African Chicken from Macau

iChrissy's nostalgic walk down memory lane towards the cinnamon buns of yesteryear inspired guest chef, iGuy, to try his hand at slow roasted chicken. After much careful negotiation, iChrissy has decided to post the results.
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This is a dish that iGuy and iBro (they're twins) fondly remember from Macau, a small island off the coast of Hong Kong. The island was a Portuguese colony until it changed hands in 1999, becoming a district of China with little fanfare. Part of iGuy's family lives in Macau making it easy to visit when iGuy takes the occasional trip to Hong Kong. Macau's cuisine is truly spectacular! It's a rare mix of African, Indian, and Chinese spices, techniques, and flavors. Because of its geography, the seafood is fresh and always excellent. Ocean fresh fish and shrimp as big as lobster tails are the norm. Being mainly carnivorous, iGuy and iBro do not always think of seafood when they think of Macau. But instead thoughts wander towards Macau's tender fire-roasted chicken in a thick, spicy, rich red sauce that is phenomenal over rice. This dish is known as African Chicken although iGuy ha’s seen it referred to Cafreal Chicken. On iGuy'’s last trip to Hong Kong in November 2005, he surely did stop in Macau. Unfortunately, iGuy did not get African chicken, opting to skip on the poultry during the height of the Avian Bird Flu scare (iGuy returned to the States fine, but longing for poultry). Thankfully, iGuy had pick up a cookbook of traditional Macauanese cuisine. This is iGuy'’s first attempt to recreate the magic of his bird flu free past.

Pre-Roasted:
















Post-Roasted:
















The Conclusion:
The chicken was quite tasty! iGuy, iRoomie, iBro and his iWife all sampled the chicken and gave it a thumbs up! The chicken was butterflied and rubbed with a paste of garlic, lemon juice, chilies, and tumeric. Normally, iGuy prefers brining a chicken before roasting it, but this was not necessary as he basted the chicken with coconut milk. The combo of the coconut milk and pan juices made a delicious sauce that was spooned over rice. The chicken did not turn out the color iGuy had wished as he remembers the dish being a rich red color, though as you can see it turned out the orangey-yellow color of the tumeric. The dish also had much more sauce in iGuy's childhood memories. But iGuy can'’t complain about the flavor, but the recipe will have to be tweaked in the future to include more red colored ingredients (perhaps foreign grown tumeric?).

iGuy's Specialized Manly Rating: 3 out of 5 fists of approval

Gotham Bar and Grill's Cinnamon Rolls

When iChrissy was smaller making cake from a boxed mix she took a mandatory cooking class in high school. (Perhaps this is where iChrissy's passion for cooking began?) One of the first projects in class were Cinnamon Rolls that were gooey, creamy, and delicious. The dough had vanilla pudding mix in it making it fluffy and soft. Since then, many, many years have past and that recipe is long gone. It wasn't until recently that iChrissy's internal Cinnamon Bun flame was rekindled! Flipping through my new issue of Food and Wine (February 2006) I found that the "Last Bite" was "Fluffy, Buttery Cinnamon Rolls". With little thought and much gumption, iChrissy dug in and began mixing, rolling, and spreading at 11a promptly to bake the finished product at 8pm the same day.

Pre-Baked/Post-Risen:

Post-Baked:
The Conclusion:
iChrissy might have made these incorrectly since the recipe called for whole milk and iChrissy used skim lactaid milk and the thickness of the dough was suppose to be 1/4 inch thick. iChrissy squashed her dough good and flat. Thankfully yeast compensated and fluffed itself back up with extra rising time.
The best part of these cinnamon rolls is exactly what the narrative in the magazine says. It's fun to plate the rolls exactly how it comes out of the springform allowing hungry testers to pull the rolls apart themselves. The rolls have earned the iChrissy cute approval! The dough isn't as creamy as my vanilla pudding recipe of yesteryear, but still quite delicious. Next attempt iChrissy will use the whole milk and start a day earlier.

Rating: 4 out of 5 cupcakes of approval


Recipe: Food and Wine (February 2006)

Emeril's Asian Braised Short Ribs

The one thing that iChrissy and iGuy love to see on a menu is braised meat. Those small words always seem to pop out at first glance and iChrissy always orders it to "try". Since the first time I tried iGuy's braised pork at Brown Sugar Cafe (Boston, MA) I've been on a declared journey to try and find the perfect braising recipe of my own. And today I put another notch in my braised meat belt with Emeril's Asian Style Braised Short Ribs.

Pre-Braised Short Ribs:

Post-Braised Short Ribs:

The Conclusion:
The recipe calls for braising in a shoyu-lemongrass-garlic-ginger type of liquid with a hint of orange and green onion. At which point, you braise for 3 hours and remove the ribs and reduce the liquid for a glaze-like topping. I, however, do not agree with all thise humbug now that I've made this dish. I think the ribs are absolutely delicious straight out of the braising liquid. The glaze makes the ribs salty and over flavored. It was surprising to iChrissy too as they looked and smelled outrageous. In any event, my second attempt (whenever that may be) will have the braised ribs accompanied by a different sauce.

Rating: 2 out of 5 cupcakes of approval


Recipe: http://www.emerils.com/recipes/by_name/asian_style_braised_short_ribs.html