A Bird in the Oven and Then Some: Greek Roast Chicken with Caper Butter, Roast Lemons, and Skordalia

I recently acquired an entire book full of chicken recipes.  No, you can never have too many chicken recipes.  Chicken is the ultimate go-to.  Do you know anyone who won't eat chicken (besides vegetarians, they don't count)?  Actual meat eaters who don't like chicken?  I don't.  Especially when that chicken is roasted so that the skin is nice and crispy and the breast meat is juicy and tender.  That is chicken nirvana.  And apparently it's accomplished by burning down your kitchen.  I kid.  Sort of.

Note: Have a window open, the vent on high, and your smoke detector disconnected because this baby is going to smoke you out of your kitchen.

Greek Roast Chicken with Caper Butter, Roast Lemons, and Skordalia
From A Bird in the Oven and Then Some by Mindy Fox

1 (4-pound) whole chicken
3 tablespoons capers, preferably salt-packed, rinsed, soaked in cold water for 10 minutes, then rinsed again
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 lemons
1 tablespoon crumbled dried oregano, preferably Greek
Flaky coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pita bread for serving

Skordalia
½ pound Yukon gold potatoes
3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450°F with the rack in the middle.

To make the skordalia, peel the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes.  Combine with 5 cups cold water in a 3-quart heavy saucepan, then bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until tender, 10 to 12 minutes.  Drain in a colander and let cool to room temperature.  Push through a potato ricer or gently mash with a fork.

Meanwhile, prepare the chicken: Pull off excess fat around the cavities of the chicken and discard, then rinse the chicken and pat dry very well, inside and out.  From the edge of the cavity, slip a finger under the skin of each of the breasts, then use your fingers to gently but thoroughly loosen the skin from the meat of the breasts and thighs.

Pat the capers dry, then roughly chop and put them in a bowl with the butter.  Finely zest the lemons into the bowl, holding the zester close so that you capture the flavorful oil that sprays from the lemons as you zest.  Add the oregano then mix to thoroughly combine.  Cut 1 lemon lengthwise into quarters and set aside.

Using your hands and working with about 1 tablespoon of the butter mixture at a time, gently push the mixture into the spaces you created between the chicken skin and meat, being careful not to tear the skin.  As you work the mixture in, gently rub your hand over the outside of the skin to smooth out the mixture and push it farther down between the skin and meat where you may not be able to reach with your hand.  Season the chicken all over, using 2 to 3 tablespoons coarse salt and generous pepper, then tie the legs together with kitchen string.

Put a roasting pan (not nonstick) or 13x9-inch baking dish in the oven to heat for 10 minutes.  Remove and immediately place the chicken inside, breast-side up.  Roast for 20 minutes, then turn breast-side down.  After 10 minutes, squeeze half of the juice from each lemon quarter over the chicken, and drop the quarters into the pan.  Continue to roast until the juices of the chicken run clear when the thigh is pierced with a fork, 20 to 30 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, return to the skordalia: Use a mortar and pestle to pound together the garlic and salt to a paste.  Transfer to a large wooden bowl.  Add the potatoes and pepper.  Using a large wooden spoon, pound and stir the mixture together just to combine.  Add the vinegar in a slow but steady stream, while still pounding, until incorporated.  Repeat with the oil.  Transfer to a serving bowl.

Carve the chicken on a cutting board.  Serve with the pan juices, skordalia, lemons, and pita.

Makes 4 servings

Ina Garten: Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter

What is the richest, most fattening pasta dish you can think of?  Fettuccine alfredo maybe?  I've got one that tops it.  It's Ina Garten's Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter.  It's pasta with heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and butter.  Not just any butter, though.  Truffle butter.  And tons of it.  This pasta is so rich you can feel your heart screaming for mercy.  I have never felt more like eating a salad than I did after this dish.  But you know what?  It's absolutely fabulous.  Creamy, rich, and decadent.

I used some fresh tagliatelle pasta that I bought at Whole Foods, and the truffle butter came in a little tub at the same store.  I have to admit it's amazingly simple to put together, but you can only eat a little bit at a time.  I couldn't even make it through a whole serving.

Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter
From Ina Garten

Kosher salt
½ cup heavy cream
3 ounces white truffle butter
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (8.82-ounce) package Cipriani tagliarelle dried pasta or other egg fettuccine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 ounces Parmesan, shaved thin with a vegetable peeler

Add 1 tablespoon salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, heat the cream over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Add the truffle butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper, lower the heat to very low, and swirl the butter until it melts. Keep warm over very low heat.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, exactly. (If you're not using Cipriani pasta, follow the directions on the package.) When the pasta is cooked, reserve ½ cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the saute pan and toss it with the truffle-cream mixture. As the pasta absorbs the sauce, add as much of the reserved cooking water, as necessary, to keep the pasta very creamy.

Serve the pasta in shallow bowls and garnish each serving with a generous sprinkling of chives and shaved Parmesan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve at once.

Makes 2 servings

Cooking Light: Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread

I've become dissatisfied with banana bread recipes.  I want a moist crumb that is just sweet enough to be a treat, but not so overwhelming that my teeth rot.  But it also has to have something else...something to make it special.  And I never thought I would find that something in Cooking Light magazine.

The banana bread I made is called Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread, and it is absolutely delicious.  The flax seed that you add into the batter gives it this amazing nutty flavor that goes so well with the ripe banana and sweetness of the sugar.  The yogurt helps to keep it moist over multiple days.  And of course everything is better with chocolate.  I didn't melt the extra chocolate chips; instead I just threw them all into the batter.  This will definitely be the recipe I reach for when I have a craving for banana bread.

Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread
Adapted from Cooking Light magazine, October 2010

1½ cups mashed ripe banana
⅓ cup plain fat-free yogurt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
⅓ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
6.75 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1½ cups)
¼ cup ground flaxseed
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
⅔ cup semisweet chocolate mini chips, divided
⅓ cup chopped walnuts, toasted and divided
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until blended. Add sugars; beat until blended.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended.

Fold mini chips and nuts into batter; pour batter into a 9x5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 16 servings

Southern Living: Beef Lombardi

Sometimes you don't want to make something complicated.  Sometimes simple is best.  Pulling something warm and delicious from the oven shouldn't require two hours of prep time.  There's a middle ground, somewhere between opening a can of ravioli and making pasta from scratch.

Beef Lombardi
Adapted from Southern Living magazine, October 2003

1 pound lean ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14½-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles (such as Rotel)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 (6-ounce) package medium egg noodles
6 green onions, chopped (about ½ cup)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
Fresh parsley sprigs, for garnish

Cook ground beef and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat 5 to 6 minutes, stirring until the beef crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain. Stir in chopped tomatoes and next 4 ingredients; cook 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and bay leaf, and simmer 30 minutes.

Cook egg noodles according to package directions; drain. Stir together cooked egg noodles, chopped green onions, and sour cream until blended.

Place noodle mixture in bottom of a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Remove bay leaf from beef mixture, and then pour it over the noodle mixture; sprinkle evenly with cheeses.

Bake, covered with aluminum foil, at 350°F for 35 minutes. Uncover casserole, and bake 5 more minutes. Garnish, if desired.

Note: Freeze casserole up to 1 month, if desired. Thaw in refrigerator overnight. Bake as directed.

Makes 6 servings

Cooking for the Weekend: Rum-Spiced Cider

Finally getting sick of all those pumpkin spice lattes and peppermint hot chocolates?  I know you are, don't lie.  As fantastic as they are, and as much as I obsess about them when they first show up each year, eventually they've run their course.  So what do you do when you've run out of warm things to drink?  Heat up some cider, throw a pat of butter on top, and settle back for some full-body heating action.  This drink will put a serious dent in a cold night.  Promise.

Rum-Spiced Cider
Adapted from Cooking for the Weekend by Michael McLaughlin

2 quarts apple cider, preferably fresh and unfiltered
⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
2 pieces cinnamon stick, each 2 inches long
12 whole cloves
12 allspice berries
2 cups dark rum or spiced rum (optional)
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, sliced into 8 pats (optional)
8 long cinnamon sticks, for garnish (optional)

In a non-reactive pan, combine the cider, brown sugar, short cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice. Set over medium-low heat, partially cover, and slowly bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally and skimming any scum that forms on the surface.

Meanwhile, divide the rum among 8 large mugs. Drop a pat of butter and a cinnamon stick into each mug, if desired. Strain the hot cider into the mugs and serve immediately.

Makes 8 servings

Southern Plate: Green Bean and Shoepeg Corn Casserole

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I review cookbooks for a website called ChefTalk.  Every couple of months they send out a list of available cookbooks, and I get to fight it out with my fellow reviewers to get the most interesting cookbooks.  I always try to get something interesting (and avoid things like a Crohn's and colitis cookbook, which I'm sure isn't a bad cookbook, just not up my alley).  I was super excited that I got my first pick, for Southern Plate (which is based on a blog), which I thought would be similar to a Paula Deen cookbook.  I made some recipes out of the book, which is very nicely photographed, but unfortunately, it just felt like a let-down to me.

I really hate it when cooks write cookbooks that basically amount to throwing a bunch of canned or frozen food together.  It's a shame really, especially with today's grocery stores being so well stocked.  I just don't understand it.  This casserole probably would have been fantastic with fresh haricot verts and corn straight off the cob, but the way it's written, I just can't get past the metallic flavor of the green beans and freezing destroys the integrity of corn.  Disappointment.  The sour cream adds a nice tartness to the sauce, but I'm also not thrilled with using condensed soup.  This might be good for a harried mom trying to throw dinner together after work while the kids are tearing the house down, but it just didn't do it for me.  At least the buttery Ritz crackers on top were delicious.

Green Bean and Shoepeg Corn Casserole
From Southern Plate by Christy Jordan

½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped celery
¼ cup chopped bell pepper
½ cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1 (11-ounce) can shoepeg corn, drained
1 (11-ounce) can French-style green beans, drained
1 (11-ounce) can cream of celery soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
½ cup crushed Ritz crackers
4 tablespoons butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together except for the crackers and butter.  Place in a casserole dish.  Melt the butter in a skillet and mix with the crushed Ritz crackers.  Spread over the top of the vegetables and bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbly.

Makes 8 to 10 servings

Desserts by Pierre Hermé: Lemon Loaf Cakes

I was just feeling lemony today.  That, and I realized I still hadn't made anything out of my Pierre Hermé dessert cookbook.  I mean, talk about a sin!  Plus, I needed to get rid of some crème fraîche.  I hate nothing more than spending $7 on an ingredient of which I use one tablespoon.  While most of the desserts in the book look a little more complicated, these lemon loafs are pretty straight forward.  And honestly, you can't beat a good pound cake.

The loaf weren't that hard to pull together, but when I tasted them, I was...underwhelmed.  They are lemony.  They just aren't LEMONY.  They need to take a bath in lemon syrup or something.  Maybe some lemon extract in the batter.  Maybe I just like my lemon cakes really tart.  Otherwise, they were fabulous.  I would follow the directions in small print below the recipe that suggest toasting a slice with butter.

Lemon Loaf Cakes
From Desserts by Pierre Hermé by Dorie Greenspan

2⅔ cups cake flour
¾ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Zest of 3 lemons - removed with a zester and very finely chopped
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup crème fraîche, at room temperature, or heavy cream
3½ tablespoons rum
Pinch of sea salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
About 1 cup of lemon marmalade, for glaze, optional

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour two 7½x3½x2½-inch loaf pans, dust the interiors with flour, and tap out the excess; set aside.  (These are the perfect size pans for these cakes, but they're not always easily found.  If you don't have them, use two 8½x4½x2½-inch loaf pans.  Your cakes won't be as tall, but they'll be every bit as flavorful.)  Prepare an insulating layer for the cakes by stacking two baking sheets, one on top of the other, or use an insulated (air-cushioned) baking sheet.

Sift the flour and baking powder together and reserve.

Place the chopped zest and sugar in a large mixing bowl and rub them together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy, and very aromatic.  Add the eggs and, using a whisk, beat until the eggs are foamy and pale.  One by one, add the crème fraîche (or heavy cream), rum, and salt and whisk until the ingredients are incorporated.  Using the whisk or a large rubber spatula, gently stir the flour mixture into the batter in four additions; you'll have a smooth, thick batter.  Finally, fold in the cooled melted butter in two or three additions.

Immediately pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans, place them on the baking sheet(s), and slip them into the oven.  Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the cakes are crowned, split down the center, and golden.  A long thin knife inserted into the center of each cake should come out dry and crumb-free.  (Check the cakes at the 40-minute mark.  If they are browning too quickly, cover them loosely with foil tents for the remainder of the baking period.)  Remove the cakes from the oven and turn them out of the pans onto a cooling rack; invert them so they're right side up.  Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature before glazing or serving.

If you want to glaze the cakes, place the marmalade in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over low heat (or heat it in the microwave oven); strain the marmalade.  Use a broad pastry brush to paint every surface (except the bottoms) of the cakes with a thin coat of glaze.  Allow the glaze to dry at room temperature before serving (or wrapping).

Alton Brown: Good Eats Roast Turkey

I have felt like a failure for years now.  I have never been able to make a Thanksgiving turkey that is: 1) juicy, 2) cooked properly all over, and 3) tasty and brown.  I was beginning to think you couldn't have all of those things at once.  I glared at the turkey beauty shots in the cooking magazines, convinced that they had been rubbed with brown shoe polish or something.  I was a good cook, so why did my turkeys never turn out?

Well, Alton Brown saved me.  I used his recipe for roast turkey from his Good Eats television show.  It requires that you make a brine and soak the turkey the night before you plan on roasting it.  Then, Thanksgiving Day, you put that bad boy in the oven with all sorts of things shoved up in the body cavity (apple?  cinnamon stick?).  You stick a probe thermometer in the breast, walk away, and enjoy some time with your family.  And what you get is a fabulous, moist, tasty, perfectly browned turkey.  Success!!!

Good Eats Roast Turkey
From Alton Brown

1 (14- to 16-pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1½ teaspoons allspice berries

1½ teaspoons chopped candied ginger

1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
½ onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38°F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500°F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161°F. A 14- to 16-pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2½ hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Saveur: Colicchio and Sons' Parker House Rolls

Ah, the notorious rolls.  The rolls that have lit up saveur.com like a Christmas tree.  They work for no one!  Horrible recipe!  The chef is full of it!  Um, actually, no, he's not.  It works.  This picture is proof.  I let my breadmaker do the hard work of making the dough and dealing with the first two rises.  I divided up the dough and let the pan sit on a heating pad for about half an hour on the lowest setting and then turned it off for the rest of the rise.  Voilà.  Perfect fluffy amazing rolls.  Incidentally, if you decide to use a bread maker like I did, put the milk and barley malt syrup in first, then flour, then salt, then make a little indention for the bread machine yeast, then drop the butter around the top in chunks.

Colicchio and Sons' Parker House Rolls
From Saveur magazine, November 2010

¾ cup whole milk, heated to 115°F
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon barley malt syrup or dark corn syrup
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon kosher salt
2½ tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, softened
¼ cup clarified butter, for greasing and brushing
Fleur de sel, to garnish

Stir together milk, yeast, and malt syrup in a large bowl; let sit until foamy, 10 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt; add to milk mixture along with butter and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let sit until nearly doubled in size, about 1 hour. Uncover and punch down dough; cover and let sit until puffed, about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 325°F. Portion dough into fourteen 1½-inch diameter balls, about 1¼ ounces each, and transfer to a greased 8-inch cast-iron skillet or 8x8-inch baking pan, nestling them side by side; cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit until doubled in size, about 2 hours. Brush with clarified butter and bake until puffed and pale golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a rack and brush with more clarified butter; sprinkle each roll with a small pinch of fleur de sel and serve warm.

Makes 14 rolls

Molto Italiano: Risotto con Funghi e Vin Santo (Risotto with Mushrooms and Vin Santo)

My sister and I went to a Halloween festival downtown yesterday, and as part of the city's big push to re-invigorate the arts district, they had various specialty vendors selling beautiful things like fresh flowers and wild mushrooms.  There were two guys selling the mushrooms, and since they had a decent stash, we dug through for some good looking specimens.  And what could be better to highlight fresh mushrooms than a luscious mushroom risotto?

I don't have my entire collection of cookbooks at my disposal currently, but I did have a copy of Molto Italiano.  And it does have a risotto recipe.  Now, I've had some experiences with Mario Batali's recipes that haven't been exactly turned out, so I was a little hesitant to use his recipe.  I should have listened to my inner chef.

The risotto turned out pretty good, taste-wise, but texture-wise?  Total disaster.  The stock was not absorbed by the rice in anything approximating the time table in the book, so the rice slowly became mush.  I seem to keep having these kinds of issues!  Why, Mario, why?  I want to love your food, I really do.  Well, not all of it.  You can keep your offal.

Risotto con Funghi e Vin Santo (Risotto with Mushrooms and Vin Santo)
From Molto Italiano by Mario Batali

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ medium red onion, finely chopped
8 ounces porcini mushrooms, sliced
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced
1½ cups Arborio rice
8 cups chicken stock, heated until hot
1 cup Vin Santo (or dry sherry)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a 10- to 12-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat until almost smoking. Add the onion and cook until softened and translucent but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and sauté until lightly browned. Add the rice and stir until thoroughly coated and opaque, about 3 minutes.

Add a 4 to 6 ounce ladleful of the stock and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed. Continue stirring and adding the stock a ladleful at a time, waiting until the liquid is absorbed each time before adding more, until the rice is tender and creamy but still al dente, about 18 minutes.

Add the Vin Santo and cook until the alcohol smell is gone, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the butter and Parmigiano, and stir vigorously for 25 seconds. Season with salt and pepper, divide the risotto among four warmed plates, and serve.