I made this “Zucchini Carpaccio Salad” the other night, with one large zucchini and one summer squash, sans arugula, and it was ok. But the next day, after having sat in the fridge all night in its slick of lemon and salt, it was really, really good.
Mandoline one zucchini and one summer squash as thinly as possible, then toss with a teaspoon of salt. Allow to drain in a strainer set over a bowl for a half an hour. Taste to make sure they’re not too salty (they shouldn’t be), then put ‘em in a salad bowl. Squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, drizzle in 2 tablespoons olive oil, grind in some pepper, and grate in some parmesan. Taste for salt and add more if needed. Toss gently, then let sit for as long as possible before eating.
Cooking for four adults and one toddler, I bought eight thighs, four drumsticks. Tossed with marinade, a version of Hammersley’s noted below.
Pulsed in food processor:
A good cup of parsley
Two shallots
Two cloves of garlic
Two tablespoons dijon mustard
Juice of half a lemon (I would have used the zest if it weren’t already bald)
As much olive oil as will get it to a pesto-like consistency (4-6 tablespoons)
Whiz that up, toss your chicken parts in there, and let sit for as long as you got (I didn’t have any time at all). Into a 375º oven for about 45 minutes, on a bed of sliced parsnips (obviously optional).
In another pan (my 14”, high-sided skillet), I made these roasted potatoes. Very good, worth keeping in the repertoire.
Roast chicken at Hamersley’s Bistro, in Boston, is apparently famous. Maybe try the marinade:
First, he rubs the bird (premium Bell and Evan’s fowl) with a wet paste that includes a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, garlic, shallot, mustard, olive oil, lemon zest, and simple spices, and marinates it for a few hours. Next, he roasts the chicken (along with a head’s worth of garlic cloves) in a moderate (350°F) oven until fully cooked,
Actual recipe here.
Chinese Rice Hotpot (for lack of a better name, despite my lack of hotpot)
2 links lap cheong (Chinese sausage), sliced into thin rounds
2 cloves garlic, minced
a small lump of ginger, minced or grated
10 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water
1 1/3 cups rice
2 cups chopped Napa cabbage or bok choy or whatever you’ve got
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups hot water
1. Strain mushrooms through paper-towel-lined strainer, reserving liquid. Slice mushrooms.
2. In a large skillet that you can later cover, add sliced sausage and turn heat to medium. Let sausage color and render out its fat, a matter of a few minutes, then remove sausage with slotted spoon. Add garlic and ginger to rendered fat, and let cook for a minute (watch the pan—don’t let ‘em burn). Add sliced mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add rice, cabbage, soy and sesame, toss to coat rice, and let cook for a minute. Add enough hot water to strained mushroom-soaking liquid to make up 4 cups in total. Pour liquid into pan, and taste for seasoning (it’ll probably need salt, especially if you use low-sodium soy sauce). Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 25 minutes.
4. Stir rice with a fork, check for doneness and seasoning, and serve, drizzling a little more sesame oil over top at the table.
OK, so you got one of those local, organic chickens that comes with the gizzards et al. inside. What are you gonna do with that stuff? The neck’s easy—save the neck for stock, along with the wing-tips (and the backbone, if you’re spatchcocking). But what about the heart and liver? Here’s what.
Put ‘em in the fridge. Now make your chicken as planned. The next day, you’re making lunch for one. Wash the liver and heart pretty thoroughly, then cut the liver into manageable pieces, and the heart into four pieces, trimming off the big patch of fat on there. Get a pan going on medium-high heat with a bit of butter. Start sauteing some chopped onion (say half a small onion?) in the butter. A pinch of salt.
Toss your liver and heart pieces in some seasoned flour, then shake off the excess and add the pieces to the pan. Brown well, and take out the liver pieces after 3-4 minutes. Keep cooking the heart for another couple of minutes, until your onions are threatening to burn, and the flour in the pan is getting pretty dark. Pour in maybe a half a cup of chicken stock and stir, letting it cook down to a gravy. When it gets thicker and gravy-like, add another pat of butter to finish.
Put back in your liver pieces and toss them around in there. Then pour the whole lot onto a thick slice of bread, preferably home-baked and a day old. A few drops of vinegar on top cut through all the richness. Enjoy.
This Short Rib and Barley Stew a few days back. Very good—the body given by the starch in the barley is incredible. I browned the short ribs, then took the meat off the bones and cut the former into 1-inch chunks. The whole thing was done in an hour and a half. I put the bones back in, to lend whatever flavor they could lend to the stew.
And this pizza last night, topped with this sausage and mushrooms. Very good. Easily a new standard make-at-home recipe. The top browned before the bottom crisped, so next time I will double (at least) the time for par-cooking the sauce-covered dough before adding the cheese and toppings. The sausage is great too—I made enough to freeze two more pizza-sized portions.
A Food52 dinner. This chicken and this (Israeli) couscous. Very good, the both of them. I made the Israeli couscous pretty much how I make ‘regular’ couscous: toast a cup of the little pasta in olive oil, before adding a cup and a half of liquid; bring it to a boil, and then simmer til done. That last part takes a little longer (10 minutes) on a little bit higher heat (but still low) than it does with the normal couscous.
I made Bourdain’s cote de porc a la charcutiere a few weeks ago, and it was great. Really easy, really tasty. I used very thick “Iowa cut” chops, if I recall correctly.
Get some brown rice cooking on the stove. (Figure a half a cup per person, cover it with an inch of water, and 2 big pinches of salt per person. Bring to a boil before moving it to a low burner where it’ll simmer for 45 minutes or so, ‘til it’s tender.)
Preheat the oven to 425º. Get as much broccoli as you want to eat and chop the florets into bite-size pieces. Don’t be afraid to make ‘em too small. Give the stalk(s) a quick peel and cut into even smaller pieces, half the size of your florets. Scatter on a baking sheet. Pour over enough olive oil to coat everything, salt, pepper, and a 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon each cumin and coriander seeds (don’t grind or crush). Some red pepper flakes would not be amiss. Toss everything together and stick in the oven. Give it a good stir after 10 minutes. The florets should be done after 20 (pick ‘em out!), but your pieces of stalk probably need 10 minutes further. Get them nice and tender, and don’t be afraid to let them get nice and crispy on the edges.
Meanwhile, mince a half of a clove of garlic and stir it, along with a good couple of pinches of salt, into about 1/4 cup of plain yogurt (preferably full fat and Greek, but whatever you’ve got). Try to do this at least 10 minutes before your broccoli’s done.
When all the broccoli is done, and the rice is tender (it’ll still be chewy—it’s brown rice), spoon the rice into a bowl, and top with the broccoli. Dollop generous amounts of the garlic yogurt onto your broccoli and stir to coat. Enjoy.
Preheat your oven to 375ºF. Peel two yams (sweet potatoes may have been a better choice), and cut into fry-shaped batons. Pour a little olive oil (less than you think you need) onto two baking sheets, then scatter yam pieces on sheets, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and swirl around in the oil. This is one where tossing the yam pieces in olive oil in a bowl before adding to the baking sheet may be worth the extra dish to wash. Whatever. Get those in the oven.
Wash some green lettuce, four radishes, and a carrot, and leave the lettuce wrapped in towels to dry while you make burgers.
Put a heavy stainless steel skillet over high heat. No oil. Let it get hot. Take 1 lb of ground chuck and divide it in half, then divide one of the halves into half itself. One of those quarters is the baby’s burger (it’ll be 4 oz.). Smush the two other balls of ground meat back together and then divide into equal portions to make two 6 oz. burgers for the grown-ups. Use your thumb to make a small well in the center of each burger. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt over all three burgers, then turn over and sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt over the other sides (that’s 1 teaspoon of salt total for all three burgers). When your skillet is good and hot, turn on the exhaust fan and add your burgers. Let them cook for two minutes, then turn ‘em. After two further minutes, transfer the skillet to the oven. (Has it been ten minutes since you put in the yam fries? Stir those, turning as many over as you have patience to do.) After four minutes, take the burgers out of the oven, get them out of the pan, and use an instant-read thermometer to make sure they’re at least 130ºF. Turn the heat up in the oven to attempt to crisp up the yam fries.
Tear up your lettuce and put it into a salad bowl. Slice the radishes, ribbon the carrot, add them both to the salad. Make a basic vinaigrette and toss.
I don’t need to tell you how you like your burger.
