Whole grilled chicken

You all know how much I love to roast chickens. It's easy and delicious and it seems like I constantly am doing it, doesn't it? In the summer, it's fun to move from roasting a whole chicken indoors in the oven to grilling a whole spatchcocked chicken outside. Beyond the obvious advantages of not heating up your whole apartment and setting off your fire alarm (even if you do have your own personal medical professional to fan the smoke away), a whole chicken on the grill just tastes amazing--juicy, moist and full of smokey delicious flavor. Best of all it is so so easy and still manages to look impressive for dinner. The only even slightly tricky thing you have to do is to spatchcock the bird first. What does that mean? Well, I took a bunch of pictures so I could make the preparation process seem more clear.

Get your whole chicken and a pair of poultry shears. Lay your bird out with the backbone facing up and cut into the back, along both sides of the backbone and remove it. There! That's the hardest part and you'll find it is quite easy. When the backbone is removed, flatten the bird with your hand--it will squish flat quite easily.

Here's what I additionally do to make it easier to flip on the grill: on the other side of the chicken, cut a slit in the skin between the thigh and the chicken's ass And tuck the end of the drumstick in to keep it packed up. Do the same to the other side. Tuck the wings under so they won't burn. Now your chicken is spatchcocked! Drizzle it on both sides with a healthy 3 tablespoons or so of olive oil, and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Now put the chicken on the grill over medium-high coals and let it go for 45 minutes or so. Mostly cover it to keep all your smoke going, especially if you use aromatic hardwood charcoal, which I vastly prefer to the chemical-soaked briquettes. Keep a good eye on it and flip the bird every now and then to keep it evenly browning. If you want to, you can do what I did and brush on a simple glaze in the last 15 minutes of grilling. I mixed a few tablespoons of bottled BBQ sauce with the juice from 1/2 a lime, salt, pepper and a couple of splashes from the glass of chardonnay that I was drinking. If you don't have any BBQ sauce handy, you can use tomato paste or even ketchup. Try adding tamari and brown sugar for a variation (leave out the salt then). Brush the glaze over your chicken, let it grill for 5 minutes, then turn it over and brush the other side, then leave it for 5 minutes. Turn it over again and brush it lightly one more time and 5 minutes later, you are all done. With a glaze-shiny, perfectly juicy, spatchcocked chicken! And you barely did any work at all, hotshot.

Note: One chicken works great for 2 people, with a few leftovers. If you have a bunch of people coming over, just multiply it out with as many more chickens that you'll need and have room on your grill for. It is an easy and delicious grill option for a dinner party that also makes you look like you know how to cook.

Grilled vegetable salad

The keywords for this salad are things like "bounty" and "variety" and "creativity." Go to your farmers market and peruse the vegetables--I found early summer squash, baby zucchini and sweet Vidalia onions. There were also beautiful lettuces of all varieties and gorgeous English cucumbers. Non-farmer's market salad additions included grape tomatoes (although there are some locally grown hot house tomatoes available already), pine nuts, goat cheese and big cremini mushrooms. Assemble whatever your beautiful farmer's market veggies might be, slice them up and grill them after a bath in a simple marinade. Lay out over dressed greens, sprinkle with whatever accoutrements catch your fancy, and enjoy! Here's my version of this improvisational salad...

First prep all your vegetables. I used 1 small zucchini and 2 small yellow crookneck squash. Slice the zucchini in half through the middle and then slice the pieces into half-moon chunks and then into long batons. Or you can just cut them into rounds if you want. Slice the yellow squash into diagonal slices of about 1/2" width each. Place the zucchini and squash slices aside in a large bowl. Get your big sweet onion and slice into thick rounds, then place in the bowl as well. Find some big cremini mushrooms and slice them in half. If they aren't so big, just leave them whole. Put the mushrooms into the large bowl with the other veggies and cover everything with a simple marinade. I used 5 tablespoons olive oil mixed with 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Mix the veggies up well and let them marinate for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Get your grill revved up and lay out your vegetables over medium heat, turning them often and moving them around so they don't burn up. The mushrooms will get all shrively and delicious and the squash/zucchini should get yummy looking grill marks all over. As each vegetable finishes cooking (this is pretty much an eyeballing thing--mine took about 15-20 minutes all together), remove it to a plate and set aside. Meanwhile, in a big salad bowl, mix up your greens with a sliced cucumber, halved grape tomatoes and a simple vinegrette. I made mine with the juice from one lemon shaken together with 3 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. That's it! After all your vegetables are grilled up, toss them very lightly with the dressed green salad and top with crumbled goat cheese and toasted pine nuts. Oh, you will be one happy camper.

Strawberry rhubarb compote

Strawberries are so perfectly in season right now in Georgia, I have been buying them at the Morningside farmer's market every weekend. A springtime delicacy that I really miss down here though is rhubarb. I don't think we have the climate for it, it's really a cool-weather plant. This is shored up by the fact that when I was discussing the possibility of making this compote with Melanie, she kind of thought about it for a minute and then said she'd never had fresh rhubarb. As she is a Georgia girl born and raised, I took this as further evidence of it not occurring in nature in these climes. I was lucky enough to fall in the good graces of a rhubarb connection however, and procured a couple pounds of this wonderful vegetable. They met up with our incredible local strawberries, and everything got stewed together into a really easy compote.
Cut up a pound of rhubarb stalks into 1 inch chunks. Put them in a pot with 3/4 cup each water and sugar. Set it over medium-high heat and let it stew until the rhubrab is falling apart, about 15 minutes. Now here is a cautionary tale for you: Do not become distracted and ignore your pot. All that sugar will totally burn hell out of your nice dutch oven and you will be sorry for days as you try to clean it out.
Drat. I am so foolish. Anyway, when the rhubarb is falling apart, but before you burn your pot, add in a pound or so of fresh, sliced strawberries. Let them get soft along with the rhubarb for about another 5 minutes, stirring often. That's really all you need to do and you will have the delicious, saucy, classic combo of of strawberry-rhubarb. You can jazz it up by cooking it in orange juice or adding some liquor if you like. Mel has been pouring it over plain yogurt for breakfast, or it could be the base for a baked dessert with a crumbly topping. Otherwise, enjoy it as we did, over vanilla ice cream.

Try not to let it get snatched away though.

BBQ pork: I learnt cooking skills in the kitchen of Shaolin Monastary

I'm calling this BBQ pork because that's what it is referred to as in my all-time favorite movie, God of Cookery. In fact, permit me to rhapsodize on the merits of this glorious cinematic achievement for just a minute here, in case you are unfamiliar. It's the story of a Hong Kong celebrity chef named Steven Chow (who is, conveniently enough, played by the actor/director also named Steven Chow) who has risen to power-mad heights but through a series of down-turning events must learn and prove his worth back again. It is completely hilarious, brilliant, romantic, action-packed, hilarious, food porny, features the Eighteen Brassmen of Shaolin Temple, and has musical numbers! Chances are if we've spent much time together, I've made you watch it with me at some point. If not--you really should go rent it, it's great. I have the poster hanging in my kitchen, actually.


So! BBQ pork. In the movie, Karen Mok's character makes this for Steven Chow and he cries. It turns up again later and causes even more crying. Mine is not that good, but it is a really good use for leftover ribs or whatever else you brought home from Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q. If you, sadly, don't have a great barbeque place that often results in leftovers in your fridge you can use roast pork from the grocery store or leftovers from something else you cooked. Whatever it is, cut it into thin strips and set aside. Cook up a bunch of rice--I made brown rice but that isn't traditional, it's just what I generally make at home. I sliced up 3 small heads of bok choy (fantastic-looking and locally grown!) and set aside. Got 2 tablespoons sesame oil heating in a pan and added in 2 thinly sliced cloves of garlic, 4 minced scallions (both green and white parts), plus 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes. When the garlic was lightly golden (about 1 minute over high heat), I added in the bok choy and stirred it around over high heat until wilty, which took about 3 minutes. Turned down the heat to medium, cleared a space in the center of the pan (push all the bok choy around to the edges in a ring) and added in the pork. Since it is already cooked, it just needs to reheat and possibly get a little flavor. For seasoning, I used 2 teaspoons black bean paste and a little soy sauce and kind of mixed it into the pork. While the bok choy and pork are going, get a little pan going with oil over high heat and fry as many eggs as you have people eating. Keep them runny in the center and let the whites become crispy around the edges. When the eggs are perfectly fried, assemble each bowl with a mound of rice, topped with a pile of bok choy, then some pork, then put the fried egg over all. Sprinkle it with sesame seeds, if you like.


I forgot to take a picture of it as it cooked or in its preparatory state, so you'll just have to realize that is was good enough to be totally devoured.

Everybody loves Jones

This is a long awaited (and oft-requested) quick shoutout to a couple of people who are a big part of dinnertime at my house. Melanie and Jeremy are my beloved downstairs neighbors and the people I turn to as guinea pigs for cooking (Mel: "I don't love it..."), as emergency responders for fanning the smoke alarm when it inevitably goes off during chicken roasting, and as my co-conspirators for drinking too much wine on school nights. They're always up for a trip to the farmer's market and always willing to say "eh, screw it, let's just go out for Mexican." I consider myself quite lucky to have my nearest and dearest friends living right downstairs. And this past weekend, Jeremy did something absolutely incredible--he graduated medical school and is now officially our very own Dr. Jones. So, just because they're both awesome, and just because he's now a real doctor, this here's a special post to celebrate Melanie and Jeremy. Thanks, you guys. And way to go.

Braised beef short ribs on horseradish potato purée

This is what I made for the main dish when my mom was visiting in town. It went really well with the spring veggie ragout and I was really impressed with the flavorful-ness of beef short ribs. They're cut along cross-ways, rather than by separating out the long way by each rib section, like you often see with pork ribs. Beef short ribs are cheap and delicious--they require a bit of cooking time but are really easy. Serve these rich cuts of meat over something piquant, such as the horseradish potatoes here, to counterbalance.

I got about 2 1/2 pounds of beef short ribs. Browned them in olive oil over medium-high heat on all sides in my large cast iron dutch oven. You may need to do this in batches--I know I certainly did. They will take about 8 minutes per side. When they've all been browned, remove and set aside. Back in the same pot, sauté 3/4 cup each chopped onion and carrot until soft and lightly browned (about 8 minutes), then add 3 cloves minced garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Add a 16-ounce can of chopped tomatoes (or tomato puree, whichever you have handy) and bring it all to a boil. Add in 1 ½ cups of a good red wine and boil for 8 minutes (I keep recommending 8 minutes as the optimal time to do things for this recipe, don't know why that is). Now add in 4 cups of stock (I had a good homemade chicken stock in the fridge so I used that, you can use beef or veal stock if you manage it and this will be even more delicious) and bring it to a simmer with a pinch of dried thyme and 2 bay leaves tossed in there too. When it is at a simmer, add back in your beef ribs along with any juices that have accumulated on the plate you removed them to. Cover the pot and stick it in an 250 degree oven to braise for 3 hours. When it emerges you will be so happy.

These beef ribs create an amazing sauce that need a good bed to be served on. I made horseradish potatoes and it was really easy. It's not like you won't have the time, what with the short ribs braising for 3 freaking hours. Peel and cut into chunks about 1 ½ pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes. Boil the chunks in salted water for 20 minutes, or until whenever they are soft. Drain them lightly, return to the pot and mash really well with ½ cup cream, 4 tablespoons butter, salt, pepper and 4 tablespoons prepared horseradish. You can purée this through a food mill for a really creamy texture. To serve, mound some of the potatoes on a dish and swirl it around with a spoon to flatten. Over the potatoes, rest 2 or 3 short ribs and ladle some of the delicious sauce over the top.

Spring vegetable ragout

My mother was here visiting over the weekend...it was fun and exhausting. I think she has more energy than anyone I know. She's like a tiny, Italian perpetual motion machine. We had a great time and made a trip to the Morningside farmers market. There were tomatoes (although they were probably not grown outdoors), and strawberries, fava beans, lettuce, arugula, green garlic and tons of other produce available. I thought these perfect springtime veggies would go well in a fresh ragout with some lemon juice, dill, and and a little cream. We had Betsy, Ryan and Paul over and everyone got to hang out with mom, drink wine, learn to juggle, etc.

Start with 8 tiny baby artichokes. If you can't find them, you can use big ones and cut them up into quarters (or use good quality artichoke hearts for a different style but equally delicious dish). Steam or boil them until tender--about 30 minutes. Fish them out and slice in half lengthwise and set aside. Shell about a pound of fava beans. I know it's tedious as hell (you have to shuck them out of the pod, then skin each one) so if you don't feel like preparing a whole pound, don't worry about it. The amounts here are very flexible. Or you could use frozen shelled edamame instead, if you don't have fresh fava beans. Thinly slice 3 green garlic (or scallions can replace) using a few inches of the pale green part in addition to the white bulb. Saute the green garlic/scallion in 2 tablespoons butter until soft and fragrant. Add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, your shelled fava beans and 1/2 cup green peas. Saute everything together in the butter for 1 minute, then add 1/2 cup chicken stock and continue to stir. After 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat, add a teaspoon of dill (use fresh dill if you have it, but add at least twice as much), and 1/4 cup heavy cream. Stir everything gently together and add the baby artichoke halves at the very end, just to heat through. Fresh mint would be wonderful scattered over the top to serve but I didn't have any.

Smoked salmon pasta

Betsy and I were having an evening wherein work pressures and life annoyances had driven us to consume something extraordinarily creamy and rich. This pasta fits that kind of day perfectly. Make it on some evening when you know you'll have enough people over for dinner to eat it all because it isn't one of those pasta sauces that keeps well. This will easily serve 4 people, more if you are doing small portions for a first course. It's really easy to make and would be great with a green salad tossed in a bright vinaigrette to contrast with the creamy sauce--of course the other day when I made this we were feeling sorry for ourselves and didn't scare up any green vegetables at all. Betsy showed up and said "well, I didn't bring any salad stuff...but look! I brought brownies! And wine!" Which, if you think about it, is even more awesome than a salad, especially on cruddy days.

You will need a chunk of good smoked salmon--I used about 8 ounces but it's a pretty flexible thing. The better the salmon is, the better your sauce will be. Use a knife or a fork and flake up your chunk of salmon into little pieces and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and saute 1 small minced onion over medium heat until lightly caramelized and all soft and golden, about 8 minutes. Turn your heat up to medium-high and add 1 cup white wine and let it sizzle for a second to burn off the alcohol. Add 1 6-ounce can tomato paste and saute with the onions and wine for 1 minute then add 1/2 cup tomato puree (note: you can use any kind of canned tomato at this point as long as it isn't more tomato paste or nasty premade tomato sauce. Diced tomatoes are fine, or whatever else you happen to have in your cupboard). Add 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese in chunks, while stirring the sauce gently to make sure the cream cheese melts--it should turn a really pretty light pink color. Add in about 3 tablespoons of half-and-half (or milk or cream) to smooth it out. When the sauce is smooth, add your flaked smoked salmon and 2 teaspoons fresh black pepper. Taste it to see if it needs salt--smoked salmon is pretty salty already so it might be OK. If it seems too rich and creamy you can add a tablespoon vodka or a drizzle more white wine or some more tomato puree if you want it less pink. Either way, boil up a pound of penne pasta (or something else if you like it better), drain it lightly when it is al dente, return it to the pot you boiled it in and toss it together with your salmon sauce. Serve immediately with wine and brownies and stop worrying about your job.

Beet tzatziki and flank steak

So this whole dinner came about because of a beet tzatziki that I made and didn't know what I should do with once I'd made it. I made the tzatziki because I couldn't resist buying these gorgeous candy-colored beets at the Morningside farmer's market and they needed to be used up. Aviva and Ali and I had our porky tofu dinner the other night and we were just sitting around and chatting afterwards, so I decided to make this because I was roasting the beets anyway and wanted to do something with my hands while we talked besides drink wine (beet tzatziki--the solution for my incipient alcoholism?). It is an amazing color; a bright pink that seems impossible to occur in nature, but it totally does, y'all. I packed it up in the fridge in tupperware and thought about it for a day or so until I decided it would be great with flatbread, grilled flank steak and an assortment of other vaguely mediterranean dishes (see the last 2 posts if you are curious). A note about the type of yogurt used in tzatziki--it is sort of a special kind. It's a thick, greek-style yogurt which means it is creamier and thicker than regular yogurt and makes a revelatory sauce. So go get yourself a nice piece of beef, grill or broil it simply, and use this amazing hot pink sauce as a condiment. If nothing else it makes a great conversation starter.

Trim the greens down to 1 inch from 4 small beets, and lay them on aluminum foil in a pan to roast in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes-1 hour. The aluminum foil is just to keep the beets from staining your dish--if you don't care, don't use the foil. If you don't have small farmer's market type beets, just use 1 huge one instead. When they are soft, take them out and let them cool until you can handle them. Take the skins off (this is easy once beets are cooked, usually they just slip right off with the aid of a sharp knife) and grate the beets into a mixing bowl. Add 1 minced clove garlic, juice from 1 lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Let it sit for 5 minutes to mellow, then add at least 1 cup of thick greek-style yogurt and mix it up really well. It will be the most intense, shocking pink you've ever seen, like a cracked out Victoria's Secret window display. You may have to look away for fear of searing your retinas. Taste it and add more yogurt if it is too candy-sweet (beets are, like, pure sugar), you can add up to 1/2 cup more yogurt, if you like. Stir in some dill--1 tablespoon minced if it is fresh, or 1/2 tablespoon if it is dried.

Now for the steak. I rubbed a 2 pound flank steak with a mixture of 3 tablespoons olive oil, 3 cloves minced garlic, 2 teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, sea salt and fresh black pepper. Let this sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, then turned on the oven broiler and stuck my grill pan in to get hot for a minute. Put the steak on the grill pan and broiled it--about 7 minutes per side. Cut into it and check after you flip it to see if it is done to your liking. You can also just throw it on the grill rather than broil it--I probably would have but I think my grill is still on Mel and Jeremy's porch. When it is cooked the way you want it, pull it out and slice into thin strips across the grain. Pour the pan juices over the slices and serve with the beet tzatziki sauce and flatbread.

Spiced couscous

This went along with the previously mentioned green beans and the not-yet mentioned flank steak in our dinner the other night. Melanie, Jeremy and Ali were all over and it was fun--especially as Melanie brought her mom's chocolate pound cake and Ali brought over chocolate-caramel covered matzoh. I'm always excited when other people bring desserts--it's just not something I do well, in case y'all haven't noticed. Anyway, Jeremy was sad that this was small-grain "normal" couscous, rather than the large pearl couscous that I usually make, but I thought it was a better accompaniment to the pan-mediterranean style dinner that I had going on, so he just had to deal with it. This is a very highly flavored, pretty side dish with a subtle Morrocan/Sicilian feel to it. It would be good either hot or at room-temperature, which makes me think it would be perfect to take on a picnic.

Start with 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add ¼ cup minced onion, ¼ cup minced carrot and one de-seeded and minced small serrano pepper. Any tiny slightly hot green pepper will do fine (jalapeno, cubanelle, whatever) just be sure that it is not large (about 2 inches long is fine) and make sure to de-seed it first. Saute in the butter-oil mixture until tender, then clear space in the center of the pot and add 1 teaspoon chile powder, 1 teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon cumin to bloom in the oil. "Blooming" your spices in heat is the best way to bring out their full flavor and potential--mostly in spice mixtures like curry powder or chile powder. What it does is release the oils and intensifies the flavor of the spice, which they do not get the opportunity to do when you just dump them into a liquidy mixture. They need full contact with a hot pan. Anyway, heat your spices and mix them in with the sauteeing vegetables, then add ½ teaspoon tumeric and 1 ¼ cup couscous (I'm just guessing on the additional ¼ cup part, all I know is that I had a little bit left in the container so I just added it. Definitely at least a cup though). Mix everything well together and add 1/3 cup golden raisins and 1 ¼ cups chicken stock, bring to a boil, cover, and turn off the heat. Let it steam covered and off-heat for 5-8 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon each minced cilantro and mint. You can use parsley instead if you want, I just happened to have these in my fridge. Fluff the couscous with a fork, mix in the juice of 1 lemon and serve hot or cold.

Agrodolce green beans with pistachios

Let me just tell you right now, this is delicious. Agrodolce sauce is good with many things although I think traditionally it is served with meat or fish. It is usually composed of thinly sliced and somewhat caramelized onion or shallots in a balsamic vinegar-sugar mixture. It is the sweet-and-sour sauce of Italy. Well, I'm a fan of green beans right now, especially the beautiful ones we are currently getting in the market up from Florida, so I decided that the sweet-sour-oniony treatment is just what they needed, plus a crispy, salty topping of pistachios to really highlight all that tangy sweetness. These went really well with a couscous and flank steak dinner we had last night, for which the recipes will be forthcoming.

First, I trimmed the ends off about a pound of attractive green beans, washed them well and set aside. I sliced up two very small onions--first in half and then crosswise to form thin half moon segments. You can use shallots or red onion if you prefer the flavor--I just didn't have any on hand. I melted together 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat, added the onions and allowed them to cook for about 10 minutes until golden and lightly browned in parts. At that point, I added 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon brown sugar and 2 teaspoons raw sugar. Use whatever type of sugar you like, just not too much. You could probably try making this with honey also. Stir the vinegar, sugar and onions all together to form a syrupy sauce and try it to see if it needs any tweaking. I decided mine was too sweet so I added some white balsamic vinegar to temper it (the dark kind is naturally sweeter). Add a few cranks of salt and pepper, then set aside the sauce. Wipe out the pan, turn the heat up to medium-high and toast 1/4 cup of chopped, salted pistachios until crispy, then take them out and set aside. Add about 1 cup of water to your pan (I just kept using the same pan because I hate washing too many at the end) and get it boiling over high heat, then dump in your green beans to steam-saute. Let them get bright green and crisp-tender (about 4 minutes) then drain them. Toss the green beans in a serving dish with the agrodolce sauce and scatter the toasted pistachios over the top to serve.

Tofu with shitakke mushrooms and pork

So the New York Times had a neat sounding recipe about tofu and pork together! It reminded me of something Marilyn might make so I thought I'd try a version of it. Also I had just purchased some really great, locally farmed pork sausage at the Morningside Market from the good looking meat man with the bright blue eyes (seriously, you can ask Betsy for verification, he was really handsome). Tofu does not necessarily need to be vegetarian, especially when pork makes it so damn delicious. Although if Ariane or Jocelyn wanted to make this, just omit the pork, increase the amount of mushroom and use veggie stock instead, and you'll have yummy vegetarian stirfry with crispy tofu (albeit, one that neither Ben nor Nick will eat, but whatever). Anyway, Aviva and Ali came over for dinner and gossip and this is what we had:

Start out with a 1 pound block of firm tofu and drain it in a colander or something to get some of the water out. Cut it into chunks (new york times said "slabs" but whatever size you like is fine). Heat up 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick pan and let your tofu chunks/slabs get golden and crispy without stirring--about 4 minutes per side. You might need to do this in 2 batches. Remove the tofu once it is golden and crispy and let it rest on paper towels to drain the oil off. Go back to your now-empty pan and add in the following: a package of shittake mushrooms that you have sliced into thin strips, the white and light-green parts of 4 thinly sliced green onions (I used green garlic since they had it at Morningside), and between 4-5 ounces of pork sausage. Like I said, I had the stuff from the farmer's market and it was all ground up, not in casings or anything like that. I don't actually know how much I used--probably a little more than half of a six-ounce package. You can also slice up chorizo or any other kind of pork sausage that you like. So, I crumbled in my sausage, mushrooms and green garlic and sauteed until soft, then added 1/4 cup chicken stock, 4 teaspoons soy sauce and 2 tablespoons sherry. This is pretty much straightforward and from the New York Times recipe, but I bet there would be more delicious sauce ingredients to add if you wanted to. Stirred it all together for 2 minutes and let the sauce get a little thicker, then added the tofu back in to reheat and served over brown rice.

Carrot cake with pistachio-coconut frosting

I ended up making carrot cake because I had made a huge batch of frosting intended to go on top of cupcakes for Paul's birthday (this is Tech Paul, in order to differentiate him from brother-in-law Paul or work mate Paul, or any other Paul...). The cupcakes weren't all that great, so I'm sparing you the recipe, but the frosting was awesome. There was a whole lot leftover and all I could think of to go with it was carrot cake. Fran and Paul (that's brother-in-law Paul now) were due to arrive for a visit last night and it was too late for dinner, so instead they got carrot cake.

Like I said, I made the frosting first and it had to hang out in the fridge waiting for cake for a couple days, so I'll let it go first as a recipe component: Mix up a package of cream cheese until fluffy, then add about 1/2-3/4 cup of powdered sugar (you might want it more sweet). Added in the juice of 1 orange, mixed well, then put in 1 cup chopped pistachios and 1/2 cup shredded, toasted coconut. I happen to like coconut but I realize it is a polarizing ingredient so feel free to leave it out and add more and different nuts or whatever you like instead. Cream these ingredients all together and stick in the fridge until it is time to frost.

For the cake you will need 2 cups of shredded carrots. Do this first and get it out of the way because it is a pain in the ass to shred carrots. Three large ones seemed to be enough, but they were pretty damn big. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup vegetable oil, 4 eggs, 1/4 cup honey, 1 teaspoon orange extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract. Beat it all together with your hand mixer (or a whisk, fork, whatever you have handy). In another bowl, sift together 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make sure it is all evenly mixed together, then add it to the sugar-oil-egg mixture. Add your 2 cups shredded carrots and mix until well incorporated. Pour it all into a greased baking dish. I used a 9x13 glass pan, you can use whatever is convenient, but if it is deeper than a 9x13, your baking time may be longer. Just keep an eye on it. Pop it in your preheated oven for 30-45 minutes, test it with a toothpick to see if the center is done--mine was done at about 35 minutes. Cool completely and frost gently.

Sorrel and spring pea risotto

Remember when I said 2008 was the year of the risotto? Clearly I meant it. For Easter this year we had Paul, Ryan and Betsy over for dinner. I had been to Morningside farmer's market so I had beautiful frisée salad greens, more watermelon radishes (although that farmer told me that this is probably the end of them for the year, so sad), spring onions and a beautiful bunch of sorrel. Sorrel is a leafy green with a wonderful lemony flavor. It is bright and pretty until you cook it, then it turns a muddy dull color. But it tastes amazing! So I thought I'd make a creamy risotto to go with the bright, snappy sorrel and add some tiny sweet green peas at the end to keep a springtime color.

Minced 2 shallots and the white ends from a bunch of spring onions. You can just use 4 shallots instead, if you have no spring onions at your market. I think regular onion would be too strong here. Sauté the shallots and spring onions in 2 tablespoons butter until softened in a large pot. Add 1 1/2 cup arborio rice and continue to sauté for another 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of chicken stock, stirring over medium heat until the rice has completely absorbed it. You will repeat this step (slowly adding 1/2 cup of liquid at a time) for 6 cups worth of liquid. I use 5 1/2 cups chicken stock plus 1/2 cup of white wine to make 6 cups total. Betsy told me a story about how she was once at a professor's house during her undergrad and the guy made a big stink about how hard it is to make risotto and how easy it is to screw it all up unless you are Mr. Awesome Kitchen Guy and blah blah blah. Meanwhile the guy's wife is calmly making the entire rest of the dinner in the kitchen and this dude is going on about how hard it is to do the sole task he's taken on: the dreaded risotto. It isn't that hard. The only thing you can screw up is adding all the liquid at once. Don't do that. Be patient, add it slow, stir it and wait for it to absorb before adding more. That's all. After you have added your last 1/2 cup of liquid and everything is creamy and delicious, stir in a bunch of washed sorrel. De-stem it first and cut the leaves into thin strips. At this point, also stir in about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese, salt and fresh pepper to taste. Dump in about 3/4 cup of tiny green peas--I found mine frozen and labeled "petite pois" at Whole Foods. Turn off the heat and cover your risotto. The retained heat will steam your peas to perfection. Stir once before sevring to mix them in well.

St. Patrick's Day 2008

As usual, I celebrated St. Patrick's Day by corning many pounds of brisket and inviting as many people as possible over to drink beer and eat. The party was early because March 17th has fallen on a Monday this year, which is a rough day to get all your friends drunk. The past 3 actual St. Patrick days have all fallen happily on party days (Thursday - Saturday) which really facilitated the drinking and corned beef extravaganzas. I do like to celebrate on the correct day. But, alas, leap year and the normal passing of time conspired to make the party on March 15th this year. Whatever, we still ate a lot, got drunk and wore green. As in all past years, Rick made his excellent Irish soda bread and I ended up corning about 12 pounds of brisket in the fridge for a week, then simmering it up with potatoes and cabbage. If you want details on the corning process, they can be found in last year's St. Patrick's Day post. This year I actually made a dessert: Guinness chocolate cupcakes with whiskey cream frosting. I made a double batch for the party and it produced an insane amount of cupcakes, so if you just want the usual 2 muffin tins worth (about 24 cupcakes), make sure you cut all amounts in half. Or you will be swimming in cupcakes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get out two very large bowls, a hand mixer, cooking spray and 4 12-cup muffin tins. If you don't have 4 muffin tins, you can either 1.) borrow from your neighbors, 2.) bake these in 2 batches (that's what I did) or 3.) cut the recipe in half. First the wet ingredients: in one of the big bowls and using your mixer, combine 2 12-ounce bottles of Guinness, 1 cup milk, 1 cup vegetable oil, and 2 tablespoons vanilla. When these are all mixed up together, beat in 6 eggs,one at a time, then mix in 1 1/2 cups sour cream. Now some dry ingredients: in your other big bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, 4 cups sugar, 5 cups flour, and 3 teaspoons baking soda. Make sure you get everything all mixed up well together--don't be lazy. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, using your hand mixer because it is easier than stirring. Get it all mixed up--it will be sort of thick and a delicious dark chocolatey color. But don't eat it yet! Spray your muffin tins really well with the cooking spray. You could also use little cupcake liner but I think they look more elegant as little cakes, so I just got the tins really greasy so that the cupcakes would pop right out after cooling. Try it! After you have prepped your tins, pour the cupcake batter in with a little space to spare right at the top. They won't raise too much. Stick them in the preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, then haul them out and let cool in their tins. Like I said, if you use cooking spray or otherwise grease well, they should pop right out after cooling for about an hour. Here's a delicious frosting to make while your cupcakes are baking/cooling: beat 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese with your mixer until it is smooth and fluffy. Slowly add in 2/3 cup heavy cream until fully incorporated then slowly add 1 one-pound box of confectioner's sugar. Keep beating until it is smooth, then add about 3 tablespoons whiskey, or to taste. You don't want it boozy but you do want a hint of it. When the cupcakes are cool, dollop them with the frosting, like a little hat on top. I also had these super cute little shamrock sprinkles from my last trip to Fante's in Philadelphia, so we put those on top. Ali and Tiffany were instrumental in the cupcake frosting process and Charlie was instrumental in the discovery of splitting open a cupcake and pouring Jameson over the halves before consuming. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Coq au vin blanc

Here is an easy coq au vin that is made with white wine instead of the more common red version. A Riesling would be particularly good, and in fact, there is a good recipe for chicken with Riesling in this month's Gourmet, but I am lazy so I used the run-of-mill Chardonnay hanging out in my fridge. Also it was Sunday and God doesn't like us to be able buy wine for our chicken on Sundays, so what can you do?

Get a chicken and have it cut into 8 or 10 pieces, whichever you prefer. If you don't usually ask your butcher to cut a chicken up, you can buy precut-up chicken pieces instead. Heat 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Shake up your chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then brown them in the hot oil-butter mixture. I did mine in batches--I really can't fit more than 4 or 5 chicken pieces in my pot at once, so just fit in what you can, pull them out and set aside. It takes about 8-10 minutes to brown each batch, flipping them over at least once so that both sides become a beautiful dark golden color. Set chicken aside, and at this point you should set your oven to preheat to 350 because this will all end up in there eventually. Chop 2 leeks into small pieces (just the white and light green parts) and swish them around in a bowl of water to clean all the dirt out. Leeks are always sandy and gritty so be sure to do that. Fish out the clean leek bits and dry them off, then add to your now-empty pot to sauté along with 2 more tablespoons butter and one small, minced yellow onion. When the onion and leeks are soft (about 8 minutes) add the chicken back in, golden-skin side up, along with about 3 carrots that you have peeled and sliced into matchstick pieces. Pour 1 cup white wine over all and allow the liquids to reduce over high heat for about 5 minutes. Cover the pot and stick it in your oven at 350 degrees for about half an hour, then pull it out and pour ½ cup heavy cream over everything. Serve the chicken pieces with the delicious cream-wine sauce ladled over the top.

Shredded brussels sprout sauté

In the past I have made a dish with purple cabbage, prosciutto and pine nuts that Melanie really likes, so I tried to do a variation on that theme with brussels sprouts the other day. It's sort of time consuming to shred the brussels sprouts by hand but if you have a glass of wine and someone to talk to it's not so bad. We had this along with a coq au vin made with white wine that I'll write about next.

I bought at least one pound of fresh brussels sprouts, washed them well and cut each one in half and then cut the halves cross-wise into thin slices. Because brussels sprouts are cabbagey and layered, the slices fall apart into a shredded heap which is perfect for sautéing and cooks much faster than whole sprouts. Melted 2 tablespoons butter in a large deep pan until hot and toasted ¼ cup pine nuts until they were golden. Removed pine nuts and set aside and wiped out the pan to remove any overly browned bits. Added in the shredded brussels sprouts and sautéed over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes, until they began to get soft and bright green, then added the pinenuts back in along with salt, pepper, and ¼ cup golden raisins. Continued to sauté all together for another 2 minutes, then removed from heat and mixed in a drizzle each of white balsamic vinegar and hazelnut oil.

Turkey roulade with chard filling

One of my new favorite things ever is roasting a turkey breast that has been rolled up around a delicious filling. I made a version of this a few weeks ago sort of by accident, but this time around it was quite intentional. I found the gorgeous chard at the Morningside farmer's market; it was the beautiful variety known as rainbow chard, with golden, red and white stems topped by perfect glossy green, early-spring leaves. I also found green garlic, which looks a lot like a bunch of scallions but retains the unmistakable pungency of garlic with a mellow, fresh flavor. These were both utilized in my roulade filling but you can substitute whatever dark leafy greens are available for the chard or minced onion and garlic if you do not have green garlic available.

First I prepared the filling for the roulade. I washed and chopped up a bunch of rainbow chard, making sure the stems were diced quite small, and then sliced the leaves into thin ribbons. Minced 1 bunch of green garlic (substitute ½ minced onion and 2 cloves minced garlic) and sautéed for 3 minutes in 3 tablespoons olive oil. If you are substituting regular onion, it may need more like 6-8 minutes to saute. Add ¼ cup pine nuts and continue to sauté until they have colored lightly, about 2 minutes. Add in the chopped chard and sauté until it is wilted, then add 2 tablespoons sherry and ¼ cup golden raisins. Sauté until the liquid has evaporated somewhat and the filling is not too wet, about 2 more minutes. Add salt and fresh black pepper to taste, then set aside. Take a boneless, whole turkey breast and pound the fat end a bit more flat. There is always a skinny pointy end and a fatter thicker end. I need a meat pounder because slapping around a turkey breast is rough on a girl's hands. Anyway, just try to get it a little bit more flattened out on the thick end. Lay your chard filling out down the center. If there is too much filling for the size of your turkey, don't overdo it, just keep the rest for another use (maybe tossed with pasta? delicious!). Wrap up your turkey breast around the filling, starting with the fatter end and use the skin if necessary to keep it all together. Cut 3 lengths of kitchen twine and use them to tie the roulade together to keep it rolled up. It should look pretty cute. Salt and pepper the top then pop it into the oven at about 400 degrees, flip it over after 20 minutes, flip it back over again after another 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 and let it roast for about an hour. Check the temperature after 40 minutes--depending on the size of your turkey breast it may be done sooner or later than that. Mine actually got pretty toasty, so I had to tent it with aluminum foil about halfway through to prevent scorching. You want the temperature to hit 165 degrees but you can take it out when it is 160 as it will rise while it sits out of the oven and that will prevent the roast from becoming too dry. I guess it could take up to 2 hours to be done if it is a large roast, so plan accordingly and be sure to use your meat thermometer. Slice it up and admire the lovely spirals of the chard stuffing.

I made roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary to accompany the turkey roulade--it is an easy side, especially as you have the oven going already. Fingerlings are very cute and tiny and look nice when they are sliced lengthwise, like tiny golden boats. Slice them and toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, pepper and 2 teaspoons dried rosemary. They can roast at any temperature and are done when they are golden and slightly crispy. Toss them often as they cook, which may take about 40 minutes.

Curried winter squash soup

Much like the last post, this is a recipe of seriously bright color. The batch I made last night featured my favorite winter squash, kabocha, but you can use whichever variety you like best or happen to have lying around the house. Butternut would probably be pretty good. My dad happened to be in town last night, swinging through with his jetsetting lifestyle to socialize with us for an quick evening before heading on his busy way. He said he liked the soup, so if it's good enough for an international xylose fermentation superstar, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

I sautéed 1 large minced onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoon butter. When they were getting soft, I added in 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon yellow curry powder and a pinch of paprika and stirred it all up together. The onions continued to cook for about 10 more minutes. You want them to get very soft but not browned, so keep the heat on the low side. Meanwhile, I chopped in half and de-seeded one large kabocha squash. I peeled up the squash and cut it into small chunks of about 1 ½", then peeled 2 apples and cut them into the same size chunks. Stirred both the squash and the apples into the pot to cook alongside the onions for about 5 minutes, then added 3 cups of chicken stock. Brought it to a low simmer and let it cook until the apples and squash were quite tender, about 25 minutes. At this point I stirred in ½ cup of plain yogurt, ¼ cup sherry, a pinch of red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons salt and a very healthy grinding of black pepper. Then I turned off the heat and got out my fantastic immersion blender that I love more than life itself, and blended hell out of the soup. It turned a sunshiney bright yellow with the curry and the squash and the flavor mellowed out beautifully with the yogurt. You may find it needs a touch more salt, so taste it to see. I allowed the now-smooth soup to chill out on a back burner covered at a low simmer until my dad showed up, then I added a couple tablespoons of finely minced parsley to finish.

Blanched winter vegetable salad

This is a cheatery recipe because it is really easy. There's nothing particularly seasonal about these vegetables--it's just that they're readily available in the wintertime (thanks southern hemisphere!). They taste crunchy and fresh when prepared this way, and the bright colors are a technicolor medicine for winter doldrums, so give it a shot.

Cut one small head of cauliflower into florets of no more than 1 ½" in size and set aside. Do the same with a head of broccoli, reserving the stalks for another use (I deeply love broccoli stalks and can't imagine throwing them away, in fact I used my reserve of them last night for a delicious brown rice-tofu-broccoli stalk stirfry). Take three large carrots, peel and cut into rounds of about ¾" in width. Try to get each vegetable cut into equal sizes. Get a big pot of water up to a hard boil on the stove. While you're waiting for it to boil, fill a bowl of water with cold cold water and at least one tray of ice cubes. You are making an ice bath for your veggies! When the water is boiling merrily, put your broccoli florets in for exactly one minute. Fish them out with a wire mesh colander (or whatever, just don't drain the boiling water because you are going to keep using it) and dump the broccoli into the ice bath. This will instantly stop their cooking which will preserve the crunchy fresh flavor and the brilliant green color. Swirl them around to cool off, then fish them out and place in the fridge. Meanwhile, hopefully your water in the pot on the stove is back up to a boil again, so add in your cauliflower and let it boil for just under 2 minutes, then repeat the fish out/dump in ice bath/stick in fridge routine that you just did for the broccoli. Do the same exact thing for your carrot rounds, also letting them boil for not-quite 2 minutes. You might need to add a few more ice cubes to the ice bath to keep it chilled between vegetables. When all the vegetables are done, store them in the fridge until it's time for dinner. Serve the mixed vegetables either tossed with a delicious vinaigrette or drizzled with the Trader Joe's goddess dressing (it has tahini in it!). This also makes a great lunchbox addition or colorful finger food for little kids.