Category: Food

Christopher’s Chicken Roll

By now you know I love food. I love to eat it, prepare it, shop for it, learn about it and talk about it. Most of my readers thus far probably know I have two sons and through my marriage have two step daughters and two step sons. When I first became involved with my husband Keith, our kids ranged in age from 15-28 and only one of them was involved with the person he ultimately married. Today, our family has grown from seven to 22! We now have five married kids, the youngest getting married this year, and 8 grandchildren.  For the first several years of gatherings at the farm, when the kids packed in, home from college or work, I did most of the shopping and cooking and my husband was the dish guy. I enjoyed cooking for the kids because they like food too.

Over the years, through marriage and maturity, many of the kids have developed a love for food almost as much, and in some cases more than, me. So you can imagine how excited I am when they prepare food for me. With each passing year at family gatherings the kids and I happily take turns with the food planning and prep. I get a huge kick out of the obsessive planning. I used to think it was a “McGee thing” to be talking about the next meal while eating the current meal. But it’s not, it’s a food-lovers thing.

I’m currently visiting Keith’s daughter Ellen and her family in sunny Florida. Here, I’m enjoying darling grandchildren, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, the remarkably clear emerald gulf coast, pure white sand, and Ellen and Christopher’s delicious food.

Last night Christopher prepared a whole deboned chicken roll. I’m kicking myself for not documenting the entire process, but I have to confess to taking a nap while he attempted the deboning process. “It’s a lot easier on youtube.” He remarked. “You definitely need the right tools to debone a chicken.” (Note to self, Christopher needs new a filet knife for Christmas.)

When I awoke from my slumber and entered the kitchen, the bird was skin side down, boneless and ready for stuffing. I just couldn’t help myself, I had to get involved. The following recipe is Christopher’s chicken roll preparation. I cut the garlic and the string, he did the rest.

Ingredients: One deboned whole chicken (I might have the butcher do it for me), wings keep bones
The following are estimates on quantities. We didn’t really measure anything.
1 lb. diced potatoes, fried until tender
1 bag of raw baby spinach
½-1 lb. feta cheese
4-5 bacon slices
4-5 garlic cloves, pressed
fresh basil, thyme
paprika, salt and pepper
cooking twine

Christopher deboned the chicken, fried the potatoes to pre-cook.
With the chicken skin side down, I rubbed the minced garlic around the cavity, sprinkled in all other seasoning.
Next, we placed the raw spinach covering the center of the cavity, we put in as much as we thought we could roll.  Then added potatoes and cheese.
The roll is not a pinwheel, instead, you bring both sides up and flip.
He topped with bacon, then secured with the twine.
He lined the bottom of the pan with more diced raw potatoes, then placed the chicken on the rack.
350° for 1.75 hours.

The possibilities for stuffing the bird are endless. And of course while we ate it, we discussed many of them. Sausage bread stuffing, prosciutto lining the cavity, mushrooms, olives, more spinach…can’t wait.

 

 

 

Sunday Dinner: Culinary Quackery

Now that I’ve returned from a month in France, I’m all about preparing some of the wonderful meals I enjoyed there. My A-list  includes: braised pork cheeks, mussels, duck confit, and goat cheese salad. My son Ryan and his wife Tiffany planned on visiting last Sunday for “Sunday dinner” so I asked if they’d mind being my guinea pigs for a test run of duck confit. He said they were game. Before I begin with the story, take a look at these three pictures (scroll over each).

For those of you who, A) follow my blog and recognize my countertop or B) have eaten at my house and recognize my countertop, you will immediately know which duck confit I prepared. Even so, if you have eaten at my house you just might opt for door number 3 knowing that most of the time, I do a pretty good job with interpreting recipes. You might say, “Gee door number 3 looks a little anemic, but Trish is such a good cook, I bet it’s deceiving. And you know, sometimes, the worst looking food has the best flavor.” You might say that. But you’d regret it. Let me go back to the beginning of the story.

While in France I had the gastronomic pleasure of dining at Mistral Bistro Modern located in the wonderful village of L’Isle Sur La Sorgue, Provence. Over a three-week period, we dined there on three occasions.  The first time I had the wonderful pork cheeks; the second and third times I ordered the duck thigh confit. These preparations had a few things in common. First, they were absolutely delicious. Second, both meats were mouthwateringly tender and flavorful. Third, both were accompanied by cocos de Provence.

In an email dialogue with Mistral owner, Minna Benoit, I asked if cannellini beans would be the closest substitute to the cocos and she agreed. I also asked if she would possibly share the pork cheek recipe with me. She agreed to ask her husband if he would be willing to share. (Maybe if Minna reads this post she will take pity on me :-))

Since I haven’t yet received the recipe from Minna – and I would understand if they didn’t want to share their secrets – I decided to have a look around the web for something similar. What I found was behind door number 1. So there you have it. Door number 1, http://www.mykitchentable.co.uk/index.php/2011/12/raymond-blanc-duck-leg-confit-with-flageolet-beans/  is what I was attempting. Door number 2 is what I had the pleasure of eating at Mistral. Door number 3 is my 3-day disaster.

Friday, Day 1: The Duck Hunt.  I woke up on Friday, having found Raymond Blanc’s recipe on Thursday night, ready to tackle duck confit. Since he calls for a day or two marinade, I had to start hunting for the duck right away. I called several local butchers who don’t sell duck (but luckily can get me some pork cheeks when I need them). I then lowered my standards and called the local Giant food store meat department. The butcher informed me she had 4 individually wrapped duck legs. I asked her to hold please. By the way, Mistal prepared duck thighs, but I was settling for duck legs out of desperation. I picked up the duck legs at the grocery store and almost fell over when I looked at the price. $7.99 per. Wow. Then I noticed they were already cooked. That wouldn’t do.

One of the butchers earlier that morning said I should try Eastern Market. (one of three farmer’s markets in town) I drove half way across town, zipped from butcher to butcher, but no one had duck.

I was out of time that day since we had other commitments so I went home with all of the other ingredients for the meal, hoping I’d find duck the following day.

Saturday, Day 2: The decoy.  The following morning my husband picked up a whole duck from Giant and was charged with the task of cutting it into parts…needless to say we didn’t watch a video or read any instructions ahead of time about dissecting a duck. At least it had one day to “marinate in the spices”…sorta.

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Duck parts, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.

Sunday, Day 3: Culinary Quackery.   First thing in the morning I began roasting the duck. It was really looking promising, don’t you think?

Later that day, I worked on the beans. I have to say, I don’t “cheat” much when it comes to cooking. Almost everything I make is from scratch and I snarl at someone if they ask “Is that a homemade pie crust?” Two major exceptions: I rarely make my own stock for soup, as there are plenty of nice options available and I don’t work with dried beans – I’ve only ever used with canned beans – almost exclusively for chili. In the interest of authenticity, I decided to try dried beans. I couldn’t find any dried cannellini beans so I opted for Great Northern beans. I soaked them overnight as directed.

I ventured away from the Blanc recipe in a few ways:

I sautéed the onion and instead of using bacon I used chorizo (which was a part of the Mistral recipe). I sautéed the chorizo with the onion and I added the pressed garlic at the end. Then I added the beans and water and cooked them as directed. It took a lot longer than 50 minutes to soften the beans, but at some point they went beyond soft to mushy. (Issue #1)

When marinating the duck, the recipe called for rock salt. I didn’t have any so I opted for regular salt.  (Issue #2) I roasted the duck at 300° instead of 275° (Issue #3).

By the time all was said and done, I ended up with door number 3. Ugh.  Bland, dry duck, and mushy, flavorless beans.

My son and his wife tried to be good sports about it. My husband’s first comment was, “You might not want to serve to our friends until you work on it a bit more.” My daughter-in-law (who was suffering from a pretty bad cold – dulled tastes buds) said “I think it’s good.”  My son dutifully ate as much as he could, then he sat for a few minutes. Finally he walked over to the refrigerator and got out the leftover macaroni and cheese and chicken and created a nice plate for himself.

So much for my first try at Duck Confit. There was definitely something fowl in the garbage that night.

I’d love to hear comments about this fiasco. Your thoughts readers? Suggestions? Any ideas for a good spicy chorizo?

As the kids were leaving Sunday evening, Ryan said, “See you soon Mom, next time let’s have roast beef and mashed potatoes.”

 

Market Vendors: The Count

In my post “Where’s the Pasta?” I lamented the missing pasta vendor at the Sunday Market in L’Isle sur la Sorgue. This week I set out, yet again, to look for the illusive (and I’m now convinced non-existent) pasta stand. My search wasn’t a complete waste of time, however, because while searching, I decided to count how many of each type of vendor actually are here. The results are in – I know you’re just chomping at the bit for this crucial information. So, without further ado, here you go…

42 Clothing (Includes all types, fabrics, sizes except the socks and scarves)
24 Jewelry
22 Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
18 Scarves
17 Linens (Mostly table clothes and napkins, but I included bedspreads, curtains, and tea towels)
14 Leather (Belts, purses, wallets)
10 Sausage
9 Shoes (Men’s, women’s, children’s)
8 Cheese
7 Soaps
7 Rotisserie Chicken
7 Fragrance/oil (Tended to be little bottles of oils or sachet)
6 Garlic
6 Cutters (Slicers, dicers, knives)
5 Wooden gadgets
5 Tapenades
5 Pictures (Paintings or prints)
5 Misc. Decor (do dads, napkin rings, small trays)
4 Olives
4 Herbs
4 Cloth purses/bags
4 Toys
3 Lavender
3 Dried Fruit
3 Honey
3 Spices
3 Mushrooms
3 Hats
3 Watches
3 Olive Oil
3 Baked Goods
3 Honey
3 Nuget
2 Flowers
2 Rocks
2 Rugs
2 Sunglasses
2 Fabric
2 Pottery
2 Pizza
2 Wine
2 Books/CD’s
1 Jam
1 Knobs
1 Socks
1 Gel Fruit
1 Nail Polish
1 Fish
1 Snails
1 Cooked pig
1 Gingerale
0 Pasta

Total Vendors: 293

Just a few remarks about my method. My method: tick marks on a legal pad. In order not to make a spectacle of myself, I moved quickly through the crowd ticking away. In some cases, it was difficult to tell where one clothing stand ended and the next began. I gave a tick for the predominant product at each vendor. For example, the fresh vegetable stands sold garlic, but there were also stands selling only garlic. There were also stands selling scarves with other clothes. In this case I marked clothing and only counted the scarf category for stands selling only scarves. I think you get the picture.

I suppose the count is not entirely accurate, but it should give you a good idea about what to expect if you come to this Sunday Market.

Another reason to use TripAdvisor, Wisdom of Crowds

James Surowiecki, in his bestselling book, The Wisdom of Crowds, states “The real key, it turns out, is not so much perfecting a particular method, but satisfying the particular conditions – diversity, independence, and decentralization – that a group needs to be smart.”

I stumbled upon Surowiecki’s book one afternoon while perusing the stacks of my favorite old haunt Borders Bookstore (I miss those days of just going out to look at books on a real shelf). As an adjunct instructor of philosophy, I was immediately captured by the title. After a quick read of the jacket summary, I added the little hardback to my growing tower of purchases that day. Who could ever buy just one book at Borders?

Wisdom turned out to be a great find for me. Surowiecki documented example after example, some case studies and some anecdotal, in several areas including, economics, politics, consumer preference, and psychology to support his theory.

Surowiecki argues for the wisdom of the independent collective over the wisdom of the individual expert.

After spending a whole semester presenting various topics in philo – sophia – Love of Wisdom – Wisdom about God’s Existence, Wisdom about the external world, Wisdom about the Mind or Self, Wisdom about what is the right thing to do, The Wisdom of Crowds was a fun way to end the semester.

So it makes sense, as I was enjoying the best meal I’ve had so far in France, the book came to mind. You see, the reason I was sitting in that particular restaurant last night was because I’d read the TripAdvisor reviews. The restaurant, Mistral Bistro Moderne, with 76 reviews, is ranked #2 of 104 restaurants in L’Isle Sur La Sorgue. The crowd in this case, 76 previous dinners, reported the following:

  • Excellent – 61
  • Very Good – 12
  • Average – 3
  • Poor – 0
  • Terrible – 0

The crowd was right. I enjoyed every bite of my joues de porc. The pork cheeks, braised  to utter tenderness were served with cocos de Provence (large white beans similar to cannellini beans), and a small mound of baked apple, all of course enveloped in a sumptuous sauce.  My husband’s Cabillaud Francais Frais (Fresh French Cod) was equally as flavorful.

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Imagine, on the other hand, a report that looks like this: from 88 reviewers

  • Excellent – 9
  • Very Good – 20
  • Average – 18
  • Poor – 26
  • Terrible – 15

This is a review of the restaurant we went to our first night in L’Isle. Since, the purpose of this blog is not restaurant bashing, I’ll keep them anonymous. (But if you really want to know check out Tripadvisor restaurant #79.)

Unfortunately since we were weary from travel and moving in to our little village house, we didn’t take the time to study things out. We simply walked along the canal and selected one of the many restaurants situated along the scenic waterway.

Guess what. The wisdom of the crowd prevailed yet again. This morning before writing this post I had to ask my husband what I’d eaten that night. It was so ordinary, I couldn’t remember. I had a chicken skewer. Not awful, just not that great. On the other hand, my husband’s meal was quite memorable. He ordered duck. You might have to use your imagination a bit here to appreciate the irony. Just behind us, paddling around in the canal were some very noisy ducks. So when my husband took his first bite and the ducks were simultaneously quacking; he looked up at me like he was going to barf. The meal that evening will forever be referred to as the infamous rubber ducky night. Tough, cold, rubber ducky.

Oh how I wish I had read Tripadvisor before dining that evening.

Surowiecki’s book acknowledges sheer numbers can’t tell us everything. With so much data overload, it makes sense for the more important decisions in life, to do extensive research and not simply count on what a bunch of people said on the internet. However, when it comes to travel and dining, I for one will accept the wisdom of crowd.

And, if you chose not to heed this advice, tough duck!

For a nice summary of The Wisdoms of Crowds, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds 

 

 

Where’s the Pasta?

I know, I know. I’m in France not Italy.

My husband and I are spending 13 nights in L’Isle Sur La Sorgue, France. We rented a small ‘typical’ village house on VRBO in order to settle in one place for a while to write. We arrived on Saturday fully anticipating the beautiful canals aligned with restaurants, bakeries and shops, winding narrow bricked streets, and the famous Sunday market.

Acclaimed as the largest flea market outside of Paris, L’Isle hosts hundreds of vendors selling everything you can imagine – wait stop right there – I imagined pasta and couldn’t find any. I’m sure you are wondering, wait a second, aren’t you in FRANCE not ITALY? And, of course, you are right, I’m in France. If you had blindfolded me and dropped me into the market then told me to walk around, it wouldn’t have taken me long at all to figure that out. Every third stand is selling either goat cheese, tea towels with “Provence” scenes, or herbs de Provence. Well, maybe not every third stand, sprinkled in are sausages, scarves, olives, and garlic. Lots of garlic.

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This is not to say I was disappointed in the market. It was definitely a cool experience. But, you see, I was on a mission. We knew many of the restaurants would be packed with market shoppers and other tourists on Sunday and many would be closed on Monday; so we were shopping for meals for Sunday and Monday. Since pasta is an easy fix, and since we were enjoying fish and meat prepared by French chefs, we opted for veggies, smoked sausages and goat cheese. And hoped to prepare some garlicky pasta. Having successfully found all but one of the ingredients we needed, we set out to find the hidden gem of a fresh pasta stand. Certainly among the hundreds of vendors there had to be one; certainly, I was just missing it. We circled and circled and couldn’t find it.

Oh well, the day was far from a bust. We ended up with lots of goodies pictured below. I did find a restaurant in the village that makes homemade pasta so we will go there tonight – now that I’m craving it. But, if anyone knows whether there is an elusive pasta stand in this legendary French market, please let me know. I’ll go back again this Sunday, and maybe I’ll get lucky.

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Some vendors were very friendly.
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So many choices. We picked kalamata with basil and garlic and a mildly spiced mix. Next Sunday, I’m going for spicy hot.
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This vendor was not as friendly, but I bought his product anyway. We opted for the 3-fer: smoked, fig, and chèvre.
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Some of the more aged goat cheese, my preference.
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Fresh goat cheese, great mixed in scrambled eggs.
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Doesn’t that look delicious!
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Wait, where’s the pasta?

Pouvez-vous dire Provence?

In early July, as I tapped away on my laptop, my friend Cindy studied the cookbooks she’d discovered at the beach house we were renting. Whoever owns that house must love to cook as much as Cindy and I. Although we had planned on dining out for most of the week, Cindy was so excited about the recipes she’d been reading she offered to cook. I should also mention while inventorying the resident spices, she discovered a pretty little jar of saffron – sealing the deal. We would be dining in for the rest of her stay.   The cookbook most intriguing for her was “Peddling through Provence” by Sarah Leah Chase, 1995.

Cindy selected two recipes from that book: Tomato Soup Aux Parfums de Provence and Cauliflower a’ la Grecque. On the first night she prepared the cauliflower and created an original chicken dish to go with it. We seriously groaned with each delightful bite. I wonder what the neighbors were thinking since we were eating out on the deck. The cauliflower was smothered in an elaborate cheese sauce. For this recipe, you might just have to buy the book. However, Cindy’s chicken creation was over the top. Since she was experimenting, we tried to record approximately what she did.

Cindy’s Paprika Saffron Chicken Recipe

Olive oil to cover bottom of sauté pan
1 leek, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
3 chicken breasts, skinned and boned
paprika, salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1 tomato, diced
1 teaspoon fresh minced rosemary
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon saffron

The following day Cindy made a large batch of the tomato soup. And once again she added her own touch by making large crunchy french bread croutons. Since most of my experience with tomato soup has been Campbell’s with a grilled cheese, I couldn’t have imagined what leeks, fennel and orange zest would do to make this soup so irresistible. I was a little bit happy when she had to leave knowing there was a large pot half filled with the remaining soup…I slurped every last drop throughout the rest of the week.

I was grateful to Cindy for preparing the food. Normally, I’m the cook and it’s just so wonderful to have someone else prepare the meals. Seriously.

Before her departure back to the working world we purchased two copies of the cookbook on Amazon. I think it was only about six bucks. My book arrived several weeks ago, but I haven’t had much opportunity to look through it.

So guess what. I’m leaving for France tomorrow. Yep. I’ll be living in Provence for almost a month. I hope to post a few blogs while I’m there so stay tuned for that. Since I’ll be gone for so long, I wanted to have my good buddies over for dinner before leaving. And in the spirit of our pending departure, I decided to make it a Provence theme.

I prepared the following dishes from the Chase cookbook.

Roasted eggplant pistounade (pages 8-10)

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2 large eggplants, rubbed lightly with olive oil
1 can (15 oz) chick-peas, drained
3/4 cup green olives *
3 cloves garlic minced
1 roasted red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 c olive oil *
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/2 cup rehydrated sun dried tomato halves, slivered
1/4 cup minced fresh parsely
1/4 cup slivered fresh basil
salt and petter
French bread toasted rounds for dipping

Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil.
Prick the oil rubbed eggplants in several places with the tip of a sharp knife and place them in the prepared pan. Bake, turning occasionally, until the eggplants feel soft when pierced, about 45 minutes. Let cool, then halve and scoop out the pulp. Discard skins.
Place the chick-peas, olives, garlic and roasted pepper in a food processor. Pulse the machine so that all ingredients become coarsely chopped. Add the olive oil and lemon juice and pulse briefly to incorporate.
Add the eggplant pulp and pulse again. *
Remove from the processor and put into large bowl. stir in the capers, sun-dried tomatoes, parsely and basil. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve at room temperature.

* My changes to her recipe. I used cheap olives from a can. She recommended Imported green olives such as Picholine. I used whatever olive oil I had, she recommended fruity olive oil. She recommended coarsely chopping eggplant, I pulsed it since the eggplant seemed stringy.

Pork and Apricot Ragout (page 152-154)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces pancetta or bacon diced*
2 pounds lean pork, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 medium onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dry white wine*
2 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons slivered fresh sage or 1 tablespoon dried, crumbled
Salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup pitted and halved green olives*
1/2 cup coarsely chopped dried apricots

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven or large stew pot. Add the pancetta and cook until crisp, 6-8 minutes. Remove from the pot with a slotted spatula and set aside to drain on paper towels. Add the pork to the fat remaining in the pot and sear until browned on all sides, 5-7 minutes. remove from the pot and set aside temporarily.
Add the onion and garlic to the pot and sauté until softened, 2-3 minutes. Pour in the white wine, and then stir in the tomato paste to blend well. Season with the sage, salt and pepper. Add the seared pork and any accumulated juices to the pot. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 1/4 hours.
Add the olives and apricots to the ragout, cover again, and continue simmering for another 30 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle the ragout with the reserved pancetta. Serve hot.

Makes 4 servings.*

* Since many recipes call for small amounts of pancetta, I generally buy the 8 oz. pack and freeze the rest. It’s always good to have pancetta around to enhance a recipe.
* There seems to be a debate about whether to use expensive wine to cook with. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Don’t cook with wine you wouldn’t drink.” I haven’t found that to be necessarily true, so generally when cooking with white wine, I use about a $7.00 bottle of Chardonnay.
* Once again she recommended imported olives and I used the cheap canned version.
* Since I was having 6 people, I increased the quantities, but above are her exact measurements.

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Rosé Rice (page 200-201)

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2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced
1 cup minced fennel bulb
1 1/2 cups long-grain rice*
2 cups dry rosé wine*
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large, squat saucepan. Add the onion and fennel and sauté until quite soft, 5-7 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat with the butter and vegetables.
Pour in the wine and the chicken broth; bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer, cover the pan, and cook until the rice is tender and all of the liquid had been absorbed, 20-25 minutes. Fold in the Parmesan, fluffing the rice with a fork, and season with salt and pepper.

*I used my favorite rice: Texmati RiceSelect Brand.
I don’t know much about rosé wine so I chose to use the rest of the white wine from the same bottle of chardonnay I used for the pork.