FINALLY - dinner in less than an hour!

those of you who have cooked with me, or had dinner with me on a friday night, know that i am generally incapable of making dinner in less than an hour. in fact, usually i choose whatever preparation is most involved. well, not "most involved" in a fussy way - i just like to make sure that there is sufficient layers of flavor built up so that something simple can perform to its highest potential in your mouth. (take bolognese, for example: it's basically carrots, celery, onions, beef, pork, and tomatoes, but if you caramelize the vegetables properly before adding the tomatoes and then the meat, your sauce will taste that much better.)

so it is with great joy and satisfaction that i present to you a recipe that is delicious and doesn't take forever. this is based on the mustard-baked chicken thigh recipe from serious eats' eat for eight bucks column, and is essentially chicken thighs marinated, then seared, and finished in the oven. the time that the chicken takes in the oven also allows you to roast some sort of not-too-dense vegetable - i used asparagus in an attempt to use what i had on hand, and be a little healthy, but you can use whatever you like (ie, a thinnish layer of potato wedges). just make sure that the layer of vegetables will cook in about 15 minutes at high heat.

you can really adapt the marinade, the vegetables, and the sauce however you like, in terms of ingredients, but the preparation remains the same - much easier to put together than most things that i make! the only thing is that you must marinate the chicken ahead of time - the night before, really, but it takes about five minutes, so you can do it before you go to bed. the next day, your cooking time will be about 30-35 minutes, start to finish. really! i am being completely serious.

chicken in less than an hour

2T cider vinegar

3T maple syrup

1 1/2T olive oil

1 1/2T whole grain mustard

salt + pepper

4-5 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on (1.5 lb)

1/2T vegetable oil

1/2T olive oil

1 bunch asparagus

1-2 large shallots or 1 small onion

1c chicken stock or 1/2c white wine

1 bay leaf or sprig of other fresh herb you have on hand

1. marinate the chicken the night before (or for at least an hour): in a cereal bowl-sized bowl, mix together the cider vinegar, maple syrup, 1 1/2T olive oil, and mustard. pat the chicken thighs dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. dip each chicken thigh in the marinade and place in a gallon ziplock bag. pour excess marinade in the bag and seal it shut, making sure to squeeze the air out. refrigerate the chicken overnight, or at least an hour.

2. preheat the oven to 400F. heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. open the bag of chicken and transfer the thighs to the pan, skin side down, shaking off excess marinade. reserve the extra marinade. if you have a splatter screen, put it over the skillet - the chicken thighs will sizzle. cook 6-10 minutes, until the skin is golden brown. flip over with a pair of tongs and let cook for 3-4 minutes, until browned.

3. meanwhile, prep whatever vegetable you have on hand, and toss it with the olive oil in a 9x9 glass baking dish. when the chicken is finished searing, turn the stove off and transfer the chicken to the baking dish, skin side up. bake the chicken for about 15 minutes, until it reaches 150-160F on a digital thermometer (smaller chicken thighs will take closer to 10 minutes).

4. while the chicken is finishing in the oven, pour off all the fat in the skillet except 1/2T; turn heat to medium. dice the shallots and saute with the bay leaf until translucent, 3-4 minutes. add the chicken stock and turn heat to medium-high to bring the liquid to a boil, scraping the pan to release browned bits. add the excess marinade and let the sauce reduce until it's syrupy.

5. when the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it rest while the sauce reduces. when the sauce is done, plate the chicken and vegetables and spoon the sauce over it.

[serves 4]

gettin' my mojo back

for the entirety of this summer, i have been trying to convince myself and my health that i am on vacation, and that life is normal again. for about a year - since june 2008 - i haven't had a real break, one where i puttered around the house doing nothing but maintaining the rituals of daily life, and thinking about cooking. and by the rituals of daily life, i mean really mundane things: doing laundry, making my bed, putting away clothes, vaccuming the carpet, cleaning the kitchen counters. every now and then, given the privations of grad school and employment, i need at least a week of doing nothing - waking up whenever, doing whatever.

i expected to get a break this summer, but apparently it wasn't meant to be. there were trips to lowell for work, a site visit for thesis, training sessions for my teaching job, teaching at the bac, then more work at lowell and an attempt to work on thesis...you get the point. and although these commitments don't come close to those that i maintain during the school year, they were enough to deprive me of any chance to really get back up to speed and feel like i was motivated to do anything. and i do mean anything - it has taken two and a half months, but i am finally motivated to cook regularly again. i haven't done very much thesis work in the past two days, even though our first review is in a few weeks, but i have woken up late and cooked a lot, and i feel vastly better right now than i have since that happy time of rejuvenation in june 2008.

and so i have a few recipes here as a reward for reading through this angst-ridden post. i made dinner for roommates tonight: creamed leeks and tomatoes, chicken in milk, and hide bread. we had the brownies for dessert, and then i have a new cookie recipe for you.

the leeks and tomatoes are pretty standard technique, so i won't include those here - basically, olive oil, saute the leeks, add the tomatoes and a bit of whatever cream or half and half you have on hand. the chicken in milk is a jamie oliver recipe i found on thekitchn, and it is quite good and fairly easy - wonderfully aromatic, a bit different from a traditional roast chicken. it is a bit cool tonight, so i thought it would be a good night for roast chicken. this is the second time i've made this particular chicken, and it was better this time around - i think last time we couldn't get sage at the supermarket, but this time i put in the whole package, with more garlic. the chicken is steamed and roasted in milk, with lemon zest, sage, and garlic - i think i would add even more lemon zest, because this time around, the sage and milky-cream flavor dominated, with notes of lemon and cinnamon. i think we got the cinnamon right, but it could use 1-2 more lemons. fyi, the lemon zest causes the milk to curdle into a thickish sauce. it tastes better than it sounds... also, once we stripped all of the meat from the bones, i dumped them into a pot of broth that i have been periodically mixing and strengthening with broths and bones from additional chickens. as most of the chicken i have been cooking this summer is asian, it's flavored with ginger and garlic, and now lemongrass, sage, and cinnamon...i have to say, it smells pretty good now and should be pretty chicken-y.

anyway, the star of the night is the hide bread - in addition to a desire for roast chicken, i chose this particular recipe because it involves plentiful sauce that would soak into the bread. these scone-slash-rolls are named for a person, not because they are in any way close to jerky in texture. they are from a recipe from the big sur bakery, via 101cookbooks, and are essentially very seedy scones that actually taste good. typically, perhaps because i grew up on super-seedy bread, i hate seeded breads, but this one is quite good. and it's quite good for you, i imagine - it's very seedy and fiber-y: oat bran, flax seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, amaranth. it is closer to scones than rolls in technique, as you mix together all the dry ingredients, then stir in the wet until just combined. i made a half-recipe, because some of the comments on 101cookbooks noted that theirs came out like hockey pucks, but we really enjoyed them. they are a bit hard on the outside, and you are supposed to split them and toast them, then slather them with butter. however, if you have good teeth, these would make a wonderful breakfast with a bit of butter and sugar, or jam. if you don't, well, they soften quite nicely in a sauce, providing a healthy but delicious option for carbs and starches at dinnertime.

and finally, i have a fabulous new cookie recipe for you. it is easiest made in a food processor, but you could probably make do without one. these cookies made me appreciate what a food processor can do for you, because it literally takes five minutes to put them together. i have been wanting to try these earl grey tea cookies for quite some time, since i saw them on thekitchn in september 2008. they're basically a shortbread cookie with tea in them; i used tea from tea bags as recommended, with fabulous results. these cookies are perfectly crisp, and imbued with great tea flavor. i made two batches - one with earl grey, and one with jasmine. as expected, both taste better the day after they were baked. the jasmine cookies taste more jasmine-y, while the earl grey cookies have mellowed out a bit.

which reminds me - i have one last cookie recipe for you as well - brown-butter shortbread cookies. it seems like i've been making quite a lot of shortbread-type cookies these days, and for good reason - they are always crispy, stay crispy for longer, and don't go stale nearly as fast as chocolate chip cookies. i've made these brown-butter cookies a couple times now - they were good the first time, but even better the second. i had made the dough, then as has happened frequently this summer, i didn't have the energy left to actually make the cookies. i let the dough languish in the fridge for a little over a week before finally baking them, and disbursing them to roommates and family. they went over pretty well, in part due, i think, to a a longer stay in the fridge for the flavors to develop, and also because i let the butter brown for longer than i usually do. i was convinced that i had accidentally burned it, in a fortuitous instance of forgetfulness, but forged ahead anyway.

and without further ado, here are the recipes:

chicken in milk

(adapted from jamie oliver)

1 roasting chicken, about 5 lbs or so

salt and pepper

3T butter

2T olive oil

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 pkg of fresh sage, leaves picked from the stems and torn coarsely

zest of 3-4 lemons

15 cloves of garlic, smashed and skinned (smash them with the flat of a chef's knife to skin them)

2 1/2c milk

1. preheat oven to 375F. melt the butter and olive oil in a dutch oven and when it's hot, sear the chicken all over, at least a few minutes each side until you get it nice and browned. use a pair of tongs (or a couple of pairs of tongs) to move the chicken to a plate, then pour off the fat in a ramekin. (the original recipe instructs you to discard the fat, but i think you could easily cook other things with it, so i saved mine.)

2. return the chicken to the dutch oven, breast side up, and scatter the sage, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, and cloves of garlic around it. add the milk, then put the lid on and slide it in the oven. cook for an hour with the lid on, then a half hour with it off (it was getting a bit late for dinner, so instead i did 45 minutes with the lid on, 25 minutes with it off, and it was properly cooked temperature-wise). every now and then, take the lid off and spoon the liquids over the chicken.

3. remove chicken from the oven, and serve immediately. we ate it right out of the dutch oven (ie, carving by each person as they served themselves), but if you are making this for a nice dinner party, or a party where you care more about etiquette, then you could use a nice serving bowl and carve the chicken into it, then spoon all the sauce around it. i wouldn't recommend serving the sauce in a gravy boat or anything, though.

[serves 4-6]

note: i'm not quite sure how many this recipe will serve. the original recipe serves 4, though i have used a larger chicken, and we have about 2 cups of shredded chicken in leftovers, so it could quite possibly serve 6 people if you really carve the chicken well, or if you are not as hungry as we were!

hide bread (super-seedy scones)

(adapted from big sur bakery)

5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for dusting

1/2 cup flax seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted

2 cups oat bran

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (i used pumpkin seeds, as i don't like sunflower seeds)

1/2 cup amaranth, quinoa, millet, or poppy seeds (i used amaranth because i have never had it before, but you can use any combo of these...i think think amaranth and poppy seeds would be good - the amaranth was still quite crunchy after baking)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons beer

2 1/2 cups buttermilk, half-and-half, milk, or water (i used half and half...i would not use water in these)

1. preheat oven to 375F. line a baking sheet with parchment, or use a silpat (really, i just used the silpat because i had it on hand, and the batter is very sticky so i wanted to make sure the scones would come off the pan).

2. mix together all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

3. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then add the wet. stir with a wooden spoon until a thick, sticky dough/batter forms. plop handfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet, leaving at least 2 inches in between; your handfuls will be about 3.5-4" in diameter, 1.5" thick. if you don't do too much shaping, then the cragginess of the dough will form a crunchier top when baked. don't make them too small - stick to the recommended yield - or you will get hockey pucks that are inedible. these are somewhat denser than the typical scone, but not too heavy.

4. bake for 45 minutes, or until they are golden on top. if your tops are very craggy and not smooth, then they may not look like they are completely golden on top, but make sure you do not overbake. you can eat these either on their own, or as recommended by the original recipe - split, toasted, and slathered with butter. store in an airtight container.

[makes 14 scones, though this recipe is easily halved to make 7]

tea-flavored shortbread cookies

1c flour

1/4c sugar

1/4c confectioners' sugar

5-6 teabags' worth Earl Grey (or other) tea leaves

1/4t salt (i was a bit more generous with the salt, which provides a nice counterpoint to the sweet in this cookie)

1t water

1 stick (1/2c) butter

1. preheat oven to 375F. if you are using a food processor, pulse together all of the dry ingredients until the tea leaves are pulverized.

2. add vanilla, water, and butter, and pulse together until a dough forms. the dough will be on the wet side of a shortbread dough. dump the dough out onto a piece of wax or parchment paper, and form it into a log about 2-2.5" in diameter. wrap the wax paper around it, and chill for 1 hour or overnight.

3. when you're ready to bake it, slice the log into 1/3" thick pieces (i got exactly 24 cookies). place on baking sheets, about 15 (3 cookies x 5 cookies) at the most, since the cookies do spread quite a bit. if you chill them longer, they will retain their edges better and not spread quite as much. bake 10-13 minutes, until the edges are just brown. (i baked some until the edges were just brown, and some a bit longer, and the recipe was spot on - bake until the edges are just brown - they will still be crisp.)

4. let cookies cool on the sheets for five minutes so they can firm up, then transfer to a plate to cool completely. store in an airtight container up to about 2 weeks.

[makes 24 cookies]

brown butter shortbread cookies

(adapted from Gourmet via smitten kitchen)

3/4c (1 1/2 sticks) butter

1/2c dark brown sugar, packed

1 1/3c flour

1/4t kosher salt

1. cut the butter into a few pieces and cook in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. stir frequently, scraping the bottom of the pan, and cook the butter until it smells kind of nutty, and the particles that have settled on the bottom turn a medium brown. the particles are the milk solids (you would discard these to make ghee, or clarified butter) and basically they are caramelizing; this is browned butter. you don't want the particles to get too dark - that means that they're burned - but neither do you want them to be too light, because the cookies will be less flavorful. the particles should be about the color of hazelnut shells. anyway, once the butter is browned, remove it from the heat and scrape into a small bowl. let cool to room temp, then stick it in the fridge to chill it back into a solid. it should be just firm, and good to go in about an hour.

2. beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (do actually use the electric mixer for these cookies). mix in flour and salt at low speed until just combined.

3. transfer dough to a sheet of wax paper or parchment and form into a 12-inch log, 1.5-2" in diameter. chill, wrapped in wax paper, overnight (alright, if you must have these sooner, chill until firm, 1-2 hours, but these are much better if you let the dough's flavors meld) or a few days.

4. preheat oven to 350F. slice the dough into 1/4" thick slices, then place on a baking sheet (lined with foil if you want, or a silpat) about 1.5" apart - these cookies spread less than the tea cookies did, probably because they were chilled for longer. bake until the surface looks dry and edges are slightly darkened, 10-15 minutes. cool on the pan for 5 minutes so the cookies set up, then transfer to a plate. they will be a bit crumbly in a sandy way, but they will be delicious so it's ok. store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

[makes 20-30 cookies]

chicken and rice

i have never really understood the point of arraying things on a plate in separate areas, only to turn around and stuff it all into your mouth at the same time anyway. why not save your guests the trouble of cutting everything up? of course, there are exceptions to this rule, because a world where everything resembles chopped salad is a depressing world, but chicken and rice isn't fancy. it's...chicken and rice. every culture has their own version of it, making it pretty much the universal comfort food.

this is the hainanese chicken from mark bittman's column a few weeks ago, tweaked here and there. the basic method is to poach an entire chicken, then shred it and its accompaniments together into one delicious pile. this is a chicken and rice that would silence all of those people who believe that chinese food is, above all, greasy and heavy, yet it still remains identifiably chinese in its flavors. and now i'll stop pretending i have any substantive knowledge of chinese cuisine. knowing how to make your mother's dumplings and spring rolls doesn't really qualify you as an expert on the entirety of chinese cuisine, last time i looked.

i do, however, know good food when i...see... it. you know what i mean. this chicken is pretty phenomenal - it doesn't get much better than this. the drawback: it just takes a while to put it all together. fortunately, you can do the prep while the chicken cooks, so you can feel like you're being efficient, even if it's not actually true and dinner takes two hours to go from the fridge to the table. for people who like ingredient efficiency, you'll be pleased to note that you cook the rice in the broth produced from poaching the chickens.

hainanese chicken
(adapted from mark bittman)
1 4-lb chicken, fat trimmed and put aside
5-6 large cloves garlic, smashed, plus 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
6-7 1/8" thick slices of ginger (~1/4c in volume), plus 3-4T ginger, minced
and yet more ginger: keep a piece the size of a few walnuts to grate for the dressing
1 medium onion, diced fine
2c long-grain white rice (this is better with white rice than brown rice)
4-5 scallions, trimmed and chopped, at least 1/2 cup
2-3 lbs tomatoes, diced
1/2c cilantro, chopped fine
2T sesame oil
1T soy sauce

1. bring a large pot of water to a boil. lower the chicken into the water slowly and drop the whole cloves of garlic and slices of ginger into the water, around the chicken. let the chicken cook at medium heat for about 10-15 minutes (you can always cook the chicken a bit more later), covered, then turn off the heat and let the chicken sit, covered, for 45 minutes.

2. while you're waiting for the chicken, you can do the rest of your vegetable prep - dicing onions and tomatoes, chopping herbs, etc. when the 45 minutes is close to being up, start sauteing the onion, minced garlic, and minced ginger in a large saucepan with a bit of butter, or whatever oil/fat you have on hand, as long as it's not olive oil. cook them until they're translucent, about 10 minutes.

3. use a pair of tongs remove the chicken from its pot and put it on a platter or in a bowl. add the rice to the sauteed onions with a bit more butter/oil and stir to coat all the rice. let it cook for about a minute, then add 4 cups of broth from the pot. let the rice come to a boil over medium heat, then turn heat to low and cook, covered, until the rice is done, ~20-30 minutes.

4. pull the chicken apart at the joints to cool it. while it's cooling, grate the ginger into a bowl, and then make the dressing: stir the sesame oil into the grated ginger, then whisk in some soy sauce - you can add more soy sauce if you want, now or later, when everything has been mixed together. when the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat off and shred it into a large serving bowl. add the dressing and toss to coat.

5. when the rice is done, toss all of the vegetables (tomatoes, herbs) with the chicken. you can add more salt if you want - either soy sauce or kosher salt. you can either mix the rice into the chicken, or serve the chicken on top of the rice in bowls.

6. you'll probably have some broth left over - you can reduce it and put it in the fridge for future use.

[serves 5 hungry people, or 6-8 not-very-hungry people]

pork products (again)

just a brief rundown of recent dinners:

posole (pork and hominy stew)
buttery cornbread with caramelized corn and scallions
made this with c - she made the posole and i made the cornbread. one really shouldn't take as long making cornbread as i took, but i ended up making some caramelized corn/onions to add to the mixture, along with some chopped scallions. i also scrambled the extra egg white into the caramelized corn, so as not to waste it. the cornbread and posole went really well together, and make me wonder that i ever hated cilantro. fyi, i hated cilantro enough to pick it out of the batter my mother would use on homemade chicken nuggets. it's all very strange because now i love cilantro. back to the food: the posole awakened a love for hominy; i've had hominy before in cape verdean food, and i've liked it, but not as much as this. makes you appreciate having something to chew, in some odd, primal way. oh, also - i've adjusted the original cornbread recipe to reflect a little less butter, and do make sure you cook it long enough, so it's not doughy in the middle.

crispy pork (enough said)
c made this one night when i had dinner plans already; i ended up eating some both before and after my dinner engagement. oof. it was that good - essentially an easy version of carnitas. just envision this: pork fried in pork fat. yeah. i could never be a vegetarian 'cause i'd miss my pork products.

layered chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce
i made this last week, having made it once before many years ago when i was working in chicago. i remembered it as being excellent, and i think it was pretty good upon second try, though not quite all i wanted. i roasted my own chicken, but i suppose i'm just a pork product kind of girl.


adapted recipes below:

posole (pork and hominy stew)
1 large head garlic
12c water
4c chicken broth
4 lbs country-style pork ribs
1t dried oregano (preferably Mexican), crumbled
chili powder and paprika
1 1/2c boiling-hot water
1/2 large white onion
1t salt
1 1/2 30-ounce cans white hominy
about 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

potential accompaniments: diced avocado, thinly sliced lettuce, chopped onion, diced radish, lime wedges, hot pepper

1. peel garlic cloves and slice. in a dutch oven (c used a le creuset enameled cast iron one), bring water and broth to a boil with sliced garlic and pork. skim surface and add oregano. gently simmer pork, uncovered, until tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

2. transfer pork with tongs to a cutting board and reserve broth mixture. shred pork, using 2 forks, and discard bones if using bone-in meat. rinse and drain hominy. return pork to broth mixture and add oregano, chili powder, paprika, hominy, and salt. simmer pozole at least 30 minutes, until thickened.

[serves 8]

buttery cornbread
1 1/3c coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1c unbleached all purpose flour
1/4c sugar
2t baking powder
3/4t coarse kosher salt
1c plus 2T buttermilk
7T butter, melted
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend

1. butter a 9x5x3 metal loaf pan or a 9x9 pyrex dish. mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. add buttermilk, melted butter, and beaten eggs. stir with wooden spoon until well blended.

2. add any additional ingredients (scallions, corn, etc). let batter stand 30 minutes to absorb liquid; preheat oven to 375F.

3. pour batter into prepared pan and bake until browned around the edges and tester comes out clean, ~40 min. let bread rest 5 minutes, then turn out of pan and cool.

[serves 10-12]

crispy pork (carnitas con salsa de aguacate y salsa mexicana)
4lbs boneless country-style pork ribs
2c (or more) water
1 1/2c fresh orange juice
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2t salt
1t grated orange peel

1/4c brandy

warm corn tortillas
avocado salsa
fresh tomato salsa

1. cut pork pieces crosswise into thirds. cut off any big chunks of fat from pork and reserve; leave small pieces of fat attached to pork. combine pork, reserved fat, 2 cups water, and next 4 ingredients in deep 12-inch skillet (c used the dutch oven again). bring to boil. reduce heat, cover, and simmer until pork is tender, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour 45 minutes, adding more water by 1/4 cupfuls if necessary to keep pork partially submerged.

2. uncover skillet; boil pork mixture until liquid is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. stir in brandy; boil until liquid evaporates and meat browns and begins to get crisp, stirring often, about 15 minutes. cool meat slightly; discard any loose pieces of fat. tear meat into strips; return to skillet.

3. season pork with more salt, if desired; transfer to bowl. serve with warm tortillas, avocado salsa, and tomato salsa.

[serves 6-8]

layered chicken enchiladas with tomatillos
2lbs tomatillos, husked, rinsed, halved (quartered if tomatillos are particularly large)
1 1/4c chicken broth
10 garlic cloves, peeled
2c sliced scallions
2c (packed) very coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (1 1/2 bunches)
1 large serrano chile, sliced (with seeds) (substitute 1 medium jalapeno without seeds for those who like less heat)

12 5- to 6-inch corn tortillas
1 roasted chicken, torn into strips (~4c)
1 lb whole-milk mozzarella cheese, cut into strips
1 cup whipping cream

1. reheat oven to 450F. in a large saucepan, combine tomatillos, chicken broth, and garlic cloves. cover and bring to boil. reduce heat; simmer gently until tomatillos are soft, about 10 min. transfer hot mixture to food processor. add sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, and sliced chile; blend mixture to coarse puree.

2. overlap 6 tortillas in 13x9x2-inch oval or rectangular baking dish (i used 2 9x9 pyrex dishes). top tortillas with half of chicken strips and half of mozzarella strips. pour 2c tomatillo sauce evenly over. top with remaining tortillas, chicken strips, and mozzarella. pour 1 1/2c tomatillo sauce over, then whipping cream. sprinkle with salt and pepper. bake until bubbling, about 25 minutes.

[serves 6-8]

tomato love and dilled chicken stew

so i found out a couple days ago that i got a full-tuition scholarship for this coming school year (!!!), and celebrated by cooking for the entire evening. i had chicken thighs that i needed to use, and i was envisioning chicken in a dill cream sauce as i walked over to star. i also wanted to try slow-roasting tomatoes - where slow means 6-8 hours slow.

the chicken with its dill cream sauce turned into something completely different, but the slow-roasted tomatoes looked like this coming out of the oven. the darker flecks are thyme, except around the edges of the tomato where it has caramelized. carrien and i plan to eat these on sandwiches or pasta. they smell wonderful when they come out of the oven, too - they actually smell like caramelized tomatoes.

the chicken with dill started out innocently enough - i bought onions, dill, thyme, celery, mushrooms, chicken stock, and some cream to go with the chicken. i intended to have chicken thighs, tender so the meat falls off the bone, with a thickish, chicken-based cream sauce with lots of onions and dill. so a cream sauce like that would generally be white, right? i don't know why i was in the mood for white food at the time, but it turns out that the browning of the chicken thighs at the beginning of the whole thing caused it to turn brown. this wasn't a problem, just surprising. i had cooked the vegetables in the rendered chicken fat, and then added the chicken broth and chicken thighs back in (classic braise-style), and i wanted the chicken to be more tender than it was in the chicken cacciatore, so i cooked it for a while. i'm not exactly sure how long it was, but it was probably about 2 hours, boiling away in the chicken-y sauce. i also wanted a sauce with some heft to it, so i let it simmer until the sauce reduced by a few cups. turns out, when you cook chicken that long in a more watery sauce, it falls off the bone for you. so i took all the bones up and the whole thing became a stew. where's the cream, you ask? i added it at the end with some sour cream and let the whole thing simmer a little bit more, to thicken it. i had also made some rice as the chicken cooked, and i had just started thinking about what size tupperware each one would need when i realized that i should just mix them. so there you have it - not what i was expecting, but equally good, if not better.

dilled creamy chicken and rice stew
3 1/2 lbs chicken thighs (about 8), patted dry and dredged in flour
1/2 bunch of dill, leaves picked off stems and chopped fine
2 large onions, sliced into thin strips, about 1/4"x1 1/2"
2 packages mushrooms, sliced thick
1 can chicken stock
1/2 bunch celery, sliced
sour cream and heavy cream
1 1/2c (dry) short-grain rice, cooked

1. heat 4T butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. brown the chicken thighs on each side, until crispy on both sides. remove chicken thighs to a plate, and pull off skin and discard.

2. add onions to the skillet and reduce heat to medium. use a wooden spoon to scrape up browned bits off the bottom of the skillet. cook onions until translucent, then add celery. add half of dill and stir. let cook 10 minutes, then add mushrooms. cook 5 minutes, then add broth.

3. add chicken back into skillet (transfer to larger pot if necessary) and add remaining dill. add water if chicken isn't covered by liquid. let simmer until meat falls off the bone, about 2 hours. remove bones and cartilage and shred the remaining meat.

4. add cream (heavy and sour) to the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency, about 1 cup of cream total. add rice and stir. remove from heat and serve.

[serves 8-10]

oven-roasted tomatoes
4 lbs vine-ripe tomatoes, halved, cored, and seeded
5T olive oil
thyme (optional)

1. preheat oven to 200F. toss tomatoes with olive oil and thyme to coat. place on a baking sheet (crowding them is fine) in one layer.

2. roast tomatoes 6-8 hours, until tomatoes are caramelized on the edges but haven't fallen apart. let cool. keep the juices to cook with.

[makes about 1 1/2 to 2 cups]

chicken cacciatore

i was disgruntled because i hadn't cooked all week; if you know me, i get kind of grumpy and unsettled when this is the case. so since i had no plans for the weekend, i decided to make chicken cacciatore. i had made the joy of cooking version with rocco a few weeks back, and it didn't require much in the way of ingredients beyond mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, and some chicken stock and wine. i decided, as i often do, to make a labor-intensive version of it. i looked at my joy of cooking - which i have to say, in my kitchen, serves more as a reference than a real cookbook - and noted the ingredients, then looked online at epicurious to see what the range of ingredients was from recipe to recipe. i found one that roasted the vegetables, which sounded really excellent, but the thing i liked a lot about the one rocco and i made was the thickness of the sauce - ie, the vegetables and the sauce are equally important.

essentially, i combined the two recipes, and modified them to the proportions that i like. i used a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes, to try to balance flavor versus my pocketbook. luckily, it's summer, so tomatoes are cheaper than they usually are. i also probably doubled the mushrooms: i like mushrooms. especially sliced thickly, which doesn't usually happen - most restaurants either use tiny mushrooms that don't need to be sliced, slice them thinly, or slice them in half. and i like mine sliced thickly. i also increased the amount of onions, because onions are good...

anyway, this recipe is somewhat time intensive, requiring a fair amount of mise en place. but the end result is more than rewarding - thick, satisfying, hearty, with a lot of depth of flavor. so if you're bored one day, you're craving comfort food, or you want to impress someone - go to it.

chicken cacciatore
2 10-oz packages baby bella mushrooms, sliced thickly (slices should be a little less than 1/2" thick, about four slices per mushroom)
2 large red onions, one sliced into thin rings, one diced
6 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 package fresh sage, chopped fine
1 package fresh basil, chopped fine
2 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes, chopped coarsely
3T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar

1 can tomato paste
1/2c red wine
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes in juice (not ground or diced)
1 can chicken stock

3-4 lbs chicken thighs (or mixture of chicken parts; not chicken breast)
flour for dredging
vegetable oil

salt and pepper

1. preheat oven to 400F. in a large bowl, combine half the mushrooms, half of the tomatoes, and the sliced onion to the bowl. add about a third of the fresh herbs and half of the garlic to the bowl. toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar until evenly coated. spread on a large baking sheet in 1 layer and roast, stirring about every 10-15 minutes, until roasted and no liquid remains, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

2. heat 3-4T vegetable oil on medium high heat in a large pot. dredge chicken thighs in flour and fry until browned on each side. remove chicken to a plate when browned. add the minced onion to the pot with the remaining garlic, and saute about 10 minutes. add tomatoes and tomato paste. add red wine and turn heat down to medium, simmering the sauce about 10 more minutes. add the remaining mushrooms and the chicken stock. crush the canned tomatoes by hand and add to the pot. simmer the mixture for 10 minutes.

3. remove the skin from the chicken thighs and add to the pot. when the roasted vegetables are done, add to the pot. simmer over medium heat, stirring every 10 minutes or so, for at least an hour, until the chicken is ready to fall off the bones and the sauce is thick. season with salt and pepper and serve with pasta (i like barilla's pipette pasta - for this recipe, pasta with ridges is best) tossed with olive oil and fresh basil.

[serves 8-10, depending on how many chicken thighs you buy]

the calm before the storm

alright, i've been staring at my computer since 6:30am, trying to make my portfolio reach that mythical land of completeness; i need a break. oddly enough, not one from the computer, but at least one from the portfolio because i'm falling asleep.

i shouldn't have done it, but yesterday careen and i made dinner for 44 and assorted friends. hm. i really did know it was going to be bad for me, and it will mean that i will sleep much less this week, but i did it anyway. i guess i don't really know about moderation. it was quite wonderful...quite an orgy of cooking. i'm still learning which one to use when; for example, the wusthof for chopping chocolate; the mac is really just for vegetables. i've started to be able to feel the differences in the knives when i use them - i can actually feel the brittleness in the mac, whereas the i feel that i could use the wusthof forever and it would always be the same.

i also got to make pie crusts; i could make pie crusts all day. i used a slightly different recipe (less butter, essentially) because i was blind-baking them for pumpkin pie. brushing them after they came out of the oven with a beaten egg white did the trick again for keeping the crust from getting soggy. i do like soggy crust in a way, but not leaden crust. it's not a surprise that the egg white works, but it's something that i never would have thought of. good ol' saveur...

anyway, this is what we made, for about twelve people (recipes included for the stuff we didn't make up) :

roast turkey with prosciutto, rosemary, and thyme
apple, sage, sausage, and parsnip stuffing
broccoli with a fontina cheese sauce
butternut squash risotto with peas

chocolate pudding (with my trusty callebaut chocolate and valrhona cocoa)
pumpkin pie x 2
spiced poached pears

i had no idea really what kind of spices to put in the pears, which got poached in a dessert wine, water, and sugar, so i went to harvest. i ended up getting white peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. pretty standard except for the white peppercorns, which i quite liked - it added a bit of a kick. i got lazy (this whole production took maybe 7 hours straight of cooking) so i didn't make a chocolate sauce. of course, there was chocolate pudding so that went with the pears fine. the chocolate pudding tasted better today, after a day. i'm not surprised, since that's what chocolate things are wont to do; but it definitely tasted like it was of the campfire variety yesterday when i made it. faintly so, and not enough so that i wouldn't serve it (and eat lots of it), but i was annoyed all the same. "campfire," by the way, if lmf lingo for "slightly scorched." anyway, today the taste was completely gone. go figure. it was also almost black - it was, hands down, the darkest chocolate pudding i have ever seen, due to the dark color of the cocoa. valrhona cocoa - go get it from whole foods. it'll change your life.

the pumpkin pie was excellent, probably because it's really hard to mess it up. have you ever had a bad pumpkin pie? ok, let me rephrase: have you ever had a bad pumpkin pie, made from scratch? yeah, that's what i thought. they don't exist.

the turkey was pretty damn good. it was my first time roasting a turkey, though at this point i'm convinced it's not as hard as the food magazines make it out to be every year. we stuffed prosciutto-herb butter underneath the skin, put an onion and some garlic inside, and roasted it for maybe three hours. i think it must have been just the turkey that was good, because it tasted more turkey-like (gamier, i guess) than the turkey i had at home for thanksgiving. the gravy was excellent, too, with the addition of a lot of pan juices. mmm, pan juices...it's amazing, the amount of gravy one can eat, and the range of things one can eat it with.

i hadn't cooked for a bunch of people for a while, so it was probably the best thing i could have done saturday night. the cooking time was well-paced and not rushed for a rather impromptu affair (i planned and went shopping on saturday morning). if i measure my level of stress by the strength of my tendency to abandon work to cook as therapy, i would say that my stress level is off the charts this semester. formerly, i was able to go a few weeks without cooking anything; now i seem to be able to go about a week and then i give in. but i already knew that.

well, i am sure this will be my last post until xmas break. if i am still alive after that, and i haven't totally ruined my health with forced poor sleeping habits, i'll live to cook another day. but right now i am going to go eat a poached pear. poached pears are undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous foods known to man. all translucent, golden brown on the outside and cream-colored on the inside, and so wonderfully spicy...how could you not love them? they instantly redeem any mediocre pear.

winter is here!

it's finally getting cold, and i can't say how thrilled i am. i was going to go to studio all day today, but since carrien is home, we're going to make chicken pot pie - we're roasting the chicken right now. today's chicken has rosemary-thyme butter stuffed underneath the skin, is stuffed with apples and onions, and was rubbed with a salt-sugar-paprika-pepper mixture before being popped in the oven. same roasting method as before - 20 minutes at 400, then the rest (probably an hour to an hour and a half since stuffed that cavity pretty well) at 350. we'll let that cool, then pull it apart and make pot pie with it. god that smells good in the oven.

an update on the chicken: that was one beautiful chicken. of course, we let it sit for maybe ten minutes before ripping it apart for the pot pie, but it was a pretty wonderful thing. i realized that i really do like to stuff my chickens with lemon wedges (we didn't have any around), but it was good anyway - the herbs made up for it. it had beautiful color from the sugar rubbed into the skin - basically it looked like cookbook or food magazine photos of roasted chickens (though mine looked a bit ghetto with its makeshift coil-of-aluminum-foil trussing). perfectly cooked, too, so chalk that up as my first really good roast chicken. the pot pie was really good as well - i thought we wouldn't use up all of the thyme, but instead i just put it in everything (biscuit topping, roux, and vegetable mixture), hoping it wouldn't be too overpowering, and it was fine.

pasta and pastina

does anyone else out there like eating pastina in bulk - as in not just in soup? i'm sitting in my kitchen, eating a bowl of pastina with pasta sauce, and i find that it's an incredibly satisfying experience. pastina is one of those things i never had as a kid unless i was sick, which automatically put it on a pedestal; consequently, as an adult, eating a bowl of pastina is a guilty pleasure, as if it's your birthday and thus you can do what you like. it reminds me of how calvin "drinks" hot cocoa - a mug stuffed with marshmallows, with the hot chocolate very syrupy and poured into the cracks. eating pastina with pasta sauce is the same thing: pastina with a little bit of sauce. the absence of the soup takes away pastina's aura of wholesomeness; you know you shouldn't be eating the pastina with such density, but you can't help it because pastina's just so good.

i seem to be making up for cooking time lost to studio in the past few days: on friday, celina and i roasted a chicken; yesterday i went to carly's apartment, albeit circuitously, and helped her make dinner with lauren and dana; and today carrien and i are going to make dinner.

i very much enjoyed the chicken on friday, and i think i've settled upon a preferred method for roasting them - 15-20 minutes at 400, and about an hour or so at 350. i forgot to salt and sugar the skin, but it had a lovely golden-brown skin anyway. i had stuck a lot of tarragon-thyme-butter mixture underneath the skin, which i like to think kept it tender (which is was, happily). we stuffed the cavity with extra tarragon, lemon wedges, and onions. given a little more thought, i probably would have stuck an apple in there, too. we also made gravy to go with the chicken, although we didn't coordinate the timing quite right, so we made the gravy from the innards, rather than pan drippings, which i added at the very end. innards are a distinctly un-american thing to consume, but they're great for flavoring the gravy. i have always considered the neck of a chicken or turkey to be a special thing, just because my mother always cooked it and gave my sister and i pieces of it. it pretty much grosses other people out; i had the neck all to myself... anyway, the gravy was pretty standard : brown the innards, add onions and celery, then chicken stock, and let it simmer away for a long time. we added the pan drippings at the very end and that added a nice kick to it.

we also flouted the white-wine-with-chicken rule and had red wine with dinner because we both like it better. we just bought a bottle at harvest, without really knowing whether or not it was good - it was a shiraz, and the label, like almost every other red wine label, touted aromas of blackberries, plums, chocolate, etc. the wine, however, turned out to be quite good, especially with dinner (it was buckeley's shiraz, 2003, from south australia) - not too heavy, not too light, and actually very fruity. it was better than the cabernet sauvignon that we had several weeks ago (the markko reserve 2001), which likely needed a few more years of aging, because it was a little harsh. anyway, the wine would probably be good for celina's and my theoretical (embryonic?) chocolate party. i've been thinking of what would go well with chocolate, so that we don't overdo the chocolate aspect of the party, and red wine would be excellent. i think we might do the hot chocolate with spices and chile peppers that celina made - in the idea's inception the party was a vehicle for making really good hot chocolate. we're still not sure how the party will be structured; it will be something like our housewarming party, but it will be a chocolate party instead. we'd like to make truffles, but again, the whole thing is still in planning stages - it will depend on studio as to whether or not the party will actually happen. some other thoughts are a chocolate fondue, some sort of savory thing involving chocolate, some really complicated chocolate cake confection (i would like, at some point, to make a marjolaine....). perhaps we'll buy lots of random chocolate stuff and have people make chocolate sculptures too. hmm...

chicken gravy

and also for the recipe junkies, here is how i made the chicken gravy which i liked so much. again, like i did for the chicken stew, i eyeballed the amounts of things in this recipe, since i used what was around to make it. it was more of an experiment than an actual stated desire to have gravy for the chicken. you don't have to add pan drippings but it will make the gravy better. the nice part of the recipe is that you can make the gravy without ever disturbing the chickens as they roast - ie, you don't have to wait for the chickens to be done before making the gravy.

chicken gravy #1
butter
chicken innards from the package (heart, liver, neck, etc - pull the skin + gross vein off the neck and rinse all of the pieces with cold water; pat dry)
red wine
2 medium onions, diced
vegetable or chicken stock (about 3 to 4 cups)
pan drippings
cornstarch
balsamic vinegar

[1] heat a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet on medium-high heat. when it stops frothing, add the chicken innards, and saute until some fond starts to develop. don't forget to turn the pieces over (tongs are easiest) to make sure they brown on all sides.

[2] when the fond is a rich brown but isn't burning, add a cup or two of red wine to the skillet. scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon (NOT anything metal) to deglaze the pan. add some vegetable/chicken stock and let simmer. add some liquid from the chicken roasting pans with the baster.

[3] after about 15 minutes, remove the chicken pieces from the pan and discard (unless you want to eat them). add the onions and let cook until the onions are cooked through. if you want to be really fancy you can sieve the gravy before adding the onions, which will make your gravy smoother.

[4] if the gravy looks thin, put 1 to 2T cornstarch in a small bowl or cup and add an equal amount of water; stir with a fork to dissolve. add that to the gravy (do NOT skip the dissolving step) and stir; it should thicken right away.

[5] whenever you decide that you like the consistency of the gravy, add a bit of balsamic vinegar to taste (i think i added somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 cup) and let some of the alcohol cook off (~5 minutes?). taste and season with salt and pepper.

[makes ~3 cups gravy]

chickeny leftovers

on tuesday i spent much of the cleanup picking semi-raw chicken off the roasted chickens. by the fourth chicken i was tired of picking it off, and probably didn't pick it as cleanly as a hungrier person might have. i packed all of that chicken into a single tupperware the size of a large, flat brick, and stuck it in the fridge labeled "raw chicken."

unsurprisingly, on friday nobody had eaten any of it. i picked it up and it felt like a brick, too, as it was packed so tightly. i had wanted to make something with it for the past few days, but didn't want to buy anything to add to it, instead wanting to make something with ingredients we had around.

as happens with most good things, i started by sauteing some diced onions. i added leftover gravy, and then i added the chicken (which i had to pry out of the tupperware). now, what to do, what to do...we had a can of evaporated milk in the pantry so i added that, as well as some leftover fresh thyme we had from roasting the chickens. i kept adding milk until i realized i didn't really want to be eating milk with a little chicken, so i added rice. the rice needed more liquid and we didn't have any real chicken broth, so i gave in and made a few cups of chicken broth from bouillon. i then kept on adding whole milk as the whole thing cooked in order to keep the rice from sticking to the pot and burning. about an hour later on low heat, i had a chicken stew. pretty chickeny, thought it could have used more chicken broth instead of milk. and perhaps a little lemongrass, although i always like thyme. in fact, it really tasted like the filling for chicken pot pie (without the carrots, potatoes, and peas, and plus rice).

for the recipe junkies, here's the recipe, though it's rather general and also dependent on what you've got in your fridge. i think i used about a half-gallon of whole milk (or maybe a third).

leftover chicken stew #1
olive oil
4 medium onions, diced
2 - 3 cups leftover chicken, in pieces
1/2 pkg of thyme, leaves stripped from the stems (about 1 1/2 to 2T)
leftover gravy/roasted vegetables/whatever's in your fridge
1 can evaporated milk
a few cans chicken broth
whole milk
any other vegetables you want to throw in
2 1/2 cups short-grain rice (i really liked the rice i used...it's a short-grain California white rice, tomiko or tamiko or something like that)

[1] heat some oil in a large pot and saute the onions until translucent. add the gravy, let cook about 1 minute, then add the chicken pieces.

[2] add the can of evaporated milk, and whatever leftovers you want to put in.

[3] add a few cups of milk and some chicken broth. add the rice, and make sure there's enough liquid to cover the whole mixture. turn heat to low and stir the mixture frequently. add more milk or chicken broth when it starts to get too dry (the mixture will start to stick to the bottom).

[serves 8]

moroccan@44

(sorry, no witty title; i think i'm just not gifted in that respect.)

one of these days, i will actually get around to planning a real dinner party, where all of the details are planned out, but the whole shebang is still nice and relaxed. specifically, what i really want is a coffee table to put in the middle of the living room, so we can eat around it instead of on plates in our laps. i also believe in carpets (or at least a swiffer to clean our circa-1900 hardwood floors).

the menu last night:
* djej m'chermel (chicken tagine with lemon and olives)
* vegetable tagine
* vegetable couscous
* ice cream with homemade hot fudge sauce, fresh cherries, and fresh blueberries

i had intended to go to star (how is it that i end up going there every other day? i'm so spoiled...) on wednesday evening, before heading over to lmf to make cookies. instead, i fell asleep for an hour. then, i intended to go to star on the way back from lmf - i was going to leave at 10 p.m. instead, i left at 11:30 and crashed into bed. so before my head hit the pillow, i set my alarm early enough to get myself to work at 8a.m.

it's surprising how different it feels to leave work early (at 4 p.m.). i don't feel that i arrived at work significantly earlier (i usually arrive between 8:30 and 9, depending on when i can drag myself out of bed), but i sure felt like i got to leave really early, as if i were on holiday or something. anyway, short trip home to change, and off to star i went.

when i got back, i started my mise-en-place right away. usually i wouldn't bother, but given the time restraints (about an hour and a half to make dinner), i needed to actually be efficient. in general, anyway, a mise-en-place is useful when cooking, not as useful when baking. at any rate, it's usually separating eggs and measuring out spices that's the annoying part, rather than chopping things.

once i had chopped everything for the vegetable tagine, josh arrived with allie, to help cook. :) with their help, dinner was ready by 7:30, on our slightly lame stove with only 3 working burners. lots of pot and pan juggling there - between the two tagines (which you can think of as stews), the vegetables for the couscous, and the couscous itself - there was a lot to do.

not so much was remarkable about the actual preparation of the food - both tagine recipes are from the new york times, and the couscous recipe is from epicurious. we put extra cooking liquid from the vegetables for the couscous in the liquid (vegetable broth instead of water) for cooking the couscous. (not only is it fun to say "couscous," it's such a fun grain to eat...)

in regards to the vegetable tagine, i think this is the first time that i've eaten fully cooked chickpeas. i had never really liked their texture before when people put them in chili and various other dishes, and last night i realized that is was because they weren't cooked through anyway. instead of being hard, they were firm on the outside, but creamy on the inside, with a remaining bit of bite. small food revelation there. :)

i think the vegetable tagine went best with the couscous; i didn't quite like it on its own. i'll have to go back and taste it, but it just didn't seem like it had enough depth of taste. maybe the spices weren't quite right; it was the sort of thing where you just want to add a whole bunch of potatoes - as a whole, the stew just didn't have enough oomph. it could have also just needed some salt. i'll have to try it again and see (lucky for me that things with so many spices in them only get better as they age - until that threshold of impending mold, of course). oops, i just realized that i told fred the wrong spices when he asked which ones were in the chicken. since i had no idea where to get zaatar (i have a vague inkling that formaggio kitchen might have it, as they have the most exotic spice collection i've ever seen), i used the suggested substition - ground sesame seeds and dried thyme. unfortunately, i only had regular sesame seeds, so i pretended to grind them a bit in a bowl with a spoon for a while...anyway, the zaatar went into the vegetable tagine, not the chicken tagine.

i really liked the chicken tagine, though. the addition of the lemon zest at the end added some depth to the flavor, and in my opinion, really improved it. since i like olives, the addition of olives was also a good thing. the spice combination was also just right - gotta remember that one. the chicken had simmered for a long time, so it was almost falling off the bones.

the vegetable couscous was good as well; we used zucchini and carrots as the vegetables for it. it was a great base for the rest of the meal, in which everything really just got mixed together. we used regular raisins instead of golden, but if you make it, go for the golden - i don't think there's really a taste difference, but there is a psychological difference. somehow i like eating golden raisins with couscous, much more than regular raisins. hmm. they look prettier, too.

dessert was just ice cream with some toppings. when i went to star, i bought yet another carton of ice cream - vanilla - to join the grashopper pie, butterscotch blast, and chocolate. currently we have a wall of ice cream in our freezer... i made a hot fudge sauce (also from the new york times) to go with the ice cream, and it turned out quite well. it had a bit too much cocoa powder in it even though i put in less than the recipe called for, but as it cooked a bit more, got better, and was really good over the ice cream. there's nothing healthy in that sauce, of course, but it acted just like it should have, which is just very pleasing, for some reason - it hardened as it hit the ice cream and everything.

as a whole, i enjoyed this evening more than i've enjoyed any of our past gatherings at 44 columbia (including our enormous parties, where all i seem to be able to do is tire myself out for the 10 hours preceding our party, so that i feel antisocial during the actual party; gotta work on that one). probably because it went so smoothly kitchenwise - we even got to clean up as we went, so there wasn't an enormous pile of dishes at the end of the night. i think choosing a simple dessert (read: no work) was a good thing as well. guests were lmfers, plus caitlin from 4.101 and her boyfriend steve, who's course 6 at harvard (giving him, keith, josh, AND mary lots to talk about).

and now, the recipes. this is the first time i've tried any recipes from the new york times (there are no readers' reviews!), and i'm quite happy with the way things turned out.

NOTE: all spices are always ground, unless otherwise specified (ie, "1/2t cumin seeds"). all ginger is ground ginger (the spice) if a teaspoon or tablespoon measure is mentioned. raw, fresh ginger would be something like "1" worth ginger, minced." parsley should always be flat-leaf, rather than curly.

djej m'chermel (chicken tagine with lemons and olives)
3-4 lbs chicken (either thighs and drumsticks, or an entire chicken, cut into 8 pieces; you can add the liver and giblets if you want)
4T butter
2 large onions, minced (because more onions never hurt)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (i omitted this due to a lack of garlic at the apt)
2t paprika
1t ginger
1/2t cumin
1/4t turmeric
4T cilantro, chopped
4T parsley, chopped
1t salt
1/2t freshly ground black pepper
1/4c extra-virgin olive oil (i would recommend using a bit less)
1 1/2c water
peel from 1 preserved lemon, pulp discarded, cut into long narrow strips (use zest of 1 lemon if you can't get preserved lemons)
1c green olives, pitted
juice of 2 lemons

[1] in a large saucepan or dutch oven, over high heat, brown the chicken in the butter, skin side down, until the skin is golden brown. reduce the heat to medium low and add the liver + giblets (if using), onion, garlic, all spices (including salt and pepper), and olive oil.

[2] warm gradually, turning the ingredients for a few minutes, then add enough water to cover (don't add too much more than 1 1/2c though). bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered, occasionally turning the chicken in the sauce, until almost tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

[3] add the lemon peel or zest, olives, and lemon juice and continue to cook until the chicken is very tender, about 15 minutes longer. (this recipe can be prepared in advance up to this point; allow to cool, refrigerate, and serve within a few days). taste the seasonings and adjust if necessary. serve immediately.

[serves 4, generously]

vegetable tagine
2T butter
2 onions, diced
2 fresh small chili peppers, thinly sliced (i substituted a teaspoon or two of ground chili peppers, available in any indian food store)
1T paprika
1/2t cayenne pepper
1t ground cumin
1c dried lentils
4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2c tomato puree
1 can chickpeas, drained
1c carrots, cut into a 1/2" dice
3 small zucchini, sliced into 1/2" disks and quartered
3/4c green peas, frozen
1/2c parsley, chopped
1T zaatar (use equal amounts ground sesame seeds and dried thyme as a substitute for this)
salt and pepper to taste

[1] in a medium or large saucepan over medium heat, warm the butter. add onions and chilies and cook until the onions begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

[2] add the dried spices and continue to saute until the onions are tender and fragrant, a few minutes longer.

[3] add lentils, tomatoes, and tomato puree, then water just to cover. simmer for about 20 minutes.

[4] add chickepeas, carrots, zucchini, and peas. simmer until tender, 15-20 minutes more. add parsley and zaatar during the last five minutes of cooking. season to taste and serve immediately.

[serves 6 to 8]

moroccan couscous
1T olive oil
3c mixed cut-up vegetables (red onions, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, etc)
1 1/2t cumin
1 1/2t coriander (i had none, so substituted with a bit of turmeric and a bit of ginger)
1c dry white wine
1/3c golden raisins
3/4c canned vegetable broth
extra cans of vegetable broth
1 5- to 7-oz box couscous

[1] heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. add vegetables, cumin, and coriander; saute until vegetables just begin to soften, about 3 minutes. add wine and raisins. boil until wine is reduced by half, about 3 minutes. add broth. partially cover skillet, and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes. season with salt and pepper.

[2] make couscous according to package directions, substituting vegetable broth (and leftover liquid from vegetables if there is too much liquid) for the water.

[3] mix together vegetables and couscous in a large bowl. serve immediately.

[serves 4]

hot fudge sauce
2c heavy cream
4T butter
1/2c dark brown sugar
3/8c sugar
4-6 oz bittersweet chocolate (i used chocolate chips so i wouldn't have to chop refrigerated chocolate)
3/4c good-quality cocoa
1/2t vanilla

[1] in a medium saucepan, combine cream, butter, and sugars. bring to a simmer over medium-low heat (this takes about 10 minutes). simmer 45 seconds, then add 4 oz of chocolate and whisk to dissolve. reduce heat to the lowest setting, and add the cocoa powder, whisking to get rid of lumps.

[2] taste the sauce (it will thicken) and add more chocolate if there is too much of the cocoa taste. simmer for a minute or two longer, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming. remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. serve immediately. to reheat sauce, warm in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly (do not let boil).

[yield : 3 cups]

web links to recipes:
djej m'chermel
vegetable tagine
quick vegetable couscous
homemade hot fudge

a side note: i have officially fallen in love with the tour de france. i suppose it's a combination of my love for les triplettes de belleville, as well as patriotism regarding lance armstrong, but i've become addicted to the new york times' live multimedia dealie...