You all know that I'm still celebrating summer, but since August hit, I've been on a reading kick and thought I would do some book reviews over the next few weeks in honor of back-to-school season.
One cookbook that I was very excited to see on the library shelves was Richard Blais's "So Good, 100 Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours." I've had a cooking crush on Blais since he reached the finals on "Top Chef" in 2008 and then won "Top Chef: All-Stars" in 2011. I really don't watch cooking shows, but there was something about the "Top Chef" format that I really enjoyed, and Blais is my all-time favorite contestant. He was quite experimental with his cooking, but really a humble person, which is kind of rare for reality TV. I don't think I'm the only one with a cooking crush on him. And now he has hosted a number of other cooking shows, and has five restaurants and several cookbooks.
The book has a great introduction, where Blais writes about where he grew up and how he worked his way up in the culinary world, graduating from the Culinary Institute of America and then chasing down restaurants that rocked his world and that he wanted to learn from. The book has pictures taken in his home and with his family and just beautiful pictures of the food.
Each section of the book has a write-up about his taste preferences and ideas and personal stories. The book's categories are starters; "soups and a porridge;" pasta; fish and seafood; chicken, turkey, duck, goose, squab and rabbit; beef, pork, lamb, and goat; vegetable; side dishes and desserts. That's a lot of categories, but then again, he tells you up front that the book contains 100 recipes.
Some of the recipes are pretty traditional, like whole wheat spaghettini and pesto, to the more daring, like barbecued lamb's head carnitas with masa. (If you're a vegetarian or sensitive soul you might want to skip the page with the photo on this one.) He warns that you will need to order a lamb's head in advance from a butcher and tells you how to ask to have it cleaned. He also suggests that you can substitute a leg of lamb or lamb or pork shoulder — so it's not a recipe you need to rule out just because you don't like your food to have a face.
Each recipe has a nice introduction where he talks about how he developed the recipe and any ingredients in there that you might not be familiar with. It's the kind of cookbook you can learn a lot from without even getting to cooking from it.
It was hard to pick just two recipes, but I decided to go with two relatively easy and non-shocking recipes. First up, his take on fried chicken, which is marinated in pickle juice, buttermilk and hot sauce, then dusted with spices, then covered with flour and karaage, a Japanese-style coating for fried chicken and fish that you can buy on Amazon and possible in the Asian section of your grocery store. I figured "who doesn't love fried chicken?" and also, this is a way to try a globally inspired meal while still being pretty safe.
And the second recipe I chose was for milk-braised pork shoulder. I've cooked a whole chicken in milk before, and then you make the milk into a gravy, and it was interesting, but I think the pork fat is going to make this concept taste even better. He recommends making some buttermilk biscuits to sop up the milk gravy with, and I concur.
Enjoy, and check the book out if you're a Blais fan, too, or if you just want to learn about some inventive, non-traditional ways of cooking.
Crack Shack fried chicken, Nashville-style
3 pounds whole chicken thighs, legs and thighs separated
¾ cup pickle juice (from a jar of your favorite pickles)
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup Frank's RedHot sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spice mix:
¼ cup plus 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt
For frying:
About 2 cups all-purpose flour
About 2 cups karaage seasoning mix (see note)
Canola, vegetable or peanut oil, for frying
Put the chicken in a glass, ceramic, or other nonreactive dish. Pour the pickle juice over the chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour, turning several times to ensure all the chicken pieces are flavored with the pickle juice.
Meanwhile, in another dish, whisk together the buttermilk and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
Lift the chicken from the pickle juice and submerge in the buttermilk marinade. Turn the chicken to coat, cover, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 12 hours or overnight.
To make the spice mix, in a mixing bowl, stir together the paprika, cayenne, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, ginger and salt.
Lift the chicken from the marinade and lay it on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the spice mix over the chicken and let it sit for about 10 minutes to give the spice mix time to flavor the chicken.
Meanwhile, spread the flour and karaage mix in a large shallow bowl or dish and stir to mix. Dip the chicken in the flour to coat both sides. Shake the chicken to knock off some of the flour and distribute the flour that stays on the bird. Refrigerate the coated chicken on the baking sheet for 30 minutes before frying.
Pour oil into a deep, heavy pot to reach a depth of 3 to 4 inches. Heat over medium-high heat until a deep-frying thermometer reaches 350 degrees.
When the oil reaches the desired temperature, use tongs to put the chicken in the oil. Do not crowd the pan, you might have to fry the chicken in batches. Turn the chicken several times to brown it on all sides. Once it's lightly browned, let it cook without turning for 18 to 20 minutes. When it's done, an instant-read thermometer will register about 165 degrees when inserted into a meaty part of the chicken. (Take a piece of chicken out of the fryer before you check the temp.)
Lift the chicken from the pot and set on a wire rack sitting over a baking sheet to drain. If frying in batches, let the oil regain its temperature before cooking the next batch.
Let the chicken cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
*Note: Kaarage is a style of fried chicken (and other foods) developed in Japan. If you can't find a commercial karaage mix, double the amount of all-purpose flour and season it generously with garlic powder, ground ginger, salt and pepper.
Milk-braised pork shoulder
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons garlic powder
One 6- to 8-pound bone-in pork neck or shoulder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups whole milk, or more as necessary
1 tablespoon whole cloves
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves
1 bay leaf
About ¼ cup condensed milk
Gently rub the fennel seeds and garlic powder into the meat. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
In a deep pot with a lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When hot, sear the pork neck on all sides until golden brown. Add the whole milk. It should nearly cover the milk, if not, add a little more. Bring the milk to a simmer, scraping up any bits of meat sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Add the cloves, sage and bay leaf to the pot, cover and braise on top of the stove over medium low heat until the pork is cooked through and registers 155 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, in 2 to 3 hours. Lift the pork from the milk and set on a platter.
Strain the milk to remove the cloves, sage and bay leaves. Return the milk to the pot and add the pork. Cook until the milk is slightly thickened and reduced, about 10 minutes. Add the condensed milk to thicken and sweeten the salty piggy milk. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed.
Slice the pork and serve alongside hot buttermilk biscuits smothered in the milky gravy.
Carrie Ann Knauer writes from Westminster. Contact her at carrie.knauer@gmail.com.
