[CH] Garlic from Gilroy
Doug Irvine (dougandmarie@home.com)
Sat, 04 Sep 1999 19:55:35 -0700
I am, I have to admit, a used bookstore freak! I cruise used bookstores,
looking for any interesting cookbook, or any other book that takes my
fancy, or piques my interest. The other day, I happened to get a minute
to go to a second hand bookstore here in Nanaimo, aptly named, Bygone
Books, and what to my delight did I see? Why an old, new, like as in
never opened, book named"The Garlic Lovers' Cookbook"from where else?
Gilroy, California!!Well, I thought, here is a treasure, as I had been
in Gilroy, many times in the 70's, and had never seen a cookbook devoted
to garlic there...mind you, this was prior to their great push, for
everyone in America, including us up here, above the north
gate(Cameron?)to eat more garlic, cause they were growing it like crazy,
and they really wanted to sell the stuff. Well, now, of course, they
sell it like gangbusters, Gilroy garlic is everywhere, and so it should
be.This book was published in 1980, revised in 82, which is the one I
have, by Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA, perhaps not in business anymore,
but the book is worth hunting for...just add chile to the recipes, as I
did tonight, and came up with this gem, devised by Kelly Green, Mill
Valley, and vastly modified by me...so here is Kelly's (and Doug's)
Asian Chicken
1 full, boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
1 egg, white only, save yolk for future use
2 tbls corn starch
1 tbls dry sherry
1 whole head of garlic, peeled, and chopped fine(head, not clove)!!!!
1 1" knob of fresh ginger, scraped, and chopped fine
2 habs, seeded and chopped fine
1/2 cup of rice vinegar
1/4 cup of Ketjap Manis, or dark soy sauce and 1 tbls honey
Peanut oil for frying the chicken pieces.
Beat the egg white to a froth, add a little salt, the sherry, corn starch
and the chicken pieces, and mix well. If this is too dry, add a little
more sherry, if too wet, more cornstarch.Let this marinate in the fridge
for up to six hours. Remove it from the fridge, give it a good stir
around, and get a wok very hot, add the peanut oil, and when it is just
smoking, start stir frying the chicken pieces, removing them when they
are browned, and keep them warm.This marinade is called a slippery
marinade, by the Chinese, and I use it for any chicken or pork dish
which needs to be "deep fried"Dry out the wok, and re-heat with fresh
peanut oil and add the garlic, ginger, and the habs,stir frying this
continually, and add the vinegar, soy sauce combination...bring this to
simmer, and add the reserved chicken pieces, keeping the boiling point
up...this should be a sort of glazed covering for the chicken pieces,
and should not be too wet. When this is done,serve it with rice or
noodles... I devised a noodle dish to accompany this, which will follow
in the next post. Cheers, Doug in BC