Okay, I'm breaking my own rule here because Guacamole really doesn't take long to make at all, but maybe if you count loading this video, writing down the ingredients, and *then* making the recipe, it will take long enough to qualify as something that takes "time to cook," even though there's no cooking involved. If you have dial-up, that's even better. Make sure you check out Rhett and Link's other videos, too.
We've really been enjoying potted chicken recently. Today, I'm making two chickens in my electric roaster and I've heaped it full of russet potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic. While teaching 17-year-old Zach to make it today, I decided that I needed to update it a bit with the variations I've made.
For one thing, I've taken to rubbing the chicken with a rosemary spice rub before putting it in the pot. Secondly, I've adapted the way I do the lemons--I don't take the peels off. I've found that it's not only a royal pain, but it also makes it hard to use that wonderful golden goo that's leftover because there's too much lemon pulp in the goo. Also, because it's not in season, I'm omitting the fresh rosemary, and because I'm using the spice rub, I'm omitting the pepper and salt. Also, since oranges are inexpensive right now, I'm substituting some of the lemons with oranges.
Here's the variation:
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Potted Chicken with Rosemary Spice Rub
Rub:
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs. onion salt
1 Tbs. seasoned salt, such as Lawry's
1 Tbs. garlic salt
2 Tbs. paprika
1-1/2 tsp. chili powder
1-1/2 tsp. lemon pepper
1 Tbs. dried sage
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crumbled
1/4 tsp. cayenne
Combine all the ingredients and blend well.
1 locally-raised, free-range (preferably organic) roasting chicken
6-10 whole heads of garlic, rinsed, cut in half side-to-side (giving a cross-section look). Remove any loose papery skin, but leave heads as much intact as possible
2 large lemons
1 large orange
4 large onions, sliced
olive oil
heaps of baby carrots or cleaned carrots cut into small chunks
handfuls of chunked potatoes, either Yukon Gold or red-skinned potatoes
In a dutch oven, lay the sliced onions and 4 of the cut heads of garlic. Rub the spice rub all over the chicken, inside and out. Cut lemons and oranges in quarters (or eighths, depending on the size of the fruit). Stuff the chicken with the lemon and orange wedges, several more of the heads of garlic, more onion, and then sprinkle with spice rub.
Top the whole thing with as many heads of garlic and slices of onion as you like. Tuck as many carrots and potatoes as you would like or can fit around and on top of the chicken. Sprinkle with more a bit more spice rub. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake, covered, (I use the cast iron dutch over my mother-in-law got me last Christmas) in a 350 degree F oven for about 3 hours. The chicken will literally fall off of the bone. Dig the garlic heads out, scoop the buttery-soft garlic out of the skins and spread on the chicken or on pieces of crusty bread, like the No-Knead Rosemary Bread or Genovese Basil Bread. Serve the carrots and potatoes on the side. When you've finished the meal, separate the chicken from the bones and skin and use it later for delicious chicken salad. Transfer all of the garlic pulp, juices and soft onions to another container and use it for a stock base or a fabulous gravy for your next batch of redskin mashed potatoes.
Last night, we had another one of our pizza-making marathons. 13-year-old Aleks made the crusts, I made the sauce, and everyone pitched in making a pizza.
Having a pizza night is a lot like opening gifts on Christmas morning. I peek into the oven, see that the pie is done, grab the tongs and ease the creation off of the pizza stone, and transfer it to our butcher block island where it's cut and served right from there. Each new pie holds surprises. Last night, Aleks made a buffalo chicken-ranch pizza with fresh sliced garlic and basil, frozen from our summer's bounty. Mine was a white pizza with lots of mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano and minced garlic. There's always a combination of interesting flavors. We toss on marinaded artichokes, green olives and feta, or a simple garlic butter, basil, feta, kosher salt and red pepper flakes. Aleks loves to make a dipping sauce for the crust out of olive oil, salt, basil, italian seasonings and red pepper flakes.
What are your favorite pizza toppings? What's the most unconventional pizza you've ever made? If you've never made pizza from scratch, what's stopping you?
Can't wait to hear your responses!
Don't you love it when you're not even looking and a great tool falls right into your life? The other day I was searching for some killer writing software, and MacGourmet Deluxe politely waved to me from my Google Search window. Of course I had to go check it out. And since it was designed for Mac, I really had to check it out. And since there's a 20 session full-version free trial, I had to really, really check it out.
Downloading is easy. The learning curve is gentle. Within just a few minutes, with the help of Safari, I was importing recipes from Time to Cook as well as many of my other favorite food blogs.
This is a fabulous find for me because one of my life's goals is to collect all of my recipes in one place, create a cookbook, and give a copy to each of my five children. MacGourmet makes that very easy and even pretty fun.
From the Mariner website, creator of MacGourmet and MacGourment Deluxe, you can:
• Build, print, and share your own cookbook from your recipe collection.
• Use the Mealplan feature to plan and organize meals. Since this is a Mac program, you can Sync your plans with iCal.
• Easily calculate the nutritional content of your recipes.
• Publish your recipes to your .mac account or to your web site.
• Manage your wine collection by recording notes about your favorite wines.
• Import recipes from your favorite online source.
• Create shopping lists from the Weekly Meal Planner or from one or more recipes.
• Store and manage all your cooking notes.
• Organize your collection with SmartLists.
• Plan a meal using the Cupboard find or Potluck find features.
There are a few things about the software that I don't care for, like the inability to customize the layout before creating PDF files, or to customize the preparation, course or categories lists (I'd like to add courses, equipment and categories) and the limited "help" files, but it's definitely miles above my current system of throwing my recipes in a ring binder or in a drawer in the kitchen. Plus, the "Clippings" feature, which allows you to go to any website, select the recipe and import it into the recipe editor, is simply killer and in itself is worth the $44.95 purchase price (you can only do five clippings per session with the trial version). This feature only works with Safari, Camino and Opera web browsers.
When I've entered all of my favorite recipes, I'll print them on cardstock, laminate them, and put them together with a single binder ring. They can even be color-coded according to category, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Kids' Recipes, etc. I have a few recipes like this from years ago and they've held up perfectly.
I also plan to create a cookbook which can then be sent to self-publishing services like Lulu, CreateSpace and CafePress and then given as gifts to friends and family.
If you have a Mac, you really must give MacGourmet Deluxe a try.
When my new iPod Touch arrived in all of its glory, one of the first things I did was take the advice of my college-age daughter--I packed my pod with podcasts from every source I could think of. One of the great gifts that fell into my favor is The Splendid Table, an American Public Media program described as "the show for people who love to eat," and indeed it is. One listen to TST and I was hooked, making my way through the archives at lightning speed while folding laundry, driving in my car, or walking on the trail. TST features fascinating segments on all things food, whether it's the locavore movement, the food scene in Moscow, eating to increase your longevity, improvising dishes, or roadside diners along The Mother Road, Route 66, the potential for learning and bringing something new and lasting to your own table is practially bottomless. Even the philosophy that comes from TST is astounding, and I often find myself nodding my head in agreement when I hear guests spouting wisdom, such as this tidbit by Neal Rosenthal, wine merchant and author of the book Reflections of a Wine Merchant:
"We passed through a period of a decade or so where people gave up their right to choose. We became a bit slavishly entrapped in a media process which is to say that people would give over their choice of selecting to things that were praised in the press, but I sense there's a revival of all things artisan.We appreciate what values this brings to our life and our culture."This bit of wisdom was in reference to consumers' wine choices, but it could be applied to all foods. We, as an American culture, are in danger of allowing mega-stores to make our food choices for us. One look at a natural foods distributor's catalog and we begin to see what foods we're missing, what we won't find at our local Everything*Mart chain. Things like Greek yogurt, heirloom tomatoes, truly artisan breads and cheeses, high-quality baking products, fair trade chocolates and beverages are not available in these places, and if they are, their quality will likely diminish, their power to choose their growing practices decrease, and the cost of transporting will continue to rise. And once they're the only guy on the block, what they choose will become what we choose, and our local farmers, dairy producers, bakeries, winemakers, and orchards will suffer and, eventually, disappear. We will shop ourselves right out of our choices, and right out of our unique communities.
"Food plays about 25-30% of longevity. All of the longest-living people eat mostly plants. Gardening is an ideal longevity activity because it reduces stress, uses the range of motion, and you emerge with organic vegetables. Having a sense of purpose, to know why you wake up in the morning, you're going to eat better food, exercise, and be more engaged with the world."What we choose to eat, how we grow it, how we harvest it, and how we feel about our purpose in life are three major contributors to living a long and healthy life. Do we feel a sense of purpose by buying our foods from a mega-store shelf? Do we contribute to the sense of purpose of others by purchasing items that are not fairly produced? Do we have a first-hand (literally) part in producing our own foods straight from our garden, which increases our physical health in multiple ways, from getting fresh air, gentle stretching, contact with the earth, and receiving the ultimate in fresh foods?
What's a great project for a child on a cool fall morning? No-knead rosemary bread, of course!
13 year old Monet, 9 year old Sweetheart and 5 year old Baby made their rosemary bread with verbal help from mama, from determining the right temperature of the water (warm, not hot or cold), to the measuring of the ingredients, to the harvesting of the rosemary, to the slathering on of the olive oil (what fun!) and finishing up with the eating of the final product. Monet even improvises a dipping oil which I will have him post for your enjoyment later this afternoon.
In the meantime, enjoy the photos of my previously posted No-Knead Rosemary Bread!
A pleasant goo.
...a cast-iron skillet (or other baking pan/dish), slather with olive oil, then sprinkle with kosher salt.
Snip some more rosemary on top.
It's not a tall loaf. Think of it as more of a thick foccacia.
Spread with real butter or dip in an olive oil mixture...
...and enjoy!When we host houseconcerts, we ask people to bring along a healthy snack, whether that means a bowl of fruit, a tray of veggies, or their homemade Italian Eggplant Caponata. Often, people will bring their signature dishes, and it's not unusual to find the kitchen butcher-block buffet heavy with likes of a fabulous vegetable curry, espresso chocolate chip cookies, homemade cheeses, and delicious breads.
During one particular concert, the musician made a point of thanking the guests for loading him up with such exceptional foods, and he said that he didn't want to exclude anyone, but that the rosemary bread was just to die for. Indeed it was. It took me a while to ask for the recipe, but now that I have it, my rosemary plants are in danger of being stripped bare.
This is similar to Daniel Lahey's No-Knead Bread, but this one requires no kneading at all and only takes a little over two hours, start to finish, to make. I can imagine you could use other herbs, if you like, and I plan on trying it out with basil, tarragon or oregano.
This dough is extremely wet, so if you end up with a big, gooey mess after the mixing and the first rising period, you haven't done anything wrong. Just grease up your hands before you pull the mass from the rising bowl, and make sure you oil your baking pan well before slopping the dough onto it. Make two batches. You'll be glad you did.
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No-Knead Rosemary Bread
Courtesy of Sonia S.
(makes 2 loaves)
2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
4 cups flour (I use bread flour, but you might be able to use all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons salt
Extra virgin olive oil
A handful of fresh rosemary, hard stem removed and chopped
Kosher salt
Mix yeast and water in large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and a small handful of chopped rosemary. Add to yeast and water. Blend with a spoon until mixed and the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl (will be gooey). Cover and let rise for 1 hour, 20 minutes. Grease a cookie sheet or two-loaf baguette pan with olive oil. Grease your hands and dump the dough into two loaves, forming rough elongated loaf shapes with your hands. Pat with olive oil, sprinkle with chopped rosemary and a dusting of kosher salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and then at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Serve with delicious pesto, butter, or olive oil mixed with fresh basil, crushed red pepper, crushed fresh garlic, a bit or oregano and kosher salt to taste.
Let me know what you think!
