Shiso Pesto Roasted Chicken

How’s everyone’s summer going? Here in the Lower Mainland in BC, Canada, we’ve had the driest July in history. That means we have an abundance of veggies and fruits compared to the past few years. It is indeed overwhelming to choose what to cook so as not to miss out on each food’s prime season. Thanks to the heat, we have been enjoying plump and juicy tomatoes every day!

Today’s recipe is a celebration of shiso (Japanese herb), whose scent always brings back memories of my grandma’s tiny garden, full of weed-like green and red shiso plants that she used to pickle umeboshi. Since this plant is prone to vigorous growth, one only needs to plant a seedling or two to obtain a sufficiently abundant supply.

In this recipe, shiso is used to create a pesto that is inserted under the chicken’s skin to impart a unique flavour to the dish. Make plenty so you mix the leftovers into pasta and/or sneak it into grilled sandwiches for easy weekday meals. We truly enjoyed sandwiches made the next day with the leftover shiso pesto chicken plus fresh tomato slices!

 

Shiso Pesto Roasted Chicken

Serves 4, or 2 plus leftover

Shiso Pesto
½ heaped cup hazelnuts
¼ cup sunflower seeds
3 garlic cloves
¾ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
A bunch of shiso leaves, stems removed, rinsed and patted dry
1 sprig flat parsley
½ teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon melted butter

1 free-range chicken, rinsed and patted dry
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil
A bunch of carrots, leaves removed, rinsed and patted dry

Make pesto. Roast the hazelnuts and sunflower seeds until aromatic and golden. Place all ingredients except oil in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Start adding oil in a steady drip, and continue to pulse until pesto becomes smooth. It is okay to leave some coarse texture. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the chicken on a roasting pan, chest side up. Salt and pepper the chicken. Insert the pesto from the openings and spread evenly under the bird’s skin through the breasts to thighs and repeat the same for the back–be careful so you don’t tear the skin.

Remove the pesto from your hands and smear on the outside of the chicken. You can add 2 more tablespoons or so of the pesto and continue to rub the entire chicken, making sure it’s well coated. Rub the inside of the carcass too. Finally, drizzle some oil over top, and coat the outside of the chicken evenly. Tie the legs with some kitchen string.

Roast until done; for example, it will take about 1 hour and 10 minutes for a small bird. Alternately, wait until a thermometer inserted at the thickest part of the poultry reaches 165F.

When the chicken is halfway done, add the carrots (lightly coated with salt, pepper and oil) to the roasting pan.

Baste the chicken and carrots periodically.

Remove from the oven, and rest for a few minutes. Carve the chicken and serve to individual plates with carrots. Serve immediately. Keep the rest of the pesto in an airtight container, and refrigerate for another use.

Nira-Tama (Garlic Chive Omelette)

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Garlic chive is one of vegetables I started to grow due to a lack of organically grown supply at my local market. It is important for me to know where food comes from and how it is grown (or treated) before it comes to my kitchen, and ultimately ends up on my plate. That’s one of two reasons why I started my garden, beginning with a 12 x 15’ community garden plot and expanding to my current front and back yard spaces. The other reason? I LOVE growing plants, and I love talking to my plants. Besides, how can I go back to conventional produce after tasting freshly-picked tomatoes still warm from the sun’s energy or sweet, brightly coloured carrots that I have just dug from the ground myself and which possess the concentrated flavours of home?

Garlic chive is a staple ingredient in Japanese/ Chinese cuisine; toss it into miso soup with thinly cut abura-age (deep fried tofu), stir-fry with pork liver and mung sprouts, or combine with cabbage for gyoza or to create aromatic dumplings.

Nira-Tama was my childhood favourite when my grandma used to make it, and later became a before-pay-day meal when I was in a college. Now with home-grown garlic chives, it has become an easy, quick and nutritious dinner solution when I am in a hurry.

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Nira-Tama with Ankake (Sweet & Sour Sauce)

I used an ankake recipe that I had jotted down on a piece of paper so many years ago and that I recently rediscovered in my cooking journal. It is probably from my colleague in Tokyo who made amazing meatballs that were dunked in this sauce.

Serves 4

6 eggs, room temperature

Salt and pepper

1 bunch garlic chives, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Ankake

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

6 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons sugar

1/3 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons good quality ketchup

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

3 teaspoons corn starch

Make ankake by placing all the ingredients, except the cornstarch, in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes to dissolve the sugar and salt.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch well with 3 teaspoons of water. Add to the boiling sauce and stir constantly, cooking for a couple of minutes. Cover and remove from heat.

Place a well-seasoned or non-stick medium sized pan (mine’s a 9-inch skillet) over high heat and warm up the oil until smoky hot.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and add a hearty pinch of salt and pepper.

Sauté the garlic chives in the pan until wilted. It will only take a minute or two. Then spread the chives evenly on the pan.

Pour the eggs over top, swirling to cover the chives and ensuring that the mixture reaches to the edges of the pan. Turn the heat down to medium, cover and cook until the bottom of the eggs become golden.

Flip carefully with a heat-proof spatula, being careful not to break the eggs. Cover and cook until raw egg whites have just set. Don’t overcook because you want to keep the eggs nice and fluffy!

Serve hot with ankake on a large platter or cut into pieces for individual plates.

 

Carrot 3 Ways

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If you are like me you may tend to fall into a routine and continue for a long time without a clear purpose: in this case, I’m talking about the drinking coffee routine. When mindlessly following a routine, you may lose sight of the fact that what you’re doing isn’t at all healthy. Examples of this phenomena are shown in the movie “Food Matters,” which sends a strong message that what you eat is what you are. In the last few years since I started my garden, my partner and I have totally changed the way we live and eat, mostly for the better. However, if we are not paying attention, our best efforts to live more healthfully and consciously could be subverted.

For the longest time, I’ve woken up in the mornings and immediately begun looking forward to a cup of coffee. That is, until my friend suggested that I cut back on my morning intake to improve my health. For sure, I love coffee’s aroma and richly sweet taste, but mostly I love the idea of enjoying a cozy morning routine, which for so long has featured a cup of coffee.

After discussing “Food Matters” with yet another friend, we both decided to majorly cut back on coffee. We still haven’t finished watching the whole movie yet, but definitely got the message in the first 20 minutes. My routine shifted from a cup of coffee to a cup of matcha latte and then to freshly made raw juice, thanks to our friends’ influences. However, I still allow myself a cup of coffee now and then when I have the chance to visit BEAUCOUP BAKERY & CAFÉ, Le Marché St. George, or a few other neat places in Vancouver whose artistry and cozy atmospheres are just too hard to resist! So try this juice, slaw and if you need the coziness, I also baked for you a decadent cake made with another harvest from the spring cleanup.

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Carrot Juice

Serves 2

1cup carrot, washed, peeled and roughly chopped

1 small apple, peeled and cored

2 large oranges, peeled

¼ of whole pineapple, rind removed, cored and roughly chopped

2 ice cubes

Place all the ingredients in a blender (we adore our Vitamix for this), and blend until smooth. Add water to achieve your preferred consistency and serve.

 

Carrot Slaw

Serves 4

4 large carrots, peeled and julienned

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 small knob ginger, chopped

A handful of chives, roughly chopped

¼ cup rice vinegar

½ teaspoon cane sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, roasted in a skillet

2 tablespoons tahini

Combine garlic, ginger, chives, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and tahini in the bowl of a food processor and proceed to blend well. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry, but just chop everything fine, place in a jar and shake well to blend.

In a large bowl, mix the carrots and the dressing well and chill. You can serve in a couple of hours. If you have leftovers, the dish is indeed very tasty the next day. I would sneak this slaw into a sandwich made with leftover cold pork tenderloin sliced along with lots of cilantro leaves or whatever is on hand (or in the fridge) the next day.

 

Carrot Lemon Cake

Makes 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan

1 cup butter plus extra for greasing, room temperature

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten

1 cup grated carrot

2 tablespoons sour cream

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

1 ½ cups cake flour plus extra for dusting

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Icing

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice

¾ cup icing sugar

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, mix well and set aside. Grease the pan with extra butter, dust flour removing the excess and keep refrigerated until the batter is ready. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cream the butter with an electric beater in a large bowl until fluffy. While continuously beating, add the sugar in a few installments and beat until well combined. Add eggs gradually and beat to blend. Switch to a whisk, add the carrot, sour cream, ½ lemon zest and orange juice, and stir to combine. Proceed rhythmically by beating the batter each time you add an ingredient.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter and incorporate. Switch to a spatula, add the rest of the flour mixture and gently combine until no flour is visible.

Bake until tested skewer comes out clean, for about 50 minutes. In the meantime, make icing. Place the sugar in a small bowl and add the lemon juice and the rest of the lemon zest a small amount at a time. Stir well, making a smooth consistency.

Let the cake stand for 10 minutes, and then remove from the pan to cool. Drizzle the icing over top. Slice and serve at room temperature.