A Smoker's Harvest

My family does food quite well. We don't all do food in the same way, but we do it very, very well. One point of pride which we hold in high regard would be my father's building and manning of a smoker from an old propane tank. We didn't light the smoker at dinner time or evey weekend or for even for the occasional football game. No, no, the greater scope of life would've been intimidated by this. Flooded by such intense glory that it would've thrown off the balance of things. Entire populations of creatures would drop to dangerously low levels. No-- this was once an experience for once a year or sometimes once every two. The smoker, when lit, would have a minimum of three days of support from someone who was home. The smoker would be loaded full of dozens and dozens of cuts of meat and whole poultry, while the smoke-free oven that he'd put on the end would be utilized for all other meals. Meats rubbed with my father's own spice rub would come bubbling and encrusted with black (the best part) from the vast abdomen of this great beast and straight onto the slicing board to melt its tender flesh into our souls (yes, souls!).

That is how the smoker went.

A small sampling of the resulting treasures!
Smoker Credit: Dad                   Photo Credit: Mom

Recent years, however, have left the parents busy and the smoker lie in a period of primordial hibernation in their backyard. Its dormant state was unassuming and humble. However, my father rousted the dragon. I drove down to them a grass-fed brisket, market-made pork bratwurst (I'm not usually a fan, but SMOKED is different), a pork butt, and sweet potatoes. In addition to that, they send back those things, a whole chicken, and a rack of ribs.

Life is good. :)

松風 Chicken

松風 Chicken
Originally uploaded by CaptainShen

Japan has had a huge impact on my life. I have studied the language since I was 12 years old in 7th grade, and met a penpal that I have kept in touch with for at least a decade now. Japanese elements were always in my young life-- and I ended up getting a minor in the language.

Anyhow, if you've known me for a very long time, you might know that my experiments in cooking began, long ago, with teriyaki salmon. It was delicious, at the time, and probably about half sugar and the other half salt-- but my friends and family tended to love it. Even this blog began as a sort of 'bento' blog (I still do use my boxes), and yet, I've strayed far from Japanese style cooking. I began poking around, recently, at a blog called Tess's Japanese Kitchen, and upon finding the Matsu Kaze Chicken, I was completely re-inspired and went out and bought the things to make it. What a delicious sounding name-- Wind In The Pines!

So, with my own 'primal' adjustments (as well as a culinary one or two), I made this. Please check out that blog-- there are MANY exciting, amazing recipes (check out the Minty Carrot Tsukemono!) that I want to take inspiration from and make. For the most part, they are easily primalized.

Changes:

I omitted the sugar, used Coconut Shoyu (that is what I have come to call it-- it is Coconut Secret's Aminos) in place of Shoyu, and used only a teensy pinch of salt. My topping (where on earth do you find white poppyseed??) was a mixture of black poppyseeds and white toasted sesame, as well as an addition that I thought sounded delightful-- crushed Juniper Berries!

I also added to the chicken mixture white pepper. Oh yeah-- and as the original poster mentioned-- I was also generous with the ginger juice!

When I baked the chicken I left it covered for 15 minutes and uncovered it for the last 15, heeding the warning of 'dryness' found in that post's comments.

I served it on spinach and wakame tossed with the same topping tha the chicken got and green onion as well as a drizzle of sesame oil and coconut shoyu. On the side was thinly sliced sweet potatoes sauteed with green onion, onion, coconut shoyu, and cinnamon. This was very delicious and VERY filling. It'll be stellar on salad cold, I'm sure.

I used a bit too much egg white on top and it ended up looking like cooked egg, but was still delicious.

めっちゃおいしかった！

Cold Coconut Chicken Tamales

This is a primal recipe-- no grain (masa) used! The texture of coconut flour lends itself perfectly to cornmeal/masa recipes. I needed a car/finger food for my 20 hour drive to Georgia and tamales sounded so, so good. I worked hard to develop this recipe. They're GREAT cold and the texture is just dreamy. However, the process is VERY involved, as tamales are famous for. So, set aside a few days and get the big kitchenware out. Be prepared to be amazed.

Note: I hardly ever add salt, but it was needed in certain areas of this recipe. I used fine himalayan pink salt for this one.

CHICKEN AND FILLING

Butter ... for browning

Garlic ... 4 or 5 cloves

Onion ... 1/2 of a huge one or 1 whole regular

Whole chicken ... Just one

Brown a whole chicken in a large stock pot with butter. Add Garlic and onion.

Boil the buggah for like 2 hours, maybe more. It should faaaall apart when you grab it with tongs. Let it cool right there in the stock, after you turn off the stove. When it is cool enough, put the whole thing in the fridge. Take it out the next day and skim off the fat, then remove the chicken. Shred the meat, you don't need the skin or bones anymore (but you can save them for soup and whatnot. I don't know, you have freedom to do whatever you like, I don't mind)

Put that chicken meat in a biiig mixing bowl and shred it like mad!

Coconut oil ... 1/2 Cup

Chili Powder ... 3 TB

Cumin ... 3 TB

Garlic Powder ... 3 TB

Black Pepper ... 1.5 TB

White Pepper ... 1.5 TB

----

Salt ... 2 TSP

Red Bell Pepper ... 1/2 of one, diced EXTRA tiny

Green Onions ... 2 stalks, thinly sliced (including white)

---

Unsweet Coconut Shreds 1/2 cup

Warm the first set of ingredients in a pot on the stove simply to wake up the spices with the oil and then add Red Bell Pepper and Green Onions until the green onions are JUST softening, then turn it off and add salt. Add this to the shredded chicken and knead with your hands (Uh, make sure its cool enough, dude). Knead it some more. It should be brilliantly colored and taste AWESOME. But it should be REALLY well mixed. Don't do anything with the coconut shreds yet.

DOUGH

Coconut Flour ... 2 Cups

Eggs ... 3

Paprika ... 1.5 TB

Salt ... 2 TSP

Cumin ... 1 TB

Chili Powder ... 1.5 TB

Garlic Powder ... 1.5 TB

Coconut Oil ... As Needed (I started with 3/4 cup and went from there)

Chicken Stock ... Some

Knead all together. Add chicken stock if you need to, I believe I ended up using about 1/2 a cup. Knead it like mad! Knead it more than you did the chicken. This is going to take a while, and also be kind of an organic process, by which I mean you'll add more coconut flour, more coconut oil, a bit more chicken stock, until you believe it is JUST right and enough. It should be doughey-sticky. This didn't work at ALL for me until I added my 3rd egg (I started with 2) so don't be afraid to add more eggs, either.

COMBINING

Originally, I was using Ti Leaves to wrap these guys, but my plant didn't produce enough large ones. I'm sure you'd be OK using corn husks (though, they need soaking in advance, I think) but I used FOIL and it worked just fine. I may have felt less cool, but they worked great. Just lay a little rectangle of foil down, greased (I used coconut oil spray... mmm). Then, spoon the dough down and spread it with the back of the spoon. I had never done this before, but I grew up making sushi and stuffs, so I used a sushi roller under the foil and that method. Lay a beautiful layer of chicken down (not all the way to the edges) and-- hey, remember the coconut shreds from up the page?-- Add a line of coconut shreds to the center of the chicken! Now, roll this up and peek in to make sure the dough seals all around, then fold it up and set it aside! Everyone will probably catch on to their own method of rolling these guys after 3 or 4 tamals. Thats it! I made lots of tiny ones and a couple big ones.

When you are done, steam them. They're "supposed" to all be on end in a big steamer, but I didn't have that kind of space, so I just laid mine in my chinese steamer inside of a huge pot. They were a magnificent mound. Steaming takes far longer than I thought it one-- I think it was an hour or more-- but I just kept checking the tamales. They're done when you can peel the foil away from the tamale without it crumbling.

I froze these and took them on my trip-- they worked magnificently! Eat them nice and cold (but thawed) a dipped in Greek Yogurt and Guacamole! ENJOY!