Grilling makes food taste great, but sometimes you don’t want to stand out there in a cloud of smoke while your friends are at the table, sipping wine and having a good time without you.
This is a great dish for those that want to pass on the grill for a day. It’s a delicious salad that you can serve warm or cool. You can make it the day before. Wrap it in plastic, and keep it in the fridge. Then, when your guests arrive, let it warm to room temperature. Taste for seasoning before serving. If you’re not a fan of quinoa, brown basmati rice works well, too. And use what’s fresh and in season. If you can’t find asparagus, some chopped and lightly sautéed squash works just as well.
1 1/3 cup dry quinoa (or 1 cup basmati rice)
Chicken stock
Juice of 1 lemon
2 lbs. wild-caught American shrimp, peeled and de-veined (16 to 18 count)
1 cup of asparagus stalks, cut into 1″ lengths
1/2 cup minced scallions, green part only
1 cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and medium-diced
1/4 cup red onion, small diced
1/2 cup seeded and chopped tomatoes
3/4 lb. good feta cheese, crumbled
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Prepare the quinoa according to the package directions, using chicken stock instead of water. Once it’s cooked, place it in a large bowl. (1 1/3 cups dry quinoa should give you about 3 cups of cooked quinoa.)
Place the chopped asparagus on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss them to combine and spread them out in a single layer. Roast them for just a few minutes at 350 degrees. Set them aside to cool to room temperature. (You can also simply sauté the asparagus in a pan on the stove top with olive oil, salt and pepper.)
Place the shrimp on the same sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss them to combine and spread them out in a single layer. Roast for 5 to 6 minutes at 350 degrees, until the shrimp are cooked through. Turn them once while cooking. Don’t overcook them! (again…you can simply sauté the shrimp in a pan on the stove top with olive, salt and pepper.)
Add the shrimp to the quinoa, then add the asparagus, lemon juice, scallions, dill, parsley, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Add the feta and stir carefully.
Set it all aside at room temperature for 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend…or, if you’re not serving soon, place the bowl in the fridge. Before serving, allow it to warm almost to room temperature. Taste it and season again, if needed, before serving.
In my travels, I’ve had my share of Michelin star restaurant experiences, in Spain, England, and the US. And though the food has been amazing, only one or two are etched in my mind as perhaps the most incredible dining experience I’ve ever had. But after dining at Vila Joya on the Mediterranean in Portugal, I can now add a third to the list.
Austrian chef Dieter Koschina came to southern Portugal in 1991, and earned his first Michelin star in 1995. He received his second in 1999. And he has been creating outrageously beautiful dishes ever since.
My reservation was at 7:30 PM, and they asked if I would like to make a cocktail reservation a half hour earlier, at 7. I thought that would be a great idea, and so I arrived, to be shown a comfortable couch facing the Mediterranean as I was handed the drink list. I’ve had OK cocktails up to this point on my trip, so I was really craving a perfectly made ice cold gin martini, and that’s exactly what showed up moments later.
I asked for a twist in my martini, and it came with beautiful little flowers, punched out of the lemon peel.
As I sipped my martini, I looked over the tasting menu I was about to explore with much anticipation.
Once I finished my cocktail, I was moved a bit closer to the large floor-to-ceiling windows, to get a much better view of the beautiful Mediterranean waters below.
The sun was setting as I started my dinner experience, mother nature‘s light show illuminating every plate as it appeared on my table.
This incredibly delicate potato shell, surrounding sour cream and topped with a generous amount of caviar, was a great way to start any meal, anywhere, anytime!And so it began…
I’m going to let you follow along with the menu I posted above to see if you can match the dishes with the list!
All small plates, intensely flavored, all beautifully plated and skillfully prepared.
…And more than one dessert!
End of the meal…now dark outside…
Before I departed, my lovely sommelier, Catarina, wrote down a list of great cocktail lounges and restaurants I had to visit in Lisbon, my next stop.
I love avocado, and using it in this chicken burger recipe gives each bite a creamy, fatty richness the chicken needs. It’s a simple burger, with just a handful of ingredients, but it’s really full of flavor.
If you want to go lo-carb, you can skip the breadcrumbs (and the bun for that matter.) If you’re going gluten-free, simply use GF breadcrumbs and buns and you’re all set to go.
If you don’t like avocado, leave it out. There’s still plenty of flavor.
Wanna add cheese? Go for it.
The bacon is optional, but what burger isn’t better with bacon?
The one thing I wouldn’t substitute is ground turkey for the chicken. To me, ground turkey is the cardboard of the meat world. It’s just nasty, and I won’t eat it.
1 lb. ground chicken
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 ripe avocado, sliced into small cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch granulated garlic
slices of bacon, cooked
Sauce (recipe below)
Combine the chicken, breadcrumbs, chopped avocado, salt and pepper, and garlic in a bowl and mix them thoroughly but carefully so that you don’t squash the cubes of avocado. I like to put the meat in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm it up a bit.
Form the meat into burger patties. It will be a bit sticky, but just make sure you get the avocado evenly distributed. (I find that using gloves and lightly spraying my hand with avocado oil helps me make the patties without sticking.) Chill the patties again in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm them up some more before cooking.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat a little avocado oil (or bacon fat!) in an oven-proof pan, and place the burgers in it when it’s hot. Let the burgers sear on one side, then flip them. (Make sure they sear well, or they’ll fall apart when you try to flip them.) Place the pan in the oven to finish cooking. It’s chicken…so you don’t want to undercook your burgers!
When they’re ready to serve, place the patties on a bun and with a slice of or 2 of bacon and slather with this burger sauce…
Starting in the mid 1700’s, sailors in the British Navy were given a daily ration of rum. They called it a “tot,” and the practice of daily “tot” distribution lasted for almost 200 years, until July 31, 1970. When it ended, not only were there many sad British sailors, but there was also a vast amount of leftover rum. Much of it was sold off at high prices because the taste was excellent and the methods of its distillation were no longer used.
It made sense. In the old days, when liquids were stored in wooden barrels aboard ship, water, beer, and wine would go bad very quickly. Only something with a much higher alcohol content wouldn’t spoil. Rum was the answer. And getting the sailors drunk every day kept them from deserting…it was good for morale!
But while the sailors drank rum, Royal Navy officers drank gin. The use of exotic spices in gin was made possible by imports from Africa and Asia. Gin’s prevalence around the world is largely due to the fact that sailors set foot in many new cities on new continents.
And though the British Navy stopped the practice of issuing alcohol to its sailors in 1970, the Royal New Zealand Navy abolished the practice as late as 1990!
Until a recent trip to New Zealand, I was not a huge fan of gin. Don’t get me wrong: I liked it. A gin and tonic was a nice refreshing drink on a hot summer’s day. And my fascination with the Vesper martini, a combination of gin and vodka, made me appreciate gin even more.
But it wasn’t until I went to New Zealand, and tasted their magnificent gins, in combination with delicious tonics only available in that country, did I really start to appreciate the subtle differences between them.
The first thing that caught my eye when I was served a sample of Roots gin, distilled in Marlborough, was the label: “Navy strength dry gin.” I asked what that meant. Well, for one thing, it had more alcohol. And the reason for that was surprising. Since gin, like rum, was stored in wooden barrels on ships, very often next to barrels of gunpowder, the gin had to contain enough alcohol so that if it spilled onto the gunpowder, the gunpowder would still ignite! Not enough alcohol in the gin would waterlog the gunpowder and make it useless. So tests were actually done by pouring gin on gunpowder to see what the minimum percentage of alcohol was required to keep the gunpowder burning. The answer was about 57%. Anything below that and the gunpowder would not burn. They coined the term “Navy strength.”
(Although the bottle of Roots gin above weighs in at 54.5%, it’s properly called “Navy strength.” In 1866, to keep sailors from getting completely hammered, the British Royal Navy reduced the alcohol content of the rum they were distributing to 54.5%. Hence, a new “Navy strength.”)
I was allowed to take only 1 bottle home from New Zealand, but, as you can see, it was not Navy strength. Still delicious!
The other advantage to a Navy strength gin is taste. If you’re not diluting it with water, not only are you getting more alcohol, but you’re also getting more of the herbaceous flavor you want in a gin.
Up until my trip to New Zealand, my experience with gin was limited to the usual list of suspects: Tanqueray,Bombay Sapphire, and Hendrick’s. I also more recently discovered Ford’s, a very nice London dry gin I sometimes use in my Vesper martinis.
But in New Zealand, many of the gins were floral and herb-forward, and I found that I like that. I like that a lot. For example, Victor, another Marlborough gin, was like “Hendrick’s on steroids.” I said that to my bartender at the Urban Eatery and Oyster Bar in Nelson, NZ, and she agreed. Delicious.
Although gins may vary in alcohol content, rules about serving liquor in New Zealand are very strict, certainly by US standards. For example, a “double” in New Zealand is 30ml. That’s 1 ounce! And that’s a standard pour for a cocktail. You can, I found out, ask for a “double-double.” And in that case, they would serve you a 1-ounce shot on the side with your drink, and you would have to pour it in yourself.
When I told the bartenders in New Zealand that we have 4-ounce martinis at any decent steakhouse in the US, and they realized that was 120 mls, their jaws pretty much dropped and hit the bar. One bartender gasped: “That’s irresponsible!” I told her that two of those drinks is widely considered the “businessman’s lunch” here in the states. She just shook her head.
Much to choose from at Kismet, my favorite bar in Nelson, NZ.
The phrase “proof” also has a very different meaning.
In the states, it’s pretty simple: it’s double the percentage of alcohol. So a bottle that’s 40% alcohol is 80 proof.
But the phrase “proof” comes from there British Royal Navy’s “proof” test. They would take the gin, pour it onto gunpowder, and if it ignited, that would prove there is sufficient alcohol in the gin. They would say that the gin was “gunpowder proof,” and it would be allowed onboard the ship.
So in the UK, a spirit with 57.15% is 100 degrees proof. A spirit with 40% alcohol is 70 degrees proof.
For me, it’s easier to simply remember to check the percentage of alcohol, and go from there.
One of the reasons I fell in love with New Zealand gin was because it was often served with East Imperial tonic, a New Zealand product that was not available in the United States for some time. But when I returned from my trip, I googled it and found that it was now being distributed in the US! When the amount of alcohol you’re allowed in your glass is limited (by our standards, anyway), what fills the rest of it up becomes incredibly important. East Imperial was the best line of tonics I’ve ever tried. (I’m saying was now, because, sadly, the company went under last year, and I managed to purchase a couple of 12-packs of the last of the available inventory. Once it’s gone, it’s back to Fever Tree.)
It stands to reason that a great cocktail is the sum total of its parts: great gin, great tonic, great ice.
I was enjoying a few Roots and tonics at the Bamboo Tiger, a bar inside the D’Urville Hotel in Blenheim, NZ, when we felt earthquake tremors. (My first!) It only lasted a few seconds, and when the chandeliers stopped moving, everyone pretty much went right back to business!
I spent about 10 days last summer in Scotland and Ireland, and though they’re known for their whiskey, it was their gins that really impressed me. But I’ll save that for another blog.
The 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby is this Saturday, May 2nd, and although I’m not a big horse racing fan, I am a huge fan of the official drink: the Mint Julep!
The Mint Julep is such a perfect, classic and historic bourbon drink, it seems silly to wait until Derby Day to have one. Of course, as any aficionado of spirits will tell you, there are as many right ways as wrong ways of making one.
The first step in my Mint Julep is making the simple syrup. Learning from one of my old radio buddies, my pal Rick O’B, I infuse mint into my simple syrup to take my cocktail to the next level. I use the standard ratio of 1 cup of clean, filtered water to 1 cup of sugar. I place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until just boiling. I’ve found that it needs to reach this stage for the sugar to really dissolve.
Waiting for the sugar to dissolve.
As soon as it starts to boil, I remove the saucepan from the heat, and throw in a handful of freshly picked mint leaves, stirring to make sure the mint gets in there, and then I leave the saucepan to cool to room temperature.
Once it’s at room temp, I strain the simple syrup into a squeeze bottle, and place it in the refrigerator to cool. It will keep for about a week.
An equally important ingredient for a perfect Mint Julep is the ice: specifically, crushed ice from clean, filtered water. Don’t even think of using tap water for any cocktail much less this one. Why ruin a good bottle of bourbon by going cheap on the ice? I make my own ice cubes, then put them in an untreated canvas ice bag and bash them with a mallet to the perfect crushed size. But if you don’t want to go through all the trouble, just buy a bag of good ice. Untreated canvas bags for crushing ice can be purchased online from bar supply companies for about $30. I got an untreated canvas tool bag (the exact same shape and size) at Home Depot for 3 bucks.
Da bag.
The next step is a little tougher: which bourbon to choose. The explosion of choices on the bourbon market has made it all but impossible for the average imbiber to know which bourbon is best for their tastes. If you’re a beginner, I suggest you go to a trusted bartender and explain that you’re new to the bourbon world, and could you have the tiniest of tastes and sniffs of what he’s got at his bar. Chances are, you’ll get a sampling of some of the better known brands: Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve, perhaps Buffalo Trace or Bulleit, and the standard Jim Beam. This is a very good start. (Also, hinting to your spouse and friends that “I’m trying new bourbons” around your birthday or Father’s Day inevitably gets you a few bottles as well!)
My go-to bourbon for Mint Juleps used to be Eagle Rare 10-year-old when it was around $32.99 a bottle. Now it can be as high $100! (Although the bourbon craze has calmed quite a bit recently, and prices are slowly going down.) My latest go-to bourbon is 1792 Small Batch. At $29, it’s almost unbelievable, like someone made a mistake in the stock room! Very tasty on its own and great for mixing. Others that work well and are around the same price range include Buffalo Trace, and Larceny. I’m actually not a fan of the official bourbon of the Derby: Woodford Reserve.
Finally, a Mint Julep needs a metal–not glass– Julep cup. Made of pewter, it frosts on the outside as you stir your drink, keeping your beverage ice-cold on even the hottest of days.
3 oz. bourbon 1 oz. mint-infused simple syrup crushed ice Julep cup Fresh mint for garnish
Crush the ice and pack it into the Julep cup, even letting it dome slightly over the top. Don’t worry…the alcohol will melt it.
I like to add 1.5 ounces of bourbon, then the ounce of simple syrup, another 1.5 ounces of bourbon on top, and then a quick squirt of simple syrup to top it off. Break off a few mint leaves from the stem and push them into the ice. A beautiful layer of frost will form on the outside of the cup. Add more ice, if necessary, and garnish with a sprig of mint.
A nice selection of bourbons. This is an old photo: that Pappy Van Winkle is long gone…but I saved the bottle!
When you’ve got 20 people showing up at your house for breakfast the morning after hosting a 165-person party the night before, you want to make it all as easy as possible for yourself. Sheet pan eggs are the answer!
I pre-cook everything but the eggs the day before…I caramelized some onions, cooked sausage patties and cut them into small cubes, and wilted a couple of handfuls of spinach…then kept them in the fridge, ready to use. Grating or crumbling some cheese–cheddar or feta–is also a good idea.
2 dozen eggs, scrambled
12 sausage patties, pre-cooked
2 large handfuls of spinach, wilted in a pan with some olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced, and sautéed until caramelized in a little olive oil
cheddar cheese or feta, optional
milk or cream, optional
butter
olive oil
The next morning, I get a large bowl out and scramble 2 dozen eggs. A touch of milk or cream is optional. Then I add all the pre-cooked ingredients, stirring well.
The secret to successful sheet pan eggs is to make sure the pan is greased really well. Using a cube of butter, I cover every inch of the sheet pan thoroughly. Then, I pour a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in the pan, and spread that around with my fingers.
Once the pan is nicely greased, I carefully pour the contents of the bowl into the sheet pan and place in a pre-heated 300-degree oven.
Let the sheet pan eggs bake at this temperature, resisting to hurry the process by cranking the heat up. Higher temperatures will burn the bottom before the top is properly cooked. Eventually, you’ll see the bottom of the pan solidify while the top is still a bit runny. Be patient! When the top is cooked to your liking, remove it from the oven and let it cool for at least 5 minutes before slicing it into squares.
To serve, either go the sandwich route by toasting some fresh slider buns. Or simply serve a square on a plate, garnishing as you like, a little Tabasco on the side.
When my daughter hangs out with me, I always ask her what she wants me to cook for her, and there are a few “Dad” recipes that are her favorites. This is one of them, especially when fresh asparagus is available. And as any parent will tell you, if your kid is craving a dish that has vegetables in it, count yourself lucky–and make it!!
Prepping asparagus is easy, and you don’t need a knife to cut off the woody bottoms of the stalks. Simply bend the stalks at the bottom and they will naturally snap off at the right point.
4 mild Italian sausages, sliced into pieces 1/2″ thick 1 lb. penne pasta 1/2 onion, finely chopped 1 cup chopped fresh trumpet mushrooms (white button mushrooms work, too), optional 2 cups fresh asparagus, sliced into 1-inch pieces 1 clove garlic, passed through a garlic press 1 cup homemade chicken broth 6 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper
Have the pasta water salted and boiling, and add the pasta, cooking until just a bit more undercooked than al dente.
Heat a large pan, and drizzle in some olive oil. Sauté the sausage pieces until browned and cooked through, but not overcooked. Remove the sausages from the pan and place them in a separate bowl. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat left behind in the pan.
Place the pan back on stove and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic, and sauté for 10 seconds. Add the sage, and saute for 10 seconds, stirring. Add the chopped mushrooms and saute for a few minutes, then add the chicken broth, and simmer until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Pour the contents of the pan into the bowl with the sausages.
Return the pan to the stove, add a little more olive oil, and on medium heat, sauté the asparagus pieces. Cook them until they are al dente, not too soft. Once the asparagus has reached this stage, return all the contents of the sausage/mushroom bowl to the pan to heat through. Drain the pasta, and add it to the pan as well, combining all the ingredients. If it looks too dry, add a little pasta water to the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
Make sure you serve this hot, with grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top, and drizzle lightly over the top with extra virgin olive oil.
I moved to my current home in the fall of last year. One of the toughest things to say goodbye to in my previous garden was my asparagus patch. Over the years, I had grown loads and loads of delicious asparagus, but sadly, there was no good way to transport that patch to my new place.
I’ve got a much smaller garden space at my current home, a small space that gets full sun, and despite its limited size, asparagus is too important of a crop to leave out. So I bought a bunch of plants this spring, and planted them. And now I have to wait. They say you’re not supposed to harvest asparagus for at least a couple of years to let the new bed establish, but I found that pretty much impossible to do…I have to have at least a bit of a taste.
Hoping to get some spears next season!
In the meantime, I can only look back at my previous success with asparagus…
The home garden is already showing signs of activity. Overwintered dill and arugula seeds are sprouting. And cool weather seeds that I’ve sown early: peas, turnips, radishes, and others are doing the same.
Asparagus is really easy to grow. You just need the space, and the plants practically do the rest.
Space them about a foot apart, and before you know it, you will have a vast network of tasty stalks sprouting through the soil every spring. They are so much better than anything you can buy in a supermarket.
In the start of the growing season, the stalks don’t even make it into the house. I cut them and just eat them straight out of the garden. Eventually, they make the move to the kitchen, where I love to simply place them on a baking sheet and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Salt and pepper…and then in a 400-degree oven until they’ve caramelized.
Sometimes I toss some tasty chives with blossom buds on top of the asparagus and roast.
In the past, I’ve had I so much asparagus that I just didn’t know what to do with them all. So I started pickling them…a really easy process that ensured I had delicious asparagus well into the summer.
Several bunches of asparagus spears
2 cups white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups water
20 peppercorns
Garlic cloves, peeled
Kosher salt (1 teaspoon per quart-sized Mason jar. Use less for smaller jars.)
Bring the vinegar, water, sugar and peppercorns to a boil. Set the pan aside.
Trim the bottom of the asparagus spears so that the spears are just slightly shorter than the height of the quart-sized Mason jar you will use. Or cut them into pieces that will fit smaller jars.
Pack the jars as tightly as you can with the asparagus spears. (They will shrink when processed.) Add the garlic clove and 1 teaspoon of salt to every quart-sized Mason jar…less for smaller jars.
Fill the jars with the vinegar mixture and seal them tightly.
Process the jars for 10 minutes. Let them cool before placing them in the refrigerator. If you know you’re going to eat all the asparagus in the next week, processing isn’t really necessary.
DOES YOUR PEE SMELL FUNNY WHEN YOU EAT ASPARAGUS?
Asparagus has a sulfur-containing compound identified by scientists as methyl mercaptan. A colorless gas, this compound is also found in blood, feces, garlic, eggs, cheese and even skunk secretions. Another ingredient found in asparagus is asparagine. Present in foods like dairy products, seafood, poultry, fish and nuts, this amino acid is known to have a distinctive smell when heated. To metabolize both methyl mercaptan and asparagine, your body needs to break these compounds down and it’s this breakdown that’s responsible for your urine’s strange smell.
Since both methyl mercaptan and asparagine are associated with the sense of smell, there is debate over which ingredient is actually responsible for the asparagus-urine phenomenon. It could be one, or both.
Many people claim that, regardless of asparagus consumption, their urine does not smell. There are multiple theories about that as well. The first claims that everyone’s urine is in fact affected by asparagus, but only about half of the population have the specific gene that is required to smell the change. On the other hand, the second theory states that only half of the world’s population has the gene that’s required to break down the compounds found in asparagus and, if the body doesn’t break them down, no smell is emitted. In fact, one study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that only 46 percent of British people tested produced the odor while 100 percent of French people tested did. So whatever the reason, asparagus will forever be known as the vegetable that makes your urine smell strange.
I was minding my own business, watching an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on Food Network. Guy Fieri went from a barbecue joint to an Italian restaurant. Pulled pork at the BBQ place, arancini at the Italian. Then it hit me….
It just so happened that I had slow-roasted a pork shoulder that day. It just so happened that I had an opened box of Arborio rice I wanted to use up. It just so happened that I had several containers of homemade chicken stock in the freezer, an open bottle of white wine in the fridge, already opened packages of mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a small container of ricotta. And I just made a batch of tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes.
I mean, come on! This recipe practically wrote itself!
First, I made the risotto. There were 3 cups of Arborio rice left in the package, so I used it all up…
2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cups Arborio rice 2/3 cup dry white wine 10 cups (or so) homemade chicken broth 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
I brought the chicken broth to a low simmer in a saucepan.
In a large skillet, I warmed the olive oil and rice over medium heat for a few minutes. I added the wine and sautéed for another minute or two, until it had been absorbed. I added the hot broth to the rice about a half-cup at a time, stirring until the broth absorbed completely each time before doing more.
I continued adding the broth a half-cup at a time and stirring until it was fully absorbed and the rice was Al dente and creamy, not mushy. This usually takes about 20 minutes…and you don’t always have to use up all the broth.
I removed the pan from the heat, and stirred in the Parmigiano Reggiano. I set it aside and let it cool.
In a saucepan, I warmed the tomato sauce up.
Meanwhile, I chopped the mozzarella up into small cubes, a little bigger than a 1/4″ square.
I took the pork out of the fridge, and finely chopped up about a pound of it. I didn’t know if I would need that much, but it was a good start. I added about a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese to it, mixing well, making it into a paste.
Using a scoop, I made small meatballs out of the pork mixture, pushing a cube of mozzarella into each one before rolling it into a little meatball.
Then, scooping up some of the cooled risotto with my hands, I molded it around the meatball, forming a larger rice ball, setting aside on a tray.
I used plain gluten-free breadcrumbs in this recipe to keep it GF, but regular breadcrumbs are just fine. I like to make my own breadcrumbs by toasting GF bread and then putting it in a food processor. This gets it to a crumbly stage. If I want it fine, I move the breadcrumbs to a blender to grind it down to almost a powder, first adding oregano, parsley, basil, salt, pepper, granulated garlic and granulated onion, then blending well.
With the oil in my fryer hot and ready to go at 350 degrees, I roll each rice ball in the egg, and then the seasoned breadcrumbs.
Then I place them gently in the fryer, being careful not to overcrowd them.
I fry them until they’re golden brown.
I place the fried arancini on a wire rack to cool, sprinkling them with sea salt while they’re still hot.
Chicken thighs are the best: their fat content makes them perfect for the grill because they don’t dry out like chicken breasts do. And I always leave the skin on for extra crispy flavor. I bought a package of chicken thighs the other day and decided to go Asian with my flavors, baking them in the oven so that they cook evenly, and then finishing them off on the grill to get that delicious smokey flavor and char.
I marinated the chicken thighs in the sauce for several hours before cooking. If you have the opportunity to marinate them overnight in the fridge, that’s even better. Just remember that if you want to use the marinade as a dipping sauce later on, divide it in half from the very beginning. Use half to marinate the chicken, and save the other half for later. If any of the marinade touches raw chicken, you can’t use it as a dipping sauce. (Salmonella!) So keep them separated.
3/4 cup ketchup 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup hoisin sauce 1/2 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup Chinese chili garlic sauce 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 2 garlic cloves, minced
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing well. Use half of it to marinate the chicken, and save the other half for dipping sauce or brushing on to the chicken later.
The Bell & Evans chicken thighs that I bought came in a package that works perfectly for marinating. One less thing to clean up!
If you’re cooking the same day, let the chicken marinate at room temperature for three hours. If you’re marinating overnight in the fridge, let the chicken come to room temperature before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 325°.
Place the chicken thighs on a sheet pan and bake until they are cooked through.…but not overcooked. If you’re not using the grill, place them under the broiler and watch them carefully, as the sugars in the marinade could burn. Give them some nice char.
If you’re using the grill, light a fire and spread the coals so that you have a medium-hot flame. Grill the chicken thighs until they have a beautiful char on them, being careful not to burn them. Brush more of the marinade on them as they cook, if you like.
Serve the chicken thighs with the dipping sauce on the side.
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