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:

1. shop for the ingredients
2. prep the garlic/ginger
3. mix the spices
4. pickle the cabbage
5. prep then cook the beans
6. assemble salsa verde
7. process the fresh vegetables
8. 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

1. peel ginger with a spoon or veg. peeler
2. rough chop ginger to the size of garlic cloves
3. pulse mixed garlic and ginger in batches in blender, adding just enough oil for the blender to catch
4. 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)

1. toast whole spices together in a pan until aromatic, ~4 minutes
2. grind whole spices in blender/spice grinder
3. combine all spices
4. portion into quart containers

method 2 (huge batch, ~5 gallon yield approach)

1. preheat oven to 350°
2. toast whole spices in hotel pans for 5-10 minutes, until fragrant
3. grind whole spices in batches
4. 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.
5. 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

1. cut cabbages to quarters through core
2. remove core
3. cut to ~1" pieces
4. using hands, vigorously break up clumps and layers of cabbage
5. dissolve sugar and salt into vinegar/water solution
6. stir garlic/ginger and spice mix into solution
7. 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

1. keep cannellini beans separate from chickpeas until cooling
2. soak beans overnight, water should come up twice the height of the beans
3. next day, put beans in deep hotel pans
4. cut lemon, onion, and head of garlic in half along equator
5. cover beans with 1" water
6. put half of lemons/onion/garlic in each pan
7. arrange pans on stove, cover with upside-down pans, simmer ~30 minutes skimming foam until barely tender (they will require different amounts of time)
8. when each pan is barely tender, salt liberally, simmer 5 minutes more, then cut heat
9. 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

1. char jalapeno peppers on stove using the scorched colander
2. rough chop cilantro and scallions
3. juice lemons
4. process everything in vitamix
5. 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

1. cut sweet peppers, bell peppers, and cucumbers to small bite-sized pieces
2. fine chop red onions
3. 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)
4. 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

1. the night before, freeze as many plastic bottles/jugs of water as your freezer can hold for faster cooling after the cook
2. peel then cut potato to 1/2" cubes
3. cut cauliflower to bite-size florets
4. slice yellow onions
5. pop lids of coconut milk can(s) and tomato can(s)
6. open packs of chicken into one cambro
7. arrange all ingredients near the stove

cook

1. heat big pot empty for 5 minutes
2. add one cup oil to bottom of pan, yellow onions, stir periodically for 5 minutes
3. 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
4. add rest of coconut milk, canned whole tomatoes, stir, then add chicken
5. simmer, stirring occasionally, until chicken is done
6. remove chicken and set aside to cool (use tongs/perforated pan or your preferred method to remove the chicken)
7. add potatoes, stir, and simmer until biggest pieces barely tender
8. add cauliflower, simmer 5 more minutes
9. cut heat, transfer to two or more hotel pans
10. distribute ice wands across the pans
11. arrange pans on cooling racks on kitchen table with fan blowing air across them to cool quickly
12. while base cools, pick chicken meat from bones and rough chop
13. once cool, combine with fresh chopped veggies, pickled cabbage, cooked & chilled beans, salsa verde and chopped chicken in big potatoes
14. wash your hand and arm to the elbow, mix balela thoroughly by hand, then split across buckets using a small pot to scoop
15. refrigerate overnight