Historic Chicken Breeds, When and How to Eat Them

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/285788/rediscovering-traditional-meats-from-historic-chicken-breeds

This is a very detailed piece about various chicken breeds, sizes, aging meat, comparisons to present day equivalents, tips on cooking chickens depending on their age, etc.  Lengthy, but very informative and worthwhile.

(Strawberry) Charlotte Sometimes

Any time I hear Charlotte I think of The Cure song, so I couldn't resist with the title of this post.  If you know me, you remember my Robert Smith phase.  I miss those days sometimes :)

As for charlottes, they are good any time, especially when strawberries are in season.  You can of course use other fruit.  This is similar to a strawberry short cake, but at the same time, different.

You'll need ladyfingers, those biscuits used for a tiramisu, as well as cream, gelatine, strawberries, icing sugar, whipping cream, vanilla, some water, and I used wild strawberry liqueur.  Alcohol always adds depth to otherwise bland treats.  I don't have exact measurements, but depending on the size of your charlotte mould, you can figure them out, and follow measurement suggestions on packages of the gelatine, depending on how much you'll be using.

Soak the biscuits in alcohol mixed with some water (much more alcohol than water), line the dish with flat sides facing in.  Dissolve a bit of icing sugar in boiling water, and then dissolve the gelatine in this liquid.

Whip up cream with vanilla, and add gelatine.  Then just fill in the lined mould with layers of strawberries and cream.  Cover with remaining ladyfingers, flat side facing up.  Chill over night, be sure to put something heavy on top, which will make for a firmer charlotte.  Next day, turn it out, and serve with a strawberry sauce, which you can make yourself, by simmering berries with sugar, and mashing or pressing through a sieve, or use a good quality strawberry jam and heat it up with a bit of water and liqueur.  This is a terrific alternative to a strawberry short cake, and it really is a perfect summer treat.

Whole Leaf Napa Kimchi and Ground Pork Pancakes

This is super tasty.  The pancakes on the left are meat side up, the right side are kimchi side up, and the one in the centre, I cut in half, shows the pork mixture (meat down).

I made some whole leaf napa (baechu) kimchi a few weeks ago.  Today I was making ground pork rolls for James, so I decided to make kimchi and ground pork pancakes for me.  He won't eat cabbage or onions.

This is easy to make, once you have the whole leaf kimchi.  Here's what to do:

Mix ground pork with chopped onion, chopped green onions, black pepper, salt, sesame oil.

Have a plate with flour, and another with an egg mixed with a bit of salt.

Take a few leaves of kimchi, and cover them in flour.  Place some of the meat mixture on the leaf, 

sprinkle more flour, 

dunk the meat side into the egg, and place, meat down, in a hot pan with melted butter.  

After a couple of minutes flip over.  

Serve right away. 

I made five and I ate all five, though the last one had to wait a bit, so it was cold by the time I ate it.  It was still ok, but the heat from the spices in the kimchi dies down and it loses the crunch.  This was so yummy, spicy, sour, with that sesame oil pork taste.

For a vegetarian version, use tofu instead of pork.  I don't do tofu, but I bet it would also be yummy with various mashed beans or lentils with herbs.

맛있게 드세요 (Korean)

Enjoy!