Charcoal-Grilled Thai-Style Chicken with Spicy Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce (CI)

This is completely unrelated to the recipe I'm featuring in this blog entry, but I didn't exactly want to do a full travel blog entry about the food I ate while on vacation in NYC a couple weeks ago.  Especially now since I have a smartphone and can post pictures and updates right to Facebook these days.
However, for the people I'm not Facebook friends with, this was hands-down the most amazing meal I had in the city that week and also representative of my NEW FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Mission Chinese Food at 154 Orchard St in the Lower East Side.

Picture here is the Beef Heart & Hokkaido Scallop Sashimi (sublime), the ridiculously popular Thrice-Cooked Bacon (ooh, spicy!), and some rye-based cocktail with a name riffing on Twin Peaks.  I assume that's what I had to drink.  They don't list their cocktail menu on the internet.

In other food related ventures over the course of the handful of days I spent in NYC, I ate at Acme, Fatty Crab, M Wells, Hide-Chan Ramen, Tacos Matamoros, and Crif Dogs.  I sipped a few cocktails at PDT and a soju slushie and Momofuku Noodle Bar.  Also drinks at less notable bars.
Anyway, the entry on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated Summer Grilling 2010 issue.

Chicken and Brine

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt [I don't really believe in plain-Jane iodized salt.  I know that kosher salt is not at all a one-to-one swap with table salt, but I use it anyway in brines.]
• 4 split bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, about 12 ounces each
• Disposable aluminum roasting pan   

Dipping Sauce

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 cup juice from 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 small garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (1 1/2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Rub

• 2/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup juice from 2 to 3 limes
• 12 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1/4 cup)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for cooking grate.

Brand new grill, brand new chimney starter, and natural hardwood charcoal briquettes.

Sorry, folks, starter fluid and gas grills are for sissies.

The dipping sauce resembles the condiment my parents perpetually make and have on hand in the fridge.  Except instead of red pepper flakes, they use fresh Thai chiles.

I had my parents take home a piece of each part of the resulting food I made, but I figured they didn't have to take any of this sauce home with them.

The rub involved a stupid amount of prep.  I'm really not sure how long exactly it took me to microplane all that garlic, but it was a long-ass time on top of everything else.  Plus I was grill-roasting sweet potatoes in the meantime which meant I dash up and down two flights of stairs every 15 minutes.  Christ, what a pain in the ass.

Brine the breasts for at least 30 minutes but no more than 1 hour.  I've read about the science of brining several times by now, but all I can tell without looking shit up is that there's some sort of hocus-pocus that's provides additional protection against dry poultry or pork.  However, proteins should only be brined for an appropriate amount of time.

A modified two-level fire means that the coals are banked to one half of the grill.  The chicken's first browned on the hot side and ideally left to finish cooking on the cooler side.
The retarded amount of prep and the fact that I had pretty much completely cooked the sweet potatoes by the time I was ready to grill the chicken and also that I have a baby rather than full-size Weber means I was eventually tempted to cook shit on the "hot" side (the coals being pretty spent).  Even taking this short cut, it took much longer than stated in the recipe to get the breasts to register 160 degrees.

It was about 9:30 PM on Saturday night when I was finally ready to eat my first goddamn meal of the day.  I'm sure anything would've tasted terrific after running around all afternoon on empty, but this was really insanely good.  The chicken was so moist and flavorful.
I ate this and subsequent leftovers using only my hands.  So primal.

Two-potato vindaloo (Plenty)

• 8 cardamom pods
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground tumeric
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 12 shallots (about 10 oz in total), chopped
• 1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds [Although I didn't take the time to look when I was recently in NYC, I've only been able to find ground fenugreek in Boston]
• 25 curry leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger [I made this on Lockdown Day here in Boston after the marathon.  My ginger was all dried up.  I used maybe a tablespoon of the powdered stuff.]
• 1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
• 3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• salt
• 2 1/2 cups peeled waxy potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
• 2 small red bell peppers, cut into 1-inch dice
• 2 1/2 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice
• mint or cilantro leaves to serve [Nope]

Dry roasting the spices. Yes, I also ground these in a mortar and pestle.

Mise en place.

Saute shallots and mustard seeds until the shallots brown.  The fenugreek seeds would go in here if I had any.

Add spice mix, curry leaves, ginger, and chile and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, vinegar, water, sugar, and some salt and simmer for 20 minutes. Add potatoes and bell peppers and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add sweet potatoes and simmer for 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Uncover the pot and leave to reduce for 10 minutes.

Another great dish from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.  I don't think I've made a vindaloo before with such perfectly balanced flavors.

And that's a wrap on this three entry series.

Swiss chard, chickpea, and tamarind stew (Plenty)

• 4 tbsp seedless tamarind pulp [Too lazy to seek this out in some crazy market.  Super 88 if they have any is too much of a trek.]
• 1 lb Swiss chard (stalks and leaves), cut into 3/8-inch slices
• 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• one 14-oz can chopped plum tomatoes, with their juices
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 cups freshly cooked chickpeas (or a 14-oz can, drained)
• salt and black pepper
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup Greek yogurt (optional) [Nope]
• generous handful cilatro leaves
• 1 3/4 cups short-grain rice
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter
• 3 cups water

Toasting the coriander seeds.  I'm sure I could've easily just whizzed them in the coffee grinder, but I decided to do what Ottolenghi said and broke out the mortar and pestle.

Mise en place.

Blanching the chard in salted water.

There were some steps in here, but it seems like I figured to only photograph very few of them.  Basically this is a bowl with practically everything in it except for the cilantro and lemon and...

Rice pilaf.  Which strikes me as far more foolproof a way of cooking rice on a stovetop than normal rice.  Not like I do that since I have a rice cooker.

Very good dish.  I only added the juice of half of a lemon since I thought the dish was quite sour enough as is.  I guess I didn't have cilantro this time around.

This is also a weird culinary mash-up since I'm pretty sure they don't use tamarind in the middle east.

Brussels sprouts and tofu (Plenty)

• 2 tbsp sweet chile sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 5 oz firm tofu
• 1 lb Brussels sprouts
• about 3/4 cup sunflower oil
• salt
• 1 cup sliced green onions
• 1/2 small fresh red chile, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups shiitake mushrooms, halved or quartered
• 1 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

I once bought a stalk of these from Trader Joe's with no specific recipe in mine. It basically occupied space in my fridge until I had to throw it out.

This time I was shopping for brussels sprouts and even though it probably still living in the fridge for about a week I still was able to actually use it.

I left the mushrooms out at room temperature in a sealed bag for a couple days.  Unsurprisingly much of it went bad on me.  I inevitably wish there had been more shiitakes in the dish.

Mise en place.

Browning the sprouts.

Saute the onions, chile, and mushrooms for 1 to 2 minutes.

Browning the marinated tofu.

Toasting sesame seeds.

Honestly I don't think this dish that Ottolenghi created references any specific Asian cuisine.  There's there's the Chinese-ish glaze that the marinated is reduced down to, but the cilantro is hella Southeast Asia but such a natural pairing with with the flavors in the dish.  And where in Asia exactly do they use maple syrup in their stir-fries.

If I ever make it out to London, I clearly have to eat somewhere Ottolenghi.  And St. Johns as well I guess.