Sunday Supper: Buttermilk-Brined Chicken

Inspired by the recipe for buttermilk-brined chicken in this month's Bon Appetit magazine I made a version of this chicken dish for Sunday supper with the family. It came out crispy and flavorful while insanely juicy—it was delish.

So begins my adaptation: I threw about 1.5 cups buttermilk, 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, and 1 sliced lemon in a plastic bag with a nicely salted organic chicken, and popped it in the fridge in the morning when I woke up. Around midday I repositioned the chickadee and then let it sit a while longer.

When I removed the chicken from the marinade, I rinsed off the excess buttermilk and patted it dry. I repurposed the lemon from the marinade and placed it under the skin of the chicken and then placed a half a lemon inside the cavity with a handful of spring garlic stalks. I rubbed a little butter under the skin of the chicken and then trussed it.

Roast the chicken at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Tent with foil if you are worried about burning the skin. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and roast for another 25 minutes or so, until the chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

For the panzanella: I let a loaf of walnut wheat country loaf get stale. For the vinaigrette, I mixed the chicken pan juices with a couple tablespoons olive oil, 1/3 cup orange champagne vinegar, salt, pepper and some finely chopped spring garlic. Pour half the vinaigrette over the bread crumbs and toss on a sheet pan. Roast in the 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until nice and toasty. Toss the bread with a bunch of watercress, the remaining vinaigrette, and some roasted beets & little gem lettuces. Enjoy it with the chicken! (If you're anything like me, you will.)

Ushering in the New Year - Tourtiere du Shack

I am a believer that food is a cure-all. As people make their annual resolutions I wonder at how they can even envision such discipline - giving up carbs? sweets? wine? Nope, I don't have it in me. Instead, I have decided to embrace food and consume more than ever before - partially kidding. 

I decided to make this recipe, the Tourtiere du Shack, as a cheer-up-and-feel-comforted meal. I read about this tourtiere a year ago in Bon Appetit. I was completely taken in by the amazing photos of Quebec in winter - beautiful heritage pigs in the snow and delectable, oozing maple syrup - and I tore out the recipe for the tourtiere because I fell in love with the story and the place but not really thinking that I had the discipline to make it - turns out, definitely worth the patience.

The recipe definitely takes a while but isn't actually that difficult, there is just lots of cool/waiting time. So hunker down with a good book and a glass of wine and decide to make this some time. The even better news - the leftovers taste just as good if not better. Happy New Year!

The old Helms Bakery building in Los Angeles

The view from the Grapevine, CA

Chicken with Herb Pistou

Ferry Building Farmer's Market

Recently, I made BA's cover recipe, "roast chicken with herb pistou and farro with roasted squash" - I just dumbed it down a little so that I could actually make it. I will preface this recipe by saying that it was a success, in my opinion (not all of my cooking endeavors are, but I try to spare you the ones that turn out terribly and aren't worth repeating). I will share my version below and give you a link to the BA-version here.

Dahlias at the market

I combined a few tablespoons olive oil, a couple cloves of finely chopped garlic, chopped parsley, thyme, cilantro, the zest of a lemon and salt and cracked pepper. I popped the chicken in a large glass container (I used two legs and a breast of chicken) and doused it with the marinade. Away that went into the fridge while I got started on the rest of the meal.

For the farro: I skipped the "sauteeing" step and tossed my diced acorn squash with a little olive oil, salt and pepper before throwing it into a 375 degree oven for about a half hour. *Note: I would be using onion in this recipe but I was happily sharing this meal with someone who doesn't get along well with onions :).

From here on out I more or less followed the recipe:

- Toast farro in oil coated iron skillet

- Remove farro and set aside

- Warm two - three cups chicken stock with two cups of water in a pot

-Sautee garlic, add a bit of white wine

- Return farro to the pan 

- Add in the stock in 1/2-cup increments, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding the next ladle-ful

For the pistou: I am not always a big pesto fan, so I went light on the oil in my version of the pistou

I blanched 1 cup parsley, 3/4 cup cilantro and 3/4 cup basil. Plunge the herbs into a bath of ice-water so that they retain their lovely green color. While my herbs were cooling off I chopped up a very small amount of garlic which I threw into a blender with my herbs (squeezed dry) and 3/4 ice water. Once the herbs were blended, I slowly drizzled in one tablespoon olive oil with blender running. Pistou finished!

To finish the chicken, I heated up a little oil in my cast iron skillet, poured off the marinade and threw the chicken in. I browned the chicken on the stove top and once golden I threw it into a 350 degree oven for 20 or 25 mins. 

Porchetta on a Foggy Beach Day

In celebration of the opening of the Local Butcher Shop in Berkeley - and the arrival of my new issue of Bon Appetit - I set out to make my very first porchetta. I called the Local Butcher Shop, before heading across the bridge, to see if they had skin-on pork belly. Music to my ears - they had two whole pigs in the walk-in and would be happy to supply me with a belly.

Stinson Beach

After securing my beautiful pork belly (which Aaron, one of the proprietors, kindly scored for me - belly skin is tough!) and the loin, I set about making the rub. I toasted the fennel and red pepper flakes and then let that cool. I added the toasted spices to the fresh sage, rosemary and garlic and then, due to my lack of anything resembling a spice blender, I went to work with my makeshift pestle (a wine bottle). 

 When it came time to assemble, I got slightly confused (its says to score the flesh but I always thought one should score the skin so that's what I did) but forged on. Once the belly was ready to go I salted both pieces of pork and then shmeared my spice mixture all over the flesh-side of the belly. I added in one thinly sliced orange and then attempted to wrestle the meat into submission - rolling and wrapping twine (definitely helpful to have an extra set of hands) until it mildly resembled the neat roll pictured in the magazine.

More Stinson

One of my favorite, irresistable, pairings is apples and pork. Luckily, Gravenstein season has just begun so we roughly chopped some apples, potatoes and sweet potatoes to throw in the bottom of the pain and reap the benefits of the drippings of pork fat.

Sausalito

  

Gravenstein Apples

After letting my piggie sit in the fridge for 24 hours, I took it out, let it warm up and then popped it in the oven as directed - high heat at first, dropping the temp to 300 for the final ~2 hours. When we sat down to eat this labor of love I made a conscious decision not to eat the fat - my resolve waned rapidly and I devoured all the wonderful belly-ness.

For the full recipe from Bon Appetit click here.

For a pork-centric article from the NY Times click here.

Pasta Inspiration

The latest issue of Bon Appetit sucked me into trying more than the just the Rhubarb Crostata. They had an article discussing 10 steps to making fabulous pasta dishes and I have thrown myself into that, trying a different sauce using the same basic method each week. The first one I tried was the pasta with sun gold tomatoes.

It is not tomato time yet but I couldn't help myself. I bought two baskets of cherry tomatoes and tossed them in a saute pan with a few cloves of minced garlic, a coating of olive oil and some sea salt and crushed red pepper flakes.

I partially covered the pan as instructed, swirled and waited for the tomatoes to blister. Meanwhile, I added my pasta to a pot of boiling salted water. The pasta was supposed to cook for 7 minutes and I pulled it out after 4ish - which seemed to work well. Before dumping the pasta water reserve a few cups to add to your sauce (I always reserve more than is actually called for - can't hurt to have extra on hand). I popped all the tomatoes (a very satisfying process) and added in the ultra al dente pasta and 3/4 cup pasta water. Keep tossing with your trusty tongs (another Bon Appetit must and common restaurant staple). 

Once the sauce has thickened, add in 1/2 cup cheese and some shredded basil (they say to add in more cheese and some olive oil - I didn't think it needed that much and just added a little more salt and pepper, to taste). I love this recipe - I love my tongs and my pasta water and the simplicity - and I loved the addition of the toasty breadcrumbs on top. 

P.S. There were no leftovers.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crostata

Strawberry season is upon us! I am so excited that spring is here and there are so many lovely things in season. I start to feel a mild sense of panic about taking advantage of all the seasonal items (e.g. I'm kind of obsessed with English peas at the moment). It was this sense of panic that led me to buy rhubarb. As for the strawberries, basically as soon as we are within a few weeks of strawberry season I start salivating and camp outside the local farmer's markets to get the first baskets.

In a fortunate coincidence, my latest issue of Bon Appétit arrived in the mail last week and I eagerly sat down with it and a cup of tea. It was the first issue under the new editor, Adam Rapoport (former editor of GQ) - very exciting. I really enjoyed it, I was a little hesitant at first but ultimately I warmed to it. You could definitely see the GQ-influence, I think it seems more chic and more content-rich. Not to mention a nice piece on fashion famiglia, the Missoni's. 

While devouring my new mag I stumbled upon a rhubarb recipe and was immediately taken by the photo (I also really liked that they used whole wheat flour in the crust - that way I can convince myself that this qualifies as a "healthy" recipe . . . I block out the 1 1/2 sticks of butter that are involved).

I won't give you the play by play of the recipe because you can find it right here...

 . . .but I thoroughly enjoyed making it (and eating it for that matter).

My one stumbling block with the recipe came with the step where they instruct you to bring the fruit and cornstarch mixture to a boil and then turn off the heat. I think mine didn't have enough liquid to boil without burning, hence the beautiful pan artwork below.

The recipe is obviously a raspberry-rhubarb crostata but I had strawberries, so that's what I did.