Another Food Blog

I had the same idea as Paul and Mike did this weekend, it seems. There was a free-range roasting chicken from Trader Joe’s in my freezer, sized just over two kilos, that I wanted to make. I didn’t want to take a lot of hassle with it, and the good news is that roast chicken is never much hassle. The worst part is having to wash your hands sixteen times in the process of rinsing, drying, seasoning, and rubbing the chicken with butter and herbs.

I squeezed fresh lemon juice all over mine, inserting the lemon wedges into the cavity, then seasoned it with with salt and pepper. Next came the butter rub, followed by a mixture of olive oil and rosemary. I was tempted to rub it with garlic as well, but knew it would burn at the high temperature at which I was about to roast it: 500°F/260°C. The bird went in for ten minutes per pound at this temperature, which gave it a nice, dark, crispy skin. I allowed it to rest for ten minutes before carving.

This was exactly what I was after, and will provide several meals over the next few days. So far I’ve had it simply, twice with Grey Poupon alongside and once sprinkled with tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) and Tabasco. I predict a bacon-y future for the rest…

This is not authentic, okay? With that out of the way, it is sooo good, super-easy and low-carb friendly.

Chop four or five anchovy fillets into small pieces, then cook in olive oil over medium heat until they sort of start to melt into the pan. (If your anchovy fillets came in olive oil – I prefer those to the salt-packed – toss that into the pan, too.) Then add half a large chopped onion and a couple of minced cloves of garlic, cooking until the onion is soft. (Do not, now or ever, burn the garlic. It goes bitter.)

Next, add two cans of clams, including the juice in which they came. Bring to the boil then simmer for a few minutes. Add about a cup of milk and a couple of heaping dessertspoonfuls of sour cream. Whisk the sour cream into the soup so that it’s not all lumpy in there…if that kind of thing bothers you. It doesn’t me.

Season with lots of ground black pepper. You probably don’t need to add salt here, because of the anchovies.

If you don’t like anchovies, use them anyway. This soup doesn’t taste of them, but they do give a depth to the chowder that you won’t have otherwise.

This is what I made for the Cincinnati Supper Club at my place on Thursday, and it was a total improv that fortunately paid off.

I usually use chicken thighs, because the meat is so much more flavorful, but I had two EXTREMELY picky eaters coming (5chw4r7z and Ms. 5chw4r7z – whose presence also meant I couldn’t put mushrooms in anything. Freaks.). So I used breasts instead, which I cut into bite-sized chunks.

I combined the chicken pieces with a jar of Trader Joe’s pesto and let it marinate for about an hour (optional). Next I browned the meat, then added a tin of chopped tomatoes (I like Hunt’s) and about two cups of chicken stock (made with Trader Joe’s concentrated liquid stock). This simmered for 20 minutes so the chicken could cook through, after which I added the cannellini beans (2 tins, rinsed of gloop and drained) and some sour cream. I’d tell you how much, but you wouldn’t believe me. (Okay, it was two heaping dessertspoonfuls.)

This is great because you can make it ahead of time, then just warm it up ten minutes before it’s time to eat. The beans can go in before warming back up, as they don’t need much cooking time.

The hotpot is quite liquid-y, but I didn’t want to serve it from bowls, so I made a simple risotto upon which to serve this. Because of the aforementioned picky eaters, I omitted the mushrooms and the parmesan from the risotto, but you really don’t need them here, as the rice is there to soak up the tomato pesto goodness. To make that, just fry an onion in butter and olive oil, add the risotto rice to the pan and stir until every grain is covered in fat, then add vegetable or chicken stock – one ladle at a time, adding the next only when the liquid has been absorbed – and stir continuously for about 17 minutes. You want fat, glistening grains with no chalkiness to them when bitten.

I can confirm that this makes really nice leftovers, too.

The British chocolate company Hotel Chocolat (their flagship store is in High Street Kensington) has launched in the US. To celebrate this, they sent me $300 worth of their finest, most beautiful hand-piped chocolates.

There was a time when I wouldn’t have been able to keep such things in the house, but I guess it helped that I stashed it all in the spare bedroom’s closet…in a big cardboard box…behind another big cardboard box. I also gave away several boxes to my chocolate-loving friends.

But I saved one box for last night, when I hosted the supper club. All I can say is, if you like your chocolate more on the sweet side than the dark side, you’ll love Hotel Chocolat’s goods. Filled with the freshest fruits, nuts, and other goodness, the shelf life of these is quite brief. And they are so rich that I, a chocolate lover non-pareil, could only manage a few pieces. (I hadn’t had chocolate or any sugar whatsoever for the past two weeks, so was looking forward to a decent binge. Alas, alas…)

They are also, as you can see, gorgeous. Everyone oohed and aahed over these, so the visual punch they pack is substantial.

Because I know better than to keep an open box of chocolate around, I sent the leftovers home with 5chw4r7z. His colleagues are going to have an unusually upscale start to the weekend with these beauties.

You can’t really complain about a large, beautiful plate of Thai chicken curry in pleasant, comfortable surroundings. It makes it even harder when you only pay £3 for your lunch.

But I’m going to complain about my green Thai chicken curry at Green Papaya. It was too sweet. I know using sugar in some curries is pretty standard, but I don’t think the sweetness should be cloying. This was.

Welcome to America, I guess. Food here does tend toward the sweet, and I am glad my palate had a decade in Europe to learn to dislike that (well, in foods that are meant to be savoury, at least). If I’m going to have sugar, I’d rather have it in the form of cupcakes or chocolate, you know?

I’ll go back to Green Papaya, but I’ll order something sugar-free.

This is a chuck roast, and my method for cooking it was simple.

I browned it in butter on all sides, then chucked some minced garlic, peppercorns, dried rosemary, and beef stock into the Dutch oven with it. I should have used about five times as much stock as I did to start, because when I took it out of the 175C oven after two hours, it had all disappeared. I dumped a bunch of water in at that point, along with two large onions cut into wedges, then put it back in to cook for another half hour.

Now, if you’re allowing yourself good stuff like alcohol and starches, you may want to replace the stock with a bottle of red wine and include some potatoes and carrots here. I know I would if I could. But this was pretty great even without that stuff, and despite the fact that I won’t be able to eat the leftovers on soft white bread. Still, with a dinner this easy, I can’t complain.

The hardest part about this dish is picking out a really good steak. After that, it’s smooth sailing.

I bought a huge amount of meat on Monday, and confused the ground sirloin I’d purchased with the steak in my fridge. I mistakenly believed I had a sirloin steak to hand, when it was really a shoulder steak. So it should have been marinated before cooking, but as it was 9PM by the time I got home and got dinner going, that wasn’t going to happen.

So here’s how to make the supremely easy sauce: Sauté salted mushroom slices in butter. When they’ve given up most of their juice, add garlic and crumbled gorgonzola (or other appropriate bleu cheese). Stir until the gorgonzola has melted, then add a heaping dessertspoonful of sour cream. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. That’s it.

Now you can cook the mushrooms in butter and wine (red or white) here, which would be just as nice. Try it if you’ve got some leftover wine to use.

Dinner

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

Inspired by Madsen’s version, I thought I’d have a go. As luck (or misfortune) would have it, the aubergine I’d purchased from the market on Saturday was revealed, upon further inspection at home, to be in urgent need of use.

I tried not to slice the aubergine too thickly, then set the big bowl of slices aside while I chopped an onion and a huge field mushroom. The latter two went into a pan of hot olive oil, along with salt to stop the onion from burning. When the veg had gone soft, I added a couple of minced cloves of garlic and quite a few chopped tomatoes.

While all that cooked, I coated my hands in olive oil and lovingly caressed the aubergine slices until they were coated. This method keeps too much oil from soaking in, as aubergines will just absorb as much as you throw at them.

I added a mix of Italian herbs and spices to the sauce, turned it off the heat, and started to construct my bake. First, a layer of sauce; then, a layer of aubergine slices; next, a layer of soft ricotta cheese, and finally a layer of Swiss cheese slices. I know, I know, that’s just wrong, but I didn’t have any parmesan to hand and the American version of Swiss cheese is so tasteless that I just wanted it for the melty texture. (Someone brought me this packet of cheese when I was sick, to ensure I didn’t die of malnutrition, as if that were ever a possibility. I was just happy to use it up.)

Two layers later, it all went in the oven and came out 25 minutes later just as I’d hoped. Even better, there’s enough for at least four more meals.

Horseradish cheddar

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

It doesn’t look much, but it makes up for that in taste. Free samples of it were on offer at Krause’s, a local (Cincinnati) German speciality shop which also carries a wide variety of European meats and cheeses. I wasn’t going to buy anything – the English cheeses I’m missing clock in at $16 per pound, and I’m a bit of a cheapskate at the moment – but that sample of horseradish cheese won me over. Bonus: It was only $7.49 per pound.

My downfall

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

This is the way to go.

I hadn’t had any sweets or carbs for almost three weeks. But I was powerless to resist the lure of the red velvet mini-cupcakes on offer at a friend’s art exhibition on Friday night. Every moist, luscious bite was worth the guilt and self-revulsion I’ve suffered since.

On the bright side, at least I wasn’t dipping fine chocolates in marshmallow fruit dip.