Sunday Supper - Roast Chicken

We had another round of Sunday Supper at our house last weekend and the recipe was a hit. I'm dying to share it with you, but this is going to be a short post for several reasons.

1. I am an idiot and did not take a picture of the two ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL roast chickens reclining on an assortment of perfectly roasted veggies with thyme sticking out every which way. And this is despite the fact that I was sitting staring at the cooked chickens for about 2 hours before we ate them due to a plumbing emergency at the house of our Sunday Supper partners in crime. So while my neighbor and I sat around with our babies, drinking a beer and catching up, our husbands were two doors away dealing with a flooded basement and calling workmen. During that entire time of staring at my two gorgeous roasted birds, it did not occur to me to pick up the damn camera. Because I am an idiot.

2. I used this recipe, as written, from Ina Garten. It appears on the Food Network website. Follow this link. I did not adapt it. Adaptation was unnecessary. Make it as written and you will not be sorry. This is (seriously) the best roast chicken I have had. It is simple and just perfect, which is probably why Ina Garten calls it "Perfect Roast Chicken." Huh.

Giving Thanks and Looking Forward

I have so much to be thankful for in 2009 and I thought this was the perfect time and place to recognize that.

My thanks:

1. Ned.



My little boy. My sidekick. My beautiful little red-headed son. A year ago we did not know who he was or what he would be like. Now we cannot imagine our life without him. He is the lens through which I am beginning to see the world in a different way. I want things to be better for him, fair for him, good for him. I am grateful for his smiles, the way he clings to me like a little tree frog when he is sad or tired. I love how surprised he looks when he sneezes and then his giggles at his great accomplishment. I love how much he looks like his dad and how I sometimes see myself and my family in that little face too. The earnestness with which he tries new things, and the purity of his excitement and exuberance. In short, I love this little guy.

2. Three years of marriage to my darling husband.

3. Having my family and Mike's family all home for Christmas and having each and every one be healthy (I mean, there were a few sniffles here and there, but no cancer.)

4. My sister and her husband moved back to Western New York. Love this one!

5. New babies all over the family. Welcome Penn and Lilly. Plus two more to come in 2010 - Hang in there Lynn and Sarah!

6. New family members - Cara, Scott, and soon Joe. You are all wonderful additions to our family, but better yet, you make your respective spouses (my darling cousins) so very happy and I just love you all extra for that.

This year had its challenges as well. My life has adjusted and moved in ways that I didn't know it could, that I didn't know I had the capacity for. But the human spirit can handle a tremendous amount, particularly when it comes to those you love. I think about and pray (in my own way) for those who are facing adversity, particularly my wonderful, beautiful friend who is staring down an awful, scary cancer. We love you so much, Gab. I have also said goodbye to some wonderful people this year. People who have touched my life and made it better. I'll simply say: "You will be missed and certainly not forgotten."

Now it is time to look forward. I have never been a big one for resolutions, but I feel like this year I have a few that are worth working on. I'm not talking about losing the baby weight here (although that would be nice too!)

Resolved:

1. I will be more present in whatever it is that I am doing. Being with Ned and Mike, working, driving my car, eating a meal, knitting, cooking, writing. I want to be there, not half somewhere else. I owe that to my family, to my employer, and to myself.

2. I will take more pictures. There is so much around me that I want to be able to remember and record. There are stories and situations I want to be able to tell Ned about later.

3. I will consciously be more kind to others. It is so easy to be kind. We could all do it a little more often.

I think that is enough to work on for this year. Three little things seems manageable, right?

Best wishes to you for a happy, healthy, and joyous New Year!

Cranberry-Raspberry Sorbet

This is actually a recipe re-posting. I first put this on the blog two years ago, intertwined with a post about cancer. I think this recipe deserves its own page, untainted by disease, so here it is. Go make it. It is good enough to post twice.

This recipe initiated years ago when I used to host Fakesgiving. I had a Thanksgiving dinner party the week before real Thanksgiving with a wonderful group of friends. It was a chance to celebrate with a whole different group than we would see on the holiday itself. It was also a great opportunity for me to try out some recipes without risking ruining the Thanksgiving meal. If Fakesgiving didn't go all that well, we could regroup and eat our favorites with our families in just five days.

These events invariably lasted until about 4 in the morning and usually involved a wine bottle count that was higher than the head count. I also gained some new stuffing recipes and made up this sorbet recipe in the process.

Unfortunately, Fakesgiving has gone the way of the Dodo for now. Maybe it will see a resurgence in the future, but I can't help but think of those magical, laughter-filled nights when I make this sorbet.

This also happens to be one of the most beautiful sorbets I have ever seen. The color is almost impossibly red. It is a bit tart, the perfect antidote to a massive Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. This is a wonderful light dessert on its own or an excellent compliment to a rich cheesecake or flourless chocolate cake. I have served it with both over the years with terrific results.


Cranberry Raspberry Sorbet

2 (12 oz) bags fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
pinch of salt
3 (20 oz) large bags frozen raspberries, thawed

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the cranberries, sugar, water and salt. Cook until the cranberries pop and the entire mixture is bright red. Remove from the heat and cool about 5 minutes.

Place the raspberries in a blender and process until the smooth. Run the mixture through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds.

Combine the two mixtures and process in batches in the blender until smooth (being very careful of the hot cranberry liquid).

Cool in the refrigerator about 2 hours or until completely chilled through. Process in an ice cream maker, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Sunday Supper - Chicken braised in dark beer

We have started a bit of a tradition with our neighbors that I hope is going to stick. They are a wonderful young couple with a little boy just 5 weeks younger than Ned. She and I like to cook and shop and talk about being mommies. He and Mike like to listen to music and talk about building things and working with their hands. We all like to eat really good food, which brings me to the Sunday Supper.

Every couple of weeks we have been getting together for a Sunday meal, usually some kind of comfort food, good drink, and great conversation. It is a no-pressure situation. If the kids are crying, we have twice the number of adults as children to handle the issue and everyone understands completely. Since we are eating so well during these Sunday Suppers, I thought I would feature some of the recipes on this blog, both so you can share them and so I can find those recipes again when I want them.

This recipe is the procrastinator's answer to braising. When I started making a braised dish at 4:30pm and guests were invited for 5:30pm, Mike made a pre-emptive beeline for the snack cabinet. When dinner was finished and ready to be served at 5:45, he raised his eyebrows and looked quite impressed.

Chicken cooks quickly, but can still get the earthy warm flavors of a good braise, especially with the help of a malty brown beer and a shot of gin (I mean, what isn't better with a shot of gin, right?). This is cooked on the bone, which adds body to the sauce and makes the meat take a bit longer to cook, an advantage for this dish. You want the meat to be tender and flavorful, but not cooked to death.

This is also fairly healthy as far as comfort food goes (although the pile of mashed potatoes under the chicken is another story). This dish is made with skinless chicken and gets its creaminess from Greek yogurt, not cream. I even used fat free Greek yogurt (it was what I had on hand) and the results were terrific.

Mike had some fun picking out beers for this meal, as well. He chose one beer for me to cook with and two for tasting with dinner. Our neighbors brought a bottle of Cupcake Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. Did I mention that we tend to drink well during Sunday Supper? The cooking beer was a Sierra Nevada seasonal. The two tasting beers were Troegs Troegenator Double Bock, a dark, malty beer brewed in Pennsylvania in the Belgian Double Bock style (my preference) and Delirium Tremens, a spicy lighter beer brewed in a monastery in Belgium. Mike found all three beers at the Village Beer Merchant on Elmwood Avenue at Anderson Place. You can fill your own growlers with beer from their taps. Check it out if you are nearby some time.

By the way, watch out for the flambe in this recipe. Mike and I nearly lit the kitchen on fire. You might not want to have the recipe hanging right next to the stove. I'm just saying...

***

A quick photography note: I have been very frustrated by the photos I have been putting up on the blog, but I am of the mind that a bad photo is better than no photo at all. You should have an idea of what your food will look like when you make it. In the past I have put an enormous amount of time into the photography for this blog, and right now, with very little daylight this time of year and the demands of my new family, I just can't get the results I used to get. It will get better, I promise.

In the mean time, see how good it looks in the picture? Yeah, it looks WAY better in real life.

Chicken Braised in Dark Beer (adapted from Cooking Light)

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 skinless chicken breast halves, with bone*

2 skinless chicken thighs, with bone*

2 skinless chicken drumsticks*

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon canola oil

3 Tablespoons dry gin

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup carrot, peeled and chopped

3/4 cup shallot, peeled and chopped

8oz package of sliced mushrooms

3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

3 sprigs fresh parsley

2 bay leaves

1 cup dark beer

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Roll the chicken pieces in the flour mixture to coat them completely. In a large deep skillet or a dutch oven with a top, heat the butter and oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken to the pan, being careful not to crowd the pieces. (I was able to do this in one batch, but you may need two). Brown the chicken on both sides, about 10 minutes total.

Turn off the burner, remove from the heat, and pour the gin into one side of the pan. Very carefully ignite the gin, stand back, and wait for the flame to die down. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm.

Turn the heat back to medium and add the shallot, carrot and celery to the pan. Cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Add the mushrooms, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves. Place the chicken back in the pan, and pour the beer over the top. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

Remove chicken from the pan and place on serving dish or individual plates. Stir the Greek yogurt into the pan and heat gently about one minute. Do not boil. Season with additional salt. Remove the bay leaves, thyme stems, and parsley sprigs. Pour the vegetable and sauce mixture over the chicken.

(Serves 4)

*I bought a whole chicken, pieced it, and removed the skin. This did not take long and I was able to save the back bone, wings, and other assorted parts for stock. This also gives you exactly the number of pieces you need for this recipe. It is, however, much faster to just buy the chicken pieces.

Happy Cow Pot Roast

At 6:30 this morning, I suddenly realized that I had a culinary crisis on my hands (good heavens! not that!) I had defrosted a beautiful braising cut of beef in the fridge and if I did not do something with it immediately (i.e., before I went to work) I wouldn't have a chance to cook it before it went bad. Much as my body was begging me to hit the snooze one more time, the motivation of not wasting this cut of meat was enough to get me going to the kitchen. Twenty minutes of prep later, I had the crock pot going and I was getting ready for work. Let me tell you, at 8 tonight when I finally rolled in the door, I was pretty happy I had put in the extra work this morning.

Before recently I didn't spend too much time thinking about where the beef came from. Pot roast, like any other comfort food, should be cheap and relatively easy. My mantra had always been that you want the cheapest cut of meat you can get if you are going to braise something. The more connective tissue to break down and create the body of the sauce, the better. All that tissue breaking down leaves the piece of meat tender and tasty. And I'm still right about this, to some degree. Now I am going to suggest that you buy the cheapest cut of meat you can get, as long as it comes from a happy cow. After watching this movie and reading this article and reading this book, I became convinced that life is just too short for eating industrial food. Even if you don't want to read/watch these, take my word for it: buy organic, grass-fed, happy beef. It is tasty, better for you, and carries much less risk.

I got this cut of beef (an arm roast, actually, further down the limb of the cow from the chuck roast) from a wonderful new shop in Williamsville, NY called Farmers & Artisans. It is in the old Sweet Jenny's building, for those who know the neighborhood. They feature local and regional foods, have an on-site bakery, and are a year-round source for the kind of things we usually only find at the farmers market during the summer. This should also be a go-to place for New York State artisanal cheeses.

Farmers & Artisans got their hands on some Amish grass-fed beef that is simply wonderful. These cows ate what they were supposed to eat: grass. It is flavorful but not gamey. I highly recommend going out to raid their freezer and treating yourself to a good comfort food meal one of these nights.


Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables

Roast
3 pound braising cut of beef (chuck roast, arm roast, etc.)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup red wine
1 12oz can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup beef stock

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a medium fry pan over medium-high heat. Brown all sides of the beef, taking about 3 minutes per side. Remove beef and place in slow cooker.

In the same pan, lower the heat to medium and saute the onion until tender but not brown. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add these ingredients to the slow cooker.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine and pour over the beef in the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to the cooker, cover, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.


Roasted Vegetables*

3 carrots, scrubbed
3 parsnips, peeled
2 small turnips, peeled
3 potatoes, scrubbed

Cut all vegetables into 1 inch pieces. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place in a single layer in a baking dish. Roast at 400F until browned on the outside and fork-tender, about 50 minutes.

(serves 8)


*Go crazy with this. You could add celeriac, rutabaga, beets, fennel bulb, squash, sweet potatoes, or any number of other things to this mixture. I'm just telling you what we did for dinner tonight, but use your imagination and the ingredients that you like for this.

Squash Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter

I had a culinary triumph this weekend.

There are several items in the food world that have always intimidated me. I have generally tried them, failed, and then spent (wasted) much time trying to not make them again. Pizza crust is one of these things. So is bread. I overcame that one not too long ago. The most recent is fresh pasta.

Is it just me, or am I intimidated by Italian carbohydrates?

Anyway, out of the middle of nowhere, I decided it was high time I conquered fresh pasta. I actually didn't conquer it so much as I nicely sidled up to it, got affectionate, and made a new friend. It did not make sense to me to put a whole lot of effort into making regular old spaghetti. If I was going to do this, it had to be worthwhile. I had a nice big batch of leftover squash and a big sage plant in my garden. I decided on rustic looking squash ravioli.

This was absolutely divine. The browned butter makes all the difference. I made the first batch on Saturday and we just melted the butter with the sage. On Sunday night, I browned the butter with the sage in it. The toasted milk solids in the browned butter were wonderful and the sage was fried to a marvelous crisp.

If you are not compelled to bust out your pasta maker any time soon, consider picking up some wonton wrappers in the produce section of the grocery store. They will be a little thin, but should do the job nicely. Even if you don't make ravioli at all, brown some butter with a good handful of sage in it. You won't be sorry.


Squash Ravioli with Sage Browned Butter

Squash
1 winter squash (butternut, buttercup, acorn, etc.) - about 2 cups of flesh
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground corriander
3 Tablespoons orange juice
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
salt to taste

Roast the squash whole in the oven at 325 F until tender. Cut in half, remove and discard seeds and membranes. Scoop flesh into a small bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well to combine. Allow to cool fully.

Pasta
4 eggs
500 grams all-purpose flour (about 3-1/2 to 4 cups, depending on humidity)
1 egg, lightly beaten for wash

Place flour in a bowl, make a well in the center and add the 4 eggs. Begin to combine the eggs and the flour with your hand, gradually incorporating more flour until you have a very firm dough. The dough should not be at all sticky. Pour this out onto the counter or kneading board. Knead the dough until it is completely homogeneous, adding more flour as necessary.

When it is smooth and even, cut about 1/5 of the mixture off and cover the rest of the dough with plastic wrap. Roll the small piece of dough through the widest setting on the pasta maker about 6 times, folding in half between each pass. Next, narrow the pasta maker one setting with each pass through the machine until next-to-last setting. The dough will not be quite transparent, but will be quite delicate.

Repeat this process with another piece of the dough so you have two very long sheets. Lay one sheet on the counter and brush completely with egg wash. In two long columns, dot about 1 Tablespoon of squash mixture every 3 inches or so. Lay the second sheet on top and, working carefully to line up the edges and remove air pockets, seal the two sheets together. Use a sharp knife or pastry cutter to cut between the ravioli. Lay flat on a floured surface. *

Sage Browned Butter
1 stick salted butter
4 Tablespoons fresh sage leaves

Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt. Meanwhile, stack the sage leaves in a neat pile and slice very thinly crosswise to get short strips. Add the sage to the butter and cook until the butter separates and the solids become a toasted brown color. Remove from heat immediately.

Assembly
Boil a pot of water, cook the ravioli (4 per person for an appetizer) for about 4 minutes (5-6 minutes from frozen). Serve with about 1 Tablespoon of sage browned butter per person.

(This will make far more squash than you will need for the pasta. The pasta will serve about 12-16 as an appetizer or 6-8 as an entree. The sage browned butter will serve 8 as an appetizer)

* If you would like to freeze these (which works really well) do so pretty quickly. Freeze them on waxed or parchment paper in a single layer until solid, then pack carefully into a freezer-safe ziplock bag or storage container. Do not stack unless they are frozen; they will stick together and you will cry.

Grilled Asparagus

Just over two weeks ago, Mike had an accident on his bicycle and broke his collar bone. He hit the ground going 23 mph and is probably really lucky that the collar bone was the worst of it. He has been home and out of work for these past weeks and will be home for at least a couple more.

Somehow in these two weeks since the accident, I have managed to barely cook at all, yet we are generating unprecedented quantities of dirty dishes. I have no idea how that is possible, except that we are very well behaved about eating takeout Chinese or falafel or sushi on our ceramic plates, which then need to we washed. By me. Because Mike only has one arm at the moment.

The only thing that I have really managed to get onto dinner plates for the two of us is grilled asparagus, maybe because it is such a seasonal food, and not even my poor injured husband will keep me from fresh, local asparagus. From the time that I was little, asparagus has been one of our classic family foods. For other (perhaps more normal) families, it was peas or carrots. For us, it was asparagus and artichokes.

My parents still have the special white enameled pot with a stained interior that is used only for cooking asparagus. Oblong with a rack inside perfect for cradling the tender spears, the pot held just enough water to cover the asparagus. Half the rack broke about two decades ago and it was fixed with string, which is now also dyed the unique gray-green color of asparagus. The asparagus was boiled only until blanched bright green. These then were eaten with our fingers, as was the French custom passed down from my grandmother, tips dipped in ranch dressing, a more American interpretation, to be sure.

Somehow a few years ago, someone in the family got the idea to throw the asparagus on the grill instead. Rolled in a little bit of olive oil with chopped garlic and a generous pinch of salt, grilling gives these gorgeous veggies a deep nutty flavor that even asparagus haters are bound to love. Asparagus lovers will just have one more way to love asparagus. We have a full on mutiny if asparagus is prepared the old way now. Boiled asparagus requires an explanation, like torrential downpour, or blizzard, or too much other stuff on the grill. Our poor white enameled asparagus pot sits in the back of my parents’ cupboard, waiting for the day when it will be called into service again, but it isn’t looking too good.



Grilled Asparagus

The spears seem to shrink on the grill. Cook more than you think you will need. We are big veggie fans, and I cook about a pound for the two of us. In inclement weather, feel free to broil these about 4 inches from the heating element for about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on them; they will burn before you know it.

1 pound asparagus spears, washed, ends trimmed*
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
sprinkle sea salt

Place the asparagus in a one gallon zip-top plastic bag. Add garlic, olive oil, and sea salt and mix together well. This can sit for about an hour before you use it.

Preheat grill to medium-high. Immediately before you are ready to eat, place the asparagus on the grill perpendicular to the grates, so the spears don’t fall through.** Grill until tender and has good grill marks.

(Serves 2-3)


* Trimming should be done carefully and by hand. Break off the end as close to the bottom as you can. It will naturally break at the right point, leaving the tender part for you to eat and the woody end for the compost (or the dogs, in my parents’ case!)

** You can use a veggie rack for this, but I find it unnecessary