Today’s newsletter is another that sort of isn’t. I’d originally planned to share the menu I prepared for this weekend’s Table at the Farm at The Farm at Our House.
Only I didn’t have time to take pictures.
Then, after returning from a “don’t mind me, yes, that is a complete kitchen in the back of this borrowed car” road trip, I decided to prepare a brand new menu - but didn’t have the time to really test things before the big “I’m cooking this for photos” cook.
It didn’t really work.
It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t good.
And I didn’t really realize that until I sat down yesterday morning to put the finishing touches on it. Sometimes an edit makes you realize you have to start over.
So this week’s newsletter isn’t a completely menu - but I’m going to share a couple of the dishes I prepared this weekend, along with photos I took during menu development for that meal. Then next week (i’m making a lot of next week promises these days) we’ll be back with a nice “Oh hey, it’s fall now, again probably for a few days” sort of menu - some of which will feature some of the things I tried to add to my earlier in the week failure and still show promise.
Sometimes it just doesn’t go the way you expect.
Radish Salad
This radish salad was originally intended to be a sort of homage to spicy green papaya salad, and honestly, I developed this because the folks at The Farm at Our House had an absolute insane bounty of perfect radishes to work with. It’s quick, crunchy, refreshing, and can be made more or less spicy by seeding or not seeding the chili/es.
1 1/2 lbs assorted radishes (Daikon, Watermelon, French Breakfast)
Juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp neutral oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp finely minced cilantro
1 tbsp palm sugar or demerara sugar
1 small green chili (I used serano in development, but thai chilies for the dinner)
1 large clove garlic
1 tsp finely minced lemongrass
Crushed peanuts, red onion, ad fried shallots as garnish.
Peel, trim, and cut the radish into thin batons or julienne.
Place the radish in cool water to crisp.
Peel, trim, and crush or microplane the garlic.
Trim, and very finely mince the green chili - remove the seeds for less heat if desired.
Combine the sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, lemongrass, garlic, and chili in a non reactive bowl.
Allow to rest for 15-30 minutes.
Wisk in the oil.
Combine with the radish and cilantro and toss well to coat.
Top with crushed peanuts, fried shallots, and red onion as garnish.
Coconut Confit Chicken Wings With Dry Green Curry
This is probably the most complex dish I’ve made in a while, so I apologize for the rather involved process. I could just leave it as a mystery, but a number of people at this weekend’s asked for the recipe and, well, I promised them I’d included it here.
I’ve written - repeatedly and at great length - about how much I love chicken wings. While I’d argue that it’s a texture and convenience thing, the truth is that they’re also a remarkably chicken-ey tasting cut. That’s a good thing, unless you’re one of those people who doesn’t want their food to taste like food. If that’s you, you’re probably reading the wrong newsletter right now.
As part of another project, I’ve been working on a reliable “confit” recipe and process to make almost fall apart wings that are none-the-less crispy and flavorful and not dry. There've been more than a few rounds of experimentation and while I’m not going to say the process is perfect yet, I have discovered that it really lets you put a lot of flavor (beyond the inherently delicious and previously mentioned chicken-ey-ness) into the meat. By slow cooking the wings in highly seasoned oil before flash frying for crispness, you get texture and crunch and a HUGE amount of flavor. It’s great.
In this case the wings are confited in a mixture of coconut oil and neutral fat seasoned with garlic, ginger, lemongrass and lime leaf (or lime zest if you can’t find leaf.). To be honest, they’re great on their own - but for Saturday’s dinner I dusted them with a dry rub reflective of the flavors found in the dishes we often collectively (and somewhat insultingly) refer South East Asian “green curry.”
2 lbs “party cut” chicken wings
2 cups coconut oil
2 cups neutral cooking oil
1 stalk lemongrass
6-8 large cloves garlic
1 3-inch piece of thick fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 1/2 disks
4 lime leaves or the zest of 1 lime thinly peeled
1 tbsp fish sauce
Additional clean neutral oil for crisping
1 recipe Dry Green Curry Rub
Toss the wings in the fish sauce and cover tightly.
Allow to brine for at least 1 hour, and up to overnight.
Add the oils and aromatics to a pan deep enough to hold and just barely cover the chicken with the oil.
Slowly bring the oil to a low simmer.
Cook for 35-45 minutes.
Allow to cool somewhat, and remove the chicken to drain.
Allow the chicken to cool completely.
Bring new oil (or filter and reuse the confit oil - but be careful to drain any watery liquid to avoid spattering) to 375°F.
Working in batched, fry the wings until browned and crisp.
Toss with dry green curry powder.
Serve hot.
Dry Green Curry Powder
4 tbsp powdered coconut milk (do not use desiccated coconut)
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp jalapeno chili powder
2 tsp green spirolina powder (opt - for color only)
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried cilantro
2 tsp galangal powder (sub dried ground ginger)
1 tsp dried mint
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Combine all ingredients in the container of a spice grinder or high speed blender and process until a fine powder forms.
I must try your radish salad. Looks sort of like a Mexican pico de gallo (I’m mexican living in the yucatan península) I may change the chile to habanero though.
Will let you know!