Winter Distro

The winter distro recipe costs ~$85 for a 9-gallon yield of hearty-yet-balanced stew. Chickpeas! Salsa verde! A bowl to warm the belly and the heart both. 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. produce chicken stock
5. assemble salsa verde
6. pickle some of the cabbage
7. cook the rice
8. prep then cook the beans
9. braise the chicken
10. prep then cook the stew base
11. pack rice, salsa verde, and stew for distro

shop for the ingredients

ingredient	quantity (g unless specified)	shopping guidance
chickpeas	2500
cannellini	1000
spice mix	1 qt
cabbage	3000
rice	2500
chicken	8500	4 Aldi packs
frozen peas	1360	4 bags
butternut squash	3000	weigh at store
yellow onions	1400	7-9 onions
potatoes (sweet/plain)	3000
chicken stock	4000	should be homemade!
coconut milk	2900	1 big (#10) can
peppers (bell/sweet, sliced)	900	9 bell peppers (green/mixed) and 3 bags mini sweet peppers

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.

chicken stock

1. save bones in the freezer over a few weeks' distro cooks
2. take out all frozen chicken bones plus any fresh from today, distribute across two hotel pans
3. add water to just cover bones
4. simmer for 1.5 hours
5. remove bones (by pouring stock through perforated pan into clean hotel pan)
6. arrange hotel pans of chicken stock on cooling racks on porch, set fan to blow across them
7. once cool, portion into quarts, label + date, and freeze

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

rice

1. bring salted water to boil in pot (3.3% of rice weight in salt and 250% in water, so 33g salt and 5L water for every 1000g rice)
2. put rice in deep hotel pan
3. pour boiling water over rice, stir once
4. cover with sheet tray or inverted hotel pan
5. bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until water is absorbed
6. cool rice to room temperature on cooling racks outside
7. roughly mix in chopped crispy chicken skin

notes

• probably do this in the upstairs oven, but set timers not to lose track

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

braised chicken

ingredient	quantity (g unless specified)
chicken	8500
coconut milk	2900
spice mix	0.5 qt
garlic/ginger	250

1. preheat the oven to 400
2. mix chicken with spice mix and garlic/ginger
3. open one big can (#10 can) coconut milk and pour over the chicken
4. put hotel pan of chicken in oven for 90 minutes
5. remove from oven, mix it around to even out heat distribution, and return to oven for 45 min more
6. remove from the oven, use meat thermometer (long floppy wire thermometer) to check for minimum 160 degrees across six pieces if chicken from different areas of the pan
7. if any chicken under 160, put it back in the oven for 20 minutes and check again
8. once you have 6 readings of 160+, remove from the oven
9. remove chicken from juice and lay out on separate baking sheet to air-cool
10. put hotel pan on a cooling tray (diningroom table is good)
11. grab gallon jugs of ice from shop fridge, rinse/wipe them off (they were washed before freezing) and distribute them throughout hotel pan to cool
12. drop 1 qt frozen stock into one of the pans to help cool + bring liquid
13. once the chicken is cool enough to handle, pick meat off bones, rough chop, and return to the cooling sauce
14. save chicken bones in a plastic bag in the freezer for a later bulk chicken stock cook

stew base

ingredient	quantity (g unless specified)
frozen peas	1360
butternut squash	3000
yellow onions	1400
potatoes (sweet/plain)	3000
chicken stock	4000
peppers (bell/sweet, sliced)	900
spice mix	0.5 qt
garlic/ginger	250

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 and butternut squash to 1/2" cubes
3. slice yellow onions
4. pop lids of coconut milk can(s) and tomato can(s)
5. 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, potatoes, and butternut squash and stir
5. simmer until biggest pieces begin to tender, ~15 minutes
6. add cabbage, peppers, simmer for 5 minutes, then cut heat and transfer to two or more hotel pans
7. distribute ice wands across the pans
8. arrange pans on cooling racks outside with fan blowing air across them to cool quickly
9. once cool, combine with pickled cabbage, cooked & chilled beans, and chicken in coconut milk
10. wash your hand and arm to the elbow, mix stew thoroughly by hand, then split across buckets using a small pot to scoop
11. refrigerate overnight, follow packing instructions for other items

pack

1. cooled stew ends up in two 5-gallon buckets
2. cooled rice ends up in square 8-qt cambro with blue lid
3. fill single 3-quart cambro with salsa verde
4. distribute all packed food between downstairs fridge and garage fridge
5. nest cleaned 32-qt inside 60-qt pot, set by front door
6. communicate location of all to-go food to whomever is handing off or picking up food
7. ready now for Saturday morning transportation