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The Hirshon Chinese Spicy and Numbing ‘Slippery’ Chicken – 滑鸡

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The Hirshon Chinese Spicy and Numbing ‘Slippery’ Chicken - 滑鸡

Slippery Chicken Image Used Under Creative Commons License From fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com

My Citizens – attend and pay heed to the dulcet notes of my mesmerizing words! Your gastronomically obsessive Leader – the discerning æsthete who ALONE is TFD! – today wishes to share another priceless nugget of culinary wisdom with the proud members of TFD Nation!

Today, I wish to better define a concept rarely discussed in Western culinary circles – texture. We typically gloss over this facet of the culinary experience because we are so laser-focused on taste. However, the Chinese have long known that there is a gestalt to gastronomy – a whole that is greater than the sum of just its parts. Taste may be paramount, but smell, texture, temperature and other more refined criteria also play into the ultimate end-result of a great meal.

The Chinese have long appreciated textures that Westerners either shy away from or flat-out RUN away from. This is a shame, because the refined appreciation of texture is a wonderful part of the gastronomic zeitgeist! Here is one previous example of a Chinese recipe I posted focusing on texture.

As well-stated in an article published by the British newspaper The Telegraph:

“Food might be one of the last barriers to fully immerse oneself in a foreign culture, and for British gourmet and writer Fuchsia Dunlop, that frontier for Westerners when it comes to Chinese food is kou gan (mouthfeel), or texture. She says: “Cross it, and you’re really inside.”

By texture, she particularly refers to that of the food Chinese people are famously interested in, such as goose intestines, ox throat cartilage, chicken feet, sea cucumber or abalone, which Westerners usually consider pointless since they taste like “a bike’s inner tube or plastic bags”.

In one of her popular books, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper published in 2008, Dunlop devoted an entire chapter, The Rubber Factor, to what kou gan means in Chinese cuisine.

She lists some representatives: cui of fresh crunchy vegetables (a particular quality of crispness); tan xing (springy elasticity like that of a squid ball); nen (tenderness of just-cooked fish or meat); and shuang (that “evokes a refreshing, bright, slippery, cool sensation in the mouth.”)

In a wonderful scholarly paper on texture words in the major cuisines, I found these incredible findings:

The texture descriptive terms were studied in Chinese by a Sino-Japanese collaboration research team (Hayakawa et al. 2004). A total of 317 words were collected from an open-ended questionnaire by laboratory panels in Beijing (capital; north area), Shanxi (north inland area), Shanghai (east coastal area) and Guangdong (south coastal area). From these 317 words, 144 terms were selected as texture descriptive terms through a roundtable discussion by an expert panel.

  1. Firm and crisp (ying cui)
  2. Firm (ying)
  3. Hard and solid (jian ying)
  4. Dry and hard (gan ying)
  5. Loose and crisp (song cui)
  6. Dry, loose and crisp (gan cui)
  7. Loose and crisp (su cui)
  8. Detrital (sui xue zhuang)
  9. Tough (lao)
  10. Stiff (jiang)
  11. Stiff (gen)
  12. Crisp (cui)
  13. Crunchy (cui beng)
  14. Crunchy (ceng)
  15. Clear and brittle (shuang cui)
  16. Clear and brittle (cui shuang)
  17. Uncooked and crisp (sheng cui)
  18. Grain (ke li gan)
  19. Grain-like (ke li zhuang)
  20. Granule (li gan)
  21. Gritty (sha li gan)
  22. Gritty (sha li zhuang)
  23. Crisp and loose (su song)
  24. Rarefaction (shu song)
  25. Dry and crisp (gan su)
  26. Crystalline (jie jing zhuang)
  27. Glassy (bo li zhuang)
  28. Tightness (jin shi)
  29. Compact (jin mi)
  30. Substantial (jie shi)
  31. Solid and substantial (jian shi)
  32. Pycnotic (zhi mi)
  33. Mealy (fen zhi)
  34. Mealy (fen zhi gan)
  35. Powdered dregs (fen zha)
  36. Coarse (cu cao)
  37. Loose (song)
  38. Flaccidity (song san)
  39. Puffed (peng song)
  40. Fluffy (peng song)
  41. Dry and loose (gan song)
  42. Powdery (fen zhuang)
  43. Powdery (fen zhuang gan)
  44. Brittle (su)
  45. Fibrous (xian wei gan)
  46. Fibrous (xian wei zhuang)
  47. Fibrous (chai)
  48. Dregs (zha zhi)
  49. Dreg-sensed (zha zhi gan)
  50. Dry-damp (gan hu)
  51. Dry (gan)
  52. Tough and firm (jian ren)
  53. Oily and brittle (you su)
  54. Multiholed (duo kong zhuang)
  55. Gritty and daintily (sha shuang)
  56. Crisp and tender (cui nen)
  57. Tender and crisp (nen cui)
  58. Villiform (rong mao zhuang)
  59. Astringent (se kou)
  60. Astringent (shou lian gan)
  61. Loose and soft (song ruan)
  62. Soft and brittle (su ruan)
  63. Brittle and soft (ruan su)
  64. Brittle and mushy (su lan)
  65. Spongy (hai mian zhuang)
  66. Cystose (pao mo zhuang)
  67. Foamed (fa pao zhuang)
  68. Fine (xi mi)
  69. Fine (xi ni)
  70. Mastication (you ju jue xing)
  71. Tenacious (ren)
  72. Elasticity (you tan xing)
  73. Chewy (jin dou)
  74. Chewy (yao jing)
  75. Chewy (jin dao)
  76. Mastication (you jiao tou)
  77. Tendon (jin)
  78. Flexible (rou ren)
  79. Flexible (ruan ren)
  80. Coagulate floc (ning xu zhuang)
  81. Melt immediately (ru kou ji hua)
  82. Tasty and icy (shuang kou)
  83. Clear and tasty (qing shuang)
  84. Icy clear (bing shuang)
  85. Tasty (li kou)
  86. Clear and smooth (shuang)
  87. Soft (rou ruan)
  88. Soft and spongy (mian ruan)
  89. Sponge-like soft (ruan mian mian)
  90. Dense (nong hou)
  91. Dense (hou shi)
  92. Dense (hou)
  93. Thoroughly cooked (shu lan)
  94. Overcooked (gun lan)
  95. Thoroughly cooked (fen lan)
  96. Fatness (you ni)
  97. Greasy (ni)
  98. Oily (you wang wang)
  99. Thin (xi)
  100. Milkiness (ru zhuang)
  101. Thin and rare (xi bo)
  102. Flowing juice (liu zhi zhuang)
  103. Thin and rare (liu zhi gan)
  104. Soft and tender (rou neng)
  105. Tender (neng)
  106. Fine and tender (xi neng)
  107. Juicy (duo zhi)
  108. Watery (shui zi zi)
  109. Wet (shi run)
  110. Wet (run shi)
  111. Moist (shi)
  112. Moist (chao shi)
  113. Slippery and tasty (hua shuang)
  114. Slippery (hua)
  115. Smooth and watery (hua run)
  116. Watery and smooth (run hua)
  117. Watery and tasty (run kou)
  118. Smooth and watery (yuan run)
  119. Soft (ruan)
  120. Gelatinous (ning jiao zhuang)
  121. Gelatinous (ning jiao gan)
  122. Slippery and tender (hua nen)
  123. Tender and slippery (nen hua)
  124. Silkiness (rou hua)
  125. Silkiness (mian hua)
  126. Sliminess (hua liu)
  127. Smooth and slippery (guang hua)
  128. Smooth and slippery (yuan hua)
  129. Smooth and bare (guang liu)
  130. Pasty (hu)
  131. Thin and pasty (xi hu)
  132. Glutinous (nuo)
  133. Jelly (guo dong zhuang)
  134. Meat jelly (rou dong zhuang)
  135. Thick (chou)
  136. Thick (nong chou)
  137. Mushy and soft (lan ruan)
  138. Mushy and soft (hu ruan)
  139. Ointment-like (ruan gao zhuang)
  140. Viscosity (nian)
  141. Stick to teeth (nian ya)
  142. Gumminess (nian chou)
  143. Sticky (nian hu-hu)
  144. Gumminess (jiao nian xing)

…whew!…

So, it should be painfully obvious to even the most early-stage gastronomic tyros amongst you that the Chinese REALLY appreciate texture – which leads to today’s recipe, an easy one to enjoy by way of texture (no fish lips or sea cucumber here!).

This dish is all about flavor and texture as one – the ingredients blend into a harmonious whole and the texture is #113 – slippery and tasty as an integrated whole. This texture is achieved by the Chinese culinary technique known as “velveting” – more details are in the recipe.

I have every confidence you will achieve a new appreciation of texture through this delicious dish, my Citizens! I’ve added some additional Sichuan and Cantonese flavor elements to the classic dish, as noted in the recipe.

Battle on – the Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Chinese Spicy and Numbing ‘Slippery’ Chicken – 滑鸡
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The Hirshon Chinese Spicy and Numbing ‘Slippery’ Chicken - 滑鸡

Ingredients

  • 10 ounces boneless chicken breast, partially-frozen and cut into 1 ½” long julienne pieces
  • ½ head spinach, leaves only
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 tbsp. cornstarch
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 5 cups and 3 tbsp. chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
  • 2 tbsp. soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp. white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp. sugar
  • pinch of ground white pepper
  • 2 scallions, trimmed and minced
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 tsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger
  • 2 tsp. XO sauce (TFD change - original called for hot bean paste)
  • 1 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with ⅓ cup cold chicken stock
  • ½ tsp. chili oil
  • ½ tsp. Sichuan peppercorn oil (TFD change, original called for chili oil only)

Instructions

  1. Mix chicken, egg white, cornstarch, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the oil, and set aside in a medium bowl.
  2. Bring 5 cups of stock to the boil, add 1 tablespoon of the oil, then the spinach, and cook for forty-five seconds until the spinach turns bright green, remove, drain, and put on a serving platter and cover with foil.
  3. Heat wok or pan, add the remaining oil, and add the chicken pieces, a few at a time, stir them for about forty-five seconds, remove and drain; and repeat until all are oil-blanched. This is the technique known as 'velveting in oil' and is a necessity for this dish!
  4. Discard all but two tablespoons of oil from the wok or pan. In a bowl, mix the three tablespoons of stock, the rice wine, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and white pepper.
  5. Heat wok with its oil, add scallions, garlic, and ginger, then add the chicken stock mixture, XO sauce, and the recently stirred cornstarch-stock mixture.
  6. Bring to the boil, return the chicken to the wok or pan, add the chili and Sichuan peppercorn oils, and stir-fry for 30 seconds until chicken is barely cooked (it will continue to cook until it is served).
  7. Remove foil from the spinach and put the chicken mixture on top of it and serve.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-chinese-spicy-and-numbing-slippery-chicken-%e6%bb%91%e9%b8%a1/

The Hirshon French Imperial Stuffed Chicken With Vegetables and Sauce Gribiche – Poule au Pot

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The Hirshon French Imperial Stuffed And Boiled Chicken With Vegetables and Sauce Gribiche - Poule au Pot

Poule au Pot Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com

My beloved Citizens! Your equally beloved Leader – the always vigilant TFD! – is currently recuperating from his recent head injury at a superlative hot spring spa in Sonoma, CA!

Peace and ultimate tranquility surround me! A gentle and perfumed breeze wafts over my chaise. The languid waters soothe and heal.

…I hate it.

Standard creature comforts are anathema to my revolutionary lifestyle – I prefer the howling ice winds of my Sanctum Sanctorum on the Antarctic peak of Mt. Erebus any day!

Furthermore, spa food here is both healthful, green and oh-so-pretentious – but fails to satisfy my meaty cravings!

As such, today I give you this recipe that is easy on the stomach in the spa tradition, but meaty, Lucullan and worthy of the Imperial palate of TFD Himself!

Poule au pot – at its most simplified level – is boiled chicken, stuffed with something.

In my version, it happens to be stuffed in the old French tradition with a forcemeat of truffles, foie gras, sausage, ham, slab bacon, eggs and aromatic herbs before being gently poached in a rich and equally aromatic stock!

During the presidential campaign of 1928, a circular published by the Republican Party claimed that if Herbert Hoover won there would be “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.“ This actually stems from a quote and a royal promise made 300 years before in France!

In 1600, King Henry IV of France (1553-1610) declared, “I want no peasant in my kingdom to be so poor that he cannot have a poule au pot on Sundays.” Poule au pot literally means “chicken in the pot” and the so-called traditional recipe resembles the one of “pot-au-feu”.

However, peasants’ food was mainly based on bread (c. 500 g/day), root vegetables, in-season vegetables and soup. They rarely ate meat except salted pork, hog-grease, bacon, or other meat, whether it was during religious celebrations or when they dared to poach game from their lord’s land.

For people living in towns, it was easier to buy inexpensive pieces of meat, which needed long cooking times.

The method of cooking all food together and for extended periods of time (the whole day sometimes) gave what was called a “pot-pourri” in French and imported into English in the early 17th century.

As expounded on wsj.com:

It was only later that I learned that while I think of the Île Saint-Louis dish as the “chicken in a pot,” that name belongs to a specific recipe associated with Henri IV.

The true dish, called “poule-au-pot,” or hen in a pot, is a luxurious one in which a hen is stuffed with sausage and liver, onions and ham and herbs, and then poached in a rich broth. I’ve had ritzy versions of it in which the liver has been foie gras and a bunch of black truffles have been slid under the chicken’s skin, and simple versions in which the stuffing was meager and the broth more like my grandmother’s chicken soup. 

The versions of poule au pot I found all failed to excite me – so I created a version of the dish worthy of its Kingly heritage! It includes the classic, sharply-flavored sauce of eggs and capers known as Sauce Gribiche that adds so much flavor to the chicken meat!

Basic cooking directions for this recipe came from le-fermier.com – this recipe of Kings and paupers alike is now yours for the taking, Citizens! You can buy foie gras trimmings and black truffle at D’Artagnan and be sure to only use a top-quality, organic and free-range bird – preferably with head and feet.

If your means won’t allow for the foie gras and truffles – simply replace with chicken liver and mushrooms. 🙂

Battle on – the Generalissimo

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The Hirshon French Imperial Stuffed Chicken With Vegetables and Sauce Gribiche – Poule au Pot
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The Hirshon French Imperial Stuffed And Boiled Chicken With Vegetables and Sauce Gribiche - Poule au Pot

Ingredients

  • 5 lb. free-range chicken with head and feet or a small Capon of similar size
  • ***
  • For stock:
  • Chicken wings, feet and backs
  • Leeks
  • 2 heads garlic, halved lengthwise
  • 4 thick slices artisanal bacon
  • Carrots
  • Onion
  • Peppercorns
  • Salt
  • Parsley
  • Turnips
  • Bay leaves
  • ***
  • Forcemeat stuffing:
  • Giblets from chicken or capon, minced
  • 1 cup Bread crumbs
  • Sausage ½ lb. mild Italian sausage
  • Foie Gras trimmings
  • Black Truffle, minced
  • ¼ lb. mild cooked ham
  • ¼ lb. Slab bacon, minced
  • 3 Eggs
  • 2 Onions, peeled and minced
  • 6 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 3 Shallots, minced
  • 1 small bunch Thyme, leaves stripped off
  • 1 small bunch Parsley, minced
  • 1 small bunch Tarragon, minced
  • Quatre Épices to taste
  • Lots of salt and pepper
  • ***
  • Vegetables:
  • 12 medium carrots, peeled
  • 12 small turnips, trimmed and sliced
  • 12 small potatoes, similar size and peeled
  • 12 small shallots, peeled
  • 6 small leeks, trimmed, cleaned and cut in 3-4 pieces
  • ***
  • Sauce Gribiche:
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 pickles
  • 1 tbsp. drained capers
  • 5 sprigs chervil
  • 1 sprig tarragon
  • ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
  • 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. tarragon white wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper
  • ***
  • To serve:
  • 6 slices thick sourdough (2.5cm)

Instructions

  1. Add all stock ingredients to a very large pot and add water to cover. Simmer for 2 ½ hours, strain out all solids and keep on a low simmer.
  2. Season the inside of the chicken. Combine all forcemeat ingredients thoroughly and spoon the mixture inside.
  3. With a spoon, stuff the forcemeat into the chicken. Lift it up and tamp well. Leave a margin of 2 cm for the seam, so that the stuffing does not spread in the broth. Bring the edges together and sew them in large stitches with a big needle and kitchen string, but do not over-tighten because it cuts the skin.
  4. Also sew up the opening of the neck. Hold the wings and legs and tie them close to the body.
  5. Add the chicken to the stockpot, making sure that it is submerged. Add 1 teaspoon salt, bring back to the boil and cook for 30 minutes.
  6. Turn the chicken over, top up with boiling water if necessary, but don’t dilute it too much and cook for a further 10 minutes.
  7. Add all the new vegetables and bring back to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes and then the vegetables and chicken should be cooked.
  8. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 150 degrees Celsius. Place the slices of bread onto a tray and leave them for 20 minutes to dry out in the oven, but not brown.
  9. Lift the chicken out of the pot, remove the first lot of vegetables and discard.
  10. For the sauce gribiche:
  11. Gently hard boil the eggs for 10 minutes, then place them in icy water, let them cool for 10 min, then shell.
  12. Separate the white from the yolk, Chop each finely and separately. Mince the pickles. Put all of the eggs and pickles into a bowl, add the capers and chopped herbs.
  13. Dilute the mustard with the vinegar, add the oil and pour into the bowl. Add salt and pepper. Gently combine.
  14. To serve, lift the chicken onto a board and cover with foil. Put the dried slice of bread at the bottom of a soup bowl, cover with stock and eat as a first course.
  15. Carve the chicken and cut the forcemeat into pieces. Place some vegetables, chicken and stuffing on a plate. Drizzle with some stock and serve with the sauce Gribiche.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-french-imperial-stuffed-chicken-with-vegetables-and-sauce-gribiche-poule-au-pot/

The Hirshon Tennessee Doodle Soup

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The Hirshon Tennessee Doodle Soup

Doodle Soup Image Used Under Creative Commons License From AtlasObscura.com

Citizens! There can be no doubt clouding your perception of the glory of the almighty TFD – and know that my relationship with coincidence and fate is the true stuff of LEGEND!

A divine and perfected thought had recently manifested within the unbounded mind of the Leader of TFD Nation – that I have seriously and egregiously under-posted on the culinary achievements of the rural American South. This must be rectified immediately and with purpose, forged into a Jovian thunderbolt of deliciousness set to strike your palate NOW.

Today, I received an email from my favorite gastronomic website – I speak of Gastro Obscura and if you are not subscribing to it – by all means, do so with haste! You’ll thank me – it’s a tremendous resource and great writing to boot!

Their latest recipe is for a dish I’d never heard of – a hyper-local regional dish so rare in its home state of Tennessee that even most locals aren’t aware of it outside of one small town.

I speak of “Doodle Soup” – and don’t turn your nose up at this simple recipe, it is (wait for it)…

Southern Hot and Sour soup!

As noted on doodlesoupdays.com:

Doodle soup is a broth that’s made from the drippings of roasted chicken or game mixed with salt, vinegar, cayenne pepper, water, sugar and flour. Typically, it is eaten as a soup with crackers or some type of bread or poured back over the roasted meat as a flavoring.

Today, there are many variations of the soup but the strong taste of vinegar remains a key characteristic of doodle soup.

To get a sense of the history of this soup (which only seems to date back to the mid 1950’s) You can watch this video to learn more about the soup and the town that birthed it.

The primary gripe people tend to have around this dish is that since the fat isn’t skimmed off the broth, it can be greasy. I’ve modified the recipe to skim most of the fat – but not all of it. Feel free to leave all the fat in there for the original experience. I’ve also added some herbs and vegetables to the broth to increase the flavor and I use cornstarch instead of flour to thicken the soup.

Most recipes call for chicken or game as the meat – I’ve combined both by specifying some venison shanks for the broth – you can also use beef shanks if you so prefer. You can buy the shanks already cut up here, if you aren’t a hunter or lack access to a butcher who stocks venison.

I also amp up the flavor of the broth with some chicken demi-glacé – yes, it’s an “uptown” sort of change, but it really does make an enormous impact on the final flavor. You can buy my preferred brand here.

Lastly, there is a “holy war” between locals as to whether this dish should be served with crackers or biscuits – I fall firmly into the “biscuit camp”.

Don’t look down your nose on this recipe, Citizens – you’ll be depriving yourself of a tasty dish of the rural South if you do!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Tennessee Doodle Soup
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The Hirshon Tennessee Doodle Soup

Ingredients

  • 9 ½ cups water mixed with 2 ½ cups white vinegar, or more to taste (decrease amount of water by the same amount of vinegar you add - you want 12 cups total)
  • 2 large broiler chickens
  • 1 pound venison shank, cut into pieces (totally optional TFD addition - omit, or use beef shank)
  • 1 large bunch parsley
  • 1 large bunch fresh thyme
  • 3 onions, peeled and halved
  • 3 tbsp. cornstarch, dissolved in an equal amount of hot water or stock
  • chicken demi-glacé to taste (TFD addition, totally optional but TFD really prefers it with)
  • Dried Chiles de Arbol to taste, but use at least 8 broken in ½ (stems removed)
  • ***
  • Biscuits
  • Browned meat from the chicken and venison

Instructions

  1. Bring the liquids to a boil in a very large stockpot.
  2. Turn down heat add the dried chiles and meats, then simmer for 2 hours.
  3. Remove meat, take off bones (discard bones).
  4. Brown the meat with some oil in a pan, drain oil and reserve.
  5. Add parsley, thyme and onions and simmer 1 more hour. In the last 15 minutes, add chicken demi-glacé (if using until you have a strong, good-flavored soup. If not using Chicken Demi-glacé, reduce until a good flavor and color is achieved.
  6. Strain out all solids except the dried chiles and discard.
  7. Let the soup cool and put in the fridge until the fat solidifies at the top. Remove ¾ of it and reserve to smear on biscuits with meal.
  8. Return soup to a boil, and then stir in the cornstarch mixture until lightly thickened. Taste it - it should be very spicy and strong with the taste of vinegar. If neither, add vinegar and hot sauce to amp it to the correct flavor levels.
  9. Divide meats between bowls, pour on soup, serve with hot biscuits smeared with butter and/or the chicken fat.
https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-tennessee-doodle-soup/