first-time dishes

[cellio]

I'd been meaning to try making my own candied ginger and then someone on my reading list mentioned doing so recently, so on Sunday I took a shot at this. The result resembles most candied ginger I've seen for sale (which is tasty). I still have no idea how to replicate the best candied ginger I've ever had, which was darker and more "mellowed" than most. It still had plenty of strong ginger flavor, but it didn't have that initial sharpness. (For those who know the reference, I mean the stuff that the Pepperers' Guild used to sell at Pennsic.)

An unanticipated bonus of making candied ginger is the syrup. Yum -- I can make some good ginger-ale from this!

Last week I made chicken paprikash for the first time. This dish isn't part of my culinary experience, but it's a staple of Dani's past. Most recipes I've found (and this matches Dani's memory) involve sour cream; I found one that's dairy-free but it wasn't very tasty. By the time the chicken (cooked in a skillet) was up to a safe temperature it was dried out. Maybe dark meat would work better than light? And maybe boneless? (The recipe called for a cut-up chicken, which says bone-in to me. I used two breasts.)

I also made shepherd's pie a few days ago. (More Dani comfort-food. No, it does not contain actual shepherds; the apostrophe is important. :-) ) It was better on reheating than it was on the first night. I wonder why.

Comments

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

How much water are you putting in? The recipe I use involves maybe a tablespoon or so, and I wind up with granules of gingery sugar, not syrup. (The recipe in question states that this is the intended result)

Not sure whether your recipe involves taking the ginger out earlier, or adding more water. Or whether more water would mean less heat. Care to fill me in?

[cellio]

Much more water than that -- the recipe I used called for a couple cups (with like amount of sugar), for about a pound of ginger. I boiled it for about 45 minutes, during which time the water became more syrupy. (Then drain, cool some, and toss with sugar to get the granules on the outside.)

How do you cook it with just a tablespoon of water?

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

The recipe I use calls juuuust enough water to melt the sugar. So you still get a syrup, until all the water boils away and then it isn't syrupy anymore. (looks speculatively at the container of gingery-sugar) I suppose a little water is all I need to make it sugar, but it stores so well this way.

I wonder how the ginger syrup would be on pancakes! :-)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Hrmn.

How does the sugar permeate the ginger, as opposed to merely coating it, when you make candied ginger? Whenever I've made it I've made it the way Cellio did, with water measured in cups and long simmering, so the sugar can enter the ginger and not just coat it.

[dsrtao]

Paprikash: use roasted chicken, don't cook it in the skillet. The skillet is for the onions, sauce, and finishing it all off together.

If you want to cook chicken breasts in a skillet, you need very high heat and some extra oil -- peanut is a good choice, or anything else with a high smokepoint. Get it very hot, then brown the chicken on each side. If it wasn't done in 3-4 minutes per side, it wasn't hot enough or you didn't flatten the chicken.

[cellio]

Thanks!

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Re chicken: Was the skillet covered? If your oven is okay for fleishik, I find that white meat stays nice and moist if I bake it at 425 or so, with the pan tightly covered in aluminum foil. Or, if you are stuck using the stove-top for your fleishik cooking, may I recommend a pressure cooker? (Because there's liquid in the pot AND the steam can't escape when the cooker is pressurized, the chicken might stay moister. and/or cook faster so it gets less time to dry out.)

[cellio]

Thanks! My oven's ok for fleishik; the recipe said do it in the skillet so that's what I did, but next time I'll use the oven.

(Your icons are making me hungry. :-) )

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

and it's dinnertime here, too, so I'm hungry anyway.

I need a ginger icon...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I make chicken paprikash all the time. My recipe calls for chicken breast, but I've been using boneless thighs and it's much better.

[cellio]

Thanks. I'll try thighs next time (boneless if I can get, which I can't always).

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I was going to recommend boneless thighs too -- they're much more resiliently juicy and flavorful than white meat -- so I'll just second the woman who just took a course in these matters. :)

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Re: chicken paprikash. I don't know how well it handles heat, but flavor-wise, Tofutti Sour Supreme (non-dairy mock Sour Cream) tastes very much like dairy sour cream. And, according to their website, it carries a parve heksher (Kof-K).

[cellio]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't tried cooking with the fake dairy alternatives (sour cream, cheese, etc), but maybe I'll give that a try. They must be intended for cooking and not just, say, putting on your latkes at the meat meal, right?

[kyleri]

I've found it works better with dark meat. I've never had trouble with the chicken drying out but I tend to go with a lot of sauce -- so the chicken kinda never has the chance.

I really am not sure how to go about it without the sour cream but that's kinda necessary in your case -- maybe the above suggestion will help? Here's hoping, because chicken paprikas, done right, is one of my absolute favourite dishes.

[cellio]

What's in your sauce -- tomato? The recipe I was following (Dani had suggested it) didn't produce a lot of sauce -- it was basically saute onions and garlic, add spices, add chicken and a diced tomato, cook. That's not a lot of liquid.

[kyleri]

A fair amount of tomato in mine, actually. Yours sounds roughly like what I do but probably quadruple the tomato. I'll sometimes add a bit of water once the onion's done sauteeing, too, just to keep things bubbling properly. But then, I like a lot of sauce...

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

It was better on reheating than it was on the first night. I wonder why.

Possibly it was designed that way--wouldn't that be how actual shepherds ate it?

[cellio]

I'm not sure what the eating habits of shepherds were (or are). Maybe you're right.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I LOVE shepherd's pie. I have not found that it is better on reheating.

The best thing about it is that it is pie which can be eaten on Pesach with no modifications.

[hildakrista.livejournal.com]

For the chicken, using thighs will absolutely help the moisture levels. Chicken breasts walk a very thin line when it comes to drying out. You really can't use whole, un-cut-up or flattened breasts in a skillet or grill situation and not have it dry out - it just takes too long and there is not enough fat in the breast to keep it moist. There are two fixes for this, one I would tend to use and one Ben would use.

Me: Cut up the chicken breasts into smaller pieces. I take it you brown the chicken first to get all the fond? In that step, don't cook it til it's done. Stop at "time it takes for the chicken to be safe" MINUS "the amount of time it will take you to add the other ingredients and finish it off". Add the other stuff and let it finish cooking then. Keep in mind that larger chunks of meat will continue to cook 5-10 degrees after you take it off the heat.

Ben: He would use thighs anyway, brown them in the oven-safe skillet til they are about half done to get the fond delicious and seal the juices, then put the whole skillet, covered, in a 400 degree oven to just-under the "safe" temp (see comment above). Finish in the skillet, either removing the chicken first or not.

As to the shepherd's pie: I know! Mine always tasted better later, too! We make two at a time - one to eat and one to freeze. I think it's because proteins (don't forget the ones in starchy food, too) get stressed out (tighten up) when you cook them, and the longer they have to sit, the more they loosen up and the more they have a chance to blend in with other stuff at a molecular level. This is also why stew tastes better as time goes on. And why you need to let roasts rest before you cut them (or they lose juice).

[cellio]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that about proteins. (I knew the effects, e.g. to let the roast stand, but I didn't know why.)

I had thought initially to cut up the breasts into smaller pieces, but every single recipe I found called for whole pieces so I shrugged and went along with that. (Yes, brown the chicken first.)

You can freeze shepherd's pie? I wasn't sure how the mashed potatoes would fare. Good to know.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I had thought initially to cut up the breasts into smaller pieces

That might actually make things worse -- small pieces overcook faster and have more surface area to lose moisture through.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

My 'paprika chicken' recipe calls for breasts, but I do find that boneless thighs, when I can get them, are often a more interesting (and cheaper) solution. Otherwise, I do the opposite to what others have been advising, and remove the chicken just before it's done, reduce the sauce and then return the chicken to finish cooking.

Many casseroles taste better the day after; it's supposed to give the flavours time to marry...

[cellio]

Thanks. I think I'll try thighs next time, and boneless if I can get it.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

the apostrophe is important

I thought I knew my anatomy. What part of the Shepherd is called the pie? :)