Citrus-Thyme Roasted Chicken

Roasting a chicken in the summer is usually not on the meal list. But, this version that is stuffed with lemon, orange and fresh thyme is a wonderful break from the BBQ.

7 -8 pound locally raised chicken
15-20 sprigs of fresh parsley
3 carrots (peeled)
2 celery stalks
1 large yellow onion (skinned and quartered)
4 cloves of garlic (peeled)
1/4-1/3 cup of butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

First, rinse your chicken and pat it dry with a paper towel. A dry chicken will encourage that beautiful browning on the skin.

Take 3-4 sprigs of thyme and take off the leaves. Mix the thyme and butter. Also, make a vegetable rack on the bottom of the roasting pan for the chicken to sit on. This is made up of the celery, carrot, onion, garlic and remaining thyme sprigs. (keep 3-4 for the inside of the bird) Set the bird breast side up on the veg rack.

The rack can be seen on my Perfect Roast Beef post. The rack will give aromatics to the bird and also will keep it from sitting in the juices in the bottom of the pan.

Separate the skin from the meat on the breast side with your fingers but keep it in tact. You can separate the entire piece of skin. Next, put the butter and thyme mixture under the skin and close it up. The butter and thyme will give your chicken an incredible flavour burst.

Wash and quarter the lemon and orange and stuff them and the remaining thyme into the cavity . The citrus fruits will steam into the meat through the cooking process. This will leave the meat with a slight hint of those  orange and lemon flavours and will also keep the meat moist.

Truss the bird if you like and put the stock or water into the bottom of the pan.

Drizzle some olive oil over the breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the bird into the oven for 20 minutes per pound or until a thermometer reaches aproximately 80 degrees.

Take the chicken out of the oven and cover it with tin foil. Let the chicken rest for 20 minutes. This is called tenting and you should do it with any meat you cook, whether it be a full bird, steak or chicken breast. The tenting process is a very important part in keeping the meat moist. When  you take meat out of the heat, the juices are flying around inside the muscle and they need to slow down and redistribute back in the meat. If you cut into the meat before tenting and letting it rest (20 mins for a roast and 5-8 mins for a small cut of meat) all of the juices will end up on the plate instead of in the meat.

Once the bird has rested, carve it and enjoy.

You could make a sauce out of the pan drippings with a little bit of white wine and orange juice. Pour the liquid into the pan and add a sprinkle of S&P and some more thyme. Stir to get the bits off of the bottome and then simmer to reduce for a few minutes. Finish your sauce with a squirt of lemon and a pad of butter. The butter will give shine, richness and body. Pour the sauce over the carved chicken.

Serve with summer vegetables. I used new potatoes and carrots with fresh dill.

Irish Stout Stew

Irish Stout Beef Stew

3-4 lbs of beef cut into 1’ cubes
4 onions (large dice)
4 Carrots (small pieces)
2 lbs of small white potatoes (cut in half)
1 baker potato (grated)
1 can tomato paste
1 liter beef stock
500 ml stout
3 bay leaves

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. This is the perfect temperature to simmer liquid in the oven.

Start by cutting your meat into 1 inch cubes. This should be a cut of meat with lots of connective tissue. This will break down and give body and flavour to your stew. Use a cut of meat that gets used a lot. The more a muscle is used, the more connective tissue, and the more flavourful. I used an outside roast, but chuck would work even better. Also, take some time to dry all pieces, as this will help in the browning process later.

 Prep your vegetables. Make sure to cut all vegetables into uniform pieces, about 1 inch thick.

Heat a Dutch oven with about ¼ - ½ inch of veg oil in it on the stove top on medium high heat. This will look like a lot of oil, but you will be draining it off later. Once your oil is hot put in one, uncrowded layer of beef. Do not put too much beef in the pot because it will not caramelize effectively, it will just steam and that will make for unflavourful and tough beef. You will have to brown the beef in batches. Once a layer of beef is browned on all sides, you can remove it from the pot, put it into a bowl and cook another batch. Take time to really brown each side of each piece of beef. This will give immense flavour to your stew.

Once you have browned and removed all of your beef, drain most, but not all, of your oil.  There should be lots of brown bits in the bottom of your pot. This is where all of the hidden flavour for your stew is  so don’t get rid of it!

Put the onions into the Dutch oven with a sprinkle of salt, cook until soft. The onions will pick up lots of the brown color and flavour from the leftover beef bits. Once the onion is softened and starting to brown, put in the can of tomato paste and cook for a minute or two to enhance the flavour.

Pour the beer and beef stock into the pot. The beer should be a good thick stout. Lagers and ales will not work here because they just don’t have the intense flavour to stand up to the big flavour of the beef. Guiness is ok, but something even darker and more stout-y should be used here. I used  O’Hara’s Irish Stout because it is very dark and full of flavour.

Grate the russet potato into the stew using a box grater. The potato will melt into the stew over the cooking process and the starch from the potato  will take the place of corn starch or flour to thicken the stew. Add the carrots, potatoes, and bay leaves to the stew.  Stir to combine and cover and put the stew into the oven and cook for 3 or 4 hours.

The Perfect Roast Beef

Roast beef can be a daunting thing to some. But with the help of a few simple techniques, it is easily mastered. The trick is to cook the roast on top of a bed of aromatics and sear the outside of the meat.  Here is how I make my perfect roast, every time.

4-5lb Sirloin Tip Roast
2 Carrots (peeled)
2 stalks celery
1 Onion (peeled and quartered)
1 head garlic (cut in half horizontally)
10 or so sprigs/branches of a herb of your choice (I like rosemary because it stands up to the beef very well)
2-3 cups beef broth
1 cup red wine (never cook with a wine unless you would drink it)
a pound or two of your favorite potatoes

Prep the veggies and stack them in a bed in the center of a roasting pan. Place the herbs on top of the veggies. Scatter the potatoes around the pan.

Liberally sprinkle all sides of the roast with kosher salt and pepper. Kosher salt is larger than normal table salt and sticks to the beef better. It also has a mellower taste. Pat the salt and pepper into the meat. Place the roast on top of the veggie bed and drizzle some olive oil over the meat. This will help the outside get a nice crust.

Pour the beef stock (keep about 1 cup aside for late) and red wine into the bottom of the roasting pan. Put the roast into the oven at 500 degrees for the first 15 minutes. This will sear the outside of the roast, keeping the juices in and creating a nice crust. You can also do this step by searing the beef in a frying pan with a little bit of oil.  Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and roast for about 2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.

Take your roast out and cover it with tin foil. Let it rest for 20 minutes. This is called "tenting" and it is a MUST with every meat you cook. Tent steaks, chicken breasts and other smaller cuts as well for at least 5 minutes. Tenting helps the juices, that are going crazy inside the meat, to settle down and stay in there when you cut into your roast. This will give you juicier meat every time. 

Pan Sauce: Remove the veggies from the roasting pan and heat it on the stove top on med-high heat until it comes to a simmer. Pour the remaining cup or so of beef stock into the pan. You can also add another few sprigs of your favorite fresh herb here. Remember to take them out later. Take a wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the cooked bits into the broth. Simmer and let the sauce reduce by about 1/2. Add a small bit of butter to the sauce at the last second. This is called mounting the sauce and it will make it smoother and have a nice sheen. 

Cut you roast against the grain. This will make it more tender. Pour the sauce over the slices.....Magic!

Thai Green Curry Pork

1 - 14oz can coconut milk
2 tbl green Thai curry paste
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tbl brown sugar
1tsp fish sauce
1 lb pork (cut into stir-fry pieces)
1 stock lemon grass (trimmed and cut into 3 inch pieces)
3 dried kaffir lime leaves
1 cup onion (cut 1/2 inch thick pieces)
2 cups Chinese cabbage (cut into inch-wide, bite-size strips)
1 cup red pepper (cut into bite-size pieces)
Bunch of cilantro (rough chop)
1 green onion (chopped)
1 lime (cut into 1/4 slices)

Get your ingredients all cut up and ready and read through the directions before you start to cook. I arrange them on a large plate in order of when they go into the wok. This will save you time and make things easier because the veggies have different cook times. This plate is counter-clockwise starting with onion.

Heat a wok over medium heat and pour in 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Simmer it until it reduces by half, about 5 minutes. Add the green curry paste and whisk it together, cooking for another 2 minutes or so.

Add the stock, remaining coconut milk, and fish sauce. Bring it to a simmer over med-high heat.
Add your lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, onion and pork. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chinese cabbage and red peppers. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes.

Check the veggies as they should not be cooked through. They should retain some of their crisp qualities. Stir in the cilantro (keep a bit aside to garnish with). Plate this curry over rice and garnish with chopped green onion, the remainder of the cilantro, and a lime wedge. Squeeze the lime over the curry right before eating.

Olive Oil Cake with Basil Whipped Cream

I saw this first on Chef at Home and thought it looked interesting. The cake was amazing and the basil whipped cream was unreal.

For the Cake:

4 Eggs
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Olive Oil
1 1/2 cups Milk
Splash of Vanilla
2 Tbl Chopped fresh Rosemary
1/2 cup Cornmeal
2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk the eggs, sugar, oil, milk, vanilla, and rosemary together. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together and then mix the two together. Pour the mixture into a 9" cake pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 1 hour 15 mins. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.


For the Basil Whipped Cream:

1 bunch Basil
3 tbl Sugar
1 cup Whipping Cream

Put the basil and sugar in a food processor or blender and chop until a paste forms. Put the paste into the whipping cream and beat until  soft peaks form.

The "Are you sure your grandmother isn't Italian" Bolognese

This bolognese is a favorite of mine. It is very traditional, super easy and really good!

1 lb ground beef
1 onion
1 large carrot
1 celery stalk
3 cloves Garlic
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of milk
1 large can of tomato puree (San Marzano is best)
S&P
5 or 6 fresh Basil leaves

First, you need to make a classic Italian sofrito. The french version would be a mirepoix. Take the onion, carrot, celery and garlic and chop them really fine. I use a cheese grater. This makes the sofrito very fine and that way it almost melts right into the sauce. 

Once you gave grated or chopped the sofrito, put the olive oil into a sauce pot over medium heat and add the sofrito to the pot to cook. Cook for a few minutes until the vegetables have gotten some color. This will give them a nice sweet flavour.

Once the sofrito has a bit of colour, add the butter and ground beef. Cook the ground beef until it is cooked through, but be careful not to brown it too much. This will make the meat tough and you want it to be soft.

Once the beef is cooked through, add the white wine and simmer it to reduce.

Reduce the wine until it is fully cooked away (approx 10-15 mins). This will give a beautiful background taste to your sauce without thinning it too much.

Once the wine is fully cooked off, add the milk. This will tenderize the meat and give the sauce a nice silky mouth feel. Add the tomato puree and salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer this for a few hours and enjoy the beautiful aroma that fills your house.

Just before you are ready to serve this sauce, tear and add the basil leaves.

Serve this over pasta, in lasagna, or as a dip. When cooking your pasta, remember that your pasta water should taste like the ocean...don't be shy about the salt! Unsalted pasta water = tasteless pasta

Buon appetito!!

Chipotle Cheddar-Ale Meatloaf

I have been experimenting with meatloaf a lot lately because of the amount of ground beef in my freezer. This is a version that I made with chipotle peppers and beer...now how could that be bad???

For the Meatloaf

2 lbs of ground beef
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (fine dice)
1 stalk of celery (diced)
1/2 large red pepper (diced)
1/2 cup of beer (I used ale but I am sure a stout would work well also)
2 1/2 cups of roughly chopped french bread
1 cup milk
2 eggs (beaten)
1 Jalapeño (fine dice)
2 tablespoons line zest (grated)
2 Chipotle Chiles in Adobo (diced)
1 1/2 tsp of Adobo
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (grated)
1/4 cup of cilantro (chopped)
1 tsp Ancho Chili Powder

For the Glaze
1 Tablespoon Chipotle in Adobo (diced)
2 Tablespoons Ketchup

Method:
Take out a large mixing bowl and a sautee pan. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Sautee the onion, garlic, celery, and red pepper in olive oil until translucent. (Approx 6-8 mins)
Pour in the beer and simmer it until the liquid has reduced by about 3/4. This will intensify the flavor of the beer. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cut the french bread into about 1/2 inch chunks and soak it in the milk in a shallow dish. Soak this for about 5 - 10 mins, turning a few times, until the bread has soaked up all of the milk. Once the milk is fully soaked into the bread, transfer the bread to a cutting board and chop the it up into a fine dice. Add the bread to the mixing bowl along with the cooled onions, garlic and red pepper.

Add in the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix. Make sure not to over mix the ingredients as this may make it too dense.

Form the meat into a rectangular block on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Mix the glaze in a small dish and spread it onto the top of the meatloaf using a spatula.

Place the loaf into the oven at 325 degrees for approximately 1 1/2 hours or until a thermometer reads 160 degrees. Take out to rest for at least 10 minutes and the cut into thick slices...enjoy!