S3E9: Drop the Needle

Spatchcock Funk bleeds to show love and respect to small, local businesses, being one themselves. They put together something special to show their appreciation for a local shop – they make artistic food for the creative artists at their favorite tattoo shop.

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Recipes from this episode

Ink & Tonic

Rasta Pasta Salad

Thai'd Piggies

Hot Honey Fried Chicken Sammy

Ink & Tonic

Yields: 1 cocktail
Prep Time: 15 Minutes (3 hours for resting for infusion)

When you’re entertaining cool, unique people, you need to get real crafty with a cocktail to get to their level. For our party, we’re celebrating the crew at our favorite tattoo shop, so we want to catch that cool, rockstar vibe, and pay homage to all the ink they’ve sunk into us over the years. You know how when you have a cool lookin’ part of your body and you drop a cool tattoo on it and it becomes awesome? That’s what we do to the standard gin and tonic. We take some floral gin to respect all the flower tattoos in the world, infuse some tonic water with some dried dates, for a really different taste. To really honor the mission, we took some genuine squid ink and made a really cool, cloudy simple syrup. After all that, we throw some acid to bring out the sweetness with a splash of grapefruit juice.

Ingredients:

2 oz floral gin (we’re using Empress here)
1 tsp squid ink-infused simple syrup (ingredients/directions below)
4 oz of date-infused tonic water (ingredients/directions below)
Splash of grapefruit juice
Glass of ice
1 black licorice wheel for garnish
Lemon wedge for garnish

Ingredients for Squid Ink-Infused Simple Syrup

1 C sugar
1 C water
3-4 tsp squid ink
Dash of water

Ingredients for Date-Infused Tonic Water

12 pitted dried dates, then chopped up
4 C tonic Water

Directions for Each Drink:

Fill a Collins glass with ice
Add in the gin
Add in the tonic
Add in the grapefruit juice
Add in the simple syrup
Stir
Garnish lemon wedge and licorice wheel

Directions for Squid Ink-Infused Simple Syrup

In a small glass bowl, whisk together the dash of water and squid ink so it becomes more runny and less viscous
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves
Slowly add the ink mixture into the warm simple syrup, stirring constantly until it is evenly mixed and grey and cloudy

Directions for Date-Infused Tonic Water

In a sealable container, combine all ingredients
Let sit overnight (at least 3 hours)
Strain and discard the dates

Rasta Pasta Salad

Yields: 6 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes

We’re trying to show our eclectic, creative friends an eclectic menu, so for our starch, we’re rollin’ out something they’d be proud to roll up in Jamaica - Rasta Pasta Salad. We’re sure other people have made this, but our version is inspired by Bob Marley as it is the traditional Rasta pasta dish that’s served warm. We make a creamy, cheesy sauce with a little jerk seasoning for the Caribbean effect we want, with some tomatoes and other veggies to give us a really different take, and pairs well with everything. Jerk seasoning is one of those things we can’t get enough of - a little bit of spice, some cool aromatics that bring out other flavors, and the type of smell you just wanna inhale, just like you’re gonna inhale this salad! This stuff is so good you could shred up some chicken and turn this into a whole meal, baby.

Ingredients:

1 lb penne pasta, cooked, drained
⅔ C mayo
¼ sour cream
2-3 Tbsp jerk seasoning
Splash of browning sauce
½ Tbsp honey
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
½ C halved cherry tomatoes
¼ C sauteed chopped green bell pepper
¼ C sauteed chopped white onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, mix the sour cream, mayo, jerk seasoning, honey, hot sauce and garlic powder together
Mix the pasta into the sauce
Add in the sauteed veggies and the halved cherry tomatoes and mix again
Keep adding salt and pepper until you’re happy with the taste
Have a bite and enjoy the flavor burst

Thai'd Piggies

Yields: 6 servings
Total time: 45 minutes

You know we love a play on words, and tyin’ up some pigs just sounds right, like being hogtied, ya know? So we Thai up some bacon for a righteous salad. We once had a version of this baby when we were rollin’ through the very cool city of Portland, OR, and we tried our best to give it the vibe we had when we first sunk our teeth into it. We got some cool watermelons that give a nice fresh vibe and sweetness. Then we cook some real thick cut bacon (which pairs really well with watermelon, and anything, really). Finally, we have a Thai peanut dressing that we love using as a marinade, on a salad, for aftershave, whatever. It just plain slaps, so let’s Thai one on, babe.

Ingredients:

4 C cubed watermelon
¼ C fresh basil, chopped up coarsely
1 lb of really thick bacon (at least ½” thick), sliced into 5 pieces each, cooked but not too crispy (save the grease and keep it in your fridge, always helpful)
1 ¼ C Thai peanut dressing (ingredients/directions below)
Salt & pepper to taste
Crushed peanuts for garnish, green onions are cool too

Ingredients for the Thai Peanut Marinade

1 C of creamy peanut butter
4 Tbsp of soy sauce
2 Tbsp of rice wine vinegar
4 Tbsp of brown sugar
4 tsp of chili garlic sauce (more if you want more heat)
2 Tbsp lime juice
6 pressed garlic cloves
2 Tbsp of ginger paste (found in produce area in your local store)
4 Tbsp of warm water

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together except the salt and pepper and the peanuts
Add the peanuts and taste
Add salt and pepper to taste
Thai it up

Directions for the Thai Peanut Marinade

Combine all the ingredients except the water, and whisk together in a glass bowl
Once it’s well evenly mixed, add in the 4 Tbsp of water until it is more of a liquid
Set aside

Hot Honey Fried
Chicken Sammy

Yields: 6 servings
Prep Time: 40 Minutes (plus minimum 3 hours marinade time)

When showin’ the love, we like to turn up the heat, if you know what we mean. People tend to wear less clothes when it’s hot! What?!? If you want a tattoo, you gotta show some skin. We’re showin’ off one of the classics, a good ol’ fried chicken sammy, with some homemade hot honey and coleslaw, y'all. We’ve done our research, hittin’ up joints with great fried chicken across the country. We’re kinda in love with our version, just like how we feel every time we’re out crushin’ ‘em when we do that field research. We make our hot honey on the stove top and do it real properlike. To do our chicken the right way, we brine ‘em up good in buttermilk, just like we were taught. To balance the heat on top of that crunch, we also throw on some homemade coleslaw and some banana peppers to give us a little tang. The chicken, to note, are thighs, babe. Great place for a tattoo and outstanding cut for fatty, juicy flavor.

Ingredients:

6 boneless chicken thighs
1 gallon of canola or peanut oil for frying
6 potato rolls
2 C coleslaw (ingredients/directions below)
¼ C mayo (with a dash of granulated garlic and dash of lemon juice mixed in)
24 banana peppers rings
Hot honey drizzle (ingredients/directions below)
2 Qt fried chicken brine (ingredients/directions below)
2 C seasoning dredge (ingredients/directions below)
Salt for seasoning
3 large eggs

Ingredients for Coleslaw

2/3 C mayo
3 C green cabbage, all shredded up
1 C purple cabbage, also shredded up
1 C shredded carrots
1 Tbsp sour cream
1 ½ Tbsp sugar
1 ½ Tbsp apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the Fried Chicken Brine

2 Qt buttermilk
2 Tbsp pickle juice
½ Tbsp hot sauce
1 tsp salt
2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the Seasoned Dredge

1 ½ C all-purpose flour
1 ½ C cornstarch
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
4 tsp flake salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper

Ingredients for Hot Honey

1 C honey
2-3 tsp crushed red pepper
Splash of apple cider vinegar
1 sliced fresh jalapeno

Directions:

Drop your chicken into the brine 24 hours before frying
The next day, set out your ingredients
Heat your oil to 350 degrees, leaving some aside at room temperature
Remove the chicken from the brine, put on a wire rack to drip excess off
Set up a bowl of the dredge, and add the two eggs to the brine and whisk
Take the chicken, and dip it into the dredge, then back into the brine again, and then into the dredge
After each one, put it back on the wire rack for 10 minutes or so
When they’re ready, drop ‘em into the fryer, 3 at a time, this will lower the temp to around 325, which is perfect, keep an eye on it, and when it rises, you can add in more oil to lower the temperature
Fry ‘em for 10 minutes or so, until golden brown
When you remove ‘em, quickly hit ‘em each with a little salt
Take the bottom of your potato rolls, and spread a layer of coleslaw across the bottom
Place the chicken on the slaw bed
Brush the hot honey all across the chicken
Top the chicken with the banana pepper slices
Brush the top of the roll with the mayo and throw on the bread
Take a bite and love every second of it

Directions for Coleslaw

In a large glass mixing bowl, mix everything together
Take a taste, and if you need to add more salt
Chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes so the flavors can meld

Directions for the Fried Chicken Brine

Whisk together all ingredients evenly

Directions for the Seasoned Dredge

Mix all ingredients together evenly

Directions for Hot Honey

Mix all the ingredients evenly over medium heat in a pan until it simmers
Remove from heat, cover for at least 15 minutes until the flavors meld
Strain out solids and seeds

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