All chicken-ed out... - part 2: lauren's birthday

lauren's a friend of mine whose birthday happens to fall on a week that i wasn't going to be in town. to make up for missing the festivities over the weekend, i invited her and 1 or 2 of her closest friends to come to my place for dinner. she requested polenta, a long long time ago in passing while having lunch one afternoon so i used that as the basis of my meal.

polenta, according to Marcella's book, is great for anything braissed. ok, i had bought a pork roast to braise, but ended up with too much 1/2 cooked browned chicken from halloween so i thought it better to make it into something. so, i settled on Chicken Cacciatora, New Version.

on the menu for the dinner:
- asiago dip with fresh carrots
- warm polenta topped with fork-tender chicken cacciatore
- baked raddicchio for contrast
- fresh pear tart as a birthday cakeHide all

asiago dip with fresh carrots:
yup, used up some of those 10 lbs of carrots to make a not-so-heavy version of bread or bread sticks available on every italian table. i'll admit, the dip was from the super market. i was going to make a ricotta and anchovy crostini when i shied away and opted for a less odd thing of pre-made dip.

warm polenta:
polenta is a corn based grain "sponge" used to absorb flavours of whatever is around it. a staple comfort food for any true italian -- or so i've been told. i have to say, if you've never made it before, it's actually quite a nerve racking experience, especially if you've never done it before. add in the element of "guests" and you've got yourself a fiasco... yup, you guessed it, welcome to 7:15pm Nov. 2nd, London Hall, rm 510, kitchen.

lauren and her boyfriend were supposed to be coming over for 8pm for her pre-birthday dinner. having horror stories of yellow rubber flowing through my head, i thought it smart to make the polenta at the very last minute, ie 7:15 start boiling the water with a projected finished time around 8:05pm when it would have to be spooned directly onto the plates and served. great plan, i swear! except that....
a) boiling water with polenta grains = super-heated mini canon balls of yellow goop that fly, stick and burn anything they touch; BE CAREFUL!! my cookbook definitely started it's battle wounds that night when yellow clods of 1/2 cooked polenta flew onto it and my hands as i tried to continuously stir it while it was boiling at med. temp. very bad idea on my part.
b) whenever you think water will boil quickly, it never does meaning that i finished making it around 8:15 and not 8:05
c) your making 2 other dishes at the same time and your room mate needs the oven to make dinner. the chicken was braising on the stove -which, based on my 1st attempt of chicken and red cabbage, i was watching like a hawk- while i was prepping the radicchio for it's bake in the oven. then nikki says "how long are you going to be using the oven? i need to make dinner..." to which i respond, "uh.... um.... i was going to use it till tonight was over?" obviously i didn't but that meant a whole bunch of time calculations to make sure that i wasn't going to be serving dinner at 10pm...
d) your cookbook's ratios differ from the ones of the package you bought
e) you think you've over salted the entire thing -- thankfully, it wasn't the case and i just compensated by under saltig the sauce of the chicken

lots of things can go wrong, i swear... but it all turned out fine in the end :)

all crisis averted (at least on my part) when, at 8:15, i start cursing because my guests haven't arrived yet and every minute that passes, the polenta's ultimate fate of yellow rubber draws closer. at 8:20, i decide that i'm not going to let it become a pot-shapped mass of yellow and grab a square baking dish and make a cake of it. served it in a puddle of the chicken sauce, hidden under a chicken piece and topped with some fresh green parsley.

chicken cacciatore, new version:
with the extra pieces of browned chicken from the halloween dinner, i took all the juice and fat that was at the bottom of the bowl and used that as the beginning of the flavour base for the sauce (i know, not exactly as it was written in the book, but i just couldn't pass up on infusing more flavour into the dish). then added the onions and garlic. deglazed with the wine and added a can of crushed tomatoes. adjusted the seasonings and placed the chicken back in to cook slowly. just before serving, i found the sauce to be too monotonous, so i threw in large diced very ripe tomato which was the perfect thing because it balanced everything and removed the "from can" taste that i felt was coming through. under close supervision, no mishaps occured and the chicken was ready when i was.

baked radicchio:
apparently this is not a vegetable that people know as neither lauren nor kyle, her bf, knew what it was when i asked them. for those of you who don't know, it looks like a very small red cabbage with white ribs. its has a bitter taste when eaten raw, but baking it mellows it out a little. i served this as a dish on it's own, after the polenta and chicken, using it's bitter notes to cut through the creamy-ness of the polenta and rich sauce.
i basically cut each head into quaters and tossed it with some olive oil, salt and pepper and baked it at a super high heat. the result? soft, mellow radicchio with just a touch of bitterness - perfect for a beginner's palate. i drizzled some extra olive oil on it before serving and a small grating of fresh parmigianno. it was well recieved.

farmer's wifes' fresh pear tart:
seeing as it was a birthday, a cake was definitely in order. pears are now in season, so, why not? fresh pear tart it was.
i chose smaller ones, seeing as everything else in the cookbook called for small things, but in the end, it really didn't make a difference. what does make a difference, however, is the ripeness of your fruit. for example, the pears i took were sweet, but didn't have the full pear-flavour yet so the cake ended up being a little bland for my liking but i added a light dusting of icing sugar to the top which helped.
i fear that this was not the best dessert for the end of this meal because it just didn't stand up to the other strong flavours that were just presented. kyle brought a bottle of YellowTail bubbly, which helped bring out the pear flavour, but just couldn't cut through it all.

All in all, i think that this menu was great, save the dessert. i should have gone for a cool gelato like i wanted to, but i didn't listen to my initial instincts and had a good tasting, but not 100% fitted dessert. oh well, next time.

Farmer's Wifes' Fresh Pear Tart

All chicken-ed out... - part 1: halloween

after two full meals revolving around the lovely art of braised chicken, i think i can satisfactorily say that i am all chicken-ed out.

up first: Chicken Fricasse with Red Cabbage

wishing to stun my halloween guests with an incredible dish that used seasonal ingredients, the Chicken Fricasse with Red Cabbage seemed to fit the bill very well. Plus, it gave me a chance to use my "new" food processor!! i mean, 4 cups shedded cabbage??? 1 cup onions sliced very thin??? who's got time for that?!? I DO!! with my 1980s food processor!! hahaha!! whatever, it got the job done and i couldn't have asked for more. so here's how this one went down in history.

after a morning of vegging out infront of the tv with my room mate Nikki, we decide that it's about time for us to go to the supermarket and lcbo to buy what we need for the party at our place tonight. list in hand, we head out the door and to the car.

on the menu:
- hand made butternut squash ravioli with goat cheese, pecans and a sage butter sauce (made by nikki)
- Chicken Fricasse with Red Cabbage (by me)

first stop, lcbo. relatively uneventful, minus the phone call from my dad when i finally said to him that i was buying wine for a party i was having that night. first time ever saying that i was buying alcohol for non-parental use... weird. bought a nice red table wine that served well in both the dish and for dinner drinking, some port and an argentinian rose.

next stop, no frills. whoot! i officially feel sorry for anyone who has to go grocery shopping with me. it takes forever!!! and i buy the most ridiculous things -- like 10lbs of carrots... yup, still sitting in my fridge. i figure, if stored properly, they should last me a while... right? but, after almost 2 hours in there, nikki and i emerge victorious with enough food to feed an army! (aka 8 university students)

our final stop is a small cooking store where i pick up a ravioli wheel then we zoom back home and begin an afternoon of cooking.

i don the chef coat (which doubles as my costume), put my hair in pigtails and begin to feel like a female equivalent of jaime oliver -- chopping, pulsing, sauteing and moving about the kitchen. we've pulled out the dining table that became the ravioli headquarters while our kitchen became my battlezone of cabbage, onion and garlic. with the help of another friend, karam, i fire up the stove and start heating the pan.

because of pan constraints, i had to cook the chicken and the sauce in the same pan, so i guess i modified the recipe as i had all the "little brown bits" in the pan before adding the onions to saute. after karam processed my onions and cabbage, i followed the recipe until i had to leave it to 40 mins to simmer.... that's when, at the 30 min mark, i noticed the acrid smell of burnt something in the air and raced back to the stove to check... sure enough, the bottom of the pan was encrusted with a thick layer of burnt-ness. CRAP!!!!! it was already 5:00 and we were supposed to be having dinner at 6:30!!! and the sauce needed 40 mins without the chicken and another 40 with the chicken!! so, without a hesitation, i reached for bowl, took out what i could of the non-burnt cabbage and went to scrape the pan clean to start from the beginning as i wouldn't have anything to serve if i didn't.

knowing the steps definitly helped as the world around me became a blur and the methodical chop-chop-chop sound of the knife on the chopping board became all i could hear. somewhere around me, nikki was asking for my help in making ravioli -- something i've never done before, so i pointed her to the book. pan heated and oil in, i waited for the onions and garlic to turn a deep golden, which happened soon enough. then i threw in the half-cooked cabbage from the burnt dish and cooked that down for a few minutes. after that, deglazing with the red wine and more simmer time. sure enough, by the time the chicken went in, the sauce was dark purple and definitely on the sweet side. in when the chicken, whose flesh was instantly stained a deep purple, turning them almost unappealing. they were so beautifully golden before and now not :( it made me sad... but 30 mins later, at a slow simmer, the chicken was done. i turned off the heat and let the residual heat keep on cooking the chicken as we enjoyed a glass of wine or two while waiting for others to arrive. by the time it was served, the chicken was tender but slightly firm. i don't know whether or not it was done correctly, but the flavour was there and that, is all that counted. i do however, think that i need to work on the presentation of the dish. (sorry i can't show it right now, the left overs are in the freezer and i forgot to grab a picture as i was serving it)

it still amazes me how such few ingredients can create such a wholesome dish. you just need some time... and by some, i mean lots...

as for the ravioli making, the only thing i really did was point nikki in the right direction. i mean, i knew in theory how to make ravioli stuffing, the pasta part and how to put it together, but the actual hands that touched it, were her's. they turned out perfect, by the way, and were gobbled up as quickly as they were being sauteed in their sage butter and topped with pecans and goat's cheese. (ok fine, yes, it was me doing that part, but only because nikki was already well on her way in a bottle of wine... good times, good times.)

up next: lauren's birthday

nikki making the ravioli pasta

the chaos that was preparing the chicken

the ravioli before cooking


me having way too much fun...

When life gives you lemons, make.... chicken with two lemons, of course!!!

Pollo a due limoni

So I've been a little MIA for the last few weeks with the beginning of two weeks of utter hell, BUT, that doesn't mean I haven't forgotten about the 514 recipes to go...

And on that note, I bought 1 whole chicken and 2 lemons (as the name of the recipe indicates). I followed the procedures exactly but for some strange strange reason, it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to... ie, the lemons, that were supposed to have turned a soft golden brown, remained as they were when i first put them in!?! BUT, the chicken, as promised, was extremely juice so i guess not all was lost. i'm starting to suspect that she was using a normal oven where as i am using a microwave convection oven...

the premise of the dish is this: take a whole chicken, put two beatup and poked lemons inside, bake and wait for magic to occur. great, i mean, how bad can that be, right?

WRONG!!

my chicken definitely came out as juicy as promised, but that beautiul lemony brightness hadn't infused the entire chicken and the lemon had NOT turned into the so-said "by now" light golden browness called for in the recipe. what did i do wrong?!?! i swear i followed the recipe as it said!!!... well, sorta...

my chicken WAS a little smaller than what was asked for and my lemons where HUGE in comparison. i mean, there was NO way that 2 were entering that chicken... let alone one... can anyone say homone-enhanced GMO??? but, as with anything, i charged ahead hoping that it would turn out well.
can i just say how strange it is to have to wash the inside of a chicken? you feel the ribs along your palm, the dark coolness enveloping your hand, all under the impression that any time now, your chicken is going to go flying out of your hands because it's a little slippery with the skin and the fat... great feeling, really. try it if you haven't...
so, after washing, pat drying (again, something i don't usually do to chickens... you know, maybe myself after a shower, but not a chicken...) and seasoning both the outside AND the inside (yup, more dark cool goodness), i turned my attention to the lemons. "roll and poke with at least 20 holes" ok, i can do that. roll i did. it's actually really cool how you can feel the inside segments of the lemon breaking down as you roll it along the countertop. i took the prescribed fork and with a force like no other, proceeded to perferate the skins of the lemon. poke, poke, poke. CRAP my frok wasn't making anything but DENTS in the skin, time for reinforcements. out come the steak knife. "THERE WILL BE HOLES IN THIS LEMON IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO!!!"

the perferated lemons are now sitting on the counter waiting to be placed into the chicken cavity, when i encounter the problem of actually getting both lemons to fit. i thought that if i flipped it over and pushed as hard as i could on the lemons entering from the back, it would pop out the front and enough space would be had. boy, was i ever wrong. no matter how hard i pushed, the lemons would go no where!! in the end, i could only fit one in and put the 2nd one back in the fridge (where it proceeded to create a sticky puddle of juice :S ) i carefully put in my well seasoned, well loved chicken in hopes that it would puff up and become this magnificent roast fowl that i could show off here... opps, when i went to turn it, the skin on the breast ripped a bit and dasked that hope :(

1.5 hrs later, out came the chicken, smelling sooooooo goood but much to hot to handle, so i let it sit for 15 mins before pulling out the steak kinfe again and carving off a leg... YUM!!! the meat was so juicey and succulent, but lacked in the lemon flavours that i caught closer to where the lemon actually sat.

here are some alterations i would do for the next time:
- buy a bigger chicken
- buy smaller lemons
- wedge up the lemon and use that inside the chicken (it wouldn't matter if it touched the roof of the chicken cavity, because it would start on on surface and roll over when you go to flip the chicken)
- i know that the recipe doesn't call for any fats of any kind, but to prevent the skin from sticking to the pan, i think a little butter on the breast of the chicken in the first part of the cooking process would prevent it from sticking

with that ends the 514th recipe, meaning 513 to go!