Ina Garten's Roast Chicken

It's been a busy time of year. Sadly, that's meant less time in the kitchen. I had to throw together a quick dinner yesterday, so I grabbed a chicken and a few vegetables... and grabbed the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Roast Chicken. It's simple and fast. I've made a few changes to her recipe--it needs more vegetables, so I increased the veggies and added some parsnips. I also left the chicken in the roasting pan while it was resting rather than moving it directly to a platter. The predominant flavour is that classic combination of lemon and thyme.



Ingredients
nocoupons

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme, plus 20 sprigs
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 heads of garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced
• 6 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 bulb of fennel, tops removed, and cut into wedges 
• 5 parsnips cut in half and chopped into wedges
• olive oil
• salt
• ground black pepper

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 425º  F. (I cooked at around 400ºF in my fan-assisted oven for 75 mins.)

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Place the onions, carrots, and fennel in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, 20 sprigs of thyme, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Baste again with some butter about 20 mins before removing it from the oven. Remove the chicken and vegetables from the oven and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

Grandmother's Oatmeal Cookies

I have few memories of my great-grandmother.  But among them, I can most vividly recall the smell of her kitchen and the taste of these oatmeal cookies. They're chewy and slightly cake-y. It's a texture that-- from familiarity, association or aesthetic-- I think is perfect.

Ingredients

• 2 c. uncooked oats
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c. cooking oil
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 c. chopped nuts (optional)
• 1 c. raisins
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 1/3 c. plain flour
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp butter, cold and cut into pieces
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Combine dry ingredients except for the raisins--making sure that the butter has been broken up and spread evenly throughout. 
2. Mix in wet ingredients with a spoon and fold in the raisins.
3. Drop from a tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350ºF/180ºC for 12 minutes. Makes about 20 cookies.

If you want the quick way out, simply combine the first seven ingredients (oats, eggs, oil, milk, nuts, raisins and brown sugar) with a package of spice cake mix.

Thai Mushroom Pumpkin Soup

This little jem comes from Delicious Magazine--my favourite of the UK cooking magazines. This recipe is quick and easy. Instead of a small baby squash, I used a red kuri squash. It has a autumnal chestnut flavour that complements the dish. Here's how to do it:

Ingredients

• 2 red kuri squash
• 150mL of coconut milk
• small piece of fresh ginger
• 2 small chillies
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 shiitake mushrooms, caps sliced
• 25g toasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp fish sauce

Method

1. Cut a lid out of your pumpkin and hollow out the inside (as though you were making a jack-o-lantern. Place it in a baking dish and the lid beside it. 
2. In a saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a simmer with the chilli and ginger. Then remove from the heat and stir in the mushrooms. 
3. To this mixture, add a beaten egg and the fish sauce and pour it inside the pumpkin. 
4. Bake for 25–30 minutes. 

I didn't care for the pumpkin seeds; they didn't soften up enough and it ruined the smooth texture of the mushrooms and coconut milk (in my opinion.)  Even so it was a combination of some of the things I love most: autumn, squash, coconut milk and mushrooms.

Happy Halloween

Greek Rabbit Stew (Κουνέλι Στιφάδο)

About ten years ago, I spent one night in the mountains just south-east of Thessaloniki. Greece had been unbearably hot for those seven weeks in June and July, and this was the one cool oasis in an otherwise scorching desert of archaeological tedium. That evening I wanted something warming. I ordered a rabbit stew and have been thinking about it from time to time ever since. This past week, I consulted a few Greek cookbooks and spoke to some Greek friends to recreate this game stew; apparently everyone who knows Greek food knows this recipe.

Finding a rabbit from a local butcher was no problem. It was already cleaned, skinned and the head removed. I had the butcher chop it into about six pieces. The rest is fairly straightforward:

Ingredients

• 1 rabbit, skinned, cleaned, head removed and cut into quarters
• 1 kg onions and shallots, whole with peeling removed
• 200 mL olive oil
• 250 mL red wine
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 400g chopped tomatos
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 4 cloves of garlic, whole
• 1 tsp sugar
• 500 mL chicken stock, hot
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• pinch of allspice
• salt and pepper

 Preparation

1. Rinse the rabbit and soak in some slightly vinegary, salty water. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. To remove the skins from the onions easily, put them in boiling water for a few minutes. 
3. Pat the rabbit dry, and in a medium hot skillet, fry the rabbit until crispy and golden on each side. Remove from the oil and set aside.
4. De-glaze the bottom of the skillet with the red wine vinegar. Then add the red wine and reduce until almost syrupy. 
5. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and allspice into the skillet and stir until warm.
6. Put the sauce from the skillet and the rabbit into a Dutch oven. Add all the other ingredients including the hot chicken stock. 
7. Cook covered for 1 hour. After an hour, give the pot a shake to make sure that nothing is sticking and to turn the onions. Return it to the oven for an additional 50 minutes with the temperature reduced to 160ºC. 
8. Remove the lid and cook for 10 more minutes at 200ºC until the top is golden brown. Serve warm. 

When I originally made the recipe, I only used 250mL of chicken stock, but that didn't give me as much sweet, rich stock as I wanted. Just a drop of honey might be a nice offset to the additional saltiness of the stock. It's great with fresh bread or with rice.

Steak Maman Blanc

Last night was steak night here. I like how Monsieur Raymond does it. After the BBC series, The Restaurant, aired--a few cooking demonstrations were posted on the website. You can still get to his fast preparation for steak here. (Don't read the  instructions--just watch him.) My thick, beautifully marbled, aged sirloin came from Alcock's Family Butchers. 273A Banbury Road in Summertown. (Thanks, Simon!)

Fiadone

For a couple of years now, I have been fascinated with Corsica. It all started several years ago during a trip to Paris when I wandered into a tiny restaurant in the 15eme Arr. called Le Beau Violet (92 Rue Entrepreneurs). It was a single room--the chef, Roger, cooked in clear view and frequently smoked a cigarette despite the laws to the contrary. If you wanted to use the restroom, you needed to leave and walk a few doors down the street. You basically eat what Roger gives you (with the occasional choice;) deferring to his judgement is probably best. Several courses later and close to midnight, I finished the meal with dessert and some myrthe liqueur. The final course was fiadone--a Corsican lemon cheesecake made from brocciu (an AOC whey cheese produced in Corsica).

It's hard to find brocciu outside of Corsica, but you can simulate the experience using ricotta. This is a slightly grainy, lemony cheesecake with no pastry shell. And as far as cheesecakes go, it's simple to make and good for a light, summertime dessert. In the first instance, I was guided by Rolli Lucarotti's Recipes from Corsica; Clotilde has also blogged about it. Here's how to do it.

Ingredients

• 500g brocciu or ricotta
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 large or 5 medium eggs
• zest of 1 large lemon
• 1 Tbsp. eau de vie (I used some limoncello) 
• salt

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
2. Separate the yolks from the whites. With the yolks, combine the sugar, zest, limoncello and cheese until smooth. 
3. Add a pinch of salt to the whites and whisk them into soft peaks. Fold some of the egg whites into the cheese mixture, then fold the mixture into the remaining egg whites until combined. 
4. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured spring form pan. 
5. Bake for 30-35 mins until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least half an hour. 

Not everyone whips their egg whites--but I think this improves the texture. And with a hand-mixer, it's no big task.