Roast Chicken and Collard Greens

I've been living in Maine for nearly six years now. When I think about that, it seems crazy. One of the things that has made living here much easier is the proximity of my older brother and sister-in-law, which was the result of one of those life coincidences. About the same time I got a job here, my brother got an opportunity to expand his artist's skills down in Massachusetts. So, I moved to Maine and he and my sister-in-law move to Massachusetts. It is nice to have them so close because my entire family can only get together so many times a year. I typically spend the less important holidays, like Thanksgiving and Easter, with them. But, there have been times where for some reason or another I don't make it down to spend even those holidays with them. In those instances, one of my friends invites me to her family's holiday celebration. I'm always grateful for their generosity (and of course the delicious food they provide).

This past Sunday, while my friend's family had extended another invitation to myself and another friend far from her family, we both felt like having a really quiet Easter dinner. So, I decided to cook dinner for the two of us. Luckily we checked if the stores would be open on Easter, so I was able to get to the store the day before for all my ingredients. Actually, I ended up at 4 stores because the 3 stores before the last did not have any fresh mint on hand. I'm not sure why other people needed mint; I doubt they were all planning to make minted carrots like I was. (That's another on of those delicious Eula Mae recipes I mentioned previously in this blog). Along with minted carrots, I roasted a chicken (sort of based on the Eula Mae recipe) and made cornbread (also Eula Mae) and collard greens. My friend shared a delicious bottle of red wine she got while in Turkey and we finished the meal with hazelnut gelato. All in all, it was a delicious meal (if I do say so myself).

Roast Chicken

1 5 pound chicken, washed and patted dry
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp white pepper
6 shallots, ends trimmed off and sliced in half (you can leave the skins on)
2 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter with the thyme and sage over low heat and then set aside to cool slightly.
Place the chicken in a roasting pan.
Mix the salt, cayenne, black and white peppers.
Rub the salt and pepper mixture on the skin of the chicken and between the skin and meat.
Stuff the cavity with the shallots and bay leaves.
Rub the outside of the chicken with the butter mixture and then place it breast side down in the roasting pan.
Place the chicken in the oven and roast between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until fully cooked.
Remove from roasting pan and place on a platter for serving.

Collard Greens

1 tbsp oil
2 - 1/4 inch slices salt pork, cubed
2 large bunches collard greens, stemmed, sliced into 2 inch strips, and washed thoroughly
1/2 tsp raw sugar

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the salt pork and cook, stirring occasionally until browned (bottom of the pan might brown as well, but that should come up once the greens are added).
Add the greens, stir, and cover.
Turn heat down to medium.
Let greens cook until desired tenderness, stirring occasionally (be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get up the browned bits).
Sprinkle sugar on greens and cover for a couple more minutes, then stir and serve.

Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

I have been in love with Eula Mae's Cajun Kitchen ever since I received it for Christmas one year (I think it was Christmas). I love the rich, spicy food! I have a secret life fantasy of living in Louisiana which mainly consists of scenes of me in 50s style dresses and big hats sipping a bourbon and listening to live jazz music. Every time I cook from her cookbook, I put on some jazz and pour myself a glass of wine and really enjoy the cooking experience. It was a little early for wine today, but it's a long weekend, so instead I made some Coffee by Design coffee (the blend made for Standard Baking), poured in a little Jamaican Rum Cream, and sipped that while I chopped and stirred.

I've become a little more comfortable with the style of cooking, so today I made a couple deviations from her recipe for Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo. I really wanted a tomato flavor, so I added a can of whole tomatoes (chopping them up, as she does for her Jambalaya). Plus, I had some leftover grilled chicken from a small dinner party I had last night and that always makes a great addition to any stew. Finally, I was itching to cook up the andouille sausage I picked up from Karl's Sausage Kitchen down in Boston last weekend. Also, as I mentioned, I love spicy food, so I upped the seasonings a bit. A little burn never hurt anyone.

Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

1 tbsp oil
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp flour
2 c chopped onions
1 c chopped green pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 c water
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, tomatoes chopped and liquid reserved
1 tsp chicken bouillon
3 c okra, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
heaping 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
15 - 20 shakes Tabasco sauce
2 c chopped, cooked chicken
1/4 c sliced green onion
cooked rice

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
Add andouille and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.
Remove andouille from pot and set aside.
Add 3 tbsp oil and flour to pot and stir constantly until smooth and the color of peanut butter.
Add onions, green pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring until soft (about 5 minutes).
Mix reserved liquid from tomatoes and water and slowly stir into the pot, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen all the brown bits.
Add chicken bouillon and bring to a boil.
Add andouille, chopped tomatoes, okra, black pepper, salt, cayenne, bay leaves and Tabasco sauce.
Bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Add chicken and green onion and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and serve over cooked rice.

Beef and Sausage Stew

I had planned to go grocery shopping yesterday so that I could make another round of chili or something else warm. Instead I sat in my apartment most of the day reading and knitting. My dirty laundry and bare kitchen mocked me the entire day. In my defense, dragging a granny cart through a foot of snow to do laundry isn't exactly fun. Especially when most of my neighbors are disinclined to shovel their walks. The snow also deterred me from shopping and since I'm going back to Wisconsin near the end of this week, there isn't much reason for me to do any major food purchasing. So, I holed up in my apartment and stayed warm while my dog barked at everything that dared make a noise outside. Magellen has a serious problem. He hates trucks in general, car doors slamming, and people talking outside. I think he has a wire loose that makes all noise seem like an impending threat to our safety. The only way to keep us safe is to bark ferociously and run to all the windows. You never know, one of those trucks might climb into one of our second story windows. Then where would we be? Choking from gas fumes and freezing from the brisk winter wind blowing through the giant hole in the wall. It's a good thing Magellen scares them all away.

...Back to more important matters, though. The stew... perhaps it was more a soup... consistency of soup because I didn't feel like thickening the liquid, but there wasn't much liquid... okay, we'll just stick with calling it a stew. Feel free to thicken the sauce, should you be so inclined (mix some cornstarch with cold water and pour gradually into simmering stew/soup). I had 3/4 of a pound of steak and about 1/4 pound andouille sausage. I had an onion, three parsnips, some carrots, and a cabinet of leftover alcohol from my 30th birthday party. The end result was good... but lacked something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I think it just needed something to balance out the earthy and spicy ingredients. I thought the sweetness of the carrots would do it, but not really. Okay, I'm being a bit of a perfectionist here. The stew was very good, but the next time I make it, I'll try to make it more balanced and let you know if I succeeded. In the meantime, make it. It's good. Maybe you could make some suggestions on how to improve it?

Beef and Sausage Stew

3/4 lb steak, cut into small cubes
1/4 lb andouille sausage, cut in quarters lengthwise and sliced into cubes
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 medium onion, diced small
5 cups water, divided
1/2 c sweet vermouth
3 parsnips, peeled and sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp thyme leaves
1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp beef bouillon

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot.
Add steak and andouille sausage and brown on first side.
Add black pepper and stir.
Continue to brown the meat, stirring occasionally, until a crust has formed on the bottom of the pan.
Add 1 c water, scrape bottom of the pan clean, and simmer until liquid has evaporated and crust is forms on the bottom of the pan again.
Mix vermouth and 1/2 c water and pour into pan.
Scrape bottom of the pan clean and simmer until liquid has evaporated again and crust is formed again.
Add remaining water and the remaining ingredients and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan again.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1/2 hour to 1 hour, until liquid dips below the top of the solid ingredients and carrots and parsnips and tender.
Serve hot with warm bread.

Recipes - Something to Inspire

A few weeks ago, a close friend of mine and I collaboratively cooked a meal from some new friends. Now, I love to cook, but I don't tend toward what I consider to be... food snobbery. I would love to buy those ingredients that lend a slightly different flavor or are more environmentally friendly, but I can't quite afford those items. Now my friend tends to buy those ingredients. It leads to interesting conversations and eventual compromise in the grocery store. As soon as I have the monetary funds necessary, or my own farm, I'll definitely be up for those ingredients. At the moment, substitutions must be made, especially when cooking from recipes from certain online websites. I also found that said website also got the time necessary to cook a chuck roast grossly wrong, as in at least three hours wrong. I like my roasts tender, an hour in the oven with a mass of vegetables is certainly not sufficient. I also have heard that reducing wine alone makes a more flavorful and less alcoholic sauce, so we applied that to our recipe. If you buy a well marbled piece of meat, you shouldn't need additional fat. I also applied a technique for flavoring a pork roast to our adapted recipe, deep slits into which you stuff seasonings. Here is the recipe, as close as I can remember.

12 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon whole mustard seed, roasted in skillet and crushed
2 tsp black peppercorns, roasted in skillet and crushed
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 4 lb chuck roast
2 c dry red wine
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 c chicken broth
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small celery root, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 small to medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 medium to large onions, peeled and cut into eighths

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To prepare mustard seed and peppercorns, place in a small heavy skillet over medium heat. Gently shake pan until mustard seeds start popping. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Place in the middle of a piece of plastic wrap. Fold plastic wrap in half to seal in the seeds. Pound with a meat mallet until crushed.
With a sharp knife, make 1 inch deep slits into the roast at regular intervals on all sides, placing a clove of garlic in each slit.
Rub the outside of the roast with the kosher salt, mustard seed, and peppercorns.
Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
Place roast in the hot skillet and brown on all sides.
Remove roast from skillet and place in large roasting pan.
Reduce heat on the skillet to low.
Once cool enough, pour in the wine and start stirring to loosen the browned bits.
Bring the wine to a simmer and cook, stirring, until reduced to half.
Add bay leaf, thyme, and chicken broth and cook until aromatic.
Pour the sauce into the bottom of the roasting pan.
Cover the roasting pan loosely with aluminum foil.
Place in the oven and roast for about 2 1/2 hours.
Add vegetables and continue roasting until vegetables are tender and roast is tender enough to insert a fork, but the fork does not lift the roast when removed.