Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Sounds like a lot of garlic right? This old French dish is delicious because the garlic simmers away and becomes almost sweet and tender. Each medium sized head/bulb of garlic has about 14 cloves so you will need around 3-4 heads of garlic. Break up the heads and place the cloves into a large Tupperware. Shake, shake, shake and a lot of the skins will come off. The rest are easily peeled. This recipe is a bit different because the garlic and chicken are placed under the broiler after cooking to give them a lovely golden color and crispy skin.

1 chicken quartered (if you can’t figure out how to do this I am sure your butcher will help. Here I remove the breasts from the bone for easy serving but if you prefer to leave it on for more flavor that is fine)
Large pinch of salt and pepper to season the meat
40 cloves (aprox) of peeled garlic
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup white wine
2-3 tablespoons melted butter

Sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons water
¼ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cognac
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400
Place the chicken on a plate and season them with salt and pepper. Into a Dutch oven or stockpot (about 5 quart is fine) add the chicken, garlic, thyme, and white wine. Cover the pot and place into the preheated oven for 30 minutes. After thirty minutes you will check your chicken, if the breasts are cooked through and the juices run clear not pink, then you can carefully remove them. Recover the pot and place it back in the oven for another 10 minutes or until the leg meat is also cooked through. Remove pot from oven. Place all of the chicken parts on a baking sheet. Scoop out the garlic and add that to the baking sheet as well. Brush the chicken parts and the garlic with the melted butter. (And re-season with more salt and pepper if you like)

Position a rack about 5-6” away from broiler unit. Place chicken/garlic under the broiler for about 4-6 minutes or until the garlic is golden in color and the chicken skin is crispy.

Meanwhile, remove the thyme sprigs from the pot of cooking liquid. Whisk together the cornstarch and water- add it to the pot of liquid along with cream and cognac. Place pot over high heat and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat and season sauce with salt and pepper. To serve, add the golden garlic into the sauce and serve over the chicken.

Braised lamb with orzo (Greek)

2-2 ½ Pounds of lamb meat (I like to use the “for Stew” meat- it will have bones but they help flavor the dish)- another option would be to use lamb leg cut into 2” chunks
Salt and ground pepper to season the meat
2-3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion peeled and diced
1 can 24 oz of crushed san Marzano tomatoes
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Pinch of ground pepper
1 cup red wine
1 cup orzo
7 cups boiling water
Feta cheese to garnish, use as much as you like…

Preheat the oven to 350
Season beat with salt and pepper. Place a large braising pan or wide Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add in the vegetable oil then, when oil is hot, add the meat. Sear the meat on all sides (about 5-10 minutes total). Work in batches if you must.

Add all seared meat back into to the pot, lower the heat to medium- medium low. Add in the onions and stir. Cook onions for 2-3 minutes. Add in the tomatoes, salt and pepper, along with the wine. Cover your pot and place in the oven. Cook for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove the lid and add in orzo, along with boiling water. Stir. Re-cover the pot and cook and cook at 300 for 1 hour. After this hour you will remove the lid and let the lamb simmer away, uncovered, for another 2-3 hours. The orzo will become plum and the lamb will be falling off the bone. To serve, scoop out the tomato coated orzo; top it with lamb chunks then a generous helping of feta cheese chunks. This dish is a perfect for a “dinner party” since it can be prepared in advance, and then left to simmer in the oven for several hours.

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict is, for the most part, about making poached eggs and hollandaise. After that it is all about assembling ingredients.

1 Recipe Hollandaise sauce
You will first want to make Hollandaise Sauce and keep it in a bowl over warm, but not simmering water while you poach the eggs. If the water gets too hot the sauce might “break”. I would prefer a room temperature sauce to a broken one so I might also suggest that you just hold it aside in the food processor while you quickly prepare other items.

English muffins must be broken in half and toasted. These can be kept in a warm oven.

For each English muffin you will need 2 poached eggs (see recipe for poached eggs)

For each English muffin you will need 2 slices of Canadian bacon sautéed until crispy (about 1-2 minutes per side)- These too may be done slightly ahead and kept in a warm oven.

To assemble- Place a piece of bacon on top of each muffin half. On top of each bacon place a poached egg then drizzle with a good size spoon full of Hollandaise.

Garnish with fresh herbs such as minced parsley; chives or I like little bits of thyme.


Variation-
Eggs Florentine or almost anything a la Florentine means with spinach. In this case you will simply substitute sautéed (and drained) spinach for the bacon.

Hollandaise

(1-1 ¼ cups)

Hollandaise is an old school French sauce, made from whipped egg yolks and butter. The two ingredients, when whipped together form a light creamy sauce to use on top of fish, asparagus or my personal favorite Eggs Benedict/Eggs Florentine (Benedict but with sautéed spinach in place of ham). You may never intend it drizzle this sauce over your vegetables (I don’t) but learning to make it is quite worthwhile if you love eggs benedict as I do.

The ingredients-
3 egg yolks
1 Teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon table salt
Dash of Tabasco (optional)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice or wine vinegar
1 ¼ sticks of butter – if doing this by hand over double boiler the butter will be room temp and cut into small, pea size chunks… If doing this in the more modern way the butter will be melted
Have on hand- heavy cream

THE OLD WAY-
Set up some simmering water in a pot (I use a pasta pot because they are taller and keep the eggs further away from the heat). Simmer but never boil the water. Set a large heatproof bowl over the pot and add the eggs. Whisk eggs for 1 minute. Whisk in the cornstarch, salt, Tabasco, lemon juice or vinegar, Then, slowly, a few pieces at a time, whisk in the lumps of butter until a creamy sauce forms.

THE MODERN (and I happen to think better/much quicker) WAY- it is so easy to make this sauce if you use a mini food processor. You will use melted butter in place of chunks.
Place your egg yolks, cornstarch, salt, Tabasco, and lemon juice or vinegar into the processor. Pulse a few times. With the processor running, pour the melted butter through the top 2 holes of the processors cover. Continue adding butter until you fell the sauce thickens and you have reached the desired consistency.

Why the Heavy cream? Well, if your sauce breaks or curdles from too much heat some say you can add a tablespoon of hot water and a tablespoon of heavy cream into the broken sauce and whip it up again. (Alternately you could start in a fresh bowl, whipping a new egg yolk and add the broken sauce back into the new egg) I happen to think these fixes are just ok at best- maybe its better to make a new batch…


Can I make it ahead? It’s so easy to make in the food processor that there is no need, but if you insist then refrigerate it. You can try to reheat it in the microwave (10 seconds at a time until warm) or over a water bath, or putting it back in the processor and pouring through the spouts 4-6 tablespoons of hot heavy cream.

Variations-
Sauce Béarnaise-Hollandaise with chopped shallots, parsley, tarragon, and lemon juice and reduced wine vinegar
Sauce Paloise- wit chopped mint and anchovy
Garlic Hollandaise - with minced garlic
Mustard Hollandaise- with mustard
Sauce Maltaise- basic sauce Hollandaise but with orange juice (about1Tablespoon of orange juice incorporated while making the sauce and 2-4 tablespoons of juice and or zest whipped in to the finished sauce) in place of lemon juice or vinegar

How to kill a lobster

This is one of few moments in a home cooks life when they will actually have to kill their food. Most meat comes in pretty little packages from the market. Eventually, if you cook often, you too will have to deal with the lobster “issue”. There are a few options- I am not going to tell you which one you should choose, that is up to you. My aim is simply to provide details. I will say though, dealing with a live lobster in your home will give you a much-needed respect for the origins of most of your food.

The Grandma method- my grandma used to plunge the lobsters in boiling water headfirst. (2 minutes to kill them, then remove them if you plan to cook them again in another fashion). As ledged has it, she would scream every time she put one in the pot. I think of her every time I cook lobster.

The freezer method- some say it is most kind to place the lobster into the freezer for about 30 minutes (it makes them sleepy) before plunging them into the boiling water. I told my butcher of this method once and he though that was quite funny. “Sure, get them nice and sleepy and comfortable before you kill them, that very kind!” – his quote not mine.

Julia’s Method- well, this is the method provided for us in Mastering the Art of French Cooking if you object to steaming or splitting a live lobster- plunge the point of a knife into the head between the eyes, or sever the spinal cord by making a small incision in the back of the shell at the juncture of the chest and the tail. Humm, going at a lobsters hard shell, while its flopping around on your cutting board, using one of your cheapest knifes sounds like a recipe for disaster… but once again, I shall not judge.

The “I just can’t deal with this at all!” method- Lobster tails are sold uncooked and frozen from most fishmongers. I have also seen full, uncooked, frozen lobsters at some gourmet markets for double the price, and I doubt they taste as good. Your grocer might also be able to steam the lobster for you, but if you plan to re-cook the lobster be sure that he/she steams the lobster just long enough to kill it but dose not cook the lobster completely.

P.S- In case you are wondering, and I know that you are, I have never seen the rubber bands around the lobsters claws melt, when left attached to the lobster for only the first 2 minutes in boiling water

How to poach an egg

Poached eggs are mostly about having everything ready before you begin.

Eggs (as many as you care to poach) plus several extra- the fresher the better…
Vinegar

Have ready
A wide, shallow pan, (sauté pan with high sides is best) filled with about 2” simmering water
A skimmer, or slotted spoon and a spoonula or heatproof spatula
A tea towel to dry the eggs on or a bowl of cold water if you plan to save the eggs for later
Individual Teacups, saucers, or ramekins to hold the cracked eggs until you are ready to cook them

To begin –
You will want to crack all of the eggs, plus an additional few, into teacups or ramekins without breaking the yolks. Once they are all ready to be cooked add the vinegar to the simmering water.

Slide into the water your first egg. Gently, with the spoonula, fold a little of the whites over the yolk. DO NOT STIR! If you stir you will just make a mess. Cook 2-3 minutes for runny yolks and 5 minutes for firmer yolks. You may cook only 2-3 eggs at a time. When the first batch is cooked use your slotted spoon or skimmer to lift the eggs from the water and drain on a tea towel. If you are holding the eggs for later immerse them in cold water and refrigerate.

Trim the eggs of excess whites with a paring knife.

Eggs may be placed back into hot water for 1-2 minutes to rewarm them.

Alternately- egg poaching pans are available in cookware shops if you are looking for if you want eggs that look exactly the same each time.

Lobster burger and more

This weekend I once again spent time cooking from what is quickly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks. Michel Richard’s Happy in The Kitchen actually makes me happy to cook from. This Saturday night I made lobster burgers from his cookbook, last weekend I made Filet Mignon with simple Syrah Sauce and the week prior I made an apple risotto topped with vanilla ice cream that my kids devoured as a mid morning snack (I don’t think the risotto is in the cookbook, but rather from his appearance on a French Culinary Institute interview).

The book is great fun, but many recipes have several other recipes woven into them so read carefully and plans ahead before you start. The filet Mignon’s were topped with delicious deep fried Enoki mushroom Tempura. These appear complicated but were very easy and the children thought they were French fries and couldn’t get enough of them as they came crispy, out of the oil and dusted with sea salt.

Another big winner was the Syrah sauce. Michel uses beets to deepen the flavor and color of the sauce, and it is a brilliant idea (I plan to use it often). The downside of the book, if there is one, is that some of the recipes make use of a meat slicer. I don’t know about you but I don’t have a meat slicer hanging around on my countertop. I tried using another cutting device in its place and failed miserably. The book will teach you a lot of technique and you will have a lot of fun learning from it.