Daily Dinner #2

Shannon challenged us to post our regular, day-to-day dinners. We'll try and do them in weekly batches. 

This week was a bit unusual as we had colleagues staying with us to work on a big software project, so we went out more than we normally would. 

2015-07-19 Sunday

We brined an Amish chicken from the market in a 3% solution (e.g., 1 Liter water to 30 g kosher salt) overnight. The brine keeps it moist, seasons it, and the breast bones keep the heat from drying out the meat. We cut out the spine so we can "spatchcock" it, allowing us to lay it flat over the coals. We also remove the wing tips for stock, and reserve the wings and drummettes to make Buffalo style chicken wings sometime in the future. 

We took the brined chicken out the next day, drained it, then let it sit in the fridge to dry out the skin a bit. I painted it with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, and repeated this once on the fire. 

Cook it skin side up, breast bones down, until done all the way through. The dark meat gets a bit closer to the heat, the white meat is well protected, so they get done to the right temperatures about the same time; you want the dark meat cooked to a higher temperature than the white meat. When cooked through, I turned it upside down to crisp up the skin a bit.  In the background, we have some garden cherry tomatoes heating through.

Once off the grill, we divide the chicken up into the constituent pieces: separate the legs from the breasts and divide into drumstick and thigh; cut the breast down the center, then divide into front and back portions. 

We served the chicken on a bed of arugula, radicchio, sorrel and oak leaf lettuce that's coming into its own in the garden. 

Irene made a potato salad from new potatoes we picked up at the farmers market, dressed with mayonnaise liberated from various lunch counters, capers, horseradish, vinegar, oil, chives, spring onions, and mint from the garden.

This turned out very well, the brine allowed us some leeway in our cooking, but kept it moist and flavorful. I couldn't get as much crunch as I'd like in the skin, I think I let the coals die down too much. 

The wine was from Chateau Costco, a Marlborough sauvignon blanc that was quite decent for the price. The blue glasses have fizzy water we make, adding a bit of epsom salts to our tap water to get a mineral profile similar to that of Apollinaris, then force carbonate with gear I used to use for homebrewing.

2015-07-20 Monday

Irene was cooking crawfish and grits so Chris decided to do a New Orleans cocktail, the classic Sazerac. We went old school, with brandy instead of the modern rye, and used pre-post-prohibition Absinthe we brought from Spain (the real spirit containing wormwood was illegal in most countries, including the U.S. at the time, the modern stuff eschews wormwood), and Peychaud's bitters from New Orleans, muddled with a sugar cube.  It has the class of a Manhattan but a bit sweeter, with the distinctive Absinthe aroma. A great cocktail! 

Sauté the onions and garlic with thyme, add garden tomatillos, cook down to release a bit of liquid.

Then add crayfish/crawdads/mudbugs and cook through. Season with some vinegar-based hot sauce to taste. 

We served it with leftover grits, plumped with the corn we got from the farmers market this weekend.

I get a kick out of a nicely laid-out table, including old-school napkin presentation. 

2015-07-21 Tuesday

Hot days call for a Caipirinha, the Brazilian cocktail featuring Cachaça; I prefer the assertiveness of Pitu brand over the dainty smooth ones. We're a bit heavy-handed and use 3 ounces Cachaça, two tablespoons of Sugar, and one lime per person.  

Muddle limes with sugar to extract flavor from the skins, add the booze, shake on ice, strain, serve. 

We made some chorizo from pork loin we'd cold smoked. The smell and taste were great but the lean meat didn't have quite the right texture. We cooked 'em up with new potatoes, leveraging the fat that came off the sausages.

We served these with roma beans from the garden, steamed then sautéed with a bit of the fat left in the skillet.

2015-07-22 Wednesday

We don't go to Cowboy Cafe every Wednesday for 50-cent wings, but we've got geeks over to sprint on a big software project, so beer and wings seemed like just the right thing for a late dinner. These are the Edgar-style wings, with a great crusty exterior.

 Don't forget to eat your vegetables.

2015-07-24 Thursday

Irene picked up some quality ribeye steaks from Costco while the geeks toiled in the basement. While we were prepping dinner, I made a variation on a Manhattan with Temtation bourbon, Vya Vermouth (flavorful, full-bodied, from California), and a homemade maraschino-style cherry. 

Irene built a big fire (hardwood charcoal, of course). We dropped the grates as low as we could to get an intense sear, and when they were nearly done, moved them well off the heat to rest before cutting them up.

We also grilled up some garden zucchini and bush beans, mushrooms, and grilled some of my bread.

Left to right, Charles, Earl, Reed, and Irene, finally getting dinner at 10pm.

2015-07-24 Friday

The gang's still here, hacking code til late, so we ran out to the Lebanese Tavern. It was a really pleasant night so we were able to sit outside.  We started with some interesting cocktails (Beirut Mule, with Arak instead of Vodka), with some freshly made and delicious pita.  Entres were rare lamb, well roasted lamb, and roasted chicken. I stupidly forgot to take pictures, the rare lamb was gorgeous. Roasted lamb, from a Yelp posting:

We then stayed up way too late drinking through a bunch nice booze: Temptation bourbon and Redemption rye, smooth Jura and smoky Bowmore single malt whisky.

2015-07-25 Saturday

We continued to work straight through dinner time, then went out to Janet's rooftop party on Capitol Hill. Irene made phyllo pastry stuffed with arugula pesto -- crunchy and rich from the butter and filling. Below, they're chilling before baking.

It was a perfect night, with killer views. The U.S. Capitol's undergoing renovation and the scaffolding makes it look pixelated, like it's built from legos.