Menudo

I ate a lot of menudo when I was a child. It's a staple in cafeterias, carinderias, during fiestas and every household I knew, it's the second adobo in the country. They may have different ingredients but they seem to taste the same wherever you eat it. As an adult, I rarely had it, can't explain why and it's a wonder this is only the second time I made this dish.

Menudo
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ pounds pork, diced into ¼ inch pieces
1 Spanish chorizo, diced into ¼ inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 teaspoons sea salt
ground black pepper
1 large tomato, diced
1 cup water or chicken broth, or more as needed
1 large potato, diced into ¼ inch pieces
1 can green peas

• In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil, add garlic and onion, stir fry for 2 minutes. Add red bell pepper, pork and chorizo. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Add tomato, salt, black pepper and water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add potatoes, simmer for 5 minutes. (Add more water or broth if needed). Add drained peas and cook 1 minute until peas are heated through. Serve with rice or as pan de sal filling.

I remember menudo had liver in them. I don't like liver, if you do just add them with the potatoes, or cook them separately and add to the cooked dish.

Milan - A Most Annoying Movie

Filipino Movie Review

Milan F

I just wasted 90 minutes of my precious time watching this really really really annoying Tagalog movie. This is one of the reasons I rarely watched Filipino movies in the Philippines. Recently, I started watching tagalog/Filipino movies and liked some of them, even the corny but entertaining Enteng Kabisote and Crying Ladies, if you can believe it. The Debut and Pinoy Blonde are very good, I highly recommend them.
Somebody in my house put Milan in our Netflix list and I was also interested because I had a cousin who was murdered a little over a year ago by a fellow Filipino in Italy. He was an Italian citizen, had lived in Italy for over 12 years. He was killed because the other guy was jealous of the success of his business, which was recruiting Filipinos to work as domestic helpers, etc. in that country.

The cheesy opening music was a bad sign that this movie will suck, but I was determined to watch it and give it a chance to prove me wrong about Filipino movies. I did not know IT WAS HOPELESSLY BAD! The movie opened with a shrill nagging voice of a woman, who turned out to be the daughter of Nora Aunor, and the whole movie seemed to have lots of shrill women... AND men. The main character, Lino went to Milan to look for his wife, he did not have her telephone number or address, it never occured to him she did not want to be found, dumb. Lino was so wimpy, kept harassing Filipinos outside subways and on the streets and refused to understand the word NO, that I wanted to hit him upside the head during the entire movie. Near the end of the film the pretty wife turned up with an unbelievably ugly baby, he finally learned what happened to her and he went outside, started hitting the wall while crying (he's always crying) and kept saying "I am not stupid, I am not an idiot", I kept answering the TV hoping he'll hear me "yes, you are too", like a child in a playground, I can't help it because he IS STUPID, AN IDIOT, AN IMBECILE.... Stupid acting, stupid directing and stupid dialog, arrgh! The movie tried to show THE HARDSHIPS OFWs have to endure working abroad, but I remained unsympathetic, I'm sorry to say, but they are there illegally and they chose to work there as domestic helpers, duh! Watch this movie only if you are a masochist.;D

Memorial Day

no-frills hamburger

and

PB & J ice cream

Happiness Is A Warm Bun Part 2

crusty pandesal filled with cheese pimiento

if you're weird like me, soft pan de sal with pancit guisado (rice noodles)

I wrote about my love for sweet breads, rolls and buns before, this time I made 2 kinds of buns called Pan de Sal (salted bread), the crusty, salty ones and the soft, sweetish kind. The latter are more popular in the Philippines. Who doesn't love pillowy soft, sweet bread? The pan de sal is very similar to the Spanish country bread and French baguette but the Filipinos love sweet things and added more sugar, some butter and egg to the original recipe. Honestly, I love both kinds either with butter or filled with sausages and other meat spreads.

Crusty Pan de Sal
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons dry yeast
5 cups bread flour
very fine bread crumbs

• In a stand mixer bowl, combine ½ cup water, sugar and yeast, mix well. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the remaining water and 2 cups flour. Attach paddle and mix for 1 minute, add salt and oil and the rest of the flour, mix for 2 minutes. Replace paddle with dough hook and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer into a lightly greased container, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1½ hours. Punch dough down, divide into 24 pieces and shape into ovals. Roll in bread crumbs, place slightly apart on a cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. Bake in a pre-heated 425°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Soft Pan de Sal
1¼ cups water
¼ cup warm water
2 teaspoons dry yeast
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup powdered milk
1 egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup sugar
4 cups bread flour
very fine bread crumbs

• In a stand mixer, combine 1 tablespoon sugar, warm water and yeast, mix well. Let stand for 5 minutes. In a small bowl heat water and butter for 30 seconds. Add to the bowl with 2 cups of flour, the rest of the sugar, powdered milk and egg. With paddle attached, mix for 1 minute. Add salt and the rest of the flour, mix for 1 minute. Replace paddle with dough hook and knead for 5 minutes. Dough will be a little sticky. Place dough in a lightly greased container, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. Punch dough down, divide into 24 ovals, roll in breadcrumbs. Place in an ungreased 13 x 9 inch pan, rolls touching. Cover and let rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour and bake in a pre-heated 400°F oven for 15 minutes.

arrange soft buns touching for height support

Filipino Donuts & Michael Chabon's THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION

If you are wondering what's up with the odd title, please read on. The donut will be explained after the review of the book.

Spoiler alert: If you are here looking for shtekeleh and have not read the book in its entirety, please scroll to the bottom of this page for the recipe page.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION by Michael Chabon A+
This is a superbly written novel set in the fictitious Federal District of Sitka, Alaska, where the Jewish people were given a safe haven by the US government after the collapse of Israel in 1948. (There is a real Sitka with about 10,000 people but here it is fictitious with a population of more than 2 million). The city has been striving for 60 years but with its coming 'reversion' back to Alaska, their dream of having a permanent state and to become real Americans is again threatened. The main character is a homicide detective Meyer Landsman who had to investigate and deal with rabbis, rebbes, the affluent and Jewish gangsters to find out who murdered his neighbor. He found out that the death was connected to his own sister's accidental death a few years back and discovered a graver event that even he was not able to prevent from happening. Michael Chabon managed to be both very funny and thoughtful in this 1940s noir style whodunit. The book has lots of yiddish terms which are not that difficult to understand, although I had to google and look for the meaning of a few yiddish terms at the yiddishdictionaryonline.com. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Now, why the Filipino donut? In the book there are a few Filipino characters: a boy who delivers the detective his lumpia, housemaids, a chauffer, hired thugs and the one who owns a donut coffee shop called Mabuhay Donuts. He is a 70-year old Filipino ex-boxer who is a valuable 'informant' to the detective.

Pages 172 - 173:

The Filipino-style Chinese donut, or shtekeleh, is the great contribution of the District of Sitka to the food lovers of the world. In its present form, it cannot be found in the Philippines. No Chinese trencherman would recognize it as the fruit of his native fry kettles. Like the storm god Yahweh of Sumeria, the shtekeleh was not invented by the Jews, but the world would sport neither God nor the shtekeleh without Jews and their desires. A panatela of fried dough, not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets. You sink it in your paper cup of milky tea and close your eyes, and for ten fat seconds, you seem to glimpse the possibility of finer things.
The hidden master of the Filipino-style Chinese donut is Benito Taganes, proprietor and king of the bubbling vats of Mabuhay, dark, cramped, invisible from the street, stays open all night long. It drains the bars and the cafés after hours, concentrates the wicked and the guilty along its chipped formica counter, and thrumps with the gossip of criminals, policemen, shtarkers and shlemiels, whores and night owls. With the fat applauding in the fryers, the exhaust fans roaring, and the boom box blasting the heartsick kundimans of Benito's Manila childhood, the clientele makes free with their service. A golden mist of kosher oil hangs in the air and baffles the senses. Who could overhear with ears full of KosherFry and the wailing of Diomedes Maturan? But Benito Taganes overhears, and he remembers. Benito could draw you a family tree for Alexei Lebed, the chieftain of the Russian mob, only on it you would find not grandparents and nieces but bagmen, bump-offs, and offshore bank accounts. He could sing kundimans of wives who remain loyal to their imprisoned husbands and husbands doing time because their wives dropped dimes on them.

With the mouth-watering description of the donut, which I believe is called bicho or bicho-bicho in the Philippines, I was inspired to make these delicious shtekelehs.

hope this is what he wrote about: fried dough, not quite sweet, not quite salty, rolled in sugar, crisp-skinned, tender inside, and honeycombed with air pockets

The recipe for bicho-bicho is here.

Swedish Meatballs

David Lebovitz wrote a hilarious piece about his recent visit to the Ikea store in the suburbs of Paris. He ended up buying the only thing that he liked, the candy Daim which is similar to English toffee. He also poked fun at the restaurant's food offerings, one of which is my favorite, meatballs with lingon berry preserves.

I LOVE Swedish meatballs and regularly make them either with gravy or lemon flavored sauce and always serve them with lingonberry preserves. The lingonberries are a smaller version of cranberries but they are sweeter and not as tart. They are perfect with the meatballs. The meatballs are served at Ikea with steamed vegetables, usually carrots and broccoli and a few buttered boiled potatoes. I had them with a buttered hot dinner bun (pan de sal).

Swedish Meatballs
3 slices bread, chopped and soaked in 1 cup half & half
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
1 egg
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Mix all ingredients, form into 1½ inch balls. Bake in a 350°F oven or fry in very little oil until golden brown. Serve with Swedish lingon berry preserves and salad of your choice.

Halo-halo & Ube Macapuno Ice Cream

What's your favorite ice cream flavor: Halo-halo with bits of langka, saba, sweet macapuno, haleyang ube, and leche flan? or ube and macapuno? Well, I love them both.

halo-halo ice cream with bits of leche flan, saba in syrup, macapuno, ube, langka

I love the macapuno bits, and ube makes this ice cream so creamy

The basic vanilla ice cream recipe is here, just add your halo-halo ingredients after churning between layers of ice cream when transfering to a container. For the ube, omit vanilla and warming step, add 2 T sugar and 1 cup cooked mashed ube before churning, then add very cold bits of macapuno preserves the last 5 minutes.

With a new super-efficient and roomier freezer I am again making ice cream non-stop. And with David Lebovitz' book The Perfect Scoop how can I ever stop making ice cream when there are so many new and old favorite flavors to try?

Cuapa(o)wich

I found a cuapao sandwich in a Filipino Magazine called YUMMY. I think it's a great idea to make it into a cuapaowich instead of stuffing the dough before steaming. I did not follow the recipe for the pork, I have leftover pork roast and used plain roasted peanuts because their recipe for the mustard and the peanuts are loaded with sugar, too sweet, in my honest opinion.
I wanted to eat it with ramen soup but it's hot and muggy today and did not want to perspire while savoring this delicious treat.

Siopao Dough
1½ cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons lard or white Crisco
parchment paper

• In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar and ½ cup of the warm water, stir and add yeast, mix well, let stand for 10 minutes.
• In a stand mixer bowl with paddle attached, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and lard/Crisco. Add the yeast mixture and the rest of the warm water. Mix for 1 minute. Replace the paddle attachment with dough hook and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a lightly greased bowl, turn the dough so that greased side is up, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 1½ hours.
• Remove bubbles by lightly kneading; divide dough into 16. Cut rectangular shaped parchment papers, set aside. Shape dough pieces into oblong (or round if making into siopao) placing each on the parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Steam in rapidly boiling water for12 minutes (15 minutes if filled).

It's sooo yummy, thanks YUMMY Magazine!

Red Lentil Patties

I promised to cook vegetarian dishes more often but I find it difficult to keep. There isn't much you can make with meatless ingredients. I can never be a vegetarian, I just love meat and fish too much.:)

Preparation of vegetarian meals is not hard but planning to have a variety of dishes is time consuming, if not totally boring. Today, I made red lentil patties, the lentils were boiled with bulgur, seasoned with tons of garlic, onion, lemon juice and zest, salt and finely minced parsley, then fried in hot oil. They are very tasty with tzatziki and buttered rice sprinkled with ground sumac. The skewered things on the right are lamb koftas.

I have to find more recipes for these red lentils. Any suggestions? No soups, please.;D

Date Walnut Squares

A few days ago I threw out a lot of really old food items in my refrigerator and freezer. That prompted me and my daughter to check the cabinets and pantry for expired stuff, and boy were there plenty! My daughter was bewildered why I keep 2 large containers of dates, one unopened and another with about 2 cups left. They don't expire nor go bad but they do take up so much space. Date walnut squares, or as we call them in the Philippines, Food for the Gods, is the yummy result of a little bit of cleaning cabinet/pantry clutter. These tiny nuggets are so rich, so delicious, just one or two will satisfy you. They are very greasy, though, so I wrap them individually in plastic wrap. In the Philippines the bake shops wrap them in aluminum foil.

Date Walnut Squares
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temprature
¼ cup grapeseed or light olive oil
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups dates, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped

• Line an 8 x 8 inch square pan with aluminum foil.
• Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
• In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
• In a medium bowl, with a hand mixer, mix sugar, butter and oil for 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time until incorporated. With a rubber spatula stir in flour mixture and nuts, then stir in dates. Spoon into the prepared pan evenly, smoothing top. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes. Let cool before cutting into 1-inch squares. Wrap individually in pieces of foil or plastic wrap.

moist, soft, buttery bites, so aptly named "food for the gods"

Pasta With Roasted Eggplant

I haven't made this meatless pasta dish in more than 10 years. With so many new recipes to try, I have forgotten that I used to make this frequently. I got this recipe from a magazine a looong time ago, I can't remember which one. It's good either as a main or side dish. I remember using fusilli for this dish, its grooves catch all the yummy sauce. I used pipette, a short pasta that also has grooves, you can use any kind of pasta, the taste will still be good. I also found these sweet long red peppers, the package says "Ancient Sweets" and used them in place of red bell pepper. I can't really tell the difference.

Pasta With Eggplant
1 eggplant
1 red bell pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic clove, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
½ cup olives, coarsely chopped
½ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 cup toasted pine nuts
salt, to taste
½ pound uncooked pipette or fusilli pasta
Parmesan cheese

• Cook pasta according to package directions while cooking sauce.
• Score eggplant all over, roast over stove fire until skin is charred. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Roast red bell pepper over stove fire until skin is charred. Wrap in aluminum foil until cool enough to handle. Remove skins from pepper and eggplant, then coarsely chop.
• In a large saucepan, heat olive oil, add garlic and red peppers, saute for 5 minutes, add tomatoes, olives, eggplant, and salt and stir cook for 2 minutes. Add basil leaves, then add cooked pasta. Mix well and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle with pine nuts and grated Parmesan cheese.

My Paella

My friend Carmen asked for a simple but yummy paella. This is my recipe using one Filipino ingredient, kasuba, and I prefer it really garlicky. The cooking method is also very Filipino as I saute everything and season it properly. The photo here is from this paella; I did not make another batch for this post.

OGGI's Paella1 pound prawns, shelled, deveined and mixed with ¼ teaspoon salt
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in 2-inch pieces
2 pieces El Rey or Senyor Rey brand chorizos, sliced
10 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Spanish pimentón
¼ teaspoon saffron (optional)
2 teaspoon kasuba
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
½ cup Spanish extra virgin olive oil
2 cups Japanese rice
3 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 large tomato, chopped
1 cup frozen petite sweet peas
a few strips pimiento for garnish

• In a small skillet, heat 1 T oil and fry prawns until cooked, about 1 minute on each side, set aside. In a paella pan or a large non-stick pan, heat the remaining oil, add garlic and onions and saute for 3 minutes. Add pimenton, salt, and kasuba, stir for 1 minute. Add chicken and stir fry for 5 minutes, then add chorizo and red bell pepper, cook for 1 minute. Add rice, stirring frequently until almost brown, about 3 minutes, then add 2 cups broth and saffron. Let come to a boil, cover, cook over medium-low heat until almost dry, about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the broth and tomatoes, then mix in the prawns (reserve a few to decorate top of paella), cover and cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the sweet peas evenly on top, cover and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes. Arrange the reserved shrimps and pimientos on top. Enjoy.

This is the simplest paella I make, there are a lot of ingredients to prepare but cooking is pretty easy, I think. The best part is the tutong (burnt bottom). Carmen, let me know how it turned out.

An Overloaded Fridge

I bought a larger, side-by-side refrigerator. I got tired of stuff falling out from my freezer causing me so much aggravation, swearing and gray hair. It was delivered early this morning and when I put back all the stuff in the fridge side, they would not fit in! What happened? This fridge is supposed to be larger, 36 inches wide and 33 inches deep. I know the water and ice dispensers take a lot of space but I didn't realize the old one, with top loading freezer and without dispensers has a bigger refrigerator space. Sigh. I actually gained only a little bit more freezer space and it is now more organized with pull-out drawers and shelves, no more falling meats and vegetables. I think we just have too much stuff. We have about 10 jars of fruit preserves, 3 kinds of ketchap, 6 bottles of chili sauce (3 Malaysian, 2 Thai and 1 Indonesian), 5 different mustards, you get the picture. Do we really need all these? Sadly, yes. These half empty jars and bottles of condiments, olives, etc. alone take up 2 shelves! I will forbid anyone to open a new jar of something until the thousands already open are empty and ready to be thrown away. I will be a refrigerator nazi from now on (I think I might be the one who's guilty of hoarding condiments, heheh. I may need to attend a meeting for hoarders anonymous).

The vegetables and fruits bins, on the other hand, are almost double the size of the old fridge because I was able to put the contents of both bins in one drawer. Aha, thaaat's the reason I lost so much space for other stuff. Hmm, are the manufacturers trying to make me buy more fruits and vegetables? I am not amused.:D

It's Finally Here!

the bad plus PROG, yes! I went to Best Buy and bought the only copy, they have 1 copy, 1? Strange. Anyway, it has 4 covers which are wonderful and 6 original TBP compositions, which I love more than the covers.
giant, what a beautiful, beautiful song, and physical cities, both written by Reid Anderson (bass) are worth the price of the cd. I have played the cd 4 times non-stop already! I am sooo happy.:D

Covers:
everybody rules the world - tears for fears
life on mars - david bowie
tom sawyer - rush
this guy's in love with you - burt bacharach

Here's The Washington Post's article last Saturday.

Beef Tournedos With Juniper Berries

I was looking for a recipe for the filet mignon I got last week. I usually wrap them in bacon and season them with garlic, salt, worcestershire sauce, extra virgin olive oil and ground pepper. I wanted to try a new sauce, but didn't like mushroom or cream sauce either or anything complicated. I saw one online with juniper berries, gin, and balsamic vinegar. The ingredients are few and method of cooking is easy. Gin doesn't sound appealing so I used brandy. I liked this uncomplicated but very tasty sauce.

Beef Tournedos With Juniper Berries

1½ pounds small filet mignon, sliced into 1-inch thick pieces
2 tablespoons juniper berries, crushed
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup beef broth
salt & ground pepper, to taste
oil for frying

• Secure beef with toothpicks to keep its round shape. (Optional, wrap each in half of a bacon rasher, then secure with toothpicks). In a small container, combine berries, brandy, vinegar and broth, set aside. In a heavy skillet, heat oil until nearly smoking. Season the sliced beef with salt and pepper, fry in hot oil, 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a serving dish, set aside. (Don't forget to remove toothpicks before serving). Lower the heat to medium, add the broth mixture and let come to a boil, scraping the browned bits that are stuck at the bottom of the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour on top of the steaks. Best with croutons fried in olive oil or with thick fries, but since we're Filipinos I served them with steamed rice. I steamed some frozen quartered artichoke hearts to go with this simple dish.

Book Review ANGELICA: A NOVEL by Arthur Phillips

Angelica: A Novel by Arthur Phillips 5 stars

A psychological thriller set in Victorian England written most brilliantly by Arthur Phillips à la Rashomon, which is one of my top 20 favorite movies. The same story is retold from four different perspectives: the mother's, the hired spiritualist's, the father's, and the daughter Angelica's, my sympathy shifting as I read. The book deals with ghosts (real or imagined), relationships, memories, and psychoanalysis. The book is so good I couldn't decide if I should finish it in one day or read it slowly because I didn't want it to end just yet. I just had to read it again. I had the same reaction to Phillips' last novel The Egyptologist, I read the book twice in one week. He has become one of my favorite authors. Highly Recommended

BBQ

We had a gorgeous weather today, just perfect for grilling. I barbecued pork back ribs and loin chops which I marinated yesterday, asparagus spears, eggplants, and sweet corn on the cob. I peeled the eggplants and mixed them with grated ginger, then served with salted chopped tomatoes. I really love the taste of charcoal grilled food, not just meat but also fruits like pineapple, peaches, and bananas, and pizza also cooks well on the grill.

marinade for pork back ribs: calamansi juice, soy sauce, sea salt, lots of garlic, sugar, ground pepper

marinade for pork loin chops: coconut vinegar, garlic, sea salt, ground pepper

Apple Pie Ice Cream

I love warm apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I have a few wrinkly apples that I wanted to make into apple pie or tart but didn't want to heat up the oven and kitchen. The result is ice cream with apple pie flavor. When I mentioned the idea to my daughter, she suggested using graham crackers for the 'pie crust'. Brilliant! I love it.

Apple 'Pie' Ice Cream
2 fuji apples, diced
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon freshly grated cinnamon or ground cinnamon
3 graham crackers, broken into chunks
1 recipe vanilla ice cream

• In a skillet, cook apples, butter and sugar until apples are soft, golden brown and caramelized. Transfer in one layer in a flat container. Put graham crackers in a ziploc bag. Store both apples and crackers in the freezer for 2 hours or until semi-frozen.

Vanilla Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
Makes 1 quart
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
¼ cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

• Pour 1 cup of the heavy cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the saucepan and add the pod to the pan. Warm over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the remaining 1 cup cream, the milk, and the vanilla extract. Chill in the refrigerator.
• When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, rinsing it and reserving it for another use, and then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufaturer's instructions.

Stuffed Baby Chicken In Broth (Young Gye Beck Sook)

I had this Korean chicken soup in Seoul many years ago, I have made it maybe a couple of times before. In restaurants it's cooked and served in individual earthen pots, which means one chicken to a person. When I learned it was a whole chicken I asked one of the people I was travelling with to help me finish it but the chicken was super tiny and delicious I ended up eating the WHOLE thing, including the rice!

Young Gye Beck Sook
adapted from THE KOREAN KITCHEN by Copeland Marks

1 very small chicken or cornish game hen, about 1½ pounds
1/3 cup sweet rice, washed and drained
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2 pieces fresh ginseng, each 2 inches long
½ inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
5 jujubes (Korean dates)
5 whole chestnuts
2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste

roasted chestnuts, dried Korean jujubes, garlic, ginger and fresh ginseng and sweet rice

• Rinse out the body cavity of the chicken with cold water. Sew up the neck part to seal in the ingredients. Stuff the chicken with the rice, 5 of the garlic cloves and ginseng. Sew up the opening.
• Put the chicken in a pot and add water just to the top of the chicken. Add the ginger, the other 5 garlic cloves, jujubes, chestnuts, and salt and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Skim off and discard foam, reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 1 - 1½ hours. About halfway through the time, turn the chicken over to cook on the other side. Serve hot in a large tureen.