Weekly Dish

One semester of my life as a PhD student has officially come to a close, and I could not be happier. Well, I guess if it was my last semester as a PhD student and graduation was in my near future I could, possibly, feel happier. But this semester’s end brings with it the Christmas season, which I dearly love, and the promise of visits with family and friends I have not seen in a while, whom I have missed.

And, of course now I have time to go into my cooking-baking-holiday frenzy with full gusto! No papers to distract me, no students to correspond with, no grading to do. Blissful, undistracted cooking. Here’s what I have planned: tonight, my friends from Missouri, Casey and Christy are coming over for a kind of farewell holiday dinner (we will be going our separate ways for the holiday break), and so before they head all the way up to Missouri and Illinois, where their family lives, I am cooking them a southern feast. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato pie. The weekend’s food festivities include more people I love: my girlfriends from college, Patty and Lydia, are headed down for a visit. We do have going-out plans, of course, but for their arrival on Friday, I promised to cook a meal, which you will have to wait until Monday to discover!

Before heading to Mississippi, my kitchen will be full and busy and happy, just the way I like it. My favorite part about cooking during this season is that most of the food I cook I’m making to give away or feed to someone I love. I hope to share many of those recipes with you in the coming days.

Today’s recipe comes from Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge’s scandalous but delicious cookbook Intercourses, a rice salad that would be the perfect side dish to take to a dinner party, or main course to serve for a light lunch. It is better the second day, so I like to make enough to have on hand for a quick leftovers lunch. It is very flexible too; you can serve it warm, cold, or at room temperature. I liked it best at room temp.

I hope you all are enjoying this holiday season–I’d love to know what you are cooking!

(more…)

Alright, so the first three Paper Chef ingredients this month were not so exciting for me. Carrots are cute and sweet, but in my opinion, the best thing about them is their color (I love orange) and their nutritional benefits. Rice is flexible at least, and offers the possibility for many adaptations. Anchovies, though?? I am no anchovy fan. Tiny fishes packed in oil: with the exception of a Puttanesca sauce I made once, anchovies have not had a place in my pantry. The last ingredient, however, I found intriguing: “Something from the other side of the world that helps make this dish a celebration for you.” Hmmm…the other side of the world…celebration…maybe I can find a way to make this work.

So, here are the things I’m celebrating through my entry: 1. This holiday season. I love this time of year, and I love to throw a good party. This one will be my warm-up. 2. The sheer cultural variety of food traditions in the world, represented visibly by the lovely montage of culinary prowess I find in the international food blogging community. 3. People who contribute to this cultural variety in my personal life. 4. The opportunity to clean out my fridge and pantry. 5. The end of my first semester as a Ph.D. student, without the stress of which I’m sure I would not have enough pent-up creative energy to pull this off!!

How do I plan to celebrate these things, you ask? Why, through a Clean-Out-My-Fridge Holiday Cocktail Party, using the Paper Chef ingredients plus whatever I have on hand, including foods from around the world that remind me of people and cultural traditions I cherish, of course!

Actually, I had both rice and carrots already, so I picked up a tin of anchovies from the market and set about examining the culinary contents of my kitchen. Although it is possible to pinpoint the exact location of “around the world” from you, as my husband cleverly discovered, I chose to think of the term more broadly. The three places from around the world I wanted to make sure I represented are: India, as my lovely office-mate has recently arrived in the U.S. from Calcutta, and brings with her many of the country’s delicious culinary traditions (which she has been kind enough to share!); Italy, where my husband and I first learned to love food and wine together (a long time ago!); and Australia, home of this month’s distinguished Paper Chef judge, who always manages to produce some of the most unusual and creative food I’ve ever seen.

India would be easy: I usually keep basmati rice, Indian curry paste, and spices on hand. In fact, I recently bought some whole cardamom pods that were on sale at my grocer…maybe they could be of use.

Italy shouldn’t be too hard either. I cook Italian food quite a bit, and I found just the thing: half a container of mascarpone cheese left from a sauce I made last week!

Australia: Hmmm. This would be trickier. After searching my pantry high and low and researching traditional Australian ingredients, I was pretty certain I’d have to go back to the store and forsake my self-made rules. Rats.

But wait! On the wine rack there…isn’t that chardonnay made in…yes, Australia! Hooray–Yellow Tail to the rescue!

With the ingredients all in place and my party hat on, here is the menu I created:

Drunken Australian Rice Cakes with Carrot Coulis

Cardamom-Spiced Basmati Rice Pudding with Anchovy Butter

Wontons with Poblano-Mascarpone Filling

Orange Coconut Sticky Rice Brulèe

(more…)

In the Aunt’s Recipe Book, there are two entries for Roast Chicken, one from Aunt Em and one from Aunt Prissy. Aunt Emily’s says, “Mine’s better than Prissy’s so make this one.” Aunt Prissy’s says, “Mine is much, much better than Emily’s so do use my recipe.” What’s a girl to do? When I first started cooking after I got married, I was not too fond of the idea of a whole chicken. The first time I bought one, armed with my two competing recipes, I removed the plastic packaging and sat the naked bird in the sink. I obediently followed the aunts’ instructions: “Wash chicken inside and out. Pat dry.” There was just one problem: all this gross stuff came out of the bird when I ran the water through his cavity, and I had the water on too high, so chicken juice splattered all over my face. When I set him down, it looked like he was standing in my sink looking at me. It was all too much for my delicate constitution at the time–I burst into tears and threw the bird away. I’m much braver now, but if a whole chicken intimidates you, don’t worry, you aren’t the only one.

If you can conquer your fears the first time, cooking a whole chicken is an easy way to kill two meals with one bird (pardon the pun!) The tender, roast breast meat is delicious with a bit of the pan drippings drizzled over it; I like to pair it with rice and a vegetable. These roasted carrots are crispy on the outside and sweet and soft on the inside, and the subtle flavors of the rice pilaf complement the chicken nicely without overpowering it. Once you get the chicken prepared, the rest of the meal comes together pretty quickly, but make sure the bird is good and defrosted–a frozen chicken takes a long, long time to cook all the way through, which I know from the last time we had dinner at about 10:00.

My Roast Chicken (a combination of the aunts’ techniques)

1 whole chicken

2 lemons

2 cloves of garlic

Several sprigs rosemary

Olive oil

Lemon pepper

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the innards and neck from the chicken. Gross, I know, but just reach in there and pull them out. Like pulling off a Band-aid, the quicker you do it, the less it hurts. Wash the chicken inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Place the bird in a roasting pan, and coat with olive oil, rubbing the oil into the skin. Pierce one lemon several times with a knife and place it, along with the garlic cloves, inside the cavity. Slice the other lemon thinly. Place the lemon slices and rosemary sprigs under the skin on top of the breasts–you might have to use a knife to separate the skin from the meat. Season the whole bird with salt and lemon pepper. Roast, breast side up, for between an hour and an hour and a half. The chicken is done when its temperature reaches 180 degrees, or when the juices run clear. Baste occasionally with the pan juices.

While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the carrots and rice. For the carrots, I buy the package of baby carrots, and place them on a cookie sheet, whole. Toss with lots of olive oil, Kosher salt, and cracked pepper. Roast in the oven with the chicken for about 45 minutes to an hour. The carrots’ skins should shrivel and begin to crust around the edges. Then, you can take your time with the rice pilaf. I learned the technique from Sara Foster’s Rice Pilaf for All Seasons in Fresh Everyday; this one is my variation.

Minted Orange Rice Pilaf with Pine Nuts

1 T. butter

1 T. olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 cup pine nuts

Zest of two oranges

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice

1 cup orange juice

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup chicken broth or water

Kosher salt and cracked pepper

1 cup coarsely chopped mint leaves

Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet or saucepan. Sauté the onion and garlic until both are soft but not brown. Add the pine nuts and half the orange zest and cook until nuts are fragrant, 3-5 minutes. Add the rice, and cook while stirring for another 3-5 minutes, or until the rice is coated with the butter and oil, sliding around the pan easily. Add the liquids, and salt and pepper well. Bring the mixture to a boil; then, reduce the heat so that it’s simmering. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in half of the mint leaves. To serve, top each serving with reserved orange zest and mint leaves.

After dinner, debone the chicken and reserve the leftover meat. Even better, talk your husband into doing it (the best, of course, is if he offers, like mine does. Thanks David!) You can use it for all kinds of things…like the pizza tomorrow!