Defrosting Meat

We missed a cooking demo by the Grill-A-Chef in Union Square at the market, but I got to ask him one question.

I asked him what I needed to do to get meat crispy, and after some insightful talk, I asked him what I should do to defrost meat. He said that might be the key to improving the way I cook meat.

So I asked another cooking authority, my mother, and she said that she never freezes meat. So that's one way to do it.

The way I'm going to do it is different -- I'm going to make sure I defrost the meat even if it has to be in the refrigerator for 24 hours after it's been in the freezer for some time.

The freezer exists to enable us to go shopping less frequently. Use it!

Maine Root Potato Mustard Chicken, Marinated

Marinade

A lot of Vinegar-free mustard

a lot of Ancho chile powder

a lot of Maine Root Ginger Brew

1 tsp Salt

a lot of Pepper

a lot of Basil

a lot of Oregano

Water

Small amounts of cardomum, coriander, and tumeric, and a reasonable amount of cumin.

a tsp of Smoked Paprika

Combine. It should taste sweet and tangy. You can add stronger chile to get a spicier marinade.

We marinated the chicken for an hour in about half the marinade.


Cooking the chicken

We put some olive oil, rice, and some of the retained marinade on the bottom of the Creuset. The rice was partially cooked.

We added some dairy-free and garlic-free instant potato powder. We added the chicken and placed some more potato powder, several tbsp of Earth Balance vegan butter, salt, and pepper. We used almost 1.5 lbs of chicken breasts.

It took about 80 minutes to cook in the oven at 400 degrees F. We took the chicken out of the oven after 40 minutes and added some more of the marinade and some more potato powder, and turned down the oven to 350. Melissa removed the top shortly before the end to get a crust on top.

We obtained a surprisingly mellow barbecue-flavored chicken. Delicious! Served it with rice.

Chicken Sauce With Mustard

I based the sauce on my vinegar-free mustard (recipe here) with some extra rice syrup.

I added a lot of water and one whole tomato. I added salt, pepper, and a great deal of basil. I added some fresh parsley. I added a small amount of New Mexico chile pepper, which is hot, but not excruciatingly hot. I was tempted to add smoked paprika but did not -- add it if you wish. I added very small amounts of cardomum and cumin.

Once the tomato had cooked down a bit, I added mushrooms and carrots. Melissa did not want asparagus in there. I also added 2 tablespoons of rice flour and a spoonful of Earth Balance vegan butter.

Unfortunately, the rice flour clumped in the then-boiling sauce.

When I tasted it, the sauce was surprisingly sweet, with the basil and parsley notes stronger than the chili and mustard -- until the aftertaste, when the spices kicked in.

The sauce went well with marinated chicken (recipe here).

Marinated Chicken

I based the marinade on my vinegar-free mustard (recipe here). I put olive oil on the porcelain vessel in which I was marinating the chicken. I then placed the chicken down (chicken breast, butterflied by the store). I poured the mustard on the chicken and added a significant amount of ancho chile powder. I added salt and pepper (a lot of pepper and a little salt). I added very small amounts of cardomum and cumin.

I poured in some water and then placed the whole thing in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I fried the chicken over a very low flame for an hour. I added fresh ginger at the 20 minute mark and mixed vegetables (asparagus, carrots, and white mushrooms) at the 40 minute mark.

After 1 hour, the sauce had become a thick paste, but there was not much of it. We added some extra mustard at the 30 minute mark.

Vinegar-Free Mustard

I'm allergic to dairy, citrus, and vinegar. But I recently purchased some mustard power (and ancho chile powder).

Here's the recipe for my mustard:

1 Tbsp mustard powder
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp Ancho chile powder
1/4 Tsp salt
1 dollop of rice syrup.


Store in a glass jar in the fridge.

Accidental Mole Sauce

Start with Powerful Ginger Soup. Just three spoonfuls make a good base. This will be very powerful. Add a massive amount of mushrooms, about half a store-box full of them. Also add fresh rosemary, and some pepper.

To soften the ginger, add one or more tablespoons of rice flour, a small square (about 1 cm) of 100 % chocolate, unsweetened, at least a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a teaspoon of vanilla paste. The vanilla is very important. The result is a thick and musky sauce that is excellent with chicken -- and Melissa says it's also great with Kasha.

Beet and Mushroom Soup

I was inspired to make this soup by the mushroom stock recipe and notes concerning soup in the Mark Bittman cookbook How To Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Start with a large soup pot.

Add with the mushrooms. You can fry them in rice flour or just put them in water immediately -- enough to cover the bottom of the pot, about a pint.

You can put in spices now. Basil and oregano work (use both or neither). Salt and pepper are necessary. A little fresh ginger works nicely.

Add leaves. Put in the leaves from the beet(s) and red cabbage.

Let simmer.

Cut up the beets. They need to be fried to become sweet. I like to fry them in brown rice syrup, but frying them in sugar works too. If you fried the mushrooms, fry them in the same frying pan.

Add the fried beets to the soup.

Add a little cardamom and tumeric, and add other spices if you like. Cinnamon works nicely. Fresh herbs are great.


Alternate recipe: Powerful Ginger Soup

Cook the same, but a large amount of ginger root, about four inches long and almost an inch thick. This soup is difficult to eat by itself, but becomes a magnificent sauce base.