Summer Distro
The summer distro recipe costs ~$75 for a 9-gallon yield of fresh-vegetable-rich chicken balela. To make dividing labor easier, the recipe is broken into "building blocks", parts of the total recipe that can be considered and prepared independently. Assemble the building blocks thus:
- shop for the ingredients
- prep the garlic/ginger
- mix the spices
- pickle the cabbage
- prep then cook the beans
- assemble salsa verde
- process the fresh vegetables
- prep then cook the balela base
shop for the ingredients
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) | shopping guidance |
---|---|---|
chickpeas | 2500 | |
cannellini | 1000 | |
garlic | 320 | |
ginger | 180 | |
cabbage | 2000 | 2 large or 3 medium green cabbages |
jalapeño peppers, blistered | 800 | 3 aldi bags, ~2 loose quarts |
lemon juice | 1 qt | ~16 lemons |
scallions | 800 | 6 bags |
cilantro | 400 | 9 bunches |
coconut milk | 2900 | 1 large (#10) can or 7 standard cans |
potatoes | 3000 | ~10 big idaho potatoes |
cauliflower | 4000 | 4-5 head |
chicken | 8500 | 4 aldi packs |
canned whole peeled tomato | 2900 | 1 #10 cans or 7 standard cans |
yellow onions | 1200 | ~8 yellow onions |
peppers (bell/sweet, sliced) | 900 | 9 bell peppers (green/mixed) and 3 bags mini sweet peppers |
frozen peas | 1360 | 4 aldi bags |
cucumber | 1800 | ~6 pieces |
spice mix | 1 qt | |
garlic/ginger | 500 |
garlic-ginger
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
garlic | 320 |
ginger | 180 |
olive oil | 0.25 c |
- peel ginger with a spoon or veg. peeler
- rough chop ginger to the size of garlic cloves
- pulse mixed garlic and ginger in batches in blender, adding just enough oil for the blender to catch
- portion into pints
notes
- if you have time, prepare a 5x or 10x batch, portion it out into pint containers, and freeze them. Each pint is enough for one week's garlic/ginger requirement.
spice mix
whole spice
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
cumin seeds | 100 |
coriander seeds | 100 |
fennel seed | 50 |
cloves | 3 |
caraway seeds | 23 |
ground spice
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
tumeric | 165 |
cayenne | 25 |
paprika | 20 |
cinnamon | 15 |
method 1 (small batch)
- toast whole spices together in a pan until aromatic, ~4 minutes
- grind whole spices in blender/spice grinder
- combine all spices
- portion into quart containers
method 2 (huge batch, ~5 gallon yield approach)
- preheat oven to 350°
- toast whole spices in hotel pans for 5-10 minutes, until fragrant
- grind whole spices in batches
- using a >10 gallon pot as a mixing vessel, thoroughly blend spices with a combination of whisking and folding/chopping with a pastry knife. Ensure there are no pockets of unmixed spices along the bottom.
- transfer spice mix to 5 gallon bucket with a rubber seal. Never allow moisture into the bucket.
notes
- ideally, scale this recipe up 50X or so and prepare enough spice mix for a year--it will save a lot of money to buy spices in bulk quantity, they will be fresher, and it will save a huge amount of time. When shopping for scaled-up spice mix, it may help to use an online recipe scaler. You can paste the above ingredient table into the scaler and specify a 50X factor, and then compare cheap online prices. Amazon has been the cheapest one-stop solution so far.
pickled cabbage
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
cabbage | 2000 |
salt | 40 |
garlic/ginger | 40 |
spice mix | 60 |
rice vinegar | 1 qt |
sugar | 0.33 qt |
water | 0.66 qt |
- cut cabbages to quarters through core
- remove core
- cut to ~1" pieces
- using hands, vigorously break up clumps and layers of cabbage
- dissolve sugar and salt into vinegar/water solution
- stir garlic/ginger and spice mix into solution
- combine everything in a cambro and refrigerate 24+ hrs
notes
- Do reuse the brine, but know that it will lose flavor potency. Using your judgement, recharge the flavor of the brine from time to time (about monthly) by replenishing the vinegar, garlic/ginger, spice, and salt/sugar to taste.
- The brine should just cover the cabbage. If you need more brine, follow a 3:2:1 ratio of vinegar:water:sugar (measuring volumetrically) to extend the volume of brine liquid. Scale up your spice, salt/sugar, and garlic-ginger to keep the flavor concentration of the brine about the same.
- for the curious: the salt, garlic/ginger, and spice mix amounts should be 2%, 2%, and 3% of the mass of the cabbage
beans
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
chickpeas | 2500 |
cannellini | 1000 |
yellow onion, halved | 1 pc |
garlic | 1 head |
bay leaf | 4 leaf |
- keep cannellini beans separate from chickpeas until cooling
- soak beans overnight, water should come up twice the height of the beans
- next day, put beans in deep hotel pans
- cut lemon, onion, and head of garlic in half along equator
- cover beans with 1" water
- put half of lemons/onion/garlic in each pan
- arrange pans on stove, cover with upside-down pans, simmer ~30 minutes skimming foam until barely tender (they will require different amounts of time)
- when each pan is barely tender, salt liberally, simmer 5 minutes more, then cut heat
- use perforated pan to drain beans and shock them with cool water
notes
- for fastest cooling, put drained beans in a clean food-grade bucket, take them to the back yard, and rinse them three or four times with cold hose-water. You can use the perforated pan to prevent losing beans while you pour off water between rinses.
- beans can be cooked ahead and chilled; for the summer recipe, this helps bring down the combined balela temperature before putting it in the fridge
salsa verde
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
jalapeño peppers, blistered | 800 |
lemon juice | 1 qt |
scallions | 800 |
cilantro | 400 |
- char jalapeno peppers on stove using the scorched colander
- rough chop cilantro and scallions
- juice lemons
- process everything in vitamix
- portion into quart containers
notes
- if you can, juice the lemons in bulk, portion them into pints (1/2 quart tubs), and then freeze the juice as soon as possible to keep the fresh taste
veggies
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
peppers (bell/sweet, sliced) | 900 |
frozen peas | 1360 |
cucumber | 1800 |
- cut sweet peppers, bell peppers, and cucumbers to small bite-sized pieces
- fine chop red onions
- collect all raw veg in one cambro (if you think you'll forget them later, dump frozen peas into this cambro too; otherwise add them at final mix)
- chill in fridge until final mix
balela base
ingredient | quantity (g unless specified) |
---|---|
coconut milk | 2900 |
potatoes | 3000 |
cauliflower | 4000 |
chicken | 8500 |
canned whole peeled tomato | 2900 |
yellow onions | 1200 |
spice mix | 1 qt |
garlic/ginger | 500 |
prep
- the night before, freeze as many plastic bottles/jugs of water as your freezer can hold for faster cooling after the cook
- peel then cut potato to 1/2" cubes
- cut cauliflower to bite-size florets
- slice yellow onions
- pop lids of coconut milk can(s) and tomato can(s)
- open packs of chicken into one cambro
- arrange all ingredients near the stove
cook
- heat big pot empty for 5 minutes
- add one cup oil to bottom of pan, yellow onions, stir periodically for 5 minutes
- add spice mix and garlic/ginger, stir across bottom of pot, let it stick and get fragrant for ~30 sec, then stir and ref-latten, repeat a couple times and at first sign of smoke, deglaze coconut milk to a slurry
- add rest of coconut milk, canned whole tomatoes, stir, then add chicken
- simmer, stirring occasionally, until chicken is done
- remove chicken and set aside to cool (use tongs/perforated pan or your preferred method to remove the chicken)
- add potatoes, stir, and simmer until biggest pieces barely tender
- add cauliflower, simmer 5 more minutes
- cut heat, transfer to two or more hotel pans
- distribute ice wands across the pans
- arrange pans on cooling racks on kitchen table with fan blowing air across them to cool quickly
- while base cools, pick chicken meat from bones and rough chop
- once cool, combine with fresh chopped veggies, pickled cabbage, cooked & chilled beans, salsa verde and chopped chicken in big potatoes
- wash your hand and arm to the elbow, mix balela thoroughly by hand, then split across buckets using a small pot to scoop
- refrigerate overnight