Cu Chulainn Chicken

Fiery hot sauce and Irish mythology provide the inspiration for this Cu Chulainn chicken recipe, a version of which came into my life at Nana's Pub in Nye Beach, leaving me craving for more.

Ready-made hot sauces can be easily incorporated into recipes. But, I wanted to come up with something I can throw together with some staples in my kitchen, to create that unique "secret house sauce". Well, not a secret anymore as I am sharing it here...

Although I like hot foods and have developed a fairly good tolerance, I do not like extremely hot sauces - like, full strength habañero sauce is quite unpalatable for me. So, this sauce here is as fiery as I can get to enjoying the food while still being able to taste the flavors. Can easily adjust the chilies/heat to suit your taste.

The chicken breast are marinated in red wine vinegar and a hint of soy sauce for about 15 minutes. Then, can be breaded and pan-cooked; or breaded and baked; or pan-seared, or baked plain; or simply boiled in water or stock till done. Then, cut the cooked chicken breasts into strips or long chunks. Or, chicken breasts can be cut into strips and then cooked in any preferred manner as well - it cooks faster. The version here uses no breading.

While the chicken is cooking, the sauce can be prepared. Finally, toss the sauce and chicken together and serve warm with brown rice and vegetables; or serve in a toasted multigrain bun with fixings like green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Or, in pita pockets or wraps.

Of course, but for the inspiration for the name, there isn't much of Irish in the ingredients. But for the pequin and chipotle, the other chilies were quite mild varieties that I used, so, even though it looks like a recipe for chili sauce, it was quite flavorful thanks to poblano and the tomatoes.

Ingredients
2 medium chicken breasts, thawed, marinated, sliced and pan-cooked
1 Tbsp oil
Spring onions for garnish
salt to taste

For the Cu Chulainn Fiery Hot sauce:
4 whole chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
4 dried poblano chilies, reconstituted in water (mild and flavorful)
2 to 4 dried pequin or arbol chilies (tiny pequins are super hot)
4 to 6 dried mild yogurt-chilies* (mild variety)
1 Tbsp smoked paprika powder
½ cup canned stewed Mexican-style tomatoes
2 Tbsp plain white vinegar

*aka "Thayir Milagai", this is a staple in my mom's kitchen and is readily available in Indian stores; or, is easy  to make in summer: simply slit any favorite fresh green chili and soak it overnight in a mixture of sour yogurt and sea salt; fish them out the next day, saving the yogurt-sea salt mixture, and dry the chilies out in the sun; repeat this process 3 or 4 more times by soaking overnight and drying out under the sun; when completely dry, store in an air tight container. Fried Thayir Milagai with yogurt rice was much-relished when I was young.

Preparation

1. Combine the hot sauce ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste.
2. Heat the oil in a pan, pour the sauce in (plus a little water if needed), stir well, cover and simmer on medium low till the sauce is flavorful, for about 6 to 8 minutes on medium heat.
3. Add the cooked chicken pieces, stir well, garnish and serve warm.

Sauteed Watercress, Radish Greens and Radish Seed Pods

After saving some for next year's garden, I decided to use up the radish seed pods any which way I can. So, here's another impromptu recipe that turned out very satisfying.

Watercress is one of those greens that I never really grew to love raw. I mean, I like it in salads in trace amounts and they make nice garnish for some stews and such, but, that's about it. However, when lightly sautéed with a few other veggies, it turns quite addictive - mostly the texture and the added hint of flavors.

Ingredients

1 bunch watercress, roots trimmed and chopped stem and all
a bunch of radish greens (as much or as little as preferred)
1 carrot, cut into 1 inch sticks
1 or 2 broccoli stem, trimmed and cut into 1 inch sticks
½ cup radish seed pods
¼ cup chopped snow peas
1 Tbsp oil
salt, fresh ground pepper, and a pinch of ground turmeric and asafoetida (optional)
chopped spring onions for garnish

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the asafoetida and turmeric, allow to bloom for about 20 seconds, then add the watercress, carrots, broccoli stems, snow peas, some salt; cover and allow to cook over medium heat for about 4 or 5 minutes till watercress is wilted and the carrots and broccoli stems are cooked but not mushy
2. Serve warm with moong-dal rice: When I cook rice in the rice cooker, I add a handful of moong dal or toor dal as a boost for kids. 

Edible Radish Seed Pods Salad

Crunchy. Peppery. Fresh. Delicious. 

Radish fruit/siliqua or seed pods are bursting at this time in our garden and I am using them liberally in my cooking these days.

When we first started growing radish in our home garden, I was not sure what to expect. I love radish but more than that I relish the mildly bitter radish greens. The first time I laid eyes on the radish flowers - beautiful lilac and white ones - I was smitten.

And then, when we let it go to seed, the seed pods were a fantastic discovery.

Crisp spring greens topped with radish seed pods, some toasted unsalted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, and a drizzling of Pear Gorgonzola dressing makes a fantastic spring salad.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Bittergourd

I grew up with a regular dose of bittergourd, cooked up in a few different ways that my mom liked, and have grown to relish it more as an adult. For this Sweet, Sour and Spicy Bittergourd recipe, I prefer the Indian bittergourd.

Indian bittergourd has deep ridged skin, darkish green color, about five inches long usually, and is a lot more bitter (to my palate at least) than the Chinese Fu Gwa and Hong Kong Bitter Melon I've used extensively over the last decade here.

Cut, clean and slice the bittergourd, salt it and allow to sit for about 30 minutes to draw out the bitter juices. Wash, drain and pat dry before cooking it up.

Ingredients
6 Indian bittergourd, cleaned and sliced
6 jalapeños, seeded and sliced
¼ cup fresh ginger, julienned

3 Tbsp tamarind concentrate (sold as Sour Soup base in Asian markets)
1 tsp red hot chili powder or Cayenne pepper powder
1 Tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste
water as needed
1 tsp vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a pan, add the ginger, bittergourd and  jalapeños, some salt, and sauté a bit till ginger is aromatic
2. Add the tamarind concentrate, chili powder, brown sugar, some water, cover and allow to cook on medium low heat till bittergourd is cooked through, adding a little water at a  time as needed to keep it fairly dry, not saucy
3. Stir well and taste for balance of sour-sweet-spicy, adding more of these flavors as preferred
4. Serve warm with hot basmati rice and home-made ghee, or with roti/naan

Chilaquiles with Salsa Verde

Cinco de Mayo fell on a weekend, giving a wonderful reason to enjoy Mexican food all weekend long.

We had a stack of corn tortillas a few months old that needed to be used up. So, I fried them up as chips which we enjoyed with Salsa Verde and Spicy Salsa Roja. Also made some Chili Rellenos with Anaheim peppers.

And the leftover chips and salsa verde became delicious chilaquiles for brunch the next day.

Salsa Roja
Blend some canned tomatoes, chipotle chilies in adobo suace, onions into a thick sauce; add chopped onions, tomatoes, and optionally corn kernels and cooked black beans; add lime juice and salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro.


Salsa Verde
Chop tomatillos, jalapeños, onions, and garlic cloves; sauté on a hot pan with a bit of oil till the tomatillos and onions char a bit; cool and blend to a coarse sauce. Simmer the sauce over medium heat, add salt to taste, water as needed and cook down a bit till flavors are strong.

Chilaquiles
In a large pan, simmer salsa verde as above, then add the fried corn tortillas and stir well; add some picked jalapeño rings, spring onions and cilantro as garnish and serve warm.

Spicy Black-eyed Peas and Colorful Peppers

This spicy black-eyed peas with colorful peppers is a quick and easy side if the peas are cooked and ready to go. On and off, I soak 2 cups of  dry black-eyed peas and pressure cook them and freeze them in 1 cup portion, ready to thaw and use when needed.

The spice paste is a fairly standard one I use, but the proportions and herbs/spice powders can be varied as preferred. Sometimes I use cayenne pepper powder and paprika instead of cumin and dry red chilies, or even my red curry paste or green curry paste for the spice base.

Ingredients
for the spice paste:
2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp tomato paste
6 to 8 dry red chilies
½ tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp plain white vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar

1½ cups cooked black-eyed peas
4 mini colorful peppers, cut into rings
½ medium yellow onion, chopped
optional: cremini mushrooms

salt to taste
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

water as needed
garnish: spring onions, cilantro

Preparation

Combine the spice paste ingredients in a blender and grind to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan, add the spice paste, onions, chopped peppers, and a pinch of salt, and sautée till rawness fades.

Add the cooked black-eyed peas, some water, cover and cook till flavors meld.

Garnish and serve warm as a side, or with rice or naan.