The best food is poor food.
The
finest food traditions of so many old cultures involve skillful manipulation of
less than desirable cuts of meat and seasonal produce that has persisted,
prized until even today. A $27 slow braised short rib at a fine dining
restaurant... Your mom’s rich pot roast... A strip of crisp bacon on a Sunday
morning... These things are all history.
Progress and industry have threatened these traditions throughout the years, but always, they prevail. As a society, we don't need preservative methods such as salting, curing and pickling. There is ready access to refrigeration and meats are leaner and healthier, in some distinct ways, than ever before. The popularity of some of these "tough cuts" of meat makes them very equitable in price to premium cuts.
Why then do we still take six hours to braise a pot roast for our families? Why, for so many people, is breakfast not quite breakfast without a strip or two of bacon or sausage? A tough ol' rooster would be near impossible to find outside of a small family farm these days, yet you can still find a decent coq au vin.
It's because slow food; food that nanny, mamau, maman, granny and achamma, made for you was made quite literally of love. Her love for you made her industrious when times were tough and food was scarce. Her love for you made her look at that pork neck, or cow stomach in a new way. She came to understand that if she handled it precisely, she could make something that not only filled you up, but made you smile and warmed you to the core. She knew that for you to be strong you needed vegetables when there were none growing and she found a way to make it last.
The love of the centuries feeds us to this day. My family, still centered in the deep south, is steeped in that culture; a culture where fried fish and a slow cooked pot of beans is likely to show up at any meal. Where I come from, most everything is handmade, because it always has been, or at least, it was.
These days, a lack of time and inclination is leading people away from that style of cooking even though crockpots, pressure cookers and immersion circulators make it more convenient than ever. There are too many fast choices, and a homemade meal is harder and harder to come by.
At Swoop! we still love ya'. Can't say it's as much as your dear old ma, but it's real. What we do might seem funky at times, but give us a try and we think you'll like it. We want to give you our best, and we'll work hard to keep doing so as long as you let us. We hand make as much of our menu as we possibly can and we make no compromises with our ingredients and standards.
Progress and industry have threatened these traditions throughout the years, but always, they prevail. As a society, we don't need preservative methods such as salting, curing and pickling. There is ready access to refrigeration and meats are leaner and healthier, in some distinct ways, than ever before. The popularity of some of these "tough cuts" of meat makes them very equitable in price to premium cuts.
Why then do we still take six hours to braise a pot roast for our families? Why, for so many people, is breakfast not quite breakfast without a strip or two of bacon or sausage? A tough ol' rooster would be near impossible to find outside of a small family farm these days, yet you can still find a decent coq au vin.
It's because slow food; food that nanny, mamau, maman, granny and achamma, made for you was made quite literally of love. Her love for you made her industrious when times were tough and food was scarce. Her love for you made her look at that pork neck, or cow stomach in a new way. She came to understand that if she handled it precisely, she could make something that not only filled you up, but made you smile and warmed you to the core. She knew that for you to be strong you needed vegetables when there were none growing and she found a way to make it last.
The love of the centuries feeds us to this day. My family, still centered in the deep south, is steeped in that culture; a culture where fried fish and a slow cooked pot of beans is likely to show up at any meal. Where I come from, most everything is handmade, because it always has been, or at least, it was.
These days, a lack of time and inclination is leading people away from that style of cooking even though crockpots, pressure cookers and immersion circulators make it more convenient than ever. There are too many fast choices, and a homemade meal is harder and harder to come by.
At Swoop! we still love ya'. Can't say it's as much as your dear old ma, but it's real. What we do might seem funky at times, but give us a try and we think you'll like it. We want to give you our best, and we'll work hard to keep doing so as long as you let us. We hand make as much of our menu as we possibly can and we make no compromises with our ingredients and standards.
Matt
Swoop! Southern Fried Chicken
A brine is a short cure that works by cellular osmosis... awwww, hell. It makes food taste better, more tender and way jucier.
Southern Fried Chicken Brine
3 cups buttermilk
2 crushed cloves garlic
2 tbs paprika
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbs salt
zest of one lemon
fresh ground pepper to taste (we like lots)
5 toasted juniper berries* if you have them laying around
Breading
2 cups flour
1/4 cup potato starch (cornstarch'll do if you gotta)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 whole fryer chicken, pieced
Zip bag your cut fryer chicken and pour in the brine. Squeeze as much air as you can out of the bag and move it all around to coat well. Throw it in the fridge overnight (yes, advance planning is a must) or for at least 5 hours. Hey - wash those hands!
Fill your fryer/cast iron/whatever you're deep frying in with neutral oil. Follow the manufacturers intructions and if there aren't any, 3/4 of the way to the top is probably your max. Preheat the oil to 325. Use candy or deep fry thermometer or if you're old school, you'll recognize the shine across the surface of the oil. Most people recognize 350 as a common fry temperature. The lower temperature here allows time for the inside of the chicken to cook, with out the crust becoming charcoal.
Toss your chicken in the flour mixture. If you wanna get fancy, go back to the brine and then back to the flour again(mega-crunchy). Soap, water; meet hands!
Couple of situations here. If you're shallow frying, there's gonna be some flipping in your future and if not your road is a little easier. Don't overload the pan/pot. You wanna eat your chicken fast, and I can dig it, but, too much chicken, temperature drops suddenly and then you have a soggy mess. 10-12 minutes ought to just about get it but what you really want is to reach 180 degree's internal. Here's how I test it when I don't have a probe thermometer around. I take a cake probe or paper clip and push it down near the bone in the thickest part of the chicken. I hold it here for a time and then touch it to my lip. If it hurts like hell, it's ready.
Please be nice to your new chicken. Salt it lightly. Drain it on a rack, not paper towels or a paper bag and please, for the love of all that is holy, don't hold it in a gas oven. The vapor from the gas oven will, well... the nice crunch the potato starch gives you will go away.
Make this for your mom and give some of that love back!
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