste with salt, mushroom seasoning, soup base and/or rock sugar.
5. To serve, add cooked Pho noodle and chicken to a large bowl. Ladle the boiling broth over noodle and chicken. Sprinkle with any or all of the garnishes!

Notes:

The original recipe recommended Old Man brand dry pho seasoning, but the clerk at the store I went to recommended this brand instead.  He said it's easier and faster and has the same flavors.

Lugaw

After very successful experiments with chicken adobo and sinigang, I was definitely interested in trying more Filipino food.  Luckily for me, my friend Tanya posted pictures of the lugaw she made, and I immediately asked for the recipe.  And then, for some reason, I waited several weeks to make it.  It was absolutely worth the wait.  It's another one of those, "These ingredients seem so simple, how good can this be?" kind of dishes, but the answer is: really good.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Lugaw

Ingredients:

• 5 Garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
• 1 medium onion, cut in strips
• 4-5" piece of ginger, chopped
• 2 chicken breasts, cut in chunks
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups water or chicken stock 
• ½ cup rice, washed 
• 1 cup sticky rice, washed
• 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 Whole lemon
• 2 stalks green onions, chopped
• Hard boiled eggs 
• Fried garlic

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.
2. Add onions and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are transluscent.
3. Add garlic and stir.  Cook for one more minute.
4. Set aside and cook chicken in same pot.  Once chicken is fully cooked, add onion/garlic/ginger mix back in.
5. Add fish sauce and ground pepper.  Stir well to mix.
6. Add rice and stir.  Add stock and/or water, reduce heat to medium, and cover.
7. Cook, stirring regularly, until rice is fully cooked and starting to turn into a porridge-like consistency.  Add more water and/or stock as needed.
8. Remove from heat and serve with green onions, egg, lemon, and fried garlic.

Notes:
I didn't have any sticky rice, so I just used jasmine rice and it came out just fine.  

A little bit of fried garlic goes a long way!  If you can't find it in a grocery store near you, it's available on Amazon.

Sinigang

I recently bought a semi-ridiculous amount of tamarind paste online, and then realized that the only recipe I have that uses tamarind is pad thai.  While I love that recipe, I also wanted to expand my horizons a bit.  I looked around a bit and found this recipe, which did not disappoint!   Sinigang is a Filipino soup/stew that is characterized by the tart/savory flavor of tamarind.  Perfect fit!  The flavors all really mixed well together, and what started as, "Hmm, I hope this is edible when I'm done." ended up as, "How much of this can I eat before I feel bad about myself?"  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sinigang

Ingredients:

• ½ pound white fish 
• 3 medium bok choy 
• 1½ Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 plum tomatoes 
• 3-4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 
• 1 4-5inch ginger root, coarsely chopped 
• 3 scallion stalks, diced 
• 2 dried mushrooms 
• 2 Tablespoons tamarind paste/concentrate, to taste 
• Sea salt to taste 
• Soy sauce to taste

Directions:

1. Wash bok choy very well. Separate stems and leaves. Chop both stems and leaves coarsely, but keep separated.
2. Briefly sauté garlic, ginger and bok choy stems in oil.
3. Add about 4 cups of water and dried mushrooms. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat. Add fish, tomatoes and bok choy leaves. Simmer 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Add half the scallions then soy sauce, salt and tamarind concentrate to taste.
6. Serve over steamed rice. Garnish with remaining scallions.

Notes:
I used cod for the fish and served it over quinoa.  

Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock

After making smoked turkey last weekend, I threw the bones and any other unused parts in the freezer until I was ready to make stock.  Today was that day!  After looking at several different recipes, I decided to borrow a little from several of them and make my own.  As usual, the pressure cooker drastically cuts down the amount of time needed to cook something.  The stock is hearty and gelatinous as it cools, which means it got a good deal of what was needed out of the bones in a fairly short amount of time.  I'm mainly putting this one up to remind myself what I put in so I can recreate it at some point in the future.

Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock

Ingredients:

• 1 turkey carcass, with neck and giblets
• 1 onion, skin on, quartered
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut in 2" pieces
• 4-6 stalks of celery, including leaves
• 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1 bunch of chives
• 1 bunch of fresh thyme
• Water

Directions:

1. Add oil to pressure cooker and saute garlic over medium heat until fragrant, about one minute.
2. Add remaining ingredients.  Add enough water to cover the carcass.
3. Put lid on pressure cooker and bring to high pressure.  Cook at pressure for 45 minutes.
4. Allow pressure to release naturally.  Strain stock into another pot/bowl, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
5. Skim fat from the top of stock.

Notes:
 I plan on portioning this out into 2 and 4 cup portions and freezing most of it.  Should be handy in recipes.  The flavor is fantastic from the smoked turkey.  Leaving the skin on the onion helps add color to the stock.

Pressure Cooker Chili

One of the first things that most people will tell you about cooking in a pressure cooker is that it's fantastic for recipes where you really want all the flavors to mesh together.  Things like stews, curries, and chili are all highly recommended for pressure cooking.  Tonight, I decided to tackle chili.  I'm a firm believer that chili isn't supposed to have beans in it, so I went looking for a recipe that would fit my definition.  It didn't take long to find Alton Brown's pressure cooker chili recipe.  Other than adding a little more salt at the end and adding a little garnish, I didn't mess with the recipe at all.  This was another simple and delicious pressure cooker recipe (and it took me a little longer than usual to blog it because my 1 year old kept coming over to take more bites).

Pressure Cooker Chili

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds stew meat (beef, pork, and/or lamb)
• 2 teaspoons peanut oil
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer, preferably a medium ale
• 1 (16-ounce) container salsa
• 30 tortilla chips
• 2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Sour cream or fat-free Greek yogurt

Directions:

1. Place the meat in a large mixing bowl and toss with the peanut oil and salt. Set aside.
2. Heat a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pressure cooker over high heat until hot. Add the meat in 3 or 4 batches and brown on all sides, approximately 2 minutes per batch. Once each batch is browned, place the meat in a clean large bowl.
3. Once all of the meat is browned, add the beer to the cooker to deglaze the pot.
4. Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the meat back to the pressure cooker along with the salsa, tortilla chips, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and ground cumin and stir to combine. Lock the lid in place according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the steam begins to hiss out of the cooker, reduce the heat to low, just enough to maintain a very weak whistle.
5. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully release the steam. Mix well and add salt to taste.
6. Serve immediately, garnished with cheese and sour cream.

Notes:
The only change I might make next time is adding a can of diced tomatoes.

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

One of the first things I made in my pressure cooker was beef stew, but it was extremely simple (probably TOO simple), and I felt like it was missing something.  I decided to try again tonight, and the result was amazing.  This is by far the best beef stew I've ever made.  Everything was tender, the flavors blended really well, and since it's cooked in the pressure cooker, it didn't take long at all.  The only problem I had was that I slightly overfilled the pressure cooker (past the fill line) because I was too lazy to move everything to the bigger pot I had, so it sprayed a tiny bit of the juice/gravy/sauce out when I released the steam.  Not a huge amount, just enough to remind me not to be lazy next time. 

Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 1½-2 pounds stew beef
• 12 ounces sliced mushrooms
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 pound baby carrots
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 pounds red potatoes, chopped
• 2 cups kale, chopped
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups chicken or beef stock
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 4 Tablespoons vegetable oil, separated
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon corn starch

Directions:

1. In pressure cooker pot, mix 2 tablespoons oil and butter.  Heat over medium-high heat until butter is melted, then add mushrooms. 
2. Cook until mushrooms start to release their water and brown, about 8 minutes.
3. Add onions, and cook until onions are transluscent.  Put onions and mushrooms in a bowl and set aside.
4. Add remaining oil and brown the beef on all sides.
5. Add stock and scrape the bottom, getting all browned bits. 
6. Return onions and mushrooms to the pot, and add all remaining ingredients except for corn starch.  Stir and cover.
7. Bring to high pressure (15 psi), lower heat to just maintain pressure, and cook for 9 minutes.
8. Release pressure and remove lid.  Mix corn starch with 2 tablespoons of cold water, then add to pot.  Stir well and cook over medium-high heat until sauce starts to thicken.

Notes:
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you could do this in a slow cooker as well, it would just take several hours of cooking instead of a few minutes. Picture was taken with my phone instead of my normal camera!

Curried Carrot Soup

Two weeks ago, our early bird CSA from Breezy Willow Farm started.  Sarah's been writing a bit about it over here, including some great pictures of the food we're getting.  This week's pickup day rolled around and we needed to make some room for the next batch of produce.  We had two carrots, some potatoes, some apples, and some garlic left over from the first week.  Let me back up.  I say we had two carrots, but these were not normal carrots.  These were the biggest carrots I've ever seen in my life.  Here's a picture from my phone of our son holding the carrots:

Like I said, big carrots.  Anyway, I decided to take almost everything we had left and make soup out of it.  The results were pretty dang good, especially considering I was just throwing things together and hoping they'd taste good.

Curried Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds carrots
• 4 small potatoes
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 small apples
• 7 cloves garlic
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt
• 10 cups water
• Fat-free Greek yogurt (for garnish)

Directions:

1. Heat curry powder in a large pot over medium heat, stirring constantly, until curry powder gets fragrant, approximately 2 minutes.
2. Put curry powder in a small bowl and add enough water to make a paste.  Mix and set aside.
3. Chop all of the vegetables (and fruit!) except for the garlic.
4. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat and saute carrots, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown.
5. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the curry paste, and stir well to mix. 
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until all vegetables are soft.
7. Remove from heat and blend until smooth.
8. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Notes:
This would be good with a wide variety of other vegetables too.  I'm sure I'll make it again, it's a great "CSA Leftovers" recipe.

삼계탕 (Samgyetang/Ginseng Chicken Soup)

I was chatting with a friend of mine a few nights ago, and the topic turned to food.  I asked her for her favorite Korean recipe, and she pointed me toward this web site.  I talked to her a bit more and picked this recipe because of its simplicity (and also because she said it was delicious).  While it only has a few ingredients, half of them were things I had never cooked with before so it was quite an adventure.  If you don't have access to an Asian grocery store, you probably won't be able to make this recipe.  It's worth the trip though, even if you get as disoriented as I do in a grocery store where you can't read most of the labels or recognize most of the food.

삼계탕 (Samgyetang/Ginseng Chicken Soup)

Ingredients:

• 2 Cornish game hens
• ½ cup sweet rice
• 15-20 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch green onions
• 12-15 jujubes (red dates)
• 2 small ginseng roots
• Water
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Soak sweet rice in 1 cup of water for 1 hour.
2. Wash and rinse the two game hens in cold running water.
3. Stuff each hen with a couple spoonfuls of sweet rice, a ginseng root, a few jujubes, and 3-4 cloves of garlic. Place them side by side in a dutch oven.
4. Pour water into the pot and cook over high heat for 20 minutes.
5. When it starts boiling, skim off any foam and fat that rises to the surface, then pour in more water, the rest of the garlic, the rest of the jujubes, and the rest of the sweet rice and cook over medium heat for 40 minutes.
6. Add chopped green onions.  Remove the skin from the hens and cut meat into pieces.  Remove bones and ginseng root. 
7. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:
You don't have to remove the ginseng before serving, but it has a fairly bitter taste so I took it out.

Chicken Curry

Several years ago, my friend Selina made a big batch of curry while a group of us were out in the woods of Canada, and said we had to try it.  I didn't think I liked curry, but after trying it I was hooked.  I got her recipe from her and asked her to send me some of the curry powder she used (Malaysian red).  She sent me enough to last me for years, and chicken curry has become a go-to recipe when it's cold out. 

More recently, I've started tweaking the recipe a little bit.  I had switched from regular coconut milk to light, and yesterday I decided to try it with fat-free Greek yogurt instead of coconut milk at all.  I also forgot a few of the ingredients while I was at the grocery store, so I modified it a little bit for what I had around.  The result was every bit as enjoyable as the original recipe, and only slightly less rich in flavor.  This will probably be my new go-to version of the recipe.  I'm posting it here partially so you all can see it, but partially so I don't forget what I put in it. :)

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1½ Tablespoons curry powder
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 medium red potatoes
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 2 containers Dannon fat-free Greek yogurt, plain
• 1 can garbonzo beans, drained and rinsed
• Water

Directions:

1. In a large pot/dutch oven, dry fry the curry powder over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.  Remove from heat, add a little water, and set aside in a spearate bowl.
2. Add oil to pot and raise heat to medium-high.  Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is transluscent.
3. Add garlic and stir.  Add chicken and cook until chicken is cooked through, stirring regularly.
4. Add potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, curry paste, yogurt, and garbonzo beans.  Stir to mix, and add enough water to barely cover all ingredients.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are cooked through (about 25 minutes).
6. Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Notes:
I served it with quinoa instead of rice.  The original recipe uses a can of whole peeled tomatoes, cut up into smaller pieces.  It also uses a Tablespoon or two of tomato paste with the coconut milk.  Other things you can add: squash, eggplant, more onions, bell peppers, etc.  Be creative, this is a very simple recipe that has a ton of flavor.

Belgian Pot Roast with Onions and Mushrooms

I went looking for a stew recipe, and ended up finding this pot roast recipe instead.  I'm not generally a big fan of mushrooms, and I don't drink beer at all, so it might seem odd that I picked a recipe that relies heavily on both.  For some reason though, when this is all cooked together, it comes out as something amazing.  I've made this twice in the last two weeks (I forgot to post it the first time because I was too busy eating it), and it's a definite winner.  As the original post says, make sure you don't go with a cheap beer for this recipe.  Because of the relatively small number of ingredients, a cheap beer would be fairly obvious in the end result.

Belgian Pot Roast with Onions and Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 3 to 4 medium yellow onions
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ½ cup chicken broth
• 12 ounces Belgian-style pale ale
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 pound sliced mushrooms
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF.
2. Pat chuck roast dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper on both sides.
3. Heat a large lidded ovenproof skillet over medium-high flame. Add one tablespoon each of canola oil and butter and swirl to combine.
4. Brown roast thoroughly on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. About halfway through browning of second side, reduce heat to medium. Transfer roast to plate.
5. While roast is browning, peel onions, halve lengthwise and cut into ¼-inch slices. You want about 6 or 7 cups of sliced onions total.
6. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter to pan in chunks and swirl to melt.
7. Add onions and toss to coat with butter/oil mixture. Season with a little salt and pepper (use a light hand). Cook until slightly browned, stirring often, about 4 minutes.
8. Stir thyme into onions and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds.
9. Sprinkle flour over onions and toss to coat. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
10. Add broth to pan and stir, scraping up any browned bits.
11. Add beer to pan, stirring to combine.
12. Add bay leaves. Return meat and any accumulated juices to pan, nestling the roast among the onions. Cover pan and transfer to oven.
13. Roast meat in oven for about 1¼ hours. Nearing the end of this time, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium flame.
14. Swirl last tablespoon each of canola oil and butter together in pan.
15. Sauté mushrooms, stirring frequently, until they release their moisture and begin to brown, about 7 to 10 minutes.
16. Remove roast from oven and turn meat in pan. Spoon mushrooms around roast, cover pan and return to oven. Roast until meat is very tender, about 1¼ hours more.
17. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the roast to a cutting board and tent with foil. If the sauce is too liquid, simmer it on the stovetop until it’s reduced to the thickness you like. Conversely, if it’s too thick, whisk in a little water.
18. Just before serving, whisk in the Dijon mustard. Taste sauce and adjust seasonings.
19. Slice roast into ½-inch slices (it will shred some - that’s okay). Plate and top with onion mushroom sauce. Serve.

Notes:
I used one sweet yellow onion and two white onions to add a little variety.  I used Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale the first time I made it and Hoegaarden White Ale the second time.  Both came out great!