How I'm roasting chicken right now

The bird comes from Little Red Hen now. They are just too good, in every way. I split it and roast 1/2 at a time. The other half I freeze for another night. There's only 2 of us and somehow still always leftovers, even with cooking just half at a time. Turn the oven up to 450 and let my cast iron pan heat up with it. Dry the chicken, rub on olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe paprika. When the oven and pan are hot, in it goes, cut side down. After 15-20 minutes (depending on size of the chicken) I turn off the oven and let it stay there for another 15 minutes. It is done perfectly every time.

 If I want veggies--wedge half a red onion, some carrots, always garlic cloves (still in their peel), dress them in just a little olive oil. Nudge them in under the chicken after about 10 minutes of cooking. This time I added fresh shittake mushrooms too, but a bit later on--maybe at the 20 minute mark. They came out crispy yet tender. 

 I barely know what to do with myself now, but how can you not love a dinner that basically makes itself?

Skillet zucchini lasagna

Get out your cast iron pan! Of course it's fine to make this simple layered dish in anything that's oven-safe, but I think it crisps up really nicely in cast iron. The sheets of pasta in this recipe are actually thin slices of zucchini! File this one away for when the harvest brings in a major zuke bonanza...this is just a small version using two little ones but I bet you could make a big one for a potluck or something that would use up a whole bunch. Slice your zucchini very thinly using a mandoline slicer (or just a steady hand and a sharp knife is fine too). If you are rich in time, you can saute the zuke slices in a little olive oil and garlic for good flavor, or just be lazy and don't bother. Like me! For the first layer, drizzle about 1 tablespoon olive oil and add several dots of butter to the bottom of a cast iron skillet, then cover with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. I happened to have a meat sauce made already so I used that, which of course makes for a heartier dish. But if you're a veggie or just only have tomato sauce--go ahead and use it! You'll need one cup total (for 2 layers) so it's actually a great way to use up leftovers from the fridge. Lay out half your zucchini slices over the sauce... Then 1/2 cup cooked small pasta. I had orzo hanging around as leftover, so I used that. You'll need at least 1 cup total, but more is fine too. Just divide however much you have in half to use on each layer. Now dot the top of the pasta layer with chunks of fresh mozzarella and a little shredded provolone (maybe about 1/4 cup). I had one of those large balls of fresh mozzarella--this is half of that, sliced up. And parsley, minced. Add basil too if you have it. My basil plant isn't keeping up with my demand so I'm letting it chill out for now. Layer two! Another 1/2 cup of sauce... You'll need to kind of dot the sauce around, rather than spread it this time. Then the rest of your zucchini slices.And layer on the rest of your pasta, plus the remaining mozzarella slices. A little more grated provolone on top too, just for flavor. And a last sprinkle of minced parsley. Very pretty. Put it in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes. It should be nice and gooey and the zucchini should be quite tender. At the very end of cooking, turn on the broiler for a couple minutes to get the top all browned and irresistible looking.It looks kind of like lasagna, right? Anyway, it's very very yummy.

Salad Nicoise

All right, I have been waiting to post on this because I think it's the best summertime dish I've ever made. Salad nicoise is cool, beautiful to look at and has a thousand little flavors going on. It's also pretty simple--just get each ingredient ready and assemble everything on a big platter. I'm looking forward to making it for a dinner party--I think it would be really fun to make a huge one and have people over for a casual get-together. Some bread and a fruity summertime dessert plus a crisp wine (maybe vinho verde, my new favorite cheap summer drink?) and you're in business. Please enjoy! Salad nicoise is a composed dressed salad usually with tuna, potato, green beans, tomato, egg, nicoise olives and some other tangy thing, like capers. Some people, like Julia Child, also use anchovies but Phil is anchovy adverse, so I left them out. It is also typically made with oil-packed canned tuna, but I used a fresh filet instead, seared outside and quite rare in the middle, as you'll see. It would be great grilled too. Anyway, start by prepping the potato and green beans because you'll need to boil them and it's good to get the hot stove part out of the way first. Trim your green beans on the diagonal if you like, to french-ify them. Wash the potatoes (I used Yukon Gold because that's what I had but red potatoes are more traditional and hold their shape better) and prick them a few times all over with a fork. Bring a big pot of well-salted water to a boil and drop in your potatoes, then turn the heat down to simmer them. Boil them whole because you'll be slicing them up later--and they'll get all mushy and water-logged if you cut them up to cook. By the way, the ingredient amounts here are for just two people. This is a very flexible dish that you can just increase the amounts on for as many people as you like. Count on about 1 potato per person, 1 egg per person, 1 tomato per person, about 1/4 pound green beans per person, and so on. While the potatoes are simmering (it should take about 30 minutes) you can prepare the dressing. Slice one small onion into very thin slices and mince up 2 cloves garlic. In a jar, combine 3 tablespoons cider vinegar with 1 tablespoon dijon mustard and a little less than 1/2 cup olive oil (about 6-7 tablespoons). Add salt and fresh ground pepper. Dump in your thin slices of onion and the minced garlic and then shake it all up together and set aside. You can taste and see at this point, since we're just waiting on the potatoes anyway--does it need more vinegar or olive oil or maybe some salt? Oh, here's a done potato! Don't drain, but fish them out with tongs and bring the water back up to boil... ...and add in your green beans, just for long enough to turn them bright green--about 2 minutes. Now you can drain the water! After your potatoes are a bit cooled off and you can handle them, slice into thin rounds. You'll need some hardboiled eggs, which I happened to already have on hand. If you don't have them handy, you can cook them before the potatoes--just add them to the boiling water, then turn off the heat and cover for 10 minutes. Fish out the eggs and let them cool off in the fridge while you bring the water back up to a boil for the potatoes and proceed from there. Peel the eggs and slice into wedges or rounds. Slice up some tomatoes (I used 2 big romas) and now we're ready to assemble! By the way, can you imagine this salad at the very peak of summer made from the best stuff at the farmers market? Perfect tiny green beans, the sweetest tomatoes, maybe even with some little new potatoes...delicious.
Drizzle a little bit of the dressing on a serving platter. And sort of turn the green beans around in there to get coated nicely. Then you get creative! Sometimes people make designs with the components of a salad nicoise, or sometimes they group stuff together--a pile of green beans,a pile of potatoes, and so on. Me? I'm into making a design. Spokes of green beans, then lay out potatoes in between... Then dot with the eggs... And tomato wedges... And scatter about olives! Sadly I did not have real nicoise olives. For some reason Whole Foods doesn't carry them? Should have tried Alon's instead, I guess. Anyway, use small black olives, if you can't find real nicoise ones. And I added capers! Small ones and big ones! This is a big caper berry up close! I like them. Phil does not. But I had already sacrificed the inclusion of anchovies (which, by the way, if you are using, you would just lay out in strips here at this point) so I wasn't going to give up on caper berries as well. They just taste like salty, huge olives, so I don't know why he doesn't like them. And now that our salad is pretty much assembled, let's take care of the tuna! I used a very small piece of fresh tuna (a little less than 1/2 pound) for two people. Get a heavy pan, coat well with olive oil and heat up on high heat until very hot. Salt and pepper the tuna steak and set it right on the hot pan. You want to get a nice sear on the outside but leave the middle very pink. Flip it over after a minute and a half. It should have a lovely brown crust but a red center. Let it cook on the other side for just another minute or so, then remove from heat.Slice it up...it sort of looks like tuna tataki!
And fan it out in the center of your composed salad. Beautiful. Just check that out, will you? Drizzle a bit more of the dressing over all and sit yourselves down for a lovely night.

Sausage and pepper skillet

Here I sliced sausage (my favorite brand, Georgia Boy!) into chunks and browned in a cast iron skillet with the most beautiful array of peppers representing the end of pepper season from the Morningside farmers market. It is a very loosy-goosey type of recipe--really meant for improvisation. Chop up one smallish onion and saute in olive oil. Add in 2 bell peppers of any color that floats your boat, de-seeded and cut into strips. After they are softened, clear a space in the middle and lay out slices of sausage. Turn them over to get deliciously browned and to madden yourself with hunger from the scent. After they are going a bit crispy brown and the pepper and onion are well cooked (about 8 minutes), add in some beer from someone's bottle they're drinking, or a little white wine if that's what you have open on hand instead. Let cook down for another minute or so then mix in 1 tablespoon brown sugar, a dash of worchestershire, salt, and a pinch red pepper flakes (and some hot sauce if you like it spicy, which we do around here) and stir everything up together. Right before serving, stir in 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and a bit of minced parsley. That's it!The peppers and sausage hung out on the plate with a lovely roasted butternut squash--a meeting of summer and fall seasonal vegetables.

Fried okra

The easiest recipe in the world--does it even count? Cut up okra any way you like. Toss in cornmeal. Heat up some canola or veg oil in big pan until hot, then fry in batches. Fish them out when they're crispy brown, drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I serve it with lemon which is unorthodox but delicious.Once I served this with little pieces of crisp bacon mixed in with the fried okra as well. That was a great addition.