Recent adventures in the kitchen

Since Ben's chard adventure, it's been more exciting experiments in the A-B! A-B stands for Allston-Brighton, a part of Boston that's overrun with college students (and also where I grew up and where we live now). Last week Ben made the most amazing roasted beet and fennel salad, courtesy of Mark Bittman. I'm not sure what he dressed the salad with, but it was yummy! The beets and fennel came from our winter CSA share. After roasting, the beets tasted incredibly sweet - practically no "dirt" taste at all! (Oddly enough, I like the "dirt" taste, since that flavor is what makes beets so unique to me.) The fennel was raw - sliced thin and tossed with the roasted beet slices. Served on top of couscous, it was a yummy and complete meal. We probably should've taken a picture, but I was too lazy (and eager to start eating) to get the camera.

What else have we eaten from our CSA share? Ben's been making awesome and simple salads -- lettuce greens, empire apple slices, herbed goat cheese from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Co., and toasted pecans. The lettuces and empire apples came from the CSA - we've been lucky that our lettuce has remained fresh for over a week now. Our guess is that the lettuce lasts longer because it was picked fresh from a local farm and didn't have to travel in a refrigerated truck to a store and then to our house.

On Friday, we were lazy and ordered take out from our fave Thai place, Rod Dee near Coolidge Corner. We had yellow curry duck, shrimp pad thai, and Indonesian fried rice. Despite the scarcity of duck in the curry, the dish was delicious. I am not a huge fan of pineapple in curry, though -- it's just too sweet and the texture is weird!

On Saturday we went to K's place in Watertown for good food, good drinks and even better company. We celebrated D's 31st b-day and brought over a bottle of champagne so that the couple can celebrate in style upon moving into their new house. We had a great time and I'm glad we left when we did - otherwise I would have fallen asleep on K's uber-comfy sectional. At K's I tried a couple of rieslings (K's fave) and a rose wine, and all three were too sweet for my tastes. I'm a little worried that by the time I turn 40, I won't be able to drink anything sweeter than bourbon, which does NOT bode well!

Sunday, we duked it out with two hundred other shoppers at Russo's in Watertown. Ben and I had a huge shopping list - we're hosting an election party this Tuesday night - and the store was incredibly crowded. I'm so glad we found about about Russo's, but now we won't go anywhere else for cured meats. The selection isn't huge, but their prosciutto di parma is only $15/lb. and it's reliably delicious! The broccoli rabe looked great today, so I picked up two bunches and made our fave soup which includes broccoli rabe, white beans, potatoes and sausages. The potatoes were Yukon golds from our CSA; the sausages were De Pasquale's (via Russo's) sweet italian and the white beans 1/2 home cooked and 1/2 canned. Before starting the soup, I cooked some dried cannelini beans (local - I think - from Baer's in Mass) with a couple bay leaves. It took a few hours, but the result was sooooo much better than the canned stuff! I need two cups of beans for a rosemary-lemon zest-white bean dip for Tuesday's party, and had an extra cup or so of cooked beans that I tossed into the soup with a can of beans. The recipe is from Rachel Ray and the Food Network, but it's seriously one of my go-to soups now.

I probably spent 5 hours in the kitchen today (I also made a huge batch of pesto since we got two great-looking bunches of basil at Russo's), but hope all the prep work will pay off for Tuesday. Ben and I have a fun menu planned and it should be good times on Election Day.

Voulez-Vous Poulet Avec Moi?

The frustrating part of learning how to blog is figuring out how to make user-friendly posts and also how to use blogger. I just wrote a post about tonight's dinner and ended up deleting the whole thing by accident. It's probably the most frustrating thing that could happen to you while blogging, besides losing your entire blog!

Back to the topic at hand - Hainanese chicken! I have no idea where it's from--Hainan?--haha--but it is practically a national dish in Singapore. You take a whole chicken, poach it and then cook rice with the chicken stock from the poaching. It's typically served with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, but we had some baby bok choy and pea pod shoots that Ben picked up from the Allston farmer's market, so we sauteed those instead and served them on the side.

You start with a whole chicken -- ours came from Whole Foods. They carry a line of whole organic chickens from Petaluma, CA (awful food mileage, I know) that comes with all the bells and whistles -- organic, free range, hormone free. You poach it and shred/slice the chicken. The rice is cooked with shallots and garlic, and the chicken stock is used as the cooking liquid. The result is an intensely chicken-flavored rice, and delicious, perfectly cooked chicken. The chicken is served with cilantro and a salt-scallion-ginger dipping sauce. All we have to do now is strain the leftover stock and freeze it for next time. Tonight's chicken started with leftover stock from the first time we made it :) The theory, according to the NY Times, is that the chicken flavor gets more intense as you repeat. The recipe is below -- courtesy of Mark Bittman of the NY Times. Ben is a little obsessed with Bittman and his "The Minimalist" series. We even have his "How to Cook Everything" cookbook. I think a lot of his ideas/recipes are overrated, but this recipe was one I picked out and it's a home run! The picture above is from the first time we made it.

Ben wants to add that when you cut up the chicken on a cutting board and leave the carcass, the juices congeal and the remnants are so rich it tastes like turkey. Yup, that's my husband.

RECIPE: The Minimalist: From a Chinese Island, a Chicken for Every Pot (September 17, 2008)

Ingredients:

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 whole (3- to 4-pound) chicken, trimmed of excess fat

Several cloves smashed garlic, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Several slices fresh ginger, plus 1 tablespoon minced ginger

1/2 cup peanut oil, or neutral oil, like corn or canola

3 shallots, roughly chopped, or a small onion

2 cups long-grain rice

1/2 cup minced scallions

2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced

2 tomatoes, sliced

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves

2 tablespoons sesame oil.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Add chicken to pot along with smashed garlic and sliced ginger. Bird should be completely submerged, but only just. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let bird remain in water for 45 minutes to an hour, covered, or until it is cooked through.

2. Remove chicken from pot, reserve stock, and let bird cool to room temperature. Put half the peanut oil in a skillet over medium heat; you may add trimmed chicken fat to this also. When oil is hot, add remaining garlic, along with shallots; cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring, until glossy. Add 4 cups reserved chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover; cook for about 20 minutes, until rice has absorbed all liquid. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

3. Make a dipping sauce of remaining oil, ginger, half the scallions and a large pinch of salt.

4. Shred or chop chicken, discarding skin. Put rice on a large platter and mound chicken on top of it; decorate platter with cucumbers, tomatoes, remaining scallions and cilantro. Sprinkle sesame oil over all and serve with dipping sauce.

Yield: 4 to 8 servings.