September 22, 2014 Lunch Taj Mahal Dinner- Roasted Chicken and Stir Fried Yu Choy, mushrooms and tofu

What a high energy, high protein day of food.  I road ten miles to Montano and back, then worked with Aaron for a couple of hours and joined him for lunch at Taj Mahal at his invitation.

Today Taj Mahal's specials included beef curry and chicken tikka something and another chicken curry with tomatoes and bell peppers and of course tandoori chicken and garlic culcha (naan bread baked in the tandoori oven and covered with garlic and cilantro).

I also took some saag, rice, riata, and fresh sliced onions.  I loved it, although it was a lot of meat.

I went by Los Altos Market (Pro’s sold or was bought out of bankruptcy by a new company) to buy a whole fryer for $.89/lb. and found a nice large five pounder. 

I had to appear in court and go with my client to get a DNA test.

When I arrived home around 6:00 I impaled the chicken through its cavity on a spandex cooking rack  and put it into a roasting pan filled with water to a depth of about 1/3 inch of water, sprinkled the chicken skin with tandoori spice powder and  started the chicken roasting at 425˚ for 15 minutes.  

I then turned down the heat to 375 and cooked the chicken for about 1 hour longer.  I figured 20 minutes per pound to get it to about an internal temperature of 175˚ to 185˚

We had drinks and discussed Suzette's emergency trip to Elizabethtown to spend time with her family and her dying brother-in-law combined with a quick visit to see Luke and perhaps Melissa in NYC. 

When the timer had about 25 minutes to go I began cutting up about one pound of Yu Choy stalks, separating the tough stalk portion from the leave portion.  I also diced about three Tbsp. of onion, 1 Tbsp. of garlic and 2 Tbsp. of ginger and added those ingredients to the tough stalks and diced four King mushrooms and put them in with the leaves.

I started heating the wok with about 2 Tbsp. of peanut oil and 1 tsp. of sesame oil, and when tho oil and wok were heated, added the hard ingredients and stir fried them for several minutes until they began to soften and give off aroma of ginger.

I then added the leaves and mushrooms and diced up about 8 oz. of tofu and added it and then added about 1 Tbsp. of Chinese rice cooking wine and 1½ tsp. of sweet soy and 1 tsp. of sesame oil, ½ tsp. of salt and ½ tsp. of sugar.

 

I stir fried the mixture to coat the tofu with liquid and then covered the wok and cooked it for a couple of minutes, while I made a thickening sauce of about ¼ cup of chicken stock, 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch, 1 tsp. of sweet soy, 1 tsp. of Chinese Cooking wine and 1 tsp. of sesame oil and poured that into the wok and stir fried the sauce into the vegetables until they sauce thickened and added a bit more chicken stock to loosen up the sauce to my liking and we were ready to serve.  I think stir frying in this manner (cooking the ingredients so they are softened until they give up their flavors to the mixture and then adding a thickening sauce to emulsify those flavors and integrate the natural flavors of the ingredients into the sauce) makes for lovely dish.  I like a loose sauce that allows the natural flavors of the ingredients to flow easily into the sauce as shown in the picture below, rather than coating the vegetables with a heavily thickened sauce that I think obscures the individual identity of the ingredients.  If one was going to serve the dish with rice, one would make more sauce, so it would mix with and flavor the rice. 

We took the chicken out of the oven and the hind quarters literally fell away from the joint, so it was easy to separate the dark meat quarters from the chicken.  The sprinkling of tandoori seasoning onto the chicken is a quick way to give the skin of the chicken flavor and helps brown the chicken.  If you had more time and wanted to add yogurt to the tandoori seasoning and let it sit on the chicken for a couple of hours, you could create a more traditional tandoori effect.

Each of us took spoonfuls of stir fried vegetables and Suzette fetched the PPI bottles of white wine from the fridge.  I drank a glass of Riscal Spanish Rueda and Suzette finished off the Concannon and Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc.

Note how the vegetables are lightly coated with the slightly thickened sauce

We enjoyed the flavorful protein rich dinner that was easy to prepare.

After dinner we had bowls of ice cream; Spumoni for me and Mocha Almond Fudge for Suzette. 

Then Suzette drank a glass of cognac and I drank a glass of Calvados.

Bon Appétit