Gallina en Salsa de Cacahuete is rich, nutty, and savory dish from Equatorial Guinea. It’s pretty simple, but takes a while to do all the steps. First you make a chicken stock using the chicken pieces plus onion, garlic, bay leaves and spices (peri peri). After covering and simmering it for about 20 minutes in chicken stock, you set the chicken aside, then set about making the peanut sauce. Here you use tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, cumin and chili’s (peri peri) and roasted peanuts that are ground up. Then using the chicken stock that was set aside, you bring the sauce up to a pourable consistency, drop the reserved chicken in and let it simmer together for about another 20 minutes. Serve it over coconut rice. I made the rice by rinsing basmati rice and soaking it for a half hour before bringing it to a boil in coconut milk, a little salt and a couple of bay leaves. Once it came to a boil, I turned it down and stirred it on a medium heat till the water in the coconut milk had largely evaporated, then I covered it off the heat and let it sit for about 20 minutes before fluffing it with a fork.
For a while now, I have wanted to create a sourdough starter. I have tried in the past to do this, but never really had a good enough temperature situation to do so. The Pacific NW is too temperate. Too hot in the summer and not hot enough the rest of the year, as well as being too humid ongoingly. Anyway, that was my excuse as to WHY I could not successfully get a sourdough starter going.
We got ourselves a proofer. It was a gift from Heather’s mom a couple of years ago, and for a long time, mainly because we I was out of the habit of attempting to make bread, it sat up high on top of the kitchen cupboards. Then we started making pizza dough, which had us pull it down and set up a place where it could live so it was accessible. That had us thinking about sourdough starter once again. This time I went for it.
A sourdough starter is a living culture made from just flour and water. Over time, it becomes home to
Wild yeasts (which make dough rise)
Lactic acid bacteria (which create sour flavor and help preserve the bread)
These microorganisms are already present on the grain, especially in the lovely wild stone ground flour we are using. Its also present in the air, and on our hands and kitchen tools. So, I began using a 50/50 mixture of water and flour and over about 10 days, I discarded most of it and fed it with another 50/50 blend. I did that religiously until it settled down and smelled lovely and sour rather than like acetone. At that point I put it in the fridge, sealed. Armed with a sourdough starter, that we call Guinnivere, we now have a new friend in our kitchen that needs love and attention.
When I make pizza dough, I use a specific recipe:
150g of pizza flour
9 g of salt
270 g of water (at 65 degrees)
1 packet of yeast
Then once its combined, I mix it at medium speed for about 7 minutes.
After that, I let it rise for about 5 hours in the proofer before I separate it and let it rise in the fridge for two or three days.
What makes working with sourdough starter is that it all takes a little bit longer. First of all, the quantities are quite different. There has to be an adjustment on both the amount of dough as well as the amount of water. This is what I do;
365 g flour
225 g water (instead of 220 g)
100 g starter
9 g salt
Then, I put it, covered, in the proofer, but instead of 5 hours, it lives there overnight. By that time, it rises quite a lot, which is good. It keeps yeast active, it speeds bacterial activity just enough, which it allows the gluten to develop before the cold (of the second rise) tightens it. Once it rises and I have divided it for the second rise, I cover it with olive oil so it does not dry out, I let it rise in the fridge for 30 minutes uncovered before covering it.
As it chills in the fridge, the fermentation slows, the structure set and the handling improves dramatically.
Divided, each piece makes a 14 inch pizza that tastes brilliant!
This is the look right before it goes in the fridge.
I normally cover the dough with olive oil so it doesn’t dry out, then put it in the fridge uncovered for 30 minutes before covering them. I try to make them 2 or 3 days before we need them so they can continue to ferment.
This is without a doubt, one of my favorite Thai meals. There used to be a Thai restaurant in walking distance from my First Hill office back in the day, and my colleague, Joni, and I used to go there for lunch regularly. I always got Panang Beef and once I started cooking for myself, this was one of the first dishes I tried. I remember the first time I shared this dish with Heather. She was VERY skeptical, but being a good soldier, she tried it. Now it’s her very favorite of our Thai dishes. Her favorite part are the Korean red peppers, which are so fragrant. I always serve it over Jasmine rice.
Ingredients:
NY steak
Panang Curry paste
Coconut milk
Thai peppers
Kafir lime leaves
Korean red peppers
Jasmine rice
This is the mise en place all ready for the cook. The meat is marinating in fish sauce and olive oil. The secret to this meal is to use a great cut of meat.
We call this meal “Crack”. It’s by far my favorite version of Sole. The way I make it is similar to the way my mom made it, but way better! I use a very spicy mixture of peri peri and black pepper that I mix with flour, egg, and panko. Then I fry it in butter and olive oil, cover the fish in tasted almond slivers and sprinkle with parsley, then serve it with lemon slices.
The sauce is actually very tasty. Using a chopped onion, loads of garlic, along with chopped red, orange and yellow bell peppers in a bath of crushed Italian tomatoes. Because we like it hot, I added a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes early in the process as the onions were sweating. We also had a couple of left over hot Italian sausages from our pizza the other day, so we picked up a French Baguette and made what we called “Italian sloppy Joes”. Super yummy. We toasted the bread, layered some sauce, and fontina cheese, then split the sausage and covered the lot in loads of the Peperonata sauce. It was super yummy!
Nothing like a frittata on a Sunday morning in front of the fire watching footy. This was a “what in the fridge” sort of breakfast. I threw it all together and YUMMY! The secret is to spread the the ingredients evenly across the skillet carefully pour the custard (with the garlic and spices) over the vegies etc, then crumble fetta cheese over the top. Drop it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes and sprinkle chopped italian parsley over it before serving.
Another one inspired by Pagliacci Pizza, Theirs includes Cascioppo’s Italian sausage, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, sea salt and olive oil with crushed Italian tomatoes as a base. Our version uses Hot Italian sausage. This pizza needs a lot more flavor. More heat for sure! Work to do. On the other hand, our sourdough pizza crust was stellar.
This pizza is inspired by Pagliacci’s version which includes thyme-roasted artichoke hearts, peperonata peppers, ricotta, fontina and mozzarella over their pesto base. Ours includes fresh thyme along with marinated artichokes and a sweet pepper we had in the fridge. Its a pretty good pizza if I am honest. The Artichokes eat like meat and have a nice acidic brininess to them. We enjoyed it. More importantly, we used our first iteration of sourdough crust on this one. I feel pretty chuffed about that. It was definitely great dough.
This is another one of my favorite easy go to meals. It works with both fresh and canned clams. I like it both ways. This version was made with canned clams. One thing though, this is a better dish with dried spaghetti than fresh pasta. I have had it both ways, and because the clam meat is so soft, the toothiness of the el dente spaghetti makes the dish sing. Its basically 5 ingredients:
Garlic
Clams
Spaghetti
Red pepper flakes
Flat leaf parsley
While the spaghetti is boiling, in a pan you get the garlic going, not burnt, but fragrant. Next I add a good pinch of red pepper flakes. I like to add a little anchovy paste, some white wine, and the juice of half a lemon. The base of the sauce is really the clam juice either from the cans or from the shells opening. If you make it with fresh clams, then discard the shells. Add the clams themselves then as the spaghetti gets to lightly done, add it to the pan to finish. Toss in the chopped parsley and you have one hell of a good dish! It’s basically ready to eat in 12 minutes.
Every once in a while, we enjoy a burger. We start with a pound of ground beef. I mix it with some shredded cheese to keep it moist. This time I added gochujang and some hot korean chili sauce for flavor. I always add an egg to bind it, and if its too wet when all that is added, then I add bread crumbs to get the wetness right. It needs to feel moist not wet. I let it all come together in the fridge for an hour or two, then I weigh it and divide it into 4 equal parts forming them into balls, then once I am done with that, I flatten them out to make patties, cover them and put them back in the fridge.
I roast and clean and divide an Anaheim pepper, crisp two strips of bacon, and cut two slices of cheese. I then make our special sauce. It’s typically mayo, ketchup and Tabasco. This time, to keep the Korean theme, I made it with gochujang, Korean chilli paste, a little ketchup, may and a splash of Tabasco to get the heat right.
I salt and pepper the burger before it goes into a hot pan, and sear both sides till the inner temp is 130 or so, then the cheese goes on and into a hot oven it goes under the broiler. We toast the ciabatta buns, sauce them, put lettuce, tomato and pickles on the bun, add the burger, on top the roasted pepper and the bacon and we are in business! It’s a prety fucking good burger, even if I say so myself!
My Life: A Memoir 