Healthier Chicken and ....

40 Clove Chicken, roasted potatoes and green peas with shallots

Good afternoon everyone.  Hope that every ones day is going well.  It is a little nicer outside so that should make everyone feel a little better ... I know that I like it a little cooler.

Culinary word of the day:        olla (ohl-lah)

Today we made "Healthier Chicken".  I thought that chicken was pretty healthy to start with but I guess that it is true ... you can make it healthier but in order to still have a lot of good flavor you need 40 cloves of garlic with it and 4 cups of white wine.  It was very good!  We also made these "tourner (toor-nay) potatoes.  That means that we cut the potatoes into football-shaped pieces with seven equal sides and blunt ends.  As you can see by the picture that ours turned out pretty good but they were not good enough to put in a show ... practice .. practice .. practice.  Each time we do something again it looks a little better.  The steamed green peas we just added some shallots and more garlic for flavor.  We cooked with NO fat of any kind in this entire meal ... and after we ate, ours was entirely gone.  All of it so it must have been good ... I only had garlic, potatoes and peas ... no chicken for me today.

Also today we did something that I have never done before ... and I had never heard of it either.  Very interesting I have to say and I can say that I still don't understand the process.  We made "Seitan" (SAY-tan).  It is often referred to as "wheat meat," is a form of wheat gluten, the insoluble protein in wheat.  A staple in the diets of Buddhist monks for centuries, seitan has a firm, chewy texture and a bland flavor.  Seitan is made by preparing a dough from wheat gluten or wheat flour and water.  The dough is repeatedly rinsed to remove any remaining starch or bran.  The spongy pieces of seitan are then simmered in a broth of soy sauce or tamair with ginger, garlic and kombu (seaweed).  And when eating it you are suppose to think that you are eating some kind of yummy MEAT!  I don't really think that I can be fooled ... how about you?  Today though however we only did the mixing part and the part where you soak the dough ball under water for 30 minutes or so and then you put it in a colander and with the water running you keep kneading until the water runs clear and after it falls apart then it will start to form a ball again.  Then at this stage we wrapped it up and put it away until tomorrow ... can't wait finish it and see what the heck this stuff is suppose to look like.  This one is a first for me.

Meaning for the Culinary word of the day:  A round earthenware pot with a globular body, a wide mouth and handles; it is used to heat or hold water and to cook stews in Spain and South and Central America.  That's pretty interesting, right?

So, that is it for me today.  Hope that you enjoy this post ... I know that I enjoyed the day at school very much.  It is always more exciting when you learn something that you really never knew anything about before ... and today was that day for me.

I will check in again tomorrow and let you know about the "Saitan" and anything else that we do.  Have a really great evening and take care.  Signing off for now from 1HappyChef.  :)