Hidden Treasure Chicken & Anise Beef

[porphyrin]

Both of these are simple, 'company dishes' that can be made the night before and then gently warmed on the stove, crock-potted (as long as you have 12 hours' head start, or cooked for several hours on the stove.

Both of these are also known as 'brown dishes': that is to say, there is a LOT of soy sauce in them-- and that means a lot of sodium.

The trick is finding the right ingredients.

Anise Beef

1 lb stew meat
12 star anise stars
3 dried chinese peppers
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups soy sauce

Combine. Cook. Add more peppers (to taste-- 3 peppers will make a spicy dish. 6, a hot dish. 12, a blow-your-sinuses-inside-out dish).

This can also be done as a vegan dish by substituting extra-firm tofu for stew meat (equivalent weight) and adding two chopped up onions.


Hidden Treasure Chicken

2 lb bone-in chicken (drumsticks and thighs, usually)
5 hard boiled eggs
12 dried chinese mushrooms (shiitake)
various fresh mushrooms (woodear is best, sliced thin)
1 can of bamboo shoots
1 can straw mushrooms
1 can baby corn
2 cups soy sauce
1.5 cups water (ideally, the water that your dried mushrooms have been soaking in)
2 dried chinese peppers (the small kind-- optional)

Soak mushrooms in 12 oz water for 15 minutes. Place chicken in bottom of large pot with water and soy sauce. Add peeled hard boiled eggs. Chop up bamboo shoots and baby corn and add to pot. Add straw mushrooms to pot. Cut stems off dried mushrooms and add to pot. Add fresh mushrooms to pot last. Cook until chicken is hanging off the bone.

Serve with rice: everyone should get an egg. The hidden treasure is the yolk, which you mash with your fork and mix with the rice/sauce/rest of the dish.

Sadly, there is no vegan equivalent to this dish that I know of.

Anyone interested in Kale, I'll email you the recipe later. I need to change someone's diaper.

Comments

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

mmmm i want dinner at stella's

[pameladean]

David used to make anise beef, or a variation of it. The flavors are so rich I think that with fiddling it could work with a vegan protein source. You are right about the eggs in the other one, though. That's the most difficult thing to substitute in anything other than baking.

I read recipes recreationally, however, so I am still very pleased to see these.

And yes, whenever you have time the kale recipe would be lovely. I've just started seeing tender little bunches of kale available.

P.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Extra-firm tofu. :)

I've made it as a vegan recipe.

Also, mock-wonton soup. :)

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Yum. Thanks, Stella!

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Thanks Stella. :)

One of these days when I'm feeling ambitious, I'll give the Hidden Treasure Chicken a try. To be honest, the part that scares me the most is the hard boiled eggs. I don't think I've ever even made hard boiled eggs. :x

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

That's the easiest bit!

*g*

I boil the eggs the night before: rolling boil, 10 minutes.

Boil the HELL out of the eggs. It won't hurt the taste, and you want that yolk to be crumbly, not runny. Then turn off the flame and let them sit and cool overnight.

The next morning, peel 'em.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Ooo. Both sound very good -- going to try those next week!

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Email me when you do.

Can't wait to see what you and the sweetheart do to modify these dishes-- I've been thinking about expermenting, but the most I've done is toss star anise in the Hidden Treasure dish.