Behind the scenes of this week's Randwiches!

I've been itching to somehow convert Filipino stew into sandwich form. A lot of the dishes have sabaw or broth, so you have to eat it as a soup or over rice. The big favorite in my family is chicken adobo. You can pretty much "adobo" any kind of protein, but chicken was always the best. It is a simmered stew of garlic, vinegar, bay leaf (aka laurel leaves), fresh ground pepper and soy sauce. Because I was brining my chicken breasts, I diluted the sabaw with water. Your bread or rice will not be enough to balance all of that salt! 

First I seared the chicken so they would form a crust and then marinated them cold in the sabaw for about 4 hours. Next, I brought the pot to a boil and let it simmer for a couple of hours; turning the chicken so it was getting even flavoring. When the chicken was cooked through, I turned the heat off and let the chicken rest in the juices. Typical adobo takes 20-30 minutes, but I wanted to make sure these thick chicken breasts were injected with flavor!

How could I tweak this recipe without distracting from the main flavor palate? I broke out a jar of ground habanero paste that I bought from Cozumel, Mexico. The tiny kick was just what the sabaw needed. You only need 1/2 of a teaspoon per 4 pounds of chicken. Otherwise, you're probably going to sweat and cry after one bite.

With my protein out of the way, I had to think about condiments. When you have a sandwich, there's an acid and a base. Mustard and mayo. I didn't have any mustard on hand, so I had to think hard about acids in Filipino cuisine. Ah, the vinegar stuff. I don't know what it's called, but there was always a dish of it sitting on the dining room table. It's simply white vinegar with sliced onion, garlic, crushed peppercorns and maybe a chili pepper. It's basically pickle brine. I grew up spooning it on chicharones, fish and pork. It was like the phenomena of Sriracha, where you put it on pretty much everything.


I have a love / hate relationship with mayo. I try not to buy it from a jar, but it's so time consuming to make the "legit" way by hand. Also, it is whipped oil. That fact never gets past me and depending how full I already feel, the thought sometimes makes me a little sick. I've found solace in Latin American cremas. It's not actually mayo, it's akin to creme fraiche or sour cream. I think it tastes fuller and whips up real thick! I took a cup of crema and blended it with scallions, pepper and juice from an orange (not pictured).

Now we need some texture. I tend to go with cabbage because its crunch lasts longer when in transit and they become more complex, from bitter to mellow sweet, when heated up. I can also made a hearty cabbage soup with the leftovers! And seriously, I picked the red cabbage because it looked better with the chicken and cream more so than the green cabbage. God, who am I? Who thinks about that kind of thing? X_x

Are you brave enough to eat a random sandwich? Next available delivery days are Monday (2/28), Thursday (3/3) and Friday (3/4). You can also schedule delivery far in advance or for someone else! Fill out the order form at Escoffiette!

Homemade Chicago faildogs and Elotedogs

 

Resident Tall Guy Jeff and I were hungover one groggy Sunday morning. We didn't know what to cook. We've tried in earnest to hang out for weeks and do this cooking thing regularly. But you know, life takes over (or you go to Sweden to shoot SWEET DOCUMENTARIES). I slouched on the armchair and picked up a copy of an Alton Brown book. We took turns showing each other recipes. My eyes went big for Alton's homemade corndogs. Oh man I love corn dogs. When I was little, I used to sneak off to Hot Dog on a Stick and get a corn dog as well as "cheese on a stick." My mind sort of exploded at the thought of having corndogs ready to fry in my freezer, we had to make these. We first had to remedy the hangovers. Jeff made us micheladas or bloody mary beers by grating onion in to the can and adding the fixings for a spicy kick in the mouth.

Firstly, we speared regular ol' hot dogs from the store with a pair of skewers. One skewer is not enough to hold up a hot dog, a chop stick or popsicle stick is probably better!

The batter was an amazingly thick paste with whole kernels of corn, buttermilk, flour, baking powder, corn meal, onion, and chopped jalapeno. Before we dipped them in the batter, we coated the dogs with a thin layer of corn starch.

A cool discovery that we made is that you can make buttermilk at home with regular milk and a little acid !

Jeff heated vegetable oil in his fancy cast iron dutch oven and monitored the temperature with his fancy thermometer. Our little corn doggies were deep fried for about 4 minutes until they were golden brown.

Here are the finished corn dogs resting on a rack with a towel under it so 1) the bottom batter side doesn't get soggy and 2) we drain some of that oil away for extra crispiness.

Now for the twists ! We attempted to make a Chicago corndog by spicing the inside with celery seed and dressing the finished morsel with pickles and two different kinds of ketchup. The hot dog inside was so salty that it killed any flavor we tried to add. Lesson learned.


We encountered the same salty problem with the elote-dog but gosh darn it, that was an amazing idea! I wonder if we could find a mild chorizo to go with this version. We took a finished corn dog and slathered it with mexican crema infused with lime zest. Next, we rolled it in cotija cheese and finished it with chopped shallots and cilantro. I really loved biting into them and finding whole kernals of corn. The texture wasn't just a shell, it was a meal !

It looks so exciting doesn't it?

Help kickstart 2 Player's documentary, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang

Alright detectives, it should be abundantly clear by now. I was in Sweden this past December stalking the Mojang office for 2 Player's upcoming Minecraft documentary. We were initially only going to release a 20 minute short about it, but it wasn't right. There were too many unanswered questions and while I was sick-napping in one of the empty office rooms, Mojang was nominated for 3 major Independent Games Festival awards. For the next 32 days, I'll be hosting the Kickstarter widget on the BLTIDM sidebar. You can check out the progress as well as help fund the project. While the budget is hefty at $150k, think about crappy movies that are released in theaters that dump millions of dollars into production. Even if we reach funding, 2 player is still an independent entity run by 3 core members with an extra hand or two to hold a boom (AHEM...like me). Money is not going to sports cars or brown M & Ms or to Mojang. The rules of Kickstarter prevent groups from raising "operating costs" and the money remains tied to the project itself.

Anyway, here's the 6 minute trailer! You can watch the full 20 minute piece at Game Trailers.

Behind the scenes of this week's surprise sandwich deliveries!

Wow ! This week, we doubled Escoffiette surprise sandwich deliveries! You guys, this is awesome! Let me give you the skinny on the little beauties this week.

I was so stoked to find sliced Japanese Kobe roast beef ! It was a little pricey but I was willing to take the risk on it. When I unwrapped it and tried a bit, it was so tender and naturally flavorful. When I was handling the meat for the sandwiches, I had to pretend it was like delicate cheesecloth and could fall apart in my hands. Look at that marbling!

Toma Piedmontese is a semisoft cheese from Italy. Tommes are those grainy looking drums or they look like giant corks. I wanted a sturdy cheese for the beef as well as the essence of robiola (which was too runny and expensive for this sandwich). The toma performed above and beyond my expectations.

For some crunch, I bought farm fresh arugula. It was long, leafy, bitter and peppery. Hm, how to counteract that without sacrificing crunch? I had some onion jam and it took the bite down a notch.

I needed another layer of flavor that would survive in my bag without making the bread soggy (like oil or mayo would). When I make steak at home, I love love love finishing it with a pat of garlic and chive butter.  For the sandwich, I used scallions for their mild onion flavor and for more texture with the soft salted butter. Everything went together beautifully! See the final sandwich at the bottom of this post!

I also had a chorizo variation on wheat bread. After I made all of my deliveries, my friend Kerry was having a housewarming party and I surprised her with a bunch of chorizo and nutella sandwiches on soft wheat buns. Her roommate kept trying to hide pieces in the fridge away from the other party guests! I consider this one a winner, it'll go into rotation for sure.

Are you brave enough to eat a random sandwich? Next available delivery days are Monday (2/21), Thursday (2/24) and Friday (2/25). You can also schedule delivery far in advance or for someone else! Fill out the order form at Escoffiette!

Pancit with bacon fat seared chicken, chorizo and stir fried vegetables

Back in November, I raided my mother's kitchen for non-perishable items. I think my luggage contained more foodstuffs than clothing or toiletries. One of my treasures was mung bean or rice stick noodles aka glass noodles aka vermicelli, the basis of pancit (pronounced PUN-SIT). These things last forever! If you've ever been to a Filipino party, there is likely a large catering pan of these orangey looking noodles. Much like Chinese tradition, my family ate noodles on birthdays and the new years to symbolize long lives. Unlike the flour and egg based Italian angel hair, these threads are much thinner and soak up a lot of the broth that you cook them in. The white noodles come in dried out bricks that you have to soak in water before you stir fry them. Be careful not to soak them for too long, they just need to be pulled apart. If they soak up too much water, they won't be as flavorful.

Get ready for this, pancit has a giant mire poix! The essentials for pancit are garlic, ginger, cabbage and shredded carrots. The other stuff is optional and can be switched out. Here, we have chorizo, squash, snow peas, celery as well as cilantro and lemons for the garnish. You will also need broth!

For our protein, Jeff and I pan cooked a couple chicken breasts in bacon fat. After they rested, we sliced them into bite sized pieces.

Stir-frying is tricky. You want a high temperature wok with a wooden spoon or chop sticks ready for this, it moves fast.

1. Oil - Olive oil won't work here. You need high heat oil like veggie, canola or peanut. Safflower might work too.
2. Garlic - I know it's counter intuitive to do this but the bitter garlic is purposeful! If you still want sort of a kick, only start with half of the garlic and stir the rest in towards the end.
3. Ginger - Get that flavor infused into the oil right away, it will coat everything else that follows.
4. Carrots - These have so much water and take the longest to cook. Leave these in until they soften, they will have a chance to brown as you cook everything else.
5. Celery - Also carries a ton of water but shorter cooking time than carrots.
6. Any other vegetables, except for leafy ones (in our case, hold off on the cabbage and cilantro).
7. Chorizo - I don't like to cook these too early in the mix because they will leak their oily paprika goodness everywhere. If you have access to Chinese sausage, GO FOR THAT. It's great with cilantro too.
8. Chicken - It's already cooked, so it can go in relatively late.

Everything should be really hot and brown on the edges now! This is when you WOOSH, pour in the broth carefully. There will be steam, do not splash! It will be a world of pain! Lower your heat and lay your drained vermicelli noodles on the broth. You'll see that the tangles will become the color of your stir fry. Pull from the bottom of the noodles with tongs until it's mixed through and absorbing everything. Some people like to flavor their pancit with patis (fish sauce) or soy sauce. I try to keep the excess salt out of there. 

Now for the fun layering! Turn off the heat and toss in the cabbage, it will wilt slightly with the hot noodles but still yield a good crunch. In the serving dish, I sprinkled bits of cilantro between layers of noodles. In the end, I topped it all with a quick fry of bitter garlic slices, freshly cut lemons and more cilantro. More traditional versions of pancit have hard boiled eggs, chopped scallions and crushed pork rinds!

Have you had pancit before?