Feel-Better Chicken and Rice Soup with Sweet Potato - Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit's Feel-Better Chicken and Rice Soup with Sweet Potatoes

It's been cold. It's be raining. And it's time for soup!

I was down a YouTube rabbit hole recently and started watching a bunch of Bon Appetit videos. I love them - filmed in the test kitchen, these short videos have chefs with great personalities. My favorite series is Claire Saffitz making gourmet junk food like Oreos, Skittles, Instant Ramen (and bickers with Brad in the kitchen). Anyway, my second favorite is Andy Baraghani. He brings his own rice to make a Persian dish and made this delicious soup (watch the video)

Using the most basic of ingredients, you can make and serve this soup in an hour. And that's a Meyer lemon from my mom's tree.

  
There are 4 garlic cloves and 2 inches of ginger. Man, I love ginger in soup. I used two-ish chicken thighs.

One large sweet potato, with skin on, makes for a yummy change from a plain potato and the color is awesome.

Before serving, shred the chicken thighs with two forks. Super duper easy soup!

Right before serving, a couple tablespoons of lemon juice and soy sauce are added. Topped with cilantro, it's way delicious. I served this to a friend who liked it, and another friend made it and loved it. I've made it twice in 2019 and we're only at January 16 so it's hella good. I hope you make this!

Bon Appetit Feel-Better Chicken and Rice Soup

Chicken with Rice and Sweet Potato

Part of the Bon Appetit New Year's Healthyish series

Bon Appetit recipe link: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chicken-rice-soup

3/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used two plus a little thighs)
1/3 cup jasmine rice, rinsed (rinse until water runs clear)
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2" piece fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1/2 t kosher salt
2 small sweet potatoes, unpeeled, cut into ½"-thick rounds (I used one large sweet potato)
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (I used Meyer lemon juice)
2 TBSP soy sauce
½ bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large saucepan, bring chicken, rice, garlic, ginger, salt, and 5 cups water to boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 10-12 minutes, until chicken is firm
3. Add sweet potatoes to pan and cook over medium-low heat, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until soup is thickened and potatoes and rice are tender, 15–20 minutes longer.
4. Remove chicken and shred. Return the chicken to the pot.
5. Add lemon juice and soy sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Top soup with chopped cilantro

Makes enough for 2 large servings with leftovers.

Recipe by Andy Baraghani. Video with his amazing no-look chopping (I would be in the ER after trying that): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj2j_K8c7XE

Join Andy Baraghani in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen

Homemade Rice-a-Roni (Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli from Everyday Food)

Oh, the box. The box rocks.

Sometimes, it comes to my door with a big Amazon label and I do a little happy dance of retail therapy happiness.

And I can't name one person who doesn't love a big pink box from the bakery.

Anyway, I often have a few boxes in the kitchen...a San Francisco treat!

I do enjoy the Rice-A-Roni (chicken flavor is my favorite). However, the crazy high sodium content and long list of "ingredients" with many syllables makes me long for a different recipe. I found this recipe for Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli on the Everyday Food website.

1/2 onion, finely chopped, 1 ounce of angel hair pasta, and 2/3 c long grain white rice are the main ingredients. I tried to health it up a notch and used whole wheat angel hair pasta. Next time, I want to replace some of the white rice with long grain brown rice (might need to cook it a bit longer).

Saute in a pan, just like the box and add low-sodium chicken broth. You can go vegan and make it with veggie broth or powder. I threw in a bunch of finely chopped Italian parsley at the end. Or you can use dried parsley and other dried herbs (like the box stuff).

I still love you box. But this is a nice homemade version of Rice-a-Roni...with a lot less salt and ingredients you can pronounce!

Recipe:
Everyday Food Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli

Mochi, Mochi, Mochi! - New Years Post #2

Mochi! Mochi! Mochi!

My family held our annual mochi making day last Saturday. This unsweetened Mochi is eaten on New Years Day in a special soup called ozoni. This type of mochi is formally called "komochi." Eating mochi and ozoni soup on New Years Day will give you good luck and longevity.

We cooked up 175 pounds of mochi rice. Yes, 175 pounds! It takes about 5 hours to complete...and we all take breaks and grab a bite from our international potluck of tamales, burritos, sushi, won tons, dim sum, and mac and cheese!!

Special mochi rice is steamed (my uncle has rigged up gas lines and about 5 steamers - there is a whole crew of family that works on the rice). Cooked rice is then dumped into one of two machines. The machine grinds the hot rice into a sticky mass and it is extruded from the machine. Remember, it's hot, hot, hot. The Cutter cuts off pieces of mochi and then hands it to the Catcher...

My cousin's daughter got promoted to Catcher! The Catcher gets the hot mochi from the Cutter and shapes it for a few seconds (the goal is round mochi pieces). My favorite story of the day: my cousin said his girls play "making mochi" in the sand at the beach!

As the mochi cools, the mochi flattens out a bit.

After the mochi cools, they are pulled off the trays and dusted with mochiko (rice flour). This operation uses three generations of manpower! We are always grooming new talent! :)

Most of the mochi is given out to friends and family so they can toast up a mochi on New Years day and serve it in "ozoni" soup. There are many different types of ozoni soup. (You just gotta be careful...mochi is very chewy and there are always reports of elderly folks in Japan choking on mochi.)

We also cook up mochi during the year and eat it with soy sauce and sugar. I don't know if that is how they do it in Japan, but that's the way my cousins and I eat it! To see last year's photos, see this post.

Ozoni Soup for a good new year!

If you in Los Angeles, head to the Japanese American National Museum on Sunday, January 4, 2009 for a Oshogatsu New Years Family Festival!! They will make mochi the old-fashioned way - pounding it out with a mallet. It's free and fun! Information here.

I want to thank everyone who visited my little blog this year. Thanks for commenting and providing suggestions! I love reading your comments and viewing your blogs...there are so many things I want to make next year! There are some wonderfully creative and supportive people in the world! Happy New Year - May 2009 bring you good health and happiness!

Sakura-ya Mochi (Gardena, California) - New Years Post #1

Box of sweetened mochi and manju from Sakura-ya in Gardena, California

Happy New Year!!! I'm welcoming the new year with a cold so I'm drinking lots of tea, blogging and watching Stephanie Edwards return to the booth for the Rose Parade (she was so robbed!) Somehow, I have lots of talk about so I'm dividing my New Years posts into three separate entries: 1. sweet mochi from Sakura-ya, 2. mochi making with the family, and 3. Japanese New Years food!

Last Saturday, my family got together for our annual mochi making day. Mochi is simply pounded rice. My next post is about my family's mochi making process...but I thought I would show you some sweetened mochi you might see the rest of the year in a Japanese store.

Sakura-ya is a family-owned Japanese confectionery in Gardena, California (Southern California). They make and sell some of the best [sweetened] mochi on earth. (Full disclosure: I worked there as a high school student 20 years ago...and have eaten a lot of mochi since (both here and in Japan) and I think Sakura-ya is the best!)

This mochi, also called wagashi, is sweetened with sugar and filled with sweet bean paste. What?! Beans in a confection?! Yes. Asians do some crazy mad stuff with beans. Mochi uses red "azuki" beans and lima beans. I've had Chinese pastries with sweetened mung beans. Beans and sugar. It really is a good thing. Definitely try it!

This is a very traditional mochi called "daifuku". It is filled with red bean paste (rough or "tsubu" in texture).

This is a big favorite with kids. It's called "pink mochi" (pretty descriptive, huh?). Filled with smooth lima beans.

This mochi is called the "yomogi" because it has the yomogi herb/weed in it. It's filled with smooth ("koshi") red bean paste ("an").

Not all mochi is made with pounded rice. This one is baked and is called the "imo" or sweet potato. Some people call items made with rice MOCHI and these baked items MANJU (pronounced: mon-jew). It is very delicious and lasts a bit longer than mochi which can harden. The "kuri" or chestnut manju is also very delicious (not pictured).

The orange mochi is perfect for the beginner mochi eater! :) A favorite with kids, it has no filling. It is just a chewy block of sweetened mochi. The one on the right is called "kinako" because it is a red bean paste filled mochi topped with soybean powder, or kinako. Sure "soybean powder" doesn't sound that great on paper, but it goes well with the mochi - believe me!

Each box is wrapped and tied with a ribbon!

Sakura-Ya [by the way, Sakura is "cherry blossom" and -ya makes something a "store"]
16134 S. Western Avenue (near Redondo Beach Blvd.) (Not far off the 405 freeway)
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 323-7117

Non descript storefront, not a fancy place (in fact, it looks the same after all these years!), nice staff and OH SO DELICIOUS! Each handcrafted mochi is $1 a piece. (Also, there are more types than the ones in my box)

Other places you might want to try: Fugetsu-do and Mikawaya in Little Tokyo or in local Japanese grocery stores. Fugetsu-do has chocolate and peanut butter mochi, and Mikawaya created mochi ice cream (you can find that at Costco and Trader Joe's nowadays). Mochi ice cream has a really really thin layer of mochi and is mostly ice cream. Please try to have a sweetened mochi with bean paste filling someday! :)

Next up, my family making PLAIN mochi or komochi for New Years!

Rice Pudding (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Vanilla Rice Pudding *

* No, I don't have gigantic spoons! This glass is super small (picked it up at the local Goodwill recently)

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie, Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa picked Arborio Rice Pudding on pages 412 and 413 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Super simple recipe too! Parboil rice, add milk and sugar and stir and stir. Just be sure to take a sharpie and change the directions! Dorie Greenspan herself wrote to our group and said there is a typo in the recipe - cook for 55 minutes, not 35 minutes until it is a bit thick.

I got my arborio rice in the Whole Food bulk bins. You parboil it for 10 minutes before cooking it in the milk and sugar.

Yeah, I liked! Who needs to buy Kozy Shack when you can make your own!

I made the vanilla version per the recipe, using vanilla paste for those cute little flecks and rich vanilla flavor. Next time, I might add some orange blossom water and orange zest for a fruity dessert.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Pork Kimchi Fried Rice with Friends and Doggies

It's a happy dinner!
Pork Kimchi Fried Rice

On Friday night, I got together with my library school friends Jun and Socrates to learn how to make Jun's Kimchi Fried Rice. The three of us love to go out to eat and one day we were at Gaja eating kimchi fried rice and Jun said she makes it at home all the time. Before she finished that sentence, Socrates and I invited ourselves over to her house for a lesson!

First, Jun and David have two adorable doggies. Lunchie is a completely cute ball of fluffiness, and Sunny is a brand new addition to the family. Sunny was found on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles! She just got fixed, and Lunchie and Sunny are constant companions now!

At our last dinner together, Martha Stewart was brought up and Jun said the CBS made-for-TV "Martha Inc." is classic (in a made-for-TV way). After dinner, we watched the show with Cybill Shepard. My favorite line was when a woman in KMart says, "I tried your recipe twice and it didn't work out." The Martha character says, "Well, you just can't cook!"

Kimchi Fried Rice

Jun cooked 3 cups of Japanese rice...you can also use day old rice. Jun browned some shabu-shabu cut pork with some garlic. Since shabu-shabu uses super thin cut meet, this was a perfect cut. If you don't have a Japanese grocery store nearby, you can cut pork very, very thin. After browning, the pork is set aside while you prepare the rice.

The rice is added to the pan and cooked a bit in oil to get some edges crispy and, if it is fresh rice, to dry it out a bit. Jun usually uses butter, but she was out and we used oil instead.

Jun's secret ingredient is a Japanese rice "enhancer" that has lots of salt, probably some MSG, dehydrated soy sauce and other flavors. If you don't have a Japanese market in your neighborhood, you can add salt, soy sauce and some peppers to your rice.

The pork is added back to the rice along with the drained kimchi. Top each bowl with a fried egg.

Super Yummy Dinner!

I helped Jun make the veggie side dish. Onion and garlic are cooked for 3 minutes, then 4 diced seeded tomatoes with 1/2 cup of dry white wine are added and cooked for 8-10 minutes. Blanched green beans are tossed in along with olives (or capers) until heated through (about 3 minutes).

Finish off with pepper and lemon juice

Sunny and Lunchie say, "Where's our pork kimchi fried rice?" (No, Lunchie isn't smoking, that's a doggie chew in her mouth).