FoodFunk.ca

I’m from a place that’s not very close to Kentucky.

In fact, Thompson, Manitoba isn’t even that close to Winnipeg.  It’s 750 kilometres north of the provincial capital and the coldest city in Canada’s 10 provinces.   Up there in the 1970s and 80s, we had little in the way of any national brands, chain restaurants and the like.  Except one – Kentucky Fried Chicken.

My dad worked at the Inco mine up there, a forklift driver, and our treat when he got off work every Friday was supper from KFC.   The fries and gravy were great, I ate the coleslaw by the bowlful and the chicken of course was simply magic.   I’ve only had the stuff a couple of times in the past 20 years, but for some reason it’s lost it’s appeal.  The last time I had it a couple of years ago, I found it really greasy and heavy.

I’ve never been to Kentucky but fried chicken is probably meant to be better than this (I say that with full knowledge that it should be much, much, much better than this).

Making good fried chicken is a process where many things can go wrong.  The chicken meat can be bland, the batter too thick, too thin, too brown, too greasy, too limp.    Overcoming those problems just takes a bit of care.  It’s not that hard, and no kittens will be killed.

Brining the chicken packs flavour into the meat, making sure it’s far from bland.   Keeping moisture to the bare minimum in the batter means the batter has a little body to it without being so big that it just steams off the chicken.   Deep frying can be tough but the easiest way to make it easy is to just use as much oil as possible in the biggest pot possible.   If you know what you’re doing, you can use less oil in a smaller pot but if you’ve had any trouble in the past, go big or go to KFC.

Hawk Fried Chicken

1 whole chicken, about 3-4 pounds, cut up
1/2 cup salt
water

Coating:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 bottle or can of beer
Hefty pinch each of chili powder, paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, celery salt, fresh cracked black pepper
Pinch of cayenne powder or several squirts of hot sauce (optional)
Vegetable oil for frying, at least two litres

The brine:
Mix the salt and about a litre of water in a big bowl or pot. Stir to dissolve. Cut up the chicken and put the pieces in the brine. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours but not more than four. Drain and rinse the chicken well, then pat dry and put on a couple of plates.

The batter:
In one large, high-sided plate (I use a couple of pasta plates which work well), place two tablespoons of flour and then dump the rest oft the flour in the other bowl. Add to the two tablespoons of flour the beer, chili powder, paprika, dried thyme, dried oregano, celery salt, cracked black pepper and cayenne or hot sauce, if using (I tend to cook with a three-year-old in mind so i had the hot stuff to my individual serving). Mix well. With each piece of chicken, roll it in the dry flour, then toss in the wet mix, then back in the dry flour. Place each back on the plate and let stand for 20 minutes to let the batter adhere well to the chicken.

Frying:
Heat the two litres of oil over medium heat (yes, just medium – I used the “5″ setting on my stove which goes from 1 to 10) for at least 10 minutes in a large pot (when deep frying, it’s good to have more head room than oil so have a big pot). The key is to have this much oil so that it doesn’t lose it’s temperature as you add the chicken. Add three or four pieces at a time and fry for 14 minutes (except more like 8 for the wings), turning the chicken with tongs once in a while and making sure they don’t sit on the bottom of the pot too long (they’ll start to float after a few minutes). Drain on a rack over paper towel. Season with a bit more salt if you like.

Notes:
- I just winged it (ha! get it?) with the spices for the chicken but I would say that the thyme and chili powder were especially good in this. They’re predominant flavours in the Southern U.S. where fried chicken is king so that makes sense.
- Feel free to make some french fries while you’re at it. You might as well get some use out of that oil.
- The chicken is fantastic hot or cold, so great for a picnic the next day.

The third installment of Artsts on Vinyl is on now at Bean Books at 122 Germain Street in Saint John.  Stop in and view the many pieces created by local artists using old vinyl records as their primary medium.   Some really incredible works in this year’s show, an annual (and important) fundraiser for CFMH 107.3, the campus and community radio station at University of New Brunswick Saint John.   Yours truly, known as DJ Hawk when I manage to haul my turntables out of the basement, will be there spinning some tunes during the closing party from 7 to 9:30 pm on Saturday night, June 13.   The weather’s warmer and there will be plenty of activity throughout the uptown on Saturday night so enjoy a night out!  Contact me at admin@foodfunk.ca if you have any questions.  Click here to see the facebook event page which has fresh photos of this year’s pieces.

Everybody craves some Chinese take-out on occasion and one of my favourite guilty pleasures are those little sweet and sour pork ribs.

You know the ones, sticky, gooey, sweet and meaty.  That syrupy fall-off-the-bone goodness.   Some are better than others for sure.   Some actually have some hint of Chinese flavour to them while others are just pork in some good ol’ Aunt Jamima corn syrup, perhaps with some soy sauce for colour.

Well, here’s a simple preparation that you can try on your own the next time you get that craving.   Just slap together some of these ribs, stir fry some veggies, cook some rice and you’ve got the Chinese take-out experience, only with arguably better results than a lot of those joints.   With these ribs, you’ll note the pronounced flavours that come together to form the tacky coating on these finger-licking gems.   Fresh garlic, unmistakeable fresh ginger, the depth of the oyster sauce and the sour note of the vinegar, combined of course with the sweetness and great sauce-making ability of ketchup make for a great way to finish a pork rib.

I’ve seen lots of recipes that either boil or just quickly deep fry the pork ribs, then coat in sauce.  I like to slow-cook (at least an hour anyway) the rib to render off a lot of the fat, making for a leaner, more tender rib than quick-cooking.   We’ll borrow a little technique from Texas on that one.   Once roasted, the ribs are then stewed for as long as you like, getting better as they do.   With the batch in the photo, I had them stewing for a good half hour in the sauce after the initial bake, adding water as needed to keep them saucy and tacky until I had other dishes ready for the meal.

With a $4 rack of ribs from Cochrane’s Country Market in Rothesay, this was also an economical way to serve my family of three some great food on the cheap.

So give in to your craving and give these a shot!

Simple sweet and sour pork rib

1 rack of pork ribs

salt and pepper

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely minced

1/2 cup chicken stock or water

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon chinkiang vinegar (Chinese vinegar) or red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

Siracha or other hot sauce to taste

Preheat the oven (or a good toaster oven is fine) to 350 F.   Cut pork ribs into individual ribs by slicing between the bones and season them with salt and pepper.  Place the ribs on a grate that fits over a baking pan.  This allows fat to drain away as they slow-cook.  Wrap the ribs as tightly as you can in aluminum foil and place in the oven for an hour.   Remove foil and let stand while you prepare the sauce.  In a fry pan large enough to hold the ribs in a single layer, heat over medium heat for a couple of minutes and add the garlic and ginger.  Saute for just 30 seconds or so, stirring, then add in the chicken stock or water.  Add in the ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, oyster sauce and hot sauce and stir to combine.  Add in the ribs and toss gently with tongs as the sauce thickens and reduces.   It’ll form a glaze that will stick nicely to the ribs after 10 or 15 minutes.  Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and toss the ribs until the sauce is fully coating the ribs.  If you need to let the dish stand while preparing other dishes, you can add a little water and continue to simmer at the lowest setting.  Just ensure that the sauce is fully coating the ribs before you serve.  You want them nice and tacky!