Amuse Bouche

Grilled Quail and Colcannon Cakes

On Saturday I intended to go to John Dewar just to get some duck boobs.
I should know that I have never in my life left that place with just one thing.  As I was paying the case of D'Artagnan products was making me blind in my left eye with their glare of yummy things to come, the girl ringing me up said, "anything else today?" and "2 packages of Quail please." just leapt out of my mouth before I even had a chance to think about it.

This morning while I was vacuuming the kitchen with one hand I was toasting some coriander seeds, peppercorns, allspice berries, juniper berries and sea salt in a dry pan and reducing OJ with the other.  When the spices started to smell nice and toasty, I shut them off to cool a bit. By the time the kitchen was vacuumed it was cool enough to grind up in the coffee grinder.  

Into a giant ziploc went the spices, 1 cup of fresh squeezed OJ reduced to a half a cup. 5 or 6 garlic cloves smashed with the side of the knife were tossed those in.  Mince up about 1/2 a Spanish onion, or 1 whole yellow onion and throw that in as well.  Dice up a couple of chipotle peppers and add some of the adobo from the can and pour in 1/3 cup of vinegar, white, I used Pinot Grigio vinegar because i had some, but really any white vinegar will do in a pinch.  To that mixture add a half cup of wine and toss in a few thyme sprigs, just because I like thyme.  Slosh this round in the bowl and dump it into the ziploc. I added some olive oil, squished everything around. 

The quail are mostly boned out with just the wing tips and drumsticks still retaining bones.  They also mount them conveniently on these v-shaped skewers that make it easy to flip on the grill.  You can do the same thing with a few wooden skewers soaked in water and trimmed.  Put them through the quail in an X pattern from drumstick to wing across and it keeps them nice and flat.  I tossed them in the ziploc, sealed it, wrapped it up so the marinade was touching all the meat and then wrapped it in a tea towel in case the skewers broke through and put it in the fridge.

Saturday we also had to pick up a couple cases of wine for work and oddly the liquor store also had challah.  The challah was a nice braid, totally moist and filled with raisins.  It followed me home.  After the quail were safely locked in the fridge the challah flung itself out of the microwave bread box and demanded that I make it into a bread pudding.  The cheek!  Of course since it was raining and I had nothing better to do, like laundry, I acquiesced. I gave the challah a nice lubrication of eggs, some cream and milk, some lemon zest and a little vanilla and then I put it in a nice hot tub in the oven for an hour.  If there is a better smell than a bread pudding cooking on a Sunday morning I do not know what it is.  Okay, maybe bacon, bacon smells pretty damn good, but really bread pudding comes in a nice second.

Now it's late afternoon and I have caught up on some of my DVR collection, read through the Globe and the Times and considered and then reconsidered dusting so instead I put together the components for the colcannon cakes while cooking some peeled red peppers in Madeira for Monday night and roasting husband's chicken boobs for his lunch during the week.

Savoy cabbage is my cabbage of choice for these.  And really, there is no strict recipe just start with potato and cabbage and add what you like.  I steam the cabbage, peel and cook some yukons or russets and mash them up with a little butter.  This all gets tossed in a bowl with a bunch of scallions chopped loads of chive, oh chive how I adore thee, some nice aged cheddar, a bit of Comte for glue, salt and pepper and bob's you uncle or maybe Seamus pick your uncle.

These will be packed into patties and slowly cooked in a non-stick pan with some butter until a serious crust forms on one side.  Flip and continue until they are nice and brown.  The quail had a quick meeting with the grill.

Dinner on a rainy and cold Sunday night.  Perfect.

A party to go

It began with a request from a friend of the owners. 

Could we possibly create a party, a surprise birthday party, for her husband? 
Nine men would arrive along with 3 of our students and they would cook enough appetizers to feed 20 people.
The plan was get them in by 6:30 to decorate cupcakes, into the kitchen cooking by 7:00, and out the door packed and loaded with the food by 8:15 to start the party.

Sure!  No problem.

I built a list of possible appetizers that I thought some possibly culinarily challenged men could execute in the required time. A few days before the event another request for me to make my ribs and roast a few chickens along with making some cornbread came through as well.

First and foremost I'm a girl who likes a challenge.
Second, I'm a list maker.  Lists, lists and more lists.  Trust me on this one, they can make any event go easier.

A master grocery list was created, recipes were researched, tweaked, and reviewed, a schedule was made, a list of required equipment for each dish was included on the recipe page along with what the dish would be packed in for transport.

The night before after I finished teaching my class I made my spice rub, rubbed and wrapped 24 pounds of Baby Backs in foil and roasted a bunch of red peppers.

The day of, I arrived early and made a few of items in advance like the Dill and Creme Fraiche sauce for the crab cakes, the Roasted Red Pepper and Valbresso Dip. I made the Thai Peanut Sauce so the flavours had time to mix and mingle, later we would reheat it and check it for seasoning. I made a compound butter and mixed it with the same rub I used on the ribs.  I assumed some guests would eat the chicken and not the pork and I thought that the spice should carry through both.  The chickens went in around 4:00 and were pulled in the midst of one of the classes to rest. At 5:30 the ribs hit the oven and hung out for almost 2 hours at a low heat.

I went off to teach my 11 - 13 year old class, we were in France making Gratin Dauphinoise, Poulet Provencal, and a lovely Pithivier.  Renee hung by my side and cleaned like a whirling dervish as the class went on, all in an attempt to keep the kitchen clean and ready to go by the time 'the guys' arrived.

After setting up 'stations for each recipe and a briefing to let the men know what we would be making I rounded them into the kitchen. 

I quickly found a sous chef in 'M' who takes classes on Tuesday with the oldest group.

Here he is helping his Dad prep the crab cakes.

Later he helped me unwrap all the rib packets, brush them with BBQ sauce (I used a basic tomato based sauce with a bit of molasses that I had made earlier for this step) for their final turn in the oven and then he loaded them all into 9 X 12 take out containers.  After these were finished I taught him how to carve the chickens, to find the break in the joints to separate the thighs and the drumstick, where the 'oysters' lie and how to carve the breast on the bias. He did a bang up job.

I hope one day when he is invited to dine at a future girlfriend's house and the father turns to him and asks if he would like to carve, that he will tackle it fearlessly and perhaps impress a future father in law in the process.

All in all it was a pretty great night.  We had them all wrapped up and out the door by 8:00 to head to their party and I took myself and my very, very tired feet and smelly clothes home for a good Bourbon and a long nap.

Leftovers: Day 1

Heat up some salsa verde mixed with some smoked chipotle salsa until warm.
Add chunks of turkey and stir until heated through.
Top with a poached egg.
Grate over some cheddar cheese.
Serve with Toast and Tea.

Chicken Vesuvio

I keep cursing the changing weather.  I'm not ready yet to switch to socks, turning the heat in the house back on and closing up all the windows.  Windows that have been thrown wide open since June. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want those two weeks of 90+ back, a kitchen is no place to be in that kind of weather, but I'm not ready break out my giant Le Creuset and spend a Sunday making stew, at least not yet.

Instead on Saturday after teaching in the morning and doing some outside work with husband in the afternoon I chose to make one of his favourite things.  Over the last couple of weeks when I have asked what he might want for dinner, Chicken Vesuvio has been mentioned in his list of choices, I suppose one should play to their audience so we hit the store and picked up the ingredients.

This dish is very simple to make, and the only time consuming bit is browning the potato in the beginning.  This step is important as it forms a crust on the outside of the potato that contrasts nicely with the floury texture you get inside from roasting this in the oven. 

I originally found this recipe on epicurious several years ago and as usual over time we have changed it to suit our likes.
The story of the origin of this dish is a long one and contains many arguments from a restaurant called Vesuvio in Chicago to Giada stating that they call it vesuvio because the steam coming from the pot once the wine has been added billows up like that from the volcano. In the end I think the basic theory of a typical southern Italian dish of chicken cooked with potatoes rings the most true for me.

You'll need 2 russet potatoes, peeled, cut into wedges. 

Some chicken, preferable thighs and split breasts with the bones still in for flavour and moisture, but if you must, boneless and skinless can be done.  When I'm feeling particularly naughty I skin the thighs and render the fat to cook the potatoes, otherwise some olive oil in the pan with a touch of butter to raise the smoke point will do.

Sprinkle that chicken with some garlic powder, some dried oregano and a bit of salt and pepper and let it hang out.

Peel 10 - 20 cloves of garlic.
Yes.
I said 10 - 20.

Have some chicken stock and a little white wine warmed up in a pan, maybe oh 1/2 to 3/4 cup total.

Break out your dutch oven or something similar that can go from stove top to the oven, with a lid.

Heat your oven to 450.

Now, heat up the oil and butter and saute those potato wedges, not crowding the pan until they are nicely brown.  Remove them to a plate with paper towels and add some more until they are all browned.

in the same pan, add your chicken, brown it nicely as well. 
On all sides!
Do this in batches if you need to as well.  Never crowd your pan as it will steam and not brown properly. 

Brown is flavour.

Once the chicken is browned, put the potatoes back on top, add the garlic cloves, push em down in the nooks and crannies.

Sprinkle in 1/2 to 1 tsp dried red chili flakes and if your like me a bunch of Aleppo pepper too for flavour.

Pour in the wine/stock combo, bring to a boil. 

Slap a lid on it.

Put it in the 450 oven for 25 - 30 minutes.

Open it up, see if your chicken is cooked, 165 F if your a thermometer person, clear juices when pricked if you're old fashioned or used to that method.

Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of frozen peas, petite ones please.

Back on with the lid, back in the oven for oh, say, 5 minutes.

When it is done, you have lovely chicken, soft russet potato spears with a nice caramalization on the outside that have been steamed nicely by the chicken juice and stock and wine.  Take some of those now soft and sweet garlic cloves and smear them on your potato spears (or some bread) and have a bite of the chicken.

So good, so easy and yet another thing to do with that chicken.