God Awful Things

Well, Thanksgiving came and went and with it the stress of trying to figure out what to make this year.. there were lessons learned and brain cells lost, but all in all I was pleased, but would definitely change a few things next time.

First I will tell you the inspiration, a few weeks beforehand Eric, Jennifer, and myself had gone to this restaurant in Silver Lake called El Caserio, I had some dish there, it escapes me what, but it reminded me of when I went to this _other_ restaurant called Chichen Itza and had this chicken with with achiote and pickled onions that was just great.  I decided I would do something similar to this but also wanted to do something with Gooseberries.  Thats when I got the idea I could replace the sour orange with the sour of Gooseberries, then just to balance that out serve them on some potatoes.

Beings I had a few weeks I figured I’d start with the easiest part and learn how to pickle red onions… which, as it turns out, is super easy and only takes a few minutes.  Cup of water, half cup of vinegar (I’ve tried with both cider and a seasoned rice, both seemed good to me, though I ended up going with an rice vinegar infused with basil and oregano), 4 tablespoons of sugar and 4 of salt, then throw in seasonings, I went with coriander, thyme, oregano, garlic, pepper corns, etc.. you really can’t go wrong.  Heat the sauce to a simmer, toss in 2 sliced red onions, turn them when they have turned pink, let simmer for a few more minutes and then transfer them and the liquid to something for storage.. Here are how mine looked.

Apply Liberally to Anything for Extra Awesome

Next I proceeded to read up on achiote seeds and annatto paste, and acquire the proper ingredients from myspicesage.com (highly recommend these folks, they include free stuff with every order, I got a arabic spice blend for free!).  The next problem was the Gooseberries.  See, they aren’t in season, and aren’t native to Los Angeles.  I looked at whole foods and came up short and ended up ordering a couple varieties in a light sauce off Amazon.  Well, this was truly a downer, I wasn’t happy with the flavor of either or them really, one was just too mealy, the other too much syrup, and neither had that great bright green color I was hoping to have.  As with everything, fresh would have been about a billion times better.

Lastly I needed banana leafs. A quick stop by the asian market around the corner from me found me with more banana leafs than I can possibly ever use.

Thanksgiving day rolls around and it’s time to prepare everything.  I start with the chicken and the achiote paste.  This is another place where I went wrong, I mixed annatto seeds with allspice (too much allspice, sadly.. live and learn), some salt and pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.. then rubbed it into the chicken like so..

Less Allspice Next Time!

With those sitting in the fridge it was time for the Gooseberry sauce.  So, I took a bottle of Chardonnay and reduced it by about half, added the presweetened gooseberries, and let it reduce even more (Note: People were passing the sauce up as they thought it was chick peas.. WTF? see, this is why I needed fresh). This was pretty simple, didn’t need to add honey or sugar since it was premixed, just had to be willing to sacrifice flavor.. sigh.

Gooseberries in Chardonnay

While that reduced I prepared a sauce for some new potatoes.  Pretty easy, a stick of butter, a couple tables spoons of white vinegar, couple tables spoons of green onions and parsley, about 4 tablespoons of capers, then throw in a cup of grated parmesan, cos sometimes you just have to say “What the fuck”, and go with it.  This was the bomb.  Heart stoppingly good but man, delicious.

I Could Eat This Straight

With the sauce done, I put the Gooseberries in to chill and started boiling new potatoes.  With those in the water I wrapped my chicken breasts in banana leafs and placed in the over at 325ºF for 40 minutes.

What Will I Do With the Leftovers?!

Now we’re in the homestretch, with everything made I pack it all up and take it over to the Thanksgiving location, serve up a plate.. Potatoes on the outside, making a ring around the pickled onions, chicken on that, with the gooseberry sauce on top.. bon apetite.

The Dish, Best Served Hot

All in all, not bad for trying something new, but I would definitely change some things up next time. To reiterate: Less allspice, I really need to work out that achiote paste better, and fresh Gooseberries. I couldn’t get the balance of sour right thanks to them being presweetened. Until next time.