Five-Spice Crispy-Skin Chicken

crispy-skin baked chicken seasoned with 5-spice powder and honey

The original plan was to deep-fry a whole chicken but I decided on baked chicken halves instead because I'm not too keen on deep-frying. The recipe is from my ancient Wei Chuan's Chinese Cuisine cookbook by Huang Su-Huei which is my favorite of all my Chinese cookbooks. The recipes in this book are simple, authentic, and delicious.

Perhaps I deviated too much from the recipe, the result may not be representative of the book's recipe. The skin came out crispy enough but probably not as crispy as deep-fried. But the flavor and aroma of the chicken are fantastic and the meat so moist. The 5-spice powder, honey, rice wine, and vinegar all go well together. I like it a lot. It's finger lickin' good.

Crispy-Skin Chicken
adapted from Wei Chuan's Chinese Cuisine by Huang Su-Huei

1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds
2 tablespoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons hot water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 teaspoon cornstarch
about 10 cups oil for deep-frying

• Rinse and pat dry the chicken.
  
• In a small skillet heat salt over low heat until very hot. Remove from heat and stir in the five-spice powder. Let cool then rub half of the mixture into the cavity of the chicken. Reserve the other half to serve with the cooked chicken.
  
• In a small skillet heat the rest of the ingredients except oil until honey is dissolved. Baste the chicken with half of the mixture until completely coated. Reserve the remaining honey mixture and keep in the refrigerator.
  
• Place the chicken on a rack set on a baking sheet pan and refrigerate uncovered for 2 days, basting with the remaining honey mixture, until the skin appears dry (the book says to hang outside to dry for 8 hours or use an electric fan indoors).
  
• Heat oil in a deep pot or fryer and fry chicken over low heat for 30 minutes. Turn the heat to high and fry for 2 minutes more or until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Cut into serving portions. Serve with lemon wedges and the remaining 5-spice salt.

My chicken obviously does not have cavity. I rubbed the 5-spice salt on the meat under the skin and all over the exposed meat. It has just the right amount of salt and the skin has a hint of sweetness from the honey. To bake: Preheat oven to 325° F. Bake on a metal rack set on a roasting pan until golden brown and juices run clear. Chicken halves: 1 hour; whole chicken: 1½ to 1¾ hours.

Thou Shalt Not Steal (Blog Posts and Photos)

A concerned reader alerted me that one of my entries, Maja Blanca, appears word for word complete with one of my photos without attribution to me or to KULINARYA guidebook, on a facebook page of a pretend chef. He purposely didn't link his page to mine and omitted KULINARYA to make it look like he "created" the recipe and cooked it himself, the title of his post is maja blanca, my way. I was told that at least 5 more of his food posts on his facebook pages were directly lifted from other people's blogs and had the audacity of putting a watermark on a photo that he swiped from those blogs. What a loser and a fraud!

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Marshmallows

homemade marshmallows with raspberry puree

sour and sweet lemon marshmallows

I made marshmallows yesterday and today using a recipe that doesn't have egg whites. I have a carton of raspberries, pureed them and used it instead of water to soften the gelatin powder. The fruit is naturally tart and cuts the sweetness of these melt-in-your-mouth marshmallows. These homemade candies are superior to the one from the stores. They're so light and fluffy and I was so pleased with the result I made a second batch using fresh lemon juice because I love Super Lemon, the pucker-inducing deliciously sour and sweet hard candies from Japan. The marshmallows are sour enough but I'd like to coat it with the super sour powder similar to the hard candy's if I can figure out where to buy it.

Marshmallows
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
3 ounces water, fruit juice, or fruit puree
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sugar
3 ounces water
5 ounces light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
gel food dye if using juice or puree
potato or corn starch
powdered sugar

• Line an 8 x 8-inch square pan with parchment paper. Brush with a very thin layer of vegetable oil and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.
• In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine water and vanilla extract. Sprinkle the gelatin and leave to soften.
• In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, salt, corn syrup and water. Heat to boiling while stirring until sugar has dissolved. Clip a candy thermometer and continue to cook on medium heat without stirring until it reaches 240° F.
• With the mixer at low speed, carefully pour the hot syrup slowly down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. When the mixture has slightly thickened, increase the speed to high and whip until mixture is fluffy and stiff, about 10 minutes, adding food dye if using.
• Pour marshmallow into the parchment lined pan and smooth with a lightly oiled rubber scraper if necessary. Leave uncovered at room temperature for 10-12 hours or in the refrigerator for 3 hours until set.
• Mix equal parts cornstarch and powdered sugar and sprinkle over the marshmallows. Turn the marshmallow onto a cutting board generously sprinkled with powdered sugar and starch mixture, peel off paper and dust with more of the powder mixture. Cut into desired size and dredge all sides again in the powder mixture. Shake off excess powder.

This is a very messy project. Strings of marshmallows got stuck everywhere including my hair. And I went outside to blow off some of the excess powder on the plate of marshmallows and the powder went all over my red shirt, shoes, hair.... but it's worth all the mess in the kitchen and myself. I'll make them again when I feel like fruity marshmallows; hmm, blueberries sound good. I'll wear a light colored shirt next time I make them.:p

messy

Parmesan Biscuits

These Parmesan biscuits are the easiest I have ever baked. It took me just a little over 30 minutes from start to finish including preheating the oven. The recipe is from the cookbook Biscuit Bliss by James Villas. The book is thin and small but has loads, 101 in all, of delicious sweet and savory biscuits and some scones to choose from and delivers on its promise of having fresh fluffy biscuits in just minutes.

This recipe doesn't have butter but has lots of heavy whipping cream. The round [and some rectangular] biscuits came out light, airy, flaky, and cheesy. Soooo good.

light airy flaky cheesy biscuits

Parmesan Biscuits
adapted from Biscuit Bliss by James Villas

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1¼ cups heavy whipping cream

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the cheese and stir till well blended. Add the cream and stir until the mixture becomes a loose dough.
  
• Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead 8 times. Pat out the dough ½ inch thick and cut out rounds with a 2½-inch biscuit cutter or into 2 x 1 inch rectangles. Pat the scraps together and cut out more rounds. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet ½ inch apart and bake in the upper third rack for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden.

Next on my biscuit baking list from the book is Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits that has lard, heavy cream, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and pecans. Doesn't it sound yummy? I can't wait to make them.