Poached Chicken with Three Sauces Friends show up when you need them most

To SH - my hero in my time of need

You know the saying that friends are the ones that are with you when times are hard?

I experienced this, this past weekend when I was under the weather.  The symptoms, to my confusion, were very much like those I had when I was pregnant, only I was sure I was not.  But the overall malaise, inability to feel like my normal self, and the strong desire to lay down and stay down for hours on end were very debilitating to my ability to mother my children.  Add the fact that Husband was out of town for work and it meant that it was me and me alone to care for three rather nice Children.

But cooking was the last thing on my mind.  And there were many commitments to push through which I did, by barely eating and drinking little.  I slept when I could and lay down when I could.  And finally on Sunday, although I was feeling a bit better, I was in no mood to do anything but stand.  Cook?  HA.  I figured out a meal that would require minimal cooking (rice porridge made with frozen rice in the fridge, bacon, and some sliced cucumbers) and sat there feeling proud of my ability to think of throw something together despite my complete desire to just tell the kids to starve.

But, like a spark in the night, I got a text. "Are you home?  Im bringing you food."

"Yes.  Im home.  But you dont need to."

"Im bringing you food.  Make rice if you dont have any.  Be there in a minute."

My friend and neighbor SH brought me a complete meal.  Poached chicken, three sauces (with a special one of ginger made just for me because she knows I like it) and some vegetables.  And Children attacked that meal like there was no tomorrow.

"Mommy?  Is there more chicken?  Why does this chicken taste so good?"

"Mommy, why is Auntie S a better cook than you are?"

"Mommy, can Auntie S make this chicken for me tomorrow?"

I was too grateful to care that Children had decided that someone elses cooking far exceeded my own.  After all, it had been a long while since Id seen Children gobble up food that quickly.

I texted friend SH lots of thanks and then asked if she would teach me her chicken method.  She readily agreed and I get to post it.  YIPPEE!!

The most lovely thing about this chicken is that the great bulk of the time is cooked without your help.  The chicken is allowed to sit in hot water, on a stove that is OFF, until it is poached to perfection, which according to my friend is a Chinese method.  We talked about the merits of cooking it this way, one of them being the ability to make it ahead and the other being that it is energy effective.  Once the heat is set, you just allow hot water to do most of the work, which is really very smart.  The method may seem a bit finicky at first as there are two separate water boil markers, as well as a time when you have to lift the chicken out of the water to drain lukewarm water out of cavities, only to fill them up again with hot water.  But give it a try, because once mastered, you can have poached chicken without barely thinking about it.

The result is a super moist and succulent poached chicken. It is not dry, it is not stringy, but rather, lush and silky.  It can be served warm, room temperature, or even chilled, as long as you have hot rice and delicious dipping sauces.

Poached Chicken with Three Dipping Sauces
Serves 8

Ingredients
4 ½ to 6 lbs whole chicken (the better your chicken, the better your flavor, since there isn’t a lot of extra going on in this recipe) - this chicken needs to be fully defrosted if frozen with no frozen bits. A fresh chicken will work better here.
5 slices of ginger
1 onion, or leek, or a few cloves of garlic (to flavor the water)

4 inches ginger root, peeled finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
3 scallions, finely chopped
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ teaspoon salt

2 jalapenos, finely chopped (I use my mini food processor)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar

5 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup soy sauce (I prefer low sodium, Kikkoman green)

Method
Fill a large stockpot with water. The water should be at a level which will allow you to completely SUBMERGE your chicken underwater, with no problem. Bigger is better here. (I tried a smaller pot only to have to dump and start over in my bigger pot.) If in doubt, until you master this recipe, err with the bigger pot. You don’t want overflow of chicken water all over your kitchen. You can do a test run with your raw chicken, by submerging in water to see how much you need. Remove chicken before boiling water.

Cover your stockpot and bring water, ginger, and onion/leek/garlic to a boil. In the meanwhile, salt chicken liberally and give it a bit of a salt scrub. Rinse thoroughly and set aside, until water is fully boiling.

Once water is fully boiling, place chicken into the water, making sure that it is completely submerged in the water. Leave pot uncovered and bring chicken and water to another rolling boil again. While waiting it to boil again, you can skim off any scum off the surface of the water, if you intend to use the broth for rice porridge or something else. If you don’t want to use the broth for anything, go ahead and just wait for the chicken and water to boil again.

Once water is boiling, using tongs carefully lift chicken out of the water. You want to drain all the cavities of any lukewarmish water. While water is boiling, carefully re-submerge chicken into the water to fill all the cavities with hot boiling water. Cover pot with lid and TURN OFF stove. Do NOT remove lid of pot for the next 1 hour if your chicken is under 5 ¼ lbs, or the next 75 minutes if your chicken is over 5 ¼ lbs.

While your chicken is enjoying a nice soak in the hot water, begin making your 3 dipping sauces.

For the ginger sauce, mix together finely chopped ginger, finely chopped scallions, oil and salt together in a bowl. Mix and set aside.

For the jalapeno sauce, mix together finely chopped jalapenos, sugar, and vinegar. Set aside.

For the scallion sauce, place chopped scallions in a bowl. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a small, fry pan or sauce pan. The oil should be hot enough that it shimmers or you can test by carefully putting one scallion piece in the oil to see if it sizzles. If the oil sizzles the scallion, then carefully pour the two tablespoons of oil over the scallions in the bowl and allow the scallions to be cooked by the oil. Add soy sauce and mix. Set aside.

Once the 60 minutes or 75 minutes of chicken cooking in water is up, uncover pot, and remove chicken from water and place in a bowl (in order to catch residual liquid). Allow chicken to cool enough so that you can handle it without screaming OUCH!

Once chicken has cooled sufficiently (30 minutes or so), begin cutting chicken as you wish. I don’t like skin so I removed skin, cut of drumsticks, wings, and removed the meat from bones and roughly cut it into bite-sized, dippable pieces.

Serve chicken warm, room temp, or cold from fridge, with dipping sauces. Allow diners to dip however they please. Perfect with hot rice.

Printable recipe

Something for everyone

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Curried Coconut Chicken Soup When you need a comfort

For SH, CJR, LKL, JZ, JD - thank you for being the calm when I freaked out

Daughter #1s teacher and I had a casual conversation this past week, and she said, "Do you remember when you were younger, you had in your mind that if you just reached a certain age, life would be simple and all planned out and a straight, predictable trajectory?"

I do remember exactly feeling that way, and it definitely must have been before my body began betraying me and before the birth of Children.  That simplified and unrealistic view of a mature life happened when I was immature.

Because this last week, my life, at age 41, when it is supposed to be calm, peaceful and all figured out, was anything BUT that.  I injured my hip flexor in such a manner that I was completely debilitated and unable to function normally without screaming in wretched pain.  To compound that pain, Daughter #1, (this one who plays the piano and swims) fell off the monkey bars at school and was in excruciating pain (while I also was in the same excruciating pain) and I feared that her concert piano days and my peaceful nights were over.  Thankfully, Daughter #1s arm turned out to be a bad sprain vs. a broken arm and my hip flexor is rapidly on the mend.  (All this paranormal activity, of course, while Husband is out of town on business.  Not blaming him, but just clarifying.)

I learned this week that life is never at all predictable, reliable, or calm.  However, there are many things that ARE - God, comfort from friends, and love from family.  As I repeatedly broke down from the pain in my body, the stress of trying to function, and the distress from seeing my own child suffer, I called upon God, my friends and my family, and many heard my cry and responded.  I read from the book of Job.  My parents offered to drive up from Southern California if only to relieve my duties.  Mother in law offered to come up and just be in the house so that she could answer the cries of children so I wouldnt have to.  Friends offered wise and sage counsel on the phone about doctors, best methods of treatment, and in it all, somehow, peace began rising like the sun, ever present, ever dependable, ever there.

I learned a lot about myself this week.  Even though I had two kids with no pain intervention, the pain that prevents you from function and walking normally is unforgettable.  I learned that when Im in a panic, there are a few voices that definitely calm me down and make me see straight.  (Thanks CJR and LKL and SH.)  And at the end of a hard day, sometimes a warm, rich comforting soup fills you up in a way that few things can.  I made this soup, hobbling around in my kitchen, cooking it on my single portable gas range, and when it was done, and I got to eat it.  I slurped it down and felt myself nourished and refreshed.

The soup sort of is like a tom yum or tom kha (Thai soups) but I definitely put my own twist on it as I didnt use galangal or kaffir lime.  Its more a Thai inspired curried soup more than anything, but its the soup I want to eat.  Tomorrow.

Curried Coconut Soup with Chicken and Enoki Mushrooms 
(adapted from Mai Pham’s Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking)
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced lemon grass (from the bottom portion of the lemon grass, tough outer shell peeled off before chopping)
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes
1 teaspoon ground chili paste
1 teaspoon curry powder

3 ½ cups low sodium chicken stock
13 oz can coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

? pound chicken breasts or thighs, skinned, boned, and cut into ½ inch cubes
7 oz enoki mushrooms, stems cut off (you may substitute a cup of whatever mushroom you like)
1 cup chopped ripe tomato (or cherry tomatoes sliced)
½ tablespoon lime juice
½ cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Method

Heat oil in a sauce an over medium heat until hot.  Add shallot, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, red chili flakes, red chili paste, curry powder and brown slightly, about 30 seconds.

Add chicken stock, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk.  Bring to a boil and add chicken, mushrooms, tomato.  After it comes to second boil, turn off heat, and add lime juice and cilantro.  Serve immediately.

Printable recipe

and when I want comfort, it sometimes looks like this.

Great book - so many things you want to eat in here!

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Lemon Mascarpone Torte Sometimes you really just need it to be easy

My readers will notice I did not post much in June.  Thats because June turned out to be the craziest month of all time for me with a teaching schedule that went completely haywire, with multiple school districts with different calendars letting their students out at varying times, which affects me because suddenly half of my students want morning lessons.  Add to that summer students, my kids STILL in school, and church VBS and my stress levels go through the roof.  There were many moments when I felt like the world was reeling around me so quickly that I couldnt keep anything in place and intact.

All the while all of this craziness was going on, I still kept on riding my bike as much as possible.  Its a way for me to keep my stress levels under control because on my bike, you just cant help but smile.  I cant help but smile.  I wear the goofiest helmet of all time and it makes me happy and it makes me laugh.  (Should you want to emulate my incredible fashion sense, buy it here.)

Every once in a while, one of my friends will look at me as we are in the middle of an intense conversation and say something like, "I cant take you seriously when your head looks like a watermelon."  Then Ill take it off.  But while Im on my bike, moving around my neighborhood, back and forth between school and home, my helmet stays on my head.

Unfortunately I cant do Costco shopping on my bike, so I usually run home, leave my bike and then hop into the car.  During my most intense time in June, I discovered I need something at Costco, so as it is my habit, I dumped my bike and excess equipment at school and went  to Costco.  I parked, flashed my membership card, and with my mind on figuring out and calculating how quickly I could finish what I need to do at Costco, I barely noticed the people giving me funny looks. As I ran towards the fruit section, I happened to pass a mirror section, which I quickly moved past, when I caught a flash of green on my head in the reflection.

Green as in my watermelon helmet.  Green as in the watermelon helmet that I DROVE to Costco with, got out of the car with, and ran around half of Costco with.  I sheepishly began laughing at myself, removed the helmet and shook my head at my own nuttiness.  Was I that intensely insane that I couldnt remember to take off a helmet?  Evidently yes.  My life had reached a fever pitch that made things so crazy that a watermelon helmet in the middle of Costco could completely happen.

Im always grateful for the month of July because life slows down for me.  No more lunches to pack, students flit in and out of my life on vacation and then back off vacation, and a general slowing of the mayhem that is motherhood.  And during the slowdown I find myself feeling lazy and wanting simply to do less and do things simply.  It also gets warmer so its less compelling to be in the kitchen.  I decided to go ahead and try and do a no bake cheesecake recipe, drawing inspiration from a bunch of different sources, but mostly this one.   

The result?  Summer easy yummy fun.  The main commitment is time to chill and set it, which clocks in at around 8 hours, or overnight (or up to 3 days ahead of time) but the end result is totally worth it, and its easy!  No ovens to turn on and nothing complicated to do except layer, and you can probably even do it with a bike helmet on, should you feel so compelled. 

Lemon Mascarpone Torte
Serves 5 to 6

Ingredients
2 cups (16 oz mascarpone cheese)
?  cup heavy cream
?  cup prepared lemon curd
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Kosher salt
About 15 whole graham crackers
Blueberries, for serving

Method
Line a 8-by-4-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap, allowing 4 inches of overhang.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the mascarpone with the heavy cream at medium speed until smooth and just firm; do not overbeat. Fold in the lemon curd, lemon zest and a pinch of salt.

Spread a 1/4-inch-thick layer of the lemon cream on the bottom of the pan.  (I used a broken off piece of graham cracker to do this - YUM!)  Arrange a single layer of graham crackers on top, breaking them to fit.  For a prettier edge, break the crackers a little bit short of the edge so that the outside will be cream and not a layer of graham, essentially leaving a border around the edge of your pan.   Repeat the layering with the remaining lemon cream and crackers, finishing with a final layer of cream.

Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
Uncover and invert the cheesecake onto a platter. Remove the plastic wrap. Serve with blueberries.

Printable recipe

Cutting into yumminess.

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