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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Weapons check for your kitchen
Posted by Rishi Ramkissoon on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Spices and ingredients are weapons for your kitchen arsenal - a diverse cache prepares you for most culinary challenges, whether it be saving a dish with a skillful application or satisfying a discerning palate.
Every now and then it's wise for a cook to do an inventory of their arsenal and the insp
Look at this strange creature and tell me if it looks like anything you've ever eaten? Ironically enough, it's called black chicken (or Silkie chicken) and although it may be new to some of us in the West, Silkies have been a delicacy in the East for centuries. But don't be fooled by the white feathers - the skin, meat and bones of this small bird are all black... yes black! No genetic modification or cross breeding, Mother Nature meant for this to happen.
Silkies are famous in China for their use in soup as part of chinese herbal medicine since they contain twice the amino acid Carnosine (a potent antioxidant) as regular poultry. The flavor is often described as gamy, however I find it similar to any organic/naturally-raised, free-range bird. I've found them in the meat section of my local Asian market.
I'd recommend using Silkies in the same recipes as game hens, like soup or curries. Their stark black meat creates quite the presentation when plating - definitely something your guests will be talking about, if they dare to try it. But the flavor is delicious.
Although cardamom is not exactly the show stopper that Silkies are, historical research says we should respect this unassuming pod. Spices such as cardamom were extremely valuable commodities as early as the 17th century, holding the same value that we currently have for oil. Used as both food and pharmaceutical, spices affected geopolitics and Western expansion way more than our present greed for oil. Today, cardamom is still expensive (but not as bad as saffron), and quite underutilized.
Anyone who has savored Chai tea or Indian food has tasted cardamom. It has a sweet, earthy, aromatic scent. Although many desserts and curry recipes call for this seed, I'm more concerned with its use in hot beverages. Arabs and Indians had been brewing tea and coffee with it long before Rome was built. Recently a friend of mine added some freshly ground cardamom to my tea, and even dropped in two whole pods for visual effect. The sweet, spicy aromatics changed it completely. For the same effect, add a few seeds to your coffee beans in the grinder and percolate for a truly spiced grog. Another bonus: Cardamom also enhances the flavor of any liquor you add to tea or coffee.
Comments (3)
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All that watching of Iron Chef America paid off--I knew what that was before you told me- yay me! And thank you for reminding me that I need to update my spices.
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