Mother's Day 2010

This year Mother's Day involved some firsts: shucking my first oysters, playing on my mom's Wii-Fit for the first time, and making my first dessert from the Momofuku cookbook. But for dinner I stuck to something I knew; my own version of Momofuku's Asian soup, which I've written about before. This soup is just so dang good, and I must say, it was even better this time 'round. For one thing, I used white (instead of red) miso, which was milder and mixed well with the smoky bacon. And I used shitake mushrooms, which added more of a punch than the oyster mushrooms I had used previously. But really the main difference was the chicken.



This time, instead of simply roasting the chicken I combined and truncated two recipes from the Momofuku cookbook; I used (more-or-less) the cooking techniques from their "Chicken and Egg" recipe, and the sauce (the "octo vin" I've highlighted in a previous post) from their recipe for fried chicken. The premise was this; cook chicken legs rather slowly at a low temperature in bacon fat (which gives a slightly smoky flavor) and octo vin sauce until succulent, chill for several hours, then crisp them up by browning deeply over fairly high heat. Basically you're making tender chicken confit and then giving it a darkly crisped skin afterward. The cool thing is you can make the chicken confit and chill it (in its fat!) in the refrigerator for as long as you want, allowing you to get the longest part of the cooking over with well in advance - hours or even days before you need it. Then, when you're ready, you can crisp the chicken up and serve, either in soup, by itself, or over rice like the "Chicken and Egg" recipe from the cookbook.



Chicken a la Momofuku
Adapted from Momofuku cookbook

4 whole chicken legs, thighs and or breasts, w/ skin (bone-in or boneless)
bacon grease (save in jar every time you cook bacon; that way it's not going to waste, plus it's an extremely good flavoring agent and it will last a long time. Or use olive oil, if absolutely necessary)
Octo Vinaigrette
water
1 cup salt
1 cup sugar

Combine the water, sugar and salt in container large enough to hold the chicken. Submerge the chicken in the brine, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, no more than 6.

Make Octo Vinaigrette.

Remove chicken, discard brine. Heat oven to 200 degrees F. Warm bacon fat in microwave or slowly on stove-top, until liquefied.

Pack chicken into oven-proof dish; pour bacon fat into pan until chicken more-or-less submerged and coated thoroughly. (You could also use olive oil, and then throw on a few strips of bacon to achieve the smokiness) Cook in oven for about 50 minutes, or until tender. Remove pan from oven, cool to room temperature, and chill - in the fat - for as long as needed.

When you're ready for the chicken, heat over the stove or in a low degree oven until the fat has just liquefied. Then heat a skillet over medium high heat; add the chicken, skin-side down, and brown deeply, anywhere from 4 to 8 min. You can also use a bacon press or other heavy device to press them, which aids the browning.

Either serve as is, or carve into large pieces, keeping the skin.

Enjoy!

But what would mother's day be without dessert? Particularly a dessert using something she loves - rhubarb - in a new and interesting way? This recipe is a new take on strawberry shortcake, from the Momofuku cookbook. The shortcakes are almost like cookies, and the sweet-salty balance is quirky and delicious. But my favorite part was their recipe for whipped cream, which uses sour cream and confectioner's (powdered) sugar, giving it a nice tangy-ness. The slightly salty cookies and and tangy whipped cream kept the dish from being too sweet; I could easily have eaten it for breakfast, on one of those indulgent-kind-of mornings.

The rhubarb recipe I used was from the blog Orangette; she roasts her rhubarb with white wine and vanilla bean. I didn't have vanilla bean, and I kind of guessed on the quantity of rhubarb; so I ended up needing to add a lot more sugar than I did initially. Rhubarb can be stubborn in it's sourness. I added honey too, to avoid over doing it on the granulated sugar. But once the rhubarb was just sweet enough and mixed with macerated strawberries, it was scrumptious.





Strawberry-Rhubarb Shortcakes
Adapted from Momofuku cookbook and Orangette

Shortcakes

1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tb salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
12 tb unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup shortening, lard, or additional butter (I used butter)
1/2 cup of confectioner's (powdered) sugar

Crack the egg into large measuring bowl and whisk thoroughly; discard half the egg. Pour in enough cream to make the mixture come to 1/2 a cup. Stir briefly, chill.

Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the butter, shortening, lard, etc., mix in until the batter is gravelly, with pea-sized lumps everywhere (no more than 4 minutes).

Pour the cream mixture in slowly, stirring constantly. Do this for as short as possible, until the liquid is barely absorbed; do not overmix. Let the dough rest 10 minutes.

Scoop the batter into balls of 2 tb or so (you should have about 8), line them up on baking sheet, and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 min.


Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the confectioner's sugar into a shallow bowl. Roll each ball in sugar to coat lightly, place on baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 min. The cakes will spread, then rise, and they will have a slightly cracked looking surface. They should be nice and golden in color; overbaked is almost preferable to underbaked with these puppies. If their centers fall when you remove them, bake for another minute or so.

Fruit

Make roasted rhubarb from Orangette's recipe; add sugar or honey if necessary, but keep in mind you'll be adding sugar strawberries as well.



Make macerated strawberries: combine 4 cups hulled and washed strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar (I used a little less sugar and found it adequate).



Whipped Cream

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
pinch of salt

Combine the cream, sour cream, sugar and salt in large bowl and whisk with electric mixer until medium peaks form. (Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for several hours)

Combine all components, preferably when shortbread is warm out of the oven.



Enjoy!