The BEST Chicken ever

Posted by Melissa Baumgart

I know this month has nothing to do with food.  But my life has everything to do with food.  I love food.  I love healthy food, totally crappy food, junk food, local and organic food.  I love it all.  That's exactly why "losing weight" month is going to be so hard.  Thanks, Amy.

Tonight, I turned to one of my most faithful cookbooks, Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller.  Once again, I made the always spectacular and easy, Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon.  The spices are unexpected, and I have found even the most unadventurous palate to enjoy this dish.  (Only if you don't tell them what's in it.)

Please make this tonight...and enjoy!

Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon
Adapted from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon yellow curry
6 large chicken breasts, boneless and skinless (about 6 ounces each)
Kosher salt
Canola oil
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoons minced shallot
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 Tablespoon coarsely chopped tarragon, plus 1 Tablespoon
Freshly ground black pepper

Mix together the paprika and the curry in a small bowl.  Season the chicken breasts with the mixture.  (Thomas says to refrigerate for two hours....I did not, since I was in a hurry.)

Place chicken in ziplock bags and using a meat pounder, pound to about a 1/4 inch thick.  (This really gives you a workout! And I never got mine that thin.)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (I used 300 degrees since my chicken never got thin enough).  Set a cooling rack over a baking sheet.

Heat canola oil (or olive oil should be fine) in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  You may need two pans, or to work in batches.  Add the chicken to the pan, smooth side down,  and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn and cook again until golden, another 2 minutes.  Since mine were thick, I left them a few minutes longer.  Transfer to a the rack to keep warm.

Wipe any oil or bits out of the pan.  Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter in the pan on medium and add in the shallots.  After 30 seconds, add in the wine, and reduce to half.  Once reduced, turn up the heat and add in the chicken stock.  Boil and cook until slightly thickened.  Stir in the chopped tarragon, any chicken droppings from the pan in the oven,  and the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter.

Arrange on a platter and pour the sauce over.  Top with the remaining fresh tarragon.

Recipe: Spring Vegetable Garbure

Tired chef, adoring wife.

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
After nearly a week, the garbure is going to be finished today!

Jamie was cooking all night last night, and everything is ready to be assembled and warmed to a delicious eating temperature.  I have to admit, I did give him quite a challenge for his first cooking lesson.  Thomas Keller has a way with taking every ingredient and lovingly shaping it to the culinary perfection it was grown to be.  And what that translates to in our tiny kitchen, is loads and loads of pots and pans all going at once, all over the place.  Add in the tater tots I had to cook when I realized we were having yet another garbure-less night, and our kitchen was a gorgeous chaos of food!

Here is the long awaited recipe...adapted, of course, form the amazing cookbook Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller.

spring vegetable garbure
3 tablespoons of canola oil
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
2 cups chopped leeks
2 cups coarsely chopped onions
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
parchment paper
8 cups chicken stock (we used "Better Than Bouillon No-Chicken")
1 pound of mixed baby potatoes
2 sachets
2 culs oblique cut carrots
1 teaspoon agave nectar
8 oz. pencil thin asparagus
1 cup English peas
1 cup thinly sliced green beans, cut on a diagonal
1 small head of cabbage
2 cups cooked cannellini beans
Champagne vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Flat leaf parsley

English peas, or fava beans?
I have no idea because I did not mark the bag,
and they both looked exactly the same on the inside!

Heat the canola oil in a 8-10 quart pot over medium heat.  Add the first 2 cups of carrots, leeks, and onions, and stir to coat in the oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Lay the parchment paper (loosely cut to the size of the pot) down over the vegetables, pressing it down so it rests on them. Cook, lifting the parchment lid and stirring occasionally, for 30-35 minutes. Remove the parchment and discard.

Add the stock and increase the heat to medium high.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Strin the broth into another pot and discard the vegetables.  (We saved them for use in another dish...maybe in a marinara cause I was thinking.)

Meanwhile, halve the baby potatoes and place in a pot with 1 sachet and 2 teaspoons of salt, cover with water and bring to a simmer.  Cook until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain and spread on a tray to cool.  Discard the sachet.

Put the oblique cut carrots, agave, second sachet, and a pinch of salt into a medium pot, cover with water and bring to a simmer.  Cook for 5 minutes, or until carrots are tender, but slightly resistant to the tooth.  Drain and discard the sachet.

Bring a large pot of salted water (1 cup of salt/gallon of water) to a boil.  Prepare an ice bath.  Meanwhile, hold the asparagus and bend to break each piece to remove the tough bottom end.  Trim all of the asparagus to the same length and cut into 1 inch pieces on the diagonal.  Working in batches, blanch the asparagus (1 minutes), green beans (2 minutes), cabbage (until tender) and English peas (1 minute).  Using a fine mesh strainer, place vegetables in the strainer, set into boiling water and remove when bright green.  Immediately after removing, place into ice bath and then on a towel to dry.

Bring the broth back to a simmer.  Add the carrots, potatoes, cannellini beans and stir in the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, bring the soup to a simmer, add the blanched vegetables, and warm to desired temperature.  Remove from heat and serve, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with parsley leaves.

What's next???
Hear from Jamie in my interview with him on what he learned during our first cooking lesson...
And find out what I though of his finished product!

Jamie's in the kitchen!

Ran across this magazine while shopping for the class,
how appropriate!

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
I was determined to have the cooking lesson with Jamie last night.  Even though the gig he said was on Wednesday, turned out to be on Thursday!  The very night of our first lesson!  You know what?  He totally erased my marks on the chalkboard and wrote "Gig" in the same spot.  Oh no you don't, Jamie.  If his gig ended at 8:30pm, then our cooking lesson would begin at 9:00pm.

The lesson for "Spring Vegetable Garbure" began with Jamie reading through the recipe I had chosen.  After the first time through, he walked out of the kitchen looking bewildered.  I wan't quite sure if it was from the recipe or how late it had become.

Getting the goods.

"There were like four words that I have no idea what they are," said Jamie.  Yes, I supposed it was the recipe after all.  "Blanch, sachet, render?  What?" He shook his head.

I recommended he read it again and use to the cookbook to find out what those things meant.  The way the cookbook is set up, as many good cookbooks are, is there are notes referring you to other pages for resources or definition on what possible new terms might mean.

We started with sachet.  We found a recipe and an explanation for its use in the back of the book.

"Sachets are used to flavor cooking liquids.  A cheesecloth sachet encloses small herbs and spices such as peppercorns and cloves, and works like a tea bag.  Once the contents have added their flavors to the cooking liquid, the sachet can easily be removed and discarded."

What a good slicer!

The contents of our sachet were as follows:  1 bay leaf, 3 thyme sprigs, 10 black peppercorns, and 1 garlic clove, smashed. We made up two of those and moved onto some veggie chopping.  Keep in mind, it is around 11pm at this point.

Jamie was starting to fade, and his conviction to finish the soup before falling asleep was absent at this point.  I totally thought we could get it done, but didn't want his first lesson to wipe him out completely, so I obliged his desire to call it a night after copping the carrots and the leeks.

I demonstrated each cutting technique for the veggies; carrots thinly sliced, carrots cut obliquely and leeks chopped. Then Jamie set off to cutting.  His technique was spot on, but his slices were a little thicker than called for.  But, as I told him last night at the kitchen counter...better to have the technique down and to work on getting thinner.  That comes with practice and time.  The oblique cut was a new one for me too, and so we learned together.  The leeks went smoothly as well, I just made sure he knew that they can be quite a dirty vegetable, and you want to get all of that out so your whole soup isn't gritty and ruined.

Just look at that technique!

Before he was finished with those tasks, my younger two had awoken and need shepherded back to bed.  It almost goes without saying that I never got back up, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out for the night.

So, although, we will not get to Lesson Plan 2 tonight since we will be finishing Lesson 1, we will have worked in two nights of cooking class this week.  And I am very thankful for that.  I can't wait to try the finished product tonight! We only have 6 more veggies to cut and blanch and quickly get into an ice bath...not to mention assembling the whole soup and broth situation.  And I didn't forget the bread...maybe I'll go get that started for him now.

No, no, no.  That's exactly what I do, I step in to "help" and in doing so, take away his ability to learn.  I will not do that this time.  Even if we do break bread way past dinner time.

Lesson Plans

This is our week. Keep in mind it's one kid short,
due to a school trip

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
It has been baseball and soccer.  More baseball and more soccer.  And end of the year school happenings (and finals, ugh) tossed in with healthy doses of hanging with friends.  I am not complaining at all, I am loving it.  Going to my kid's sporting events (assuming it is not a rainy day) is one of my favorite things to do.  It has not, however, been conducive to setting up a date for cooking lessons in our kitchen.

It looks like, for now, Thursday and Friday nights are free this week, so I am going to schedule two cooking classes with Jamie for those night.  I am going to get that up on the chalkboard wall schedule and hope that nothing more important comes along to erase them.

Lesson Plan 1:

• Go through a Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook.  Start with the section titled, "Becoming a Better Cook", where he briefly goes through some simple and illuminating tips on cooking.  And I applaud his simple equation of, "great product + great execution = great cooking."
• Prepare the Spring Vegetable Garbure from page 112.   Hopefully, Jamie will find this to be one of his go-to soups.  This should give ample practice in the art of vegetable chopping, which will int turn, help Jamie's salad preparation.
• Bake a loaf of bread.  Although, not on his list, I think if he learns a good soup, bread naturally follows.  

Lesson Plan 2:

• Indian Food!  YUM!
• I will teach Jamie how to make Chicken Tikki Masala, Palak Paneer and rice.  I want to add in a simple dahl, but don't want to overwhelm him.  This will offer Jamie a chance to see how many dishes can come together and be ready at one time.  
• There will also be a pre-lesson of searching for a good recipe online and shopping efficiently and effectively.  How to choose the best ingredients, even if they aren't the cheapest.  (Jamie is thrifty.)  Recall the Keller quote from above, great product is a very important piece of the cooking equation.  

 Wish me luck!  Not about the teaching part, but about nothing trumping the scheduled lessons!

Just another Tuesday (Glee) Night

posted by Melissa Baumgart

Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

Tuesday Night Dinner
Today my plan was to attempt to keep up with my goal of making bread 3 days every week and that whole everything from scratch thing.  Even though I spent last night at a pub eating everyone's leftovers (does that count since I didn't order it myself?) and tonight at a movie theater watching the season premier of Glee.

I did make bread, and it was the best so far.  I am thinking the more you make bread, the better you get at it.  Tonight's bread was crusty on the outside and fluffier inside.  Makes we wonder what the next one will be like?  Because so far I have to say, as good as it is, it is not better than store bought.

I also made another recipe from my new favorite cookbook, Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller.  This time I went for the Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup.  Making a soup from his most simple of cookbooks, is not simple at all.  You have to accomplish multiple steps, like cooking each vegetable separately and cutting your own parchment paper lid.  This last part seems to be an essential for most soups.  At least this recipe didn't call for some already made ingredient from the back of the cookbook, like many other recipes do.  You really have to plan ahead.

Here is the recipe, and I have to say, it was pretty damn good.  As is everything else I made from said cookbook.

Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup
8 ounces of applewood smoked slab bacon
3 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Cups thinly sliced carrots
2 Cups coarsely chopped leeks
2 Cups coarsely chopped onions
1 teaspoon yellow curry powder
Kosher salt
1 ½  pounds sweet potatoes
2 Sachets (1 bay leaf, 3 thyme sprigs, 10 black peppercorns and 1 smashed garlic clove wrapped in a cheesecloth)
2 Cups French de Puy lentils
8 Cups chicken stock
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I did not use this)
Freshly ground pepper
Cilantro leaves


Cut the bacon into lardons that are 1 inch long and ½ inch thick.

Heat the canola oil in an 8 to 10 quart stock pot over medium heat.  Add the bacon, reduce the heat to low, and render the fat for 20 to 25 minutes.  The bacon should color but not crisp.  Using a slotted spoon, remove bacon and set aside.

Add the carrots, leeks, onions and curry powder to the pot and stir to coat in the bacon fat.  Season with salt, reduce heat to low, cover with a parchment paper lid (*see note below), and cook very slowly for 30 to 35 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Remove and discard the parchment lid.

Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes.  Trim them and cut them into ½-inch dice.  Put the potatoes, one of the sachets, and 2 teaspoons salt into a large saucepan, add cold water to cover, bring to a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are just tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain and spread on a tray to cool; discard the sachet.

Add the lentils, second sachet, and stock to the vegetables, bring to a simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the lentils are tender.  (At this point, the soup can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

Spread the bacon in a small frying pan and crisp over medium-high heat.

Add the vinegar to taste to the soup, then add the potatoes and heat through.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with bacon crisps and cilantro.

-Makes 10 Cups

*Using a parchment paper lid for soups allows some evaporation because of the small steam hole cut in it.   But because it covers the meat and/or veggies, it keeps the liquid from reducing too quickly and prevents the surface from becoming too caramelized as it cooks.  It's like having a lid and not having a lid at the same time.

To make a lid:  (this is my I-don't-want-to-type-anymore-version of making a parchment lid)
Cut a piece of parchment paper the same size of the pot you are using.  Fold it into a triangle with one curved side and cut a small piece out of the center)

Enjoy!
Melissa

Urban Farm-to-Table Feast

portrait, girl with mayo

posted by Melissa

I finally made my own mayonnaise!  I absolutely love mayonnaise, but I had never made my own before.  I was making some deviled eggs for a cookout we had here at the apartment building, and I needed mayo.  Since it is homesteading month, I thought, why not make it myself.  It was super easy (see recipe below) and tastes really good.  Since I woke up this morning I have been pondering, what can I eat with my mayo today?

The set table, right outside in the city.

The weather was gorgeous yesterday in Seattle and we decided to have a cookout.  We set up a table in front of our building and brought out the grill.  As soon as Amy laid out the tablecloth, I knew it was going to be special.  Next she brought out a catering set with white ceramic plates and silverware.  Who has a catering set?  I was glad she did.  It totally transformed our small yard in front of the apartment building into a farm-to-table like setting I have coveted in photo spreads in many fancy food magazines.

I made a marinated kalbi (a special cross-cut of beef short ribs) and seriously, they were the best thing I have ever grilled, ever.  You really have to try this recipe yourself.  I also made a kale caesar slaw, a side dish of zucchini, corn and basil, the blackberry buttermilk cake I mentioned yesterday, and of course, the deviled eggs.  Others brought homemade sauerkraut, chicken, steak, vegan hot dogs, a beautiful salad with edible flowers, honey from Bob's Urban Bee Company and veggie kabobs.

We all savored the food, the company and the opportunity to laugh among friends.  The kids climbed a nearby cherry tree.  The adults sipped wine and sparkling juice.  And when people passed by and smiled, we joked about how we were finally the cool kids on the block.

After the feast was over and plenty of wax was left in the candles, a few of us stayed outside and played a game of poker.  Yes, we still keep poker month alive from time to time, with an impromptu game of Texas Hold 'Em.  I think for the first time, last night Bob didn't win.  Amy did.  I still have not won.

Best meat ever, kalbi.  

Recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise
from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller


4 large egg yolks
2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Put the egg yolks in a food processor and process to combine.   With the motor running, begin adding the oil very slowly.  Blend until emulsified and thickened.  Add the lemon juice and salt.  Refrigerate in a covered container for up to 1 week.
Makes 2 cups.

Homesteaders Aren't Whiners

So stressful.

posted by Melissa
Day two of Urban Homesteading was a doozy.

Me and my girls set out this morning for the co-op.  My list included pectin for canning, yeast for bread baking, and vegetable rennet to make my first batch of mozzarella cheese.  I also picked up a local, organic whole chicken for dinner.

I meant to write a post like Amy did today, all about my goals and aspirations for Austerity Month, I mean Urban Homesteading month.  I have my own set of daily goals, that show up at times like when I crumble up the paper bag that held my precious local heirloom tomatoes for the walk home from the co-op to toss it in the recycling.  I stopped, unwrinkled it, and folded it nicely and stuffed it into my third junk drawer of the kitchen.  You know, to use again, some other day.  If I can find it again.

There are lots of other goals, daily and monthly, and larger.  And I'll get to those another day.  In fact, I would appreciate any ideas you all might have in the mean time.  After tonight's dinner, I could use some inspiration.

All this, in a days work.  From scratch.

Bread
When I got home from shopping, I started with the bread.  I choose a focaccia recipe, and added rosemary and olives.  I typically have absolutely no luck with yeast.  Except for one magical soft pretzel moment for a Superbowl party a couple of years ago.  But today I shined.  I rocked that yeast recipe, and it rose, and doubled.  (Not to give too much away, but it rose again and then I baked it to crispy, soft perfection.)

Chicken
And then while the bread was rising, I started on my chicken adventure.  I have never cut up a chicken.  I was vegan during my early and formative cooking years and meat has always been a challenge.   I was scared and nervous.  I don't think I breathed much during the entire experience.  But I got it done, that's right, cut that bird into 10 pieces.  I followed Ad hoc at Home, Thomas Keller's cookbook.  Then I got it all into the brine and into the fridge.

Curds forming, thank the lord.

Cheese
Next, moving onto the cheese making.  I found a recipe online and started diligently following it.  Only to discover part of the way in, that I don't have a microwave.  That was one of the last steps, to nuke your cheese for 1 minute.  Even if I did have a microwave, it just seemed wrong given the intention of the day. So, I quickly switched websites and adapted my process.  I warmed my milk, added the citric acid, and then the rennet.   And I waited.

Lo and behold, the curds formed.   I scooped them out, and then the pain began.  See, you have to heat the cheese balls that you create from the curd to a certain degree, something like 145° and then you knead it like bread until it gets all stretchy.  Mine kept breaking and not stretching, so I had to get it hotter.  You accomplish this by dipping it in very hot water and then immediately kneading it.  The recipe says you should use gloves.  I missed that part before my shopping list was made.  That cheese was flipping hot.

I finally finished the cheese and my palms survived.  Just probably have lots of fresh pink skin.  A new spa treatment?

Bread

Must follow exactly.

The bread rose nicely and I got it all ready to bake.  It looked beautiful, and I was proud.  I stuck it in the oven and at least felt that the bread was going to be a success.

Chicken
Now to get the chicken out of the brine.  I rinsed it, dried it and dredged it in all three stations I had set up:  flour mixture, buttermilk, flour mixture.  I got the oil all hot and started frying.  I don't know what happened next, maybe the oil was too hot, maybe the chicken pieces were too big.  The delicious crispy skin was getting too dark, and the inside was not getting cooked all the way through.  Ugh.  I hate cooking meat.

Dinner is served
I set it all out.  We had a caprese salad with the homemade mozzarella cheese, heirloom tomatoes and basil from Pete's garden out front.  I make a beet salad as well, from our Full Circle farm box we get every week.  There was the chicken.  And the bread.

The bread was the best part, besides the
chicken skin.

After a full, entire day of cooking, I was not as impressed as I feel I should have been.  I expected this climax of pleasure from a day of homesteading.  I expected that I would not care about the imperfections of the meal, since I had put so much into it and made it all from scratch.

No, instead I was cranky.  I instigated an argument with my husband and started bossing my kids around, more than usual.  Thankfully my Mom offered to do the dishes because I might have just thrown them in the trash.  No, OK, the recycling.  Less trash, more homesteading.

What happened?  The day was great.  I did what I set out to do, well, expect for making the jam.

Maybe this Homesteading is going to be harder than I expected.  And as far as my family is concerned, this is my choice, so I don't get to play all, "I'm so tired" at the end of the day.  I am going to have to buck up and get this done.
I bet those early homesteaders weren't whiners.  They just did it because it needed to be done.  But hey, it's only day two.  I am still getting used to this.

Tomorrow I plan on doing the jam.  And finishing one organizing project.  That's it.  It still seems a little ambitious at this hour of the night.

with High Hopes,
Melissa