Cracklings

David said that I should take a picture of my green beans with chicken cracklings on top as he was taking the plate to the dinner table this evening. I responded with, "Really? Nah." I just didn't think I was going to have the motivation to post, about it, since I haven't since, oh, 1999. 

I should've because the cracklings were good, and the beans were, too. Cracklings on top of crack. Yeah.

What's cracklings, you ask? Crispy skin. 

I've been thinking of it since Saturday night at work. Our chicken for family meal came out slightly underdone. Ick. So, Saul, who hadn't eaten since breakfast and was super hungry took matters into his own hands. He cut up some chicken, pulled off the skin and roasted it to done. More than done, I'd say. But, the skin got so nice and crispy. I didn't get a chance to sneak a piece, but it looked good. Later, I jumped on the hot line to help out, and one of the dishes is finished with duck cracklings. Hello. Again, I only saw, not tasted.

Tonight, when I was cutting up leftover roasted chicken for dinner, I pulled the skin off, cut it into small pieces and broiled them. Crack, crack, cracklings. With green beans, of course. The rest of the meal wasn't much to talk about; leftover butter chicken with noodles. Oh, and some roasted red beets. 

Lovely Sandwiches

I ran into a couple of pretzel baguettes at Whole Foods today. They begged me to bring them home and make them into delicious sandwiches. I think I could do that.

Let's see, what do I have at home, and what else will I need? Ah, who cares! If I can't come up with something good, they'll be tasty all on their own.

This is what I came up with.

On your left is Black Forest Ham and Tillamook's Cracked Black Pepper White Cheddar Cheese, and on your right is flat iron steak, avocado, and that white cheddar from Tillamook. I thought about putting some olive oil, or mayo, or butter on the bread, but we don't need the extra calories. I did, however, have some pickled shallots on the side for David and I to add to our portions. Here's what they looked like closed up.

And, sliced and on a plate.

Vincent had the ham and cheese, while Tyler had the steak with avocado and cheese. I had both, with the pickled shallots added (homemade). David had just one piece of the steak sandwhich, as he was heading out to play poker with friends and they'll be having pizza. On the side, we had a golden beets salad with romaine lettuce tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.

Homemade Pasta

I've been thinking a lot about making pasta at home lately. I mean, actually making the pasta. It's actually pretty easy, but I always feel like it's time consuming. A few weeks ago, when I spent my first evening working in Lark's kitchen since 2006. While there, Wiley Frank, sous chef, was showing one of the guys how to make raviolis. He knocked out a set of them so quickly, and smoothly, I thought, "I need to make pasta at home." Of course, he's the sous chef at Lark, and I've never been a sous chef in my life. But, I do know how to use my pasta machine, and I wasn't planning on making raviolis.

I've been hesitant to make pasta since that evening. I'm not afraid. My problem, and this happens with so many things in my life, is that I want to do it right. This desire makes me feel like I need to take the time to research, read, watch videos, etc., before making the attempt to do just about anything I feel worth doing. But, I lack the time, and quite frankly, the energy to go through all that. Instead, I end up not doing it at all. That is, until my want for making such item becomes greater than my need to make it perfectly, and then I just pull whatever I can find off the Internet (thank you, Steve Jobs, for your lovely, lovely iPhone & iPad), and try see what happens. I have every intention to go back and catch up on the research and make it even better then next time.

I finally felt the urge to pull the pasta machine off the shelf and go for it this afternoon. I looked up and compared a few recipes, and settled on a super simple on of semolina flour, water, salt, and olive oil. The result was a very dry, crumbly dough, to which I added a little more water, bit by bit, and kneaded, kneaded, kneaded. When it was finally soft and smooth, I wrapped it up in plastic and let it rest on the counter.

After the boys got up from their naps, I asked if they were interested in making noodles with me. They were super excited. I attached the machine to our dining table, and we went to work, cranking away. The boys each took a turn with the crank, and were amazed to see the large, flat piece of pasta get cut into thin strips of noodles right before their eyes.

What a beautiful thing homemade pasta is, especially when the rest of the meal was homemade as well. I had cooked up a batch of chanterelle and shitake mushrooms at lunch today. I ate about 1/3 of it, and had enough to use for tonight. I pan roasted a piece of flat iron steak, and when it was finished, I threw the cooked mushrooms into the pan with the steak juices to warm up. I deglazed with a little madiera wine, which I then flambeed (mainly just for the effect to show off to my boys), then tossed in the cooked noodles. We also had a romaine salad with golden beets, roasted cashews, and shredded "cracked black pepper white cheddar" cheese from Tillamook. A yummy, yummy meal.

You have got to excuse this picture, as I absolutely need to get a better camera.

Grilled Tenderloin Steak, Zucchini, and Green Beans with Corn and Cherry Tomatoes

The steak and the zucchini are pretty self-explanatory...grill as you like. But, I'm pretty proud of my green beans tonight.

First, I steamed them in a shallow saute pan, covered, for about 3-4 minutes. Then, I drained off most of the water, added some olive oil and allowed the bean to cook until the remainder water had cooked off. Then, I added finely chopped tropea onions (shallots would work) and garlic, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Next, I added fresh corn kernels and cooked until the beans were just tender. I added a touch of water and a splash of sherry vinegar, then swirled in about a tablespoon of butter. Finally, I tossed in my cherry tomato halves, chopped flat leaf parsley and chopped chives. Adjusted the seasoning, and done.

Poulet Basquaise

This comes from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook. I made this almost exactly as the recipe says, and it was dee-lish. Thank you, Mr. Kitchen Confidential. Sorry, no photo available.

poulet basquaise

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, about 4 lb, cut into 8 pieces (I purchased my bird from Whole Foods, who butchered it up for me, and gave me the remainder body pieces. Convenient, and free. Next time, though, I would just cut it up myself, as I like to take the breasts completely off the bone, and they kept them attached. I ended up having to do some cutting at home, too. No big deal. I used all the scraps, minus the liver, for making stock.)

salt and black pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper or piment d'esplete (I used smoked paprika, cuz, well, that's what I have, and what the heck is piment d'esplete, anyway?)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp butter

2 red bell peppers cut into fine julienne

2 green bell peppers cut into fine julienne (there were no green bells at the store, and the yellow and orange were expensive, so I omitted this ingredient)

1 onion thinly sliced

16 ounces canned Italian plum tomatoes

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup water + 1/2 cube chicken bouillon or 1/2 cup light chicken stock or broth (like I said, I used the scraps to make a stock, so I used that. Anthony says, "this is one dish that can handle a bouillon cube.)

3 sprigs of flat parsely finely chopped (oh, oops! I didn't see this ingredient until just now)

Equipment - large pot with cover, tongs, plate, wooden spoon, serving platter

Serves 4

Season the chicken all over with salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Heat the large pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the butter. When the butter has foamed and subsided, add the chicken, skin side down, and brown on that side only. Remove the chicken with the tongs and set aside on the plate. Add the peppers and the onion to the pot and reduce the heat to medium low. cook for about 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Stir in the wine, scraping, scraping - as always - to get the good stuff up. Cook until the wine is reduced by half, then add water and bouillon (or the chicken stock). Return the chicken to the pot, making sure to add all the juices that's accumulated on the plate while it rested. Cover the pot and allow to cook on low heat for about 25 minutes, then remove the chicken to the serving platter.

Crank up the heat to high and reduce the sauce for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the parsley. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve immediately, with rice pilaf.

**So, I've already mentioned a few things I did differently in the ingredients, but there's more. Since chicken breasts, though bigger than the other pieces of meat, cook up a little faster and have a tendency to get dry, I add all the chicken into the pot around the same time I added the wine. The legs and thighs can handle the extra cooking and not become dry. The last thing I did before lowering the heat and covering the pot was add the chicken breasts, setting them on top of the other pieces of meat. In hindsight, I'm not sure it was necessary to do that, but nonetheless, the breasts came out perfectly.

We ate our dish with whole wheat penne pasta, and didn't miss any of the green stuff.