BOOKS / RECIPES
October 20, 2014
Four cookbooks
I didn’t want to like,
but do anyway
Why make your own chicken
stock? Because it rocks!
By Sara Moulton
By J.M. Hirsch
The Associated Press
AP Food Editor
hy bother making chicken
stock at home when there
are so many respectable
versions at the supermarket?
Because the stock you pour out of a
can or a box just can’t touch the
homemade variety.
The difference is in the flavor and
the texture, both of which — but par-
ticularly the texture — come from the
long, slow simmering of bones. Home-
made has it. Store-bought doesn’t.
You can see for yourself if you ever
boil a sample of each side-by-side. A
homemade stock thickens, becoming
concentrated and jelly-like. A
store-bought stock simply evaporates
into thin air. Poof! Makes you wonder
what the heck it’s made from in the
first place.
I make my chicken stock from
chicken wings because each one
boasts equal amounts of the three
components you need to make a good
stock — meat (which contributes
flavor), bones (their gelatin provides
body), and lots of skin (its fat
amplifies the flavor). And you need to
start the wings in cold water to get
the most out of them.
Making a clear stock requires
skimming off the scum that rises to
the top of the liquid during the initial
part of the cooking process. What is
that stuff? As the wings boil, the
protein solids and the fats coagulate,
O
ver the years, I’ve developed a simple system for
processing the hundreds of cookbooks that cross
my desk every year. It’s the six-pile process.
Pile No. 1 is where the books get stacked as soon as they
are delivered. There
they
await
con-
sideration. Pile No. 2 —
by far the largest — is
the ain’t-gonna-happen
pile. This is where the
5,000 Soup Recipes and
Glorious
Gluten-Free
Sugar-Free
Sprouted
Vegan Raw Cooking
books (and so many,
many less extreme
others) land. From
there, they are dis-
patched to a table at my
son’s school where any-
one can help them-
selves.
Pile No. 3 is the gon-
na-do-something stack.
These are the books that
merit attention in some
way. Gabrielle Hamil-
ton’s book inspired by her New York City restaurant,
Prune, is a fine example. Ditto for Yotam Ottolenghi’s new
ode to vegetables, Plenty More. These books get stories
assigned.
Pile No. 4 is a step up from that. These are the books
that are in the running for my end-of-year list of the best
cookbooks of the year. At the moment, there are 17 books
in this pile. Once the herd is culled, probably only about 10
or 12 will make the cut. I’d give you some examples, but
then I’d have to kill you.
Pile No. 5 is the interesting-but-probably-not-
newsworthy-but-I’ll-try-cooking-from-it-anyway stack.
These are books that intrigue me, but unless they blow my
mind when I get around to cooking from them probably
won’t amount to much. Books from this pile sometimes
move into Pile No. 3. Charles Phan’s The Slanted Door is a
recent example, which made the move in part on the
strength of the book’s cocktail recipes.
But today, I want to share the contents of a little known,
and frankly kind of embarrassing pile — Pile No. 6: the
books I didn’t want to like, but kind of did. These are books
that either seemed too silly or too narrow or were created
by a source with questionable credentials or just seemed
to have too little mainstream appeal. And yet, the more I
looked at them, the more I somehow liked them.
At the moment, Pile No. 6 has four residents. They are:
Will it Waffle?
By Daniel Shumski
Workman, 2014
The title kind of says it all. It’s 53 recipes of strange
things you can make in a waffle iron. I wanted to hate this
book. Really. But I had to admit, I wanted to make the
waffle iron crab cakes. And waffled tamale pie. And the
waffled sweet-and-sour shrimp wontons. And the waffled
onion rings. And the stuffing waffles (called stuffles). And
the waffled chocolate-stuffed French toast. And the ...
Well, you get the point.
This book clearly is all about the schtick, but amusingly
so. I forgive it. And I’d also like to try the waffled sweet
potato gnocchi ...
Cooking with Gochujang
By Naomi Imatome-Yun
Countryman Press, 2014
The only thing I hate more than books with 5,000 soup
recipes is books dedicated to single ingredients. They just
don’t reflect the way people cook. But I let this one slip
through because I love gochujang, an ingredient on the
cusp of being discovered by the rest of America. And that’s
a good thing.
Gochujang is a Korean chili paste that tastes like a
blend of savory Japanese miso and spicy Sriracha sauce.
In other words, it’s crazy delicious. And once people learn
how to use it, they’ll love it. Part of this book’s redeeming
quality is that it doesn’t limit itself to Korean recipes. For
example, it uses gochujang on a smoked salmon pizza, in a
mayo for asparagus, and on grilled corn on the cob.
Bourbon and Bacon
By Morgan Murphy
Continued on page 16
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
W
SUCCULENT SOUP. Using this Asian Chicken Noodle Soup recipe, novice cooks can make a
tasty soup that has the flavor and texture that only comes from the long, slow simmering of bones to
make soup stock. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)
get trapped by fat, and float to the
surface. Do your skimming with a
slotted spoon or, better yet, with a
tool made just for the job. It’s called —
duh! — a skimmer. Once the scum is
gone, you can add vegetables and
aromatics.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on
temperature so the stock doesn’t boil.
If it does boil, the protein solids and
fat get mixed into the liquid and the
stock becomes cloudy. And make sure
the bones are always covered with
liquid; if the liquid evaporates to
below the level of the bones, add more
water.
Wait a minute, you say. Making
stock at home sure takes a lot of time!
Indeed, it does — four hours of
simmering! But it’s not all hands-on
time. I see it as a great weekend
project. You make the stock one day
and chill it overnight. The fat will rise
to the top and solidify, making it easy
to scoop off the next day. (You’ll then
want to freeze the fat, which has
great flavor, for special occasions, like
making matzo balls).
After scooping off the fat, boil down
the stock to concentrate its flavor.
Then you can season it with salt and
pepper, and divide it into 1- and 2-cup
amounts and freeze it. Don’t add any
salt or pepper before this final stage
or you might end up with a salty
stock.
To me, homemade chicken stock is
like liquid gold; it makes any soup
(such as my quick Asian chicken noo-
dle soup) or sauce that much tastier.
Editor’s note: Sara Moulton was executive
chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25
years, and spent a decade hosting several
Food Network shows. She currently stars in
public television’s “Sara’s Weeknight Meals”
and has written three cookbooks, including
Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners.
Quick Asian Chicken Noodle Soup
Start to finish: 45 minutes w Servings: 6
1/2 ounce (about 1/2 cup) dried shiitake mushrooms or mixed dried mushrooms
6 cups chicken stock (recipe below), divided
4 ounces rice noodles
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
8 scallions, separated into white and green parts, the white parts finely chopped,
the green parts thinly sliced crosswise
1 pound bok choy, separated into white and green parts, the white parts halved
lengthwise then sliced crosswise into 1-inch pieces, the green parts thinly sliced crosswise
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken
Salt and ground black pepper
Chopped fresh cilantro, basil, or mint leaves, to garnish
Chili-garlic sauce, to garnish
Lime wedges, to serve
In a small saucepan, combine the mushrooms with three cups of the stock. Bring to a boil, then remove from the
heat and let stand until the mushrooms are softened, about 30 minutes. Remove the mushrooms from the stock,
then remove and discard any stems from the mushrooms. Chop the mushroom caps and set aside. Strain the
soaking stock, discarding any solids, and set aside.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package directions, then drain, rinse, and set aside.
In a large saucepan over medium, heat the oil. Add the ginger, garlic, and white parts of the scallions. Cook,
stirring, for three minutes. Add the white parts of the bok choy and cook, stirring, for three minutes. Add the re-
served mushroom soaking stock, mushroom caps, remaining three cups of unused chicken stock, bok choy greens,
soy sauce, and chicken. Simmer just until the greens are wilted, about two minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Divide the noodles among six bowls and ladle the soup evenly over them. Garnish with the fresh herbs and
scallion greens, then serve with chili-garlic sauce and lime wedges.
Nutrition information per serving: 400 calories (160 calories from fat, 40 percent of total calories); 18 g fat (3.5 g
saturated, 0 g trans fats); 75 mg cholesterol; 32 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 6 g sugar; 27 g protein; 980 mg sodium.
w
Homemade Chicken Stock
Start to finish: 4 hours, 45 minutes (20 minutes active) w Makes about 8 cups
5 pounds chicken wings
2 medium yellow onions, quartered
2 small carrots, halved crosswise
2 medium celery stalks, halved crosswise
Handful fresh parsley
Handful fresh thyme
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
3 Turkish bay leaves
In a large stockpot, combine the wings and enough cold water to cover them by two inches. Bring the mixture
just to a boil over high heat, skimming the surface with a slotted spoon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and
simmer, skimming frequently, for 20 minutes.
Add the onions, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Return to a boil, then reduce the
heat to a simmer. Cook for four hours, adding water as necessary to keep the chicken covered.
Strain the stock through a colander into a bowl and discard the solids. Let rest, then skim off and discard any fat
that rises to the surface. Alternatively, cool the stock and chill it overnight. The fat will harden on top of the stock
and is easily scraped off and discarded.
Once the fat is discarded, return the stock to the pot and simmer until reduced by one third, about 30 minutes.
Refrigerate or use as desired.