Amuse Bouche

John Crow Farm Spit Roasted Free Range Chicken

See that deliciousness spinning down below?  That my little chicken skeptics was the finest chicken I have eaten in a very, very long time.  It might involve a little work or travel to get it, but it was worth every delicious bite.

My Dad moved to Newburyport a few weeks ago and I told him I was looking for grass fed beef so if he passed any in his travels I asked him to let me know.  Bright and early on a sunday morning he sent an email with just this picture enclosed.

He lives near the Newburyport farmer's market which runs on Sunday morning and he had seen this vendor there.  A little google detective work later I found out the farm was located out near my favorite driving route out through Pepperell and Bolton.  It was a gorgeous sunny day so I threw some ice in the cooler and Panther and I hit the road.

The farm is right off 119 on Old Ayer Road and is really easy to find.

I pulled up and these ladies cruised right on over.  Yup, about as free range as can be.  You know the seagulls in Finding Nemo?  I kept hearing these chickens saying "car.  car.  car. BUG!, car, car".

And there were these lovely bovines hanging out under a nice shady tree.

There is a small store on the grounds with a few chest freezers inside and some products from the nearby Herb Lyceum sprinkled around.  One freezer was empty but the other had these lovely chickens inside.

I chatted with the woman for a bit and found out there wasn't much in the store because they had picked up most everything that morning to hit the farmer's markets.  They go to three on Sunday alone and there is a link on the website that shows their farmer's market schedule.  I'm probably going to contact them next time to see if I can have what I want to order remain at the farmstand so I can pick it up.

This past Sunday after a gorgeous morning spent at British Car Day at the Larz Anderson museum I decided it was time to break out the grill and the spit. I raided the herb beds, made a compound butter, tucked it under the skin, threw the rest inside with some lemon chunks and strapped it on the spit.

I could spend some time here trying to find some nice florid prose to describe the taste, but really, in the end what I would be trying to say is that it tasted like chicken.  Real chicken.  Not flaccid grocery store, factory raised, corn fed chicken, but real chicken, almost quail or pheasant like.  It had *gasp* TASTE!  We had some for dinner that night and then I made the rest into some killer chicken salad for lunches this week. 

So if you are looking for a nice ride on a weekend and some delicious meats, look for them at the farmer's market or take a nice ride down 119 like I do and hit all the amazing places.  I'm sure I'll be there this weekend.

John Crown Farm- Groton, MA

 

 

 

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Garlic Aioli and Herbs

 
Life continues at a rapid pace sucking the time out of every day.  Sure, things are being cooked, cars are being restored (just not the one mentioned here), we drive up to open the house in Maine for my Mom this Saturday - turn on the water, reconnect the dishwasher, the ice maker, the washing machine, etc, gardens are being planted, flower pots are being filled, water features are cleaned out and restocked with a GIANT bullfrog tadpole named Hermione (pictures if I can get her(?) to sit still long enough) and recipes are beginning to be culled for Summer camp. 

Ah Summer. That will be 11 weeks of 5 - 8 recipes a day for just the 11+ age group.  Given all of that activity there are not a lot of words forming in my head and not many pictures are being taken to keep things up here.  I am sure that my new car and a season ahead of winding roads and far flung farmer's markets, road side stands and foodie field trips will remedy that.  In the meantime I bring you this quick dinner dish.

Pictured above is one of my quick go to recipes.  I make the aioli in about 5 minutes in a mortar and pestle.  Speaking of, I was reading Jamie Oliver;s website recently and I saw a thread where someone was bashing Jamie for having a recipe that suggested pounding something in a mortar and pestle.  The ranter was suggesting that he didn't have a 'gourmet' kitchen with all sorts of extra specialty equipment like that.  I just want to take a second to say that I really couldn't live without mine.  I use it all the time and it has a permanent home on my counter as it should since it weighs about 10 pounds and is made of a rough stone.  I bought it for a whopping $15.00 at an Asian market it is an indispensable tool. 

These thighs are so easy to make. 10 minutes to get them ready in the morning (or the night before) and another 5 minutes before you put them in the oven.  BIG reward for very little effort.  The aioli I use is more of a Spanish aioli, it is not mayonnaise based and I don't even use yolks in it.  It is pretty loose when you make it, so don't worry, it tastes lovely and GARLICKY! No vampires here.

For those car fans who allowed me a little moment of gearhead mixed in with the cooking recently do continue on, for those who want the recipe, just scroll on down and skip my little car diatribe.

In the end the family Pontiac was beyond the scope of restoration given her value as a restored car.  I would have had to pour 8 - 10 thousand into her to make her a nice set of wheels again.  In the end Dad and I decided to sell her and my hunt for a convertible carried on.  I had it pared down to a Mercedes 450SL or a 500SL or a Jaguar. Older ones are not difficult to find at a really reasonable price. My dad has collected many a Jag over the years and husband, being a Brit, was rallying for the English to win over the Germans.  Dad also has quite a few great jag mechanics under his belt (hello Elston!) for me to go to and that is key if you are going to own one of these beauties. This car came my way at just the right time and in just the right situation.  She is a California car, then Arizona. Stored when she came to MA and not driven at all for the last 4 years, the sticker on the windshield was from 2006 and the property of an estate. I brought her home a few weeks ago and I could not be happier.  So if you ever see her pulling up at your local Farmer's Market come and say hello I plan on spending lots of time with her this summer.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Aioli and Herbs

5 cloves garlic, peeled

Kosher salt

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Bone in skin on chicken thighs

Fresh herbs - I use thyme, rosemary and sometimes tarragon and savory- don't chop it, use the whole twigs and branches

Lemon slices, at least one for each thigh

Place the garlic cloves in the mortar with a good pinch of kosher salt and pound into a paste.

Scrape everything to the center and begin adding oil a drop at a time while using the pestle to grind in a circle, not pounding.  Continue adding and stirring, adding and stirring.  After a TBS or two has gone in it should hold together fairly well and you can stream in the oil, but continue stirring with the pestle, grinding against the sides.  Stop occasionally to scrape down sides.  I generally end up with about 1/2 cup of oil.

Gently loosen the skin on the thighs so you can slather the mixture UNDER the skin, but keep the skin intact for roasting.  I pop them all in a ziploc and leave them in the fridge to hang out.

When you are ready to cook them, get a shallow roasting dish, set the oven to 425F.  Lay a lemon slice down, cover with some of the fresh herbs, no need to chop, whole twigs and branches are fine, lay over 1 thigh, season with a little kosher salt and pepper.  Continue doing this until all the thighs are in the pan.  I even use a spatula to scrape out any extra aioli from the bag to drizzle on top of the thighs.

Place in the oven and roast until an instant read thermometer reads 170F and the skin is nice and crispy.  Thighs are pretty forgiving and do not dry out easily.  Depending on how large your thighs are, this could take 25 - 35 minutes.

Once they are done I remove the thighs, take some tongs and squeeze out the lemon juice from the slices, pour off the pan drippings, remove the fat and use this as a sauce to pour over the chicken or the rice you might serve it with. 

 

45

....Happy Birthday to me.

The makings of birthday dinner. 

Keith, if you are reading, this Sauternes is the one you sent about 10 years ago with the lovely basket of Foie Gras.  I've held on to it all this time and I figured what the hell, I'm turning 45, I'm buying a cooking school*, it's time to crack the bottle, and yes, I left the dust on the bottle as it adds to the character!  The foie I bought myself as a present.  Note the 'A'. Don't worry, it's not ALL for dinner, there will be a few preparations, but dinner will be grapes soaked in the Sauternes with seared foie and a salad and I shall sip more of that wine.  Simple.  Beautiful.

And nothing makes a girl happier than a stack of reading and listening from friends and family.  Pretty  hard to tear myself away and head to work!

*What?  I forgot to mention I was buying a cooking school.  More on that later kiddies, I'm off to Russo's for grapes.

Chili Rellenos Casserole

Chilli Rellenos Casserole or killer Stuffed poblano casserole.  A study in photos.

Roasted and peeled

 

The Spicy tomato sauce drizzled with crema

Poaching liquid with annato, chipotle en adobo, chix stock cumin, bay

The shredded chicken tossed with fire roasted corn ,parm, goat cheese and a little jack.

Stuffed.

Cover in more tomato sauce, poblano cream sauce, sprinkle jack and parm and bake.

 

 

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.

Ma Po Dou Fu, Gan Bian Si Ji Dou, Tori Kara Age, Aspara no Nikumaki-Age

Will this horribly long, dark and snowy evil winter ever end? 

I am finally reaching the end of my tolerance for braises and long slow cooking and I am craving bright flavors, scorching heat, fresh tasting, salty things. I've been reading the end of summer blogs in Australia and New Zealand and craving languishing near the grill with only a lemon wedge and some salt to make things complete.

Right around now the only flavours that will make me happy are Asian and  I have learned that take-out Asian food never, ever satisfies. Oh sure, it all seems like a good idea, the descriptions are mouth watering, and I might add often amusing, but on the delivery...not so much. Perhaps if we lived in New York, or on the left coast we might get decent Asian food, maybe if I even lived on the other side of the Muddy Charles in the People's Republic of Cambridge, maybe then I could get good take-out. But over here in Newton. Sorry folks, its all a pipe dream. I woke up Saturday with a craving, so books were perused, inventory of ingredients taken and a shopping expedition to nowhere more exotic than Whole Foods was taken and then I settled in with a few tivo'd episodes of United States of Tara and started chopping and mincing and mise en placing.

First I made the Ma po dou fu or Pock-marked Mother Chen's bean curd, since I knew it would benefit from hanging out in the salty and chili-hot sauce reheating it wouldn't be an issue.  A block of tofu was cut into 1-inch cubes and rested in just boiled salted water in a bowl on the counter.  I rinsed a few tablespoons of fermented black beans. Into the oiled hot wok I tossed some ground beef and stirred it around until it was brown.  Into the wok I splogged 3 TBS of the chili paste I had on hand which was Nam Prik Pao, mainly because chef Jan got us all addicted to it and I am never without a jar in the fridge.  I sloshed it around, added the fermented black beans and then some chicken stock.  Season this to taste with some sugar and soy sauce.  Add your tofu which you have drained well and gently, so it doesn't break up,  squish it around in the sauce.  Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and let it get all flavor filled and happy for awhile.  I shut it off and then when we were ready to eat I turned it back on, in went a slurry of cornstarch and water to thicken it slightly and then I added a good sprinkling of szechuan peppercorns that I dry toasted in a hot pan and then ground fine in a spice grinder and a handful of sliced scallions.  There are a million ways to make this dish, I just happened to follow Fuchsia Dunlop's method.

I also love her dry fried green beans or Gan Bian Si Ji Dou.  Top and tail a bunch of washed green beans.  In a smoking hot wok fry up some ground pork and sprinkle it with Shaoxing rice wine and some soy sauce.  You can either dry fry your green beans until they get all wrinkly, or since I was already going to be frying something later, I fried my green beans until they wrinkled nicely but still had texture.  They were drained and added to the pork and wine and then some sesame oil and maybe a smoodge more soy was added.

Next we headed over to Japan and made an izakaya style nosh of asparagus that has a thinly sliced piece of pork wrapped around and the whole thing is dipped in a tempura batter of flour, baking powder and club soda and then fried tempura style.

I made a gyoza sauce of malt vinegar, sugar, oyster sauce, garlic and chili ground in a mortar and pestle with some salt, some soy sauce and a few dribbles of sesame oil.  We used this as a dipping sauce for the asparagus rolls and the tori kara age.

In the fridge I dragged out a few cups of cold rice from the other night and made a sauce of hoisin, tamari, sugar, malt vinegar and sesame oil.  Into a hot oiled pan went some minced ginger and garlic, when it was fragrant I tipped in the rice and broke it up so it was individual grains, in went the sauce and a load of chopped scallion.

Tori kara age.   When I got home from the store I marinated pieces of chicken thighs for a few hours in soy, sake, sugar, oyster sauce and ginger.  I drained it and tossed it with a beaten egg, some cornstarch, a few pinches of oregano and thyme and then it was quickly fried.

Total prep time was about 20 minutes (marinating took a few hours, but it was put together in 10 minutes) cooking time took about 30 minutes.  If I got take out from Dining in, delivery time is 1 hour. I assure you, I cant find take out this good in my neighborhood.  And now I have the added bonus of leftovers for Monday lunch.

Angry Chicken - Grrrrrr

Lately I've been on a real Asian inspired, Umami rich kick. We've been making loads of udon noodles with miso broth topped in assorted vegetables quickly tossed in a wok with tamari and sesame and sometimes a few slices of duck breast on top or Tori Kara Age.  We had yellow curry with Thai eggplants and pineapple. There was gan bian si ji dou (dry fried green beans with pork) and ma la zi ji (Numbing and Hot Chicken) it's all rather addictive.

Today I'm going to make a miso glaze with red and yellow miso and rub it on a duck breast, shrink wrap it and cook it sous vide at about 53C.  It will then be seared off and served with sautéed spinach, garlic and sesame oil and a side of cauliflower mash with mystery ingredients added.  Don't worry they are still a mystery to me at the moment.  Friday I'm going over to Porter Square to hit Kotobukiya market, since Super 88's recent decline, the Allston location is almost barren(!) I have to travel further afield to get ingredients. But today, today  I want to  tell you about Angry Chicken.

The recipe comes from the food porn cookbook that is Morimoto by Masaharu Morimoto .  For days I've been flicking through the book over and over trying to decide what I was going to pull out and cook and for some reason Angry Chicken just caught my eye.  Grrrrrrrr.

Morimoto has a restaurant in Mumbai and fell in love with Tandoor chicken and this was his interpretation,  I knew we would love it since we both adore Indian spices and it uses my favourite go to hot sauce.  Frank's Red Hot.*  Frank's red hot has the perfect amount of heat and vinegar tang with a big bold punch of pepper taste without the blow-your-taste-buds-out-of-the-water for every subsequent bite that some hot sauces pack.

As usual lately, I made it and didn't get a chance to take a picture, but I'm sure you can make one up nicely in your head.  Just picture some gorgeous laquered blistered skin chicken steaming on a plate with a side of darkly blistered long peppers.  Mmmmm.

Make a marinade of 1/2tsp each of black peppercorns and cumin seed 1/4tsp each of cardamom and coriander seed, and  grind in a coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle, add in 1tsp of chili powder, a little salt 1/2tsp of amchar or garam masala and pour all that in a bowl. Add 1-1/3 cups yoghurt (I prefer the Greek Fage), 1/2 cup cream, 1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce, we tend to have tamari in house and 1 and 1/2 cups of Frank's Red Hot. Yes, One and a Half cups of Frank's. Mix it all up.  Reserve 1 cup for sauce later and pour the rest over your prefered pieces of chicken.  We like thighs.  Let this all hang out for at least 8 hours or even over night.

Crank the oven to 450F.  Place the chicken on a sheet pan, discard the marinade and roast it for 30 - 45 mins depending on the cuts of chicken and size.  165F internally with a digital thermometer is what your looking to hit.  Take 2 cups of chicken stock and reduce to 1 cup, I added some chopped leek and celery to the reducing stock. Off the heat add the reserved 1 cup of marinade and heat this gently being careful not to boil and cause the yogurt to separate. 

I also took his advice to serve a side of peppers for those who like more heat.  I took 4 nice Anaheim's rubbed them with oil and tossed them on a seperate sheet pan in the oven while the chicken roasted.  Once I pulled the chicken I turned the broiler on and let the peppers get nice and blistered.

We served this with a side of butter beans (sadly tinned - I need a new Rancho Gordo order stat!) sauteed with some nice olive oil and a minced shallot. There was much food silence and reverence around the table with only the occasional clink of a wine glass hitting the slate tablemats as puncuation.

Simple, amazing, and just the thing for a snowy January night.

*this is more for those following primal over paleo.  Too much vinegar in the hot sauce and the dairy would rule it out.

Miso Duck Ramen (udon really) Soup and Tori Kara Age

I woke yesterday with a raging urge to make some sort of spicy soup.  I started pouring through books trying to decide on what exactly I wanted.  Hot and Sour soup?  Nope.  Tom Ka Gai? Nope.
I wanted clean, unmuddled, broth based soup.  Finally a picture in my Wagamama cookbook of Shichimi spiced duck ramed struck my attention and I began to formulate my execution.
If you get the prep out of the way early, this soup can come together fast.  I know that reading this may make you think that it took forever to make, but I assure you it was under an hour for everything.  I also now have gyoza sauce and tori kara age in the fridge ready to go for several other dishes over the next week or two.  They both keep for a long time and are great to marinate chicken or fish. Most of this kind of cooking is make it and wait, slice it and wait.  Prep is your best friend when making Asian foods. Have everything reay to go because the cooking time is minimal.

Since I didn't feel like going over to Super 88 to get shichimi which is generally a blend of pepper, salt, seaweed, sesame seeds, dried orange, hemp and poppy seeds I used the Eden Organic Seaweed Gomasio from Whole Foods and I added cracked pepper and sea salt.
I scored the duck breasts on both sides and rubbed it well.  Put a plate on it and some heavy cans and let it hang out in the fridge for a few hours.

In the meantime I made my broth with chicken stock and a few tablespoons of South River Sweet brown rice miso.  If you ahven't tried this miso before I have seen it at Whole Foods and it is reasonably priced and really delicious.  It is made locally out in Shelburne Falls.  To the broth I also added a tablespoon or two of ponzu sauce.  I just let this simmer for 5 - 10 minutes, tasted and added more miso or ponzu as required.  Next time I might try it with their brown miso and decide which I like better.

Over on the counter I julienned some bamboo shoots and 1 leek,  sliced a bunch of scallions on a nice angle, minced 6 cloves of garlic, chopped up some baby bok choy and then thinly sliced 2 serrano chilies with the seeds and ribs and a few handfuls of bean sprouts.  Everything went into little bowls ready to go, this drove the resident house dishwasher (husband) crazy.

Next I made a batch of gyoza sauce (garlic and serrano chili, sugar, cider vinegar soy and sesame oil),  for later dipping and I made some tori kara age sauce (ginger, soy, sake, sugar and oyster sauce) to marinate the chicken thighs. 

After the chicken thighs hung out the fridge for an hour or two in the marinade they were tossed in with a beaten egg with cornstarch, dried oregano and thyme and then they were quickly fried.  Husband started groaning while eating these.  Very dangerous.

I set up some condiments for both the soup and the tori kara age.  Quartered lime, the julienned bamboo shoots, some kewpie and the gyoza sauce ready to go.

Once everything was ready to go I set up the stove to cook the noodles, stir fry and then deep fry and sear the duck breast.

I boiled a batch of udon noodles, cause that was what I had in the house, drained and held them in cool water. I turned the broth back on and brought it up to a simmer.

The duck breasts went into a heavy bottomed pan on pretty high heat to sear the skin and then I lowered the heat a bit to cook the other side.  Once they were ready (maybe 8 - 10 minutes) they rested on a board while I did a quick stir fry of the veggies with some soy, sugar and sesame oil.  Once they were ready I pulled them to a waiting bowl and cleaned out the wok to cook the tori kara age. 

While the oil heated up I sliced the duck breast for the soup and added any juices to the broth.

When the tori kara age were fried they just went on a plate. 

The udon went in the bottom of a bowl topped with a scoop or two of the stir fried veg and then the duck went on top and I filled the bowl with the miso broth which heated everything back up nicely.

Very good and definately a repeat.

Herbed Turkey Roulade

Sunday I am teaching a class at Williams-Sonoma in the Burlington Mall.  The theme this time is Quick and Easy Thanksgiving Dinner.  The menu is a nice one, Creamed Butternut Squash and Apple Soup flavoured with a bit of saffron and cream, Chestnut and Sausage Dressing, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Ginger Cake with Warm Caramel Sauce and of course, the ubiquitous turkey (All recipes easily found on their website). 
Since the store only has 1 oven in the demo area and both the sausage and chestnut dressing and the ginger cake will be in the oven I am going to make the turkey here and we will try to gently warm it up tomorrow.
The original recipe calls for two 2-1/2 pound breasts to be seasoned and tied together and then roasted.
I could only find a 5 pound half breast so I have decided to butterfly it, make a nice compound butter to smear all over the inside and then I will tie it up in a nice roulade or sausage roll and roast it.
I thought it might be nice to put some links up here so anyone who attends the class can see how I put it all together.

The first part is making a compound butter, or simply some grass fed unsalted butter like Kerrigold to which you have added some flavour. Fresh herbs, dried spices or herbs, zest of lemons or limes or oranges, maybe some liqueur or sea salt, truffles, powdered dried porcini, the possibilities are endless.  I never roast a chicken without making my house version which is usually some rosemary, thyme, sea salt, fresh black pepper, lemon zest and garlic confit (follow this link if you want to see how easy it is to make nectar of garlic heaven).

Next, take the full breast, boned, or a half breast-boned and lay it skin side down on the board.  Look at the shape of it and figure out how you can slice it once or twice so that it opens up to an even thickness.  I sliced from the front to the back of the breast once and then sliced that piece one more time again, front to back so it lay out in one long piece.  You could, if you wish, pound it thinner at this point.

Season with salt and pepper and smear on the compound butter.

Tie the roulade at 1 - 2 inch intervals, tight, but not so tight that it looks like the lines of a woman's corset when you take the strings off.

Season the outside with salt and pepper.  Take some of the oil from the garlic confit (I steeped some rosemary the confit when I made it) and mix it with some of the same fresh herbs from the compound butter and smear this all over the turkey.

It went into the oven at 350F.

Almost two hours later it was at 165F, the perfect temp for poultry to kill any instance of salmonella, I pulled it, let it cool and it's in the fridge resting for class tomorrow along with all those golden pan drippings.

To be continued...

Another Weekend cooking fest

It's another weekend of cooking around here as I adjust to life with a 50+ hour work week.
What on earth am I doing you ask?  Well, I accepted an offer that I just couldn't turn down.  Renee and her business partner offered me the opportunity to come on board and run create a cook.
Me.  The girl who was laid off 4 years ago from over a decade in IT in the financial sector decided to have a midlife career crisis and pursue her first love for feeding people went to culinary school and fell in love with teaching and now, now, I am running a cooking school.  Life is a crazy ride people, take what it throws at you and run with it.

What started out as just a cooking school for kids is now rapidly expanding to offer adult classes and adult cooking parties, and soon we may just be building out a third kitchen.  It's been a heck of a curve in the last month going from the calm life of planning recipes and teaching a few classes a week to full throttle since September 1st, but I am loving EVERY long CRAZY minute of it. 

The hours mean it is a little tough to cook as much as I used to during the week so I have been making the most of the weekends to make life a little easier and get some Bento Box fodder for lunches during the week.  On top of the usual roasting of some chicken breasts for husbands lunch, Saturday found us working on the following three dishes...all at once.  One can never have too many Le Creuset pots is my mantra.

We made a trip to Captain Marden's to pick up halibut steak for a recipe from Molly Stevens All About Braising. Cut a bunch of leeks (quantity is irrelevant as some leeks have 2 inches of white and some have 6 or 8, in the end, we had about 3 cups of sliced leek) in half inch, half moons and saute quickly in some butter, coating them all over, add a bunch of chopped thyme and 4 - 5 cloves of minced garlic, stir a few times, add about 3/4 of white wine, bring it to a boil and then cover it with some parchment paper and a lid and toss it in a 300F oven.  Stir after 20 minutes, back in the oven and then after an additional 20 minutes check that the leeks are nice and soft.  Season well with salt and pepper.  I held the dish at this point since I had to run to work from 6-7.  In the end when I got back home I turned the oven back on, heated the leeks on the stove and then proceeded.  Salt and pepper some halibut steak and lay it on top of the bed of leeks, pour in 1/2 a cup of cream and put the parchment back on, no lid this time and place the whole thing back in the oven for oh say, 20 more minutes or until the fish is nicely done and flakes off the bone.  Put the fish steaks on a warmed plate, remove the skin and bone and tent to keep them warm.  Place the pan with the leeks and cream on the stove and over medium heat, season to taste with salt and pepper and allow the sauce to thicken just a bit.  Serve the fish on a bed of the creamy leeks and we had it with a side of fried potato slices that were fresh dug Red Pontiacs from our farmer in Maine at Mt. Nebo orchard.

The apple pie I made on Sunday with the apples from Mt. Nebo orchard. Last weekend Mom and SD picked tons of apples ( we like Macs and Cortland) and brought them when I went to meet her in New Hampshire for the closing of Maine for the winter items.  Saturday I made my standard pie crust and it rested all day in the fridge.  This morning I rolled it out and peeled and tossed the apple slices with dark brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg with some lemon juice.  I dumped it all in the pie case and tossed on some dots of unsalted butter and slapped a lid on it. Husband was just standing over my shoulder while I took the photo above saying.."Can I eat yet, Can I, Is it done, Please?" 

I'm making him wait until after dinner. I'm mean like that.

Also on Saturday we went over to John Dewar in Wellesey and I picked up some flanken cut beef short ribs.  A perusal of Molly Stevens All About Braising (have you bought this book yet?  Shame on you if you haven't!) had me browning them all over to a nice mahogany colour and removing them to rest. In the same pan, brown some onions and carrots for aromatics.  The pan was deglazed with a goodly amount of Porter and then some veal stock (homemade from my pals at Citrio)  toss in a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden and a few bay leaves.  On went a nice parchment lid and an inverted lid of foil and the Le Creuset lid and this hit the 300F oven for 3 hours.  After the 3 hours were up, I let the ribs cool and tossed them in the fridge overnight.  Braises taste so much better on day 2 and the rest lets you remove the boatloads of fat that will have solidified on the top of the pan.  Tonight we'll warm them back up in the braising liquid and then toss them in a roasting pan.  Then they get glazed with maple syrup that has had a rosemary infusion by heating the syrup and steeping a few sprigs of rosemary in it for an hour. This will have a fire under the broiler to make the glaze all sticky and bubbly. I don't know why I never thought of maple syrup and rosemary together before, the taste is amazing and woody and piney with the sweet maple on top.  So good.  I'll probably mash up some more of those Red Pontiacs tonight as a side.

While the ribs and the leeks were braising in the oven the neighborhood must have smelled pretty strange as I was also making a giant batch of Pho chicken stock for dinner one night next week.  I skinned a whole chicken and cut it into pieces, put them in a pot covered it in water and added an onion and a huge chunk of ginger that I grilled until they were nice and brown.  I tossed some smashed garlic, cloves and black peppercorns in a hot skillet and stirred them around until they were fragrant.  These all went in a tea steeper and plunged in next to the chicken.  4 peeled shallots, 2 pieces of lemongrass smashed with the back of my knife, some fish sauce and rock sugar went in and the whole thing simmered for around 2 hours.  The chicken was all pulled off the bone while the puppy sat directly ON MY FEET willing me to please drop some here.  I drained the stock, discarded all the aromatics and put the chicken back in the stock.  It's now hanging out in the fridge upstairs.  Again, the fat will have risen and solidified so it can be discarded before we have Pho one night next week.

Right now we are photographing a ton of Fiesta pieces and putting them up on ebay for Mom, there might even be a fire later in the kitchen fireplace and a Manhattan before dinner.  Life doesn't get much better than that.