Cook, Pop, Cook: Korean Fried Chicken

My wife and I love Target, except when we don’t. Whenever we exit a Target store in the area with a shopping cart full of stuff despite going in just to pick up a “few things,” it happens. I put D1 and D2 in the car and then put the stroller in the trunk and then *sniff* *sniff* “That smell,” I think to myself, “I know it all too well…” I continue to *sniff* and my wife begins to wonder why it’s taking me so long to get back in the car.

I close my eyes as the scent permeates my airway and then I begin to float like a cartoon as the scent whisks me away and *plop* I land in front of a yellow and red building and…

“Honey, what are you doing?!”

“Sorry hon, I just smelled Popeyes in the air.”

You see, there seems to be a Popeyes within smelling range of most Targets in the area and I find the smell of fried chicken, especially from Popeyes, intoxicating. In fact, I once asked my wife if she would be willing to don eau du bucket of chicken. She said no. “How about eau du bacon,” I asked. No again. Seriously. If my wife wants to seduce me, smelling like fried food wrapped in bacon would work far better than smelling like flowers or whatever else they make perfume smell like. But I digress.

As you can plainly see, I love fried chicken. In fact, I once dreamed of opening a restaurant called Skins n Stuff, where we’d just sell fried chicken skin and sides. And while I love me some chicken from Popeyes or the good Colonel, nothing I’ve tried compares to Korean Fried Chicken. Even the New York Times thinks so in this article.

In fact, in the DMV, Bon Chon chicken is immensely popular and customers are willing to pay $20 for a portion of chicken and wait 45 minutes, which is how long it takes to prepare an order. If you’re near a Bon Chon or a restaurant that serves Korean Fried Chicken, I highly suggest you go. Now. But if not, give this recipe a shot.

Korean Fried Chicken

Cook, Pop, Cook: Galbi Jjim

As a disclaimer, I’ll say this recipe is not for the faint of heart. I normally try to cook healthy recipes for my family; this isn’t one of them. The beef isn’t lean and discarding the fat is a no no. So if you’re not a fan of braised fat or eating meat off the bone we are friends off you’re not going to like this recipe much.

Korean BBQ is pretty popular in most Metropolitan areas, so most people are familiar with galbi - Korean beef short ribs. Served bone-in or cut into cubes, the beef is usually grilled over high heat and results in juicy meat and chewy tendons. Not as many people are familiar with galbi jjim – braised Korean short ribs (jjim is a method of cooking where meat is steamed or boiled). This is because most restaurants don’t serve galbi jjim. In fact, it’s usually a dish reserved for special occasions like weddings. The braising results in meat that is fall-off-the-bone tender and the tendon becomes like butter. So crash a Korean wedding if you’d like to try it. Or just follow my recipe. After all, what occasion is more special than a family dinner? Don’t you love your family enough to make this for them?

Galbi Jjim

Cook, Pop, Cook: Garlic Hummus

I’ve never really enjoyed beans – aside from singing this song in elementary school:

Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart
The more you eat, the more you fart
The more you fart, the better you feel
So eat your beans at every meal

For example, when I first ordered the chili at Wendy’s many moons ago, I picked out all the beans. It turns out their chili is roughly 80% beans, so that was a waste of $0.99. But lately, I’ve actually been enjoying beans and it’s all due to my clever wife.

While I was still drinking bean flavored Haterade, my wife kept looking for new ways to encourage me to eat healthy and having read SuperFoods Rx, she continued looking for ways to sneak beans into my diet. She also kept hearing about the Mediterranean Diet and it’s benefits, so she decided she would try to get me to eat hummus and knock out two birds with one stone and went to Trader Joe’s and bought some of their hummus. Initially hesitant, I ate the pita she made me…within seconds. The Trader Joe’s brand was incredibly creamy and delicious and in minutes, I ate half the entire container. “Man,” I exclaimed, “I’ve never liked hummus before, but this is amazing!!! What is it made of?” “It’s just chickpeas,” my wife replied. “Wait…this is made of beans?!?!” This felt like the sketch where Chris Farley was informed that he’s not drinking regular coffee, and my reaction may or may not have been better than his.

Now, I like beans. Beans are an excellent source of protein and fiber, i.e., you can build muscle without being constipated. And I love that beans are cheap–frugality is always en vogue in Pop’s household–and can be stored for a long time. I used to only get the fajita vegetables at Chipotle, but I now ask for black beans as well. My wife made this slow cooker chili a while back and it was magnificent. And I still love me some hummus.

But there are some things about beans that aren’t as awesome. The liquid in canned beans can be incredibly salty, so you should rinse them if sodium is a concern. They can be high calorie, but let’s be honest, compared to what American’s normally eat, they’re relatively low-calorie. And of course, there’s the issue of flatulence. I have a simple solution: if someone starts *sniff* *sniff* ing and making an ugly face at you, look puzzled and point at the person next to you. If that doesn’t work, you could try the following:

he who smelt it, dealt it
he who deduced it, produced it
he who denied it, supplied it

Speaking of which, why is the subject in all of those phrases a male? Oh right, because girls don’t fart and if they do they point at a boy and say he did it it smells like roses.

Anywho, I decided to make some hummus at home and it was incredibly easy. Sort of. You see, I love Asian grocery stores because you can get things you probably can’t find at other grocers and their items are cheap! But if you need some sort of specialty item and you’re having a hard time finding it, good luck finding someone who can speak enough English to tell you where it is. Most recipes for hummus I found required tahini, and one employee looked at me with a puzzled look and another took me to the aisle with Thai chili’s. I didn’t fare any better at my local grocer as they had only had tahini sauces. So if you’re intent on getting tahini, try Trader Joe’s or My Organic Market; or you can grind up your own like I did.

Pop’s Garlic Hummus

Having been foiled in my attempts to get tahini in a grocer nearby, I decided to make my own. As  hard as it is to find, not to mention expensive, you’d think tahini was something really special; but all it is is ground up sesame seeds. You control the flavor based 1) whether the seeds are whole or hulled and 2) if/how long you roast them for.

Get 1/3C of raw sesame seeds. You can also buy bags of roasted sesame seeds and save yourself a few steps and 10 minutes.

1/3C Sesame seed

You can use a baking sheet, but I like using a frying pan – the sounds you hear as you toss the seeds is almost therapeutic. Roast them on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Roasting the seeds

Now toss that in your food processor (we have the older version of this) with 1TBS of olive oil.

Making tahini...sort of

You’re supposed to grind that up into a paste so a blender or something would have been a better idea, but again, I’m all about simplicity and doing less dishes, so I just used the food processor. My thought was, since I’m going to be blending all the ingredients for 5-10 minutes, the sesame seeds would get ground up then. So I pulsed the seeds a few times to chop them up a bit, opened up the food processor, used a spatula to push the seeds stuck to the sides to the bottom, and pulsed it again a few times.

Now open one can of the beans and pour about a tablespoon of the canning liquid into the food processor, then rinse 2 cans of garbanzo beans and throw them in as well.

The musical fruit

Get your spices ready as well: 1.5tsp of kosher salt, 1/4tsp of coarse ground black pepper, and 1/2tsp of garlic powder.

Hummus spices

You’ll also need to throw in 4 cloves of garlic (no need to chop them; just remove the stem part) and 1/3C of lemon juice. Again, I LOVE me some garlic, so if you’re not a fan or would like to kiss people after consuming the hummus, you may want to use less. Throw all of that into the food processor and use your spatula to mix things around.

Ready to be processed

Use quick pulses at first. Once the beans are nice and processed, you can leave the food processor on until the hummus reaches the consistency you like. Or if you’re like me and enjoy pushing buttons, you can pulse all the way through.

Once that’s done, put some paprika and olive oil on top. You could also add a couple of pine nuts for a nice crunch. YUM!

Garlic Hummus

You could also add sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, cilantro, parsley, etc… I like to eat it with naan or pitas. It’s also a great dip for vegetables and a suitable substitute for mayo in sandwiches – I said suitable. Nothing can replace the goodness of real mayo in a sandwich.

Cook, Pop, Cook: Chayote Squash

When we were expecting our daughter, I was worried about being a good dad. Two years later, she knows what a grill looks like, enjoys barbecue (especially ribs and brisket), can identify bacon, and has eaten an entire chicken thigh in one sitting. The jury’s still out on me being a good father, but it’s clear I’m doing a good job raising a carnivore. But with increased rates of childhood obesity and kids getting what used to be called adult-onset diabetes, I know I need to model good habits for my family, such as eating healthy and exercising. As a result, I’m always on the lookout for new vegetables and recipes to try.

Recently, we had guests over from Thailand and we went to an Asian grocery store in our area. One of the ladies who was staying with us saw a vegetable and said, “Have you tried this?”

WTH?!?!

It looked like a pear ate something really sour. When I told her I never tried it, she said, “Aroi MAK! (very delicious in Thai). I looked at the sign and it was called Chayote squash and it was $0.99/lb. Whenever we visit her in Thailand, my wife and I love her cooking, so I absolutely trusted her, and that evening, OH MY GOURD…I fell in love with chayote.

Easy Creamed Spinach Recipe

Creamed spinach is fastly becoming one of my favorite things to have with steak. A good steak should be tender but you should also have to wrestle with it at times. Gristle, tendon, large chunks of fat…no one ever said love was easy. So to give a nice contrast and respite from the chewing, I prefer my sides to have the consistency of food that has already been chewed once, e.g., mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.

Tonight, I made strip steaks with mashed potatoes, broccoli and creamed spinach. It was my first time making creamed spinach, so I didn’t think to take pictures, but all my guests seemed to like it, so I’m sharing my recipe with you. This is also why I don’t have any pictures.

For pop, cooking is all about simplicity. Sure, using fresh spinach and wilting them perfectly seems nice, but it takes way too much effort. So I used frozen spinach. And guess what else I use to make creamed spinach? You’re so astute…cream! That’s right! Cream + spinach + seasonings = creamed spinach. I looked up recipes on the Web and found the typical seasonings are salt, pepper and ground nutmeg, the latter of which seems to work very well with spinach. I tweaked the ratios to my liking.

Pop’s Easy Creamed Spinach Recipe
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

1-10oz package of frozen chopped spinach
1-10oz package of frozen cut leaf spinach (provides a contrast w/ the chopped)
3tbs of unsalted butter
2-3 shallots – I love me some shallots, so I used 3
4-6 cloves of garlic – I love me some garlic, so I used 6 cloves
6oz heavy cream
1tsp kosher salt
1/2tsp coarse ground black pepper
1/2tsp nutmeg

1. Follow the instructions on the package of the frozen spinach to cook them. Strain and cool.
2. Chop up the shallots and garlic all fine like – I like to use the Oxo Good Grips Chopper to save time.
3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan
4. Toss in the shallots and garlic and using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, cook ‘em for a few minutes – they should change color–more yellower–and smell good. Aren’t my descriptions so precise?
5. Toss in the spinach. Make sure you get the garlic and shallots all throughout the spinach and let the flavors meld a bit.
6. Add the cream and mix well. Mmmmmm…heavy cream!
7. Now add all the spices.
8. Keep cooking until the consistency is about what you’d want it – mine took about 5 minutes. If it’s too watery, throw in some corn starch.

Mmmmmmm!

UPDATE: Made it again over the weekend, and this time, I have pics. I also made more (used 3 packages of frozen spinach) so I adjusted the other ingredients accordingly.

Spinach prepared, drained, and ready to go

Shallots and garlic chopped

Mmmmmelted butter

Salt, black pepper, nutmeg

Garlic + shallots + butter = delicious

Spinach + shallots + garlic + butter

Added the heavy cream and spices

Cook, Pop, Cook: Shin Ramen

Today dear reader, I reveal to you an ancient Korean secret (I learned it 3 days ago) passed down through many generations (a hyung–that’s an unrelated older brother–told me he heard about it on Korean TV) on how to make the perfect Shin Ramyun.

The Perfect Shin Ramen

Actually, that almost looks like chef boyardee…but whatever. Onward!

Cook, Pop, Cook: Chicken Tikka Masala?

One of my all time favorite foods is chicken tikka masala. The creamy sauce poured over tandoori chicken is a little piece of fatty heaven for me. The fact that it is most often consumed via All You Can Eat (AYCE) Indian lunch buffets is definitely a bonus. My wife recently spotted this recipe on one of her favorite blogs and we decided we HAD to make it.

So yeah, Pastor Ryan’s version turned out just a tad better than ours. ^_^

Trust me. It tastes a lot better than it looks. It may have been the garam masala we used, but it didn’t taste like the chicken tikka masala we were used to. It tasted like a Thai/Indian curry. A bit odd, but really tasty. Also, a bit of caution: your oven is going to smell really Indian-y for several days if you don’t air it out afterwards. How to make it after the jump.

Cook, Pop, Cook: Home Fries

The New Best Recipe is amazing! Today, we decided to make a special breakfast since it’s our daughter’s 2nd birthday. The wife made blueberry muffins (also from The New Best Recipe and they are YUM!) and I tried my hand at home fries (p. 659). And I gotta say, these are probably some of the best home fries I’ve ever tasted, especially since I know exactly what went into them. Confession: I LOVE breakfast food but am always leery of all the grease use. I used to work at a fast food place, and some of the things we used to make sure things didn’t burn and/or stick to the grill were probably more suited to lubricate moving parts, rather than being consumed by living beings.

Home Fries (adapted from The New Best Recipe)

• Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped into small pieces
• 1 large potato – I used a russet potato
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Peel and dice the potato: Slice the potato lengthwise into quarters, then make two stacks and cut each stack lengthwise into quarters, then turn the stacks 90 degrees and cut to complete the dice.
2. Heat the oil in a 12″ skillet. Get the oil really hot and toss the onions in, stir frequently. Cook for about 8 to 10 minutes – the onions should be nice and brown. Transfer the onions to a small bowl.
3. While the onions are cooking, toss the diced potatoes in a 2 quart pot and put about 1/2″ of water inside. Place over high heat and once the water starts boiling, cover the pot, lower the heat, and simmer for 6 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a strainer/colander.
4. Heat the butter in the now-empty skillet over medium heat until the butter foams. Add the potatoes and shake the skillet to evenly distribute the potatoes into a single layer. Cook without stirring for 5 minutes. Toss the potatoes and use a spatula to make sure all the pieces have been turned. Repeat this process 2 or 3 times, or until the desired crispness is achieved.
5. Add the onion, paprika (mostly for coloring), and the black pepper. Stir to blend and serve!

Sooooooo good!

We also made Jimmy Dean sausages, whole wheat buttermilk pancakes:

And scrambled eggs:

Breakfast is served! Happy birthday baby girl!

Cook, Pop, Cook: Slow Cooker Smoked Pulled Beef Brisket

BBQ tends to be a very touchy subject, and rightfully so – it’s a topic of utmost importance. Dry or wet rub? Vinegar, tomato, or ketchup-based sauce? Is Red, Hot and Blue authentic BBQ? Does Rocklands suck -that- bad? Is Texas > Memphis > Kansas > Carolinas? Weber vs. Big Green Egg vs. used barrel drum? Charcoal or hardwood? Lots of points of disagreement. One thing I think all fans of BBQ can agree on is that standing outside in freezing temperatures, attempting to attend to a charcoal flame against the wind and the cold isn’t cute. So while my Smokey Mountain Cooker remains dormant, I still crave tender, delicious BBQ.

Earlier this year, I noticed a recipe over at Smitten Kitchen–great food blog w/ plenty of awesome food porn–for pulled beef brisket. Recently, the object of my affections became mine. I adapted her recipe, which she adapted from the Food Network – that great recipe provider in the fiber optics.

Wanna make this?

Cook, Pop, Cook: Prime Rib

I begin this post w/ a brief tribute to Tom Sarris Orleans House, my favorite place in the DMV to get prime rib which has been closed for a while now.

Anywho, prime rib, a.k.a., standing rib roast, is one of those things that guests are usually wowed by but it’s incredibly simple to make. If you can turn on your oven and carry a 10-15lb weight w/ two hands, you can make prime rib at home. And when it’s about $7-$10/lb ($10 at Whole Foods for grass-fed beef) and you can make ridiculous cuts like this:

24oz Prime Rib

making prime rib at home vs. eating it at a restaurant at $20+ for a 16oz is a no-brainer.

Selection

I’ve tried beef labeled as grass-fed from Whole Foods ($10/lb) and beef from my local Meat Market ($7.79/b) and frankly, there wasn’t a discernible difference aside from your wallet taking a bigger hit. Currently, I’ve been unable to find standing rib roasts at Sam’s Club or Costco – the latter of which is rather disheartening b/c Costco ribeyes are the best!

Usually, 3/4-1lb per person is more than enough, but if you’re feeding a bunch of raging carnivores, you may want to shoot for 1.5lbs/person. Don’t worry about the number of bones – your butcher should know how many bones will result in the weight you desire. I like to ask the butcher to cut the bone and re-tie the roast, this way, I get the flavor and stability of cooking w/ the bone, and the convenience of simply removing the roast from the bone when it’s done cooking.

Preparation

You can dry-age the roast if you’d like, but i don’t have enough room in my refrigerator to store a massive roast for an extended period of time, so I usually pickup the roast the night before I have guests over.

Before unpackaging, take a moment and tell yourself how good life is: you are -this- close to enjoying prime rib and impressing guests. If only all of life were this easy.

Ain’t she a beaut?

Now there tends to be some debate amongst carnivores of whether or not to trim off the fat cap, but in pop’s world, I’m all about simplicity so I just cook it in the condition I receive it. I will, however, look for any large chunks of fat and trim them down to about an 1″.

Transfer the roast to a foil-lined baking sheet and get ready to rub some meat!

All you need is some coarse ground black pepper and olive oil (canola oil is ok too). They say salt draws moisture to the surface of the meat, so I like to wait 30 minutes before cooking to apply kosher salt. I’ve found the meat to be rather bland this way but that’s what au jus is for. If you want more flavorful meat, apply kosher salt as well.

Make sure you get a nice coat of black pepper on the roast.

Turn the roast on its sides to get an even coat of black pepper. Make sure you put some oil on the bottom of the ribs too.

And you’re done!

Loosely cover in foil and throw the roast in the fridge overnight. Now get some shuteye – tomorrow’s gonna be a good day!

Cooking

Good morning beautiful!

I’ve found that a 10lb roast can take anywhere from 3-5 hours. Prior to cooking, you’ll also want to try to bring the roast up to room temperature, which can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or two. So depending on when your guests are arriving, plan accordingly. I was having people over at noon, so I was up at 6. But man, what a sight for sore eyes!

Turn the oven to 225 degrees. Low and slow is the way to go. Trust Pop. Some will tell you to sear and then slow roast, but I’ve found this method to work better. I set it to 225 b/c you’ll inevitably lose some heat when you open the oven.

While the oven chugs along, apply an even coat of kosher salt.

Prime rib, meat our new roasting pan:

We’re going to be making lovely meats and veggies w/ this pan. I’ll provide a review after I cook a few more things w/ it, but suffice it to say that we decided to invest in a decent pan that should last for a while.

Let’s take one last look before the roast heads into the pan.

The roast looks awfully comfortable in that roomy pan.

Now here’s the most important part of cooking a standing rib roast: the probe thermometer.

Ours is a wired version we got from Target which has performed admirably. Not many bells and whistles, but it reads 212 or so when placed into a cup of boiling water, so it’s good enough for me.

Insert the probe into the middle of the roast but make sure you don’t hit the bone.

So you know how I said you should bring it to room temperature? Well, my wife likes to call me Kim Jong Il b/c I don’t like to turn the heat up, so yeah, this bad boy wasn’t going to be going up much more.

Ah well, at least it wasn’t frozen. It’s 6:40 or so and 1) I’m tired and 2) the baby is still asleep so pop is gonna go to bed. Set the temperature alarm at 117, throw the roast in the oven and turn the oven down to 200. See you soon!

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! While our probe thermometer doesn’t have many bells and whistles, it has a ridiculously loud alarm. I was shocked to find that A) the roast was done and it was only 9:50 and B) the baby was STILL asleep on a Saturday morning! Hallelujah!

Out she comes. GLORIOUS!

Remove the roast from the pan and set on a foil lined baking sheet. The roast will continue to cook (hence the 117 target). Mine eventually settled at 124 degrees: rare is 120-130 degrees.

Cover the roast in foil making sure to leave the probe in the meat, and let the roast stand until about an hour before you expect to serve the roast.

An hour before serving, turn the oven up to 500. This is one of the reasons we spent extra $$$ to get the stainless steel pan as it was rated to 700 degrees while the hard-anodized was rated to 500. Once the oven hits 500, throw the roast back in the oven for searing. You can sear for up to 15 minutes for a nice crust, but I like to keep it at 5-10 minutes to minimize the layer of meat that is well-done.

Here’s the roast after searing.

Carefully transfer the roast to a cutting board. Pour out any excess oil from the roasting pan–make sure not to lose any of the meat drippings–and put the pan over medium heat on the stove. Pour in a glass of water, a glass of merlot or cabernet, and a can of beef broth. You can experiment w/ other herbs & spices, but I like a simple au jus. Use a wooden or silicone spatula to loosen the meat drippings and cook for about 20 minutes.

Slice the roast using a sharp knife – I like to use an electric knife. Serve w/ au jus and horse radish.

Voila! 7-24oz/person of home cooked perfection!

See, I told you it was easy.

Pop’s Prime Rib

Ingredients

Roast

1. Rib roast (10lb)
2. Olive Oil
3. Coarse ground black pepper
4. Kosher salt

Au Jus

1. Meat drippings from pan
2. 1C high quality H2O
3. 2C red wine (1 for the jus and 1 for you)
4. 1 can beef broth

Directions

1. The night before cooking, coat the roast w/ olive oil and coarse ground black pepper.
2. Place in foil lined baking sheet, cover loosely w/ foil and put in refrigerator overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.
4. Coat roast w/ kosher salt, place roast in roasting pan and insert probe thermometer into the center of the roast.
5. Set probe thermometer for 117 degrees F, place roast in oven and set oven to 200 degrees F.
6. Once the roast reaches 117, remove from oven, keeping the probe in, cover loosely w/ foil
7. Set oven to 500 degrees F.
8. Place roast in oven and sear for 5-15 minutes.
9. Remove and transfer the roast to a cutting board until ready to serve.
10. Pour out excess grease from the pan and place the pan over the stove at medium heat.
11. Pour au jus ingredients into the pan and use a wooden/silicone spatula to loosen the meat drippings. Cook for 20 minutes.
12. Cut and serve roast w/ au jus and horseradish.