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.

Spicy Sofrito and Black Bean Soup

Thinking back on my childhood, I think I pinpoint my now sister-in-law's entry into our family as the moment where our culinary world expanded. I refer to both an exposure to new foods and flavors and to the culture around sharing food. Growing up, my mother and my sister-in-law's parents made almost every meal from scratch. My guess it was both family tradition and economically driven. It's much cheaper to feed your family home cooked meals than pre-made ones (well, it was. Now I'm not sure if that is still the case). During college my sister-in-law would get a craving for something my Mom would make and tell my brother that they needed to buy celery so that they could make "white people food." It was and still is funny because so many of our meals growing up really did start with a base of onions, celery, ground beef, and salt and pepper. My sister-in-law's family, being Puerto Rican, started most dishes with sofrito, adobo, oregano, cumin, and a smattering of other seasonings. Despite eating a lot of Puerto Rican food over the years and watching both my sister-in-law and her parents cook, I still haven't been able to capture the flavors properly in my own house.

When it came to dinner time, we always sat down as a family to eat, as I believe my sister-in-law's family did as well. In our home, someone would serve up food for each person, giving them the amount they wanted. If we wanted seconds, we served ourselves. In my sister-in-law's family, someone serves the food, but typically gives you more than you ask for. When your plate nears empty, someone offers you more. My sister-in-law told me that one of the first times she ate dinner at our home, she left hungry because while she wanted more food, she was never offered any more and she didn't feel comfortable serving herself more even while the rest of us grabbed seconds. Over the years, we have shared many meals and while our tendencies in how we gather and share food may not have changed much, we have become more accustomed to our differences, small as they may be.

As we all grow and explore the world around us, we have been exposed to more styles of cooking and have incorporated those into our lives. My brother and sister-in-law lived in Japan for a couple years and brought back a passion for the Japanese style of cooking. Growing up, we almost never ate fish because we lived in Wisconsin and nobody in my family went fishing. After they returned from Japan, the family started eating fish with more regularity and occasionally we will make miso soup, ginger chicken, or tonkatsu. I lived in China, where a friend and her mother taught myself and a couple other foreigners how to make baozi. For the last couple years, my family has made baozi for our Christmas Eve dinner. This time intensive meal goes quickly when everyone is chipping in to help roll the dough and form the buns. My other sister-in-law, wife of my younger brother, is a vegetarian which has introduced more non-meat options to our family gatherings. When you grow up with every meal being based on a meat and starch, learning to cook delicious vegetarian meals definitely has a learning curve.

As I drove to the grocery store tonight pondering what to cook for this week, I had a craving for Puerto Rican beans. But, me being me and me not really having mastered Puerto Rican food, I made up my own style of sofrito. Below is the recipe for the sofrito and the black bean soup.

Spicy Sofrito

2 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 bell pepper, cored and quartered
1 head of garlic, peeled
8 small shallots, peeled
1 can chipotle peppers in adobo
2 cherry peppers, stems removed and halved
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch cilantro

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Place in jars and either refrigerate or freeze.

Black Bean Soup

1 c spicy sofrito
1 1/2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 small jar pimentos with juice
2 tbsp slices green olives with juice
2-4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
adobo to taste
3 28 oz cans of low sodium black beans
2 cans of water
2 tsp chicken better than bullion

Place spicy sofrito, tomato sauce, pimentos with juice, green olives with juice, oregano, cumin, and adobo (sprinkle back and forth across the bottom of the pan twice) in the bottom of a large stock pot. Turn heat to medium-high and cook until fragrant. Add the black beans, water, and chicken bullion. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook at a low boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully use an immersion blender to blend smooth. Serve hot.

Chili

I went to the store freezing from the cold (hello winter, bit of a late arrival there) and knowing I wanted to make a soup or stew. I ended up getting the ingredients for chili (and for what I hope will be an awesome attempt at edamame hummus and ingredients for berry smoothies).

Chili

2 tbsp bacon grease
1/2 lb ground grass fed beef
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 large garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and sliced
1 fresno pepper, top removed, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 1/2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 5 oz container sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 14.5 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
42 oz water
1 tsp beef bouillon
1 yam, peeled and cubed
4 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp thyme
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 pinches allspice
6 shakes smoked paprika
salt to taste
diced avocado

In a large stock pot, heat bacon grease over medium heat.
When melted, add beef and stir until browned.
Add onion, garlic, bell pepper, and fresno pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly soft.
Add shiitake mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms look moist.
Add both cans diced tomatoes, water, bouillon and seasonings.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and top with diced avocado.

Caution: Hot

It's been hot and humid here in Maine, which is unusual. For example, for a good portion of June I still needed to wear a jacket and leggings on my bike ride to work. I'm enjoying the heat and hope it lasts long enough for me to want it to go away. I have to say, this summer has been absolutely beautiful. While it may not have been hot in June, it didn't rain all month like last year. I'm not sure if a lack of rain (well, it's rained, but not constantly, day after day) is affecting the farm. They mentioned in the last newsletter that it's been dry enough for them to dry and bale hay. And the vegetables are still coming. They think next week they will also have flowers in the pick-your-own section, which is cool.

So, where am I with my vegetables from last week? Mostly gone, though I still have some napa cabbage, a small cabbage, some lettuce, and the zucchini left. Perhaps I'll make some coleslaw inspired salad this weekend. Most of the remaining vegetables went into my dinner last night, a hot and sour soup inspired stew. The hot and sour soup recipe I use is from Ken Hom's Fool Proof Chinese Cooking. If you've never made Hot and Sour soup, you really should pick up a copy of this book and try his out. I've never been a fan of the glutinous vibrant red variety in most Chinese restaurants in the US. Hom's recipe, however, is a proper soup and the only vibrant red comes from the hot pepper oil. It's absolutely delicious.

I was already considering using his marinade for some ground pork I had and as I got going I decided to make a stew that I could put over rice. His recipe has tofu, egg, pork, woodears and shitake mushrooms. I used the egg, pork, and shitake mushrooms and added broccoli, baby bok choy leaves, napa cabbage and some spicy red peppers. It's important, when making his soup, to make a chicken stock. I didn't have any, so I used bouillon and simmered it with slices of ginger, crushed garlic, and onion to make the base. After making that, the rest of the soup went together rather quickly. And despite the heat, it was a perfect meal.

Vegetable Hot and Sour Stew

6 c water
2 tsp chicken bouillon
4 inches of ginger, sliced
6 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
1/2 c sliced red onion
12 shitake mushrooms, stems and tops separated; slice tops
1/2 lb pork
4 tsp soy sauce
4 tsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
12 napa cabbage leaves, washed and sliced into 1 inch strips
8 to 10 baby bok choy, leaves separated from stems
3 c broccoli pieces*
2 hot peppers, sliced into rounds
2 eggs
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
8 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tsp chili oil
1/4 c cilantro
2 tsp sesame oil
cooked rice

In a stock pot, combine water, bouillon, ginger, garlic, onion, and stems from the shitake mushrooms.
Bring to a boil, turn down a tad and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
While the base is boiling, mix the 4 tsp soy sauce, 4 tsp rice wine, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp sugar and pork.
Use a wire strainer to remove the ginger, garlic, onion, and shitake stems from the base.
Turn down heat so base is simmering, then slowly add the pork, breaking it into small pieces. Allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Once pork is no longer visibly pink, add the cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, shitake caps, and red pepper. Allow to cook until broccoli is bright green and cabbage and bok choy are wilted.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the 1 tbsp sesame oil.
Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan, clearing a space where there is mostly broth in the center. Slowly pour the egg into this space, stirring with a fork to break it up, then stir.
Add the remaining ingredients and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Remove from heat and serve in a bowl over cooked rice.

*I typically cut the long stemmed florets off the sides, until I reach the heart of the top. Then I cut this from the stem and break into pieces. I then cut off the bottom of the stem, peel the skin off the main stem at the bottom, and then quarter lengthwise and cut into 2 inch lengths.

Lamb Chili

Mary Anne came over tonight for dinner and knitting. ...Do I sound like an old maid yet? We went to the grocery store without any idea what we wanted to eat except that I knew I wanted something warm. I’ve been feeling chilled and tired lately and warm food seems to help. I guess that’s just the normal for winter. She suggested soup, which I’ve been eating a lot of lately. I wanted something else and Mary Anne suggested chili. Okay – so it’s basically soup, but in my defense, it’s thicker, more substantial, and basically hearty and warm – just what I wanted. Knowing that I spent some money this weekend, she hesitantly suggested making it with lamb; since lamb wasn’t that much more than the beef, we did opt for it. And instead of the tomato juice I usually use, she suggested with whole tomatoes. We hit common ground with crushed tomatoes and a can of tomato paste. We both enjoy a lot of beans as well, so we picked up a can each of black and kidney beans. The resulting soup was thicker than my family’s recipe, without being the seasoned meat dish of some people’s preference. And least anyone fear that I am a hermit, we did end up going out afterwards. There is a great beer bar in town with a casual atmosphere and intriguing mix of patrons. It has both great drinks and entertaining people watching. We even ventured into a conversation with complete strangers – look at us make acquaintances!

Lamb Chili

1 lb ground lamb
2 small or 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 habanero, stemmed and chopped
1 can tomato paste
1 large can crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp chili powder (or to taste)
½ tsp oregano
pinch of cumin

In a soup pot, brown the lamb meat. If there is a lot of extra moisture in the meat, simmer off the excess liquid.
Add onions, pepper and habanero to pot and cook, stirring, until onions are translucent.
Stir in tomato paste.
Gradually add crushed tomatoes.
Mix in chili powder, oregano and cumin.
Simmer for ½ hour, stirring frequently.
Serve hot with a hearty whole grain bread.