Amuse Bouche

We're Having: She and He (Episode 4)

I've been a fan of Jamie Oliver from the beginning and his new series, Jamie at Home, is his best one yet.  I love his enthusiasm and his ability to make your average cook want to get in the kitchen.  I have not watched a single episode of this new series and not tried one of the dishes for us or for the kids at create a cook, they all draw me in.  His speedy rhubarb fool with greek yoghurt was a huge hit with both the 9-11 and the 11-13 group.  I made his pork belly braise with rhubarb and it was amazing, tart and fruity with hot chili kicks and pork belly people...PORK BELLY, I ask how you can go wrong. We've made the asparagus and potato tart, his chocolate pots and the butternut squash muffins.  He takes high quality ingredients and treats them simply and well.  What more can you ask?

A few weeks ago I watched him make what he called his Proper Chicken Salad.  Do note that he did not call this a Chicken Caesar Salad, even though it incorporates, anchovy, garlic, Parmesan, lemon, Romaine and croutons.  Could it be because there couldn't possibly be a dish more maligned, bastardized, watered down and tragic, yet available on almost every restaurant menu, especially in the summer. 

Michael Ruhlman railed against the evil that is Chicken Caesar Salad. And then he wisely suggested a desire for a Chicken Fried Pork Belly Confit Caesar, which come on, how can you not get behind pork belly?

I'm not going to give you the recipe here, a little googling of the title will find you that out there on the network that shan't be named.  I will tell you that I have been making it with gorgeous Niman Ranch guanciale, ciabatta rolls from Whole Foods as my croutons and chicken thighs.  The chicken thighs only take about 35 minutes or so. The chicken and pork products roast on top of the torn up ciabatta and some nice rosemary until the smell is too much to bear.  Just imagine the crouton goodness that comes from that folks.  I also sometimes cut the anchovy count in half depending on how strong my anchovy are, taste one first people! 

Today we made it at create a cook with the 11+ kids.  I assure you that EVERY ONE OF THEM ate the dressing and admitted that the COULD NOT taste anchovy.  In fact, one of the boys could not stop devouring it out of the pan long enough to put the lid on and go to the park for break, it was that good.

I knew that I was making it for class today so I thought ahead and bought all the ingredients to have it for dinner.  My chicken is cooling on the stove as we speak.

I implore you, if there is one recipe to try this summer, THIS IS IT.  So so so damn good, and no Caesar required.

He: Tuna salad, his version.  Jar of Ortiz tuna, Olivia Organics Spring mix, cucumber from the garden, red onion slices, tomato from the garden and some cole slaw

She: PROPER chicken salad.  Damn right jamie, damn right.

Sausages Roasted with Grapes and Seared Foie Gras

Arguably the ugliest food photo ever*, but seriously, SERIOUSLY good.

A harvest dish in Italy, roasted grapes with sausages as interpreted by my tastebuds.
Black organic seedless grapes and blanched pork and provolone sausages were roasted at high heat for about 20 minutes or until sausages were cooked through and the grapes all nicely sugary and soft.
I made a glaze of reasonably priced balsamic cooked down with some dark muscovado and drizzled it over the finished sausages and grapes.
Some d'Artagnan foie gras slices graced with some sea salt and pepper and seared in a hot pan to gild the lily washed down with a Barbaresco. 

Not too shabby for a 30 minute meal eh? Take that Rachel Meh!

*New camera choices have been narrowed to the Canon EOS 5D, Nikon D200 or the Sony Alpha DSLR.  I swear I will make a decision one day soon.

Glorious Guinea Fowl

I've really never hidden my adoration for D'Artagnan products.  I've used their demi-glace and duck fat for years now, I've had the white and black truffle butters gracing the inside of my fridge door, sure they use a mixture of truffle oil (sure it's really 2,4-dithiapentane - I know - I know!) and shaved truffle slices (which are likely tuber aestivum and not likely to be tuber melanosporum) but I don't really care it tastes like heaven and more than a little earth on a slice of toasted Iggy's Francese for breakfast. 

I buy their duck breast and my freezer has a supply of their confit and a saucisson l'ail all ready for cassoulet season. I've made their wild boar before, but this week at John Dewar I noticed a few new items in the case.  I was torn between the pheasant, the rabbit and the guinea fowl and since I have tasted both rabbit and pheasant before I decided the guinea fowl would win. 

When I got home I started flicking through my cookbooks, Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall recommends a salmi preparation, Anne Willan braises hers with cabbage and bacon, Julia didn't seem to have any thoughts which surprised me, but I was looking up guinea fowl and not the French term for the bird which is pintade.  None of the preparations really knocked my socks off but husband and I were heading off to the Topsfield Fair for the day so I grabbed Anne Willan's new book Country Cooking of France and  D'Artagnan's Glorious Game Cookbook and put them in the truck.  As we headed home back down 128 in Friday traffic I had husband read me the recipes from both books.  In the end, we decided on the Guinea Hen Two ways from D'Artagnan.  Besides, I was halfway there already since I already had garlic confit in the fridge.

Guinea hen and Guinea fowl can be used interchangeably for either the male of the female of the species.  They have 50% less fat than chickens which is visibly noticeable when you look at the legs the skin layer is so thin that you can see through to the dark, almost blue, meat right through it.  They are a bird that likes to be left alone. The peck and poke for their own food, they don't take kindly to laying their eggs where you can find them, they prefer to sleep on the highest branches of the tree and they are a mighty, mighty loud alarm clock,screeching loudly when threatened or when they feel their territory has been invaded. They also aren't the most attractive of bird, certainly not as cute as this guy from the Topsfield Fair.

Okay, shall we make dinner?

Follow that link above and make yourself some garlic confit.

Slice 3 lemons, thinly, and place these in a non-reactive pot with 2 quarts of water and 2 TBS of salt, and add 20 or so peeled garlic cloves.  Set this on high and boil until the water evaporates stirring occasionally.  When it becomes just a sludge of disintegrated lemon essence and garlic, add 1 cup of cream, or more to taste depending on how tart your lemons are, and season with pepper, no salt will be necessary.  Keep it warm.

Salt and pepper your rinsed and dried guinea fowl inside, rub 1 TBS of duck fat on the outside and salt and pepper the outside.  Place it on its side in a roasting pan. Roast it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. While it roasts, dice a carrot and an onion.  After 20 minutes, flip the bird, add up to 1 TBS duck fat to the pan and toss in the onion and carrot.  Return the pan to the oven for a further 20 mins.

Remove the pan from the oven.  Cut off the legs and tent the breast with foil to keep warm.  Return the legs to the pan, now on the stove top, and cook over medium-high heat to crisp up and finish the legs.  Be careful to not burn your aromatics.  When the legs are ready, remove those from the pan, tent them with foil and keep them warm.  Now you will build your second sauce.

Deglaze your pan with 5 ounces of ruby port scraping up all the good sticky, shmooie bits as you go.  Add 1/4 cup of cream and bring it to a nice bubbling boil.  Tip all this carefully into a blender (works better than a food processor if you have a choice, the blender creates a nice vortex and will pulverize everything more efficiently), add your garlic confit (I must have had about 15 cloves), place the cover on the blender and loosen the center cap, just before I run the blender I tilt it to allow some air in so that the top doesn't blow off from the heat.  Puree this until smooth and then strain it through a chinois or a double mesh strainer.  Return it to a small clean pan and season to taste with salt and pepper.

I carved off the breast meat , sliced it thinly and arranged it over a small pool of the port sauce with a bit more on top. I placed the leg leaning on a pile of mashed potato with celeriac and sitting in a pool of the lemon sauce.  Yea folks, I know boring composition, no colour, but I wasn't going to make a green veg just to please the eye, this was all we wanted.  I drank a bottle of this with it, and yes, I did eventually wipe the dust off the bottle, I've had it awhile.

So in the end, how was it?  Unbelievably good.  The guinea fowl has amazing big flavor and because the fat layer under the skin is so thin the skin crisps up nicely.  It has a mild gamey taste and the two sauces play nicely off of that. Husband was making happy food noises as he was eating and we both declared that this dish is a repeat.  Now I know that you'll go look at the $21.00 price tag for a 3 - 4 pound guinea hen and scoff and decide it's too much money but this meal could have been served in any restaurant easily as a $36.00 entree per person and you certainly wouldn't call that too pricey.  Add that bottle of wine that I paid $28.00 for and you would be paying $75.00 - $80.00 for after the markup and I call this meal a bargain.  I even froze the rest of the lemon sauce, Chef Jan taught me to freeze everything, it can always be turned into something else later.  I assure you her mantra has been a lifesaver.

Seek it out, cook it and love it.

Chicken Tandoor with Butter Sauce and Bengali style mixed veg

My first attempt at chicken Tandoori without a Tandoor and without the food colouring. 
My oven may not hit 900F, but I did get it to a respectable 550F according to Taylor.
Verdict?
Amazingly good, easy to do, will be repeated.
The side dish was purple carrots, potatoes and peas cooked dry with cumin seeds.  Seriously good.
Both of these are going straight into rotation.
Recipe coming later in the extended post.

Chicken pot pie - fast

If you have ever had the pleasure of knowing an English person, you shall soon realise that as far as dining goes, anything encased between two sheet of pastry is good eats.  One of husbands first large shocks upon his arrival on this shore was that you couldn't simply nip into any shop and pick up a pie.
I admit one of the larger reasons for going to culinary school in the first place was to finally learn how to make pastry well.  An expensive lesson sure, but learn it I did.  The only problem?  I hate pie crust.

Seriously I do not like it flaky, I do not like it tender, I do not like pie crust at all Sam I Am.

The one way I can get away with crust for husband and a taste that I like is using puff pastry for the crust instead of pate brisee.  Of course one of the other benefits of culinary school was learning how to make a mean full or quick puff pastry dough.  I can paton and detrempe with the best of them when required, but on a weeknight are you gonna roll and turn, roll and turn, wrap and chill 4 or 6 times?  Uh...no.  Pillsbury makes a decent puff pastry but the fat of choice is margarine and me and margarine we just don't get along.  Just the word instantly flashes me back here.  *shudder*

Rather amusing that we finally realize just how true that ad campaign was.  If you are looking for puff pastry made naturally with all butter, look to the freezer case of your local Whole Foods for Dufour Puff pastry. Heaven in a package that stuff is.

The recipe I used to make the filling is based on an Alton Brown show I saw once. he makes his own curry powder mix with cumin seed, cardamom seeds, coriander turmeric, dry mustard and some cayenne.
You roast a frozen mixed veg mix in a hot oven with a little canola oil, sweat some aromatics like celery and onion in a pan and make a roux (just flour and a fat), add some chicken stock and milk and some of the curry mixture add the roasted veg and some poached chicken pieces (I poached them in the chicken broth I was going to use for the roux) and bung it all in a baking dish top it with circles of puff pastry and then bake it in the oven until the circles of puff are cooked and nicely browned and everything else is nice and bubbly.

Now I know that curry powder in your chicken pot pie may not appeal to you, but if you happen to be a child raised in the 70's and you remember having Lipton Giggle Noodle Soup as kid you will remember the taste of chicken and curry seasonings.  Okay, maybe that wasn't a great example for some of you, but I can assure you this is one delicious and FAST chicken pot pie.  You can have this on the table in about 30 - 40 minutes and that my friends is some good eats.

Live Blogging: The Five Hour Roast Duck

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome, today we are live blogging a cooking event.
Since I am working tomorrow morning, I consider today to be my Sunday and in honour of the Sunday roast tradition I will be live blogging cooking my Five Hour Roast Duck.

The recipe idea came from The 150 Best Recipes which is a book I can HIGHLY recommend.  It is put together by Fran McCullough & Molly Stevens (of All About Braising fame, another book I can recommend highly as well - Hey if it can win a James Beard cookbook award it can cook its little pages off) as a compilation of what they consider to be the best recipes of the past decade culled from cookbooks, magazine, newspapers, fliers, the Internet, top chefs and unknown cooks.  I can get right behind that credo since I can tell you that just because someone wrote a cookbook, famous chef or not, doesn't mean the recipes will work, nor does it mean that you will like them.
Already from this book I have culled about 20 must make recipes for either my classes or for us at home.  This one was on my list.

And since it is my Sunday, the laundry done, the dog washed, a fire about to be lit in the fireplace, even though it is 50 degrees out, I thought I would live blog my cooking event.
Sit back, hit the refresh button, we're making some kick butt duck.

I picked up my duck at Whole Foods yesterday and unpacked it from the packaging and placed it on a plate in the fridge overnight to better dry the skin. This morning I cut off any major flaps of fat and emptied the giblets and neck pieces.

I've had my lovely sous chef, aka husband, assist with salting and peppering the inside of the cavity.

I have already decided to make the Chinese alternative method for my duck so I chopped 8 cloves of garlic, 1 bunch of scallions and peeled and chopped two good knobs of ginger to stuff inside.

I decided to leave the wing tips attached as they were tucked nicely underneath and carefully I cut dozens of holes in the duck skin on an angle so as not to pierce the meat underneath.

Into the oven it went, breast side up.  Up to the bar fridge I went.  Now I am going to imbibe this lovely Cassis Lambic in my favourite glass while the timer ticks down the first hour.

I hope to use my giant measuring jug to figure out just how much fat will render out of this duck in the five hours.  Shall we take bets now?

**Update: Hour One

The timer.....

This is the colour after an hour of roasting time.

I pour off the fat, not too much for the first hour, after all this is low heat at 300.

Again I pierce the skin several more times and flip it over so that the breast is now on the bottom.

The smell has a faint hint of Chinese restaurant.  Back in the oven it went and the timer is set for another hour.  I'm back to buy more music off iTunes and finish my beer.

***Update Hour Two

The duck is taking on a nice amber hue, but I am sure the final hour will really bring it home.

Again I remove it from the oven and pour off the fat, still not quite 2 cups.

I prick it full of holes again and flip it back on to it's back, breast side up while the Beagle hopes and prays that I slip and drop the sucker right on the floor.

Quietly I slide the tray back into the oven, the smells are beginning to get more intense.  The beer finished, I'm off to have a nice soak in the tub with a LUSH bath bomb for the next 55 minutes until it's flipping time again.

****Update: Hour Three

Ah, nicely showered, hair brushed out (no easy feat) and the timer has beckonned yet again.
Out comes the duck.  As you can see the skin is beginning to blister now, most of the fat has rendered with only the occasional pocket here or there still to drain.  I poke and prod at these the most with the knife.

The duck still hasn't rendered two cups of fat yet, but i bet it will be there by the end.

I flip it yet again and put it back in the oven for hour number 4.  These are the ingredients for the glaze that will be brushed on for hour five.  Right now it is equal parts Hoisin sauce, Soy sauce, Sesame oil and honey, but I will taste it in an hour and decide if it needs a bit more soy for saltiness.

And I turn my attention to the carrots that will accompany the duck.  Ina Garten had an interesting idea in her new Barefoot Contessa At Home for glazed carrots with ginger, honey and orange.  Since this mimics a few of the flavours of the duck I am going to try these.  Now husband is a purist when it comes to his carrots, he generally will only eat them mashed with a bit of butter and pepper.  I am hoping for the best at the moment.  I will also take this moment to add that Ina's recipes are always, ALWAYS faultless.  Trust in Ina is my mantra.

Now it's cocktail hour.  I'm off to make my version of a Manhattan.

*****Update: Hour Four

The smell in the house is now overwhelming and my stomach is letting me know that it wants some of that duck.  Now.

I've pulled it yet again and flipped it for the last time.  I glazed it with the mixture I mentioned after I added a bit more soy sauce.  I even sprinkled the top of the duck with a bit of salt.  Back into the oven it goes for its final hour.  I may pull it halfway through and give it another lacquer coat of glaze.

The carrots have been started, butter, minced ginger and water in a saute pan to the boil, add carrots, cover and simmer 5 - 8 minutes.

Back to that Manhattan

See you in an hour.

*****Update: Hour Five - The End

Oh the duck...oh my..the duck.  Here is the gorgeous lacquered goodness as it exits the oven and rests on the board.

As you can see by this first slice, this is no dry duck.  Five hours and it is gorgeous.  It falls apart and my Mom who adores Moo Shi, because it is finger food, would just love this duck with a few pancakes and some plum sauce. The skin is a crispy skin lovers dream.  Not, of course, that I know ANYONE who would eat duck skin.

Here are the carrots in their mid stage in the pan.  They cooked covered five minutes and then uncovered for about 10 until the liquid evaporated.  In went half a cup of orange juice, 1 teaspoon of orange zest and some more salt and lots of pepper.  I am happy to report that husband loved these.  In fact, he said that it is what made the duck for him. They had many of the same flavours and just enough sweetness to counteract the salty soy and hoisin.   My husband is also like Jack Spratt, he cannot eat fat and can dissect a Filet mignon like no ones business to extract every iota of fat, he loved this duck.  Everything in the end was rendered away.  Two cups total.  A pint is a pound the world around they say.

I can highly suggest this treatment if you have a long afternoon and a hankering for duck.  the payoff is worth it.

The beagle is now on official cleanup patrol.

Duck Out.

Chicken Stock: The basics

Fond. 

Fond = Foundation. 

Every building needs a solid foundation and every dish needs to start with one as well.  Sure we live in the 21st century where rotisserie chickens from the local store can stand in for the roast chicken on a busy weeknight and you can **shudder** buy vegetables pre cut so you don't have to hurt your wee little fingers cutting celery and onions when you get home exhausted from another day on the gerbil wheel.  Yes, I can buy fairly decent chicken stock in the store.  Organic and Free Range if I so desire, but I can promise you with my hand held on my heart and no toes and fingers crossed...homemade chicken stock is easy to make and it tastes oh so, oh so, much better than the stuff in the box or the can. 

Last Saturday I had a class at CSCA on Soups and Stocks.  We were able to talk about the theory behind making a stock. The problem with a three hour class is that we really don't have the time to make a proper stock.
I decided that since I really needed to restock the freezer myself I would record the steps as I developed the stock and leave it here for a reference.

When it's time for me to replenish my freezer I raid the larder and see how many necks and backs I have stashed away while cutting up whole chickens.  I had a turkey carcass from Thanksgiving.  I had a package of wings that was getting a wee bit freezer burned. I've bought backs and necks before at Whole Foods so I stopped by and picked up 10 pounds at about $1.00 per pound.  All in all I ended up with about 15 pounds of bones. 

Now there are two schools of culinary thought when it comes to chicken stock.  White stock is made using bones that are not browned first.  You can make white stock with either veal bones or chicken bones, I wouldn't recommend making it with beef bones.  I'm firmly in the brown stock camp.  I like the extra flavour, colour and richness that roasting the bones brings to the table.  It also has an added advantage of less scum to skim off, but we'll get to that later.

I lay all the bones out on sheet pans and roast them for 30 - 40 minutes at 350 being careful to turn them once or twice and ensuring good colour without burning.  When they come out of the oven I pour off the fat that has rendered and let it settle.  If anything good appears on the bottom I siphon it off, but most of the time this is 100% fat.  AS you can see I was able to siphon off about 2 cups right off the top.  Of course once the stock is made, strained and chilled, a bit more fat will rise to the top to be skimmed off, but this early step of roasting the bones also makes it a bit easier to get rid of the fat.

I set up my giant stock pot on my lowest burner. 

I know my range very well and out of the 6 burners i know the middle front burner gives me the most control when I need to simmer for a long time.  As extra insurance I use a flame tamer ring as well.  This assures that I can walk away for an hour or two at a time and not worry about the finding the stock that was gently simmering now at a rolling boil.  In go the bones.

While the bones were roasting I also prepared my aromatics.  The general rule of thumb is 20% aromatics by weight to the amount of bones you have.  In this case, 15 pounds of bones means 3 pounds of aromatics.  The other general rule is for the aromatics themselves.  50% onion, 25% carrot, 25% celery.  I had onions and I also had leeks so I used them both.  Be sure you clean your leeks throughly first to remove any sand.  When I cut one of the leeks open to wash it I loved this cool pattern inside.  Peel your carrots, peel your onions.  I know plenty of people will say why bother, but I believe it lends an off taste to your stock.  This is not the time to clear out your vegetable drawer and throw in the dregs of the contents, limp celery, molding onions, a red onion piece that had been hiding in the back that is now sprouting.  You are making your stock, your foundation, the liquid you are going to use to make gorgeous soups, sauces, stews, braises, tortellini en brodo, now is the time to buy gorgeous produce and treat it kindly.
I also set up my bouquet garni to add.  A traditional set of aromatics, bouquet garni is comprised of parsley stems, thyme stems and bay leaf.  You can add other items depending on your fancy.  You can be all anal and wrap it in cheesecloth and tie it with kitchen twine to remove later, but my feeling is since you're dumping this whole lot later to strain it, why bother?

I do roast my aromatics as well to add a further dimension to the stock with their caramalized flavours. Once I am done with the sheet pans I also pour some water on them and use a spatula to scrape up any browned bits to add.  Now I cover the bones with cold water.  Always start with cold water, bringing the temperature up gradually allows the bones to release all of the collagen and flavour slowly.  It gives you less impurities in the stock.  Turn on the heat and put the lid on slightly askew to allow it to begin. A scum may form on the top.

Skim this off and discard it.  I have found that the pre-roasting of the bones tends to reduce the amount of scum you need to remove.  Once the scum stops forming, add your roasted aromatics and your bouquet garni. Now you can almost walk away for a few hours.  Set your temperature so that you are at a very gentle simmer.  Ocassional bubbles should be breaking the surface, but no rolling boils are allowed.  Allow the stock to simmer like this for 5 - 6 hours.  Sure it takes time, but you don't have to babysit it.  Just check in once in a while and verify the level of simmer.

Once it is ready I ladle off as much as I can from the top and put it in the large lexan storage containers I have and then I pour the rest through a collander lined with damp cheesecloth which is placed over a bowl.  This ensures I get everything out of the aromatics and the bones as I press down hard with a wooden spoon.

The key now is to get this stock out of the danger zone.  The danger zone is 41 - 140 degrees.  In that temperature zone bacteria multiply at a furious rate.  Tossing this much hot liquid straight into the fridge would also increase the internal temp of your fridge effectively putting everything in it into the danger zone as well.  What I do is use freezer packs, you know, the ones you use in your cooler.  I toss them in a ziploc, squeeze all the air out and toss them right into the stock.  In about 40 minutes or so they are cool enough to now cover and put in the fridge. 

After they chill overnight the stock is removed, the fat skimmed off and it is portioned into containers for the deep freeze. 

Months of goodness ahead.

Is it cold out? Then it must be a stew

Last week in Kitchen Basics I was working with my 11-13 year old crowd on moist heat cooking.  I already mentioned the Leek and Potato braise we made.  The other recipe was one that I adapted from the new Cook's Illustrated The Best 30-minute Recipes, Corn Maque Choux with Chicken and Kielbasa.  There are a few sources I always turn to when planning my classes for create a cook and Cook's Illustrated is one of them.  Why?  I never, never, never have to test the recipe first.  It always works first time out.

The kids all loved it and as I was tasting their dishes for seasonings i realized that with a few changes his majesty, the husband, might like it as well.
This dish can literally be on your table in about 30 minutes, depending of course on how quick you can prep everything.

Maque Choux (pronounced mock shoe) is a Cajun combination of corn, bell peppers, tomato and onion.  A little twist on the holy trinity (onions, celery and bell pepper) and a slight jiggle of New England Succotash (Corn, Lima beans and Tomato).  Both of these dishes owe a debt to the Native Americans introduction of corn into the cooking arena.  One thing I can't figure out is why many recipes call it Corn Maque Choux when it contains corn by default. 

When husband finally finished his plate, he deemed it better than Chicken and Chorizo and has requested this to be put in the rotation of dishes.  I can't disagree with him, it really was very good.

You'll need some boneless, skinless chicken breasts, some chorizo (Portuguese wet is okay for this, but Spanish dry would be good as well) cut into 1/2-inch half moons and some frozen corn, 1 pound of each. One onion and one red bell pepper(or green or yellow or orange), diced in 1/4 inch dice. 4 (or 6) cloves of garlic minced up fine together with some kosher salt and 2 - 3 tsps thyme leaves. 2 cups of decent chicken stock, of course homemade would be best, but use whatever stand by you stick by.

A heavy Dutch oven, some olive oil, medium-high heat.  Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and add them.  Brown them on both sides and remove to a bowl or plate.  You will be cooking them more later so colour is all you want here.  Once they have been removed, assess the level of oil in the pan and add more if required.  Toss in the onion, chorizo and bell pepper and saute until the onion gets soft and translucent.  While this is sauteing, puree in a blender the chicken stock and half the corn.  When the onion is ready, add the garlic-thyme mixture and stir it around until it is fragrant.  Now pour in the corn-stock mixture form the blender and stir.  Add back your chicken and any juices.
Stir well, pop the lid on and cook over low heat at a nice simmer for 10 - 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken.  Once the chicken is cooked, pull it out and either shred it using two forks or just roughly chop it up, add it back to the Dutch Oven, add the rest of the corn, stir and taste for seasonings.  Add salt and pepper as desired and cook until the corn is heated through.

Serve it with some nice biscuits or maybe over brown rice.

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.

GardenFork.TV

A few weeks ago Eric over at gardenfork.tv dropped me an email and told me that he was going to create a video of him making my Chicken Vesuvio recipe, it would appear that he has made good on his threat promise. 
Eric films his world and puts it out there for everyone to see, recipes, garden issues, a little of everything. If you have the time, take a look at his video on tomato hornworms.  Nasty, nasty little buggers.

A couple things Eric:

1st: It's Boston Eric, East Coast, definitely not the Midwest.
2nd: It's pronounced boosh.
3rd: I would have deglazed with white wine and mounted with the butter off the heat, but hey, that's just me.
4th: The puppy....so cute!

Go on, have a look.