When most people think of the Japanese dish, the thoughts of chicken teriyaki seem to stay at a restaurant level; a dish always followed by a bill and a busboy. Especially the younger generation.
But this is a dish that I have loved for to long to just limit it to once every couple of months when the craving really gets to me.
So, instead of suppressing my cravings, I decided to try and do the dish myself.
When I sat down to think about what I really needed, it seemed like it was going to be a lot more complicated then it really boiled down to. In all, it requires chicken, rice and some sort of teriyaki sauce/marinade.
For chicken, I used chicken breasts form the 2.5lb. bag of frozen chicken that I have tucked away in my freezer. I used this in an earlier adventure as well.
For rice, I used the cheapest type I could find because to me, it tastes all the same.
For teriyaki sauce, I used Mr Yoshida's. If you're looking for more of an adventure, Google proves to have quite a bit of different options for recipes.
Now, this part of the recipe varies depending on the brand of sauce you get, so be sure to check the bottle and follow directions. For Mr. Yoshida's sauce, it requires that you marinade for 30 minutes. Note that this works with frozen chicken just as much as it does with thawed.
The easiest way to marinade the chicken for me was to put a couple pieces in a plastic bag and pour the sauce over it. Then, set the timer for half the time the sauce brand recommends, and set the bag on a flat surface in the fridge somewhere. Once half the time is up, flip the bag and make sure each piece has a descent amount of sauce covering it, and set the timer for the remaining time.
I find that if this is done first, then by the time the rice is done cooking, the chicken is done marinading and can be cooked pretty fast.
The hardest part I found was not cooking the chicken, but the rice. Rice has proven to be one of the trickiest foods to nail down just right in my cooking endeavors.
I have heard many different ways of cooking it, but there seems to be one basic rule: two cups of water for every one cup of rice. This is a meal that can also be made in small and large servings, which is nice.
Once the water is boiling, add the rice in, stir it a bit and cover it. Be sure to turn the heat down to a simmer so it doesn't boil over. Set the timer for 20 minutes. Be sure to just leave the rice alone. Don't stir it because it won't get cooked evenly.
Some people cook the rice by leaving the top off, and letting it simmer for ten minutes. That way has never worked for me, so I just stick to what I know.
Once the rice is on it's way, I cook the chicken. I use a George Foreman "Grilling Machine", which yes, at times can be a bit ridiculous in nature, but it cooks the food very fast. I think it's wonderful because it's pretty darn easy to use. The chicken cooks up in about five minutes, so time it right with the rice.
To clean up, make sure that you soak the pan and the grill because it will make easy clean up for when you're done eating. To soak the grill, I just take a couple wet paper towels and let it sit in the grill until. This makes it so that whatever is left over from cooking the chicken doesn't stick to badly to it.
Serve up the rice over the chicken, and if you want more flavor, you can always pour more sauce over the chicken and rice when it's on the plate. Sesame seeds for garnish on top are always good too.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Armenian Bazaar
In San Fransico, there is a little Christian church tucked away next to a fire station. It holds its services on Sunday morning, has the pancake breakfasts, holds pancake breakfasts, the whole sha-bang.
But this church has a popular tradition that not to many other churches participate. Mostly because they are Armenian, partly because no one does it like them.
Every year in October the church, St. Johns, puts on a bazaar.
Now, most people have no clue where Armenia is, or that it even existed, let alone they have no idea what a bazaar (pronounced "bizarre") is.
The country Armenia is located right next to Turkey and is quite small. The country used to be very large, but after the Turkish nationalist movements in the 1940s, a large chunk of the land was taken and there was a mass genocide. This unfortunately has happened two or three times since then, mostly because Armenia is the only Christian country in the Middle East. Outside of St. Johns there is a memorial for all those who died in the latest genocide in the early 1990s.
A bazaar is a Middle Eastern market where merchants come to sell goods on the street, a lot like the mock markets seen in Indiana Jones and Aladdin.
The bazaar at St. Johns isn't a whole lot like those markets, but more so just an assembly line of food. The food is paid for per item.
Traditional Armenian food is like that of Greek or Moroccan food. Lamb is the common meat of choice, and everything seems to have a deep, supple and sweet taste to it. A lot of food in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region tends to overlap and blend together. Most Middle Eastern deserts almost always include the popular baklava which is, depending on the region, some sort of nut chopped up very fine and put in between layers of very thin sheets of dough.
The most popular of all the Armenian food is a dish called kufta (pronounced "koophta"). This is essentially large ground lamb meatballs. It contains two layers. The outer layer is just pure ground lamb and the filling is ground lamb mixed with spices, such as parsley, and pine nuts.
The church, in preparation for the bazaar which has picked up speed in the past couple of years, starts making kufta three months early. They made a batch of 5,000 kufta and ended up having to make more for the event. The church also put an industrial freezer in the back of the church kitchen.
They also have dolmades which are grape leaf rolls that are baked. Dolmade is the Arab word meaning something stuffed. They also have cheese berugs, which are basically apple turnovers, but instead of apple filling, they have a cheese and spice filling. I know, it doesn't sound that great, but take my word for it, it's delicious.
My dad has taken my brother and I every year as far back into my childhood as I can remember, and my grandparents have taken my dad and his three siblings there for as long as he can remember. Since I've been away at college, it's been a reason for me to go home and see the whole family.
And so, the tradition continues.
But this church has a popular tradition that not to many other churches participate. Mostly because they are Armenian, partly because no one does it like them.
Every year in October the church, St. Johns, puts on a bazaar.
Now, most people have no clue where Armenia is, or that it even existed, let alone they have no idea what a bazaar (pronounced "bizarre") is.
The country Armenia is located right next to Turkey and is quite small. The country used to be very large, but after the Turkish nationalist movements in the 1940s, a large chunk of the land was taken and there was a mass genocide. This unfortunately has happened two or three times since then, mostly because Armenia is the only Christian country in the Middle East. Outside of St. Johns there is a memorial for all those who died in the latest genocide in the early 1990s.
A bazaar is a Middle Eastern market where merchants come to sell goods on the street, a lot like the mock markets seen in Indiana Jones and Aladdin.
The bazaar at St. Johns isn't a whole lot like those markets, but more so just an assembly line of food. The food is paid for per item.
Traditional Armenian food is like that of Greek or Moroccan food. Lamb is the common meat of choice, and everything seems to have a deep, supple and sweet taste to it. A lot of food in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region tends to overlap and blend together. Most Middle Eastern deserts almost always include the popular baklava which is, depending on the region, some sort of nut chopped up very fine and put in between layers of very thin sheets of dough.
The most popular of all the Armenian food is a dish called kufta (pronounced "koophta"). This is essentially large ground lamb meatballs. It contains two layers. The outer layer is just pure ground lamb and the filling is ground lamb mixed with spices, such as parsley, and pine nuts.
The church, in preparation for the bazaar which has picked up speed in the past couple of years, starts making kufta three months early. They made a batch of 5,000 kufta and ended up having to make more for the event. The church also put an industrial freezer in the back of the church kitchen.
They also have dolmades which are grape leaf rolls that are baked. Dolmade is the Arab word meaning something stuffed. They also have cheese berugs, which are basically apple turnovers, but instead of apple filling, they have a cheese and spice filling. I know, it doesn't sound that great, but take my word for it, it's delicious.
My dad has taken my brother and I every year as far back into my childhood as I can remember, and my grandparents have taken my dad and his three siblings there for as long as he can remember. Since I've been away at college, it's been a reason for me to go home and see the whole family.
And so, the tradition continues.
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