Two Easy Meals from Marian Burros

When I lived in New York City in the early 1990s, I became quite fond of Marian Burros's New York Times column, Plain and Simple. When we got married in 1996, I was thrilled when among our wedding gifts were a couple of her cookbooks, including 20-Minute Menus, originally published in 1989. These two dinners are not in heavy rotation chez nous, but they do periodically reappear. I'm not including any pictures, because the visual appeal of these dishes is quite limited.

Tortilla-Chip Casserole
adapted from Marian Burros's "Plain and Simple" column in the New York Times

This recipe originally called for using a half-pound ground turkey breast; I like it better as a vehicle for leftover roast chicken.

1 t olive oil
meat of some kind (leftover roast chicken, ground turkey or beef, leftover roast beef), optional
1 jalapeño, or to taste, optional (or a little cayenne)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground coriander
1 sm can (or half a Pomi box) diced tomatoes, drained
1/4 t salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 16-oz can low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed (or refried beans)
3 oz grated (sharp) cheddar cheese
a few handfuls of tortilla chips, or a couple of corn tortillas, torn into pieces

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet. Cook meat if you're starting with raw meat, until no longer pink. Remove excess grease if any, then add onions and peppers and sauté until softened and starting to brown. Add garlic and spices and cook for 30 seconds more, until they're fragrant. Add tomatoes (and leftover meat, if using) and cook a few minute to blend flavors. Remove mixture from skillet and put beans in bottom of pan, then top with chips, meat/veggie mixture and cheese. Cover and cook a few minutes, until cheese is melted and everything is heated through. Serve with sour cream and fresh chopped cilantro, and steamed broccoli or cauliflower on the side.

Curried Red Lentils and Cauliflower with Cashews
adapted from 20-Minute Menus by Marian Burros

8 oz red lentils
1 medium-large onion, chopped coarsely
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t turmeric
1/2 t chile powder
1/4 t cardamom
1/4 t cinnamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1 small to medium head cauliflower, broken into florets
1 C chicken stock
3 oz tomato paste
1/2 C unsalted roasted cashews
plain yogurt or sour cream

In covered pot, bring lentils to boil in plenty of water to cover. Cook about 10 minutes, until soft, then drain (watch pot carefully--I don't think I've ever succeeded in not letting it boil over).

Mix spices together in a small bowl.

Heat oil in dutch oven until shimmering, then sauté onion until softened and starting to brown. Add garlic and spices and continue cooking until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato paste and cook another 30 seconds, then stir in chicken stock, scraping brown bits from bottom of pan. Stir in cauliflower, cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until cauliflower is tender and starting to fall apart. Stir in lentils, simmer another couple minutes to blend flavors, then remove from heat. Serve over steamed rice, topped with cashews and yogurt/sour cream.

Inspired by Africa

My book group most recently read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. When I think of African food, I recall a memorable meal cooked for my family when I was a girl by Kwame, a Ghanaian student at Willamette University. It was a spicy and savory stew with chicken, tomatoes, vegetables, and what seemed to me at the time a most improbable ingredient, peanut butter. My recipe book collection completely failed me, but I found this recipe. I replaced half the sweet potato with cubed butternut squash, used a small can of diced tomatoes (drained), and browned the chicken (boneless, skinless thighs) before the onion, but otherwise stuck pretty close to it. It was delicious.

We had Como bread from Grand Central Bakery, a green salad with dried cherries, toasted slivered almonds, and chèvre with balsamic vinaigrette, and then finished with Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting. They were delicious. The one thing I would change would be the cornstarch in the frosting, which I found a little distracting.

Summer Picnic Fare

Love me a good picnic. We recently attended one with just the right number of people (6 families, plus a few extra folks), just the right weather (not too hot, not too chilly), and lots of good food. I took three things to share: Picnic Chicken, Three-Bean Salad, and The Thin (crispy buttery chocolate chip cookies--perfect if, like me, that's the kind of chocolate chip cookie you like, although even the folks who claim to love gooey chewy cookies didn't exactly struggle to get them down). No pictures because we were in a hurry to get out the door, as usual.

Picnic Chicken
adapted from Cook's Illustrated Jul/Aug 2006

5 lbs or so chicken pieces (I cut up two 3.5-pounders, saving the wings and backs for stock), breasts cut into 2-3 pieces, trimmed of excess fat and skin (leave some skin on each piece, just cut off the hanging fatty flaps), short slits cut into remaining skin but not into the flesh

2 T kosher salt
3 T brown sugar
2 T chili powder
2 T sweet paprika
2 t ground black pepper
1/4-1/2 t cayenne (less if you're serving kids)

Mix dry ingredients, then coat chicken pieces, under skin as well where possible without completely dislodging skin. Put chicken on wire rack over rimmed baking sheet, tent with foil, and refrigerate 6-24 hours. It must be at least six hours, or the moisture will not have had a chance to migrate back into the meat (I can explain at greater length if you're puzzled, but trust me, this is a crucial step to the recipe and cannot be shortcutted).

When ready to cook, heat oven to 425. Roast chicken until thickest part of smallest piece reaches 140 on an instant-read thermometer, about 14-20 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 500 and roast until thickest parts of breast pieces reach 160, 5-8 minutes, removing pieces as they finish and transferring to clean wire rack. Roast dark meat until thickest parts register 170-175, 5 minutes or so longer. Transfer to rack and let cool completely before refrigerating or serving.

The next time I make this recipe, I will probably eliminate or nearly so the cayenne pepper (too spicy for the kids), and I will either try it on the grill or use a broiler pan. Cleaning the baked-on chicken juices from my cookie-cooling rack was a major chore (lovingly undertaken by my husband). And for sure I will line whatever I cook it on with foil--my cookie sheet will probably never recover.

Three-Bean Salad
adapated from Cook's Illustrated Jul/Aug 1999

1 C red wine vinegar
3/4 C sugar
1/2 C canola oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press
1 t salt
freshly-ground black pepper
8 oz fresh green beans, stemmed and cut into one-inch pieces
8 oz fresh yellow wax beans, stemmed and cut into one-inch pieces
1 15-oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 medium red onion, chopped fine
1/4 C minced fresh parsley leaves

Heat vinegar, sugar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Transfer to a large nonreactive bowl and cool to room temperature.

Blanch green and yellow beans in salted boiling water for 3-5 minutes, depending on thickness of beans. Shock in ice water to stop cooking, then drain well.

Add all beans, onion and parsley to dressing and toss well to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight to blend flavors, then let come to room temperature at least 30 minutes before serving.

Chicken & Potatoes a New Way

As you may have heard, last week in Portland was too hot to do much of anything, let alone cook. But I had all this food Mavis had bought, and I needed to cook it. Plus, The Laundry Queen and her family were coming to visit, and I didn't feel like serving or eating anything we might have gotten for takeout. So, roast chicken and scalloped potatoes it was. Not really summery, except that we cooked it on the grill.

There's nothing particularly difficult about roasting a chicken on the grill. Prepare it the way you would to roast in the oven. For me, that usually means just a little salt and pepper, and maybe a little softened butter. This time I happened to have some leftover all-purpose grill rub (I'm not even sure what was in it any more), so I rubbed it all over the skin and under the skin on the breast.

Start a chimney full of briquettes, and when they're ready spread them evenly on both sides of the grill, leaving a space wide enough for the chicken in between. To make absolutely sure they'll last long enough for the chicken, spread a few unlit coals over the top. Heat, scrape and oil the grate, then place the chicken breast side down and close the lid, with top vents half open. For a chicken around four pounds (the size I usually do, which usually makes two dinners for us), leave it alone for a half-hour. Flip it over on its back and cook, lid closed, at least another half-hour before taking its temperature. When it's 165 in the breast and thigh, pull it off and tent with foil to rest.

Now for the potatoes. They were inspired by a recipe The Laundry Queen saw on the Pioneer Woman blog.

Grill-Scalloped Potatoes

2.5 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into one-inch cubes
1-2 garnet sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into one-inch cubes
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1/2 t sweet Spanish paprika
1/2-3/4 C heavy cream
kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
several tablespoons butter

Toss all ingredients except for butter in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Divide evenly between two or three large pieces of heavy-duty foil, put a blob of butter (2-3 T per pouch) on top, and bring sides up to make fairly-well-sealed-but-still-openable and fairly flat pouches. Put them directly over the coals on either side of the chicken when you flip the chicken over. Roast until tender and starting to brown, stirring once or twice during cooking.

Making Life Simpler

So, I had these corn tortillas that had been in the freezer for who knows how long (seriously, well over a year--I can hear my sister gasping from here), and the last time I used them to make enchiladas they were kind of hard to deal with, and didn't roll up all pretty like they were supposed to. Hmmm, I thought, I wonder what would happen if I made all the ingredients for enchiladas, and then layered them in the dish à la lasagna? Last night I found out.



Deliciousness. And you can skip all that softening-of-the-tortillas nonsense. I followed the recipe for the sauce, but didn't strain out the solids, and mixed just the cheese (queso fresco) and cilantro together. I put a little of the sauce in the bottom of the pan, made an overlapping layer of six tortillas, topped it with half the cheese, then half the chicken (trying to leave most of the sauce in the pan), then repeated, scraping all the sauce out of the skillet with a silicone spatula. After 20 minutes in the oven at 300, it was perfect. Newton thought it was a bit too spicy (buying bulk chili powder is a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to the Scoville scale), but was able to finish his serving with a little sour cream. Cindy Lou liked it okay, but the Wizard switched to leftover pasta.

Stay tuned for more adventures with the technically-still-edible as I try to plan around things already on hand in the pantry.

Bawk the Casbah

New and tasty chicken recipes are always welcome, right? I love Moroccan food, and this tagine was just what the doctor ordered on a recent weekday night. The kids liked it all right, but not nearly as much as I did. And I didn't even have the sweet paprika! When I discovered the empty bottle in the spice cupboard, I was too far into prep to change course. Next time I'll be sure to include it, and update if necessary.

Moroccan Chicken with Chickpeas and Apricots
adapted from Cook's Illustrated, May/June 2006
serves 4

1 1/4 t sweet paprika
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t cayenne
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground coriander
1/4 t ground cinnamon
3 strips lemon zest (about 3/4" by 2"), plus 3 T juice from 1-2 lemons
5 medium garlic cloves, pressed
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (2 thighs, two drumsticks, 4 breast pieces), fat trimmed (back and wings reserved for future stock-making!)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
1 lg onion, halved and cut into 1/4" slices
1 3/4 C homemade chicken broth
1 T honey
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2" coins
1 C dried apricots, halved
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 T chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine spices in small bowl and set aside. Mince 1 strip lemon zest and combine with 1 t minced garlic and mince to paste; set aside (or just use microplane to get equivalent amount of zest to mix with garlic--way easier).

2. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Brown skin-side down in a single layer until deep golden, about 5 minutes; turn and brown on second side. Transfer to large plate; when cool enough, remove and discard skin. Remove all but 1 T fat from pot.

3. Add onion and remaining lemon zest to pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have browned a little but aren't breaking down, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook just until fragrant. Add spices and cook, stirring constantly, until darkened and fragrant, about a minute. Stir in broth and honey, scraping bottom of pot to loosen fond. Add dark meat pieces, reduce heat to medium, and simmer 5 minutes.

4. Add carrot, apricots and breast pieces (plus juices from plate), arranging breast pieces in a single layer on top of carrots. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until breasts are 160 in middle, 10-15 minutes.

5. Transfer chicken to plate and tent with foil. Add chickpeas to pot, increase heat and simmer until liquid has thickened slightly and carrots are tender, 4-6 minutes. Return chicken to pot and stir in garlic-zest mixture, cilantro, and lemon juice. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately with couscous.

Couscous Pilaf with Raisins and Almonds
an online Cook's Illustrated Extra, contemporaneous with the tagine

4 T unsalted butter
2 C plain couscous (I like Casbah whole wheat couscous best)
3/4 C sliced almonds (I prefer slivered, for more crunch)
1 small onion, chopped fine
3/4 C raisins (I prefer golden)
salt
1 3/4 C homemade chicken broth
2 C water (adjust liquid amounts depending on type of couscous)
1 1/2 t fresh lemon juice
black pepper

1. Melt 2 T butter in skillet over medium-high heat. When foaming subsides, add couscous and cook, stirring frequently, until some grains are beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Scrape the grains into a large bowl (have to use a silicone spatula to get all of them) and return pan to heat. Add almonds and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted. Scrape into a small bowl.

2. Add remaining 2 T butter to skillet. When melted, add onion, raisins, and 3/4 t salt and cook until onion has softened and is beginning to brown. Add broth and water, increase heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil.

3. Add boiling liquid/onion/raisins to bowl with toasted couscous and cover bowl with a dish towel. Let sit until the couscous has absorbed the water and is tender, 10 minutes or so. Fluff couscous with a fork, and stir in almonds and lemon juice. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Nights of Spain

Of a recent Friday night, we had friends for dinner with a Spanish theme. No, I've never been to Spain (though one of my brothers went there on his mission)--I just had some Spanish chorizo in the freezer I wanted to use up. So, paella it would be. We started with a spread of Spanish cheeses, fig-almond paste, bread and crackers, and olives (the olives aren't in this picture, but you can see them in the first picture of the big table--there were medium-sized anchovy-stuffed ones, and little tiny ones).





Then the paella. It's not really that short on ingredients, but when you're making basically a one-dish meal, you get a lot of bang for your food-prep buck. I've never made a traditional recipe (this was my first paella), and I don't know why I'd bother when Cook's Illustrated has already done the paring down, and this one was so tasty!

Paella
adapted from Cook's Illustrated, May/June 2005
serves 6 (for our crowd of 10, I basically 1.5xed this recipe, and it was just right)

1 lb extra-large (21/25) shrimp, peeled and deveined
table salt and ground black pepper
olive oil
8-9 medium garlic cloves, pressed
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and halved crosswise
1 red bell pepper, roasted, skinned, and cut into strips (I served these separately because of an allergy among our guests)
8 oz Spanish chorizo, sliced 1/2" thick on the bias
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, drained, chopped, and drained again
2 C Valencia rice
3 C homemade chicken broth
1/3 C dry white wine
1/2 t saffron threads, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 doz mussels, scrubbed and beards snipped
1/2 C frozen peas, thawed
2 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 350 (since I was using a cast-iron dutch oven, I put the lid in the preheating oven so a cold lid wouldn't slow down cooking later). Toss shrimp, 1/4 t salt, 1/4 t black pepper, 1 T oil, and 1 t garlic in medium bowl; cover and refrigerate. Season chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. Heat 2 t oil in large dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Brown chicken pieces in a single layer (not moving them while they cook), then transfer to a bowl. Reduce heat to medium and add chorizo to pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until quite browned and beginning to render fat, then transfer to bowl with chicken.

3. Adjust fat in pot to equal 2 T and heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, then add garlic and cook until fragrant.

Stir in tomatoes and cook until mixture begins to darken and thicken slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until well coated. Stir in wine and cook until evaporated/absorbed, then add broth, saffron, bay, and 1/2 t salt. Return chicken and chorizo to pot, increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until rice absorbs almost all liquid, 15 minutes (or so). Pull out pot and uncover. Scatter shrimp over rice, nest mussels in rice hinged side down, arrange pepper strips in pinwheel pattern, and scatter peas over top. Cover and return to oven, cooking until shrimp are opaque and mussels have opened, 10-12 minutes (mine needed a bit more time on both cooking segments, probably because I was making a larger batch).

4. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes before serving. Toss any unopened mussels, sprinkle with parsley, and serve, passing lemon wedges at the table.

We had Izze sodas to drink: pear, pomegranate and clementine.





After the paella I served a simple salad of mixed greens, aged Spanish Mohan cheese, and grape tomatoes, dressed with EVOO and sherry vinegar. For dessert, fresh strawberry ice cream!

Chicken Biryani

Having gone out for Indian really whetted my appetite for more. So, once I had finally acquired all the ingredients, I moved up a recipe in my queue, from the Mar/Apr 2004 Cook's Illustrated, for Chicken Biryani with Yogurt Sauce. I served it with steamed cauliflower (though next time I might use a past recipe for Curried Cauliflower), and dang it! I forgot the naan (from Trader Joe's, in the freezer)!

You should make the yogurt sauce first so the flavors have time to meld, so:

Yogurt Sauce

1 C plain yogurt
1 medium garlic clove, pressed
2 T cilantro, minced
2 T mint, minced
salt and pepper

Mix and season to taste. Let stand at least a half-hour or so before serving.

Chicken Biryani
adapted from Cook's Illstrated Mar/Apr 2004

Equipment note: make this dish in a 3.5-4 qt saucepan about 8" in diameter. It won't work properly in a wide dutch oven or saute pan. I used a 3.75-qt soup pot that worked perfectly. You will also need a large nonstick skillet.

Spice bundle (sachet?):
10 green cardamom pods, whacked with flat side of chef's knife
1 cinnamon stick
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, cut into 1/2-inch thick pieces and smashed with chef's knife
1/2 t cumin seed

Wrap spices in cheesecloth or something else porous, and secure with twine or whatever. I didn't have cheesecloth, so initially thought I'd bundle them in a coffee filter.


But then the coffee filter started to tear when I started to tighten the bundle. A quick rifle through a pantry cupboard turned up a length of nylon tulle that had been used as a bow on a hostess gift. My sewing machine was fortuitously already set up in the dining room, so I just cut off a piece of tulle, folded it around the spice-bearing coffee filter, and stitched around it to secure.



In that specially-sized saucepan, bring spice packet and 1 1/2 t salt to boil in 3 qts water. Simmer, at least partially covered, 15-30 minutes and no longer.

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 lbs), trimmed and patted dry*
salt and pepper

Season both sides of chicken thighs with salt and pepper and set aside.

3 T unsalted butter*
2 medium onions, sliced thin (I used my mandoline)
4 medium garlic cloves, pressed
2 medium jalapenos, seeded and chopped as per your heat preference (the original recipe suggests using the seeds of one; I left them both out since I was feeding kids and personally did not feel like something was missing, though Mavis may differ)

Heat butter in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until foaming subsides, and add onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until soft and browned around edges, 10-12 minutes. Add garlic (and jalapenos, if using) and cook another two minutes or so.





Transfer onion mixture to a bowl, season with a little salt, and set aside.

Wipe out skillet with paper towels and return to medium-high heat, and put chicken thighs in skin-side down. Cook without moving for about 5 minutes, until well-browned. Flip and brown for another five minutes on second side, then transfer to a plate, remove skin, and tent with foil to keep warm.

1 1/4 C basmati rice (preferably both Indian and aged--I bought mine bulk so don't know if it meets either of these criteria)
1/2 t saffron threads, crumbled
1/4 C dried currants or raisins (I used currants, but I think golden raisins would also be good)
2 T chopped cilantro
2 T chopped mint leaves

Add rice to boiling spice-infused water and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain rice through fine-mesh strainer, reserving about 3/4 C of the liquid, and discard spice packet. Transfer rice to bowl and stir in saffron and currants.

Spread half of rice in bottom of empty saucepan. Top with half of onion mixture, then chicken. Top chicken with cilantro and mint, then remaining halves of onions and rice, pressing layers down into pan. Sprinkle reserved cooking liquid evenly over rice.





Cover pan and cook over medium-low heat until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Keep heat under pan low enough that not much steam is escaping. Scooping from bottom of pot with a large spoon, serve a chicken thigh to each person. Top with yogurt sauce.



*I thought this dinner was fantastically delicious, but no one else liked it quite as much as I did. My one complaint was that, although the article in Cook's Illustrated thought that the recipe sufficiently combatted the dish's tendency toward greasiness by removing the chicken skin and not deep-frying the onions, I still found it a bit greasy. If I were ever to make it again (oh how I wish I'd thought to make it for the book group at which we discussed The Namesake!), I might reduce the butter even further, or substitute bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (still removing skin after browning), since they have less internal fat than the thighs.

Fricassee Chicken/Chicken Fricassee

In search of a recipe that would use the chicken thighs in the fridge, I leafed through my stack of March-April Cook's Illustrateds. Chicken biryani looked promising (I'll surely make it soon), but needed too many ingredients. Chicken Fricassee, from the Mar-Apr 1999 issue (which also contained the Best Split Pea Soup Ever--if the Double Chocolate Pudding in that issue turns out great, it might win the coveted Favorite Issue award), was much more promising--all I was missing was a little white wine and a little lemon juice. The basic recipe in the magazine called for mushrooms, but a published variation called for peas and carrots. Mavis would have liked the mushrooms, but the rest of us like peas and carrots better, plus I already had them in the fridge/freezer. Maybe some other time I'll make it with the mushrooms.

When J&J were living in Jamaica, the butler at a favorite vacation villa (doesn't that sound posh? when you live there and can get resident--as opposed to tourist--rates, it only seems like you're living high) used to make a dish called fricassee chicken, with a rich brown sauce. This is not that dish, nor does it resemble it in any way beyond consisting of chicken cooked in a tasty sauce. It was, however, very good.

Chicken Fricassee
serves 4 (or, in our case, 3 adults and two hearty-eating small boys)
adapted from Cook's Illustrated Mar-Apr 1999

8 small boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 lb)
4 T butter
2 T olive oil
2 1/2 C chicken broth (from concentrated low-Na homemade stock)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 medium carrot, chopped fine
1/2 C dry white wine (I use Crow Canyon chardonnay, $6.99/bottle)
1/2 C frozen peas
3 T flour
1 C half and half
1 t fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 t grated nutmeg (original recipe calls for freshly grated, which would have been nice had I had any on hand)
1/4 C minced fresh Italian parsley

Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Heat 1 T each olive oil and butter in both a dutch oven and a medium skillet (both with lids that fit) over medium-high heat. When foam begins to subside, add chicken pieces and cook until well browned, 4-5 minutes on each side. Don't crowd the pans and don't move the chicken pieces until you're ready to flip them. Pour off all but 2 T fat from dutch oven, put all the chicken in the pot (squished into one layer), and add stock. Partially cover and bring to boil, then simmer 25 minutes. Remove pot from heat, transfer chicken to a bowl and cover with lid from pot.

While chicken is simmering, drain all but 1 T fat from skillet, and add onion, carrot and 1/2 t salt. Sauté over medium-high heat until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat, add wine, cover, and simmer 10 minutes or so. Stir in peas, increase heat, and cook another couple minutes until almost all the liquid has evaporated, a minute or two more. Transfer veggies to bowl (scraping skillet with silicone spatula) and set aside.

Heat remaining 2 T butter in skillet over medium heat until foaming. Add flour and whisk until golden, then vigorously whisk in half and half until it's smooth. Then quickly whisk this (very thick) white stuff into chicken cooking liquid in dutch oven. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until thickened to the consistency of heavy cream, 6-8 minutes. Stir in veggies, thyme, lemon juice and nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Add back in chicken and simmer until heated through (which might be right away if the chicken hasn't been out long, or a couple of minutes at the most). Stir in half of parsley, reserving rest for garnish (I actually stirred it all in, for convenience, and it was just a tad grassy. Next time I'll just mince half as much.).

I served it over brown rice, with another loaf of Simple Crusty Bread and a simple salad of baby spinach, avocado and Valencia orange with honey-balsamic vinaigrette. The Wizard had two helpings of salad!!



For dessert we had these funny Kyrgyz candies brought back to the US by Mavis's mom and to us by Mavis's dad, who arrived yesterday.

Roast Chicken IV

MWR had suggested that I try the Chez Panisse and Simply French roast chicken recipes, and since he was going to be passing through on Sunday, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. So, Chez Panisse it was. It's quite a simple recipe, involving rubbing the chicken inside and out with a spicy rub, shoving a handful of fresh thyme in the cavity, and roasting it until it's done, in a pan with no rack, no turning, no basting. In other words, no funny stuff.

Spice-Rubbed Roast Chicken

1 t fennel seed
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1 1/2 t kosher salt
1/2 t ground black pepper
bunch fresh thyme
4 lb roasting chicken, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine first four ingredients in mortar and pestle and grind to crack fennel seeds. Remove giblets and excess fat from chicken cavity, and rub chicken inside and out with salt mixture. Stuff thyme inside cavity. Put chicken in roasting pan and roast for about an hour, or until thigh temp is 165 and breast no more than 170. Remove from oven and let rest 10-15 minutes before carving.

Here it is before popping it in the oven (note: this is not a four-pound chicken! It was the last one in the coop that day, so it's a 5.25-pounder).



Sous-chef/dinner guest MWR brandishing the chicken as we flip it onto its tummy to rest.



Resting chicken before I tented it with foil.



The flavor, with the fennel and red pepper, was really lovely. We overcooked it a tad, so the breast meat wasn't as moist as I like, but the flavorings were worth doing again for sure.

We had ganache-filled and cream-cheese-frostinged mini cupcakes for dessert, and once again I forgot to photograph them with their pretty pink frosting on. Here's what it looked like after we had consumed a dozen.

Saffron-Yogurt Chicken Curry

So, I copied Adriana and made that Chicken Curry from FoodBuzz. Because it was a complicated recipe, I did a mise en place with most of the ingredients, and naturally missed adding a couple of things (the sugar and the tomato puree (I used tomato paste from a tube)) at the right time. It still turned out fantastically tasty.

The yogurt-saffron mixture (I used whole milk yogurt, and some of that Spanish saffron):



The spices to be bloomed in hot oil:



The onion/garlic/ginger paste, with the spices due to be added with it:



I decided to brown my chicken before starting anything else, for more flavor. Next time I'll cut the chicken into smaller pieces.



After the sauté, starting to stew (next time I'll add the cauliflower half-way through, and resist the impulse to add just a little extra water):



The finished curry, after stirring in the yogurt/saffron and simmering a bit longer (when I first added it, the yogurt seemed to curdle, but after a little while simmering, it seemed to un-curdle; white bits visible in the finished dish are from the overcooked cauliflower):



Served over long-grain brown rice, with frozen naan from Trader Joe's (remarkably tasty):



Finally, a picture of Cindy Lou with Mavis (he's usually the one behind the camera). I wanted a picture of her in one of my favorite outfits for her before she outgrows it:

Mmmm, Chowdah

For tonight's dinner I tried another recipe from that free trial issue of Cook's Country. It was quick and tasty. I made about 2/3 of the recipe, and we ate about 2/3 of it or a little less. Next time I'll have proportionally a tad more chicken (tonight's package had just under a pound). Here's more or less how I made it (using the magazine's original proportions):

Chicken/Sweet Potato/Corn Chowder
serves 8-10

3 C whole milk
1 cup Jiffy corn muffin mix
2 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t dried oregano (I'll use fresh when I have it)
2 qts low-sodium chicken broth (I used turkey broth from last Thanksgiving--it needed to be used up or risk languishing in the freezer forever)
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I always use garnet "yams")
1 C shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used cheddar, because the Monterey Jack I had had on hand got used up before I got around to making this recipe)
3 C frozen corn kernels (not thawed)
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix milk and muffin mix in large glass measuring cup (if you have to measure the milk anyway, why dirty another bowl?). Heat butter in dutch oven over medium heat until foaming. Sauté onion until softened and starting to brown. Add chicken and continue sautéing until chicken has lost most of its pink parts and the fond is building up on the bottom of the pan. Stir in garlic, cumin, oregano and about 1 t kosher salt until onions and chicken are coated and spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add broth and sweet potatoes, bring to a boil and then simmer until potatoes are just forkable, 5-6 minutes.

2. Stir in milk/muffin mix mixture and simmer another 10 minutes, until soup thickens. Remove pan from heat and stir in corn and parsley. Adjust seasonings, then ladle into bowls and topped with grated cheese to serve.

Bread and Chicken, Chicken and Bread

Friday was the third and last roast chicken trial. This is the method I used most in the past, taken from The Cook's Bible by Christopher Kimball.

Slow-Roast Chicken

3.5-lb chicken
little bit of butter
kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove giblets from chicken cavity and pat dry with paper towels. Poke chicken all over with small skewer (I used a bamboo cake tester) (this is borrowed from the crispy-skin method, in part to make the skin crispier and in part because the pok-pok noise when you pierce the skin is so satisfying). Put chicken in V-rack in roasting pan, breast side up. Put a little softened butter on your hands (a teaspoon or so) and rub the chicken all over. Then sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. (I suppose now is where you could put the whole assemblage into the fridge overnight to dry out the skin, in which case you shouldn't have the oven on yet.)

Put chicken in oven and roast for 30-35 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and roast for an hour. Then raise oven temperature to 400 degrees for a further 15-30 minutes, until temperature is 165 in the thigh and 170 in the breast (or thereabouts).

As you can see from the pictures, I also tried this time to stick veggies in the bottom of the roasting pan: a garnet yam, peeled and cut into chunks, the rest of the Russian Banana fingerling potatoes, a few carrots, peeled and cut into sections, and two leeks, quartered. I drizzled with a tiny bit of olive oil (since the chicken would be dripping its own fat on them, too), sprinkled with some salt and pepper and tossed to coat. The leeks didn't fare so well--if I do them again, I'll leave them whole (the ones I've been getting don't have much if any dirt down in them), or switch to whole shallots.

This chicken was delicious, and just about as easy as the French pot-roast method. I think in the future I'll use the French method if I want to make gravy, or just for a change, but I'll go back to this method as my default.

I also baked up the last of the Simple Crusty Bread, this time borrowing from another no-knead bread recipe, in Cook's Illustrated. They suggest letting the dough rest/rise in a parchment-lined skillet, and then transferring dough and parchment to a preheated cast-iron dutch oven in the oven. The oven and pot are preheated to 500 degrees, and then the temperature is lowered to 425 for the remainder of baking, the first half-hour with lid in place, and second half-hour uncovered.

This method definitely works better than throwing water in the broiler pan underneath the baking stone for developing a crisp, shiny crust. However, it seemed to me that the parchment imparted a slightly off flavor to the bottom crust of the bread. I've never had that issue with baking on parchment before, but then it's never had direct contact with a preheated-to-500 degrees hunk of cast iron before, either. I seem to recall one of the other no-knead recipes I've seen also called for baking in a dutch oven, but without parchment. I'll see if I can track that one down and try it.



And finally, the bebe, hanging out with Grandma.

Clawing My Way Out of That Rut

We were all getting sick of the winter rut (Mavis actually told me after I last served it that he was pretty much done with pearl couscous with sausage and butternut squash), so I am now entering what I sort of hope will be a significant period of experimentation and adding new things to our regular repertoire. I say "sort of" because as much as I love cooking and putting together wonderful meals for my family, trying new recipes takes more time than throwing together familiar ones, and I get even more behind in my other projects and responsibilities. So we'll see how long I am able to keep it up before the burgeoning chaos (read: piles of random stuff) completely swamps the computer.

I have read in several places lately (okay, probably over the last year or so) several different versions of no- or low-knead bread. Tonight I tried the first of these collected recipes. As with the chicken, this one seems so easy that I may never get to all the others (although watch this space for the third and last roast chicken trial, coming in about a week). I got this from the Oregonian FOODay, but I can't find the recipe online.

Simple Crusty Bread
makes 4 loaves

1 1/2 T yeast (regular, not instant or rapid-rise)
1 1/2 T kosher salt
6 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose, plus more for dusting dough
3 C water
cornmeal for dusting pizza peel

In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 C lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose [not really]. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours [what I did]).

Here is the dough after mixing and before rising (after five hours it was up to the rim of the bowl; actually, it was there after 2, but didn't get any bigger after that):

Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece [or, since this is supposed to make four loaves, 1/4 of the dough] with a serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a mounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it, loosely covered.

Here is the shaped loaf, sitting on the pizza peel to rest.

Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour 1 C hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Tonight's other trial came from the latest Cook's Illustrated. It seemed like something we would all like, and I already had some of the ingredients. The original recipe called for using 4 8-oz chicken breasts cut into 8 cutlets to serve 4 people. Heavens, that's a lot of meat. I halved it (or close to it--the two breasts I bought were just over a pound total) for the four of us, and it was perfect. Here's how I made it:

Chicken Saltimbocca

1/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
freshly ground black pepper
2 chicken breasts
1 1/2 t minced fresh sage leaves, plus 4 whole large leaves
thinly-sliced prosciutto to cover one side of each cutlet (for me, 2 slices of Prosciutto di Parma were enough)
2 T olive oil
5 oz dry vermouth
1 t freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into four pieces
1 1/2 t minced fresh parsley
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 200. Combine flour and 1/2 t pepper in shallow dish. Trim chicken, removing tender from underside, and carefully cut parallel to cutting board into 1/4 to 1/2-inch-thick cutlets.

If chicken seems wet (mine didn't), pat dry with paper towels, then dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Sprinkle one side of cutlets evenly with chopped sage, then top with prosciutto, trimmed to fit (Cook's says to press lightly to adhere, but when I did this it only made it stick to my hand).

With familiar recipes I'm cooking from memory, I don't usually do a mise en place, but it's a really good idea when you're trying something new to have everything ready to go before beginning, especially if it's a pretty fast-moving recipe and/or you're trying to prepare (as I was tonight) other parts of dinner at the same time.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add sage leaves and cook until leaves are uniform in color, 30 seconds maximum. Carefully lift out with tongs and put on paper towels. Carefully put half the cutlets in the pan, prosciutto side down (tricky because it doesn't really stick to the chicken), and cook until light golden brown, 2-3 minutes. Flip carefully (I used tongs) and cook on the second side until also golden, another 2 minutes or so. Transfer to warm plate in the oven, and repeat with the second batch.

Pour off excess fat from skillet, and pour vermouth into the pan, scraping up brown bits if necessary (I found that the pan was hot enough that the boiling action of the vermouth lifted it all up without any scraping on my part). Simmer until reduced to just a few tablespoons, 5 minutes or so. Stir in lemon juice, then reduce heat to low and stir in butter, one lump at a time. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and season with a little salt and pepper.

The finished sauce:

Remove chicken from oven, pour sauce over it, and top each cutlet with a sage leaf.

I served it with the bread (just a tad dense; I'll make more/deeper slashes for the next loaf) and cheesy polenta with zucchini. Argh! I just realized I forgot the fruit dish I had planned to serve, incorporating some of those beautiful canned pears I put up last fall! Oh well.



This meal was a big hit with everyone except Number Two, who was too tired to be overtly enthusiastic about anything other than the bread, but who nevertheless ate almost all of what we served him.

Speaking of Number Two, I've decided to come up with better blog names for my kids. Suggestions are welcome.