Yogurt Marinated Chicken – Everybody out of Cupboard/Roll-call

When chicken goes on sale, I like to make a yogurt marinated chicken.

It’s sort of like tandoori or butter chicken, only I don’t use garam masala in the spice blend – mostly because garam masala as a mix is to expensive for me to buy when I’ll only use it once every 3 months, and the other is because it has cinnamon in it and it’s something that my taste buds can’t stand, and other spices that I can’t really taste. That being said, it’s cheaper to make your own mix and there’s plenty of recipes for that online elsewhere.

I call it Everybody out of the Cupboard, or Cupboard Roll-call because it uses all the odd spices that I normally don’t use very much. It’s a great way to use them up, because buying spices at the grocery store is generally a case of -this will expire/go bad/go stale before I use it all- and they can sit in the cupboard for years. What about a bulk food store you say? Public transit, it takes a minimum 3-4 hours roundtrip to get to it, too much a hassle. People clean out their fridges and pantries before things can go off, but never think to do the same to their spice cabinet/drawers.

1. Chicken Breasts – sliced into strips or 1″ chunks, your preference.
   2-3 breasts for these quantities. If doing more, increase your yogurt & lemon juice.
2. 1 cup yogurt – preferably plain, greek style, but I skim the top half of one of those fruit on the bottom types and it works fine enough for me. Vanilla also works.
3. 1 small can/6 tbsp tomato paste
4. 1/4 cup lemon juice – bottled is fine, I can’t afford fresh
5. 1 tsp each of the following spices

• ground ginger
• garlic salt
• ground cumin
• ground tumeric
• cayenne powder
• onion powder
• dry mustard – also known as mustard powder, dry mustard powder, hot mustard powder
• salt
• ground/cracked black pepper

For a more ‘authentic’ taste, you can add ground coriander, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, ground cloves & ground nutmeg. Together with ground black pepper & ground cumin makes the garam masala mix.

Any spice that isn’t in the thyme/basil/sage etc category can go in the mix really.

1. Throw everything into a ziplock bag and mix together, then refrigerate at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
2. Grease a baking/casserole dish, then dump in everything from the ziplock bag, including the extra marinade.
3. Cook @ 350 in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. You might need extra time if you’ve added more chicken and depending on the thickness of your chicken.

You could figure out how to adapt it to the IPot, but I’ve tried it a couple different ways and using the Seal Lock when cooking makes an ungodly mess, and without the Seal Lock it takes the same amount of time as it does in the oven, or even longer using the slow cook method.

Serve over rice or your favourite grain/starch, or use as the meat in tacos or pita wraps. I was forced to make a lettuce bowl – it’s there at the bottom, because I tried a cheap brand of pita wraps and they were too flimsy to make a wrap/burrito.

 

For those daring, you can increase the yogurt and lemon juice for volume and even do a whole chicken(either whole or split the spine to spread it out), marinate overnight and then roast it in the oven.

Don’t like using a ziplock bag because it’s plastic/wasteful? That’s fine. You could even marinate it in your baking dish as long as you include 1/4 cup of oil but I find that sometimes the parts on top don’t get marinated enough. Just don’t use a plastic tub container because it’ll ruin the plastic – spaghetti sauce ring like ruin it.

Spice Blend – Chinese Five Spice

Just for my records, can’t keep track of what’s in what and getting confused when people add a blend to a recipe then just call for most of everything in the blend to be added to the recipe separately. Sourced from a post on All Recipes.

Chinese-Style Five Spice Rub
Ingredients
1/4 cup whole star anise pods
5 tablespoons whole cloves
5 tablespoons Szechuan peppercorns
5 tablespoons fennel seed
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
Directions
Grind the anise pods, cloves, peppercorns, fennel, and cinnamon in a 
spice mill or with a mortar and pestle to a fine powder. 
Store in a sealed container in a cool dark place until needed.

Spice Blend – Adobo

 

Adobo Spice Blend – not to be confused with filipino adobo which is a cooking style and not a spice blend, as far as im concerned. That gets really confusing, especially when watching cooking shows on tv.

These Spice Blend recipes are just for my records, and most of them come from posts on All Recipes.

 

Homemade Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning
3 tablespoons garlic powder
2 1/2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper 
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
   Directions
Whisk garlic powder, salt, black pepper, oregano, and turmeric 
together in a bowl. Store in an airtight container.

We’ll see how trying to credit/source these things go formatting wise.

Spice Blend – Garam Masala

Garam Masala, this is just for my records really because I keep forgetting what’s in what, or getting confused when a recipe calls for a spice blend but then adds -more- of a spice already in the blend. I’ve seen one recipe in particular that calls for garam masala but then called for 6 of the 7 spices to be added on top of it, which is, rather pointless.

Garam Masala

• cumin
• coriander
• cardamom
• black peppercorn
• cinnamon
• cloves
• nutmeg

Quoted from All Recipes, and I have no idea how to do Source Credit or Footnote post in here.

1 Simple Spice Mix, 8 Thrilling Indian Dishes

“The Spice Mix: Easy Garam Masala

Garam masala is a fragrant blend of ground spices that comes in countless variations. This basic recipe combines cumin, coriander, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Compare it with Kashmiri Garam Masala, a dry-roasted spice blend that includes those seven spices plus bay leaves, fennel seed, and mace; or Tandoori Masala, which includes the seven plus garlic powder, ginger, fenugreek, and mace.”

Everybody Out of the Cupboard – Spice Blend.

Make a Dent in the Spice Cupboard spice blend.

This works great as a spice rub for pork or chicken, or in a yogurt marinade for chicken.

Start at 1 tsp for 2 servings of meat, double the quantity of spice every time you double the meat portion.

• ground ginger
• garlic salt
• ground cumin
• ground turmeric
• cayenne powder
• onion powder
• dry mustard – also known as mustard powder, dry mustard powder, hot mustard powder
• salt
• ground/cracked black pepper

IPot – Lemon Butter Fish & Potatoes

You’ll need an “oven-safe” Dish* that fits your IPot, and a Steamer Rack*.

Ingredients:

• Fish Fillet* – any white fish will do.
• Butter – a stick/block of butter, cut into ‘pats’ or ‘squares’.
• Lemon Juice – 1/4 cup, ish.
• Spices: 1/2 tsp Dill, 1/2 tsp Cilantro, salt & pepper to taste.
• 2 cloves garlic – peeled, crushed & sliced/diced.
• Potatoes – a handful of small/baby potatoes, or however many you think you’ll eat.

1. Cut your fillet so that it fits in the dish. If you have to stack them on top of each other, that’s okay, but wait till you sprinkle your spices over them.
2. Spice your fillet/s, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste, and the dill and cilantro.
3. Arrange the fillet/s in the dish, placing butter pieces between the pieces if you have to layer the fish to fit.
4. Throw the garlic over the fish, and arrange the butter pieces however you want them.
5. Pour the lemon juice around the edge of the dish and not over the fish as to not disturb the spices.
6. Cover your dish, if it doesn’t have a lid that’ll fit, aluminum foil or seran wrap will do.
7. In the bottom of your IPot, place your potatoes and arrange your steamer rack. Cover the potatoes at least half-way with water. Then place your Dish on the steamer rack.
8. Set the lid & sealing value, turn on manual for 20 minutes to be sure the potatoes cook all the way thru. If you skip the potatoes, you might only need 10-15 minutes, else you’ll overcook your fish.
9. Try not to burn yourself or spill anything when getting your Dish out so that you can get to the potatoes.

I also meant to put Celery Salt on this but completely forgot. If someone wants to try before I make this again and report back on the taste, let me know how it goes.

I could also recommend that you try adding milk or cream instead of the lemon juice, and adding lemon to taste when you put it on your plate. But I don’t normally have dairy in the apartment since it’s just me, it’s a waste of money because it spoils to fast.

*Potatoes – I recommend using yellow baby potatoes, but I used blue potatoes because I had to. The cheapest bag of potatoes for me is a ‘local’ 5lb bag of small/baby potatoes that’s a mix of blue, red & yellow that costs 3.99$, the only problem with it is that I find that blue potatoes -do not- keep, at all, as in they rot within a week. They do not sprout, they ROT as in goey/juicey Rot. So I pretty much cook the blue ones the same day I get them home out of sheer paranoia.

*Fish Fillet :I used a Hake fish fillet today, because it was cheaper than Cod or Halibut. You could use tilapia, or basa. Any white fish would work really. I also see no reason why it couldn’t work from frozen other than getting it to fit in your dish. You could use a fish like salmon, but the spices would likely need to be adjusted.

*”Oven Safe” Dish : Finding these to fit a 6qt or especially the 3qt IPot’s are -hard-, especially one that’ll fit on top a Steamer Rack. Finding one that isn’t a burn hazard of a nuisance that you can get out while it’s hot is even harder. You might have to do your potatoes separately, and skip the dish all together.

*Steamer Rack : Anything in Stainless or Silicone covered, that raises your dish off the bottom of the pot, above the water line and still allows you to put your “dish” in the pot. If you skip the potatoes, it can be a stainless steel trivet. If you have a shallow “dish”, then you could possibly even get away with using one of those stainless beer can chicken stands. I picked up mine from an asian grocery store, they had two with different heights and also had a trivet version. Why the emphasis on stainless, because anything else like copper or cast iron can react to your recipe and ruin your IPot Insert, and who knows that the hell is in the painted ones.

Mock Sushi House Dressing

This isn’t for the Instant Pot, but it is a favourite of mine that I don’t get to enjoy very often because Single Occupancy grocery shopping does not convey to keeping things like carrots or salads in the fridge before they spoil.
This is the only salad dressing aside from a tangy full fat caesar that I can stand to eat.

Mock Sushi House Ginger Dressing
yields at least 2 servings, but probably should stand for 4
(Portion control is a suggestion, not a rule. Unless it’s medication or doctors orders.)

• 1/3 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/3 Cup Sushi Vinegar (White Wine Vinegar can be substituted)
• 1/2 pkg 320g baby carrots (loosely 2 cups OR about 3 medium sized, peeled & chopped)
• 1 ” piece of peeled, fresh ginger (thumbprint sized), more or less to taste.
• 1 Tsp Soy Sauce, more or less to taste.
• 1 Tsp tomato paste (tube kind is fine), more or less to taste.
• 2 Tbsp lemon/lime juice(2 squeezes), more or less to taste.

Combine all in a high powered blender, blending until fairly smooth & creamy(no chunks). Takes about 45 seconds with a Ninja Bullet.

This recipe is pretty much all about personal tastes, and I’ve browsed about a hundred different versions online before I settled on this base recipe after a little experimentation.

Doesn’t seem zesty enough? Sub out the vinegar for orange juice.
Missing a bit of tang? Add a little sesame oil(it goes a -long- way) or increase the tomato paste.
Still seems like something’s ‘off’ and not what you were expecting? Try a different oil. Most can’t find a difference or care if they do, but a more authentic oil to use would be peanut oil. Or use the lightest tasting oil you can find. Cold/solid coconut oil however wouldn’t be recommended, the cold of the salad would solidify it again.
Don’t have tomato paste in a tube or can’t find it, a good ketchup will do in a pinch, just keep in mind the more you use, the more it’ll go from orange to red(because there’s food coloring in most ketchups).

As long as you don’t go to crazy with the volumes, you can increase or double the ratio’s of all the ingredients to your personal preferences.
I prefer these measurements as listed for how ‘thick’ the dressing is. It tastes very similar to my favour local sushi house, but it’s thicker and less runny than theirs. If you prefer your dressing a little looser, blend it again with a little more vinegar for tang, or oil for ‘coverage’, or add some orange juice, not much is needed.

This version can easily cover an entire medium sized bag of salad. Serve over iceberg or a garden salad blend, but I also like it over spinach or spring mix. But im a heathen that way. Add an avocado if you can, that’s an option that must be tried with a Sushi House Salad if available. Don’t forget you can prevent browning by squeezing lemon juice over the avocado as soon as you have it cut in half and removed the pit(removed at your own safety hazard).

Instant Pot – Ham & Potato Casserole -Failure 1

Inspired by the potato 3 ways video by Tasty Japan, and the very bad job Google Translate does with the recipe instructions. The recipe itself came thru as Ham & Potato Lasagne, I personally can’t call it a lasagna because of the potato no-pasta.

 

And it totally failed, I used a baking dish that I found that miraculously fits in the pot, for all those recipes that say finish in the oven(of which I have never managed to do to any great success). The intention was to finish it off in the oven to crisp the cheese.

In order to use a baking dish, you typically use a trivet or something to rise it off the bottom of the pot and put enough water in the bottom to use a steam factor (and my paranoia that without it I’d burn the pot). This, from what I can figure out, changed the cooking times entirely.

It came out looking great, but the egg/milk setting liquid never set and the potatoes came out half raw, and the deli ham I used proved impossible to cut to get a proper slice out.

I ended up emptying out the pot(trivet & water), and dumping the entire thing out of the baking dish into the I-Pot and turning it back on for another 7-minutes to hopefully actually cook things, but also to thicken up the egg/milk mix.

Next time I try this, im just going to do it straight in the pot so I could use thicker potato slices and up the time to 15 minutes, but also let it manually release – because it seems to froth up the cheese.
I also wasn’t happy with the cheese slices, I used processed because I can’t afford deli/hard slices of cheese (they go for 6$ a pack of like, 6 slices here), so next time I’ll try a thin layer of shredded cheese. The slices seems to have simply melted away to nothing( and burnt slightly on the bottom on the re-cook, but it was still edible).

I’m actually glad I didn’t go with the optional bacon. I used a very cheap deli-cut pack from the grocery store that was labeled simply as “Baked ham & bacon loaf”, on finally tasting it, it tastes like mild bacon, no real hint of ham at all. As someone who normally doesn’t care for ham, this is going to be my new favourite sandwich meat. There was 5 slices about the same size as a slice of bread in this little pack.

Recipe as I followed it –

• 4-6 Potatoes, sliced in mandolin thick slabs.
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• A little oil
• Deli Ham slices
• Cheese Slices (processed or deli cheese per budget – Used processed mozza slices)
• 1-2 cups shredded cheese
• 1/2 cup cream/milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp ground dry mustard(powder)
• 3-5 slices bacon (chopped or 1/2 cup real bacon bits) (optional)
• 2 tbsp Parsley (chopped) (optional)

How to make

1. Peel potatoes and slice width wise, you can go as thick as steak fry or just use a mandolin. Salt & Pepper your potato slices.
2. Oil the bottom of the baking dish, then apply a layer of potato slices, a layer of ham slices, a layer of cheese slices. Repeat for at least two layers, or until you nearly run out of space.(I managed to get 3 layers of ham in my dish)
3. Place a final layer of potato slices(this took 4 medium sized potatoes), top with the bacon bits(optional – I didn’t have/use any in this example), sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over top, and sprinkle with parsley(optional – I didn’t because it personally does nothing for me).
4. Scramble eggs & cream/milk I used tin milk), and pour over entire dish – careful not to overflow your dish, with the size of my baking dish, I only used a 1/2 cup of tin milk.
5. Arrange in your I-Pot, I put a cup of water at the bottom and used a steamer-trivet-thing that I have to rise your dish off the bottom. Set the Pressure Lock, Turn On Manual for 7 Minutes. This is probably overkill for the size of the potatoes that I used, but I wanted to make sure the egg & milk set, and that the cheese melted. I let the pressure release manually for a couple of minutes before releasing the lock, less chance of splatter.
6. Carefully remove your dish from the I-Pot, I found a canning jar tool works best. And then move it to your oven under the broiler/oven just long enough to crisp your cheese.

 

Instant Pot : Spiced Milk Pork – the not half-assed version.

So, yeah, this is the ‘fuller’ version of the Spiced Milk Pork recipe, for when time can be had.

• 3 cups milk
• 3 bags of black chai spiced tea
• additional spices such as more nutmeg, cinnamon or cloves can be added to taste.

While preparing & sauteing  the other ingredients, in a sauce pot, bring the milk just to boiling, then steep the tea bags in the milk, turning off the heat.

1. Saute oil/butter/margarine
2. 1 medium onion(yellow is fine), sliced about a cm/pencil thick.
3. 3 cloves garlic, chopped + 1 head garlic, broken apart, peeled and end cut off
4. 1 tsp grated ginger
5. 1/4 tsp/dash of fresh-ground pepper
6. Pork in cubes, whatever portion size you need, a lb or a kilo is fine(the ‘dark’ meat, not the light/pale loin chop. The ‘dark meat’ will become shredded pork, but the pale loin is -far- to dry. Pork ribs would also be fine.)
7. Squeeze of lemon juice, zest may be added if you have it.(Bottled juice is fine enough in my opinion – my option of zest is limited by the fact that whole lemons are often 1.50$ -each- at my local markets, if they’re available at all).

Turn the Instant Pot to Saute, add your frying medium, I prefer coconut oil – it’s very stable and very light tasting. Butter of course, or just a little butter, would add some additional flavour.

Saute onion until it begins to wilt/looses fresh cut shape, then add the grated ginger and garlic. Saute until aromatic, then add the ground pepper.

Add the pork and fry until the outside has browned/seared.
Then turn off the Saute function on the Instant Pot.

Taste your chair spiced milk tea from the pot, you might prefer to add some cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon or other spices to the milk. Once you have it somewhat satisfactory, pour it into the Instant Pot, over your browned pork & onions.

Add you remaining head of garlic and lemon juice.

Close the lid, set the Pressure Lock to Sealing, and turn on Meat for 45 minutes.
Don’t forget to cook some rice while you wait.

Once the timer finishes, turn it off and let the pressure naturally release for a few minutes to prevent possible spitting. The ‘froth’ that you see are actually curds of milk, milk solids that have separately from the liquid of the milk/broth. The garlic is tender to the point of falling apart.

Instant Pot – Spiced Milk Pork/Chicken

Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s classic Chicken in Milk when I recognized key components while looking for a pork instant pot recipe, and finding a very badly written ‘official’ recipe that made no sense to me.

For this recipe, im using pork hocks – one of the cheapest  cuts of meat available, at least to my shopping experience. They’re typically cut into about inch thick steak like slices, usually two or three to a tray – locally, they average about 2.50$CDN – but that’s just because im in an isolated bumfuck market. They should be cheaper elsewhere. Just looking at them on the tray, they resemble bone in shoulder roasts, only in single serve portions. Yes, they can and will be fatty, that’s part of their magic to guarantee non-dry pork. Other wise, fatty parts of chicken such as thighs, can be used.

• 3 – 4  pork hocks / chicken thighs – enough to spread across the bottom of the pot.
• 2 cups milk. This can be substituted out for coconut milk, or cream.
• 1 tsp/thumb sized piece of grated ginger
• Cracked Black Pepper to taste,  I use roughly 1/4 tsp(ground doesn’t have much taste, but if using, just a pinch will do).
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 black/chinese cardamon pod(remove the seeds and grind them, or at least crack them)* Other spices are available.
• 1 bulb of garlic. That’s right, an entire bulb of garlic, trim the root and remove the ‘paper’. Lots of people say just use the paper and all, but I can’t recommend it because my market is a piece of shit and there’s often times fine mold/dirt on everything.

1. Arrange the pork/chicken across the bottom of the pot, crowding is fine.
2. Pour half the milk over the meat.
3. Stir the rest of the spices into the rest of the milk to distribute them, then pour over the meat.* If there’s not enough to just cover the meat, add some more milk/water so that it just covers the meat.**
4. Close the lid on the Instant Pot, set the Seal Lock then hit Meat – 45 minutes.
5. Turn the cooker off, and let it naturally release the pressure seal for a few minutes or else it starts spitting the pot liquor too.
6. Trim the fat as or if desired.

Serve over rice, potatoes, wilted spinach/kale if you can manage it. Some might prefer this recipe with a bit of soy sauce(or sweet soy sauce which is a thick sugary version).
Don’t forget to actually turn on your rice cooker.

Looks are deceiving, when you open the pot or plate this dish, don’t be put off by the ‘pot slop’ that are the milk curdles.

The resulting sauce/liquor is divine. The original JO recipe calls for lemon which is supposed to split the milk and to make it curdle(the milk solids make soft chunks) – In the Instant Pot, likely because of the pressure, the milk will split regardless. It will also end up mostly over the sides of the pot and not in the liquor and need to be scraped back into the liquor.

Some variations of this recipe that I’ve found call for oiling the bottom of the pan, im not sure what for if your not going to brown the meat. That is an option that can add even more flavour, but who has time for that? If you want to give it a try, a little oil or butter in the pan and then saute the meat until the bottom is browned, one or both sides is your choice. Then continue to step 2.

*Other spices can be added to personal tastes. Some like cumin, sage, cinnamon, even nutmeg, rosemary or thyme.
A personal favourite variation is to bring the milk to boil in a saucepan, remove from heat, then seap one or two bags of black chai tea in the milk until it’s cooled off about 10 minutes.
If you’ve never heard of or can’t justify buying cardamon or other spices just for this recipe because you don’t stock your cupboard with them, go with the black chai tea option.

**Every store cuts their hocks to different thicknesses – for example, locally, one of the butchers in the meat department at one particular store doesn’t even bother to cut them into the traditional slices and you end up with ham half-shanks. If the hocks are much thicker, then you might have to add extra time. But at about an inch thick, 45 minutes is enough to tenderize the meat to the point where it will basically shred itself.

All this being said, this can be done in the oven. If using a roaster pan, cook @ 350 for 2 hours. If using cast iron, 1 & half hours should be fine, but check it at an hour.