Find Deliciousness

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Roasted Chicken, Roasted Veggetables, and Quinoa Pilaf





Last night, I cooked some of the best roasted chicken I've ever had.  Check it out...

Ingredients:
  • Roasted Chicken
    • one whole 5lb chicken
    • garlic olive oil (garlic soaked in olive oil for a few days)
    • rosemary
    • rub
      • kosher salt
      • cane sugar
      • red pepper
      • white pepper
      • black pepper
      • garlic salt
      • celery salt
      • paprika
      • cloves
      • mustard powder
      • oregano
      • basil
  • Roasted Vegetables
    • potatoes
    • carrots
    • onion
    • celery
    • rub
    • rosemary
    • olive oil
    • Cotes du Rhone Terre des Lauzeraies - a French red wine blend
    • Woodchuck hard cider 
  •  Quinoa Pilaf
    • red quinoa
    • frozen vegetables
    • garlic
    • sea salt
    • oregano
    • basil
    • celery salt
    • honey

Procedure:

Chicken and Potatoes
    To start with, I put a chicken roasting rack in a roasting pan.  This will hold the bird above the vegetables, keeping it all in the air and letting the drippings hit the rest of the food.  I then filled the bottom of the pan with the chopped up vegetables and seasoning.  Once that layer was ready, I smeared the chicken with garlic olive oil, rubbed on the rub, and set it on the rack.  Onions, rosemary, and half an orange got stuffed into the chicken's cavity and rosemary and garlic were placed on top.  All of this went into the oven at 325 for about 2-2.5 hours, until all of the meat reached at least 165F.

Quinoa Pilaf
    The pilaf is the same as I make all the time, and have posted before - just boil the quinoa as you normally would (same as rice), with a little extra water, frozen vegetables, and some seasonings.

Resulting Deliciousness
    This was some of the best roasted chicken I've ever made.  It was a little dry in a few places like the top of the breasts, but I'm spoiled since I'm constantly brining everything I make.  I wish I could have brined this, but I didn't buy the chicken in advance, so that wasn't really an option.  However, the rub and all the rosemary and garlic made this chicken absolutely delicious.  The skin was nice and crisp, and not dried out.  The vegetables were a little fatty from all the drippings and olive oil - next time I'll look for a bird that's a little less fatty and try not to go overboard with the oil.  The quinoa pilaf was excellent, as always.  I also really liked the red wine that I picked out.  It was on sale for $8 and the Whole Foods wine guy was right that it would go well with poultry.  

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Turkey Cacciatori and Salad



Tonight, I made some turkey cacciatori and salad.  This was pretty similar to the chicken cacciatori  dinner I made for my friend's band, except for the type of meat, and this time I added carnberries and roasted red peppers to the sauce.

Ingredients:
Salad
  • Romaine mix from Whole Foods
  • Roasted red peppers
  • Fresh mozzarella
  • Avacado
  • Tomato
  • Balsamic vinegar reduction
  • Olive oil
Pasta
  • Ancient Harvest quinoa and corn rotelle
  • Whole Foods (365) Tomato Basil pasta sauce
  • Ground turkey thigh meat
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Basil
  • Oregano
  • Paprika
  • Balck pepper
  • Salt
  • Cane sugar
  • Cranberries
  • Roasted red pepper
  • Honey
Procedure:
Salad
For the salad dressing, I made some balsamic vinegar reduction by simmering with cane sugar, honey, and a bay leaf.  I chopped up the rest of the ingredients and added them to a store bought salad mix.

Pasta
The pasta itself is a quinoa and corn pasta that I've never had before.  It tasted pretty good.  For the sauce, I carmelized some onion with the listed spices, added the turkey, and simmered it with some gewurztraminer.  Then, I added the store bought sauce.  While that simmered, I boiled some cranberries in sugar water and peeled some red peppers that I roasted earlier.  I added those and some sugar to the sauce and kept it simmering until the pasta and salad were ready.

Resulting Deliciousness:
The pasta and salad both turned out really well.  I've been into the flavor combination of cranberry with roasted red pepper, but I didn't add enough cranberries to really bring that out.  Gewurztraminer is more of a desert wine than something to cook and drink with pasta, but this one wasn't very sweet, so it worked out alright. 

Thursday, September 4, 2008

North Carolina Barbecue



Ingredients:
  • Pulled Pork Barbecue
    • Brine
      • Apple cider
      • Kosher salt
      • Bay leaves
      • Oregano
      • Basil
      • Paprika
      • Black Pepper
    • Rub
      • Raw cane sugar
      • Brown sugar
      • Kosher salt
      • Cumin
      • Cloves
      • Black pepper
      • White pepper
      • Cayenne pepper
      • Chili pepper
      • Crushed red pepper
      • Paprika
      • Garlic salt
      • Celery salt
    • Mesquite wood chips

  • Tomato Based Sauce
    • Tomatoes
    • Apple Cider
    • Apple cider vinegar
    • Roasted red peppers
    • Brown sugar
    • Honey
    • Valentina's
    • Kosher salt
    • Chili powder
    • Garlic salt
    • Celery salt
    • Cayenne pepper
    • Crushed red pepper
    • Black pepper
    • Oregano
    • Basil
    • Paprika
  • Vinegar Based Sauce
    • Apple cider vinegar
    • White wine vinegar
    • Raw cane sugar
    • Kosher salt
    • Crushed red pepper
    • Chili powder
    • Black pepper
    • Garlic salt
  • Potatoes
    • New potatoes
    • Roasted red peppers
    • Butter
    • Kosher salt
    • Black pepper
  • Coleslaw
    • Green cabbage
    • Red cabbage
    • Carrot
    • Kosher salt
    • Greek yogurt
    • Mayonnaise
    • Apple cider vinegar
    • Caraway seeds
    • Black pepper
  • Beans
    • Busch's beans
    • Bacon
    • Onion
    • Celery
    • Black pepper
    • Brown sugar

Procedure:
Barbecue
On Thursday night, I pulled the pork out of the freezer to brine and thaw it.  To make the brine, I simmered all of the ingredients for about forty-five minutes and let it cool.  Once cool, it went into Ziploc bags with the pork.  This went in a pot, got covered, then went back in the freezer.  I pulled it out first thing in the morning to start thawing.  I got to Tim's place in Chapel Hill at about 5 or 6.  By then, the pork was pretty well thawed and brined.  I mixed all of the ingredients for the rub, removed the pork from the brine, and covered it with the rub.  The rub is equal parts of each of the sugars and the salt, then the spices to taste.  The rubbed pork went back in the fridge until it was go time.  The mesquite wood chips went into some water to soak for a few hours.

On Friday night / Saturday morning at 2am, I fired up the grill.  I put the pork in a pan on one side of the grill and some mesquite wood chips on the other.  I only used the burners on the wood chip side to keep the grill between 225 and 250 (F).  The soaked wood slowly smoldered to smoke the meat.  This went on, being checked and basted with apple cider every hour or so for the next 10 hours.  By then, the meat had reached about 170.  To be cooked, pork should reach over 140, but to be pulled it helps to reach about 190.  I ran out of time and had to go for 170.  It worked out fine, but it could have been easier to pull.

Barbecue Sauce - Tomato based
For a tomato based sauce, I simmered tomatoes, cider, and all the spices for about 2 hours.  I added this to about 3 roasted red peppers and pureed in a blender.  For the final touch, a little apple cider vinegar was added.

Barbecue Sauce - Vinegar based
This type of sauce is very simple.  Just combine equal parts apple cider vinegar and white wine vinegar, add a significant amount of sugar, then add spices per your taste.  This one turned out pretty spicy.  The flavor will mature, mix, and become smoother if this is left in the fridge for a day or two.

Baked Beans
Really good baked beans are very easy to make.  Just start with some good canned beans, make some bacon, and add it to the beans.  Use the bacon grease to caramelize some finely diced onion and celery and add that too.  If you want, add some more spices based on your taste - I added some pepper and some brown sugar.  Let that simmer for a while, and the beans are way better than they started.

Potatoes
I wanted another side, and was too lazy to make potato salad.  So, I boiled some new potatoes, drained them, added butter and seasonings, and about 3 pureed roasted red peppers.  This turned out to be a delicious side that went very well with the smoked flavor of the meat.

Coleslaw
Slaw is a must for any barbecue.  The key is the first step, which some people forget - salt the cabbage.  Cut up the cabbage, put several tablespoons of salt on it, cover, and set it in the fridge for about 3 hours.  This pulls moisture out, making sure that the cabbage won't get soggy from the liquids you're going to add.  After salting, thoroughly rinse all the salt off, add the carrot, a few tablespoons each of Greek style (drained) yogurt, mayonnaise, and apple cider vinegar, and a little pepper and caraway, mix, and you're good to go.  Just taste it and make sure the balance fits your palate.  

Resulting Deliciousness:
I didn't realize how in need of a good North Carolina barbecue I was.  This was fantastic in just about every way possible.  The sides all worked very well, and everyone had a great time.  That is what a barbecue is all about, and this certainly fit the bill.  The only part of this that I've ever made before was the beans.  The pork might have been the best meat I've ever had in my life... and that's saying something.  I am now, more than ever, a huge fan of feeding animals what they naturally eat.  This forest fed pork had more flavor and better texture than any barbecue I've ever had.  The sauce was entirely unnecessary (but turned out really good!).  If you've never had naturally fed or wild meat, go to www.eatwild.com and find a place near you to get some.  I was really happy the way the brining and my rub helped the flavor of the meat, but did not overpower it.  I think that's the problem with grain fed meat - it is high fat and low flavor - you can barely eat it without sauce or heavy seasoning.  Just remember that with naturally fed meat, it is generally less fatty and therefore easier to mess up with fast cooking methods like grilling.  With slow cooking, you pretty much can't go wrong.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Chicken Cacciatori

From Dinner with Bombadil and Paleface!
Last week, Bombadil and Paleface played at The Red and the Black in DC. The show was fantastic! While they were in town, they crashed at my place. I made them a pretty solid dinner:

Ingredients:
  • Rice Pasta
  • Chicken Cacciatore Sauce
  • Pre-made regular pasta sauce, can't remember what kind
  • Ground chicken
  • Onion
  • Green pepper
  • Celery
  • Spices to taste - salt, pepper, oregeno, garlic salt, basil
  • Quinoa Pilaf
  • Red quinoa
  • Frozen vegetables
  • Garlic
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Oregano
  • Basil
  • Side salad
  • Bag of pre-mixed salad
  • Black olives
  • Buffalo mozzarella
  • Tomatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar reduction (leftover from my spare rib dinner)
Procedure:
I started by caramelizing the onion, green pepper, and celery in some olive oil and spices. I added the ground chicken to that, then the store bought pasta sauce. That was left to simmer while everything else was made.

The quinoa pilaf was about the same as I've made in several other posts. I just added frozen vegetables and some seasoning to the quinoa while it cooked. This is very simple, tasty, and healthy. It goes with just about anything.

The salad was just a pre-mixed bag to which I added a couple tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and olives. I used olive oil and my balsamic vinegar reduction for the dressing. For the reduction I added sugar, honey, and a bay leaf to about a cup of balsamic vinegar and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. That went really well on the quinoa too.

Resulting Deliciousness:
The dinner hit the spot. It provided some good fuel for the show the next night. Make sure to go see Bombadil or Paleface if they're playing near you!