French Toast with Cherry-Mandarin Jam and Mascarpone

(adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything app)

My first post from our new computer...we've made the switch to Mac and are loving it!

In other exciting news, it was French toast for breakfast this AM...and, Joef made a new batch of jam! We're calling it "Old Fashioned" - it's cherries, satsuma mandarin oranges, and bourbon. And it is incredible.

Other than that - and the mascarpone cheese spread on top, a trick our friends Sanjin and Mary taught us - it's just your typical French toast. I've just never made it before. But it'll be on the Sunday breakfast roll going forward. Absolutely delicious.

2 cups milk
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
8 or more slices French bread/baguette
Butter
Mascarpone cheese
Old Fashioned jam (or other)

Preheat your oven to 250. Mix the milk, eggs, salt, and vanilla together in a large, wide bowl. Slice your bread to the desired thickness, and let the bread soak in the batter. In the meantime, butter a griddle (or a pan on the stove), and let it get nice and hot and sizzling.

Place each piece of bread on the griddle. When it gets nice and browned, flip to the other side, and let it get nice and brown, too. Continue to flip for up to 10 minutes or so. To make sure the egg has cooked all the way through, you can pop the pieces into the oven and let it cook 10-15 minutes.

Spread with mascarpone and jam. Happy Sunday!

AND SPEAKING OF JAM:
4 pounds of cherries, pitted
3 pounds satsuma mandarins, peeled and chopped
7 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups bourbon
Juice of 4 lemons

For instructions on how to put these ingredients together for amazing jam, see: http://piccinacucina.blogspot.com/2012/10/homemade-jam.html.

Vietnamese Five-Spice Chicken and Coconut-Mango Rice

(adapted from Williams-Sonoma's San Francisco: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World, and Fred Thompson's Grill Master: The Ultimate Arsenal of Back-to-Basics Recipes for the Grill)

OK, so I'm not even going to tell you the first time I made this. I'm that behind. I can't even remember. BUT! I've made it three times since that first attempt, because it is so, SO good. I mean, crazy-delicious, finger-licking good. I made it around Thanksgiving for the fam, and it was a hit - even my one-year old nephew was smacking his lips. It might just be my favorite grilled chicken recipe. And I've always been a fan of coconut rice.

I hadn't really heard of five-spice till we moved to the Bay Area. You can make your own, or you can buy it from the grocery store (win!). To me, the ingredients are surprising - star anise, cinnamon, cloves - sweet stuff - but in this recipe, you add fish sauce, which combines to make this sweet, salty, savory, marinade. Mmm.

So, here's what you need (this should be enough marinade for a whole chicken, but I use the same amount for five-six drumsticks...):
6 cloves garlic, halved
1 large shallot, quartered
1 tbsp peeled ginger
4 tsp sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/2 tsp five spice powder
Freshly ground pepper
5-6 chicken pieces - thighs or drumsticks

And here's what you do:
Combine the garlic, shallot, ginger, and sugar in a small food processor, and process to form a paste. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the soy sauce, fish sauce, five spice powder, and a few grinds of black pepper. This is your marinade.

Rinse the chicken pieces in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place in a shallow dish, and pour in all the marinade. Turn the pieces in the marinade to coat, cover, and refrigerate for as long as possible, up to 8 hours (2 hours work in a pinch). You'll want to turn the chicken a few times. Keep the marinade.

Set up your grill!

Remove the chicken from the marinade (don't throw it out), grill the chicken, and baste it with a marinade a few times. Turn the chicken, baste again, grill until juices run clear. Don't baste the chicken in the final 10 minutes.

Done!

And for the rice (from Grill Master):
1 tbsp canola oil
1 large shallot, minced
1 tsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
2 cups jasmine rice (brown rice works, too)
1 cup coconut milk
Salt
1 (or 2) mango, cubed

In a large saucepan over medium-high, warm the oil. Add the shallot and ginger and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the rice and stir to coat and mix. Add 2 cups water, the coconut milk, and salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, simmer for about 20 minutes - just like you'd normally cook rice.

When done cooking, stir/fluff with a fork, then add the mango and stir that in, too. 

(Green beans - blanched, with olive oil, salt, pepper.)