Mary Cooks Spanish Style Chicken with Saffron

The recipe I selected for Thursday's dinner was really more of a guideline. I knew I had some more chicken to cook and searched epicurious.com for ideas and found this recipe for Spanish Style Chicken. I used the same ingredients but in a different manner, making decisions as a cook to attempt to make the best meal out of the ingredients at hand. I also reduced the recipe from 8 servings to about 3. And engaged in other assorted aberrant behavior.

Mis en place

Ingrdients
1 (3 1/2- to 4-lb) chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces - I used two large breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped - I substituted shallot
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces - I substituted small sweet peppers, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons paprika
2 cups long-grain white rice
1 1/4 cups dry white wine - I cut this way back, even in my reduced proportion
1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes including juice - I used fresh cherry tomatoes which I pureed with the immersion blender
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
3/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
1 bay leaf (not California)
1 cup frozen peas (not thawed)
1/2 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives, coarsely chopped - I used the Spanish olives Gareth gets from Wegmans


Pat chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet (at least 2 inches deep) over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken on all sides, about 12 minutes total. Transfer chicken with tongs to a plate.

No bones = no surprises. Chicken cooked all the way through

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat from skillet and add onion, bell pepper, and salt to taste. Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 7 minutes. OK, here's where I deviated. I added the wine at this point, using it to deglazed the pan. I have always considered this an Advanced Cooking Technique, but it was actually quite easy. I turned down the heat a little and let the alcohol cook off the wine, then added the shallot and peppers as instructed. 

Even I can deglaze a pan

NOTE: I thought this was very chefy and was quite pleased with myself. When I told my counterpart of this great leap forward in my culinary skills, he looked horrified and said, "You cooked your veg in the glace from the pan?" Apparently, you should cook your veg in a separate pan and when you deglaze your meat pan, you add the glace to your sauce at the end. But, still, this is pretty far removed from the "Cut towards your chum, not towards your thumb" cooking advice I usually need.

The highly deviant technique of cooking veg in glace

Add garlic, paprika, and rice, then cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add wine and boil, uncovered, 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes with juice, chicken broth, saffron, and bay leaf. More deviance on my part. I decided to cook the rice separately. I did add the other ingredients (except the wine, which was added in the previous step). And I did use real saffron. We have some in the house, and I used it. But just a little. Making this the most expensive meal I have ever cooked, removing the grilled brie and Gorgonzola sandwich I cooked in goat butter a few months back out of the title position.

Nestle chicken in rice, adding any juices from plate. At this point, I just added my chicken pieces.

Sauce is cooking down

Cook, covered, over low heat until chicken is cooked through, rice is tender, and most of liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. I did let it all simmer uncovered until the sauce cooked down a bit - about 7-10 minutes. I also tasted it during this time and decided it needed a dash of cumin and a little more salt.

Remove from heat and stir in peas, olives, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover skillet and let stand 10 minutes. Discard bay leaf. I did this but lost track of time. When I came back, my peas were wilted.

Spanish Style Chicken with Saffron

Overall, I got points for the light, tangy, flavorful sauce and the olives but demerits for the sad little peas. They didn't really taste quite right in the sauce. My counterpart suggests using a mix of carrot and celeriac cut into matchsticks for the veg and to serve on a small bed of cooked cabbage with bread instead of rice.

Something Hot for a Cold Month

Earlier this month, I developed a serious case of The Dropsies. Things have been slipping through my fingers, sticking to my arms as I walk by, flying out of my hands. I've been bumbling through life this month leaving a trail of debris in my wake. Food, dishes, my iPhone, and (much to my chagrin) my favorite lens have all fallen victim to my increase gravitational force. While I am relieved that nothing was actually damaged, the dropping of the lens made me particularly skittish about things, and I decided I needed some time to find my internal balance, so I scaled back on things to give myself time to breathe. I still went to work, fed the cats, watched "Glee", but all non-essential activities were put on hold so that I could regain my grip, so to speak.

And now, ten days later, I have my center back.

Just in time for my counterpart to try his had at what we call Dominican Casserole. This is because the first time we had it was when a Dominican friend of ours invited us over when his family was in town. His mother made this amazing layered dish of plantains, ground beef, green beans, and egg. So when we got a cold and blustery winter-type Saturday instead of the 70-degree early spring the weatherman promised, it seemed like a fine opportunity to try it ourselves.

First, Gareth sliced the plantain and sauteed it in olive oil.

Plantains sauteed in olive oil

While the plantain was cooking, he made what can only be described as a pepper paste. He sliced up some jalapenos and green chilis and used the mighty Cuisinart Smart Stick food processor attachment to puree them with some garlic and white onion and leek. Then he cooked it for a few minutes on the stovetop. I tried some. It was hot.

Why my kitchen smells like mace

Brian Boru exhibits his superior olfactory senses

He replaced the ground beef with some finely chopped choice strip steak. 

Chopped steak

He then mixed the steak with the pepper paste.

Steak and pepper mixture

He transferred the plantains to a baking dish and then lightly cooked some green beans in the same pan with the remaining oil.

Green beans

He then layered the meat and green beans over the plantains.

Layers of plantain and steak with green beans in the background

For the egg layer, he used the immersion blender to combine a couple of eggs with some heavy cream, a spoonful of labne and some salt and pepper.

The egg mixture

He poured the egg over the other ingredients. 

Adding the egg

He then baked it all at 350 for about 45 minutes. It was served immediately and was delicious.

Golden and delicious

And, even though we spent twice as much on our ingredients as our Dominican friend's mother, we are still certain that hers is better, although our was still pretty darn good.

Nothing Says Love Like Pate

My faith strives to achieve a certain balance with nature. We cultivate a high regard for life, so when we take a life - whether plant or animal - it is imperative that we do not let anything go to waste as this shows a lack of respect for the life that was taken. My counterpart goes along with this, and as a result, I regularly get home made pate.

Pate is one of those fancy dishes that is actually easier to make than most people realize. It its simplest form, it is liver, flour, brandy, cream, fat, and seasoning. In keeping with the respectful aspects of my faith, my counterpart has expanded upon this basic theme, and now he uses a wide variety of giblets as the base, including turkey, rabbit, chicken, and anything else we have eaten recently. His choices for fat have included butter, bacon, duck grease, chicken fat skimmed off the stock pot, and rendered pig fat. He favors red onion and shallots and garlic along with salt and pepper for the seasoning.

It is also important to note that proper equipment is necessary for making pate. The main objective is to mix everything together into a paste, including the giblets. There will be casualties. Over the years, we've burnt out four immersion blenders and three food processors, and I think an ice blender in making pate. We are now on the mighty Cuisinart Smart Stick, and so far it is holding up.

First, you want to prep your veg - in this case, red onion, shallot, and garlic.

Shallot

Garlic

Red Onion

Prepped and Ready

Then, prep the giblets. To preserve the life of your kitchen gear, cut down the giblets into smaller pieces, and puree them in batches, transferring the puree to a larger container as you work.

Cut the giblets into small pieces

Puree them in small batches

And don't forget about the cat

The mighty Cuisinart Smart Stick

Add the remaining ingredients, paying close attention as you go. Pate is one of those things that is made by sight and smell, not by taste. Once you add the cognac, things will start to smell pretty good.

Heavy cream added before moving to a larger container

Separate the eggs as you will only need the yolk

Once things are transferred to the larger container, my counterpart switched to the immersion blender to mix the remaining ingredients. Use the blender to mix in each of the ingredients as you add them.

Mmmmmmmm cognac

Butter is our fat for today

Add a little salt

Add a little cake flour

Add a little olive oil

Add the veg

This is the right consistency

Pyrex or Corning Ware are excellent choices for baking pate. Line them with fat and bacon to help the pate release from the pan with it is done baking. We used butter and pancetta.

Lining the Pyrex

Pour the pate into the pan and bake at 350 until cooked through.

Mini-pate

To release the pate from the pan, place a plate over the top and flip it over. Set it down and let gravity work for you.

The pate is releaseing

Carefully remove the pan, shaking it gently to help the pate release. Serve with brie, chopped hard-boiled eggs, capers, and a baguette or water crackers.

Pate is served

Winter Roots: Kohlrabi

I remember as a child growing up in Green Bay going to the farmer's market and spending my allowance on any number of things. Thus typically included a kohlrabi that I ate on the walk home, skin and all. One of the neighborhood moms would peel it, slice it, and serve it to us with a little salt and pepper. Given its prominence in my formative years, I was surprised when my counterpart had never tried it.

Kohlrabi is one of those nice starchy, peppery root vegetables similar to a turnip. The name is German and loosely translates to "cabbage turnip". This is fitting as it tastes like the perfect blend of the two. It belongs to the same coniferous family as cabbage, cauliflower, and - my personal favorite - Brussel sprouts. It can be used in a similar manner in soups and sides.

It's also fairly versatile. It is more tender and less bitter than turnips, and not as forward as radishes, making it a nice choice for salads. If you want that crunchy peppery radish quality in your salad but without the pungency, kohlrabi is a good choice. The greens are also edible and provide an interesting note. A note, though, that the greens are similar to other vegetables in this family - kale, turnip, and collard greens. While not as bitter as these, there is a similar flavor and texture, so mixing with other more mild greens is recommended.

When cooked, kohlrabi has a wide range of flavors and textures, depending on how long you cook it. A quick saute slightly mutes the raw flavor, but a longer fry or oven roast brings out an unexpected sweetness. If you are using it as a side dish, having a mix of kohlrabi in various stages of the cooking process will yield a flavorful medley. It also mixes well with other roots like celeriac, turnip, and carrot.

If you're into root veggies during the cold dark winter days (and many of us seasonal eaters are), add this veg into the mix. Here are some recipe suggestions from Simply Recipes.

Homemade Pasta

One of the easiest things to make from scratch at home is pasta. The ingredient list is similar to pie crust - flour, fat and a little liquid - but unlike pie crust, pasta is forgiving, which gives you a lot of room to play around. And fresh pasta is infinitely superior to the dried stuff in the cardboard box, but also quite a step up from the stuff in the dairy case.

The basic recipe that my counterpart uses is the egg noddle recipe that came with the pasta attachment to our Kitchen-Aid mixer. He's committed it to memory, so he no longer bothers with the recipe. Or the Kitchen-Aid for that matter.

Start with a couple of handfuls of flour and a couple of eggs and mix vigorously by hand on a large cutting board. Incidentally, he uses the same board for pasta that I use for pie crust. Basic all-purpose flour is a good choice. You can add a little of another variety for a different texture. My counterpart has included whole wheat, buckwheat and oat at various times.






Add some oil, a little at a time, and continue kneading the dough.









You should have a little water nearby. Add the water until the dough is firm yet elastic and not sticky. At this point, you can also add some herbs and seasoning.














Roll it into a ball and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then roll and cut.



Now here's a secret. You don't really need any fancy equipment. You can roll it out on your cutting board and cut it with your chef's knife.






My counterpart was making orzo to go with my birthday venison on this occasion. The device he is using below is another quality find from Warehouse Restaurant Equipment in Green Bay.




Remove from the cutting board and boil.




Note that the fresh pasta will cook quicker that the dried stuff in the cardboard box. It will also hold a sauce better. If you have leftovers, you need to eat them within a couple of days.

Easy as Pie?

There are some who would say the term "easy as pie" comes from the ease at which one can make a pie crust from scratch. The simplest recipe I know comes from the Betty Crocker Cookbook Sixth Edition (circa 1986) and contains all of three ingredients: flour, shortening and a little ice water. Simple, but deceptively so. One wrong move spells disaster. I once made this pie crust with the wrong flour and was doomed. I was on a white whole wheat kick and had been getting really nice results with breads and other baked goods. In pie crust, however, the results I got could have been used to patch the roof.

So, when making pie crust from scratch, it is important to follow the recipe, especially if you are new to this. After a little practice, you get a feel for what the tolerances are, and you can deviate all you like. My counterpart puts egg in his crust.

Also many people fear the home made pie crust due to the potential mess. With the right  equipment, the clean up is a snap.

And, it really is worth the effort. The pre-made frozen crusts are a convenience, but once you fill one of them with a nice, made from scratch filling, all those additives in the crust really stand out. A few years ago, I was a judge for a holiday bake-off at work. All entries were to be made from scratch. One woman entered a really lovely chocolate silk pie that she did indeed make from scratch. Except for the crust. Next to her superior filling, the phony crust was obvious.

For this afternoon's pie, I turned to another reliable standby, The Joy of Cooking Cookbook (1997 edition) and made the Deluxe Butter Flaky Pastry Dough.

First, the tools:

In addition to my measuring cups and flour sifter, I have a pastry blender, a silicon rolling pin, a large plastic cutting board, and a pie mat. These are basics in making a pie crust without making a mess.

Next, lightly mix together:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (unless the recipe states otherwise, this is the flour to use)

1 tsp white sugar

1 tsp salt

Then add 2 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter. I cut mine into smaller pieces as it makes the next step easier.

There are a couple of approaches to blending the cold, hard butter into the flour mixture. You can use a butter knife, but this will take a good bit of time and is a bit of a pain in the ass. Or, you can use the pastry blender. A poor one will not make much difference. A good one will make all the difference in the world. If you're serious about baking and doing things from scratch, this is a sound investment.

The concept is to break up the butter into small pieces that are coated with flour without softening the butter too much. A chopping motion is very effective. You should end up with pieces about the size of peas.

You should have 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons ice-cold water nearby. Drizzle the 1/3 cup into the dough. At this point, I prefer to work it by hand, which I readily admit is a tad messy. Keep it in the bowl and the mess is contained. Also do not do a full-on knead like you're making bread. The objective is to just get things to stick together - any heavier working changes the composition of the flour, and your crust will be nothing better than subflooring material.

Once you can form a ball with the dough, you're done. Clumps of butter are desirable here.

Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes before rolling it out. You can set it right in the refrigerator, or wrap it in plastic wrap first. While it is resting, prepare your filling.

A big help in rolling out a pie crust (or any other dough) are a silicon rolling pin and a pie mat. The dough won't stick to them the way it will to other surfaces, and these items are easier to clean that a wooden rolling pin and your countertop. Plus, the pie mat has circles that correspond to common sizes of pie plates.

So, ideally, your ball of dough will roll out into a perfect fit for your pie plate.

Even if you have superior tools like these, you will still need some flour. My preferred method is to drop a small handful of flour on top, flatten the ball slightly, flip it over, and repeat. This covers the surface area of the dough and the mat. Roll the dough out from the center to the edges until you have enough to cover the surface of your pie plate.

I got my dough just about evenly rolled to the corresponding circle for my pie plate. Just to make sure, this is also a good visual technique.

There is also a trick to getting it from the pie mat into the pie plate. I do not have photos as I was working solo. Basically, you place parchment paper over the rolled out crust. Then, place the large plastic cutting board over the parchment paper. Placing one hand on top of the cutting board, gently lift the mat off the counter top and flip the whole thing over so that the map is on the top. Place everything back on the counter top and peel the mat off of the dough. Gently flip it over again onto your pie plate with the cutting board now on top. Remove the board and the parchment paper, and the hard part is over. And you will notice that most of the flour is either on the crust or on the mat, not all over the counter or the floor or you.

Use your fingers to shape the dough into the plate, filling in any gaps. Then, trim the overhang with a knife and press the edges into the rim of the plate. And, you can do what my mother always used to do with the trimmings: lay them on a metal cookie sheet, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and bake until golden. These are a nice treat and a good preview of your crust before you serve it to others.

You can either pre-bake your crust or fill it right away. If you pre-bake it, you'll need to add weight to it to prevent it from bubbling up. You can buy pie weights if you like. These are just metal balls that fill a pie plate. Or, you can take another hint from my mom and just use a cup or so of dried  beans. Note that once the beans are used for this purpose, they can't really be used for anything else. Store them in a container with your other baking supplies until needed.

I made the filling and crumb topping from the Apple Sour Cream Pie recipe in my good old Betty Crocker Cookbook and baked as instructed.

Happy Long Weekend!

How to Bind Meat

I am admittedly a bit of a tourist in the kitchen. I wander around with my camera and take pictures of all the pretty sights but usually leave for more familiar terrain pretty quickly. My counterpart over at Very Chefy is a full-time resident and probably the Grand Marshall. He is responsible for the majority of food seen here and on my Facebook page.

With the acquisition of the mighty Canon 7D and my excitement to get familiar with it, we embarked on a joint venture this evening. We picked up a couple of Porterhouse steaks during last night's grocery shopping and decided to work on our meat binding and photography skills together.

Mis en Place

First, Gareth made a filling out of leek, shallot, blue cheese, and butter. The idea is that as the meat roasts, the filling melts and provides additional flavor to the meat. He used a rubber spatula to cream everything together in a large mixing bowl.

Then he cut the steak off the bones, taking care to ensure he had several large pieces of meat.

He layered the meat and the filling together until he had a pile of meaty-shalloty-cheesy goodness.

Then, using kitchen twine, he very carefully bound it all together for cooking. If this process looks a bit like macrame or crochet, it is similar. The trick is to create loops and to loop back on yourself, creating a large-weave, custom-knit netting around your meat.

Once bound, he seasoned it with a little salt and pepper.

With a nice pan-searing in olive oil, it was ready for a quick 10-minute roast in a hot oven. He placed the meat on a small rack inside a heavy pan for the roasting as with the rabbit and Frenched rack of lamb.

When the meat was roasted to his satisfaction, he removed it from the oven and transferred it to a ceramic plate to cool for a few minutes. Using kitchen shears and tongs, he carefully cut and removed the twine.

The meat was sliced and served with mashed potatoes seasoned with goat butter, leek, and shallot.

During this whole process, I took about a jillion photos. I'll post a gallery of my favorites in my Picasa gallery. Look for the link on my Facebook page.

Cooking vs Assembling

Today was the last straw. One of the cooking blogs I follow posted a recipe for kumquat pie. The posting included beautiful photos of the finished product, as well as of the kumquats being ever-so-gently rinsed and prepared according to the recipe. And, once these delicate little fruits have been cleaned and pureed? The next step was to dump in a tub of Cool Whip.

Cool Whip??

Why would anyone want to do that to kumquat? or any other food? Why bother procuring, culling, and prepping fresh fruit if you're then going to smother it in that?

It just seemed too bizarre.

Here's the ingredient list and nutrition information from Kraft's website. While it does now indeed contain cream (back when I was a kid it was called "non-dairy whipped topping"), that comes only at the very end. Right after water, hydrogenated oil and two different sweeteners.

So why do people do this? Why take shortcuts like this? If you care enough about food to even bother with a kumquat, why not take the logical next step and just make your own mousse. Or custard or pudding or whatever cream pie base you think goes best with kumquat?

This was especially irritating last month during Holiday Baking Season. When people are making food intended for friends and loved ones. And using things like Cool Whip, canned soup, cake mixes, frozen pie crusts and cookie dough, etc. This is especially inappropriate. If you are preparing what is essentially a gift, it should be your very best effort.

Many people like the idea of making good food for the holidays. Many people like the idea of making their own food at home. Many people think they are saving time by using pre-made ingredients. Making this stuff from scratch is not all that difficult. Plus it tastes better. And you are getting more real food and less nonsense.

Over the coming weeks, I'll be posting information on how to create the basics needed to make real food at home - things like stock, roux, pastry shells and other essential building blocks to create quality meals after a long day at work without loosing your mind and reaching for that can of cream of mushroom.

If there is something in particular you're interested in learning how to prepare, drop me a line at mary@verychefy.com.

Food - image from Wikipedia

Not Food - image from Kraft Foods