New Year’s Eve special: Chicken a la Basquaise

Au revoir, 2020! To send off this ‘interesting’ year, we decided to make something a little special for New Year’s Eve dinner. For some time, I’ve been very fascinated with French cooking, particularly with regional specialties. It was only fitting that I’d try my hand at something from the south of France, specifically the French Basque Country.

Enter in this take on chicken a la basquaise. We based this mainly on a recipe compiled by Maurice–Edmon Sailland “Curonsky”, a French gastronome who selected some recipes that are now in a book “Traditional Recipes of the Provinces of France”.

Curonsky’s ingredient list for chicken a la basquaise (good for four) is as follows:

• 1 chicken, 2 to 2 1/2 pounds
• olive oil
• 4 tomatoes
• 6 green peppers
• 1/4 pound sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 pound diced smoked ham
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (to garnish)
• 2 thinly sliced pimentos (to garnish)
• salt and pepper

We had to make some crucial revisions for this recipe however:

• In lieu of a whole chicken, we got 6 chicken drumsticks
• Owing to a charcuterie crisis, we could not find smoked ham. We did find 100 grams of Parma ham instead
• We’re pretty sure that Curonsky had 4 rich, European salad tomatoes in mind, but we had to make do with about 8 small native tomatoes.
• Owing to practicalities, we skipped the white wine and garnishing

The steps for prepping and then cooking chicken a la basiquaise are as follows:

1. As part of prep time: skin the tomatoes. This can be easily accomplished by cutting an ‘x’ into one end of each tomato (use the end opposite the stem), and plunging the tomatoes into boiling water for about 25-30 seconds. Then remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and immerse in ice water till cool. After this, the skin should readily be peeled off. After skinning the tomatoes, remove the seeds and juice, then chop up the pulp. Curonsky recommends however crushing the pulp to make a sauce.
2. Split and chop the peppers, remove the seeds
3. Dice the ham and slice the mushrooms, if you haven’t done so already
4. If using whole chicken, divide it into quarters, Separate each leg and wing (or paa and pecho) into 2 pieces
5. Season chicken with salt and pepper, saute in oil in a heavy casserole or pan for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Add the tomato pulp, peppers, mushrooms, ham, and white wine to the chicken. Cover and continue cooking for 25-30 minutes. It is important to give this a stir every now and then to promote even cooking of all the ingredients….or to keep them from charring on the bottom of the pan
7. Take the chicken out of the pan using tongs, arrange on a plate. Pour the sauce (the vegetables and ham) over the chicken. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired
8. Garnish with parsley and sliced pimento.

Obviously we did not follow all these steps, mainly in the interest of time and economy. But we still ended up with a very rich and actually keto–friendly chicken dinner. I can only imagine how it would have tasted if we did use the white wine! All in all, this relatively simple dish was a great way to round out 2020. To more eating and cooking in 2021!

Married Cooking: Okonomiyaki

So what do you do when you have a lot of vegetables, flour, and an almost empty bottle of Kewpie? Make okonomiyaki of course! 

We tried out the recipe from this video. But since we didn’t have dashi, pickled ginger, broth, bacon, or okonomiyaki sauce on hand, we made do with what we have just before this pandemic Christmas.

Ingredients:

½ head Cabbage

1 pc Carrot

¼ kg Baguio beans

1 ½ cup All-purpose flour

¼ cup Cornstarch

2 pcs Eggs

1 cup Water

1 bottle of Kewpie mayo

Steps:

1. Chop or shred the vegetables finely to your preferred size, but smaller pieces are easier to manage.
2. In a separate bowl or container, sift in the flour and cornstarch, add the two eggs and mix.
3. Pour the water in and mix further until the batter has a smooth consistency. 
4. Add the vegetables and mix in again.  
5. In a flat pan (or in our case, a non-stick wok), place some oil to make sure the batter mix doesn’t stick.
6. Pour some batter into the pan once the oil is hot and leave for around 10 minutes over medium to medium-low heat. For best results, cover the pan to get that golden brown color on top.
7. Flip the okonomiyaki to cook the bottom for 5 more minutes.
8. Serve on a plate with a generous helping of Kewpie mayo on top.

I made more than enough for breakfast the next day as well, so this recipe would probably serve around 4 to 6 people. 

Rating Score:

GERD Score: 5 / 5: As long as one remembers to chew slowly and thoroughly, as well as go easy on the oil, this recipe should be an easy-to-make meal for many of us dealing with GERD. 

Neurodivergent Score: 5 / 5: Fresh ingredients galore make this a friendly dish. It may be possible to substitute wheat flour with gluten-free alternatives (after all, there is okonomiyaki made with mochi) for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. The best part about okonomiyaki is that it is a flexible dish, and ingredients can be added or substituted into the basic pancake to suit one’s health needs. 

Team Glasses Score:  5 / 5: Looks like this recipe’s a keeper and something we will try again here at home. It’s easy to make, filling, and can be healthy too, as long as one preps it right.

Broccoli Au Gratin

Broccoli Au Gratin

What happens when there are some odds and ends in the fridge (including a head of broccoli), and someone is feeling fancy on a work night? The answer: broccoli au gratin! 

This was going to be an especial challenge, since most of Lee’s experience with eating anything au gratin involves potatoes and little else. As for me, I’ve enjoyed a variety of au gratin dishes with fish as well as vegetables, but have never actually tried cooking one myself. An additional challenge came up in the fact that we do not have an oven yet, so we had to look for recipes that involved using only a pan. We decided to take a leap of faith and try this out on a head of broccoli that absolutely had to be used that evening. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 head of broccoli
• Nitrite-free bacon
• 1 white onion
• 1 stick of butter
• Flour
• Soy milk
• Olive oil
• Pepper
• Dried oregano
• Non-dairy cheese/s (note: Yes, cheeses. One can use any combination of cheeses for this dish. We elected to use Cheddar, Brie, Mozzarella, and Parmesan) 

Key Steps: 

1. Wash and chop the broccoli into florets. We also decided to strip and chop up the stem into small cubes. Chop the onion finely as well, set aside. 

2. Chop some Cheddar into tiny bits (note that non-dairy cheddar does not like being grated). Set aside about half of the Cheddar. Mix the other half of the Cheddar with chopped Brie and Mozzarella. The proportions may vary by taste. 

3. Make a cheese sauce by melting half a stick of butter over a medium to low flame (do not allow this to brown and burn), before mixing in with flour. Once smooth, add in the soy milk. As soon as any remaining lumps have been broken up, add in the first half of chopped Cheddar. Allow this to melt, keep stirring till smooth and well blended. Set aside. 

4. In a clean pan, cook the bacon in olive oil till brown and crispy. Add in the onions, saute till clear. Then add the remaining half stick of butter, allow to melt. Keep stirring while adding in the broccoli. Cook the broccoli till the stems are tender. Season with pepper and oregano to taste. 

5. Lower the flame and add the cheese sauce to cover and coat all the broccoli and bacon. Sprinkle with the mixture of Cheddar, Brie, and Mozzarella, then top with some grated Parmesan. Turn the heat up to medium and cover for about five minutes to allow the cheese to melt and bubble. Take off the heat immediately and serve hot!

Rating Score: 

GERD Score: 4 / 5: With the lessened dairy content, this dish makes it a bit more manageable for people with GERD. Use moderate to low amounts of butter (or a vegan alternative), especially on a non-stick pan. Though if one can’t tolerate onion or couldn’t eat it due to dietary restrictions, one could opt without these.

Neurodivergent Score: 4 / 5 : This dish is pretty free of preservatives (nitrite free bacon for the win here), and has no artificial coloration. Using vegan cheese and soy milk is also a plus here. A drawback to our take on it is the massive amount of butter involved, but some recipes recommend using vegan butter instead, especially for those with very bad lactose intolerance. In the same vein, people living with gluten intolerance can use gluten free flours such as rice flour or tapioca for the sauce. 

Team Glasses Score: 4 /5: We are definitely making this again, and perhaps with more vegan friendly revisions. It looks complicated and does take a lot of prep work, thus making it a bit less handy for busy weeknights, but this is a good weekend entree. 

Married Cooking: Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Welcome to another edition of Married Cooking. For most of my childhood, I enjoyed the occasional Chinese food with family and those have stuck with me for a long time now. However, some thoughts surfaced, “How do I introduce it to my wife without triggering her health concerns with MSG?” Simple. We decided to cook it ourselves. But what to cook? After watching this video and checking out the recipe, some Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup was what the doctor ordered.

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

We did some tweaks to the recipe due to a lack of time to get all the ingredients, as well as lack of availability here:

for the spice bag:

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns

2 whole star anise

for the beef braise:

1 pound|1/2 kg beef shank with the bone on

¼ cup|60 ml canola oil

1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 head garlic, peeled and smashed

1 (2-inch) piece ginger, sliced 1/4-inch thick

1 tablespoon soy bean paste

1 cup|250 ml Siaoxing wine

½ cup|125 ml soy sauce

4 small tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 yellow onion, halved

½ fuji apple, roughly chopped

6 medium-sized shitake mushrooms, diced.

for the pickles:

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup pickled vegetables, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

salt, to taste

for the noodles and serving, per bowl:

white wheat noodles

1 teaspoon light soy

1 teaspoon sesame oil

½ teaspoon black vinegar

couple grinds fresh black pepper

scallions

Directions:

1. Start with making the spice bag. Place these in a cheesecloth and tie with butcher’s twine, but you can use a handkerchief and a clean rubber band. Set it aside for later.

2. Braise the beef by placing it in a pot of boiling water. Take it out after around 2 or 3 minutes. Let it rest for a bit.

3. Drain the pot and wipe it down with some kitchen towels or a clean cloth. 

4. Using the same pot, sauté the ginger, garlic, and scallions (in that order) for around 3 to 4 minutes. 

5. Add the soy paste and cook for around 2 to 3 minutes, then the rice wine and soy sauce so it doesn’t burn.

6. After 3 minutes, add in the remaining ingredients for the braise, along with the spice bag.

7. Simmer the braise for 2 hours or until the beef is just about tender (but not falling off the bone).

8. Take five minutes to boil the shitake mushrooms in the braise and then set aside.

9. Turn off the heat and let the beef rest in the braise to absorb some of the flavor back in. 

10. Take the beef out and cut to your desired length. In our case, since we only have a smaller piece, we cut into smaller slices.

11. In a separate pan, sauté the ginger in oil over medium heat for a minute, then add in the pickles and sugar for around three minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and place in a container and leave it to chill inside the fridge.

12. Lastly, cook some whole wheat noodles in boiling water. Once it’s cooked, rinse under cold water and quickly dip back to boiling water before building the individual bowls.

13. On each bowl, put in all the soup base ingredients, then the cooked noodles and some braising liquid, as well as the beef and mushrooms. Garnish with some scallions and the cooked pickles.

While it ended up as a late lunch for the both of us, it was quite an experience and a rare treat for Kat. It reminded me of a lighter version of the beef brisket noodles I’ve had in Chinese restaurants here but without the sleepy feeling after. Overall, it made for a wonderful and healthy meal, and a recipe worth trying in our kitchen and yours.

Quick Veggie and Beef Hotpot

Don’t let the picture fool you. This isn’t like our more familiar “nilaga” or “sinigang”. This relatively easy vegetable soup takes a hint more from French hotpot recipes. It’s something that can be cooked after a busy Friday commute. and even stretched out to the next day.

Basic Ingredients:

• 100-200 grams of beef (we used beef shank here, but brisket will do. It is best to use cuts that are not as full of tendons and other tough bits).
• 5-6 native tomatoes
• 1/2 cabbage
• 20-30 French beans
• Salt and pepper
• Water to cover the beef, and then some

Optional Ingredients:

• Vegetable bouillon
• Beef bones, with the marrow
• Dried herbs of one’s choice (good options include rosemary, oregano, or thyme)
• Pasta

How to Cook

1. Slice the beef thinly and cover with water in a large pot. Season with salt and pepper. If using the beef bones, add them as well. If using dry herbs, tie them up in a cheesecloth before adding to the pot with water. Simmer this for about an hour, till the beef is very soft and tender. and the broth is very aromatic.
2. Take the broth off the fire, remove the beef (as well as the bones and the herbs) and set aside. At this point, one may run the broth through a strainer to make it clearer and remove some of the fat and bits floating on the surface. Dispose of the herbs and the bones….or give the bones to the dog after setting aside any marrow for later use.
3. Chop the tomatoes, remove the seeds. No need to peel them here
4. Chop the cabbage, make sure to remove the bitter center.
5. Remove the ends of the French beans. No need to chop them further here
6. Put the beef broth back on the burner, keep it simmering at a medium heat. Add first the tomatoes, cook until very soft and wrinkled
7. Add the cabbage and French beans once the tomatoes are cooked. If using bouillon, it may be added at this point.
8. Once the cabbage and French beans are cooked (they should be soft and easy to prick with a fork, but not very soggy), return the beef and any marrow to the soup. If needed, add more water so that all the ingredients are covered.
9. Correct the seasoning with salt and pepper as desired. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes on low heat.
10. If using pasta, precook the pasta till it is just firm or almost al dente. Add the cooked pasta to the soup to simmer for 5 more minutes.
11. Serve immediately! This can be eaten straight out of the pot or served in individual bowls. Another way is to serve this like a French pot au feu, with the meat and vegetables served separately from the soup, which is then also served in individual bowls.

Chicken Sopas on a Sunny Day

We’re back! For Sunday brunch we went for our take on a favorite comfort food: chicken sopas. When this dish is mentioned what usually comes to mind is a rich soup with macaroni, vegetables and chicken cooked in broth and cream, best served up on a rainy day. Today being a hot weekend, we decided to make a lighter version of this dish, which is both filling as well as palate-cleansing in one go. 

Total Run Time: 1.5 hours to 2 hours

Ingredients:

• Half a kilo of chicken 
• Pasta (any shape)
• Carrots (1 to 2 large ones, or a handful of baby carrots)
• One red onion
• 7-9 cloves of garlic
• 5 cups of water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fish sauce (patis)

Key Steps and Notes

1. Boil the chicken until very tender in about 3 cups of water mixed with salt and pepper. We elected to use chicken thighs since we like dark meat. However one can use white meat such as the breast, or a mix of different cuts. Chicken fillets of breast or thigh may also be used, and may make the next steps easier. While boiling the chicken, one can skim off the fat and froth that float to the surface to make a clearer broth. 

2. While boiling the chicken, dice the carrots and set aside. Chop the onions finely, set aside. Mince the garlic, set aside. 

3. Once the chicken is tender enough, take it off the heat. Save the broth for the next step. Let the chicken cool before shredding finely. This is why using fillets may be easier, since there will be no bones to contend with. 

4. Cook the pasta using the broth saved from the chicken. Make sure the pasta comes out al dente or just almost al dente if one wants a firmer pasta in the final product. Most sopas recipes use macaroni, but we decided to use penne for a change. 

5. In a soup pot, saute onions till brown, then add the garlic. Once the garlic is cooked, sear the shredded chicken in this mixture. Pour in the remaining water (about 1 and a half cups). Cover with a lid and simmer up to a rolling boil.
6. Add the cooked pasta after 5 minutes. Season with pepper and fish sauce to taste. Leave to simmer without the lid for 5-10 more minutes but do not let this reduce too much. 

7. Serve hot! This is good for about 2 people, perhaps with some leftover the next day for breakfast or to bring to work. 

To adapt this to a rainy day version, one can add ginger and more vegetables. 

Rating Scale

GERD scale: 4.5 / 5: This one’s good for sharing or solo eating if you have GERD, but do take it easy on the oil, garlic, and onion if trying this out alone. 

Neurodivergent scale: 4.5 / 5: This soup is light and made without any preservatives or artificial colorants. Although pasta is traditionally used for this dish, people with gluten intolerances can switch this out for gluten free alternatives such as rice noodles
Team Glasses Scale: 4.5 / 5: We’re adding this in our repertoire of dishes to make on a fairly regular basis, as it does tick off the boxes for what we want in a meal. It can also be easily revved up to its “rainy day” version for a more sumptuous meal.

Married Cooking: Making Passata

Welcome to another edition of Married Cooking. This time, Kat and I made some passata by using this recipe from Stefania Balducci. We bought our tomatoes along with other vegetables from Session Groceries. For this batch, we used around 1kg of tomatoes.

Stefania’s recipe was as simple as it gets, with some tomatoes, a pinch of salt, and some fresh basil leaves for a fresher taste. In our case, we didn’t have any basil on hand so we made do with what we have.Chop the tomatoes into cubes with a sharp knife. The goal is to keep as much of the juices and flesh as intact as possible. 

1. Place the cubed tomatoes into a stainless steel pot (in our case, a non-stick one) and add a pinch of salt.

2. Cover the pot and let it gently simmer for five to ten minutes.

Simmering the Tomatoes

3. Take the tomatoes out of the pot and separate its flesh and juices from the skin and the seeds. In the video, she uses a food mill but since we didn’t have it, I made do with a strainer and a wooden spoon. Using the latter is a tedious process so we’re definitely getting a food mill soon.

Straining

4. Place the strained tomatoes back into the pot and reduce it for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Voila, you now have passata.

A few hours later, we used it with some black olives, garlic, and Parmegiano Regiano. It’s less acidic and watery to use than typical store-bought tomato sauce, making it a tasty alternative. We highly recommend using it not just for pasta dishes, but also as a topping for homemade pizzas, bruschettas, or anything needing a good dose of tomato sauce.