Sunday, June 28, 2009

Flavors, Cultures and Eggs

I like experimenting with different recipes from various cultures.
Mixing up the flavors and ingredients. South American flavors combine very well with Mediterranean I find.

Here's a Cuban recipe known as Achiote Chicken.
These are the measurements needed for two chicken quarters

Achiote powder 2 tbsp

Garlic 4 cloves

Cumin 1 teasp

Evoo 2 tbsp

Fresh cilantro 2 tbsp
Sea salt to taste (or none at all)
Make a paste out of the above ingredients.
Coat the chicken with it and refrigerate over night (at least 6-8 hours)

Grill on high heat for some nice grill marks and then move to indirect heat to finish.
If you don't have a grill, you can use a cast iron pan to sear it on the stove and then move to the oven. 325 for about 20 minutes should do the trick.

I also "blackened" a few eggplant on the grill and then removed the skin. Tossed that in the food processor with 2 small cloves of garlic. To go with that, I made some tahini dressing.

Tahini, 1 small clove of garlic, drop of lemon juice, 1 tbs evoo and water. Add water at the end and keep adding so that you get a runny dressing consistency. It is great drizzled over the eggplant mush, but also great to dip your achiote chicken in. The farmers market had fresh Okra, so I picked up some. Simply sauteed with onion and dried California chili peppers that I bought at a little roadside farm stand. They are not spicy, but have lots of flavor.
Delicious!


















EGGS;
At that same roadside stand, I bought some fresh eggs.
Now I need your help, I'm not 100% sure theses are chicken eggs.
What do you think? They are HUGE in comparison to the Organic Valley brown eggs (lower right for comparison) I have in my fridge. The shell of these eggs seems thin. Any thoughts?



I have some cool posts coming up with reviews of a new REAL FOOD cook book.
More details to follow.
I think you're going to like it.

8 comments:

Chris said...

They look like Duck eggs

NHershberger said...

I dunno - I have gotten jumbo-size chicken eggs from a local farm that look like that. They barely fit into the carton, but they're definitely chicken eggs.

Probably the only way to tell for sure it to crack one open. Duck eggs usually have a large yolk proportional to the white than chicken eggs. Jumbo chicken eggs usually have a regular-sized yolk with extra white (at least in my experience). If the yolk looks unusually big, it might be a duck egg! (they usually taste pretty similar)

Anonymous said...

Marc,

First off, you can't go wrong with anything containing evoo, garlic, and cilantro. They are some of my favorites.

Only in the last year did I discover the benefit of sear followed by slow cooking. How did I ever cook without knowing that?

Lastly, the last batch of farm fresh eggs I bought had 11 of 12 rock solid shells of various colors. But one of them was pretty thin and I punctured it getting it out of the container. The taste was fine and like all of the farm fresh eggs, the yolk was more orange than yellow and exhibited high surface tension.

Anyway - looks great!

Mark said...

Marc - those look like the eggs I get from a farm of pastured chickens who, I am told, only eat what's on the ground and are not housed at night. Similarly, the shells are thinner than I would have expected and the yokes vary from deep orange to pale yellow - some large some small. So, take that for what it's worth.

Some pastured eggs I get (different farm) are small with shells as hard as rock and orange yokes. I guess it depends on the chickens and what they are eating.

I recall sally fallon saying that pastured eggs will hold together and not fall apart when held in the hand (as opposed to industrial eggs which fall apart) - I think it was on an Underground Wellness podcast or on Jimmy Moores podcast. I haven't tried this test really though I have noticed that the yokes from all the pastured eggs take more work to completely scramble (which is what I've been eating lately once I discovered the miracle of heavy cream!)

Marc said...

Chris,
That's what I thought at first...and if you only knew what ducks look like around here..that's why I was some what sceptical about eating them. The good news...they are definitely chicken eggs. phew ;-) Absolutely delicious!

NHershberger,
Yes, these don't fit in a regular carton that's for sure. Thanks for your description, they are for sure chicken eggs. Man, are they good!! It just doesn't compare to regualr eggs, even if they are the "organic and free roaming"
Where are you located?

Andy,

I agree Andy. Those are an awesome flavor combo. You can add basil and orgenano with it for even moe flavor. Slow cook is where it's at.
In Argentina they drink wine for 2 hours before dinner, cuz that's how long it takes before the meat on the grill is ready. Sometimes even longer.

To all;
The egg white tasted very very "clean". That's the best way I can describe it.
Thanks much for the feedback!
Marc

Marc said...

Hey Mark,
I responded to every one and during that time your comment came in.

Everything you mentioned makes perfect sense. The eggs taste SO good. Thanks for that additional info.

Hey, how are the vitamins?

Marc

Mark said...

I haven't noticed any difference taking the Master Formula.

Yummy said...

Hey Marc, Just to add my 2cents...I have heard that the older the chickens get, the larger their eggs. Maybe those are some super old chickens! :)
My buddy gets eggs at her local farmer's market that look like those, they are enormous! Very cool.