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Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles- French Fridays with Dorie

January 24, 2013 by Renee

Of the three dishes we have made since we joined French Fridays with Dorie, this was by far the easiest and the quickest to prepare.  This Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles recipe is Asian inspired with an attempt at being Italian. It certainly seems a bit confused.  Since I am the only one who would even consider eating the shrimp, I reduced the portion size to just one bowl.

It’s always fun to bring out the wok and the smell of sizzling onions and garlic is a fond scent wafting through the house. Like popcorn in the microwave, it draws peers from around corners with the expectant question “What’s ya makin’?“. But unlike the cheers freshly buttered popcorn, or a Chicken Pad Thai would bring, one mention of mushrooms and shrimp sent everyone scampering away deflated.

Ah well. I continued on.

Shrimp with Cellophane Noodles-7712

The ingredients are simple- Chinese Five Spice, sugar, a dash of Cayenne mixed with onions and garlic.  A bit of sesame oil, shrimp, mushrooms and noodles.  Sounds good right? It has spice, heat, and sweet. But then you throw in a strange homage to Italy in the form of tomato puree and the whole dish takes a nosedive.  All of the characteristic Asian flavors were masked by the tomatoes. While I do think the puree was supposed to be the acidic feature- ginger, lime and soy sauce would have made a welcome replacement for the tomato puree.

So while this dish LOOKS great, it isn’t. At least not for me. I wonder what the original dish Dorie’s friend made tastes like. Because I would hope it was better than this recreation and that I made some terrible mistake along the way.

Meanwhile, I will have to make a real stir fry to make up for it.

Shrimp with Cellophane Noodles-7716

Shrimp with Cellophane Noodles-7757

I cannot share the recipe (and I’d advise you to skip this one anyways)- but you can (and should!) buy the book and cook along with us. It’s great fun! Every Friday we make a new recipe. And I can’t wait for next weeks! For details and to see how others are recreating the dishes from this awesome book, check out the FFWD site.

Buy the book:

greenspan

frenchfridayswithdorie16

 

 

P.S. The noodles we used are Banh Pho medium sized. We make Pho and Pad Thai a lot here and have several bags in our pantry at any given time. So we just used them. I don’t think they affected the flavor in any way! I am so looking forward to next week’s dish!

Filed Under: Eat, Kitchen Sink, Featured Posts, Cookbooks, Fish, French Fridays with Dorie Tagged With: French Fridays with Dorie, Shrimp, Stir fry, asian, noodles

Spatchcocked Roasted Chicken with Lemons

January 22, 2013 by Renee

Spatchcocked Chicken with Lemons

Spatchcocked Chicken with Lemons

There is nothing better than a simple roasted chicken. Especially a juicy bird with crisp skin and lots of flavor.  This Spatchcocked Roasted Chicken with Lemons is very flavorful, juicy and has a delightful crisp skin. I often roast a whole chicken, rubbing butter (or oil) onto the skin and coating with whatever herbs I have handy, or I’ll place leaves of sage under the skin and fill the cavity with vegetables (that I later discard) then truss the legs and set the entire bird to cook for an hour or so. But more often, I spatchcock the bird which yields a very crispy skin, lots of flavorful pan drippings and has the added bonus of a reduced roasting time.

Spatchcocking is nothing more than a chicken that has been butterflied. Its a very simple technique to master but depending on your weapon tool of choice, will determine how much time it actually takes you to complete. First you must remove the backbone.  The easiest way would be to remove it with a pair of poultry shears by cutting along each side of it, pulling it off and setting it aside for stock. But since we don’t actually own poultry shears or scissors strong enough to cut more than construction paper I used a sharp chef’s knife. This method of de-backboning takes some brute strength and patience. (Neither of which I have much of!)

Start with a chicken that has been cleaned (remove the neck and innards!), washed and patted dry with a paper towel. Set the bird breast side down on a large board with the legs up and facing you.  Insert your knife into the cavity with the blade tip starting at the neck and running to tail along one side of the back bone. With the heel of the blade apply a lot pressure and cut through the small bones all the way up along the side of the backbone. Repeat on the other side of the back bone and remove the entire thing. It usually takes me a while to get through all the small bones so this is where it may take you some time as well and use up some bone breaking energy! Once the backbone is removed you can set it aside and use it to make stock or pitch it. Up to you! (This particular chicken was comical as I had to stand on a chair to get enough leverage and downward strength to force the knife through…even that was not enough and I ended up hitting the knife with the meat tenderizer!  I need the shears!)

Once the backbone is removed, then you can flatten the bird out by pushing down on the breasts and pulling the wings and legs out to each side.

Now it’s ready for butter/oil and herbs. But first, preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. You want to roast the bird at a high temperature to get a crisp on the skin and then reduce the heat to cook the chicken through.

One of my favorite ways to make roast chicken is to use a lot of sliced up lemons, shallots and herbs.  For this chicken I sliced four lemons leaving the seeds in and on a well oiled sheet pan, I placed the lemons in a small layer and placed my chicken directly on top of them. Then I carefully pulled back the skin and slid several slices into each piece.

After the lemons were inside, under and around the bird, I rubbed the entire skin with butter. Then I salt and peppered the bird liberally and added some minced rosemary, thyme, tarragon and sage from my garden (you can use dried as well.) For an extra kick, I also added some garlic powder.

From here the chicken goes into the hot oven to roast for 20 minutes. While this is happening peel and slice 8-10 small shallots in half and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil.

At the twenty minute mark, reduce the heat to 400 degrees F, place the shallots all around and on top of the chicken and roast for another 30 minutes or until the thickest part of the breast reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

Once the chicken reaches the correct temperature, remove it from the oven, but let it rest on the pan for ten minutes. Cut the chicken up into 8 or 10 pieces (depending on if you want to split the breasts) and arrange on a serving platter.

The very best part of the entire dish is all the crispy shallots and the pan drippings on the sheet pan. I arrange some of the roasted lemons around the platter and scoop up as much of the pan drippings as I can to drizzle over the top of each piece.

Serve with roasted potatoes or rice and a simple vegetable (broccoli or asparagus) and you will have a quick and healthy mid-week meal.

20130117-IMG_7616-2

Spatchcocked Roasted Chicken with Lemons
 
Print
Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
50 mins
Total time
1 hour 5 mins
 
Author: Renee
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 3-4lb chicken, cleaned with backbone removed and flattened
  • 4 medium lemons, sliced
  • butter
  • Sprigs of rosemary, thyme, tarragon and sage, minced
  • 2 tsp. Garlic powder
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 8-10 small shallots, minced
  • olive oil
Method
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. You want to roast the bird at a high temperature to get a crisp on the skin and then reduce the heat to cook the chicken through.
  2. Slice four lemons leaving the seeds in and on a well oiled sheet pan, place the lemons in a small layer and lay the prepared chicken directly on top of them.
  3. Carefully pulled back the skin on the chicken and slide several lemon slices into each piece.
  4. Rub the entire skin of the chicken with butter. Salt and pepper the bird liberally and add some minced rosemary, thyme, tarragon and sage. For an extra kick, add some garlic powder to the skin.
  5. From here the chicken goes into the hot oven to roast for 20 minutes. While this is happening peel and slice 8-10 small shallots in half and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil.
  6. At the twenty minute mark, reduce the heat to 400 degrees F, place the shallots all around and on top of the chicken and roast for another 30 minutes or until the thickest part of the breast reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
  7. Once the chicken reaches the correct temperature, remove it from the oven, but let it rest on the pan for ten minutes. Cut the chicken up into 8 or 10 pieces (depending on if you want to split the breasts) and arrange on a serving platter.
  8. The very best part of the entire dish is all the crispy shallots and the pan drippings on the sheet pan. Arrange some of the roasted lemons around the platter and scoop up as much of the pan drippings as you can to drizzle over the top of each piece.
  9. Serve with roasted potatoes or rice and a simple vegetable (broccoli or asparagus) and you will have a quick and healthy mid-week meal.
3.2.1275

 

 

 

Filed Under: Eat, Featured Posts, Poultry Tagged With: Lemons, Roasted, Spatchcocked, chicken

Kitchen Reviews-Niu Noodle House Opens in the West Village, NYC

October 24, 2012 by Renee

Last week we were invited to a tasting dinner at Niu Noodle House, a new Ramen noodle restaurant that opened about 4 months ago in Greenwich Village.

Do not be fooled by the interior- there are few Asian inspired design elements here. This restaurant’s vibe is modern, eclectic and feels very much like a pub with dark beams combined with funky wallpaper. At the front of the restaurant is a long, well stocked bar. There are a lot of interesting things to look at while you are waiting for your dinner to arrive but you aren’t there for the decor.

Niu Noodle House’s main focus is on creating freshly made soup noodles in a variety of  styles, broths and flavors. And this, they do very well!

The menu features appetizers of dim sum, satays and spring rolls. Of the many options, we choose the Flank Steak Spring Rolls, Vegetable Spring rolls and the Special Steam Char Siu Pork Buns to start.  Each of the appetizers were better than the last! The Vegetable Spring Rolls were  extra crispy and filled with flavorful vegetables. The beef version was packed solid with a well seasoned ground beef. It was almost like a meatball encased in a spring roll wrapper.  They were both accompanied by a dipping sauce that had just the right amount of heat to it and wasn’t too overpowering.

The pork buns though, were our favorite!  Light, fluffy and filled with tender, juicy slices of pork that melted in your mouth. It was served with the house special Hoisin sauce, pungent and perfectly sweet.

For our main course it was hard to choose from all the varieties of noodle soups on the menu. With the help of our highly skilled and attentive server, she recommended some great choices based on our likes/dislikes. In the end, we picked the Niu Beef Trifecta and the Sangi Chicken.

Soon, large black bowls  that were filled to the brim arrived  with an abundance of savory delights in them.  The Beef Trifecta was filled with homemade thin Ramen noodles, flank steak, short ribs, beef steak, scallions, and a spear of  asparagus. The chicken soup had heartier noodles than the beef’s more delicate kind and tasted like a very good chicken soup- one that would seriously kick a cold’s butt.  Mushrooms, thin slices of chicken breast, and vegetables were present in every bite.

A special delicacy – a wasabi, tempura battered piece of seaweed floated gracefully on the surface and a side bowl of sweet corn kernels accompanied  both of the soups. The broths were both very flavorful and  quite delicious. Ari preferred the beef and I loved the chicken, so we can safely say they both were excellent choices. We were hard pressed to leave some behind and not take a doggie bag to go- tempted as we were!

(A cute touch is the cow chopstick holder.)

After all the food we just enjoyed, we were hesitant to order dessert but we were so very glad we did!  We shared the Green Tea Shaved Ice Cream. What a treat!  A wonderful combination of Green Tea flavor and lightly sented Rose Water topped with Fruit Gels and tiny flavored Lychee balls that had been Spherified –  their liquid interior bursting in our mouths.  It was a delectable and refreshing way to end a delightful meal.

We are really looking forward to going back and tasting the soup dumplings that the manager strongly recommended we try.  And,  to have some more of that shaved ice cream! Yum!

Atmosphere:

Modern, Eclectic

Service:

Friendly and attentive

Price:

Moderate (approx.  $55 for 2 people-sharing a dessert)

Our Rating (Out of 5 Whisks):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location:

15 Greenwich Ave
(between 10th St & Christopher St)
New York, NY 10014

(212) 488-9888

http://www.niunoodleny.com

 

 

Disclosure: We were invited to experience a meal at Niu Noodle House but as always, the opinions expressed here are our own.

 

Filed Under: NYC/Metro, Featured Posts Tagged With: NYC, Raman, Restaurant, West Village, asian, noodles, review

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