the petite pig

meet the pomegranate

pom.  we've all heard of the drink but how many of us could actually pick a pomegranate out of a fruit line up?  and even if you could, do you know of the surprise that lies beneath that waxy red skin?  for those of you who have never seen, eaten or cooked with pomegranate, you're missing out on some serious fruit fun (and healthy antioxidants too).  add it to your grocery list, and i promise you'll fall in love with the textures and tartness of this fruit.  but i warn you: this fruit is not about instant gratification.  it takes a bit of work to extract the flesh and flavors of the pomegranate but with the simple how-to steps below, you'll be a pom expert in no time.

an introduction to the pomegranate:

does this fruit look familiar to you?

you may have passed this unidentified object a dozen times at your local farmers market or grocery store but never stopped to ask, "what is this?"  well, let me introduce you.  "pomegranate, meet a soon-to-be fan of yours."  "soon-to-be fan, meet the pomegranate." 

now that we've gotten introductions out of the way, let's get to the good stuff: what lies beneath.  wait, you can't just take a bite!  this is no simple apple or pear we're dealing with.  begin by slicing the fruit in half.

now you probably didn't expect to find that, eh?  hundreds of ruby red seeds holding sweet-sweet-tartness but how are we ever going to get all those seeds out?  some people suggest knocking a wooden spoon against the skin.  i find this method to be absolutely slow and painful.  at this point, i treat the pomegranate like a citrus fruit that i'm dejuicing.  holding the pomegranate seed side down over a deep container of some sort - a large 4 cup pyrex measuring cup is perfect - to prevent splashing, i squeeze the seeds out, as if you were squeezing a lemon or an orange.  not all the seeds will come out from squeezing and this is when you'll have to perform a little bit of fruit surgery. 

break open the remaining parts of the pomegranate like i've done above and remove the remaining seeds with your hands.  now you've got a bowl or measuring cup full of seeds and juice.  remove any of the white membrane that might have gotten loose with the seeds.  depending what you're making, you might want to reserve some seeds for garnish.  otherwise, throw the whole bowl into a food processor and process until all the seeds have been broken down.  poor the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds.  you now have pomegranate juice to use in your pom-tini, vinaigrette, sauce or perhaps even as a substitute for thanksgiving's cranberry sauce (your relatives and friends will think you're soooo cool).  so what are you waiting for?

next blog post: my favorite pomegranate recipe. 

see how other readers crack open the treasures of the pomegranate.

to read about another reader's comment, check out, "an attack on grammar (and diversity)."

because everything is better in three's: a burger menage a trois

we all know that good things come in three's, so it's no surprise that i like to cook in three's.  after all why choose just one pasta dish when you could sample three?  why just have one burger when you could have three different mini-burgers?  my "three-way" menus as i like to call them offer your tastebuds three times the party, and who could turn that down?

about a month ago, i joined the "underground supper club" movement hosting an-invite only supper club two nights a week.  as far as menu planning goes, it's much more fun to feed people in three's.  yes cooking in three's is a bit more work than cooking in one's, so the key is coming up with three-way menus that won't take you three times the work like a burger menage a trois, which was served on my september 27th menu.  our menage a trois featured the american classic with garlic cheddar; the greek with ground lamb, feta, roasted red pepper and mint; and the vegetarian friendly millet-black bean-chickpea-and-corn with firehouse jack.  i searched around a few grocery stores for white castle slyder style buns.  unsuccessful, i decided to try baking my own from a very highly rated burger and hot dog bun recipe i found on allrecipes.com. 

while the dough for the buns were rising, i just mixed up the ingredients for the three kinds of patties.  for the two meat options i used ground chuck for the american classic and ground lamb for the greek.  in went an egg, some bread crumbs, italian seasonings, diced onions, chopped parsley, salt & pepper.  the only difference is the greek got a boost of chopped mint.  the vegetarian option took up just a bit more time as i had to cook the millet and corn but then i just mixed in canned black beans and chick peas with an egg.   while the burger patties were grilling, i roasted two red peppers to be topped onto the greek burger and it didn't take long to go from a night of solo fun to some three-way action.

the greek burger
makes 8 sliders or 4 burgers

ingredients for the meat pattie:
1.5 lb. ground lamb
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 onion, diced
1 egg
handful of parsley, chopped
handful of mint, chopped
1 tsp. italian seasonings
1 tsp. salt
couple grinds of fresh black pepper

mix all ingredients together in large mixing bowl using your hands.  shape into 8 or 4 balls (depending if you're making sliders or burgers) and form into patties.  cook on a grill, grill pan or frying pan until desired doneness.  i prefer mine medium-rare, which is at about 130 to 140 degrees (yes, i'm telling you to ignore the u.s. dept of agriculture's recommendation of always cooking meat till at least 160 degrees - it will not kill you if you're using good meat). 

ingredients for topping the burger:
2 red peppers
2 tbs oil
1/2 cup of feta, crumbled
a handful of fresh mint

you can certainly buy pre-roasted red peppers from the store but i always prefer to roast my own.  i like to start by de-seeding my red peppers.  just cut a circle around the stem on top and yank it out.  clean out the seeds inside the pepper with a spoon.  i use a basting brush to coat the skin of the red pepper with olive oil.  you now have the option of charring the peppers using your gas range or your oven's broiler setting.  if you're doing it over a gas range, turn your range to medium-high and set your pepper right on top of the flame.  once the skins blisters and chars, use tongs to turn the pepper.  if doing it in a broiler, line a glass baking dish with foil and turn peppers about every 5 minutes.  regardless of what method you choose, once the entire skin of the pepper becomes black and charred, place them into a paper bag, seal tight and shake it like a polaroid picture for about 30 seconds.  the steaming from the heat of the peppers and shaking loosens the skins, which can now be easily removed.

cut your peppers into burger topping pieces, and top your lamb burger with your roasted red peppers, feta and mint. 

the juiciest fried chicken

it's a known fact that the chinese love fried chicken.  if you don't believe me, buy yourself a ticket to any somewhat urban town in china where colonel sanders has become this generation's chairman mao.  statues, pictures and other propaganda of the fried chicken master line the new streets of china and the chinese pay respect to their new leader by eating fried chicken by the tons; there are afterall 1.1 billion of us just on the mainland.

the dangs, in line with the stereotype, also have a great love affair with fried chicken.  we were personally partial to popeye's.  on occasions when mom would allow us the luxury of western food, we'd pick up a twenty piece box (no white meat please), a side of cajun fries and half a dozen biscuits.  my brother and i had no problem devouring every last morsel left in that grease-soaked paper box. 

but now, i'm a little bit wiser, a little bit older and a lot more of a food snob so the thought of entering a fast food chain sounds less than appetizing, even it is for fried chicken.  so, over the past year and a half, i've been digging deep into my southern roots (maryland is south of the maxon-dixon line) to find that perfect fried chicken recipe.

there are two criteria for judging fried chicken: 1) the juiciness factor and 2) the crispiness factor.  the meat must be juicy; the skin must be crispy (charred burnt skin does not count).  to achieve this we must get two things right: 1) marination and 2) oil temperature. 

lets talk marination first.  some people mistake sprinkling some salt & pepper on a piece of meat for marination.  what you're actually doing is seasoning, not marinating.  i marinate the chicken i use with both wet and dry ingredients: lots of buttermilk and a simple poultry spice mix.  this should be done the night before, giving the chicken time to soak up all those flavors overnight. 

and now oil temperature.  the temperature of your oil is the most important factor in deep frying food.  it's what'll determine if your fried chicken meets the juiciness and crispiness criteria.  when using some sort of breading, like for fried chicken, you are essentially creating a shield.  this shield crisps and browns giving us our crispy, rich-colored skin and also serves to form a seal to steam the meat that lies below giving us our juicy meat.  if the temperature of the oil is too high, your skin will burn; if it's too low, the oil will start to penetrate through that skin giving us greasy chicken, which is a big no-no. 

so, what's the perfect temperature?  about 375 degrees.  after you put your first batch of chicken into the hot oil, you'll see that the temperature drops because the temperature of the chicken will cool down the oil.  it's therefore important to bring that oil back to 375 between each batch of chicken.

now that you know my keys to fried chicken, heat up that cast iron skillet and get frying. 

the juiciest fried chicken
serves 8

general ingredients:
2 whole chickens
1/2 gallon of peanut oil

for marinade:
3 tbs. kosher salt
1/2 tbs. black pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups buttermilk

for breading:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs. salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. garlic powder

special equipment:
cast-iron skillet
deep-fry thermometer

the night before: cut up chickens into fry-able pieces.  for those of you who have never taken apart a whole chicken, gourmetsleuth offers a great photo how-to.  place cut up chicken pieces into a 9" x 13" pyrex glass pan.  mix together dry marinade ingredients and rub liberally over the chicken pieces.  don't be afraid to get your hands dirty reaching into all those hard-to-reach places of the chicken.   pour buttermilk over chicken, making sure all pieces of chicken are soaked in buttermilk.  cover pan with saran wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.

one to two hours before frying: take pan of chicken out of fridge to give it some time to rise to room temperature.   make sure the pan is still tightly sealed to prevent any escape of raw chicken bacteria!

and now for the frying!: fill up cast-iron skillet with peanut oil, 1 1/2 inch deep.  heat oil steadily over medium heat until it reaches 375 degrees on your deep-fry thermometer. 

while the oil is heating, mix together breading ingredients in a bowl.  dredge chicken in flour mixture and lay out onto parchment lined baking sheet until oil's ready. 

once oil is hot enough, place about 4 chicken pieces into skillet.  fry about 6 minutes on each side (dark meat may take a little bit longer, about 8 minutes on each side).  let temperature of oil rise back to 375 degrees before frying up the next batch.  when all pieces are fried up, let oil cool and empty remaining oil into a container (i always keep a few empty glass jars from pasta sauces and such lying around just for this purpose) and toss in the garbage.   emptying grease in your sink will result in some major unwanted pipe clogging.

serve with a side of mashed potatoes, some sauteed sugar snapped peas and a sweet cornbread biscuit for a truly southern experience.