Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] China Moon Master Sauce Poussin

* Exported from MasterCook *

                           Master Sauce Poussin

Recipe By     :
Serving Size : 4     Preparation Time :0:00
Categories    : Meat

Amount Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2                     fresh poussin -- baby chickens, 10 to 12 ounces each
                        MASTER SAUCE:
2 1/2           cups China Moon Double Stock -- (page 72) or unsalted chicken stock
2               cups soy sauce
     1/3           cup Chinese rice wine -- or dry sherry
6             pieces fresh ginger -- coin-sized, peeled & smashed
4                     scallion -- fat-sized, cut into 1-inch nuggets and smashed
1 1/2                 star anise -- broken into their 12 individual points
2             ounces Chinese golden rock sugar -- smashed into bits (1/3 cup after smashing)
1         Tablespoon crumbled cassia -- or cinnamon bark
                        thinly pared zest of 1/2 orange -- well scrubbed, no white pith
     1/2      teaspoon Szechwan peppercorns
                        To garnish: -- coriander sprigs or scallion brushes

Chop off and discard the tail and skinny wingtips of the birds. Clean the
cavities well of kidneys, blood, loose membranes and fat sacs, then flush
with cold water. Pat dry inside and out.

In a wok, or heavy, non-aluminum pot large enough to hold the chickens
snugly, bring all of the sauce ingredients through the peppercorns to a
simmer over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Add the poussin and ladle the liquid over the top while the sauce returns
to a simmer. The repeated shower of hot liquid will sear and color the
birds. Cover the pot and simmer the poussin for 15 minutes. Turn and baste
the birds midway through cooking. (If you are cooking a single large
chicken, extend the simmering time to 40 minutes.)

Carefully remove the birds to a large plate, breast side up. The skin will
be very fragile; take care not to tear it. Tilt the birds over the pot to
drain the cavities of sauce. Strain the sauce, discarding the solids.

To serve the birds freshly stewed, let them stand 10 minutes before
cutting so the juices do not run freely. With a sharp, thin-bladed cleaver
or chef's knife, cut off the wings and legs at the joints. Cut through the
breastbone and along both sides of the backbone; discard the backbone. Put
each half, bone side down, on the board and cut it crosswise into pieces.
Whack with conviction you may not feel so the knife cuts cleanly through
the bone. Rearrange the birds in more or less their original shape on
heated plates of contrasting color. Spoon a bit of the hot sauce on top
and garnish with a fresh flag of coriander or scallion brushes.

Or, for a fuller flavor, refrigerate the birds covered in the sauce for 1
or 2 days and serve them cold or at room temperature. First refrigerate
the sauce, uncovered, until it is just cool enough to handle (and no
longer hot enough to further cook the chickens). Return the birds, breast
side down, to the casserole or a container of similar size. Pour the sauce
over the birds, cover, and refrigerate. The juices will gel upon cooling.
To serve, use your fingers to gently clean the birds of clinging sauce,
then chop the birds as described. Arrange the pieces on plates or a
platter of contrasting color. Spoon a bit of the jellied sauce on top and
garnish with the coriander or scallion.

Refrigerate or freeze the excess master sauce for further use.

Serve 4 as a main course, 6 to 8 as part of a multi-course meal

AuthorNote: Master sauce dishes are among the most approachable in the
Chinese culinary lexicon, the coq au vin of the would-be-Chinese-cook's
world.

Baby chickens - poussin, in French, and now commonly called so in
gastronomic English - are ideal when cooked whole in a master sauce. The
flavors and colors of soy, rice wine, cassia bark, and orange zest
penetrate the skin and accentuate the sweet goodness of the flesh.

The poussin can be served hot and freshly pulled from the sauce or left to
chill and enrich in the sauce as detailed below. Either way, it is a
simply done dish, requiring only a few ingredients and no culinary
bravery.

In addition to larger breasts that can be stewed successfully in master
sauce, the succulent liquid is also a great vehicle for flavoring heartier
vegetables like mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes, as well as hard-cooked
eggs (the latter a traditional Chinese snack). Simmered briefly in the
sauce, the vegetables become quite rich and potent, and offer a very nice
contrast to an otherwise mild dish of rice or pasta.

LEFTOVER MASTER SAUCE: In traditional northern Chinese homes, master
sauces were added to and kept simmering literally over several
generations, much like a mother yeast starter in other parts of the world.
Enriched by the first stewing, the sauce becomes the base of the next dish
- whether it be another chicken, a dinner of chicken or duck legs, or
perhaps a pork butt or loin of beef. The method for renewal is simply to
heat the original sauce (which may be frozen) and then taste and "adjust
up" with more of whatever ingredient the tongue desires in roughly equal
proportion to the original recipe. Sauce renewals inevitably involve
adding more stock or water to cut the richness (and saltiness) gained from
the initial simmering. Do not be surprised if all that is required for the
first rerun is the simple addition of stock or water; if your aromatics
were very fresh, their potency from the first use will last through the
second.

MENU SUGGESTIONS: Cold, the poussin is the perfect alongside a simple
salad or as part of a "Peking antipasto" platter with one of our cold
noodle dishes. If you are serving the poussin hot, it is most delicious
alongside rice and a simply sauteed green vegetable or a colorful
vegetable melange.

Cuisine:
"Chinese"
Source:
"China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Tropp, 1992"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"May 2013"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 2720 Calories; 183g Fat (61.7%
calories from fat); 215g Protein; 40g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber;
936mg Cholesterol; 9080mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 27 1/2
Lean Meat; 4 Vegetable; 21 1/2 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 900248 0 4017 0 0 0 0 0 5737 2705 1012 0 0