My goal each day is to have dinner on the table around the time Chad and Elena get home in the evening. OK, that's always been my goal, but things have gotten a bit more complicated here in Taiwan. My real goal is to produce a meal that is edible and I know it will take me most of the day to accomplish that. Once I get into the swing of things, I'll have a list on my refrigerator of the meals I can find all the ingredients to make. In the meantime, it's trial and error in the kitchen.
One of the meals we love and find comforting is simply baked chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Chicken is a meat found in most countries, and having been to the market here in Taipei, I knew it was available. I'm a bit leery of buying the market chicken because I have no idea how long it's been sitting on that table, unchilled. The last thing I want is for all of us to spend a miserable week running to the bathroom because I bought meat that had been sitting out in the heat and humidity for too long.
On my shopping trip to Carre Four, the grocery store that has a nice balance of local & other products presented in a bit more Western way, I found whole chicken, nicely wrapped in cellophane and packaged in a familiar way. I examined it an made my purchase then began contemplating opening the package up and beginning the cooking process.
I wasn't sure exactly what I would find. I was a bit worried about feet because I could see there was a bit of color variation sort of tucked up inside the cavity. I tore the plastic and began pulling at the grey part with my knife. After a bit of effort, the leg slowly began to unbend and out came the leg, foot and claws. The feet were scaly and just sort of curled up in a witchy sort of way. The claws looked like long finger nails ready to scratch a groove in my cutting board. Yuck. I looked at the knuckle where I would need to make my cut and gave a shudder. I quickly flipped the bird over with my knife to see if the small legs needed removing as well.
That's when I saw what I was completely unprepared for. The head was still attached, smashed into the side of the breast and squashed flat. I squeaked. Mind you, it was not a full out scream, but there was some sort of strange sounding noise that came from me. It took a few minutes of hopping around the kitchen and shaking my hands out before I was able to return to the bird and sort out what to do. I picked at the head with the knife in an effort to pry it away from the body and considered what to do.
I made a quick trip across the hall to see if my neighbor had ever removed the head from a chicken before. She had a cleaver but had never cooked a whole chicken, so she had no useful tips for me. Armed with my weapon, I marched back into the kitchen to get this over with so I could get on with my day. I'm not really a hacking sort of person, so I gingerly took the cleaver and sawed it back and forth across a leg. It didn't even break the skin. I applied a little more pressure but didn't have any more luck. So, lesson one learned. You must have sharp kitchen knives in order to de-head a chicken. I got my good chef's knife out and amazingly enough, with a little bit of pressure, the leg came right off. The ease was actually a bit frightening. Leg number two came off quickly before I turned the body around to deal with the head.
There's just something about cutting a head off that is a bit disconcerting. The more I looked at it's face, all ugly and smashed, the weaker my knees became. I finally just sucked it up and in one, smooth slice the head was severed. I peeked into the cavity. Fortunately it had been thoroughly cleaned out to make room to tuck the feet. I rinsed the body out and placed it in a baking dish. I'm sure a Taiwanese cook would have a fit because the feet are one of their favorite things. Not sure what they do with the heads, some things are better left unknown.
Dinner was a huge success. The bird was juicy and tasty. Another meal down. 1,085 left to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment