Tag Archives: butter

Roasted Chicken with Veggies

Posted on March 19, 2010 | 3 Comments

Spring is right around the corner so I decided to make a last-ditch effort to create a winter-ish dish. Not like anyone wants to be reminded of winter, but I figured it was the least I could to politely say bon voyage. So, as usual, I hit up the cookbooks and flipped through some of Ina Garten’s recipes (she rocks FYI), then I hit up the google to find some recipes and came across the Amateur Gourmet’s rendition of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc @ home roasted chicken. This looked really good and I was sold. Time to roast me a chicken and root vegetables…

“Hey, I’m looking for a rutabaga”

“Sure, over there in the barrel”

“The thing that says turnips?!”

“Yea”

“But I’m looking for a rutabaga…”

“Yea, same thing”

“Uh, OK, thanks…”

Good thing for produce guy and his thorough explanation right?! I mean, I would never know the difference if it weren’t for his extensive produce knowledge. Thanks vague produce man, thanks.

Anyway, who cares about turnips and rutabagas, let’s the roast the damn things and eat ‘em. According to the Amateur Gourmet guy it’s worth it…

Serves: ~4

Prep time: ~25mins

Cook time: ~2hrs

Total time: Freakin’ long but worth it

Get yourself:

1 4-4.5lb Chicken
2 Rutabagas
2 Turnips
2 Leeks
1 Vidalia onion
8-10 Small red potatoes
8 Long carrots
1 Small head of garlic
1 Lemon
4T Butter
1t Rendered duck fat (optional)
.5C Extra Virgin olive oil
8 sprigs of thyme
Salt and cracked black pepper
Butchers twine or something to truss the chicken
Big ass roasting pan or cast iron skillet
Digital thermo because when the temp hits 160F that chicken is done!

First things first, if you want crispy skin then you should let your chicken air dry on the counter for 2 hours before cooking. Then you should take some paper towels and dab the skin to absorb any residual moisture.

Dry skin = Crispy skin

Now we can move on…

Preheat oven to 425

Prep your veggies

I know it looks like a daunting mountain of veggies to peel

Put some music on and get to preppin’

Let’s start with the leeks

Cut the dark green off

I feel like I’m wasting money when I buy these I mean you end up cutting and tossing half of it away

Now, stand it up and slice almost in half

Turn, slice almost in half again

Got it?!

The veg, the myth, the legend…the rutabaga

It’s waxed

Peel off the outer skin and then cut into wedges

Rutabaga, done

Turnip time

Same thing

Peel and then wedges

For the onion just cut the tip off lay flat

Then cut through the root end into quarters

Pull three cloves of garlic off the head, peel and smash with knife

Quarter your carrots

Gather 4 stalks of thyme

Rinse potatoes, but leave whole and unpeeled

Add all of these plus the veggies from above into a big bowl

Toss in the olive oil and 1tsp each of salt and pepper

Mix it all up real good and throw ‘em into whatever your baking them in

I used a nice big cast iron pan

Veggie’s, done

Chicken time…

Separate the skin from the flesh with your fingers

Inconspicuously slip 4T of butter under the skin

I rubbed duck fat all over the skin, but you can use butter or a light oil like canola

Sprinkle 1tsp salt and cracked black pepper over the chicken skin

oh yea, don’t forget to remove the giblets from the cavity

Add 1 tsp of salt and pepper to cavity

Quarter your lemon and stuff it in

Stick the remainder of the thyme stalks in

Get the remaining head of garlic and slice the top off, stuff it in there

Truss the chicken legs and tuck the wing tips under the body

Push the veggies to the side and nestle the chicken right in the middle of the whole thing

Put in the 425F oven feet first

Roast for 25mins

Drop oven temp to 400F

Rotate so the feet are facing you

Roast for 45mins or until a meat thermo reads 160F

In due time, a gorgeous, fragrant, crispy chicken will grace you with its presence

Put the chicken aside and let rest so the juices can redistribute

You can throw a foil tent over it

I like my roasted veggies really caramelized so at this point I threw ‘em back in for another 25mins

That’s all folks…

A classic roast chicken

If you’re into roast chicken and veggies then this is right up your alley

The chicken was SO juicy and had great flavor

Skin was crispy and buttery

The veggies were packed with flavor

Definitely a go-to comfort dish

Enjoy!!

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Kitchen HD, Poultry

Tagged butter, carrot, chicken, crispy chicken skin, duck fat, garlic, leek, lemon, onion, red potato, roasted chicken, rutabaga, thyme, truss chicken, turnip

Potato & Egg Frittata

Posted on March 8, 2010 | 7 Comments

Here’s a great meal for a weekend breakfast/lunch or even a lazy weeknight dinner any day. Buttery crisp yet soft potatoes and bacon are suspended in a creamy egg mix infused with American cheese, Pecorino Romano, and fresh parsley. This cheesy omelet certainly lends itself to interpretation, but any traditionalist making it won’t veer too far from the basic ingredients that meld so well together. Of course I had to tweak mine just a little bit, you know me…and since it disappeared lighting fast I guess I made the right moves. Make this for just the two of you, the whole family, or even as a breakfast for the post Friday night cocktail party that resulted in one person passed out on top of the dining room table…hey look it happens to the best of us, swallow your pride, take a sip of humility, and eat some of this damn good potatoes & eggs!!

p.s. follow my recipe for Artisan Bread here and make some hero’s (yes I called it a hero, you got a problem with that?!) OR make a batch of the effin’ White Bread here, toast some slices, spread with homemade butter here and spoil that inner hedonist!!

Serves: 6
Time: 30mins

Get yourself:

8-10 Fresh eggs (I use Organic, free range)
1 Big fat white potato weighing in ~1lb
6 Strips of bacon cut into 1″ thick pieces
.5 Vidalia onion diced up
5 Slices American cheese broken up into little squares
1C Pecorino Romano
2T Heavy cream or half-n-half
2T Butter
2T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2T Fresh Parsley
s&cracked pep
A large skillet (now’s the time to break out the cast iron!)
Bread-n-Buttah
OJ (it’s just the right thing to do in this situation)

Let’s do this!Cube the potatoes

In the past I’ve sliced thin into chips and fried

Just get the potatoes fried up one way or another

Fry ‘em up over medium-high in the butter and olive oil

Season with some s&cracked pep

While they cook, prep your other ingredients

Ahhhhh Bacon…it’ll never let you down, a true friend in good times and in bad

Chop it up (I like to use kitchen shears it’s easier)

Dice ‘em up

Chopped American slices…don’t forget the Pecorino Romano

Scramble up your eggs then add the cream, Pecorino Romano, American, Parsley, a little s&cracked pep

Set aside while the potatoes finish up

Oh yea, if you haven’t already…

Bake up one of these bad boys

A classic NY style–come on say it with me…

HERO!

Once the potatoes are golden brown toss in your bacon and onions

Cook until onions get soft and bacon firms up

You can fry the bacon separately, cool, crumble, and then add to the egg mix…

…But I like to cook the bacon right in there so the fatty bacon goodness gets all over everything

Reduce flame to medium-low and dump in the egg mix

If the pan looks a little dried up add 1T butter to prevent any sticking

Using a rubber spatula work the sides of the omelet…

Let the egg set a bit then lift a side of the omelet with your spatula, lift the pan and let some runny egg fill in the gap

Do this all around until the egg sets nicely and it’s not too runny on top

Turn on your broiler with a rack set about 6″ away from flame

Pop it under the broiler to finish off

Keep oven door open and watch like a hawk or it will scorch

After all that work…you don’t want to be the person to scorch the eggs, not cool

After a couple of minutes take the pan out and work around the edges loosening up the omelet

If it’s still runny then pop it under the broiler for a little longer

Gently slide the omelet on a level cutting surface

Take your time to admire this artfully crafted potatoes & eggs

Slice it up like a pizza pie

Oh damn!

Look at that beauty!

So simple yet so delicious

Enjoy your potatoes & eggs!

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Bread, Breakfast, Homemade, Kitchen HD, Lunch Ideas

Tagged American cheese, artisan bread, bacon, butter, eggs, frittata, heavy cream, parsley, pecorino romano, potatoes, white bread

Butter (I can’t believe it is!)

Posted on February 24, 2010 | 6 Comments

I channeled an Amish dairy farmer this past weekend and the result: homemade butter. I even grew my beard out for this one…what can I say I really get into character, I’m like the DiCaprio of food blogging.

So yes, I made butter, in all its creamy, salty, melty, spreadable, glory. For $4 and change for 1Qt of heavy cream to make homemade butter, you can’t go wrong, literally…you can’t even mess this up it’s foolproof. It’s so simple that I’ve been kicking myself for not finding out about this sooner. Sorry Hotel, but you have nothing on the homemade stuff…well maybe convenience…but aren’t we all tired of sacrificing quality for convenience?! [Rally cry].

This first time around was more experimental. I wanted to see if I could even make it happen so I just picked up 1QT of whatever brand heavy cream. Needless to say, it worked. Now, I’m really psyched to get my hands on some real high quality fresh heavy cream.

1QT or 4C of heavy cream yielded ~12oz (3 sticks butter). Just shy of a pound.

Get yourself:

1QT good quality heavy cream

Kosher salt

Food processor fitted with steel blade (muy importante)

Wax paper

Here’s a quick rundown: pour heavy cream in food processor and turn on. When butter breaks pour off the liquid. Form butter into ball and knead the trapped buttermilk out of it while in a bowl of cold water. Do this several times until water is clear. Add salt (or herbs) and mix with spatula. Taste. Form butter (into 4oz blocks) and store in fridge and/or freezer. Spread on warm toast.

Let’s do this…

Pour it all in…get every last drip!

Flip the switch and get it churnin’

After about 5 mins…

…magic happens

All of a sudden, the cream will break and you will have liquid buttermilk and butter solids

Hi, I’m butter nice to meet you

Now let’s prep

Bring butter solids together into a ball

Add to a bowl and pour ice-cold water on top

The water will be clouded from the buttermilk runoff

Dump the water off

Wash several more times in ice-cold water while kneading the trapped buttermilk out

Once virtually all the buttermilk is forced out form into a ball

Leaving traces of buttermilk will hasten the butter’s spoilage

Add ball to bowl

Work your salt into the butter using a rubber spatula

Measure out the butter on wax paper

Standard butter is portioned into 4oz sticks (1/2C)

Now jog your memory to recall a time you watched a sushi chef form rolls

Using that same method you will be able to form it into a stickPinch the edges closed

Or, if stick making isn’t your forte, just dump it into an airtight container

Store some of the butter in the fridge and pop the rest in the freezer

Reach behind your shoulder and pat – you just made butter

Now grab some bread that you’ve made (from my previous posts) and let butter do what it does best

Variations:

At the point where you add the salt you can instead make herb butter by adding fresh basil, parsley, sage, etc

You can add a few cloves of roasted garlic mash

You can add the butter ball to a mixer and beat for a minute to make whipped butter

→ 6 Comments

Posted in DIY Pictorials, Homemade, Kitchen HD

Tagged butter, buttermilk, Homemade

(Post) Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 17, 2010 | 4 Comments

Valentine’s Day Objectives: RELAX and EAT.

…and so we did…all day.

We decided to kick things off with leftover cinnamon rolls from the Pioneer Woman (wifey froze half of the disturbingly delicious cinnamon roll dough from last time). Perfect.

And so the deliberate yet destructive eating began…

Our next venture was Oreo cookies…homemade, super chocolate-y, creamy, straight up milk dunkin’ OREO’s!…yea that’s right I made ‘em and even colored the center…pause. Thanks to a little inspiration from Smitten Kitchen, I whipped up a big batch of V-day O’s, all pun intended…

The day turned to night…

We started dinner off with a lite, weight watchers friendly appetizer…

Swiss fondue with homemade bread

Take bread, dip repeatedly in warm, melty, gooey cheese. groan.

Repeat.

Note: Use a fondue pot if you have one. I battled it out with the cheese in this sauce pot for a good 20mins. You see, stainless steel pots heat too quickly and if the cheese gets too hot too fast it seizes up. I had to beat the seize outta my cheese. Here’s the recipe (click the pic to enlarge)…

Needless to say, dinner did not come immediately after. As a matter of fact, we both fell into a deep food coma and woke up an hour later. Of course I get blamed…

“Why’d you let me sleep that long?!”

“I didn’t let you, I was sleeping myself.”

“But, I thought you were cooking dinner?!”

“Are you seriously hungry after we just inhaled a pound of melted cheese and a loaf of bread?!”

“Well, I’m not starving…but we have to eat dinner.”

“We’ll eat later, in the meantime let’s drink.”

Drink of the night….

Chocolate Covered Cherry Martini

This seriously tastes like a chocolate covered cherry…got wasted

Get yourself: 2oz Chocolate vodka, 20z Black Cherry vodka, 2oz half and half, 2oz simple syrup, 6t Maraschino cherry juice + 4 cherries, 1T Ghiradelli Double Chocolate-Hot Cocoa mix, Chocolate syrup.

To make: Combine all your liquids into a shaker over ice and shake. Line rim of glass with chocolate syrup. Place cherries at bottom of glass. Pour drink in. Dust top of drink by putting cocoa powder in a sieve and tapping it. Sit down. If standing, grab hold of something stable such as a counter top or banister or such as…drink, enjoy, thank me later.

Okay, now that we’re feelin’ loose…let’s, uh, cook dinner?

Dinner

Sherry Baby Bella’s

Roasted Garlic and Parmesan (s)mashed Potatoes

Porterhouse for Two — Ruth’s Chris style

I wanted some classic sides to go with the 2.5lb hunk of beast I was serving so I thought sautéed mushrooms and mashed potatoes would be perfect. Then I thought, that’s boring. So I tweaked them a little and now, lucky me, I can never go back to the classic way because it just pales in comparison.

Sherry Baby Bella’s

These mushrooms are bangin’!

Get yourself: 1 shallot, 5T butter, 2T extra virgin, 6 cloves roasted garlic mash, 2 packages of sliced baby bella’s, 1/4 cup dry sherry cooking wine, salt and cracked black pepper, 1T fresh chopped parsley

To make: In a skillet over medium flame heat up your 3T butter and 1T of oil. When butter foam subsides toss in your roasted garlic mash and stir to break up. Then add your shallots and cook for 5 mins until soft and starting to brown. Now toss in 1T of butter, let it melt, and then add the mushrooms. Toss to coat. Let mushrooms cook down a bit and get nice and soft. Now, raise the flame to high, add in your sherry wine and cook for a few mins scraping bottom of pan to deglaze. Reduce flame to medium and stir all together.Continue to cook mushrooms, they should be shrunken and slightly browned at this point. Add your last T of butter and olive oil. This will create a buttery, and velvety sauce for the mushrooms. Kill the flame. Toss in your parsley. Put the fork down.

Roasted Garlic and Parmesan (s)mashed Potatoes

This recipe yields a batch of (s)mashed potatoes like no other. There’s a hint of roasted garlic and Parmesan and the texture is silky smooth. Roughly mashing the potatoes leaves some chunks of potato and skin which gives the dish contrasting textures.

Get yourself: 3lbs new baby red potatoes, 1 cup heavy cream, 2T butter, 6-8 cloves roasted garlic mash, 1T extra virgin, 3 handfuls of grated Parmesan, salt&cracked pepper.

First things first, cook your potatoes until fork tender. I like to throw mine in a huge Pyrex bowl, add 1/4 cup of water to the bowl, cover, and heat in microwave for 6-8 mins/lb. They will pierce easily with a fork. Dump any remaining water from the bowl and smash the potatoes.

Leave it chunky (it’ll break down when you stir later). In a large pot heat your butter and roasted garlic mash. When foam subsides on butter add the heavy cream, black pepper and Parmesan. Stir to make saucy. Toss in your potato mash and stir until the potatoes are somewhat creamy and take on a sheen.

I’m warning you may be tempted to eat half before it even gets to the plate!

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…our headliner this evening….

weighing in @ 2.5lb and measuring 2″ thick…

Porterhouse (for 2)

Get yourself: a big slab of Porterhouse beef (I put in a special request at the local butcher), 2T butter, 1T fresh parsley, oven-safe serving platter, s&cracked pepper.

Can’t picture a 2.5lb porterhouse, see for yourself…

To make: All it takes to cook this is a quick sear ea. side over high heat and then it gets finished in the oven. First you will take the meat out at least 15mins before cooking so it gets to room temp. Preheat oven to 450F. Next, liberally salt and pepper the beef. Heat a cast iron skillet grill pan until smoking hot. Sear the steak on one side for ~3mins then flip. Place 1T of butter on top of beef. Place skillet in middle of oven and check for doneness after 8-10mins. Once beef is done, put 1T butter on oven-safe platter and put under broiler for a few mins (watch that butter doesn’t burn). Take out and sprinkle with parsley. Then place meat on platter and carve.

Make sure you have your stove exhaust on high bc this steak will hiss and smoke like crazy!

And there you have it…

be VERY careful, the plate is hot!

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Beef, Bread, Breakfast, Cooking the book, Dessert, Hearty, Holiday, Homemade, Kitchen HD, Side Dish, This is Why I'm Fat, Valentine's Day

Tagged baby bella, butter, cheese, cherry, chocolate, dry sherry, fondue, garlic, martini, parmesan, parsley, pioneer woman. cinnamon bun, porterhouse, porterhouse for two, portobella, roasted, rolls, roses, selective color rose, smashed potatoes, smitten kitchen oreo, swiss, valentine's day, white bread

Sesame Cookies

Posted on January 21, 2010 | 6 Comments

Most people crave chocolate chip cookies at night, me, I got a hankering for friggin’ sesame cookies! The best part, I was fully prepared to make them–I mean, what person has at least 1 cup of sesame seeds on hand at any given time?!? If you never had these, they’re bangin’, eat ‘em alone, after dinner with espresso, for breakfast, or, my fave–dunk ‘em in coffee! Only three weeks into the new year and already my resolutions are out the window. Oh well, rules are made to be broken and food, well, it’s made to be eaten…and when it’s as good as this, it’s a sin not to indulge.

The cookies turned out great. Firm, sweet, buttery, nutty, and a little soft in the center. Also, these are great if you add a little citrus zest. I attempted to zest some clementines, but it didn’t work out to well. If you have an orange on hand zest about 1T and toss it into the cookie dough.

–Recipe Pictorial–

Not the right measuring cup, but I thought this pic came out dope.