Chicken and Winter Vegetables

Prep: 15 Min
Cook: 1 Hr
Rready: 1 Hr 15 Min

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
3/4 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 or 5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Green beans
2 cups chicken stock
A tiny splash of vermouth or white wine
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. Season the chicken with additional salt, pepper, thyme, and cayenne. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Melt the margarine or butter in the skillet. Stir in the garlic for about 30 seconds. Stir in the onion, celery, and mushrooms, and cook until tender but firm.

3. Set vegetables aside, and cook the chicken breasts in the skillet 8 to 10 minutes on each side, until juices run clear. Set chicken aside.

4. Deglaze skillet with stock and vermouth, scraping up the fond. In a large sauce pot, mix in the potatoes and green beans and add the cooked vegetables and chicken. Pour in the deglazed liquid and fond from the skillet. Season with salt, thyme, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf, making sure the bay leaf is submerged in the liquid. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and some of the liquid has been reduced. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Personal Note: I just happened to have everything this recipe calls for in our remaining vegetable reserves for the week. It's proving an ideal supper for today--it's hearty, simple, and warms you up with heat and savory flavors. Would probably be good with crusty bread, despite having potatoes in it. No, really. I love carbs, ha.

Stir Fry: General Reference and Pointers

Vague Sense of Ingredients:
Sauce components (see directions below)

2 or 3 Tbsp oil (see directions below)

Aromatics:

2 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated or minced
1 cup onions, sliced

Vegetables:

Cauliflower or broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
2 or 3 scallions, sliced or minced
Bell peppers, sliced (I prefer orange, yellow, and red)
Carrots, julienned

Meat (or meatish component!):

Boneless chicken, beef, or pork, rinsed and patted dry, cut into chunks
Ddok, cut into chunks or slices

Barely cooked optional touches:

Water chestnuts, sliced
Bean sprouts
Bamboo shoots
Cashews

Directions and Loose Tips:

Whisk a mixture in a bowl to later coat the stir fry using a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce if you're feeling adventurous, Asian sauces at your discretion (I like fermented black bean, Szechuan, garlic, hoisin, orange, etc), and sugar. Optionally, you can add 1/4 cup stock and corn starch as a thickener as well.

Swirl 1 Tbsp oil in a wok over high heat. Add half the garlic and half the ginger, stirring, and cook about 15-30 seconds. Add the onion and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add broccoli or cauliflower and scallions and cook over high heat until it browns and becomes tender but not at all mushy, about 5-7 minutes.

Remove vegetables from heat, add another 1 Tbsp oil if necessary, and cook the other vegetables similarly quickly at high heat, grouping them by toughness so everything has the right texture. Remove.

Turn heat to medium, swirl 1 Tbsp oil, and add remaining garlic and ginger. Stir, the add the meat and/or ddok. Raise heat to high, stir meat once, then let it sit for 1 minute before stirring again. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat has lost its pinkness, 3-6 minutes.

If you're like me and make enough that it doesn't all fit back in the wok to coat with the sauce you've made, take a huge sauce pot and stir it together under low heat that way. Toss in the cashews and other barely-cooked optional ingredients (if using) to lightly toast them, then add everything including the sauce and combine. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve over rice. I use a rice cooker for this, because stir fry is too hectic (lots of abrupt, short but crucial timing steps) to be timing white rice perfectly the normal way.

Personal Note: This is loosely based on Mark Bittman's guideline recipe, with the things my father taught me interjected. I've spent something like a decade making stir fry, both bad (I've totally flopped a bunch of times on my own) and good (Tasty! Where it makes takeout seem like paying someone to make me mac n cheese--it can be that good and easy). Now on my own I'm slowly learning how to make it open-ended but foolproof. That's why I'm finally posting some sloppy go-to reference for myself, so I don't forget what I've learned so far.

A few things:

Make sure your meat is really cut small enough and has been patted very DRY.

Keep your wok HOT and use as little oil as possible to maintain that heat.

Simplify the sauce--at first I was putting a little of every kind I had in, and the results were very underwhelming, I guess because it all cancels each other out. So now I'm not afraid to make a stir fry that is a bit more one dimensional but with big returns on actual flavor, with one sauce the major component and maybe just a dab of a couple other complementary things.

And maybe most important of all, don't be afraid to do the vegetables separately based on "toughness" class--it seems frustrating, like it defeats the purpose of stir fry (simple, quick, zap-fast cooking), but it makes a huge difference. If you're not willing to do like vegetables with like, you may well end up with soggy onions and peppers but barely cooked cauliflower and carrots.

Which reminds--the worst thing is soggy stir fried vegetables. Err on the side of "al dente"-ish, toothy crunch. Bittman talks about parboiling the cauliflower, and I just don't see it. I like it with a faint crunch though. Besides, you want things tender but firm--how else will they stand up to being microwaved as 3 a.m. leftovers? ;)

Roasted Curried Cauliflower Florets

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, washed, dried, and cut into florets
A few whole cloves of garlic, peeled
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 F. In a small bowl whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, turmeric, curry powder, and salt and pepper. On a baking sheet or roasting pan, toss mixture onto cauliflower florets. Tuck cloves of garlic among florets. Roast for about 25 minutes or until golden and slightly caramelized.

Personal Note: This is a nice, slightly less typical way to use cauliflower for a super easy side dish with dinner.

Thai-Style Chicken Soup

A fragrant blend of coconut milk, lemon grass, ginger and lime makes a delicious soup, with just a hint of chile.

Whenever you have a roast chicken it is worth using the carcass to make stock. Remove all the skin from the remains of the bird and put the carcass into a large pan. Add roughly chopped onion, carrot, and celery stick, and a bouquet garni. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Skim off the scum and then simmer the stock for 1 hour. Strain through muslin (cheesecloth). Skim of the fat when the stock is cold.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
5 ml/1 teaspoon oil
1-2 fresh red chilies, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large leek, finely sliced
550 ml/18 fl oz/2.5 cups chicken stock
450 ml/0.75 pint/scant 2 cups coconut milk
450 g/1 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bitesize pieces
30 ml/2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 lemon grass stalk, split
2.5 cm/1 inch piece fresh root ginger, peeled and crushed
5 ml/1 teaspoon sugar
4 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
75 g/3 oz/0.75 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chilies and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the leek and cook for 2 minutes longer. Stir in the stock and coconut milk and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Add the chicken, fish sauce, lemon grass, ginger, sugar and lime leaves, if using. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes until the chicken is tender, stirring occasionally. Add the peas and cook for 3 minutes longer. Remove the lemon grass and stir in the cilantro just before serving.

Personal Note: My mom sent me this recipe. I didn't even use proper homemade chicken stock (I know--the horror! Don't tell my parents!); I settled for Le Gout-style chicken stock base. I also fiddled a bit with measurements, since I added ddok I happened to find at the Asian grocer's. The result was a thicker, less pale soup, kind of more like porridge or Asia's spunkier/more energetically flavored answer to shepherd's pie. It had a great balance of flavors--gently hot, savory, zesty/near-citrusy (thanks to the lime, lemongrass, and fresh ginger!), and sweet. Cozy-comforting like chicken soup should be, too. And sinus clearing to boot! Robert loved it.

I'm eating a bowl of it now. Good for a rainy evening.

Roast Pork Loin in Beer Sauce

Level: Easy
Yield: 6 servings
Times:
Inactive Prep: 9 hr 0 min
Cook: 1 hr 30 min
Total: 10 hr 30 min

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 (12 ounce) bottles beer (not dark)
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1 (3 1/2) pound boneless pork loin, tied
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Directions:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until tender and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, cinnamon and allspice and stir 1 minute. Add beer, mustard and honey and bring to boil (sauce will foam). Remove from heat. Puree in batches in blender until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Pour into baking dish.

In a large heavy resealable plastic bag combine pork, turn to coat, and marinade and seal bag, pressing our any excess air. Put bag in a baking pan and marinate pork, chilled, turning bag once or twice, at least 8 hours and up to 24. Let pork in marinade come to room temperature, about 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove pork from marinade; pat dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Reserve marinade. In a flameproof roasting pan heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown pork on all sides. Transfer to baking sheet with rim. Roast in oven for about 1 hour or until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 155 degrees F.

Transfer pork to a work surface/cutting board, reserving juices in roasting pan and discarding string, and let stand, covered loosely with foil, about 15 minutes. While pork is standing, skim and discard fat from pan and add remaining marinade. Deglaze roasting pan over moderately high heat, scraping up brown bits.

Combine pan juices and marinade in saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Mix butter and flour in small bowl until smooth paste forms. Whisk this beurre manie in, bit by bit, until sauce is combined well and thickened slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut pork into slices and pour sauce over pork.

Personal Note: Um. This is delicious and easy! ...Just takes time. Pork loin was on sale this week, so viva fall loin! Ha. Eat it with smashed Yukon Gold potatoes--they're ideal for the tangy sauce.

SO.GOOD!

Sicilian Eggplant Caponata

4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Stalk or so of celery, chopped (optional)
Handful kalamata olives, chopped
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp capers
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 or 2 tbsp tomato paste
1 or 2 eggplant, peeled, cubed, dried
Salt, pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes, fresh basil and/or oregano to taste (optional)
Toasted pine nuts (optional)

Dry eggplant thoroughly by salting cubes, tossing, and letting drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Squeeze and press excess moisture out with paper towel.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the dried eggplant cubes.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in another, non-reactive pan. Caramelize onions with celery for about 10 minutes over medium-high heat; add garlic in the last 1-2 minutes of caramelization. Add olives, capers, sugar and stir for another minute or so. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and vinegar; stir over heat until thickened. Add fried eggplant, combine well. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and fresh herbs. Top with toasted pine nuts.

Personal Note: Made this because Robert spied some eggplant at the grocery store and oohed and aahed; it was an impulse purchase (plus, it replaced the okra I wanted to make but isn't in season now for the fancy vegetable of the week). I have never made caponata before, but this looks and smells pretty good. I doubt it will be as delicious as the roasted eggplant and orzo dish I made last month, though...

This is an amalgam of the bevy of recipes I found scouring the internet, which explains why much of it is worded clumsily and has rough estimates for measures. It's interesting how wild the variations on this are...sometime I might try it with some anchovy, green pepper, or who knows what else. There's even a version with octopus!

I want to send it to my mom because she loves eggplant but dad hates it, so she never gets to eat it. People online claim caponata is a dish even people who dislike eggplant like. Here's hoping!

I don't really know how to eat this...it's sort of relish-y, but also like bruschetti topping. And it seems like it'd be tasty topping and stuffing a baked pasta dish, or maybe even on top of penne. Hmm...

Carbonnade a la Flamande: Belgian Beef and Beer Stew

When the cold season begins, so does the season for hearty stews. Known as Carbonnade a la Flamande, this Belgian Beef stew is made with dark beer and lots of onions. We found this recipe in Cook's Illustrated magazine, which is filled with great tips and explanations for the aspiring cook. Of note, the editors highly recommend using a dark beer or stout with this recipe, as is typical of European beers. Lighter beers just don't quite cut it with this stew. The recommended beers? Chimay Peres Trappistes Ale-Premiere, Newcastle Brown Ale, and Anchor Steam.

Serves 6.

Ingredients:
* 3 1/2 lbs top blade steaks, 1 inch thick, trimmed of gristle and fat and cut into 1-inch pieces. (Can use any chuck roast if blade steaks are not available.)
* Table salt and ground black pepper
* 3 Tbsp olive oil
* 2 lbs yellow onions (about 3 medium sized), halved and sliced about 1/4 inch thick (about 8 cups)
* 1 Tbsp tomato paste
* 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 tsp)
* 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
* 3/4 cup low-sodum beef broth
* 1 1/2 cups (12 oz bottle) dark ale or stout beer
* 4 sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 Tbsp cider vinegar

Method:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle postion; preheat oven to 300°F. Dry beef thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously with salt and pepper. On the stove top, heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke; add 1/3 of the beef to the pot. Cook without moving the pieces until well browned, 2 to 3 minutes; using tongs, turn each piece and continue cooking until second side is well browned, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer browned beef to a separate bowl. Repeat with second third of the beef and an additional 2 teaspoons of oil. (If the drippings in the bottom of the pot are very dark, add half a cup of the chicken or beef broth and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits; pour liquid into the bowl with the browned beef and continue.) Repeat again with 2 more teaspoons of oil and the remaining beef. Remove beef from the dutch oven.

2. Add 1 Tbsp oil to dutch oven; reduce heat to medium low. Add the onions, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and tomato paste; cook, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until onions have released some moisture, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are lightly browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add flour and stir until onions are evenly coated and flour is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in broths, scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits; stir in beer, thyme, bay, vinegar, browned beef with any of the accumulated juices, and salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a full simmer, stirring occasionally; cover partially, then place pot in oven. Cook until fork inserted into beef meets little resistance, about 2 hours.

3. Discard thyme and bay. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper to taste and serve. Can serve plain or over egg noodles, rice, or potatoes.

Personal Note: This goes well with par-cooked and then fried egg noodles with lots of fresh cracked black pepper, or really hearty, crusty bread. I also made honey glazed carrots, which went extremely well with the flavors in the stew. For dessert, serve some rustic apple dish that bubbles in a ramekin--Brown Betty or Pandowdy or Apple Butter n' Bread Pudding. A perfect hearty fall dish to make you rub your sweatered tummy. I love fall!

Braised Endive with Prosciutto

Adapted from All About Braising by Molly Stevens, found on Orangette blog

The original version of this recipe calls for browning the endive in butter, which helps to tame its bitterness, but with a feeble nod to my arteries, I have instead substituted olive oil for two-thirds of the butter. Happily, the end result does not seem to have suffered, and so far, neither have my arteries. For best results, choose endive with sleek, tight leaves and no bruises or discolorations, and opt for smaller specimens over large ones.

2 to 3 pounds Belgian endive
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs unsalted butter
4 or so thin slices prosciutto (about 3 or 4 ounces), cut crosswise into 1-inch-wide strips
1 cup good-quality chicken broth or stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
Coarse salt, such as Maldon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees.

Rinse the endive, dry them lightly, and remove their outermost leaves. If the root end is brown or looks dried out, trim it lightly. Cut each endive in half lengthwise.

Warm the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add as many endive as will fit in a loose layer, cut side down, and cook until the cut sides are nicely browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the endive, and cook them for a minute or two on the other side; them remove them to a large (9” by 13”) baking dish, arranging them cut side up. Add the butter to the skillet. When it has melted and is no longer foaming, add the remaining endive, and brown them as instructed above and place them in the baking dish. The endive should fit in a single layer in the dish.

There should still be a thin sheen of butter in the skillet. Still over medium heat, add the prosciutto to the skillet, and turn them gently but quickly to slick them with butter. Tuck the strips between, around, and on top of the endive in the baking dish.

Pour the chicken broth into the skillet, and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape the skillet to loosen any flavorful bits; then pour the hot broth over the endive and prosciutto in the baking dish.

Cover the dish snugly with foil, slide it into the oven, and braise the endive until they are very tender when pierced with a paring knife, about 35 minutes. Remove the foil, and baste the endive by spooning over any juices in the pan. If the pan is dry, add 2 Tbs of water. Braise, uncovered, for another 8 to 10 minutes, until the pan juices have turned a caramel color and have almost completely evaporated. Pour over the heavy cream, and bake until it takes on a caramel color, about 6 minutes more. Serve warm or at room temperature, with salt and pepper to taste.

Yield: 3 to 6 servings, depending on what else is on the plate.

Personal Note: This is so freaking good. I am not the biggest salad person--my favorite salads don't focus on the leafy greens and are more about the other stuff, like olives or awesome tomatoes or cheese--and like a typical Asian (even though I'm not ;) I love bitter greens braised or briefly sauteed. I know this dish is a joke health and "I'm getting my veggies!" wise, but I don't care. It's amazing, even if you don't bother with the caramelized creamy last step...

Cube Steak Parmigiana

Ready in 1-2 hours
Difficulty 3/5
Serves/Makes 6

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 cup saltine crackers, finely crushed
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano, divided
3 slices mozzarella cheese, halved
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 (4 ounce) cube steaks

Directions:
In three shallow bowls, combine flour, salt and pepper; beat egg and water; and combine parmesan, saltines and basil. Dip steaks in flour mixture and egg mixture, then roll in cheese mixture. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Brown three steaks on both sides.

Remove to a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Repeat with the remaining steaks, adding additional oil as needed. Bake, uncovered , at 375F for 25 minutes.

Drain any pan juices. Combine the tomato sauce, sugar, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of the oregano. Pour over steaks. Bake 20 minutes longer. Place mozzarella cheese on steaks. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and remaining oregano. Return to the oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Personal Note: Made this tonight during Robert's band practice to get rid of the cube steaks in the fridge. I've never heard of this and have no idea if it will turn out any good, but it's something to do, right? And super easy, if a little fake...

Meatloaf

For loaf:
Ground beef: usually around 4 or 5 pounds
Eggs: 1 egg per pound of beef for the first 3 pounds, and usually no more than 3 or 4 eggs total for as much as 5 or 6 pounds of beef
(Fresh) breadcrumbs: totally by feel
Onion soup mix (dry): 1 package per pound of beef for the first 2 pounds, and no more than 2 or 3 packages total for as much as 5 or 6 pounds of beef
Worcestershire sauce: again, it's a whim thing mostly
Jus/beef drippings (optional), if finished mix is still a bit dry
Ketchup: enough to coat the finished loaf and add a stripe down its middle

Vegetables, as much as you like of, say:
Potatoes
Onions
Carrots

Meatloaf's ratios are never the same each time, so you go by feel. Put the loaf ingredients except for the jus and ketchup in a huge wide washable bowl and goosh everything with your hands until it's the consistency you want. Avoid dry meat loaf--it's the easiest judgment mistake one can make, I find, and the results are nasty. If after you've worked it it seems dry and not congealed and smooth enough, add a bit of jus and re-goosh. It should look congealed and coated and smooth now--slippery like a seal, ha. Put it in a wide deep roasting pan like you would for a turkey, NOT a tight small loaf pan. You want lots of space around the meatloaf; it'll prevent it from overcooking and drying out. That extra space is also where you'll put all the vegetables you peel and cut to desired size, and the extra jus. Form the meat into a tidy loaf in the pan, coat it with a thin glaze of ketchup, put a stripe of ketchup down the center of the loaf, and surround the loaf with the veggies. Cook it for a few hours at 325 F until it seems done. It will smell great. Yum.

Chicken Tagine in Flat Bread

Chicken Tagine in Flat Bread

From The New York Times Jewish Cookbook edited by Linda Amster (2003).
From Sam Gugino.

Yield: 4 servings

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups boneless chicken dark meat (about 4 large boneless thighs), cut/torn into 1/2-inch cubes/pieces
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads crushed into 1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup small pitted green olives, halved
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/3 cup toasted sliced almonds
4 pieces pocketless pita bread or similar flat bread, each about 5-7 inches in diameter
1/2 cilantro leaves

1. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with cumin and salt and pepper. Cook the chicken for 5 minutes, stirring so that it browns evenly.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook for 3-4 minutes, until the onion softens and turns light brown. Add the saffron stock, olives, and lemon rind and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat the broiler.
4. Adjust the salt and pepper for the tagine if needed, stir in the almonds and reduce further so only a few tablespoons of liquid remain. Remove from the heat.
5. Brush one side of the bread with the remaining olive oil. Broil for a few minutes until it is lightly browned and slightly crisp.
6. Put each pita, crisp side down, on a 12-by-12-inch sheet of foil. Divide the chicken tagine among the 4 pieces of bread and sprinkle with cilantro leaves. Roll into a cone and secure the bottom by twisting the foil. Fold the top back to expose the top of the roll.

Personal Note: This is the first dish from this cookbook we've tried and we tried it tonight for dinner. Good sign! I think with this dish alone the book paid for itself in spades. This may well be the hands down most delicious thing I've ever made. No lie. Eat this and have a gastronomic orgasm. Seriously. It's extremely layered, with lots of subtle flowering on your palate of different undertones. And when you make it be prepared to have an incredible smelling kitchen; between the cumin-seasoned browning of the meat to the minced ginger to the lemon zest to the toasting of the almonds to the typical wonderful smell of that always-foundational step of cooking onions, your kitchen will smell better than anything you've ever known.

Like usual, the best way to get the most flavor out of the meat while browning it--a step that makes or breaks the flavor of most recipes that require it--is to get the cast iron really sizzling hot and then to cook the meat briefly (but at a very high temperature!). So take the recipe's first step with a grain of salt and brown the chicken the best way possible--hot (but not charred) and fast.

We used oval/rectangular sheets of naan and instead of broiling them we brushed them with oil as it says to and then put them two at a time on a flat cast iron griddle pan over moderately high heat to toast them. Then we each scooped some of what was in the deeper cast iron pan used to do the full dish onto our separate plates of naan and ate it with our hands (kind of scooping the contents up with the bread). If I was serving company then the recipe's directions for foil wrapping the rolls would make sense and I'd follow it faithfully.

It was SO GOOD. Yeah, likely the best thing I've ever made. So good I want to share it with everyone I meet, ha.

Labor intensively, we used the really good green olives from the market--the ones with pits in them. Only because they were what we had available leftover in the fridge. Yes, it was a huge pain to halve and pit each one, but I didn't really mind 'cause this recipe is tons o' prep work anyway and I'm the kind of person who loves that part of cooking (much more than the actual cooking, i.e., splatters and heat source step). Oh, and we omitted the cilantro 'cause yeah, I am not a fan. And used homemade stock (the recipe cites the guidelines for homemade stock elsewhere in the book) because yeah, we always have it on hand and it does make a big difference.

Yes saffron is expensive, but we are lucky and a downtown Indian grocery sells little bottles of it for surprisingly cheap (of course, it's likely not very high grade, and it comes from Spain. But we don't care, 'cause that's better than not having any at all :).

Chicken Piccata

Chicken Piccata

Season:
4 chicken cutlet

Saute in:
2 T. vegetable oil

Deglaze with:
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 t. garlic minced

Add:
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. capers, the drained Sauteed cutlets

Finish with:
2 T butter and lemon slices

Garnish with:
Chopped fresh parsley

1. Season cutlets with salt and pepper then dust with flour. Spray a paute pan with nonstick spray, add vegetable oil and heat over medium-high.
2. Saute cutlets 2-3 minutes on one side and then turn and sauté for 1-2 minutes with pan covered. Transfer cutlets to a warm plate; pour off fat from the pan.
3. Deglaze pan with wine and add minced garlic. Cook until garlic is slightly brown and liquid is nearly gone--about 2 minutes.
4. Add broth, lemon juice and capers. Return cutlets to pan and cook on each side for 1 minute. Transfer cutlets to a warm plate.
5. Finish with butter and lemon slices. Once butter has melted pour sauce over cutlets.
6. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Personal Note: The same deal as the previous recipe for Pomodoro. Same easy-as-hell method and seemingly complex, impressive results. My mom sent me both. I think she said they came from a magazine; Cuisine At Home maybe.

Chicken Pomodoro

Chicken Pomodoro

Season:
4 chicken cutlets

Saute in:
2 T. vegetable oil

Deglaze with:
1/4 cup vodka

Add:
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 T. lemon juice
The sauteed cutlets

Finish with:
1/2 cup tomatoes chopped
2 T heavy cream

Garnish with:
1/3 cup scallions, minced

Directions:
1. Season cutlets with salt and pepper then dust with flour.
2. Saute cutlets in oil. Transfer to a platter; pour off fat.
3. Deglaze pan with vodka away from the flame and cook until the vodka is nearly gone.
4. Add broth and lemon juice. Return cutlets to pan and cook on each side for 1 minute. Transfer to a warm plate.
5. Finish the sauce with tomatoes and cream. Heat through, then pour over cutlets.
6. Garnish with scallions.

Personal Note: Whenever anyone on Ask Metafilter asks the standard "I'm a young hipster with my first real on-my-own-and-really-equipped kitchen and I'm ready to start really cooking so I need easy but impressive beginner recipes that'll impress my friends and hot date" etc question, people always bring up this sort of basic deglazing-to-make-sauce entry. And my mom just sent me this particular one 'cause our oven doesn't work so I'm desperately resorting to any stovetop-only recipes I can get my hands on. Actually, the challenge of this restriction has made for some rewarding and fun summer cooking. She said my dad and her love this recipe, and added that it was super easy, which is clear just from reading it. I'm a big fan of deglazing as the simple easy way to make things taste better than they should be, so I'll be trying this one tonight along with The Best Recipe for sauteed okra and tomatoes. Maybe if I'm feeling ambitious (we just got home last night at 1 a.m. from a week-long trip to Rochester and Toronto, and I always feel a bit wilted after traveling) I'll even make some Sylvia's Peach Cobbler for dessert. We'll see.

Vincent Price's Chicken Curry and Baked Saffron Rice

Chicken Curry
From A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price (Grosset and Dunlap New York 1965, page 230)

Serves 6.

These curry recipes come from Reaj Ali, the Moslem chef of the Pierre's East Indian kitchen. According to him a curry is not really a curry unless you use coconut milk in it. It does improve the flavor, and we have found that with an electric blender coconut milk is easy to come by--once you have your coconut, that is! You can make a meat curry of this recipe simply by substituting three pounds diced raw beef, lamb, or veal for the chicken.

cooking oil or butter
garlic
onions
canned tomatoes
bay leaf
cinnamon
cloves
chickens
salt, pepper
curry powder
cumin
coriander
paprika
coconut milk
(see index)

Chicken:
Remove the meat from: 2 tender frying chickens, each about 2 1/2 pounds (or use 5 pounds of chicken parts). A boning knife is a big help in cutting the raw meat from the bones, and you might ask your butcher to order the proper kind for you. Remove the chicken skin and cut meat into bite-sized pieces. The skin, bones, necks, backs, and wings may be used to make chicken stock.

Curry:
1. In a heavy saucepan heat: 1/2 cup cooking oil or butter.

2. Add: 4 cloves garlic, chopped, 4 medium onions, chopped, and saute for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are golden.

3. Add: 2 whole canned tomatoes, chopped, 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 6 cloves. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add the chicken meat and cook over high heat for 10 minutes, shaking pan occasionally, until most of the liquid in pan has steamed off. Reduce heat.

5. Add: 2 teaspoons salt, 2 tablespoons curry powder, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon coriander, and 1 tablespoon paprika. Stir to mix the spices with the chicken meat, being careful not to let the spices burn.

6. Add: 3 to 4 cups water, or enough to cover chicken meat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 35 minutes.

7. Before serving add: 1/2 cup fresh coconut milk and heat gently.

Presentation:
The best part of curry is its presentation. It is always served with a rice, and with an assortment of condiments, each in a separate bowl or dish. This curry is served with Baked Saffron Rice, the recipe for which follows, and this suggested selection of condiments.

Curry Condiments:
chopped peanuts
Bombay duck
grated coconut
grated orange rind
candied ginger
white raisins
chopped fresh parsley
nutmeg
chutney
chopped hard-cooked eggs


Baked Saffron Rice

Serves 6.

rice
saffron
butter
onion
garlic (optional)

1. Soak: 1/2 teaspoon saffron in 1 cup cold water for about 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to hot (400 F).

3. In a heavy casserole melt: 1/2 cup butter.

4. Add: 1 onion, chopped, 1 clove garlic, chopped (optional), and cook for 3 minutes, or until onion is soft.

5. Add: 2 cups raw rice and stir until rice is well coated with butter.

6. Add the saffron and water and bring to a boil. Cover tightly and bake in hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove cover and stir to mix thoroughly.

7. Add: 2 cups boiling water, cover, and continue to bake for 15 minutes.

8. Turn off heat, fluff rice with 2 forks, and keep warm until ready to serve.

Personal Note: How cool is it that Vincent Price was actually super-cultured and into "the finer things in life"? He collected art, traveled the world, and amassed ethnic recipes way before it was fashionable to do so. The cookbook this came from is one of the gems in my parents' library--my mom did some research online trying to find another copy for me when I moved out, and discovered it's worth like 60-1o0 dollars! Anyway, this was the standard curry recipe my mom always used while my sister and I were growing up. She's branched out since then--she found an awesome one while I was in college that involves steeping spices in a tea infuser!--but I'll always have fond memories of this one. It's kind of savory and hearty in a way most modern authentic curries aren't. In a "good ol' days of 1950s-1970s suburban America" sort of way, even. Ha. And baked saffron rice?! You better believe it.

Scallion Lo Mein

Scallion Lo Mein

From Bon Appetit (June 1992) courtesy of Fred Mueller.

Yield: 4 Servings

7 ounces Chinese egg noodles
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, minced
16 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces

Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well. Rinse under cold water, and transfer to a bowl. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and toss. (Can be made up to two hours ahead. Cover, let stand at room temperature.)

Heat vegetable oil in a wok or heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add the onions; stir-fry two minutes. Add the noodles. Stir-fry to heat through and serve.

Personal Note: This is super good and we used to make it a lot but we tweaked it. It's been a long time since we did though, so I'm fuzzy on the details...it turned into something similar to that masterwork dish in Big Night with the crispy noodle top. I think somehow we put the noodles in a big, hot, oiled cast iron pan after doing the recipe as listed and somehow toasted it so there was this layer of crispy hot browned noodle. Then we'd cut into it like slices of cake or pie or paella; it would be crispy and coherently edged (a clean slice) on the top and bottom, with a softer, moister scraggly loose noodle-and-scallion innard tumbling out between the two crisp outer layers. It was really good; once one of us remembered it after all of these years we were all hopping on it. It's a very vivid memory of a very distinct dinnertime dish.

Chuck Wagon Stew

Chuck Wagon Stew

From Better Homes and Gardens Famous Foods from Famous Places: Specialty-of-the-house recipes from America's leading restaurants cookbook (1964, Meredith Press). Recipe from the chapter on the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park, Jackson.

2 pounds beef chuck, cut in 1 1/2-inch cubes
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fat
----
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 green pepper, cut in coarse pieces
1 cup beef stock, or 1 can condensed beef broth
1 cup water
----
6 small potatoes, pared and halved
6 small carrots, halved
6 small whole onions
3 or 4 stalks green celery, cut in large slices
1 cup fresh peas

Dust meat lightly with flour; thoroughly brown on all sides in hot fat, turning often. Add next 10 ingredients. Cover; simmer over low heat till meat is almost tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Add potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. Cover; cook 30 minutes longer. Add peas; cook 15 minutes more or till vegetables are done. Serves 6 to 8.

Personal Note: This, like the choucroute recipe, reminds me to wonder why I even bother posting exact recipes...we deviate so much from this it's funny. Timing is always approximate; you have to respond to your specific pot and how it's doing on any given day to get the stew's components cooked and the flavors blended to your liking. So yeah. Time's approximate like always. Just keep an eye out.

For the fat component, we use butter. We omit the flour coating step.

The most important thing about stew is browning the meat correctly; it's what gives stew its essential "stewy" flavor. You heat the butter and then turn up the burner way high (and also flip on the exhaust!). Don't add meat until the butter begins to really burn a bit--you want the bottom of the pan brown. For real. Then you add the meat in parts, making sure the pieces aren't overcrowded in the pot. Brown the hell out of one side of each piece 'til it's very dark--heat needs to be high so you achieve this quickly (instead of overcooking the meat at a lukewarm temperature, thus resulting in undesirable mushy grey chunks). Then do the same to the opposite side (I use long-handled tongs to flip meat, but a wooden scraper would do too). Do some of the other sides briefly and then scrape all of the pieces around a bit, to coat them in the developing dark fond collecting at the bottom. Quickly pluck out these pieces and set them aside on a platter and repeat the process with the next small batch.

This part is the most important, and it'll be crazy steamy and hot for a bit, and you need to watch what you're doing. But it doesn't take much time, and the stew meat will be gorgeous. The gravy too. Really, this makes all the difference.

Once the meat's all browned, keep the fond at the bottom of the pan!! Turn heat down or off, but right away before the fond cools add some red wine (no, this isn't listed in the original recipe, but it helps develop your gravy's strong base flavors). It should boil and you should be able to see the alcohol rise up in steam. Now add the liquid (the stock and the water). Let it cool to a simmer, then add the spices and things mentioned in the middle list of the ingredients.

When you add the third part of the ingredients list--the vegetables--make sure you have enough liquid in the pot to cover or nearly cover them. If you don't, add more stock and water (or water plus some good brand--Le Gout, for example--beef base if you've run out of fresh stock).

Check your stew every once in a while as it simmers and cooks. If at any time you notice a component--the potatoes and the onions in particular--is getting too soft/disintegrating into the stew, consider removing it and putting it aside as the rest cooks. You can then add it back to the pot when you're ready to eat. This of course is for if you're the kind of person who likes a stew with chunky discernible components. If you don't care if you get a recognizable whole albeit softened small onion in your bowl, by all means leave it in to let it fall apart; the flavor will be in there either way.

If towards the end you find the broth too watery for your tastes as a result of having to add liquid to cover the cooking vegetables, add a little corn starch to the pot and bring the stew back up to heat. The thickening agent will turn it to gravy quite quickly.

This time around, we didn't have green peppers so we used poblanos. I was worried it'd taste off, like it was stew trying to be chili, but it didn't--it lent a nice glow without overtaking the basic stew flavor.

I always seem to make way more than it calls for--I like a stew to have lots of potatoes and onions, so I usually throw in more than they ask. I also add more of the flavor components like the chili powder and bay leaves just out a knee jerk habit I have of doing so with everything (I like strong flavors).

Also, we never use fresh peas or celery, just because they're rarely in the house this time of year and we don't bother to obtain them for the stew. And obviously you could add other vegetables you like, especially other root veggies like rutabegas, parsnips, or turnips.

If you don't like the curled up skins from the tomatoes or peppers, peel the skins off before adding them.

This is one of the first cookbooks my parents acquired as a married couple, and it's still one of their trusty favorites. It's where a bunch of our tried-and-true recipes come from, including the grasshopper pie one. It even has a section on the Watergate Hotel I believe. Ha.

Welsh Rarebit

Welsh Rarebit

Seen on Food Network Television
Show: Tamales World Tour
Episode: #WT1A28: Working Man's Supper

Yield: 6 servings

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup ale
10 ounces extrasharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 drops Tabasco pepper sauce
12 English muffin halves, toasted
6 slices bacon, cooked to crispy
Chopped parsley, for garnish

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, add the flour and whisk to make a roux. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the ale and boil the mixture for 3 minutes while whisking. Reduce heat to low, add the cheddar cheese, mustard, Worcestershire, and Tabasco pepper sauce, and cook, stirring, until hot but not boiling.

Spoon the cheddar mixture over the toasted muffins, garnish with parsley, and serve with crispy bacon.

Personal Note: This I can take or leave, personally, but for some reason it's quite popular among friends (Justin loved it and asked for it whenever he visited, and Michelle's vegetarian friends had seconds and thirds when they came over for dinner once). We don't do the formal thing with the individual plating with English muffins and garnish. We also never do the bacon thing, mostly out of laziness. Believe me, it's still plenty rich (too rich for me!). Instead we toast up--either in the oven or in the toaster, depending--leftover homemade bread, leftover crusty bakery bread, Texas toast, or whatever other bread's available/desirable. We put the cheesy beer sauce in individual ramekins or bowls and heap a large plate with the toast and let people take the toasted bread as they like for dipping. It's a lot like fondue only richer and smoother in taste (to me, that reads as "fatty and bland tasting" :).

Quick n' Half Assed Curry

Quick n' Half Assed Curry

4 tsp (or more...I used more) curry powder
1 or 2 onions, chopped
2 or so tomatoes, chopped
1 can of chick peas, drained
Frozen veggies; the amount at your discretion
1 can coconut milk
Hot Thai curry paste (optional)
Pieces of chicken (optional)

Fry the curry powder in hot oil for a bit to release some flavor and aroma. Then throw the rest in, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 30-40 minutes. Serve on top of rice.

Personal Note: I know I know, this is a travesty and real curry is all about simmering for hours to subtly blend spices to sublime effect, etc etc. I know. But sometimes you just want curry at like, 10 pm after work, dammit, and lack the foresight for all of that and need a quick fix. This will do. I don't pretend for a second it's anything nearing the real deal, but yeah. It can hit the spot nicely. I found this on mefi searching for stuff to put on top of white rice--I got an actually decent rice cooker (I've had such bad luck with them in the past; them's complicated gadgets!) for Christmas from my aunt and uncle, and that combined with celebrating Robert's ability to still eat the stuff (he had a diabetes scare earlier this month) means tons of rice. I want to purchase some furikake next.

Oh, by the way, I added some heat to the recipe by tossing in a bit of the green curry paste I have lying around you get at asian and indian food shops. I think without some heat it would have been a lot blander. I also had to deal with the pain in the ass of not being able to find my stash of coconut milk (I know I always have some on hand...grrr...) at the last minute and having to improvise by soaking coconut flakes in hot water and pressing out the "milk." Haha.