Cure for the Common Chicken

I found a magical way to roast a chicken. Like most of my cooking, this was discovered by chance and Brownian motion.

Inside roasted

Take one chicken. Take the gizzards and such out of the body cavity and cut the backbone out. These steps can be achieved with a sharp, heavy knife, kitchen shears or the nice butcher man.

In a large bowl mix some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, your favorite herbs, salt and pepper, and some wine. (Hey, isn’t that just a vinaigrette? Yes’m, it is!) Place the spineless chicken in the vinaigrette, and let it sit marinating for 30-45 minutes, turning every so often.

Oven on broil. Place chicken, butterflied open, breast side down on a broiler pan or cooking sheet with a wire rack inside. Broil until the inside of the chicken is well browned. Usually if you start to smell a wonderful aroma come out of the broiler it’s pretty well done. Take out the chicken flip it over. Turn the oven to 350 degrees. Slide chicken back in after slathering the breast side once more with vinaigrette. Set the timer for 1 hour. Walk away. Enjoy your loved ones. Play canasta.

Timer goes off. Get chicken out of the oven. Let it rest 10-15 minutes, then carve her up!

It seems to come out with crunchy skin and moist breast meat every time.

Su Casa es mi favorito

Portland is known for its food carts. I have a favorite right now. It’s tucked into the lot of an abandoned gas station just south of Burnside on SE 82nd Avenue. It’s called Su Casa. I habitually go down there for two pastor tacos at $1.25 each. It’s great food!  They also have lengua, cabeza, carnitas, carne asada and Saturdays and Sundays even menudo. They also make burritos and tortas and sopas. Try it you’ll love it!

 

My favorite

Down the rabbit hole of French cooking

I have been blessed the last few months with working at the Portland Farmers Market for Spring Hill Farm in Albany,OR. They provide incredibly beautiful organic produce. If you visited Nancy‘s blog, you’ve definitely seen what she can do with some of the veggies. That box of turnips at the end of last years’ market nearly threw her for a loop.

Well, I always come home from the market with a lot of food ideas in my head. Wandering all the stalls, I’ve bought sausages, buffalo, even yak meat. Everything is as fresh as it can be and organic to boot. Carrots taste like carrots not like really hard potatoes like those at the mega marts. So, it’s easy to get inspired.

This week, the sorrel tasted amazing, tart and lemony and piquant. Taste buds were on full alert. I was thinking game and when Nance suggested getting some rabbit for dinner, I thought that would be great. I thought of a rustic rabbit stew, with fingerling potatoes and some of the marvelous Treviso(full name is radicchio rosso di Treviso), that looked like giant roses on our display at the market. About a year ago, I downloaded a recipe for lapin a la Dijonnaise from Daniel Boulud. Well, I figured if I was going to fuck up a recipe, it might as well come from a great French chef, non?

I also picked up a dried sausage from Olympic Provisions stall. It was a Spanish style Salchichon, with subtle hints of clove and cinnamon and nutmeg. It was sooo tasty that I couldn’t pass it up.

On to the ingredients. I’ll bold those from the market.

Braised Rabbit with mustard

4 rabbit rib sections ,halved(I suggest a meatier cut or a whole rabbit cut up, but these were on sale)
10 or so leaves of sorrel
1/4 pound mushrooms, I used shitakes, but chanterelles or, heavens to betsy, morels would suffice
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 shallot, also sliced thin
garlic, sliced
flour
salt and pepper
1 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
mustard seeds
olive oil
2 dry bay leaves, one if fresh

½ pound of fingerling potatoes, sliced in half lengthwise
¼ Olympic provisions Salchichon , medium diced
olive oil
butter
salt and pepper

1 head of Treviso
olive oil
1 Meyer lemon
salt

The Rabbit

Salt, pepper and lightly flour the rabbit pieces. In a large heavy pot, heat some olive oil over medium high flame. Brown the rabbit in the hot oil. Add the leek, shallot, garlic a pinch of salt. Sweat the vegetables for about 5 minutes and add the mushrooms. More sautéing till the crusties are building up on the bottom of the pot. Add the wine and scrap up those goodies, the infamous deglaze. Add the stock and bay leaves and simmer covered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the Sorrel and mustard and mustard seeds,mix it up and recover, simmering another 25 minutes.

mustard and sorrel added to the braise

The Potatoes

Parboil the potatoes in salted for about 7-10 minutes depending on their size. I tried to pick similar size potatoes to ensure an even doneness.

In a heated saucepan big enough to lay you potatoes flat, add some olive oil and saute the sausage bits til they render their fat. Add the potatoes cut side down into the oil and add a pat of butter. Let them fry this way for about 5-7 minutes. Take the potatoes and crispy sausage bits out of the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. (I didn’t even do that since the sausage flavored them already.)

The Treviso

Quarter the treviso, lay the quarters face up on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Into a 350 degree F oven for 5 minutes. Take them out and squeeze the meyer lemon over the top.

Plating

Take the rabbit pieces out of the braise and reduce the liquid if necessary. Treviso down, potatoes down, rabbit down and ladle some braising liquid with the goodies in it over the rabbit.

You could do this recipe with chicken if the thought of eating rabbit makes you squeamish.

Risotto Trek

Risotto…The final frontier…These are the herculean tasks of cooking. The never-ending mission to spend years trying to perfect the difficult techniques of Italian chefs, who jealously guard their secret recipes…to boldly do the impossible….

Ahem…bull pucky…
Risotto is a beautiful dish. It can stand on its own or just accompany something else. It can be simple or a vehicle for a million flavors. It can even be a perfect pasta substitute for the gluten intolerant. Also, though needing constant attention when cooking, it actually only takes about 30-35 minutes and is impressive on the table.

Here is what you’ll need:
Arborio rice-white wine-broth or stock-some flavor stuff… I know you want details.

This is what I made to accompany Nancy’s buffalo spare rib confit.

¾ cup of Arborio rice, it has to be a starchy short grain rice to achieve creaminess
1 quart of Nancy’s second run chicken stock, heated
1 cup white wine
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 good size Crimini mushrooms, sliced and chopped
the flesh of ½ baked acorn squash, scooped out with a fork
1 handful grated Grana Padano cheese
oilve oil
salt and pepper

Add some oil to a heated largish saucepan, and then the shallot finely chopped. A pinch of salt. Once the shallot has begun to soften add the mushrooms. Saute this for 5-6 minutes stirring every now and then. Add the rice and saute for another 5 minutes. Add white wine to deglaze the pan and reduce the liquid to about half. At this point, thou shalt not go far from the risotto. Reduce heat to a simmer.

Stock just added

 

Start adding a ladleful of hot stock to the rice. It should be just covered with liquid. Then stir. Repeat once the liquid recedes past the surface of the rice. Have a glass of wine handy and somebody to talk to in the kitchen. Keep adding stock when necessary, stirring vigorously from time to time. About 20 minutes in I added the acorn squash and stirred it in. This is where I salt and pepper to taste as you never know how salty the stock will be after cooking for a while. Give the rice a taste.

Added squash, nearing the end

 

If you need more liquid, just add water to the pot of heated stock. The end of cooking will result in rice that feels like a whole grain, soft with just a gentle tooth in the middle. Classic al dente. When you reach this point, add the cheese and stir until you have a luscious thick creamy risotto.

 

 

I’ve done risotto with fish stock and chunks of lobster added in the last 5 minutes. Or with fennel and onion and chicken stock. Or with truffles when I’m feeling especially flush. I suppose you could do a Cajun version with andouille sausage and crayfish and hog stock. But it will always be rice, aromatics, wine, good stock slowly stirred in bit by bit until the starches of the rice become creamy. Have fun! Boldly go where no chef has gone before….

 

Our finished meal

 

A walk to Wineville…

So, I’ve been glued to this computer all morning and, all of a sudden, the sun is out in Portland. I want to get out of my corner and see the world. After a slice of vegetarian pizza at Pizza Oasis, Nancy and I stopped by Kitchen Kaboodle on NW 23rd to pick up a new cutting board. 50% off Bamboo cutting boards so success was in hand.

As we stroll ever northward, there’s a tall fellow in Columbia rainwear and a hat standing on the corner of 23rd and Johnson. He looks at us and says “There’s a free wine tasting upstairs and its about to rain. You better get up there.” Who am I to refuse? He was right on all accounts.

Taste on 23rd is a well lit place, Tasteful and clean. And, gosh darn it, having a wine tasting of four small sustainable vineyards in various parts of Italy. ( I lurve Italy, but you know that already.) Here’s what we tasted:

I found the first two selections marvelous. The Verdicchio had a grassy smell, but delivered a mouthful of winey-ness. The Sangiovese was a bit of perfection and had a strangely beautiful cool red color that I’ve not seen before. Go see these people about wine if you’re in their neighborhood. I have a feeling that they know their shit.

 

Bake some bread, dammit!

A month or so ago, Nancy was making dinner and we had forgotten to buy some bread. Ken’s Artisan bakery, our usual purveyor, was closed. We had about four hours before dinner was ready so I decided to dust off my bread making skills and get down to it.

Nancy has an immense cooking library which I accessed to remind me of basic ratios for simple bread. Just old crusty baguettes, what mom called dago bread. (That word is to illustrate where I came from, not who I am. I luuuurve Italy with a passion.)

Here are the books you shouldn’t look at when trying to whip up a quick simple yeast driven bread: The Bread Bible by R.L. Beranbaum, beautifully and passionately written and painstakingly precise, but thick and overwhelming and superfluous to our task ; nor Professional Baking by Gisslen, also ultra informative but geared toward high production, also not to our needs.

Off to the internet just to get the stinking ratios of flour/water/yeast.

There is one thing more you’ll need, a pizza stone. I’m not an equipment whore, but this is something wonderful and can throw one back to hearth cooking without the hearth.

This is what I came up with:

1 package of dried active yeast

1 cup warm not hot water, but like bath water when you dip in and say “Ahhhh!”

pinch of sugar

3 cups flour

pinch of salt

In a nice size bowl, mix water, sugar and yeast. The sugar is to give the yeast a kickstart to its magic. In a bigger bowl, a little over 2 cups of flour and the salt. Excess flour is saved  for kneading and possible additions for the right dough consistency. Once the yeast has been happily munching in it bath, all frothy and whatnot for about 15 minutes, add it to the flour and begin to mix by hand. This is essential to having fun while making bread.

Just start pushing and pulling and folding and daydreaming of a good long shagging, until the dough becomes a  neat resilient ball in the bowl. No sticking, no chunks of flour, just smooth and stretchy…A tiny bit of olive oil around it and a towel over the top of the bowl, and to a warm place for it. Nancy has a copy of LaRousse sitting on two glass blocks sitting on the archaic wall heater, a perfect place for the dough to rise to double its size. This takes about an hour or so. Don’t get too drunk in this time as your work is not over yet.

Take the doubled in size dough and cut it into halves. Manhandle it until it resembles a baguette in size and shape. Nancy had a baguette pan so I  put the loaves into it.

Little diagonal slices on the top of each loaf makes it look ohso professional and helps it rise.

Another rising covered with a towel until the loaves double their size. About an hour.

Heat your oven to 375 degrees F, with the pizza stone on one of the racks

Once the loaves have risen, put them right on the stone in the bagutte pan or scatter some coarse cornmeal on the stone to prevent any sticking. 30 minutes later, your kitchen will be filled with a delightful smell and you’ll have a couple of baguettes for dinner.

Romancing the Sauce

This recipe has been my go-to, my-eat-leftovers-for-a-week, impress-the-folks staple. It had a long evolution in my bachelorhood.

It was right after my first divorce. (First wife is a high end chocolatiere in the Atlanta area. I would mention her name and that of her shop, but I think she wants to bury me in the past. So, Martha, if you’re reading this let me know if you need some mentioning.) I was heartbroken and losing weight due to my diet of cheap beer and Nyquil. My brother, Tony, took pity on me and bought me $100 worth of groceries. I was starving. I spied a jar of marinara and spaghetti noodles. Making that would take a minimum amount of time out of my self pitying. Boil some water and heat up the marinara, et voila, dinner!

Well, it tasted kind of bland. Next time I’ll add some ground beef, I says to meself. Nah, still not quite right. More garlic! Maybe some mushrooms. Hey, Eye-talian sausage might be good.

Okay, you see where this is going. After a year of adding and experimenting, I came up with a fool-proof meat sauce that is great on noodles, polenta, tucked into lasagna or slathered on a hunk of bread. Even my mother-in-law for a time, Jan, asked me for the recipe. I know everyone says they make the best spaghetti sauce. Just try it. If you don’t like it, pass the extra onto your enemies and you’ll have a few new friends.

Also, its simple and linear. No real fooling around doing crazy stuff.

1 pound of lean ground beef

1 pound of good quality Italian sausage, hot or mild

5 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 small can of chopped black olives

¾ pound of crimini mushrooms sliced

1 35 ounce can of whole tomatoes

1 little can of tomato paste

1 24 ounce jar of tomato/basil marinara

1 cup of the red wine you’re drinking

red pepper flakes

a couple of huge pinches of Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Brown the meat in a large heavy pot, breaking it up with a wooden cooking utensil. Add garlic, more sautéing. Add olives and mushrooms, Italian seasoning, pepper, salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes, more if you’re using mild sausage. Crush the tomatoes by hand into the pot (This is fun and can be messy. I’ve sprayed the wall with tomato innards at least 6 times a year for 24 years.) and add the can’s liquid. Add the tomato paste, marinara. Stir. Rinse the marinara jar out with the wine and into the pot with that. Stir. Simmer for 30-45 minutes. Adjust the seasonings.

You are now clear to apply the sauce in whatever fashion you please.

I served it over angel hair pasta with some Grana Padano shavings last night. The wine was a Gran Sasso Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2009

This sauce is big and meaty and satisfying. Not a wallflower it. I used to serve it on my birthday and torture my friends by making them watch “La Dolce Vita” one more time.

Let me know what you think.

I made it through a whole blog without an expletive. I am sooo fucking proud of myself!

How an incredibly mixed up octopus landed in my pot and became a delicious stew

So , while Nancy is gone, I’ve a few things to talk about. And the octopus is still thawing, so I’ve a bit of time.

Do not dis Emeril so much. Poor dude had to kiss some serious Food Network ass and still had to work his butt off to get eventually fired. Motherfucker got successful and you can’t blame him. And I ate at his restaurant at the MGM Grand and actually liked it. So I’m using his recipe for Portuguese Octopus Stew for a template for tonight’s dinner. He is Portuguese on his mother’s side from Masschusetts, y’know. Not really from New Orleans. Nuf said about that.

Another thing, I’m not a big one for measuring exactly while cooking. So anything in a neat bundle, can, bag or pinch. Sorry I can’t help you decide how much of one thing or another you might like. Use your discretion, it’s your gift!

I bought the octopus from Pacific Seafood on Powell Blvd. Had the most delightful interaction with the lady behind the counter. I only hope I am as red-haired and disjointed when I am her age. It is a well earned set of characteristics. Facts: One octopus, 4 1/2 pounds frozen solid.

All the accoutrements...

Then off to Pastaworks on Hawthorne to pick up real dry chorizo. Please, please, please do not use that soft Mexican chorizo for this dish. Reserve it for migas (a future blog). Good smoked dry chorizo, Spanish or Portuguese, has a flavor profile that is unmatched. Oh, and also picked up a can of San Marzano tomatoes (35 oz.) since were in the middle of winter here in the northwest.

Then to Freddy’s for the general stuff…Is this the time to list the ingredients?

4 pounds or so of octopus
1 big yellow onion chopped
3 garlic cloves sliced
two crumbled bay leaves
1 dried chorizo sausage
½ bottle of white wine
35 oz can of San Marzano tomatoes
1 pound of baby Yukon potatoes
1 can of garbanzo beans
a quart of Nancy’s chicken stock
red pepper flakes
coriander/cilantro
Italian parsley
salt and pepper
(secret ingredient: summer savory that I found in the pantry)

Thawed octopus (it kept trying to pour out of the bowl into the sink)

Thawing the octopus was the major time component. You could wait and put it in the fridge overnight or, like me, spend two hours with cold water drizzling over it in the sink. This octopus was fully cleaned, meaning the innards, eyes and beak had been removed. There are excellent videos on youtube about cleaning octopus if yours isn’t. Fishmongers should do this for you if asked. Once thawed put the octopus in boiling water for 5 minutes. Miraculous changes will happen. What was once a limp grey denizen of the deep becomes a pretty purple flower…with tentacles! Take the octopus out of the water and drain while you do the other stuff.

Parboiled octopus

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until they soften. Add the chorizo in about ¼ inch slices. When all starts making brown bits in the pot, deglaze with the white wine. Let that bubble and boil while you sip on the rest of the wine. (Actually, I was drinking a manhattan, but go easy on that at first youngster.) As the ingredients cook together, cut up the octopus in roughly two inch chunks and pieces. It’s a rustic dish and you don’t need to be fussy. This operation is made infinitely easier by the five minutes of par-boiling of said creature.

Onions, garlic and chorizo

Stewin' time

To the stewing liquid, add some bay leaves, a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika, the tomatoes, potatoes, garbanzo beans and stock. Oh, hee hee, and the chopped octopus. I almost forgot. Salt and pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I’ll add some more of these last three after cooking has gone for a while: 1) to adjust the flavor to my liking and 2) the red pepper flakes release different levels of heat depending on how long they’ve been stewing.

I’m notorious for looking in the pantry and putting that one more thing into the mix. This time it was a bit of dried summer savory. It had a nice tea like aroma and I thought what the hell? Couple of pinches, stir, simmer for the next two hours. Octopus needs to be cooked really fast or really slow. Did I tell you this was a quick recipe? Didn’t think so. Low and slow, Joshie. Low and slow.

Between stirring and tasting occasionally, this is the perfect time to refresh your wine (or manhattan) and write the damn blog.

About an hour and forty-five minutes into the simmer, add a handful of both chopped cilantro and chopped Italian parsley. This step I forgot to do to no detriment of the dish. Well, maybe…leftovers will be amended. I thought the stew too watery and Nancy suggested adding a bit of butter. Much akin to mounting the sauce in French cooking, but that is her wont, and actually great skill. And adjust the salt/pepper/chili flakes to your liking.

C'est fini!

Bring out the bowls and some crusty bread because the stew is ready!

We served it with a wonderful Spanish Rioja, Ugarte Cosecha 2009. $8.99 at freddy’s.

Remember, don’t fear the octopus as she is tasty.

Much thanks to Nancy for help, guidance and killer stock, Emeril for being Portuguese and the octopus for feeding us!

Brave New World of Applying Heat and Learning Knife Skills

After great deliberation, a few cut fingers and botched meals, I have decided to come from out behind the apron and blog about cooking. My dear Prima, Nancy(aka Jersey Girl in Portland, with her own magnificent cooking blog on typepad.com), persuaded me to begin writing down recipes that I cook. Her cooking is amazing, her training French and her enthusiasm for cooking and food endless. I love to cook as well, though my training was of necessity, with an epicurean appetite.

Of course, my early cooking influences came from television: the unbelievable Julia Child, Graham Kerr, and the Easy Bake Oven( which I might say caused quite the consternation for my father, worried as he was at my precarious pre-adolescent manhood). Never fear Dad!

My first cooking , at the age of five, was scrambled eggs made in a child size cast iron skillet as I stood on a stool in front of the blue flamed gas range. And burning my fingers on the hot caramel as I made popcorn balls at Xmas time. I quickly graduated to Kraft Macaroni and Orange(not cheese, y’know). An aside, I still own the very same Revere pot I used back then for mac and orange.

My food choices were pretty limited as a child and our family had a weekly regimen of  menus. Monday was pork chops (leathery) and apple sauce and pan fried potatoes. Tuesday was fried chicken(actually very good), mashed potatoes and gravy.  I can still make a great milk gravy that will kick your gravy’s ass. Wednesday was, well, Wednesday is kinda foggy for me, but Thursday was roast beef and roasted potatoes. Now, the roast beef I’m referring to was greyish and acquired a beautiful iridescence once it sat in the fridge a day or so. Friday, fish sticks and tater tots. Somewhere in there there was steaks and french fries which I dipped into melted butter and Worcestershire sauce. Yes, I know, the ultimate health food. Sundays, we went out to eat…

At this juncture was the beginning of my disagreements on food with my mother. I always wanted to try something new, but was forbade to order anything but a burger with pickles. I began to wonder if everything tasted so horrible at restaurants, why were they full of people eating all the other stuff on the menu?

After my parents had died, my cooking skills had not advanced beyond my 10 year old skill level. My brother, my legal guardian, would fill the freezer with a variety of Swanson pot pies  for me on his way to his girlfriends house for the week. In my loneliness, I decided to get a job. I became a busboy at El Conquistador Restaurant, a fine dining establishment in Sacramento. Half my motivation was spending money, accrued at $1.90/hour, and the other half was being fed once a night. As a 16 year old, it was a win/win.

I was introduced to Chateaubriand, and scampi and stuffed trout. Great glittering mounds of tasty nutrition! Yum!

Of course, the work was hard and long. The restaurant was attached to a hotel and I had room service duties as well. Stories to tell later…And every day off, I was called in to work. Lets face it, busboys were flakes, even then. I took to not coming home after school to avoid the inevitable call. I went out to dinner at all the other restaurants about town. Sweet hot pumpernickel bread, sweet and sour shrimp and chicken livers, frog legs! Holy Jesus fucking Christ! (sorry about the technical kitchen speak) Food was good! All of it! What fraptious joy!

Off to Berkeley for college. What’s a falafel? Why can’t I find a fork at this Ethiopian restaurant? I really like how Alice Waters puts together a plate of food. How do you work these chopsticks? You name it and I would eat it.

This was all a beginning in my pursuit of flavors and textures. A dance with knives and forks over three continents. The search for the perfect tiramisu in Italy. Knowing Chicago pizza so outshines New York pizza that they really shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath. Real Spanish tapas are purely delightful. Chorizo should not be greasy. Impala is a perfect with a pineapple based barbeque sauce. In New Mexico, the eternal question, red sauce or green sauce? Always order the house wine in Florence and you will not be disappointed. Rick Bayless kicks ass. As does Thomas Keller, in a refined explode your mind kinda way. Do not eat warthog ever again.

My brother gave me something incredible. It might have been my birthday or his. He and his wife at the time took me out to eat at a little restaurant in a strip mall out on Fair Oaks Blvd. Was it really Orangevale? I’m not sure. The place was called Bon Apetit. I ordered the lamb loin. Its beautiful pinkness sat atop foie gras and a beautiful red wine reduction was poured over both. It sliced like butter. And as it lay on my tongue, I felt strange and nearly out of body. The flavor and purity flew through me. I actually wept in joy. My macho 26 year old self was brought to tears by a forkful of food. Such beautiful food though! Thank you, Tony. Sorry I still owe you all that money you loaned me.

Okay, there are things I don’t like. Canned peas and Bleu cheese. I’ve never tried durian, but it seems a lot of work to be disgusted. Other than that, I will put anything in my mouth twice. It could’ve just been a bad preparation the first time.

Again, I thank Nancy for her dogged support in this. Yes, I will get my Oregon food handlers card. And I would be greatly remiss not to also thank my ex-wife, Tari, for letting me in “her” kitchen to cook from time to time while we were married. And thanks to all that have eaten my mistakes as well as successes.

Recipes and commentary on food to follow.