crispy chicken wings with mushrooms, garlic, thyme and vermouth

Chicken tends not to be the most exciting type of meat, and it takes a great chicken recipe to get me to stand up and take notice. This, my friends, is a great chicken recipe. And I'm not just saying that because this is by far the garlickiest dish I have ever made.  It's incredibly crispy, without being weighed down with any sort of batter, and the white wine, mushrooms and thyme are the perfect sauce.

panko crusted mustard chicken/smashed turnips with horseradish

I feel like the lighting at Nathan's apartment always gives me problems; the food never looks particularly appetizing in photos... Anyway, even if it didn't photograph the way I would have wanted, this was a pretty great meal: chicken breast crusted in mustard and panko breadcrumbs, a little salad, sauteed turnip greens, and a horseradish scallion turnip mash.

grilled mustard chicken with scallions/shredded kale salad with avocado and tomatoes

So it's a rare opportunity that I get to grill anything, being that I am afraid that I would set the roof of my building on fire were I ever to follow through on my dream of dragging a webber up there. Therefore, I was really excited when my brother suggested we commander mom and dad's grill one evening and throw a barbeque for our friends back in August, before he went back up to Cobleskill for school.

Of course, that failed to take into account that our parents live an hour from the city, and that none of my friends were going to come out after a long week of work for a Friday night dinner party. So instead Nathan and Matt and I cooked everything for Mom and Dad instead. I think they were pretty happy to get to eat all the good stuff we made, and it was a really nice family meal, on a beautiful cool summer night, out in the backyard, crickets chirping. Our friends definitely missed out!

tacos and margaritas, enchiladas and sangria

You so wish you could come over for dinner when Laura and I are cooking. Check out this Cinco de Mayo spread we put together back in May:



My mother's taco recipe: ground beef with all the fixins on a flour tortilla.

dal nirvana and chicken vindaloo

So I've tried making Indian food a one or two times in the past, but I didn't really do it up right. There are a lot of different spices common in Indian cuisine that I don't normally have around, and even though a little goes a long way for spices, they are always so expensive! As a result, my previous attempts always fell a little bit short. They were tasty, but not quite as flavorful as the genuine article.

This might have continued indefinitely had it not been for my lovely roommate Laura, who emailed me one day to say that she was making some spicy chicken vindaloo for our friend Matt, and would I like to join them? Well, I had a recipe for some lentil "dal nirvana" that I had been meaning to try, so I offered to make that to go with it.




Both of these dishes are pretty common examples of Indian cuisine, at least from what I've experienced of it. The chicken is cooked with potatoes and a spicy tomato and onion sauce. The lentils are boiled with tomatoes and Indian spices. This particular recipe appealed to me because it was finished with some cream and butter for added richness, and cilantro, which I pretty much love in anything. We decided to serve them both with white basmati rice.

Laura went all out for this dinner, which meant we had a new set of Indian spices to play with: coriander, cardamom, turmeric... we even ground up our own garem masala with cloves and pepper and stuff. It was pretty exciting. I particularly liked the smell of the coriander, which I had never smelt on its own before. It was really fragrant in a way I can't quite describe. A very clean, fresh scent, it was almost citrusy.

Laura and Matt tackled the chicken while I made the lentils. I was a little bit worried while they were making the sauce. The spicy pungent mixture was so pungent that I was literally crying when they threw the garlic, onions, tomatoes, fresh ginger and spices in the blender. Luckily, it mellowed on the stove, with all the thick paste cooking wayyyyy down so it was just coating the chicken and potatoes rather than drowning it. A little patience made it all possible.

Similarly, my lentils looked like soup in all the water and canned tomato juice, but after an hour on the stove it was nice and thick, infused with some extra garam masala which I took the liberty of adding.




I don't know if I'd say that the dal lived up to its nirvana name, but it was very, very tasty, and both dishes actually tasted like real deal Indian food. I was proud of us for making such an ethnic meal. Laura gets major kudos for springing for the exotic spices. And now we've got them on hand for any future Indian endeavors!

chicken marsala

I know I said I would talk about soup, but frankly, I'm sick of soup, and I don't want to talk about it anymore. And, even more so than my broken jaw soups, this is a long overdue post. According to my Flickr, this photo was taken on June 9th. Wow. Nathan was supposed to cover this entry, but he claims he has nothing to say about this dinner. As you've probably noticed, his contributions to the blog have been few and far in between, so this really isn't that surprising.

Anyway. Chicken marsala. We had bough a nice bottle of marsala wine to make Jody Adam's mushroom fricasse and gnocchi, and we had plenty leftover for this classic chicken dish.


chicken, mushrooms, and angelhair pasta in a marsala wine sauce

Nathan had mentioned many times that his former roommate Dan's mother made awesome chicken marsala, so he inquired after her recipe. It turned out to be from Martha Stewart, and relatively straightforward. We also consulted a Giada DeLaurentis recipe, but ultimately decided against adding either mustard or marscapone.

Basically, all there is to chicken marsala is cooking the chicken and then onions, garlic and mushrooms, adding the wine and reducing it to a glaze. It's never been my favorite dish, but it's pretty tasty. We served our with capellini, but I'd suggest a less delicate pasta like spaghetti or linguini. We also made some green beans with toasted almonds, but they were from a crappy Harlem supermarket and pretty tasteless.

Really, there's not that much more to say. If you have marsala wine, this is a great thing to make with it, but unless you're particularly fond of this dish, this probably isn't something to go out of your way to make. It's yummy, but something about chicken marsala just screams catering hall to me. Not that I wouldn't jump at the opportunity to eat some right now, after three weeks of liquid foods!

chicken parmigiana

my chicken parm with broccoli, pesto and sourdough bread

So one of my best friends, Paul, moved into the city last month, and I promised to bring over dinner as a housewarming present. Paul's favorite food is chicken parm, so the menu was a total no brainer. I figured I'd also bring a salad, because I'm always struggling not to waste my food co-op lettuce. Then, while making borchst, I accidentally defrosted a container of pesto I assumed was chicken stock, so we had that too. It was pretty discolored after its time in the freezer. Not pretty. I also made an oreo cheesecake and broccoli strascinati, but I am aiming to make an entry every day for the month of July, so I am going to stretch this meal across three posts.

First, I made Marcella Hazan's famous tomato sauce, which I previously blogged about here. The recipe calls for only canned tomatoes, butter, and an onion. But I of course could not help embellishing, tossing in a garlic clove and finishing it off with plenty of fresh basil and parsley from my food co-op stores. I cooked this in too small a pot, because I didn't want to use the giant one, which meant tomato splattering everywhere and the onion and garlic didn't get as delicious soft and saturated with tomatoey goodness as the last time, so I had to remove them from the sauce rather than smashing them into it. Luckily, it still tasted good, and I saved the onion and garlic to use again on a later date.

Since there were going to be three ravenous young men at dinner, I bought six chicken breasts and boned them myself. This means that I've now got six bones in the fridge waiting for me to cook up some stock, but that is a story for later. I sliced my cutlets thinly and then dipped them in egg and seasoned breadcrumbs and pan fried them in hot vegetable oil. I did all this the night before so that I could serve a reasonably early dinner to Paul, his girlfriend Lauren and his roommates, Rob and Andrew. I also cut up the broccoli, and made the cheesecake. Lots and lots of prep work.

The next day I came home after work and packed up everything and hopped on the subway down to Paul's house. He picked up some bread to go with dinner, his roommate Andrew had some red wine, and Lauren bought some shredded mozzarella. I had already put the cutlets and sauce in a baking dish, so when I arrived I simply topped them with the cheese and popped them in the oven and got to work on the broccoli and salad.

After twenty minutes, I switched on the broiler and let the cheese get a little brown and bubbly. The chicken was a delicious saucy, cheesy mess.


chicken parmigiana with plenty of cheese and sauce

Andrew recently bought a gigantically awesome patio table for their roof, so we took the food upstairs and ate under the stars. It was awesome. I am so envious of their sweet roof set up, although I suppose I could technically set up something of the sort on mine, which is unlocked. Maybe someday.

spinach pancakes and "fried" chicken wings

chicken wings and spinach pancakes

My friend Becky came over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and we made my mom's toaster oven chicken wings and some Mark Bittman pancakes by way of some food blog. We rounded things off with a little salad with grape tomatoes and my fast-becoming-standard red wine vinegar dressing. You should really give this a shot— According to Mario Batali, "a great salad dressing has great olive oil and an inexpensive red-wine vinegar."

Anyway. The pancakes were the most labor intensive part of the meal, which was pretty damn easy overall. We trimmed and washed ten ounces of spinach, and briefly sauteed it with a little garlic and oil. Then we squeezed out the water, chopped the spinach up, and mixed it into the pancake batter. This consisted of one and a half cups buttermilk, two beaten eggs and 2 tablespoons melted butter, which we mixed together and then stirred into the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, a tablespoon of sugar, half a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt, and a dash of nutmeg. Finally, we added the spinach.

We fried the pancakes up with butter over medium high heat until crisp and golden on both sides. A good rule of thumb for flipping pancakes is to wait until the surface is full of little bubbles. Becky handled our pancakes, and did a bang up job. They were great. We served them with sour cream mixed with lemon zest and some shredded parmesan. Dee-licious.

Before we started cooking the pancakes we prepared our chicken wings and stuck them in the toaster oven. I grew up eating these chicken wings, and they are so good. Crispy and moist with a delicious breading... as a kid, this seemed like perfection, and even now I think its pretty wonderful, especially since they're so easy. Obviously, these are baked, but as a kid I always assumed they were fried, and I don't think I stopped thinking of them as such until a few years ago. They are that damn good.

First, season some breadcrumbs. I generally buy a canister of plain ones at the grocery store and jazz them up with some garlic powder, black pepper, grated romano cheese, dried basil, oregano and parsley. I like to keep a container of these in the fridge for making scrambled eggs or breading pork chops, chicken cutlets or eggplant. They really do come in handy.

Once your breadcrumbs are ready, spread some out on a sheet of wax paper. Then you want to coat your wings with a little bit of mayo and then roll them in the breadcrumbs. This bit is a little gross, because your hands wind up covered in raw chicken, mayo and breadcrumbs, but once you're through it, you're basically done. Pop those wings into the toaster oven on a little tray, and cook them at 350° for about 50 minutes. So easy!

After enjoying our delicious supper, Becky and I also made ourselves a strawberry shortcake for dessert. I'm not sure if it was because we slightly undercooked it or if the recipe was just a dud, but the cake had a slightly unpleasant doughiness to it, or something. I suspect it may have been our fault as over eager cake eaters, but ultimately, it was not that good. Becky is supposed to guest blog the recipe, so stay tuned for that. Until then, I leave you with this parting shot of the two of us with our just desserts.


strawberry shortcake cream on top, tell me the name of your sweet heart

jambalaya

jambalaya and salad

Now, I consider myself to be a pretty good cook, but I'll be the first to admit that my range does not extend much beyond Italian food, American food, and maybe some basic French stuff. However, with the Saints playing in the Superbowl earlier this month, I got inspired to make some jambalaya, which is definitely outside my culinary comfort zone. My mom hates sausage and peppers, but selflessly agreed to my dinner plans, and cooked everything with me.

I found two recipes that we used, but I wasn't quite happy with the result. Sometimes AllRecipes can come through with something great, but I think the tendency there is for recipes that are overly simplified for the home cook. With such short cuts, it is difficult to develop any real depth of flavor. Unfortunately, in this instance, we took a cue from the AllRecipes jambalaya that we probably shouldn't have, and served our jambalaya over rice, rather than cooking the rice with chicken stock and all the other ingredients, as the second recipe had instructed. There wasn't much to taste other than the smoky and spicy andouille sausage, green peppers and tomatoes. If I made this again, I would definitely cook the rice in with all the other ingredients, as I suspect that would impart the whole dish with a richness and depth of flavor that it sadly lacked.

I wish I knew more about Creole and Cajun cuisine, as I felt completely out of my element trying to make a New Orleans classic. We used chicken and shrimp in addition to the sausage, and stuck to the so-called Holy Trinity of green peppers, onions and celery. Basically, we cooked it all up with tomato paste and canned tomatoes... It was fairly tasty, but I wasn't satisfied. I would definitely try this again and try to infuse the rice with the flavors of the dish, rather than mixing it in after it has been cooked. As it was, it just didn't seem like real jambalaya, even to my inexperienced palate. However, I did happily eat the leftovers while watching the Saints win!

julia's roast chicken

So tonight's blog entry is coming to you sans photographs, because our dinner took so long to cook that I lost all hope of it being any good. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Last night, during "Snotorious" or whatever, Nathan came over to cook dinner. I had off courtesy of the storm so I decided to defrost the half a chicken Laura and I had gotten from the food co-op back in December.

Nathan is not exactly the world's biggest chicken fan, so he was pretty unhappy when I told him what I had in mind for our meal. However, I stood my ground and decided to roast it and serve with some plain white rice and food co-op cabbage. Nathan acquiesced, on the condition that we try to do SOMETHING to make a plain roast chicken more interesting. I had gotten an email from Cook's Illustrated with this recipe that prescribed coating the skin with baking powder so as to make it extra crispy, but required it sitting for 12 to 24 hours before cooking, so I went back to the drawing board. One basic search provided the obvious solution: Julia Child's famous roasted chicken. It didn't require any special ingredients or complicated techniques, and is one of those classic recipes that's been garnering rave reviews for decades. Also, Julia Child is my girl. I grew up watching her and the Frugal Gourmet (who turned out to be a perv, but that's beside the point).

The recipe basically calls for washing and drying the chicken in hot water, which I did, and rubbing it with salt, pepper and butter. Throw a halved lemon and onion inside the cavity, and throw it in the oven for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. After that, turn it down to 350 degrees, and baste. Julia's instructions included plenty of basting, but I didn't see much liquid to baste with. I definitely wanted to keep things nice and moist, so I just drizzled on some olive oil. After another 15 minutes you were supposed to toss in a chopped onion and some chopped carrots, but I was out of carrots so the onion had to suffice. I also added more olive oil.

At this point, it should have been done after another 15 to 30 minutes, but this chicken took FOREVER. I was starving and we tried the thermometer, and no dice. Ten minutes later, I was ravenous, but the thing was still legitimately raw when we cut it open. In desperation we cranked up the heat and let it sit, and finally the thing cooked all the way through. At this point I was cranky and Nathan's chicken skepticism was severely lowering my expectations. However, this was a fucking beautiful organic chicken, and I was cooking with Julia's instructions, and I should have known to keep faith.

Big surprise: Julia Child knew what she was doing when it came to roasting chickens. I know, I know, this is something she's universally renowned for. However, that doesn't mean that the results aren't extraordinary. Juicy, moist, bursting with flavor with amazing crispy onions.... This may have been the best chicken I had ever eaten. So amazing. I was thrilled with the results, and even Nathan concurred that this would be worth making again if we could get our hands on a nice chicken.

I just wish I had a photo of this deceptively simple masterpiece!