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Monatsarchive: October 2012

Beer Braised Chicken and Hefeweizen Cornmeal Dumpling Soup

02.10.2012 6 Comments

Although most of you are starting to pull out those wool sweaters you neatly packed away a few months ago, here in Los Angeles we are in the throws of a record heat wave that drug us into 108 degree heat yesterday. While most of the sane people of LA stayed indoors and avoided the oven, I spent the morning interviewing ex-cons turn foodies, and then came home and made soup.

Like i’ve mentioned before, my inherent rebellion pushes me to buck tradition and even reason. I drink stouts in the summer, eat ice cream in the winter and make soup in triple digit heat.

Beer Braised Chicken and Hefeweizen Cornmeal Dumpling Soup

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

For The Soup

  • 4 tbs butter
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillets cup into bite sized peices
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup white onions chopped
  • 1/2 cup celery chopped
  • 1/2 cup carrots chopped
  • 1 cup sweet white corn kernels fresh is best, frozen is acceptable, canned is disgusting
  • 2 cups Hefeweizen Beer
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 1/4 cup cream

For The Dumplings

  • 1/2 cup Masa Harina corn flour used to make corn tortillas
  • 1/2 cup fine ground corn meal
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 tbs butter cut into small cubes
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup Hefeweizen beer

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot with a lid, like a dutch oven or enamel cast iron pot, melt the butter over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until seared on all sides, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, onions, celery, carrots and corn, stir. Add the beer and broth, stir. Allow to simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the pot and whisk until combined. Remove from heat and slowly add the cream while stiring. Return to medium/low heat.
  • In a large bowl, add the masa, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and rosemary, stir to combine. Add the butter and rub into the flour with your fingers until completely combined.
  • Add the milk and hefeweizen and stir until combined. You don't want the dough too thin or it will fall apart during cooking, you want a biscuit like consistency.
  • Drop mounds of dough, about 3 tbs in size, equally spaced on top of the pot until all dough has been used. Cover the pot and cook on low heat until the tops of the dumplings are dry, about 15 to 20 minutes.

 

Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

01.10.2012 16 Comments

I spent the morning interviewing ex-cons.

For them, the employees of Homeboy Industries, it’s a second chance and fresh start. A non-profit that works with gang members, fresh out of jail, provides culinary training, GED prep, job placement, parenting skills and so much more. "It’s like a big family, but everyone believes in you." Said one guy, back for a second chance at his second chance.

But sitting at the front of the Homegirl Cafe, interviewing and photographing the employees, it felt like a second chance and fresh start for me too. I was hired to write an article about food. Paid to go there, talk to people and take photos. A rare opportunity it seems for me to bulldog my way into this food writing world that I’ve been fighting so hard to be  a part of. An article I hope to do justice to, undoubtably spending the better part of the next week working on.

So here we are. Me and them. My transformation so much less dramatic, so much less important to my survival. They inspire me. When I asked the man I met, the one who is back for his second time and only 3 days out of jail, how he is going to do things different this time around, he shrugs, "I’m just going to keep showing up. That’s all."

I think he’s on to something there.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 2/3 cups white sugar
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 2/3 cup cake flour
  • 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Makes 2 dozen

Instructions

  1. In a pot over medium high heat, add the butter. Stir until butter has melted. Continue to cook, swirling the pot continuously, until the butter has turned an amber brown color and remove from heat. This will take about 5 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and the sugar. Add the vanilla and the browned butter, stir until combined.
  3. In a separate bowl add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined, don’t over mix.
    Line two baking sheets with a Silpat or parchment paper.
  5. Form dough into balls a bit larger than a golf ball. Place on the baking sheets.
  6. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to 24.
  7. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for about 18 minutes or until light golden brown. Keep an eye on your cookies at about the 12 minutes mark. Cookies that aren’t as chilled will cook much faster.