beets, and an ode to roast chicken

right now i'm sitting at the kitchen counter, my impending chicken broth on obsessive surveillance for the purpose of skimming off any foam that dares break the surface of the broth. i have vague memories of michael ruhlman's book about food school and a raft, but i can't remember if i'm supposed to skim it off or not, so off it comes.

the countertop on which my laptop sits is completely clean. gloriously clean, in fact, because i am anal and it shows, in the wonderfully white, white countertop.

yesterday v came over for dinner and carrien and i made dinner. carrien and i had talked about making risotto the day before, but didn't make set plans until about 7 the next evening. in anticipation of beet risotto, which we had looked since we had beets from our boston organics delivery a few weeks ago, i wrapped the beets in foil and stuck them in the oven to roast. they were a bit squishy and wrinkly but i washed 'em, foiled 'em, and hoped for the best.

i also diced our jewel yams, roasting half of them at a 1/2" dice and leaving the rest in a 1/4" dice for the risotto. as it so happens, we ended up making a regular risotto with a bit of the diced yam, veal piccata, roasted yams, and a beet salad. risotto is, after all, best when it has nothing in it but onions. about the veal piccata - carrien had had some veal she'd been needing to use as it had been in the freezer for a while, and we happened to have lemons around because i'd caved and added more lemons to my preserved lemons. hopefully adding more lemons halfway through the cycle won't mess 'em up too much. the beet salad was simply the roasted beets, peeled and sliced, with a bit of leftover lettuce and a dill-cider vinegar vinaigrette. it was pretty good - i was afraid that the vinaigrette was too acidic, but it was fine once it was paired with the beets.

anyway, back to the chicken broth. it's been on the stove for an hour or so and i'd like to go to sleep soon, so i just turned the heat up. i may have committed suicide flavor-wise, but let's just remember the millions of women who have been making chicken soup for the past few millennia. how many of them do you think overheated their chicken broth at one point or another? yeah.

i roasted another chicken today (we have one left in the freezer). this time, i stuffed it with what was essentially a meatloaf mix. hey, i had some ground pork around that i needed to use. there were leftover 1/4" yam dice, too, so i roasted that and added it to the mix. other ingredients included diced onions (raw), a bit of soy sauce, salt and pepper, sugar, lemon zest, thyme, some ripped up toasted wheat bread, and wheat breadcrumbs. oh, and a beaten egg. it seemed like it would stay together. i put the meatloaf mix in the fridge and let it sit overnight, hoping that the lemon zest and thyme would infuse the mixture. as it happens, only about a third of it actually fit in the chicken's cavity. the rest of it i just made into a small meatloaf. it went fine with the chicken, but i have to say it's excellent as meatloaf, because the yams caramelize at the edges of the pan, and it gets all crunchy at the edges.

now, if only the chicken broth would be done. ignore the fact that i don't actually know what "done" means when referring to chicken broth. you know, there's nothing more satisfying than roasting a chicken. first you get to trim off all the hunks of fat, then you get to separate the skin from the breast so you can stuff it with herb butter, then you get to rub the whole thing with salt and sugar...you roast the thing, and it turns this wonderful, rich shade of golden brown, and the pan drippings turn into gravy. and then you're done? oho, maybe you thought so! then you get to pick the whole thing apart to get all the meat off, and so you can make soup with the bones. after the broth is finished, you fish out the bones, and you get to be all anal again and pick off any bits of meat from the boiled bones. while the broth was simmering, you got to skim off the foam. and then you get to strain the broth and let it sit so you it cools enough for you to skim off the fat. and voila - your chicken has yielded every single bit of meat on its bones, from the big pieces off the breast to the slivers of dark meat off the neck. ah...

winter meatloaf
1 lb ground pork
2T fresh thyme, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 cups yams or butternut squash, diced to 1/4" pieces
1 onion, diced
lemon zest from two lemons
5 slices of wheat bread
1T soy sauce
1t salt
1T sugar
1 egg, beaten

1. preheat the oven to 375F. toss the yams with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast until tender, about 15 minutes. set aside and let cool.

2. toast the bread. rip two slices into small pieces. put the rest of the bread (coarsely torn) into a blender or a food processor and process until you have fresh breadcrumbs. you should have about a cup of breadcrumbs.

3. put the meat in a large bowl and break it up a little. add the rest of the ingredients and mix until just combined. don't overmix - it will toughen the meat. cover the mixture and let stand overnight.

4. preheat the oven to 350. transfer meatloaf to a loaf pan and bake 45 minutes to an hour, until the top is slightly browned and the edges have caramelized.

[makes 1 loaf - serves 4-6]