chicken breast quickies - that didn't come out right

square plates are awesome - like a canvas!

Sautéing or braising chicken breasts in a fry pan has got to be the easiest and quickest way of preparing a meat-based meal, but I’m surprised to find how many people still have trouble with this. I’ve prepared a few pointers to make the process a bit more clear and get you on your way to happier, healthier breast-feeding.

These chicken breasts were reserved for cooking from a previous post on chicken stock. Check that out if you want to learn more about stock creation.

The two biggest concerns around the breast appear to be knowing when it is properly cooked through, and what to do about seasonings and flavors. The second concern starts first. Think of flavors in advance and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble – better than the scenario where the thing’s already in the pan and you realize too late that you didn't plan the next step.

This goes back to the idea of mise en place, the French way of saying don’t have the things you want to use in an inaccessible pantry back cupboard. Keep things you use frequently handy, and get the things you want to cook with out and ready before cooking. It’s a simple idea but it makes things go much more smoothly.

This time around we’re keeping our recipe very simple, but you can work in all kinds of things after getting this down. Of course the vegetables here can be switched out with others of your choice. The lovely thing about what we're doing here with salting the vegetables a bit while cooking is that this will end up making its own sauce, by drawing the vegetable juices out. That just sounds delicious already right? Say it with me now - vegetable juices.

The Procedure:

In the video, I previously had poached these breasts in water to help create a chicken stock base. You can poach in boiling water for about 1 minute if you like, but if you have the time, you might as well turn that water into a chicken stock since you're already off to a good start.

Salt and pepper your breasts – both sides – and rub in bit of oil with maybe an herb. That's plenty right there, but I put it on a plate of sliced onions for some more flavor, since I wanted to cook onions anyway.

Get your frying pan hot on high heat, and then lower to medium heat.
 

over a bed of onion slices for a nice addition

Add your oil, wait a moment for it to get hot as well.

Place in your ingredients starting with the hardest ones, like carrots. You don't have to cook these for so very long, just a minute or two is fine.

Make some room in the middle, and place your chicken in the pan skin-side down – away from yourself in case of oil splashes – and listen for a sizzle (and make sure it’s there). I reiterate - if there is no sizzle, the pan has gotten too cold. If you just leave it on medium the whole time this shouldn't be a problem.
 

Keep on medium and don't walk away from the frying pan too much, chicken doesn't take that long. This is key - do not move the chicken around. One flip is what we want, so leave it and only check to see if there's that golden color on the skin.

When the skin has gotten nice and golden, turn it over. It should only take 2-3 minutes per side, but chicken breasts vary in thickness so that's only a rule of thumb. When the chicken is done, take it out of the pan (or it’ll keep cooking) and put it on a plate to rest. One note, if you cover the pan with a lid like I do towards the end of the video here, the steam will cook the chicken from all around, so it'll stay juicy.
 

There are two methods for confirming that the chicken is cooked through. One is to use a meat thermometer – internal temp should be 74 degrees C or 165 degrees F. The other is to cut open the thickest part and confirm that there’s no pink meat. Once you cook a lot of these, a third option opens up and that’s to check by feel, the spring-back of the chicken when you poke it. By the way, I've noticed the look-and-see method only works for chicken breasts, for other meats it’s better to have a thermometer around.
 

And oh yeah, this is a chicken breast, don’t throw the skin away. That’s the best part! If you’re that worried about the extra calories, well, just don’t be worried. You’ve already gone lean by going chicken, right? Who would want to get rid of that crispy golden deliciousness?

Ingredients from the video

two chicken breasts SKIN ON
1 onion sliced
1 stock broccoli
1 carrot
2 big tomatoes diced
white wine or flavorful liquid (stock etc.)
herbs (thyme and sage here in the vid - you could also use dried if that's all you have, you poor thing)

is there ever a good time to bring up whale meat?

 It’s probably difficult to take an unbiased stance on the topic of hunting whales for whale meat. It is a reality however, that in certain places, like Japan (and where else?), whale has been hunted and eaten for hundreds of years. During the restoration after the war, whale hunters supplied the impoverished population with thousands of tons of whale meat to bolster food stocks.

MacAurthur, as it happens, encouraged this practice – possibly because it was a cheap source of food, and also possibly because excess whale oil was then taken back to the United States and Europe, where it was used in the making of many things from lamp oil to soap. In fact, it became such a main source of food that only a few years after the war, over fifty percent of the meat eaten in Japan was whale meat. It’s since the end of the war that whale meat became a staple of school lunch, and even though it lost its popularity as Japanese consumers were able to afford pricier meats, asking around I’ve noticed most people remember having eaten whale at school growing up.

The loophole - if you want to call it a loophole - that Japanese whalers have operated on since the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 is a provision that allows countries to catch a certain number of whales for scientific research. The meat from these scientific catches is then distributed for sale and eventually reaches grocery stores and restaurants. Mm, science meat.

 

Because this is a very sensitive topic to a lot of people, I’ve tried my best to remain neutral, but you can probably pick up my bias anyway. For those of you that live under the “don’t fry it until you try it” mantra, I will just say this – I have eaten whale. A sashimi plate of it was pushed upon my nose under the pretext that it was a cut of beef served rare.

Upon eating the first bite, the old man who had invited me to try it burst out uproariously, “It’s whale! Haha!” I protested that he might have considered a method other than deceiving me into eating it, his words: “What are you, Green Peace?”

shinkansen bento – a step up on the ekiben

Eki, in Japanese, means train station. So the eki bento, or ekiben, is the train station bento box. At stations all around the country, quick bento lunches can be bought right on the station platforms before boarding a long train home, and the Shinkansen bullet trains – equipped with flip-down trays and roomier seating - are the best trains on which to put this practice to use.

But, coming back from my trip to Kanagawa and Tokyo - which ended up being predominantly a culinary excursion - I decided to finish my time with an upgraded ekiben, something the station platforms wouldn’t be able to supply.

Like many train stations in Japan’s larger cities, Shin-Yokohama station is connected to a network of shops and a basement-level food court, although the term food court gives the wrong impression. Laid out like the jewelry section in a department store, vendors sell freshly made bentos of all kinds – whether sushi, chili shrimp, or cob salad. 
 
The price is a bit steeper down here, where they charge per hundred gram, but the quality is high. As you can see here, I went with some maguro tuna sushi and an assortment of tasties like marinated squid, hijiki salad, and salmon roe over noodles.

Put together with some Yebisu white silk beer it cost me near 25 bucks, but all in all, this high-speed picnic made the trip back a lot more comfortable.

a sticky situation with honey, jam, and unlimited crackers

On a drive way out to Karuizawa in Nagano prefecture, I noticed the air getting cooler and cooler as we climbed through the mountains. The snow had nearly all melted away off the Karuizawa ski slopes by the time we got there, but the sakura cherry trees were still in full bloom. Having watched the flowers drop off those trees in my more tropical (well, tropical enough to have a few palm trees, anyways) town of residence a full month before, it was refreshing to see. But that wasn’t the main attraction for driving out into the middle of nowhere.

No, Karuizawa, wouldn’t you know it, is a well-known shopping destination. Fueled by the money pouring from a community of wealthy vacationers and retired salary men with a penchant for golf, this sprawling country club and shopping mall serves all the world brands names that you would expect – Burberry, Chloé, Dunhill, The Gap.

But it wasn’t hand-bags and suit jackets I was looking for. Down the streets and beautifully flowered lanes heading away from the mall, Karuizawa opens itself to the specialties of its region – honey, jam-making, and hand-carved wood furniture.

 
The beauty of these shops was the free samples! Bins of crackers lay out, with sample spoons for the testing and trail of every imaginable type of jam or honey. Fig jam, chestnut tree honey, blueberry and rum jelly. Barely avoiding a diabetic overdose, I munched my way through dozens of shops in search of the perfect cracker bite. I found it in a raspberry and red wine jam that became the purchase of the day. Kudos Karuizawa, now I just need some cheese.

chorizo sausage - not for desayuno today

X marks the spot?

Sausage often is mistaken solely as a breakfast food – and let’s admit it, it works well with eggs. It doesn’t feel fancy enough for dinner, or quite solid enough for lunch. I decided to see if something couldn’t be done about that.

So the goal was a solid, tasty, fine-looking meal. I didn't quite end up with that, but something interesting came of it.

In Japan, there’re all these different ways to cut up mini sausages for bento box lunches, so I figured that was a good starting point. The octopus cut gives the wiener its eight legs, and I used this to make flowers. As you can see though I only managed four legs because of the meat density difference between mini wieners and chorizo.

Since they were top heavy, I needed something that they could stick in like a mashed potato or a pâté. I decided to go with a purée when I discovered that I was out of potatos.

Because I used spicy chorizo, I went with a fresh apple purée – reminiscent of applesauce - to mellow things down. After all, sausage is pork right? The flavors do go well together.

This wouldn’t be enough on its own, but it could work if accompanied by a starch. I don't think it's perfected, but it was good. A work in progress!

honey, I got you some mustard sauce

Honey mustard is an underused sauce. I almost want to say honey mustard is an underused concept. Think about it, it's too often the sauce relegated to McD's and KFC. Fast-food fare. Pushed to the side next to the McNuggets. That's not the image I have of it. This is a sauce that can be elegant, versatile (again my two favorite words), and amazingly poignant. Ham, chicken, salads dressings - there's lots of uses for this basic recipe mixing a spicy tangy seed (mustard) with a sweet natural sugar (honey).

Honey mustard sauce

Pommery, a serious mustard for serious mustard gourmets

●Whole-grain mustard (Pommery, I love you)

●Yellow mustard (or Dijon, which tastes better but is surely less American)

●Soy sauce (just a drop)

●Coarse ground black pepper (accept no pre-ground!)

●Honey (microwaved until thin)

●Something spicy (I like sambala)

●Sea salt (salt is really too obvious to include as an ingredient but hey)

●Ginger powder

Just combine everything in a bowl. Nothing raw here so you can use it immediately if you like as a dip, spread or topping. Super easy and super quick, and of course you can modify the recipe with your own additions.

A note about Moutarde de Meaux Pommery.  This is a French mustard that's been a Pommery family secret since the 1700s. It's a whole-grain mustard, and I'm confident that it's incomparable to any other whole-grain mustard out there. It has the spicy bite of whole mustard seeds, but simultaneously the soft mellowness of Dijon mustard. The recipe is still guarded closely but the ingredients are all natural products from the Meaux region. Even now it comes in an earthenware jar and the wax seal with a distinctly old-world presence to it. By the way, if you're in America and don't recall having seen this one in the store, that's because it's not distributed in America anymore. Import tariffs to America became too high for the small-batch numbers that Pommery produces. More luck for those living in Canada, where it's still available, or if you're like me, in Japan.

Another thing you can do is use it as a marinade for chicken or meat. I also find it to be a nice salad dressing if you emulsify it with oil. If you want to do that, slowly drizzle oil while beating the mixture with a fork or whisk.

You could also pour it into a frying pan and cook it down into a thick drizzle sauce, which will give it rich flavors from the mustard seed. Brilliant.

pottery continued - and to be continued

my first attempt here at making a bowl on the wheel

As promised I have to update you on my newest endeavor - Japanese pottery making. Mr. Sano runs a small workshop out in the foothills on the outskirts of Takamatsu, and he kindly agreed to teach me some of his methods.

Since food and plateware share an obviously integral connection, I thought it'd be nice to learn some techniques while thinking about what could be plated on them.

One thing that I always notice about Japanese earthenware like pottery is that it tends to be more natural in shape - rougher and more reliant on it's materials. The potters are clearly not always aiming for that perfect round shape; plates that look like torn sheets of paper and unspun handmade cups with thick one-sided glazes. Mr. Sano's pottery is a prime example of this, pottery that doesn't deny what it is - dirt and clay.

This time around managed to finish up some bowls, sauce dishes and little things but they still need to be glazed. Update and finished pottery after they get fired.

food graffiti on the bottom of a sauce dish

warabi hunting

up in the hills over the Seto Inland Sea - a good place for warabi hunting

This weekend I was out rooting for warabi - edible bracken fern sprouts -  in the mountains above the Seto Inland Sea. You have to pick them while they're young, before the leaves unfurl and open up and they apparently become inedible. They sort of bury themselves under the dried leaves of the previous year's fern fronds, so you have to search them out.
 

warabi growing in the mountains

To prepare warabi for eating, you first boil up a big pot of water. Keep the sprouts in another bowl. When the water boils up, add a little baking soda to it.

Pour the boiling water over the sproutlings and leave them to soak overnight. Wash them again in cool water, and they're ready to go.

You can also then leave them in a mixture of water, soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar for a few hours if you want an authentic Japanese flavor to it.

Warabi sprouts are filled with a sticky, okra-ish fluid and might be considered an acquired taste, although the flavor isn't very strong in any particular direction.

In Japanese cooking, warabi generally plays the part of small side dishes served with rice and fish. I'm also planning on coming up with some original dishes for this unique ingredient, but I'll get back to you on that later. For now, good hunting!

sudden whim or pottery barn?

So, I decided to take up pottery. I figured, I spend all this time plating food, right. How far back can you take that? Well, I guess it doesn't get much further back than making the plates. The last time I tried this out though was as a student in high school, so I knew I'd need some help.

Fortunately that's where living in rural Japan comes in handy. I have found a teacher, now I just need to get my hands dirty. I'll shoot out another update on this when I have some work to show.

designing from symbols: the yin-yang

The yin-yang is already a symbol derived from life – following the yearly patterns of the sun and moon – and has an obvious balance to it. When we design things, we want to find a kind of balance to the design as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to talk to you about the yin-yang as the Chinese representation of the celestial universe. I needed an easily recognizable symbol that we can talk about, and we’ll be talking about it from a food design perspective.

sweet strawberry salad with balsamic scaloppini

When I start talking about food, there are two distinctions here: balance in appearance, and balance in flavor. Flavor has all the nuances of a painter’s palette; it’s just that we see all the colors and tones with our tongue rather than our eyes. The methods of design are also similar: choosing colors that harmonize as well as colors that contrast is what will intrigue us and keep us interested.

It’s also a simple way of working with meals – choosing dishes in pairs - with each complementing or contrasting the other. Keeping them separate also takes away the worry of trying to blend complicated flavors. Choosing something with color-contrast as well as flavor-contrast will be sure to get all of your senses going. That’s it for the theory, let’s take a look at some ideas:

Sweet strawberry spinach salad yin-yang-ed with balsamic vinaigrette chicken scaloppini

Salt pork cutlet yin-yang-ed with avocado bean sprout purée and Chinese cabbage

Cucumber cod fillet yin-yang-ed with spicy-hot red bell pepper soup

salty pork with avocado bean sprout purée

Basically, you just want to let yourself be creative; thinking about groups of flavors and colors instead of constraining yourself to the names of vegetables. You might be concerned about melon with lamb, but if you thought about caramelized brown with a deep rich green? You might be afraid to put grapefruit with honeyed chicken, but would it bother you to put sweet with sour? Free your artistic palette as well as your sensory palate. Oh yeah, recipes for the dishes pictured here soon!

just what you were looking for!

Welcome to food graffiti! food graffiti a food design blog and something of a New Year's resolution.

I would say design is a way of life, like art is a way of life. I think of  art as a search for beauty, and design as the conscience application of what was found searching.  If art is flowing and shapeless like water, then design is a bottle or a container that gives art a specific form. Art is hard to understand I think, but good design helps anyone recognize what an artist is trying to say.

Food is a necessary part of life as well as a way of it. Everyone knows that eating badly hurts your body. But like eating badly can hurt you, eating well can make you healthier, stronger, and happier. Good design also gives us good impressions, just like bad design gives us bad impressions. Anything can be designed, so of course food can be designed too. Interior designers, city planners, and graphic designers all understand how important good design is to change how people see and think, but chefs understand it too.

The thing is though, not everyone feels confident about making good food, let alone making it look pretty, right? That's where I hope this blog will come in. I want to show you how fun, creative, and original you can be with food without worrying too much about recipes, traditions, or not having the right ingredients on hand at the time. That's why the recipes here are loose and based more on ingredient types rather than specific ingredients - oil, leaves, herbs, that kind of thing. Along the way I hope to show you tips and ideas that will have you - metaphorically - spray-painting the culinary brick wall of your kitchen.

My name is Daniel Chamberlin. By combining good eating with good design I believe anyone can make some awesome food, and I want to share that with you. Take the paint you have laying around - let's make some graffiti!