Chicken Embutido

While planning the media noche menu, it suddenly popped out in my mind an attempt to make an embutido which I am sure will be something new to share to my sous-chef-hayati.

Way back my high school days, I had seen how my aunt made embutido (which she sold out to the neighborhood and friends as her means of income).  I started to recall the ingredients bearing in mind two things: (1) I will not be using pork meat, but will use chicken as a substitute; and (2) baking instead of steaming procedure.  By the way, I always make sure that all ingredients I use for cooking is labelled “halal” so I can share the dish with hayati.

Complete ingredients I used for this dish are:

• 1/2 kg ground chicken
• 1 cup chicken vienna sausage (I actually used only 3 pieces as I got the spicy flavored sausages)
• 1 small size carrot, chopped (I find it easier to just grate the carrot)
• 1 medium size onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced (you may use 2-3 cloves if you don’t have any issue with garlic, I just don’t like my foods to be garlicky)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons pickle relish
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• salt & pepper to taste
• 8 pieces hard boiled quail egg (I wasn’t able to find quail eggs so I used instead 2 pieces of hard boiled eggs, sliced into quarters)
• 2 tablespoon vegetable cooking oil

Direction:

1. Except for the last three ingredients listed, put all the other ingredients in a big  bowl and season with pepper & salt (taking into consideration the saltiness of the cheese).  Mix till all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
2. Divide the mixture in 2 portions. Put one portion in the center of an aluminum foil and flatten the mixture.  Arrange 4 egg slices in the bed of the mixture and fold both sides of the mixture up to completely cover the egg slices. 
3. Roll the aluminum foil to form a firm log of about 2.5 inches diameter.  Twist both ends of the foil to seal the whole log.  Do the same step for other portion of the mixture.
4. To be able to save gas, I baked the logs while roasting a chicken at 200 degrees for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
5. When cooked, let it cool for about 15 - 20 minutes.  Remove the aluminum wrapper.
6. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan and sear all sides of the embutido till it turns slightly brown.
7. Slice the log diagonally into desired thickness. Plate and serve with catsup.

Shish Tawook in Rice

Hayati thought of using the shish tawook (marinated chicken) in this dish instead of the usual grilling method. I and Hayati have no idea on the name of this dish so we’ll call it Hayati’s biryani #1.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of Basmati rice (cooked as per package instruction)
• 1/2 kg ready to cook shish tawook (marinated chicken)
• 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 carrot, cut into small cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Some cashew nuts, roasted
• Some raisins
• 3 teaspoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons Arabic mix masala
• 1 cup of water
• Some canola oil
• Salt to taste

Cooking direction:

• In a pan, sauté the onion till translucent. Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, in low fire.
• Add the masala, tomato paste and carrots. Add a cup of water and simmer till the chicken is tender. If necessary, add more water just till the chicken is done.
• Add the garbanzo beans, cashew nuts and raisins. Season with salt cover and cook for another 5 minutes.
• In another pot, arrange the rice & the cooked chicken dish in alternating way. Rice on first layer, second layer the cooked chicken. Again a layer of rice then topmost layer is the chicken.  Cook in low heat for about 5 minutes.
• Serve with yoghurt.