Chicken and Mushroom Sweet Rice

鶏ときのこの炊き込みおこわ

White rice was valuable and hard to obtain long ago in Japan. Putting ingredients in a stone pot along with seasoning added to the rice cooking method was welcomed because you could use less rice. It has evolved since then and hundreds of recipes are available now days but my favorite still is the five ingredients rice(五目ご飯), because I get nostalgic about my late mother…she made the best seasoned rice…my complaint was that she only made it on special occasions; 1-2 times a year.

It tastes great even if it gets cold, plus no need for side dish…maybe some pickle or salted plum(梅干)?…clear broth is not too bad a combination either…mmm…baked egg(卵焼き), I must add.

Ingredients and Instruction  for 3-4 servings (Print Recipe Here)
Revised recipe of Masahiro Kasahara

Necessary equipment –rice cooker

• 2 cups (rice cooker cup) sweet rice (もち米)
• 1 package shimeji mushroom, cut off ends, separate
• 1 package enoki mushroom, cut off the ends, cut in half then separate
• 4 shiitake mushroom remove stems, chop cap into 4-5 pieces
• 2 chicken thighs, boneless, skin on, butterfly the chicken so that the chicken is mostly flat.
• Combined seasoning (3 Tablespoons soy sauce or tamari, 2 Table spoons each of mirin and sake) mixed in a measuring cup.
• 2x4 dried kelp sheet, clean the surface with moist paper towel
• 1-2 stems of mitsuba/Japanese parsley (optional) roughly cut leaves.

1. Wash rice and soak in plenty of water. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. If you are using regular white rice then soak just 30 minutes.
2. Put all mushrooms in a non-stick frying pan. Dry sauté mushroom at low- medium heat until the volume goes down to about half and it becomes aromatic, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
3. Heat another pan (or quickly clean the same pan used in step #2) at medium-high. Place chicken skin side down to brown the skin only, about 4 minutes then remove from heat. When the chicken is safe to handle, cut in chunks. Set aside.
   
4. Drain the rice and put in the rice cooker, add sautéed mushroom, chicken, mixed seasoning, 1 cup water* and push kelp in the liquid. Cook as normal (if you have a ‘Quick’ feature in your rice cooker, you may opt for that). * if you like softer rice, add another 1/4 cup of water.
5. When it’s done, remove kelp, stir to combine with rice spatula, top with mitsuba and serve.

 

Some of my Today’s Sweets instagram post (#todayssweets…do not confuse with Today’s TAPAS) – Soy milk pudding with dark brown sugar syrup…not bad!

Some of my Today’s Sweets are store bought. This fruit tart from Saint-Honoré French pasty shop in downtown Lake Oswego. I liked it!

Speaking of French, oui, oui, we dined at Cocotte – Fried frog legs! Son goût comme le poulet (It tastes like chicken)!

Our Anniversary and my birthday were both last week. I received bouquets of flowers, a plant and some chocolate from my husband, friends and neighbor. I’m flowered…I mean, floored with gratitude!

Mush…Roomy

Pan Fried Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

The La Branche French restaurant in  Aoyama, Tokyo which opened in 1986 has a well supported fan base. The understated yet polished décor is lovely. The owner chef Kazuhisa Tashiro (田代和久) is always in a creative mode. I’m glad to encounter one of his concoction introduced in an old magazine.

No fancy ingredients are necessary and the relative simplicity is what we like about this recipe. One of these days. I will make just the soup because the soup itself is very satisfactory with freshly baked bread for a cool Autumn night.

Ingredients and instruction to make 4 servings

First make mushroom sauce/soup

• Garlic 4-6 cloves minced, divided
• Onion  minced to make up 1/2 cup or less
• Mushroom 5-6 minced plus 5-6 mushrooms cut in half
• Butter 1 Tablespoon
• Olive oil 1 Tablespoon plus 1 Tablespoon
• Chicken broth 1-1/2 cup or use vegetable broth if you want a vegetarian option
• Cream 1-1/2 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat butter and oil in a thick sauce pan at medium heat. Add 2/3rd of minced garlic and sauté until fragrant (careful to not burn the garlic).
2. Add onion and minced mushroom to the pan and sauté at low heat for 15 minutes
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3. Pour in broth and cream and simmer for 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Note: if the sauce is too thin add thickening agent (mixture of 1 teaspoon corn starch and 2 Tablespoons water) to thicken.

Making topping

• Minced Italian parsley about 2 Tablespoons

Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick pan and sauté the mushroom halves for 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the minced garlic and Italian parsley and sauté  for additional 2-3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Pan fried chicken

• 4 bone in, skin on chicken thighs
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil 1 Tablespoon (optional)

1. Rub salt, pepper and olive oil all over the chicken – I score skin lightly with knife for more flavoring
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2. Clean the pan used for making the topping with a paper towel. Heat the cleaned pan then place chicken skin side down and fry for 10 minutes until it develops a deep golden brown color.
3. Flip the chicken and cook through at low heat for about 6-7 minutes. You want to aim for crispy outside, juicy inside.

Assembly

Ladle the soup in the bowl then place several pieces of sautéed mushroom on top along with the pan fried chicken. Garnish with Italian parsley for color. It’s tricky to eat bone in chicken with soup, remove the bone before placing on the soup if you like.

I served the chicken with Charles’s crusty ‘No knead bread' my husband baked. It was mighty fine!

Someone rang our door bell and dashed to run away! We were Booed! The chocolate treat and lollypop ghosts are a really fun surprise!.

My friend showed up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers yesterday. I accepted that my father is gone but the beauty of flowers and the kindness of my friend melted into my core. She also brought me belated birthday presents I absolutely adore. Gifts like these encourage me to continue food blogging a little longer against the objections of Martha Stewart. No, I don’t have a Ph.D. in food preparation nor 50 assistances however I hope my 30 some years of cooking count for something…but hey, you’re expert, so whatever.

 

 

bon appetit

Prosciutto-wrapped pork loin with roasted apple

The cover photo of the October issue of ‘bon appetit’ magazine was this pork dish. I told my husband that this would be a really great blog post. Why don’t we make it? And by ‘we’ I meant ‘he’, though my request had a little demand overtone to it. This recipe is too long, my head is spinning!  As if I planned this all along, we had every ingredients at hand except pork loin but no sweat, Costco is only a 5 minute drive away and I’m happy to get it for you darling.

My husband is very smart and can follow any instructions with no problem. He carefully read the recipe and voila! he produced a product that is a close match to the picture in the magazine. I, on the other hand, get confused often. I excuse the mishaps for not being a native English speaker yet I don’t get Japanese recipe as it is written sometimes. My oil painting teacher calls it having an artist brain. Oh yeah? I don’t read maps either but that’s an answer to my problems? Then my husband chimes in and said ‘You know, actually reading the recipe would help’. Yes sir!

Ingredients for filling

• 1 oz. (1 cup) dried whole porcini mushrooms- I used mixed dried mushrooms- Put in a small bowl and add 1 cup boiling water. Soak for 30 minutes or until very soft. KEEP the soaking liquid (3/4 cup) cover and chill. Chop finely and set aside.
• 2 oz. (3/4 cup) dried apples- do the same as above but discard the soaking liquid. Chop finely. Set aside.
• 1 lb. kale, bottom stems trimmed
• 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup minced onion
• 1 tablespoon finely mince garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 tablespoons brandy or Calvados- I used red wine
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lb. ground pork

For Pork

• 1 (trimmed) 2-1/2 to 3 lb. pork loin
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more for seasoning
• 3 oz.thinly sliced prosciutto
• 5 sprigs rosemary
• 4 medium apples quartered, or 8 small apples, halved
• 3 tablespoon unsalted butter , divided
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup dry hard cider
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken stock

Instruction for filling

Blanch kale in boiling salted water just until wilted, about 1 minutes. Using tongs or chopsticks, transfer kale to a rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate until cool. Remove any large tough ribs.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, cook, stirring often, until soft and lightly golden. About 8 minutes. Add chopped mushroom and apples: cook, stirring occasionally, until flavors meld, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, thyme and rosemary, cook for 1 minutes. Add brandy and cook until liquid is absorbed about 1 minute. Stir in 2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Transfer mixture to a bowl and let cool completely . Add ground pork and stir  to combine well,

Instruction for pork

To butterfly, put pork loin on a work surface with the short end facing you. Holding a long, thin, sharp knife parallel to work surface and beginning along one long side, cut 1/2 inch above underside of roast. Continue slicing inward, pulling back the meat with your free hand and unrolling back the meat like a carpet, until the entire loin is flat. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet, pound to an even thickness.   

Uncover pork and season with salt and pepper. place kale leaves on top of loin in an even layer, overlapping as needed and leaving a 1 inch border, Spread filling on top of kale. roll pork into a tight cylinder. Wrap one layer of prosciutto around roast. Tie roast securely with kitchen twine in 1 inch intervals. Tuck rosemary sprigs under twine, spacing apart.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place apples in a roasting pan. Melt 1 tablespoon butter with oil in a large skillet. Brown pork on all sides, about 5 minutes total, then set on top of apples in the pan. Add cider and 1/2 cup water to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits. Pour mixture into roasting pan. Roast pork until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loin registers 140F about 1 hour 40 minutes. Let roast rest for at least 20 minutes and up to 2 hours.

While roast is resting make sauce. Reserve apples from roasting pan and spoon off fat from juices in the pan. Place pan on top of stove over medium–high heat. Add chicken stock. Pour in reserved mushroom liquid, leaving any sediment behind, and cook, scraping bottom of pan to release any browned bits, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and season with salt and pepper. Strain sauce, slice pork. Serve with sauce and apples. Note; Prosciutto makes it salty enough for me, no need for additional salt. New variety – Sonya a beautiful coral-colored apple that taste great and was reasonably priced

I hope you had a fun Halloween. We had 242 trick-or-treaters (our record high is close to 400) last night.  I wore an orange t-shirt to celebrate the silly festivity.

Thank you honey for your hard work. Also thank you, ‘bon appetit’. It was delicious!