More French Cooking...

I'm starting to appreciate the beauty in French cuisine...it's touted around the world as the fanciest and best tasting, most sophisticated cuisine. In America we can't appreciate the full beauty of it...French restaurants are hard to come by, very expensive and off limits for Muslims...they cook with a lot of pork and/or wine.

Lately I've been reading the autobiography of a New York magazine restaurant critic...every few months she goes on an eating tour of France. She writes mostly about French restaurants, in New York and in France. Reading her book, I'm compelled to think French food is the epitome of food. And that's not just her opinion, she's been working since the 1970's and that is what's going on in the food world around her. But her to each his/her own. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list.

So I revisited out salad nicoise and french onion soup, (see last month's post for the recipes).

Our main dish was Chicken with forty cloves of garlic, and trust me, you'll want every last clove, because it's absolutely delicious. And yes, I went out and bought a Dutch oven for this occasion. We're in love, my dutch oven and I. It's a beautiful red Tramontina from Target and was highly rated by Cook's Illustrated. I'll try more dishes and keep you posted on our relationship.

Here's the recipe for the main dish, which should be served with a great loaf of bread to sop up all the amazing sauce. It's from Ina Garten of Food Network.


Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
User Rating: 5 Stars

Copyright 2004, Barefoot in Paris, All Rights Reserved
3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves
2 (3 1/2-pound) chickens, cut into eighths
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Separate the cloves of garlic and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside.

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, saute the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula; you don't want to pierce the skin with a fork. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to saute all the chicken in batches. Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and the wine, return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

Snowed in

I *attempted* to go to work today, but the snow and mucky roads thwarted my efforts. My car which handled the last snow storm quite well was not a happy camper this morning so for her sake I turned back after a half hour. The fact that it was bagel friday at work (every friday we get fresh bagels and the most amazing cream cheese at work) forced me to weigh my decision carefully, but the flashing warning lights when my tires slipped beat out the yummy bagels... But a coworker tells me that the cream cheese was so frozen that the knives were breaking in it... lol. Sorry guys.

So since I'm cooped up at home (still working mind you) I thought I would share my latest find, the 30-minute cookbook from America's Test Kitchen. Ok, it's really Sameera's find because I borrowed it from her, but in my world I am discovering it :) I am a *very* slow cook, and I realized this when Sameera came over to cook with me and she'd made three dishes before I even managed to open a can of beans. So the quicker the recipe the better for me, since anything takes me forever. Even though the first recipe I tried took longer than 30 min, it was still relatively quick and very easy. I'm sharing it cause I thought it came out rather well (considering the suspect way the chicken was cooked) and my hubby really liked it too. I left out the apricots cause I try not to do cooked fruit for the hubby's sake.

30-minute Chicken Tagine (from The Best 30-Minute Recipe from the Editors of Cook's Illustrated)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt and ground pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, minced
2 tsp garam masala
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

To make:
1. Microwave chicken: Season chicken with salt and pepper and arrange in single layer in microwave-safe casserole dish. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave on 50% power for 15 minutes.

2. Saute aromatics: While chicken cooks, heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Stir in onion, garam masala, and 1/4 tsp salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Build sauce: Stir in flour and cook until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in broth, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in tomatoes, apricots, and chickpeas, bring to simmer, and cook until apricots begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

4. Simmer chicken: Reduce heat to low and add microwaved chicken with any accumulated juices. Cover and continue to cook until chicken is tender, about 10 minutes.

5. Finish: Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.

This goes really well with either rice or couscous. I made basmati in the rice cooker and added salt, olive oil and panch phoran (5 spice) to give it a nutty flavor. If you want couscous (since this is a moroccan dish), here is a quick recipe.

Simple Couscous (also from The Best 30-Minute Recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups couscous
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups water

To make:
1. Saute couscous: Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add couscous and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Finish: Stir in salt and water and bring to boil. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with fork before serving.

Chicken Corn Soup

Sameera shared her "cookbook" with me, which is a collection of recipes she uses often (I'm guessing - it could be for some totally other reason) and I've tried a couple of them and they've been great. I've always loved egg drop soup but I've never had a chicken version since I usually don't eat chicken in chinese restaurants. But this recipe was so easy and turned out really yummy. I added some chopped fresh green chilis to add to the punch, and used regular canned corn instead of creamed, but added some sour cream to make it creamy (as you can see I was just using what I had at home!).

4-5 chicken pieces ( I used 1 large breast halve, cut in large chunks)
water
1 can cream style corn
salt or agino moto
2-3 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg

To make:
1. Boil chicken in water, add salt to water.
2. After chicken has cooked, remove from water.
3. Strain water (now chicken broth) to remove all chicken pieces. Return to stove.
4. Add cream style corn to chicken broth.
5. Shred chicken and add to liquid mixture
6. Add agino moto or salt to taste
7. Mix some water (few tbsp) into cornstarch until it forms a thin paste
8. Add paste to soup until it forms a thick consistency
9. Beat egg in small bowl and add to soup, stirring immediately with a fork until spread throughout. Remove from heat.
10. Serve with soy sauce, hot sauce, and vinegar.

Baked Spaghetti

I got this recipe in a recipe exchange email chain, and I think it might belong to someone on this blog, but I'm not entirely sure who! I tried it last night and I thought it was good and sooo spectacularly easy so I'm putting it up. As usual, I just used whatever I had in the house so I couldn't follow the recipe exactly - my assumption is that it would be even better if I did. :) One thing though - my baking dish was close to overflowing, especially when the liquid started bubbling. If you have a slightly deeper dish to bake in, you might consider using that instead.
Whoever's recipe this is - please claim it!

Baked Spaghetti~ yum!
PREP : 20 min
BAKE: 40 min

1 pkg (16 ounces) spaghetti
1-1/2 pounds of ground beef
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 can (8 ounces) tomato soup
1 cup water
2 tblsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Break spaghetti in half; cook according to pkg directions.
Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook the beef, onion and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Stir in the soups, tomato sauce, water, brown sugar and seasonings.
Drain spaghetti; stir into meat sauce. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese.
Transfer to a greased 13-in x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.
Uncover; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake 10-15 min longer or until the cheese is melted.

Yield: 12 servings.