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.

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.