Adobo Lab – Part III: Results

Basic Chicken Adobo

(Please quibble with the recipe and make changes.  I’m begging you.)

Equipment:

glass bowl or tupperware for marinating

sauce pan or casserole

baking pan/sheet for broiling (line with foil/Silpat to avoid scrubbing)

tongs/fork/chopsticks for moving hot food around

stirring things

chopping stuff if you need to cut up meat

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken wings, legs & thighs

1C – 1.5C vinegar (rice or cane or ???)

¼ - ½ C soy sauce (or 1 - 1.5 Tbs salt)

3 bay leaves

1 Tbs whole peppercorns

12 garlic cloves

optional:

(1 or 2 crushed/torn dried peppers – med or hot)

( ½C – 1C coconut milk)

Prep: (super-duper easy)

If you are working with a whole chicken, or quarters, cut the bird at the joints.  (Freeze the breasts for something else – or use them tonight if you are marinating for tomorrow.)

Hit the garlic cloves once with a pot, or that “tenderizing hammer” you got with a kitchen set at some point.  Remove the papery skin.

Into the marinating vessel, add the vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, peppercorns, smacked and partially crushed garlic cloves (and any optional ingredients).  Stir to combine. 

Snuggle the chicken pieces into the liquid. 

Cover, place in the fridge and marinate for an hour or up to overnight.

(You can peel some potatoes or yams to add in chunks when you start the cooking if you’d like.)

Cook! (if possible even easier)†

Pour all the ingredients into your saucepan/casserole (including optional tubers).  Get the chicken down into the liquid.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.  At about 15 minutes, turn over or re-snuggle the chicken in the sauce.

(Another optional: In the last 5 min of cooking, add a hard boiled egg or two).

Remove all the big chunks. 

Use your stirring spoon to smash up a few pieces of the softened garlic into the sauce.  Turn up the heat to reduce the sauce to coat-the-back-of-a-spoon thickness.  At the same time…

Place the chicken pieces under the broiler to crisp any skin (about 4 min for each side of wings and legs, and about 5 just on the skin side of the thighs.)

Return everything to the thickened sauce.

Serve over rice or with stir-fried and/or grilled veg (bok-choi or cabbage – always a good idea).

Refrigerate any leftovers for easy food the next day.  Or freeze for much later.  (This is the kind of thing that loves to be doubled – cook 1x, eat 2x)

† I've looked over a bunch of crockpot recipes.  Can't vouch, but the consensus seems to be:

Use 2 or so onions sliced into rings to create a platform for the chicken.

No need to marinate - as Madge the Manicurist used to say, "You're soaking in it."

Use the same recipe, maybe add a little water to make sure everything is snuggled into the liquid.

Cook at Hi for 3-ish hours

Cook at Low for 6-ish hours

Skin on and bone in are essential for this version.

The broil-flip-broil is nice, but not essential.

Attention Paleo-Peeps!  (And other people who are avoiding extra sugar)

No sugar is needed as long you have bones and skin to add richness to the sauce.  The large amounts of sugar in many of these crock-pot recipes is needed to give body and as a thickener when gelatin and fat are absent.

Adobo Lab - Part II: Experiments

Not a complete set - just a baseline.

Not being Heston Blumenthal or Alton Brown, much less Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, there's just no way I can explore all the ins and outs of Adobo like they would, or whatever they are pursuing.  They do that for a living.  I do it to relax.  And their graphics staffs are clearly more awesome than mine (me).

Your basic chicken wing adobo.
YUM!

That being said - I've put a bit of study into the Adobo thing (books, internet, and a lucky connection to a real live Adobo cook.  Even luckier - who was willing to share.)  And now it was time to try.

This particular project got started with a whole mess o' extra chicken wings.  See, last time we ordered wings from our butcher, they came pre-split.  So we got half as many as we thought.  This year, expecting that, we ordered accordingly.  And got unsplit wings, so had twice as many.  Next year - we're ordering by the pound.  3rd time, and all that.

4 vessels for experimentation

I decided to attack a few of the main elements: 

Vinegar type - cane or rice - and lots or less?

Salt source - soy sauce or regular salt

Marinate - 1-3 hours or overnight

Coconut milk - yes or no

Spicy or not?

Notice - I didn't even get into the sugar thing.

Lots of garlic.  I don't understand skimping on garlic.
Especially when it gets cooked to mellow and sweet.

Each had about 1.25 lb (0.55kg) of chicken wings  (sorry no pork - but this was more of a sauce challenge)

The basic recipe I started with was
Batch A:
Marinate the chicken for 2 hours in
1/4 C rice vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 tsp whole pepper corns
4 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
and I wanted to make this one of my spicy ones, so I also threw in
2 small crushed del arbol chiles (sort of seranno hot, not Thai birdseye hot.)

Pour this all into a cooking vessel of your choice.  Add a little water so you can snuggle you meat mostly into the liquid.

Bring to a boil.

Return to a simmer for 30 min, flip the wings half way through to make sure they get plenty of sauce time.

At the end, I put the chicken wings under the broiler for about 4 min on each side to crisp up the skin, while I boiled the sauce to reduce it down to a back-of-a-spoon-coating thickness.  You can smash up some of the softened garlic cloves into the sauce.

Dueling Sauces
first round
Cocoanut Milk or Not

Return the chicken wings to the thickened sauce to coat them.

Almost there -
Just one more step!

And then bat away the grabby fingers as you try to get a picture.  Or just give up, go with the flow and eat.

Verdict:

Yeah.  Uh, I have spent MUCH longer cooking food that was nowhere near as good.  And this was great.  Getting the family to taste test this, and the next three versions was really easy.  The crushed chile only added a pleasant background of spiciness.  If you want “hot, spicy” Adobo, you’ll need to add a whole bunch more chile pepper.  This was a nice subtle amount.

To get a little more baseline data, I did another 2hr marinade with coconut milk -
Batch B:
Marinate the chicken for 2 hours in
1/3 C cane vinegar
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tsp whole pepper corns
4 cloves garlic smashed and peeled

Follow the same cooking instructions as above

And following one version of coconut milk lore, in the last 10 minutes of simmering I added 
about 1/3 C coconut milk (I eyeballed)

Then I did the broil-flip-broil while I reduced the sauce.

Verdict:

I liked this one better because I LOVE cocoanut milk.  The rest of family could have done without the coconut milk (quote, "Didn't ruin it, I just like it plain better.") but all liked the MORE vinegar version.

So onto the overnight marinades.

Batch C:

Marinate the chicken overnight in
1/3 C cane vinegar
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tsp whole pepper corns
4 cloves garlic smashed and peeled

Follow the same cooking instructions as above,
and the broil-flip-broil while I reduced the sauce.

Verdict:

The soy flavor really came through in the overnight marinade, maybe a bit too much.  But the vinegary bite and all the rest of the flavors were amazing.  I can see why this has been captured by enterprising crock-pot cookers.  (To crock-pot adobo recipes, just pop them in for about 6 hours on low - maybe with a little extra liquid to cover everything).  There were no leftovers.  I wish there had been.  So I could have some more.

And this one... I warn you.  I went all crazy and unorthodox, the way I do sometimes.  (Green Curry Crab Chowder, Savory Aebleskivers, Canning jars in a sous vide - OK, that one's becoming normal)

I used some the "suggested additions" to adobo.  The ones where you might end up hearing, "Well that's really not adobo anymore."

I like to live dangerously.  Or eat well.  Or something.

Batch D:

Marinate the chicken overnight in

1/3 C rice vinegar

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce

1 bay leaf

1 tsp whole pepper corns

4 cloves garlic smashed and peeled 

1 whole anise “star”

1 crushed medium hot pepper (red-jalapeño hotness)

1/3 C coconut milk

Follow the same cooking instructions as above,

and the broil-flip-broil while I reduced the sauce.

Verdict:

Well, maybe they’re right, the not-quite-Adobo people.  It was more Thai curry-ish. 

Good Thai curry – the kind with the sour bite of tamarind and deep, complex, enviably mysterious flavors, and lusciously creamy. 

That overnight soak in all those spices created something more than what went in.  And for the life of me I could barely taste any heat.  I think the chile-ness simple added to the magic.   It was very good, but not Adobo.

What have I learned?

1) Cook Adobo again and more. 

2) Even my household is already subject to division on the coconut-milk-or-not front.  That didn’t take long.

3) Which vinegar is not as important as how much.  A bit more is better than less, just like with the other spices.

4) Marinate overnight if you have time, but still make Adobo even if you don’t. 

5) Use a little more soy sauce for a short marinade, less, or just salt for overnight.

6) I have no input on the sugar debate, except to say I didn’t miss it.

7) A little dried chile is nice.  And it won’t make things hot – just more interesting. (The vinegar does that.)

8) Use meat with some fat on/in it (chicken thighs, legs and wings, pork, stew beef? or stew lamb?) and never ever “boneless skinless chicken breasts.”  I know enough to know that those cooked in this heedless, low maintenance way would be awful.  (Can you imagine putting BSCB’s under a broiler for 4 min on a side after they were already cooked?!!  (choke, cough, so dry)

Check Out Adobo Lab – Part III: Results  for a nice starter recipe.

and in a bit (but not yet)-

Adobo Lab - Part IV: Hacking the Conclusions  for Adobo-Style Crispy Chicken Wings.
(yes, we have lots of frozen wings - yay! food saver vacuum bags.)

Adobo Lab - Part I: Research

Sometimes you just have to get out of the way, and let circumstances lead you.  Or maybe I'm just a Food Fashion Victim.



Either way, cooking with vinegar has been nibbling on the edges of my awareness for a few years now.
There were the Escabeche adventures with zucchini.  (The first time I ran across "escabeche" I thought that was the name of the fish I was eating.)  There was the refrigerator pickling (especially with fruit).    There is my on going love of sherry vinegar as a flavor that smooths out and unites the flavor of savory dishes that are missing that certain something.
And then there's 11 different types (is that 12?  Nope, that one's vanilla) of vinegar lurking in my pantry†.

Spanish/Iberian Penninsula cooking has some really intriguing, vinegar heavy, cooking as well.  And it makes sense in a land that has long had urban populations living in places where it just too hot to "refrigerate" food.  Cooking to preserve is the way to go.  Vinegar does a pretty good job - and was cheaper than salt when there was plenty of sun for growing things.

And the sea-faring thing.  Ship's stores in vinegar were handy too.

Which gets us to Adobo.

First, the disambiguation:
1. You can buy "Chipotle Chilies in Adobo (sauce)."
2. You can eat the Filipino dish Adobo.
Adobo is a Spanish term for cooking in vinegar.
So to find it as a cooking term in 2 places where those Spanish sailors spent a bunch of time leaving boot prints, only makes sense.

1. Adobo Sauce in the Mexican incarnation is chile and vinegar sauce often with garlic, sometimes with tomato - and like all other sauces, rife with local variations.  It is primarily spicy.

2. Adobo (the dish) in the Filipino variation is meat stewed in a vinegar based sauce.  From there, many versions - and their associated traditions, abound.

The pithiest examination of Filipino Adobo's wide ranging variation was in this NYT Magazine Article: The Adobo Experiment.  But you needn't read it, all you need is the quote,
"This is Adobo.  Every man an island."
For snake's sake, you are talking about a country made of over 7,000 islands with over 100 languages (To quote Wikipedia, "between 120 and 175... depending on the method of classification.")  So there's going to be more division on the "National Dish of the Philippines" than the French have over cheese. (Wikipedia says 350 - 400 distinct cheese varieties, that reduce down to a paltry 8 groups, Pah!)

The Spanish word Adobo overlaid whatever the indigenous word(s) for the cooking in vinegar were.  And I'm guessing there were a whole bunch of them, so a nice uniting term won over - or just beat up the longer, harder to remember words.  So the technique is definitely older than the Iberian Visitation, but they brought the current name.

Now that's out of the way.  On to the technique.

For all that variety, the dish Adobo has a backbone, or a set of uniting principles, if you will.

*a vinegar base
*salt
*garlic
*bay (laurel) leaves
*black pepper
*meat

*bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer
*thicken the sauce

Already there is choice/controversy right at the get go - the vinegar.  Cane juice vinegar is the "most" traditional, with rice vinegar running a close second.
Next - what is the source of the salt?  Plain ol' salt or soy sauce?  Clearly soy sauce is a Chinese influence, but (of course) there are questions about how long soy sauce has been making inroads on Philippine cuisine, and Adobo in particular..
I shall skip over the how much garlic & ground pepper vs. whole peppercorns questions as too mundane to dignify.
Meat/Proteins seems to be more of a regional/what you have question, rather than "fightin' words."  Chicken and pork (including combinations) seem to be the most common, and the addition/use of squid has adherents, along with goat, beef, fish, hard boiled eggs and even tofu.
But the big questions seem to be:
*Spicy or Not?  Does one add chilies, and if so, which ones, dried or fresh and how much?
*Coconut Milk?  (or Coconut Cream?)  To add or not to add?  And again, when and how much?
*Additional Spices?
*Sugar? And if so, what kind? And when?
*Add potatoes, yams or green vegetables?  Other plant parts?
(If you mention fish sauce you are likely to get a, "Well then that's not really Adobo any more.")

And then when you get into cooking techniques - things can get really prickly.

*How long does the meat marinate? (Does one even bother?)
*Sauté/sear the meat first?
*When do you stir the sauce?
*Does one reduce the sauce with the meat, or remove it?
*And if the meat is removed, does it get broiled?  And if so, does one baste? Or fried for crispiness?

As you can see there is so much to quibble over.
For me, there is so much to try.

For actual recipes.... Please see Adobo Lab - Part II: Experiments

†In case you are wondering:

Cider
Rice
Sherry
Balsamic
White Balsamic (I know, it still seems pretentious to me too, but I like the light, fruity flavor)
Red Wine
Malt (the fish & chips stuff)
Champagne

-------- new since December -------
Black Magic (I'm not sure, but it tastes of wine & blackberries - it was a gift, and is tasty)
Honey (Really, mead vinegar.  Quite a pronounced "meady" flavor - begging for summer produce)
Cane Juice [Datu Puti]  (In a pinch this and White Balsamic can stand in for each other)

I Am Not Original

Heck, I'm not even at the leading edge.

I've been on a Spanish (vinegar, garlic, herby, eggy) kick with New World influences (pumpkin/squash, corn, pine nuts, walnuts/pecans).  I know that sounds "Mexican" or "Central American" but Spanish cuisine and Mexican are so different, they can be their own fusion genre.  Spanish still owes much to the continental French lead style.   

So as I've been messing with Spanish potatoes (recipe and comments on my failures upcoming) and pumpkin and meat mixtures (pumpkin beef tomato Empanadas upcoming as well, and the pumpkin chile is in development), and looking ahead to Thanksgiving, I thought, OoooooHhhhh! Turkey Pot Pie.  

Now being barely competent in the pocket pie arena, I peek about the internet for Empanadas, and why not Pot Pie Empanadas?

Well, not only are there tons of recipes for Pot Pie Empanadas, they are a convenience food that has been made in such massive quantities that they have been made badly enough that some need to be recalled.

• 10-lb cases each containing 4 boxes of 27 count “MOLLY’S KITCHEN MINI CHICKEN POT PIE EMPANADAS," with the product code of “953397” and best before date of “Aug. 30, 2012.”

Yup.  They've been thought of, and are being mass produced in boxes of 27 (27? How is that a sensible number?) distributed in 10lb cases, and screwed up enough to be recalled. 

On the other hand this proves this is a great idea.  Lots of people have thought of it, done something with it, and made people happy with it.  So I'm going to run with this (and so much else).

Spring, Herbs & Tuna Salad

Spring is really here, the new herbs are potted, the old ones repotted at last, and I've finally got a sunny day, so my garden has a chance of growing.

dill, new oregano and tarragon peeking through in the back

And to celebrate the herbs it is Tuna Salad Day*.  Also because it is Tuesday, but that's another thing.  And really it is more of a Take Back Tuna Salad day.  I don't know how we let this perfectly nice, low-stress, tasty way to transform leftovers into something delicious into a vilified sink of greasy blandness, but we have.

It must stop now.  Lunches, snacks and dinners need to be revived with the real deal, and we can all make it ourselves, especially when we're in a hurry, or have nothing in the the fridge.

Basic Tasty Tuna Salad

Eat as a sandwich, or my favorite, scooped up with grainy-seedy crackers. 

Equipment:

fork

knife

cutting board

small bowl

measuring spoons

Ingredients 

3 oz tuna - or other leftover fish (about 1 small can's worth/ 1 generous palm full)

1 garlic clove or a bit of leftover onion

1/2 rib of celery or *additions*

1 tsp mustard 

2 Tbs mayonnaise

splash of vinegar

salt & pepper 

bread or crackers (or tortillas?  flatbread?)

Prep & Cook:

Place the tuna in the bowl.  Slice up the celery and smash, peel and finely chopped the garlic (or something similar to the onion).  Add these to the tuna.  Stir in the mustard, only 1Tbs of the mayonnaise. Taste.  

Add salt, pepper and vinegar until it tastes almost right.  

Taste!

Stir in some of the rest of the mayonnaise until you get to a taste and texture you like.  This may mean a bit more mayo, vinegar, salt & pepper (maybe even a bit more mustard) and it may mean less than the full 2Tbs.

Always add a bit, and then taste again.  Easy to add more, tough to remove.  Let your own personal taste be your guide.

But that is only the basic recipe.  Back to the herbs that brought me here.  Time to get out the scissors and start clipping to make up some spring time specialties.

My three favorite combinations so far this spring have been:

1) French Inspired Tuna Salad 

Take out the watery sweet celery and instead use 

-a few leaves of nice sour sorrel

-a few leaves of mysterious licorice-y tarragon 

-and some lemon (or regular) thyme.  

If it is in your fridge, go for the spiky flavor of dijon mustard.  

Maybe add a few more leaves of sorrel as the lettuce on your sandwich.

oregano front, marjoram next to the ball

2) Italian Leaning Tuna Salad - 

If you have some oil packed tuna - this is a great place to use it.

Track down all the Mediterranean leaning herbs (even that "Italian Seasoning Blend" will do in a pinch!)

Skip the celery, and instead use

- a sprig of thyme

- a few leaves of peppery oregano

- a sprig of marjoram (if you don't have it fresh, toss in some dried)

- leave out the mayo, and use olive oil to make up the creaminess.  

- use red wine vinegar

Bonus: throw in a chopped tomato if you happen to have some about.

chives almost ready to bloom

3) Swedish-ish Salmon Salad 

OK, this one isn't a tuna recipe, but it was the perfect way to rescue the overcooked parts of the salmon.

- replace the celery with a half a pickle chopped into smallish pieces

- add a few sprigs of chopped dill, until it tastes dill-y enough for you

- add some chives if any are on hand

- use onion instead of garlic, and use thin slices of onion instead of chopped bits

- salt, pepper and mayo, and adjust the vinegar accordingly.

*No I don't know if there is really Tuna Salad Day.  In fact I bet there is one, but this has nothing to do with that.

This need not stop with tuna.  Other leftover aquatic denizens - salmon, shrimp, trout... benefit from the same treatment.  Egg salad is begging to be perked up in the same way.  And chicken salad, or even as a way to use up that last little bit of steak.  Stay tuned and learn the secret to cilantro/basil/sriracha steak salad.  It'll be here soon, now that there is enough sun to keep me awake during the day.

Break out the scissors and get clipping.

Quinoa, Arugula and Veggie Salad... The Recipe

The basics for this off the cuff keeper:

Ingredients:

2 C cooked quinoa
2 handfuls arugula or other bitter/spicy green - rinsed & torn
1 large handful cherry type tomatoes
1 small cucumber
1/4 C chopped onion (any kind)
2 cloves garlic
Tasty vinegar (sherry, rice, champagne etc... just not white and not too harsh)
salt, pepper
a few slices bread (tortillas work too)
1/4 broth or water
Oil for cooking (I suggest bacon drippings - or use a little sesame oil with regular cooking oil)
Parmesan or other hard grating cheese

Equipment:

Knife
Cutting Board
Sauce pan w/lid
Garlic press (optional)
Cheese Grater
Medium bowl + utensils for tossing/serving the salad

Cook!

Brown the onion in the oil over high heat, then add the greens to wilt.
Turn down the heat to medium, crush the garlic into the greens and stir to combine.

Add in the quinoa.  If it is too dry, add about 1/4C broth or water, and cover over low/very low heat.
Slice the tomatoes in half (this is where they got scooped out with the melon baller).
Slice the cucumbers into bite sized pieces (more or less) sprinkle them with 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of vinegar.  Taste and adjust.  Set aside.

Check the quinoa, and if the liquid has been absorbed, turn off the heat, and stir in the tomatoes.
Taste and check for flavor.  Add pepper and vinegar to taste.  Grate in some parmesan and taste again before adding any salt.  That may do the trick.  (It did for us between the salt in the bacon and the broth).

Fry the bread/tortillas in a little more oil (or just toast them).

Serve the salad with the cumbers on the side or mixed in.
Grate on some more parmesan, and use the bread to help you eat it all.

Sliced nectarines & plums make a fabulous finish!  We actually had some honey yogurt with these - but got so excited, we forgot to take pictures of that...

Zucchini Escabeche

Zucchini is BACK!

And I get a ball zucchini. This have tasty, sweet flesh on the outside, BUT, are filled with the foamy, seedy, bitter pith. So the little rounds of zucchini baked or sauteed and married with parmesan are out. What to do?

A new cooking method comes to the fore. Escabeche. This is a relative of the too-popular ceviche that took over the cooking shows last year. But instead of using acid to "cook" the food, escabeche preserves cooked food with the acid.

So, (after a few tries)....

Zucchini Escabeche

zucchini (1 big-ish, or 2 smallish)

1 purple onion - frenched (that is, sliced into thin wedges - about the width of a pinky)

1 sweet onion - also frenched

what ever tender herbs are at hand (I have parsley, basil, oregano, and used a little tarragon)

salt & pepper to taste

rice vinegar

white wine or white balsamic vinegar

lime juice (optional)

white wine (optional)

Open your zucchini and scoop out the spongy, seedy center.

Trim off the stem, blossom end, and any rough spots on the skin.

Thinly slice the zucchini, sprinkle and toss with 1/2 tsp of salt.

Leave to drain for about 30 minutes.

Rinse off the salt thoroughly, and layer in a colander. Mercilessly press out excess moisture with a few layers of paper towel topped by a tea/kitchen towel.

Set aside.

Heat a about 1/8th - 1/4th inch of olive oil in a wide saute pan (amount depends on the size of pan) over med high heat.

Fry the zucchini in the oil in batches. And REALLY fry it. Get it brown around the edges. It removes moisture and gives the zucchini a lovely sweet flavor, and a tender, fluffy texture with crispy edges.

*You can just salt and eat the zucchini this way, there will ALWAYS be more zucchini*

As they fry, drain them on paper towels on a rack.

When you are done with the zucchini, saute only the purple onions until they are softened, and some have brown edges.

Place all the cooked vegetables, and the raw sweet onions, and a small - medium handful of chopped herbs to a non-reactive container (glass or plastic, or in a pinch, stainless steel). Begin by adding about 1/2 C of vinegar - about half rice vinegar and half white wine/white balsamic.

Add a good splash of lime juice and/or white wine if you are using them.

Stir in a few grinds of pepper.

Time to finish by your own palate. The only way you will eat this is if it is Tasty.

So start to add salt, pepper and acids to taste.

This means TASTE!

If it is TOO acid, fear not. Pour out about 1/2 the liquid and replace with some white wine. And then begin to adjust again.

This is awesome over rice & such.

It is great with thick white fish (halibut, cod etc.)

And was born to be eaten with chicken or veal or...

White beans stewed in chicken broth.

And the leftovers went so very well with a tortilla with jack cheese and the ends of the chicken!