Vinegar Braised Chicken

This is the second recipe I tested from the Michael Pollan article in Oprah magazine (April 2013).  This recipe was implemented exactly as it was written in the book.  It was later I improvised, but I'll get to that!

Note:  Mr. Pollan suggests seasoning the chicken with salt a day in advance.  I did it for about 6 hours and it worked great.

Ingredients:
One 3.5 pound chicken, cut into pieces
2.5 teaspoons Kosher salt, divided use
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup shallots, finely chopped
1.5 cups red wine vinegar (no, that is not a typo)
1 cup chicken stock (or broth)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup canned whole packed plum tomatoes, drained (I used chopped fire-roasted tomatoes because it is what I had on hand)
8 cloves garlic
4 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 300.  Season chicken with 2 teaspoons of salt (or omit if you have already done this in advance) and pepper.  Heat oil in a 5-6 quart Dutch oven or wide, overnproof pot over medium-high heat.  Arrange half the chicken in pot in a single layer and cook, turning once, until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken.  Transfer the chicken to the same plate.
2.  Add shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 2 minutes.  Add vinegar and cook until much of teh acrid aroma has dissipated, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add broth and 1/2 cup water, bring to a vigorous simmer, and cook until slightly reduced, 3 to 5 minutes.
3.  Whisk in tomato paste and remaining 1/2 tsp salt.  Add tomatoes, then arrange chicken in pot, skin side up, pouring over any accumulated juices from the plate.  Tuck garlic, thyme, and bay leaves in liquid.  Cover pot snugly with foil, then lid, and transfer to the oven.  cook 1 hour and 15 minutes, until chicken is very tender.
4. Let rest 30 minutes.  Discard thyme and bayleaves.  Scatter parsley on top and serve.

chicken is browned in the Dutch oven

First batch transferred to a plate

After chicken is browned and removed from the Dutch oven,

the shallots, vinegar, and tomato paste are added

chicken is placed back into the liquid ingredients

garlic, thyme, and bay leaves are added

base is covered with foil, lid applied

Dutch oven is placed in oven to braise at 300 degrees for 75 to 90 minutes

Result:  tender, flavorful (tangy!) chicken.

Yum!

*I reserved the liquid ingredients in a separate container and chilled.
The leftover chicken was chilled separately.
The following day, I removed the chicken meat from the bone, skin and bones discarded.

I heated the liquid ingredients at a low to medium setting in a deep pan.  After allowing the mixture to reduce about 30% I removed about 1/4 cup into a jar to make a slurry by adding 3 tablespoons cream and one teaspoon corn starch.  This was shaken to mix and added back into the liquid to thicken.
I added the chicken (that I tore into shredded pieces) back into the mixture.  I added one tablespoon of my homemade Garam Masala (at the end of that post).  After allowing the mixture to heat through until steaming, I served it.  This mixture would be PERFECT served with rice.  Yummy delicious!  I think this was even better than the original dish, but it was the first dish that got me to this one and it is a great way to use the leftovers.
Try it!!

Yummy Vegetable Salad with Verde Dressing

This recipe was adapted from one I read in Oprah magazine in the article, "The Man Who Changed Food", about Michael Pollan.  I have a confession:  I have not read the recent books by Michael Pollan.  They are now in my ipad reading "queue", but I was in love with the first book I read by him called "The Botany of Desire".  If you haven't done so, I recommend reading it.  But, I digress.
The magazine article intrigued me.  Mr. Pollan, who has written about food extensively, only recently came to cooking.  He is still learning, but he has developed some pretty interesting recipes, several of which were published in the current (April 2013) issue of the magazine.  I decided to try a couple of them.  Of course, because I am the cook I am, I put my own spin on things.  As I have written before:  I see recipes as guidelines and this is no exception.

The first I'll write about is an amazing salad.  In the magazine he calls it Vegetable Salad with Salsa Verde.  I changed the name because some people will automatically veer away from the idea of salsa on a salad.  Really, this is more like a viniagrette, so don't freak out.

Ingredients:
olive oil
grapeseed oil (optional)
flat leaf parsley
thyme
brined capers (in a jar)
one lemon
pepper
garlic
walnut dijon mustard (or a similar mustard of your choice)
fresh salad greens (a variety is nice)
cauliflower
beets, 2 red and 2 golden
carrots
leeks
blackberries (optional)
feta cheese (optional)
blue cheese (optional)
french fried onions

The dressing (vinaigrette):
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I used half olive and half grapeseed to lighten the flavor a bit)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons brined capers, rinsed well and drained, then chopped
zest of one lemon (finely zested with a plane)
1/4 tsp freshly grated black pepper
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon walnut mustard (or use a good dijon)

Combine all the ingredients in a jar with a secure lid.  Shake well to emulsify and refrigerate until just before service.

Salad:
Fresh greens, cut into bite-sized pieces depending on the greens.  I used a combo of arugula and baby chard, as well as some mixed spring greens from my farm box.

Roasted Vegetables:
baby carrots, or larger carrots, cut into long pieces.  Try to cut the carrots to approximately the same size.
Cauliflower, cut into large pieces for roasting
Beets (both red and golden, if you can get them), sliced into 1/4 inch lengthwise cross sections.
Leeks, thoroughly washed and cut into long sections

Heat oven to 350'.  All root vegetables need to be scrubbed with a vegetable brush prior to cutting.
Toss each type of vegetable, separately, into a bag.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the vegetables and toss gently to coat.  Spread the vegetables onto roasting pans, keeping each vegetable type separate on the pans.  Roast until slightly caramelized on the carrots and leeks, approximately 40 minutes or longer.  Cauliflower will begin to turn slightly golden on the edges.  Remove and allow to cool.

Before service:  place greens in a large bowl.  Emulsify dressing again and gently dress salad, being sure that the mixture is well-distributed on the greens.  Place the greens on a serving platter.
Distribute the roasted vegetables, one type at a time, over the greens.
Next, crumble bits of the blue cheese, then the feta, over the entire salad.
Distribute a small amount of the french onions over the surface.
Finish with a handful of blackberries.
Serve.
Note:  you can dress all the roasted vegetables, too, if you wish, but I found that dressing the greens was enough to flavor the entire dish.  The taste of the roasted vegetables is so good you don't need to add to them.  That is just my opinion, and your taste may dictate otherwise.

This salad is colorful, textural, and absolutely delicious!
Keep in mind that the cheese and berries are optional.  Well, really, all of it is!  Use the vegetables and add-ons of your choice.  I can tell you that this salad was served to a group of 10 with rave reviews by all.  The other surprise was that it the leftovers kept well to the next day.

I had some leftover roasted vegetables that I subsequently used on another, similar salad.  I also made enough of the dressing to have multiple uses by doubling the recipe.

Thyme, removed from the woody stem and slightly chopped

flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

The combination of olive and grapeseed oil,

into which the chopped capers have been added

a dollop (or for you measurers, one tablespoon) of 

walnut dijon mustard.

(If you have never tried this mustard, try to get some!  It is amazing!

Add the chopped garlic.

Pepper...

and lemon zest.  If you don't have a plane, such as this one,

mince the zest until it is very fine before adding to the mixture.

Emulsify by shaking.

Ugh!  To my great dismay I have accidentally deleted my gorgeous photo of the finished salad in its platter.  I apologize about this.  Please accept my apology and just know that it was gorgeous!  The next time (and there WILL be a next time) I make it I will add a photo.  I hope you will try it!

Cauliflower pizza crust

Here's another fun recipe to try from the always-entertaining blog, "Eating Our Words".

Cauliflower Pizza Crust a Delicious Work in Progress

By Christina Uticone Thu., Jan. 17 2013 at 10:00 AM

Photos by Christina Uticone

Not exactly finger food.

Like many, I'm trying to take this first month of the New Year to detox a bit, by making better food choices and upping my workout schedule. We tend to throw it down during the holidays, and the cumulative effects of rich food, plentiful booze, and sleep deprivation had me scouring the Internet for some new, healthy recipes. After seeing a dozen Tweets and Facebook status updates about cauliflower pizza crust, I set out to give it a try. My husbandloves cauliflower, and I liked the idea of a lower-cal version of a favorite dish.

The recipe is pretty simple, especially if you have a food processor (which we do not) but even if you have to chop the cauliflower yourself, it's a pretty fun project.

I looked at a few recipes online -- see them here, here, and here -- and got started. You'll need:

• One head cauliflower
• One egg, beaten
• Salt, pepper, herbs & spices to taste (dried or fresh)
• One cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Toppings of your choice

Pre-heat the oven to 400° F. After chopping the entire head of cauliflower into rice-sized pieces (this is where a food processor would have come in awfully handy) I put everything into a microwave-safe bowl and nuked it for about eight minutes, until the cauliflower was translucent. One of the recipes calls for boiling the riced cauliflower and then draining the water, and then further squeezing out moisture with a dishtowel, claiming that this method will result in a drier crust, one that can be picked up and eaten like a regular piece of pizza. After ricing an entire head of cauliflower by hand, that sounded a little labor intensive so ... maybe next time.

After the cauliflower was softened in the microwave I added the egg, salt, pepper, cheese, some dried basil, and three cloves of minced garlic. Onto a pizza stone, I pressed the mixture into a pizza crust shape approximately 1/3 inch thick, and then popped the whole thing into the oven for about 25 minutes, until the crust browned on the edges and top. I removed it from the oven, added toppings--not a lot, as a veggie crust didn't seem likely to hold much weight--and the whole thing went back into the oven, where I broiled it for about three minutes. (In addition to a schmear of Don Pepino pizza sauce I added some chopped olives, spinach, and cherry tomatoes, plus another quarter-cup of mozz.)

The crust stays quite moist, so it doesn't exactly make a clean getaway from the stone.

On the plus side, this is truly a yummy alternative to a traditional pizza crust. On the negative side, there was no way to eat this with our hands -- the dough was still somewhat wet, and didn't easily separate from the pizza stone. This was definitely a fork kind of meal.

It was a nice change of pace, though, and filling enough to count as dinner, especially with a side salad. A bit of experimentation is in order -- especially if the claim that the crust can be prepped for a drier outcome is true. Overall, one of the better versions of a healthy pizza I've tried, and great for anyone who is going for gluten-free.

Atomic Deer Turds

When I saw the name of this dish, I just had to share it.*  This comes from a food blog I follow, "Eating Our Words", a feature of the Houston Press, and I thought you might enjoy it!

Texas Tailgating: Atomic Deer Turds

Sausage Fest

• 1

Note: This is a rerun of a post from 2008 in which former Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh shares a favorite tailgating recipe in honor of game day.

Tailgaters love to stuff jalapeños with cheese (usually cream cheese) and wrap meat around them. To make "atomic buffalo turds," you stuff a half a jalapeño with a "cocktail smokie" sausage and cream cheese, wrap it with bacon, secure with a toothpick and grill until the bacon is crisp. Then there's "armadillo eggs," made by wrapping pork sausage around a cream cheese-stuffed pepper.

In Texas, where tailgaters, trail drive riders and hunting camp cooks have lots of venison on hand, variations on this theme use deer meat. I've seen butterflied venison backstrap and venison hamburger meat used as the outer layer around a stuffed jalapeño -- but the most common meat for this use is venison sausage. These are known by a number of names including "atomic deer turds," or, in polite company, "venison sausage balls."

I made some of these on my backyard grill for breakfast this morning. The initial burn of the jalapeño was intense enough to wake me up, but it quickly subsided into a pleasant mouth buzz that went great with my morning coffee. The trick to taming the heat is to clean out as much of the white inner membrane as you can before you stuff the pepper with cheese. If you really want to tone it down, you can also cut the pepper in half.

Atomic Deer Turds

I usually use aged gouda or jack cheese, but you can use whatever you have handy. Cream cheese works, too. Substitute pork sausage and you've got "armadillo eggs."

• 2 small jalapeños
• 2 one-inch chunks of cheese
• 6-8 ounces venison sausage, cold
• Cooking spray

Cut the the tops off the jalapeños, leaving one and a quarter inches of the bottom end of the pepper. With a butter knife, hollow out the inside of the pepper, removing all of the seeds and as much of the white pith as possible without puncturing the chile. Cut some cheese so that it fits inside the pepper.

Photo by Robb Walsh

Flatten a cold 3- to 4-ounce patty of venison sausage on a cutting board with your palm. Peel it up and fold it around the stuffed pepper, squeezing to form an oblong shape. Spray some oil on a grill or griddle and cook the stuffed sausage over medium heat, turning often, for about 15 minutes or until well-browned on all sides.

Allow to cool enough to handle, then, with a sharp knife, cut each oblong in half so you can see the pepper and cheese. Serve immediately.

Makes 4.