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My First Chicken: Trussed, Basted, Roasted and almost French

When we bought our first organic chickens, I knew that I had to try roasting the first one like the French do it. I had just finished reading "The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry" by Kathleen Flinn, and felt like I too could be a French culinary genius. I'm not sure why I thought that, since I've never been to France, learned from a French chef, or taken any cooking classes, but I didn't care because I was inspired. If you haven't read Kathleen's book yet, you have to! I saw her speak at the International Food Blogger's Conference and was really impressed by her. I don't usually use the word lovely to describe someone, but that's the first thought that came to mind. She seemed like one of those people who you really want to know, who come across at first as shy and timid, but then have the guts to step out of their comfort zone and speak up. I was rather enchanted by her and too dorky to say more than "hi" to her when we passed in the bathroom, but I knew I would read her book.

I checked it out from the library and the moment I opened it was transported to a land of food, culture and love. I have French relatives and hope one day they can show me around France, but until that day I live vicariously through experiences of people like Kathleen. Her writing masterfully sweeps you through a variety of emotions; fear, compassion, joy, excitement, sorrow, embarassment, and lots of laughter. Her book is worth reading simply for the story of her husband in a coffee shop with women shouting "Will you go to bed with me!" in French at him. Eric and I spent 5 minutes cracking up after I read that part to him. If you haven't read it yet, get your hands on a copy.

So, feeling inspired and emboldened, I set up a work space on my dining room table, began humming the theme from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (why do the greatest French movies have such sad endings?) and sat down to read through the recipe. That's where my trouble began. The first thing to jump out at me was "Truss the chicken". Truss? I know I've heard of that before, isn't that something to do with tying it up? I began my research and found tons of arguments for and against trussing. My deduction was that if you're going to be moving the chicken (rotissiere or intermittent rotating) then trussing is a good idea. Then I tried to learn how to truss and quickly discovered that there is no "right" way to truss a chicken. I found instructions, photos and videos of so many different methods that I got frustrated and overwhelmed and shouted out "I can tie up a stupid chicken can't I?!" Apparently I can't. Before roasting, my chicken looked like the victim of a deranged serial killer, and after roasting it had lines through the beautiful crispy crust of the drumsticks. But it held together well so I'm not complaining.

My next difficulty was with the slices of onion. The only onion I had was some finely chopped red onion in a tupperware in my fridge. I decided to go with it, and although they were a little charred by the end, they still tasted great. I also added the last of my potatoes (after cutting off the eyes they were growing!) thinking the drippings from the chicken would cook them nicely. I was right :) It was a little annoying to keep getting up to turn/baste the chicken, since Eric and I were trying to have a serious conversation, but it certainly wasn't difficult. Once the chicken was done however, I was distracted by talking to Eric and making beans and completely ruined my attempt at the sauce. Fortunately, the chicken didn't need it. The skin was reddish brown and deliciously crispy, the meat was succulent and juicy, so next time I'll just spoon some of the drippings with the carrot and onion over it.

I wanted to make green beans to go with the chicken, but didn't have fresh ones, so I used a can of beans from the pantry. Some of you may protest that canned beans aren't as good as fresh, which is true, but they're cheap and available year round. They actually turned out really delicious. I put the bean recipe first because it's shorter, but you'll actually want to wait to make it until your chicken is almost done. The best thing about roasting a whole chicken is how far you can stretch it. We've had 3 meals (2 servings each) already and still have over half the meat left, plus the carcass for making stock! If money is tight, I highly recommend getting a whole chicken rather than the frozen bags of chicken breasts. The flavor is way better, and you actually get more for your money. Be on the lookout over the next couple weeks for shredded chicken recipes. This is no longer an "authentic" French roasted chicken, it's lip smacking good!

Green Beans with Red Onion

serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 TBS Butter

2 TBS finely chopped red onion

1 can green beans drained

1/2 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Melt butter in a skillet over med-high heat. Add onion and saute until soft. Add beans, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Saute until beans are just starting to brown. Serve warm.

Oven Roasted Chicken with Potatoes

makes 1 chicken

Ingredients
1 3-3 1/2 lb chicken

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

TBS softened butter

1 small carrot sliced

1/2 cup minced red onion

Baste:

2 TBS melted butter

1 TBS cooking oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sprinkle the inside of the chicken with the salt and pepper then smear 1 TBS of the butter inside the chicken. Wash chicken in running water and dry with paper towels. Rub on top of and under skin (between skin and meat as much as you can) with the rest of the butter. Truss the chicken and place breast side up in a pan then scatter the veggies around it.

Place in oven and set timer for 5 minutes. Melt butter in a saucepan with the oil and get your basting brush ready. When timer goes off, turn chicken its left side and quickly brush with basting mixture (try to be fast so oven temperature stays high). After another 5 minutes turn chicken to its right side and repeat basting. Let brown another five minutes.

When 5 minutes are up, reduce oven setting to 350 degrees. Baste chicken again, leave it on its side, and baste every 10 minutes for the next 25 minutes. Stir vegetables occaisionally to coat in drippings. When 25 minutes is up, turn to its other side and baste every 10 minutes for another 25 minutes. If you run out of basting mix, use the drippings in the pan.

After those 25 minutes, turn chicken breast side up and baste again. Let roast for 7 minutes, baste, then roast a final 8 minutes. Chicken is done when drumsticks move easily in the socket and juices run clear yellow. Remove from oven and let sit on a platter 10 minutes before carving. Use a slotted spoon to scoop vegetables and potatoes and spoon them over the chicken. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Approximate Cost/serving: 1 organic free range chicken was $12.50 for us. We get about 14 individual servings from it used in different dishes, plus the carcass for stock which I'll call 2 more servings. So although the entire dish costs around $13 to make. Each serving of chicken is about 83 cents.

Gluten Free: Nothing in the recipe contains gluten.

Pan Fried Salmon in a Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce

I so love my husband! Last week we had a really busy day and I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with a lot of tough things going on (without any down time). We really needed some things from the store, so Eric offered to go there while I did what I needed to around the house. One of the things on the list was salmon, and when he came home, he handed me a beautiful package of wild salmon and said "The farmed salmon was way cheaper but I was pretty sure you would want wild so I paid more." I threw my arms around his neck and actually shed a few tears, not just because he got me salmon, but because I was so tired and struggling to keep my head out of the "my life is so hard, poor me" stage (yes some things are hard right now but a lot of things are really good and those are what I want my attitude to be about) and to have him willingly spend more money because he was thinking of me, well it really meant a lot.

photo by Has-Petter Fjeld, Creative Commons

Thing is, wild salmon tastes better, is better for the environment, and better for your body (less PCBs). Here's a great post from Veggie Revolution about farmed salmon. Unfortunately, it's not always as easy as just reading a label and trusting that it really is wild salmon. In a NY Times article they shared their findings from testing salmon labeled "wild" from several different stores and found most of them were actually farmed. Stores gave a variety of reasons, from whoever stocked it in store grabbing it from the wrong pile, to their supplier duping them. I haven't found any good tips on how to recognize wild salmon, a lot of times farmed salmon is made to look just like wild, but I can tell the difference by taste after eating it. The salmon Eric got was definitely wild and delicious! Although it is more expensive, that simply means portioning it out very small and having lots of sides or incorporating it into dishes with lots of other components. It's worth eating less at a time in both taste and health benefits.

I was going to make a basic buerre blanc sauce to go with it, but then I remembered the incredible Seafood Capellini in a lemon garlic cream sauce I had the night before when Eric took me to a fancy dinner at HG Bistro. Yes, this post is turning into all about how great my husband is, because he's really wonderful! He'd gotten a gift certificate to HG Bistro and didn't tell me where it was, just that he was taking me to a fancy restaurant and I should dress up. When we arrived I immediately loved the atmosphere, we were dressed very nicely and felt right at home, but there were also people there in shorts and slippers who seemed at home too! It's a small restaurant, there seemed to be one server for the whole main dining room, but things moved quickly.

My capellini was amazing, the pungent garlic, zing of lemon and richness of the cream perfectly brought out the incredible sweetness of the seafood. It was a symphony of flavors and textures that made me groan in delight at each bite I took. Everything we ate was delicious, and I would definitely like to go back there again. So, this recipe for salmon in a lemon garlic cream sauce is a thank you to my husband who knows how to make me happy, loves me so much, and inspires me to be a better person.

Recipe Pan Fried Salmon in a Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce
serves 2

Ingredients

Sauce:

3 TBS butter
1 TBS finely minced shallot or red onion
1 finely minced garlic clove
1/4 cup white wine
1 TBS lemon juice
1/4 cup heavy cream
dash pepper

Salmon:
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper
2 small pieces salmon (each the size of a deck of cards)


Instructions


Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium heat and saute onion and garlic until soft (about 4 min) if butter starts to brown, turn down the heat. Add wine and lemon juice. Let simmer slowly until reduced by half.


Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet on medium high. Season salmon with salt and pepper and place skin side up in the oil. Cook it for 3 minutes, then flip and cook another 3-5 minutes.


Once liquid for the sauce has reduced, and while salmon is cooking, add cream and pepper to sauce. Reduce heat to low and stir occaisionally while waiting for salmon to finish. Taste and add lemon juice, salt or pepper to your taste preference. Place salmon on a plate (I removed the skin first) and top with the sauce.

Approximate cost/serving: We buy a very large salmon filet and cut it into portions to freeze. Each portion is about $2, the sauce is around 50 cents total to make so $2.25 per serving

Gluten Free: the sauce is not thickened with anything and is gluten free

Fresh Greens with Buttermilk Salad Dressing in Parmesan Lace Bowls

Oh man, we have greens coming out of our ears! I'm not complaining though. I love fresh greens and usually don't get to eat as much of them as I'd like. In a grocery store it's typically cheapest to just buy some heads of romaine and a bag of spinach. Once in a while when they're on sale we'll get a bag of mixed greens, but even that only has about 3 different kinds. With our CSA we are getting tons of variety, and it's awesome! Here's just some of them (that I actually know name of): 2 kinds of spinach, frisee, butter, red leaf, oh man there's so much more I can't remember. I'm getting to be really creative with making my own salad dressings and playing with other salad ingredients. One of the best ideas I had was making my own buttermilk dressing and serving it in a parmesan cheese bowl. Have you ever made a bowl out of parmesan cheese? It's shockingly easy. I'll explain it in the recipe below but one nice thing is the only ingredient you need is the cheese.

For the homemade buttermilk dressing, I never buy buttermilk, I just use some milk/cream and vinegar to make my own. Then I just started playing with herbs and flavors until I liked it. Although the two go together great, this is definitely an either/or recipe, you can make just the parmesan bowls and use your favorite dressing, or make just the buttermilk dressing. You can add whatever you'd like to the greens. In the top photo I had some fresh tomato and torn up prosciutto. For the bowls you want the good quality parmesan, the kind in the green can won't work for them. This is also a great way to make kids interested in salad, imagine their delight as you tell them they can have a bowl made out of cheese!

Mixed Greens with Homemade Buttermilk Salad Dressing in a Parmesan Cheese Bowl
makes 1/4 cup dressing, 2 bowls

Ingredients

Mixed greens

Dressing:
2 TBS milk (I use 2%)
2 TBS heavy cream
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp dried dill
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp sugar

Bowls:
1/2 cup shredded parmesan

Instructions

Mix milk, cream and white vinegar. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Once thickened, stir again and then add remaining dressing ingredients. Mix well and refrigerate while you make bowls.

Heat a non stick skillet on med-high. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese in a circle on the pan. Make sure the cheese is touching but still leaving holes for the lacy pattern. When cheese turns golden, lift one edge with a spatula, then grab with tongs and carefully peel off of pan. Turn onto an upside down glass (side that was touching the pan facing up) and carefully-it's hot!- shape into a bowl. When completely cool, fill with greens and top with dressing.

Approximate cost: we buy our parmesan in bulk so it's only 6 cents per bowl, dressing less than a dime for 1/4 cup.
Vegetarian/Gluten Free: It's not vegan because there's dairy, but no meat. No gluten either, but some lower quality cheeses are coated in something to prevent sticking so check your label.

I entered this in the Blogger Secret Ingredient Challenge!

Thai Shrimp Rolls, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Summer Rolls

I've heard these rolls called many different things depending on who made them or where they're sold. My absolute favorite rolls were called shrimp rolls at the Vietnamese Ba-Le bakery near my office in Hawaii. There are around 25 Ba-Le bakery/sandwich shops in Hawaii, but I found that after trying shrimp rolls at over 10 of them, the ones by my work were always the freshest. Maybe it was because I always got them around lunch time, but they were the best. I used to dance evenings in a hulu/jazz show in the International Marketplace in Waikiki. There was a little Thai stand in the food court that called theirs Thai Shrimp Rolls, they always put a dot of sriracha in their peanut sauce which gave it such a great kick that I started doing that at every place I went. There were two different Vietnamese restaurants near my first apartment that I'd buy them from, one called the Vietnamese Spring Rolls, the other simply called them Summer Rolls. Fortunately, every restaurant has a picture on the menu so it's easy enough to know what you're ordering.


I really don't make these often enough at home. It's not a difficult process, there's just lots of fresh ingredients and they don't keep that well for leftovers the next day, so for just the two of us we usually go to the Vietnamese restaurant down the street and get 2 for $3. But these are so cheap to make (just under 25 cents each!) that they're great for a party or potluck. I got Eric to help me with promises that he could eat the first few he made, and so we set out our work station. It's a lot easier and faster to put these together if you have all your ingredients laid out in a big area. You also need a pie pan of very warm water to soften your rice papers. I was going to write all about choosing a rice paper, and then found this great post to send you to instead. Now typically in restaurants, the shrimp rolls will be one large roll with 3-4 half shrimps and closed ends. I prefer to fold the rice paper in half so you can see the beautiful ingredients poking out (and it's just easier for me to roll them tightly that way!) The most work for this is preparing the noodles, which takes a little time but it's not really working time. I rinse the vermicelli in cool water, let them sit on a plate for 5 minutes, and repeat that 3 times before boiling them for 3 minutes. The packages I use always have instructions for soups or stir fries which don't quite work with making summer rolls. Make these one at a time, it really is faster and easier that way, and don't be afraid to eat some while you're making them!

Shrimp Rolls Recipe

makes 20

Ingredients

20 circle rice paper wrappers

20 cooked shrimp

40 basil leaves

40 mint leaves

1 carrot sliced into shreds with vegetable peeler

2 cups torn butter lettuce (or romaine without spines of leaves)

1 skein vermicelli rice noodles cooked

1 cup bean sprouts
4 stalks green onion finely chopped

pie pan of very warm water

Instructions

Spread all ingredients out on a work surface. Remove tails from shrimp (if they're still on) and cut shrimp in half lengthwise.

Dip a rice wrapper into the warm water until soft and pliable. On a clean dry cutting board, fold it in half so you have the straight line of the half circle at the top. Place your filling a little off the center in a vertical line. Start with two shrimp halves end to end, cut side up (so the pink shows through when it's wrapped). Top with two basil leaves, two mint leaves, and a small portion of each remaining ingredient. Arrange so ingredients will be peeking out of one or both ends.

Starting at the corner your filling is closest to, wrap that corner over filling, (If you only want ingredients showing from one end, fold an inch of the bottom up right now) then begin rolling tightly. Place seam side down on a large platter and cover with plastic wrap.

Peanut Sauce Recipe

makes 1 cup

Ingredients

1 TBS olive oil or vegetable oil

3 cloves of garlic minced or grated w/microplane

1/4 cup hoisin

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

1/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1/4 cup water

Instructions

Heat oil in a saucepan on medium high heat, add garlic and fry 3 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer until well mixed, add a little more water if you want it thinner. Keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week, or it freezes well.

Approximate cost per serving: about 25 cents for one roll dipped into peanut sauce

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: for vegetarian leave out the shrimp, both the wrappers and noodles are gluten free.

Shimeji Mushroom Stir Fry with Ginger, Garlic, Spinach and Red Onion

I am like a kid in a toy store the moment I enter an Asian grocery store. I can spend a ton of time walking up and down the aisles to find 8 different noodle types, szechuan peppercorns and the perfect sesame oil. Each section of the store is its own adventure, the seafood section is full of exotic creatures crawling around a multitude of tanks, the refrigerated section contains everything you need for a Survivor style eating contest, and the bakery is an exhibit of colorful and cute pastries. There's often even an appliance section with futuristic washing machines and electronic toilets that come complete with a bidet/enema setting. I'm not kidding! But I especially love the produce section.

In the produce section I can find things like a banana flower to make my favorite Sri Lankan dish, or bamboo grass for making salads, and of course lots of mushrooms! I love mushrooms, and the selection at Asian markets are so much fun. The last time I went I restrained myself and only bought one kind, a bunch of shimeji mushrooms. You don't want to eat shimeji mushrooms raw, they're pretty bitter, but once you cook them the bitterness turns into a slightly nutty flavor and the mushrooms keep a good crunch. To prepare them, simply break them off the bunch, and tear off a little bit off the end of the stem. You can also just use the caps but I like including the stem.

I used pad thai noodles in this stir fry, but you can use any kind you like, udon, mung bean, even ramen or spaghetti. Just prepare the noodles according to the package and then drain well before adding to your stir fry. The flavors are the key in this dish, garlic, ginger and red onion provide the spice, while lime juice and sugar give it a little sweet and sour. I even add a splash of fish sauce for some saltiness. I use my microplane grater for the garlic and ginger, but you can finely chop the garlic and use a regular grater for the ginger (you don't want to just chop it because grating leaves the tough fibers behind). This is one of those dishes that works great with whatever's in your fridge. I had some spinach from our CSA that needed to be used up, you could also try peppers, broccoli, zucchini or whatever you like.

Shimeji Mushroom Stir Fry

serves 2

Ingredients

2 servings of noodles

2 TBS dark sesame oil

2 TBS finely chopped red onion

1 inch grated ginger

2 cloves garlic grated or minced

1 small bunch shimeji mushrooms

1 handful spinach leaves torn into bite size pieces

juice of 1/2 lime

1 TBS fish sauce

Instructions

Prepare your noodles according to package directions and drain when cooked. Heat sesame oil in a pan over medium high and add onion, ginge and garlic. Fry two minutes and add drained noodles. Stir to coast noodles well with the oil.

Fry noodles for 3 minutes and add mushrooms and spinach. Stir well and fry another 3 minutes. Add lime juice and fish sauce, stir a final time and fry 2 more minutes.

Approximate cost per serving: Less than $1

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: Substitute soy sauce if you don't want to use fish sauce, there are many varieties of asian noodles that are gluten free

Cherry Rhubarb Skillet Pie

Remember the pie I promised you? I keep my promises! I've heard of skillet pies before, but I hadn't tried to make a pie in a cast iron skillet, until now. We got some rhubarb in our first CSA pick up, and I had a bag of cherries in the fridge, so I decided that it was time to try and make up my own skillet pie. Making up a baking recipe always feels a little more frightening than making up my cooking recipes. Baking is more of a science, requires real measuring (which often feels like a waste of time to me), and can turn out disastrously from the simplest mistake. But this element of danger also makes your successes feel so rewarding! This cherry rhubarb skillet pie was definitely a success.

I started with the filling, the easy part of the pie. Most recipes I've seen for rhubarb call for LOTS of sugar. Rhubarb is very tart, I mean really really tart. I like tart, but if I just chew on a piece of raw rhubarb my whole face puckers up, kinda like my little brother when he was a toddler and I'd tell him "Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise" then would squirt lemon juice into his mouth. Yes I know, I've had to forgive myself numerous times for that one. It's one of those things you do as a kid that you know in your head now doesn't really matter, but you still feel terrible about it as an adult and have to learn to just let it go!

Anyway, the cherries were also a little tart, but less than the rhubarb, so I figured their natural sugar would counteract some of the rhubarbs tartness. I was so excited to use fresh cherries! Usually I use canned because pitting cherries by hand was too time consuming for me. But then, in the incredible IFBC gift bag, lo and behold, a cherry pitter! I was having way too much fun with this cherry pitter, I felt like a cherry pitting maniac. Just one punch, like a stapler, and my cherry was ready to go. I pitted this whole bowl full of cherries in just a couple of minutes. By the way, I threw away the clear plastic splash guard. It kept falling off, and I was using a deep enough bowl that I didn't really need it anyway.

My next fun tool I got to use from the gift bag was my Kyocera ceramic mandoline. Oh man, I became a rhubarb slicing machine, my hand flying so fast that I could hardly see it! I LOVE that mandoline, it made slicing the rhubarb a breeze. I've wanted one for a while, but just couldn't afford more kitchen tools, so getting one in the bag was such a blessing. Now, you can definitely pit cherries by hand, and slice rhubarb with a knife, but I really appreciated the speed and convenience and might not ever have used fresh cherries without the pitter. It's one of those tools you never think you need until you get one and then wonder how you lived without it.

Anyway, now that I've raved about my new tools, back to the filling! Did you know that a little salt can help with tartness? That's another secret for the filling, anytime I make something sweet with rhubarb, I add a little salt and then can use less sugar in the recipe. Then I decided, as long as I'm putting salt in the filling, why not some pepper? One of my favorite chai teas has black pepper in it, I love the spicy kick it gives. So I decided it could work in pie, the pepper flavor doesn't jump out at you, but I can taste it slightly if I'm thinking about it. Then I just went through my spices, smelling things and decided on nutmeg and ginger.

While your rhubarb and cherries are soaking up the sugar and spice and everything nice, start on your pie crust. For the skillet pie, I felt I needed a crust that's denser and more breadlike than a regular pie crust. It needs to be able to fold over and drape across the top of the pie. I usually sift my flour and baking powder/soda when baking. I don't think it's actually necessary, but it aerates the flour which helps it absorb liquids better, it also ensures you don't get lumps. It's often more important for cakes or sauces than other things, but I figure it doesn't hurt :) I skip it when I'm in a hurry though. I have a flour sifter on my wish list, right now I use my $1 frying skimmer which takes longer, but is a cheap substitute.



One of the fun things about skillet pies is working with the crust. It kind of reminds me of fondant (the feel of it not the taste!). It's sturdy enough that once you roll it out, you simple drape it across your pan, nestle it in there, and fold it over your filling. Alright, alright, I'll give you the recipe already!


Cherry Rhubarb Skillet Pie
serves 6-10

Ingredients

filling:
2 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (about 4 stalks)
3-4 cups cherries pit and stems removed
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp powdered ginger

crust:
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk
1tsp cinnamon sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl mix your filling ingredients well. Let sit while making the crust.

Sift flour and baking powder (optional) add salt and shortening then cut shortening in with a pastry cutter if you have it or a fork if you're poor like me! Begin adding milk a little at a time, but not all of it, and mixing it in. Stop when you have a dough that's easy to work with. I had about 3 TBS left.

Use some butter or shortening to grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet. Roll your dough out to a 14-15 inch circle. Place in the skillet and get it nestled into the bottom and sides. Pour filling into the dough. Fold dough over the filling (it shouldn't completely cover it). Use a spoon or brush (or clean fingers) to spread the remaining milk on the top of the dough, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake 25 minutes, then cover crust with a ring of foil to prevent it from burning. Bake 25 more minutes and remove. It's easier to cut if you let it cool before serving.

Approximate cost: The whole pie cost me less than $5 to make, we made it into 8 pieces so around 60 cents a slice!
Vegetarian/Gluten free: this can be made vegetarian or gluten free by using vegan shortening and substituting rice flour or brown rice flour.