Whole Roast Chicken: Brined and Blasted

This chicken comes out moist and juicy, is fairly hands off, and we're starting to get good browning on the outside.

Roast chicken can be a challenge, getting the leg meat cooked without drying out the breast. This approach is pretty simple: brine it overnight, roast covered to cook through with steam, then blast on an elevated rack to brown. You can even marinade the chicken from frozen (just remove any giblets from the cavity before cooking). We've used a 3 pound bird and a 4 1/2 pound bird, both came out well. Get a good quality one, preferably organic since it's all about the chicken flavor.

This technique came from Greg Vernick's recipe in Food & Wine February 2019.

You can cook the chicken in the pot on top of veggies like potatoes and cabbage, but they will not be sufficiently cooked when the bird comes out of the pot. You can brown the bird on a rack over a baking sheet, and finish the veggies in the hot pot on the stove, with the rendered juices and anything else you like.

Brine

12 C Water

1/2 C Apple Cider (optional, could substitute orange mojo criollo etc)

1/3 C Kosher Salt

1/4 C Soy Sauce

2 Tbs Light Brown Sugar

5 large Garlic Cloves, halved

1 8x3-inch Kombu (seaweed, for umami), toasted

10 sprigs Thyme

2 sprigs Rosemary

1 leaf Fresh Bay

Boil all ingredients in 6 C of the Water to dissolve the Sugar and Salt. Add remaining 6 C Water to cool it, or add ice cubes to bring total volume to about 13 C. Cool completely.

Chicken

3 pound Chicken, whole, organic

1 Tbs Kosher Salt

2 sprigs Thyme

2 sprigs Rosemary

1 Lemon, halved, plus more for serving

2 Tbs Butter, unsalted, plus more for greasing

Cooking Spray

Remove giblets from Chicken; place in food grade bucket or Dutch Oven, cover with cooled brine; weigh it down with a plate so it stays submerged. Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight

Preheat oven to 275F Convection or 300F without.

Remove Chicken from brine, discard brine.

Season Chicken outside and in with 1 Tbs Salt.

Stuff cavity with Thyme, Rosemary, Lemons, 2 Tbs Butter.

Tie legs together, and tuck wing tips under.

Place Chicken in a Dutch oven breast side up, insert cooking thermometer in thickest part of leg or thigh, and cover with a tight fitting lid; alternately, place in cast iron pan, butter some foil and spritz with Cooking Spray, press foil down around Chicken and form a tight seal to the pan.

Bake in preheated oven until Chicken barely registers 150F, about 1 hour 50 minutes.

Remove Chicken from oven and turn oven up to it's highest temperature, with convection if you've got it. 

Place chicken on ventilated rack breast side up, and put rack over roasting pan, Dutch oven or sheet pan to catch drips; adjust oven shelves to accommodate. 

Once oven is up to temperature, return Chicken on rack to oven and blast it to brown evenly. (You may want to start breast side down, then flip it to finish it breast side up, but be careful not to tear the skin.)

Finishing and Pan Sauce

2 Tbs Butter, unsalted, for finishing

1 ounce Shallot, finely chopped (about 2 Tbs)

1 Tbs Parsley, fresh, flat-leaf, finely chopped

1 Tbs Thyme Leaves, fresh, finely chopped

1 Tbs Lemon Juice, fresh 

3/4 tsp Kosher Salt

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Remove Chicken from pan, place on grooved cutting board, and let rest 10 minutes; internal temperature should rise to 165F.

Over medium heat, cook Shallot in remaining 2 Tbs Butter until butter begins to brown and Shallot is tender.

Remove from heat, add Parsley, Thyme, Lemon Juice, Pepper, remaining Salt; taste and adjust seasonings.

Carve Chicken and serve with pan sauce and uncooked Lemon slices.

Paella: In Search of Socarrat

Socarrat is the crunchy rice at the bottom of a well-made paella. While we've been happy with our paellas, we've never gotten the socarrat. Here we attempt to create that elusive texture.

Paella with snails, peas and yellow bell peppers; note crust around edges

This technique comes from the 2018 book Catalan Food: Culture and Flavors from the Mediterranean by Daniel Olivella. The main difference from what I normally do is that he adds the stock in three additions, around the edge, and watches for the crusty bits forming there to indicate the development of the socarrat; he also uses a bit more stock. We're doing this indoors rather than our usually BBQ technique so we can concentrate on that crunchy bit. I'm changing the sequencing a little from Daniel's recipe, since I think the saffron gets lost if added too early.

The flavors are up to you: you can use fish stock with shrimps and fin fish, or chicken stock with snails and rabbit, etc. You can top with red peppers or peas.  Just make sure the proteins and vegetables are cooked enough: brown things like chicken or sausage first, top with bell peppers in the middle, and add delicate shrimp near the end so they don't overcook.

This recipe, for a 10-inch diameter paella pan, serves two generously as a main course, or four as an appetizer.

5 C Stock
2 pinches Saffron, crumbled (about 1/4 tsp)

1 ounce Onion
1 ounce Green Pepper, preferably long, sweet and mild (not hot); Bell will work
2 cloves Garlic
1 ounce Tomato, grated
6 Tbs Parsley Leaves, fresh, minced

1 Tbs Kosher Salt

3 Tbs Olive Oil

4 ounces Squid, Chicken, Rabbit, Pork, Sausage or other firm protein which needs cooking
1 C Bomba Rice (this is important, but Arborio risotto rice works in a pinch)
1/2 tsp Pimenton (smoked Paprika)
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
4 ounces Shrimp, Fish, Clams, Mussels, or canned Snails which need minimal cooking
1/4 C Frozen Peas
1/2 Red Bell Pepper, sliced into 8 strips
4 wedges Lemon

Warm the Stock and add the crushed Saffron to flavor it.

In a 10-11 inch diameter Paella Pan, saute the sofregit ingredients: Onion, Pepper, Garlic, Tomato, Parsley and Salt in Olive Oil until soft. Remove and reserve for a moment.

Saute any firm proteins in a bit more Olive Oil until mostly cooked, a couple minutes.

Add the Bomba Rice, and with high heat, stir until rice is shiny with oil. Add Pimenton, Black Pepper and the reserved Sofregit.

Add about 3 C of the Stock with Saffron around the edge of the paella pan, shake the pan to settle the rice as the stock begins to boil. Do not shake or stir later or the rice will become sticky and may prevent the formation of the socarrat.

First addition of stock

Turn heat to medium and simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed; it should take about 10 minutes, and if it takes longer, crank up the heat. The rice should just begin to sizzle a bit "almost as if it is asking you for another drink". This indicates the socarrat is beginning to form. Add 1 C more Stock around the edges again so it seeps from edge to center.

Arrange delicate proteins like Shrimp, Shellfish or Snails around the edge, burying slightly in the rice. Simmer until the liquid is mostly absorbed and the rice starts to sizzle again, about 5 more minutes (adjust heat if needed).

Snails, peas and peppers added

Drizzle the final 1 C Stock around the edge. Scatter the peas and arrange the Pepper strips in spokes on top of the rice. Simmer until rice is just beginning to become tender, about 5 minutes more. Shrimp should be pink, peas warmed through, any clams or mussels should be open. Test the rice: it should be plump and tender but with a slightly firm center.

The edge of the paella pan should now have a dark rim of oily starch, indicating a crispy socarrat has forming below. To test, use a spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan: it shouldn't slide but push against rice crust which is starting to form. When the socarrat has begun, rotate the pan for even browning.

"The rice will talk to you as it cooks; the crackle will get faster as the rice dries out, then it will go silent when the socarrat is finished forming. Your nose will tell you if it's beginning to burn; just add a spoonful of stock to the scorching spot if so."

Serve the paella in its pan at the center of the table with spoons for guests to serve themselves, with lemon wedges.

Chocolate Truffles with Lime and Ginger

These turned out well and aren't too hard to make. I used different chocolates for the ganache center and the coating, but it's not necessary.

Truffles with ginger sugar coating

When forming, a #70 disher is a good size. Don't use frozen fresh ginger for the coating: the moisture that comes out as it thaws will combine with the sugar and turn it into clumps -- use fresh or replace with more powdered ginger. A tiny bit of chili in the coating adds a punch to the ginger

1/2 cup Heavy Cream
2 Tbl     Butter, unsalted
1 tsp Light Corn Syrup
8 oz Chocolate, Valrhona 70%, semi-sweet (chips or chopped)

2 tsp Lime Zest, finely grated (use a Microplane, 2 limes)

6 oz chocolate, chopped, for dipping (TJ + Valrhona Guanaja)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1       pinch   Cayenne pepper or chili flakes
1 1/2  tsp Ginger, fresh, grated

Mix the cream, butter and corn syrup together in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a full boil. Turn off heat.  Add 8 ounces of the chopped chocolate, and gently swirl the pan.  Do not stir. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, add the lime zest and whisk slowly to combine.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and refrigerate for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. In the meantime, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  After 45 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken quickly, keep refrigerated another 11 to 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Using a disher, mini ice cream scoop or two spoons, form the mixture into 1-inch balls and place on the prepared sheets.  Chill until firm, about 10-15 minutes. 

While the balls are chilling, melt the remaining 6 ounces of chocolate [in a double boiler]. After it is completely melted, allow to cool slightly before continuing.

Whiz the gingers, chili and sugar in a spice grinder until sugar is powdered. Remove the balls from the refrigerator. Using a toothpick or fork, dip the each ball into the melted chocolate. Roll it around, allow the excess to drip back into the bowl.  Place the truffle in the sugar. With another fork, cover the truffle with sugar.  Lift it out and place on the lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining truffles.

Place back in the refrigerator for 5-8 minutes to set. May be stored up to one week in an airtight container.

Kabocha squash gnocchi

We got an orange Kabocha squash at the farmers market, roasted it, then turned it into gnocchi served with pesto. It came out rather well.

Sauced with pesto and served

The Kabocha's like a small pumpkin which comes in deep green and orange varieties; ours was orange, which they say is the sweetest, akin to sweet potatoes. We cut it into wedges (with a heavy cleaver), seasoned with EVOO, grated ginger, a touch of cayenne and a little salt, and roasted until it was tender. It would have been a fine side dish -- just like that -- but we decided to push our luck and make gnocchi.

Now, the best gnocchi I ever made was after a night of carousing: when I came home, more than a little tipsy and famished, I riced a microwaved potato, added an egg and just the right amount of flour to make the lightest, most silky gnocchi we've had at home -- sadly, I've never been able to repeat that level of excellence.  We've also made gnocchi with squash, but most varieties are so wet you have to add a lot of flour to get them to cohere and they turn out leaden. What could go wrong this time? Happily, it worked well.

The proportions here were dictated by how much squash pulp I had after running it through the food mill; I added flour at a 1/3rd ratio, then added more until it barely held together. This amount made 4 dinner portions.

450 g      Roasted Kabocha squash (roast first, mill, measure)
1          Egg, beaten
150-200 g  Flour, start at the low end, add until it holds

Run the roasted Kabocha through a food mill. The skin is thin, so don't bother peeling, the mill will shred it finely enough.
Add the Egg and combine well.
Add the lower amount of the Flour in stages so you don't make it too stiff and it combines well.
If it's still very soft, add more Flour but keep it as loose as you can.

Take about a quarter of it, roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a snake about 1cm diameter.

Roll out a snake using just enough flour so it doesn't stick; note the butter pat on the left

Realize that pasta will expand quite a bit as it cooks; our thicker snakes resulted in gnocchi that were a bit larger than I'd have liked.
Cut into about 2cm segments.
Roll each with the tines of a fork to create groves; we have an ancient wooden grooved butter pat that acts like an actual gnocchi board.

Rolled and shaped with the grooved butter pat

Cook in salted water until the inside is no longer floury; most recipes say "until they float" but if your gnocchi are large like ours were, the insides may not be done yet. We needed about 5-6 minutes.

First batch (2 servings) boiling, second batch waiting

Toss in heated sauce. The classic is browned butter and sage, but we used a pesto made from arugula we grew.

Toss gently with warmed sauce, serve

1000 Layer Duck Fat Potatoes

Irene found this and suggested I'd like it because it seemed even more fussy than Hasselback Potatoes or even Francis Mallmann's Potato Dominoes. The recipe in Food and Wine magazine didn't match the photos accurately, but their video helped.

Fine crackly outer shell, creamy insides

We chose Yukon Gold potatoes for their creaminess, rather than the dry floury russet or waxy red varieties. We had a bunch of beautiful clear duck fat we rendered when making duck confit sous vide; it was already well-seasoned from the confit and smelled great, so we didn't add salt later. We probably could have used less fat if we'd cut our slices thicker, since there would be less surface area. We didn't have an 8x8-inch pan, so we used a bread loaf pan that's a bit larger then 8x4-inch, and dropped the potato amount to fit.

1360 g   3 pounds  Yukon Gold Potatoes
 120 ml  1/2 C     Duck Fat, slightly warmed so it's liquid
         1 Tbs     Salt (if your fat isn't pre-seasoned)
                   Oil for frying

Line the pan with a parchment sling so you can remove the potatoes, and extend the paper over the sides enough to cover the top.
Peel the potatoes.
Slice thinly on a mandolin: the recipe's desired 1/8th inch was too thick for their photos, but we probably cut ours too thin -- we really could read a newspaper through them when coated in duck fat.

Slice thin: ours were too thin, 1mm is probably about right

Mix thoroughly with the Duck Fat, coating both sides.

Coat all surfaces in liquid duck fat

Layer the sliced Potatoes into the pan on the parchment; this was tedious with our super thin slices.
Top with any remaining, now-starchy duck fat.

Layering was tedious with such thin slices

Wrap the extended parchment over the top, cover with foil and press it onto the surface.

Bake at 150C/300F for 2-3 hours, until a wooden skewer pierces them easily (remove the foil to test).

Remove foil and add a same-sized pan, press down and add weights to compress the potatoes.

Refrigerate overnight compressed like this.

Weight the top to compress the layers

Remove top parchment, turn out, remove remaining parchment.
Cut into 3cm or 1-inch towers: I used a 4x8 grid since that's the approximate dimension of our pan.

Put pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with cling film and freeze overnight.

Potato towers waiting for the freezer

Maybe not 1000 layers, but it's a lot!

Deep fry the still-frozen towers in 190C/375F oil about 5 minutes until deep golden to brown and crunchy outside; don't crowd the oil or the temperature will drop too much -- 10 seems about right; try to prevent the towers from sticking together, but don't break them apart.
Place on paper or paper towel, sprinkle with coarse salt.
Serve immediately.

Served with brined, roasted chicken, end-of-season cauliflower

The crunchy exterior was delightful, the interior very creamy from the Yukon Golds.

Next time: slice the potatoes a bit thicker, 1mm sounds right; this will allow us to use less duck fat, and speed assembly, but hopefully give a more textured outer crunch. Decrease the oil temperature a bit so they don't darken quite so quickly.

Chou Farci: stuffed cabbage

This was enjoyably meticulous to make and turned out really well. It would be a fine component of an Alsace meal. The recipe came from Art of Eating magazine number 88 in 2011. It serves 4 generously, and can be cut in half as we've done in the photos below.

Served with L’Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien, Swiss country beer

I think it could use a higher cabbage-to-meat ratio, as it's pretty rich; we've sometimes added a little chili and lemon zest to brighten it up a bit. Don't bake in a high-sided dish or it will take forever to cook.

700     g       Pork Shoulder (1/4 fat to 3/4 lean), very cold
12      g       Salt
                Black Pepper
        hint    Nutmeg
1       clove   Garlic, finely chopped

Grind together the Pork, Salt, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, Garlic. Chill. If you're lazy, you can use prepared sausage, without the skin.

2               Onions, finely chopped (about 250g)
                Lard or fresh-tasting Olive Oil
1       head    Savoy Cabbage (about 1Kg)
2       large   Eggs, very cold
125     gr      White Breadcrumbs
large   handful Chopped Parsley
                Salt
                Pepper
6       slices  Pork Belly or Bacon
500     ml      Chicken Stock
1-2             Ripe Tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chipped

Sweat onions in a little fat until translucent but uncolored.

Discard tough outer leaves of cabbage; remove and discard central core.
Remove 12-15 outer leaves, carefully keeping them intact.

Carefully separate the leaves

Place each face down and carefully cut away the protruding portion of the rib to make it flush with the rest of the leaf.
Blanch in salted water until tender, 4-5 minutes; plunge into cold water and drain well.
Slice remaining cabbage into narrow strips; blanch, cool, drain.

 

Combine onions, sausage meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley in large bowl.
Season with salt and pepper. Knead well until mixed.

Of the 15 leaves, reserve the 4 smallest.
Lay the rest flat with concave side up.
Take half the stuffing and divide it among the large leaves, placing on each, according to its size, an approximately plum-sized piece. Pat out stuffing until it reaches within about an inch of the edges of the leaves.

Pork mixture added to leaves before spreading
Squeeze the water from the blanched cabbage strips and mix with the other half of the stuffing. Grease the bottom of an approximately foot-wide baking dish and place the smallest remaining leaf in the center, concave side up. On it place the stuffing-cabbage mixture and shape into a grapefruit-sized ball. Re-create the shape and appearance of the cabbage by first covering the ball with the remaining 4 small plain leaves, making sure the ribs rise from the bottom.

Add the stuffed leaves, one by one, starting with the smallest, distributing them evenly all around the ball's surface, stuffing-side in, and pressing firmly into place.

Place bacon or pork belly slices onto cabbage, radiating from the center down the sides like spokes of a wheel.
Pour Chicken Stock around cabbage to a depth of about 1/2 inch (1 cm)

Everything's better with Irene's bacon

Bake stuffed cabbage in a 325F (165C) oven until center reaches about 165F (73C), about 45-60 minutes. If the liquid evaporates below 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) add more stock (or water) to pan. Baste the cabbage once or twice toward the end of cooking.

Just out of the oven

Transfer the cooked cabbage to a warm serving dish. Pour the jus from the cooking vessel into saucepan, deglazing with a little water if necessary. Add tomato and boil briefly until reduced to thin but not watery sauce. Taste and season with salt, strain.

At the table, cut the cabbage into pie-shaped slices and spoon sauce over them. 

Radiccio and Prepared Chorizo variation

One evening, we threw together a variation of this with what we had in the house, a big head of red Radiccio, and four pieces of Mexican Chorizo; instead of stock, we used a can of industrial lager someone left in our fridge. And you know, it came out really well!  The weights of the ingredients were cut about in half. 

So if you're in a rush, give it a go!

Sous Vide Cod Pil Pil

We may have discovered something new: you can make Pil Pil with plain cod, not just dried bacalao.

Previously, we'd used sous vide to minimize the oil and effort required for Pil Pil, the magical hollandaise-like emulsion. Every Pil Pil we've seen (and eaten) uses dried salted bacalao, preserved cod. We speculated that the mysterious emulsifying agent was within the fish skin, and that we might be able to develop the emulsion with fresh cod. Finding cod with skin on proved difficult but we found skin-on cod steaks at our local Korean supermarket.   We cooked it as before, with oil and some garlic in a sous vide bag, dropping the temperature to 65C/150F from the 78C/172F we used earlier.

Cod Pil Pil with truffled sunchoke risotto

Sure enough, the sous vide bag had some of the white emulsifying liquid in it, and this time the fish was beautifully moist and flaking apart in large chunks.  As before, we separated the liquid from the oil, whipped it with a mesh strainer until it started thickening, and drizzled in some of the oil from the sous vide bag until we developed a sauce. We added a bit of lemon to thin and brighten it, and adjusted with salt, and served it with the cod.  Really quite excellent.

429 g     Cod steak, fresh, with skin, portioned
250 ml    Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  4 clove Garlic, slightly crushed
  1       Chili Arbol
  1 pinch Salt

It can help to chill the oil before trying to vacuum seal the bag, but since we don't really care about the "under vacuum" part of "sous vide" as we're essentially low-temperature poaching, you can just seal carefully.

Cod, oil, garlic, chili in sous vide bag

Add the ingredients to the bag, seal, and cook sous vide at 65C/150F for 30 minutes. 
Drain the oil and precious white liquid into a tall narrow container.
Let settle a bit and suck out the white liquid that settles to the bottom with a turkey baster.
Whip that in a low temperature skillet with a mesh skimmer until it starts to thicken a bit.
Drizzle in some of the oil until the emulsion builds, then add more until you have as much as you like. 
Adjust density with lemon juice and water, season with salt.  
Serve on Cod.

What we learned

Pre-cut the portions of cod since they're quite fragile after cooking.
Fresh skin-on cod works as well as preserved salted and dried bacalao.
Lowering the temperature to 65C does release the emulsifying elixir.
We can add lemon and salt without breaking the emulsion.

Next Time

Salt the cod flesh a bit before adding to the bag.
Reduce the oil to just enough required for our portion of emulsified sauce, so we have none left over, maybe 50ml (3 Tbs).
Try dropping the temperature even further, to 57C/135F so it doesn't quite fall apart; hopefully, we'll still get the white emulsifying liquid.

Suspicions

Perhaps it's not the cod, or the cod skin that's the emulsifier; we've had success with Mahi Mahi. Is it possible the emulsifier is in fact the garlic cloves in the sous vide bag? We know garlic is a weak emulsifier from our delicious egg-free Toum.  Try without garlic some time.