It's all about the accessories: Cold Asian chicken with bean noodles

There are variations of the expression "accessories make the outfit" all over the place. You know the "rule:" give six women a basic black dress - the same one - and tell them to accessorize however they like, and you'll come up with six different outfits.
That's the classic one: how about giving six men the same navy blue suit, maybe the same color and style shirt, and telling them to go with it. Well, maybe for men you let them pick the shirt too (Annalena would). The whole point is, of course: if you go with something basic, classic, and good, you can show your imagination by what goes with it.
In this and the following, Annalena hopes to show you how she took some truly good recipes by superb chefs, and then made them her own. The first, a lovely light lunch or first course, the second, a rich dessert. She commends you to take the dishes and run with them.
The first, is a dish that was published in the NY Times by one of the great, and most underrated chefs of our time, David Tanis. Chef Tanis has been chef at Chez Panisse forever. Now, he's head chef half the year (in Berkeley), and the other half of the year he lives in Paris, where he runs Annalena's dream supperclub, serving one meal to one table of 12 people every night.
Tough life, huh? Well, Chef Tanis is writing a series of recipes for the Times, where he is pushing simplicity and good taste. They work. You should make them.

This week, he gave a recipe for cold, boiled Chinese style chicken. That title does NOT give this dish justice, and it points to the failings of language to describe dishes. This is way better than it sounds, and it is ridiculously easy to cook. I' going to explain how I made it, and then how I played with the accompaniments.

To make the basic dish, you need a few ingredients: chicken thighs, on the bone, with their skin. Eight of them, please. Then a nice piece of ginger: 2-4 inches, sliced into thick coins. Don't bother to peel it, not necessary. You also need either four garlic cloves, or half a bulb of spring garlic. Slice the stuff into slivers. The only ingredient you may have trouble getting, is the next one: star anise. This is a beautiful spice, and you should have a few, especially if you like to poach fruit. They provide a very mild, anise type of flavor to dishes reminiscent of a fruity tarragon. You need 3 of them. Spice stores will frequently sell them whole, or in broken pieces. Get the broken ones for this one: they are much cheaper, and as long as you have the equivalent of three, you'll be fine. Finally, you need two scallions.

Put all of this in a pot, after you've salted and peppered the chicken and let it sit for a few hours. Cover it with water. JUST cover it with water. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat, cover the pot, and go away for an hour. When you come back, turn off the heat, pull out the chicken, and reserve it. To the best of your ability, strain the solids out of the liquid, and then turn up the heat and reduce it by half.

While this is happening, if you can, pull the skin off of the chicken thighs and shred the meat from the bones. (This is an option that the chef gives. He also suggests leaving them whole, but they just aren't very appetizing that way. Put the shredded meat in a container, pour the liquid over it, and then refrigerate it overnight. (The Chef suggests skimming the fat at this point. If you can, terrific. I could not, and that was fine because..)
The next day, the fat will have come to the surface and solidified, and you will have a wonderful "chicken jelly" around the meat. You don't want the fat, you do want the jelly. You can eat the chicken as it is, but.... This is where you "accessorize." Chef Tanis suggests that you eat this with lettuce, and/or cucumbers, and that you slice some scallions and jalapenos over it, together with lime wedges.

All good ideas. But Annalena had thoughts of her own.

Have any of you ever eaten "glass noodles" in a Chinese restaurant? If you have, you got something that seemed a little slimy, a little chewy, and very, very good. These are made from mung bean sprouts and, to the best of Annalena's knowledge, can be eaten on a low carb diet, because they don't contain any of the flour type carbs. To make them, you soak them in cold water for fifteen minutes, and then cook them in a boiling liquid for another five. For Annalena, this boiling liquid was very dilute chicken stock. Drain the noodles, and then, while they're warm, add a few tablespoons of sesame oil.

The noodles will form this thick web that seems to trap the liquid in it. It's not the kind of "web" you get from cold pasta, but it is a web, nonetheless. It breaks up with the addition of liquid, so no worries.

Annalena took two cucumbers, half of a jalapeno pepper, half of a serrano pepper, all chopped fine, and combined these with three chopped scallions into the noodles. She left out the cilantro which Chef Tanis suggested, because the Guyman is not a fan of the herb. A small shot of rice wine vinegar, the juice of two limes, and ... we had a cold noodle dish which almost didn't make it to the table, since Annalena liked it so much. Underneath the chicken.

Oh, my, welcome to summer.

The chicken is clearly Chef Tanis', but playing with the basics, and making something new, is what cooking is about. I could have made rice, I could have made the noodles differently, I could have done many things. For example, I thought very hard about a simple cabbage salad to go with it. Maybe next time.

This recipe is a keeper. I will be making it for my farmer friends next week. Why don't you try it, and let me know what accessories you put on it?