Fruit Salad with Sweet-Tart Sauce

Alright! A fruit thing! This is new! I don't cook with fruits nearly as often as I should, but this recipe sounded good, and healthy (usually, I eat fruit raw or put it in salads, which if you've never done, is amazing. Try a salad of spinach, walnuts, dried cherries, fresh sliced strawberries, blue cheese, and a raspberry vinaigrette... simply delicious!). Anyways, this week's recipe has a variety of my favorite fruits and is covered in a wonderful lemon-lime sauce. I should note that one of the most exciting things about this recipe for me was roasting the pears, which I've never done before... they were truly amazing! To be fair, it is an adaptation of a Cook's Illustrated recipe.

4 Bosc or Anjou pears, firm
2 Tbsp butter, melted
4 Tbsp sugar
2 mangos, peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks
1 quart strawberries, peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks
1 cup blueberries (thawed if frozen, though fresh are better)
2 lemons, juiced and one of them zested
3 limes, juiced and one of them zested
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped

Preheat the oven to 500 F.

Skin the pears, slice them in half, decore them, and cut them into fifths. Toss with the melted butter. Then toss with the sugar. Lay on flat side on a cookie sheet and roast for 10-12 minutes, or until the pears are browned on the bottom. Flip and roast for another 5-7 minutes, or until the bottom is browned. Set aside to cool. Once cool, chop into bite-size chunks.

Meanwhile add the lemon and lime juices, sugar, and salt in a pot and simmer until reduced to a 1/4 cup (a syrupy consistency). Add the ginger and lemon and lime zests and let steep for 2 minutes. Filter the syrup.

Mix the pears, mangoes, strawberries, blueberries together. Add syrup and toss. Chill until ready to serve. It is best to serve it the day it is made b/c the strawberries will get soft and mushy if left overnight.

Enjoy!

Roast Chicken Tips

So, I roasted a chicken this past weekend, and have a few tips I picked up.

1) When roasting a chicken on a horizontal rack at 400 (rather than 350, my previous standard temperature) makes for better browning of the skin.

2) Basting the chicken with butter or oil flavored with deliciousness (e.g., garlic, pepper, and fresh herbs) makes the skin taste a ton better. Try basting once every 15 minutes.

3) Do NOT under any circumstances, after removing the chicken, let the crispy skin sit on a wet surface or any surface at all - this makes the skin not crispy in about five seconds. Instead, let the chicken rest raised on a cooling rack.

4) Test the doneness by thermometer - checking to see if "the juices run clear" is simply not a reliable test - I did it this past weekend and it failed. Miserably. I had to microwave the chicken to get it done. NOT cool!

5) Cook the chicken breast side up until the skin is thoroughly browned.

6) If you stuff the chicken, brine it as well. Stuffing the chicken makes it cook much slower, which at a higher heat makes the chicken dry out. So, brine the chicken in a salt-water mixture. This makes the chicken have a more seasoned taste and prevents it from drying out.

7) Make sure the chicken's skin is thoroughly dry before roasting. If you put a even mildly wet-skinned chicken into the oven, it won't brown or crisp up nearly as well as a dry one.

And that's it! Roast chicken is delicious - I highly recommend it!

Excellent Mushroom Cream Sauce

So, this week I made a roast chicken with a gravy. It was quite good. However, as it was just kind of made up, and I didn't type the recipe, I figured I would give you something that relied on the same sorts of principles - a cream sauce that is used for roast meats and pasta that I actually created!

It is a combination of yellow or red pearl onions, portabella mushrooms, white wine, dijon mustard, cream, thyme, and rosemary. It is really delicious! The key is twofold: (1) brown the pearl onions thoroughly, and (2) deglaze the pan with the white wine. This makes for a delicious sauce. Here is the recipe, if you want it!

2 T extra-virgin olive oil
8 oz yellow or red pearl onions, skins removed* and left whole
4 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced into small chunks
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 oz heavy cream
2 t Dijon mustard, fresh
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 sprig fresh rosemary, tied with twine to the thyme
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a medium fry pan over medium high heat until it begins to shimmer, but hasn’t smoked yet. Add the onions and sauté until well browned on all sides, being careful to not break them apart. Add the mushrooms and sauté until they release their juices. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce until most of the liquid is gone, 3-4 minutes. Add the heavy cream and Dijon, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the herb sprigs and simmer for 5 for minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove the sprigs and serve hot over pasta or grilled meats. Serves 2-3.

*To remove the skins of a pearl onion, bring a pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the tip of the root end of the onion off. Add the onions and let simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the onions and shock them in an ice bath for 5 minutes. After they are cool, you should be able to just pot the onions out of their skins. It's easy!

Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree!

This was excellent. This is a Giada De Laurentiis recipe from the Food Network (link below).

So, this is a seared salmon (seasoned with salt and pepper) set atop a puree of peas, garlic, olive oil, parmigiano-reggiano, mint, and salt/pepper (much like pesto, but made with peas instead). As you can see, the salmon and pea puree are sitting in a chicken broth sauce flavored with sauteed shallots, lemon zest, lemon juice, and fresh mint leaves. It was really good - definitely the best of the blog so far.

I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

Here's a link to it: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_35789,00.html

The reason for making this is twofold. First, the most important, was learning how to sear salmon. Even though I like seafood generally, I rarely cook fish and I even more rarely sear it in a pan (usually, I bake). Given the lessons mentioned below re: searing the fillets, I think it was a success. Second, I like this dish's presentation. Thought presentation isn't that important for home cooks, the proverbial "they" always say that people eat with their eyes before they eat with their mouths. So, perhaps presentation ought to become more important for the home cook?

So, what are my general comments on the cooking itself? First, searing the salmon: don't do it with the skin on. Even with a non-stick pan with tons of olive oil, the skin stuck like a bitch, making the flip of the salmon almost impossible. In addition, the fact that parts of the fillet stuck to the pan and parts didn't lead to a disintegration of the overall fillet. But, as an added bonus, the skin did become so crispy and tasty that it made an excellent snack. Also, the thinner part of the salmon cooked substantially quicker than the thicker, so trim this part off and cook it as a separate piece so you can remove it when it is done (overcooking done meat is usually makes meat tough, dry, and generally not as flavorful). Also, make sure to sear the top if the fillet until it has a lovely reddish-gold crust on it - the extra crunchyness and flavor is wonderful.

Second, I recommend 1 3/4 cup chicken broth instead of 2 cups, but only because I prefer a slightly stronger lemon flavor. Third, make sure to make the puree in a food processor - my girlfriend and I used a blender and she had to labor through several batches despite the small quantity of puree. Lastly, the presentation of this dish was nice not only because it looked good, but also because it had a functional value - by separating the three components (relatively) in the final product (as opposed to merely mixing them altogether and them serving), the eater is allowed to taste each component alone and then mix them together. This allows each component's flavor to come out clean and distinct, but also allows them to meld. It is an excellent set-up in that regard.

Try this recipe! It's relatively easy, requires little special equipment (merely a zester), and is delicious!

For a close-up picture, see this:

Cheddar Cheese Soup!

Mmmmm... delicious! There's few things better on a cold, brisk day that a bowl of cheddar soup. I grew up with my mom's recipe, which is incredibly cheesy and delicious.

Alas, the recipe I just made wasn't quite that good. It consisted of butter, onions, carrot, celery, garlic, chicken broth, half and half, bay leaf, dry sherry, sharp cheddar cheese, and thyme. It was supposed to have cayenne, but I didn't have any. Not surprisingly, it came from a Cook's Illustrated issue.

I choose this recipe as an exercise in temperature control - specifically, an exercise in maintaining an emulsion. Cheddar cheese is an emulsion of fat and liquid, but to maintain that emulsion the soup cannot rise above a certain temperature. (An emulsion is when tiny droplets of one liquid are suspended in another - e.g., mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg and oil. The problem is that these can easily "break," causing the oil to separate out and become visible splotches on the surface of the liquid).

Indeed, this recipe called for the cheese to be added at the very end, after the soup had been cooling for a few minutes off the heat. While this did maintain the emulsion (which is good), the flavor wasn't nearly as cheddary as I remembered my mother's being. At first, I added some worcestershire sauce for depth and some chiptole chile powder for smoky heat. This helped. But, I think next time I'll add a good bit of grated parmigiano-reggiano for more cheese flavor and perhaps bacon instead of the chile chiptole powder. Hopefully that'll help.

Anyways, next week will be a Giada De Laurentiis recipe (she's a Food Network chef) called "Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree." I'm pretty excited. I'm looking forward to it b/c (a) I don't cook salmon that often, and (b) the vegetable puree is something I rarely do. And it looks pretty healthy. And I'll actually be able to post the recipe! (I've refrained from posting recipes I got from books b/c they are copyrighted. The Food Network recipes, while copyrighted, are already available free on the internet, so I don't feel bad about posting a link to the recipe).

Flavor memories and mindful eating

This blog posting isn't about a recipe per se, but about the relationship between mindful eating and what I call "flavor memories." Indeed, in terms of advanced cooking, this idea is a very important to recognizing the individual flavors that make a food be "complex."

First, a brief definition of mindful eating: Mindful eating is the process of eating with intention - i.e., it is paying attention not just to what the food you are eating tastes like, but also what it smells like, looks like, feels like, and sounds like (yes! sounds like! many foods have a "sound" if you pay attention).

Mindful eating as a practice has been common historically in many other cultures, but, sadly, is rarely practiced in ours. You'd be amazed at the number of people who sit at a table or in front of the TV furiously shoving food into their mouth, and didn't take the time to even mildly enjoy the food. As a test, can you name off exactly all of the food you've eaten in the past 24 hours? Most people can't, and I bet you're one of them.

As an exercise, try the following: Take your favorite piece of fresh fruit and do following things:

• First, imagine where the fruit came from. Think of the ground it was grown in (what color is the dirt? Deep, rich brown?). What does the man/woman who grew it look like to you? How do you imagine them? Where is the field/orchard set? A forest? A huge orchard on a smooth plain? The Midwest? California? Chile? What do you think?
• Before you cut into it, feel the texture of the fruit. How would you describe it? Smooth? Waxy? Bumpy? Mushy?
• Next, describe the color of the fruit? What color is it? Is it vibrant? Dull? Shiny?
• Now, cut into the fruit with a sharp knife. How does the knife go through the fruit? Easily? Is force needed? Like a warm knife into butter?
• Now, don't eat it (yet). Take the piece of fruit and compare the exterior color to the interior color. Are they the same? How many different colors are there? How many different shades? Really examine the fruit.
• Next, close your eyes and smell the fruit. How does it smell? Fresh? Fruity? Can you "smell" the acidity? (e.g., a green apple). Bright? Describe it with words as precisely as you can.
• Now, with your eyes still closed, take a small bite, but don't swallow it yet. Chew it. Slowly. What does it feel like on your tongue? Again, what is the texture like? Pass the piece from the left to the right side of your mouth multiple times. Can you taste more than one flavor?
• Next, swallow, but continue to pay attention to the flavors at the back of your throat. I often find I discover an additional layer of flavor as I swallow.
• Finally, let the flavor linger in your mouth for two whole minutes. Does the flavor change? Often, as the acids in your saliva begins to break down the sugars in your mouth new flavors will emerge, after you've swallowed the food.
  

This is, for me, the epitome of mindful eating. And it is wonderful. I strongly encourage you to try it.

The reason I go on and on regarding mindful eating isn't just because it is a very interesting exercise that generally improves one's enjoyment of food, but also because it is a useful technique for developing what I call "flavor memories." To be clear, a flavor memory is not this: tasting a tomato salad, and being transported to my grandma's back porch on a hot summer's day when I was a young child. Rather, it is a distinct memory of the particular flavor(s) that make up a particular food item. E.g., what exactly does a strawberry taste like to you? Can you clearly recall the flavor without actually being in the presence of a strawberry? If you can, your mouth probably just started to water just a bit.

Mindful eating is useful to develop memories because it helps you remember what a given food item or dish actually tasted like. And, as mindful eating becomes more and more a part of your regular practice, developing flavor memories becomes easier.

Why would one want to develop flavor memories? When someone describes a wine as having "notes of cherry, plum, and oak" you won't have to look at them like they are crazy. Instead, you'll be able to taste the wine, pick out the individual flavors that you taste, and see if you agree. Indeed, having a large breadth of flavor memories is useful for eating any food that can be described as "complex" (e.g., any fermented product - cheeses, beer, vinegars, bread, good soy sauces, Thai fish sauce, etc...)

So, the next time you eat something, pay attention to how it tastes. This is a great way to really appreciate what you eat more.

First Recipe! Chicken Noodle Casserole

While this recipe certainly isn't a pantheon of cooking, it is delicious. It is a relatively simple combination of the following items that is thickened with a chicken-stock veloute sauce:

4 cups cooked chicken meat, cut into bite-size chunks
12 oz noodles (in this case, fusilli pasta)
1 cup diced onions
2 cups sliced white button mushrooms
3 Tbsp dry sherry
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
8 Tbsp butter

On the whole, I'd give this recipe a 3 out of 5. It was very good, but could have done more. This recipe is from page 119 of "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook" by Christopher Kimball, who happens to be the Editor-in-Chief of my favorite cooking magazine, Cooks Illustrated (check it out - it is hands down the best cooking magazine I've ever seen). There's a bit more to it than simply mixing them all together, but if you're curious, you can get the book!

If you're curious, a veloute sauce is one of the five classic French sauces (along with bechamel, espagnole, hollandaise, tomato sauce). It is a light stock (i.e., one where the bones have not been roasted) thickened with a blond roux. It is delicious, if good stock is used.

The most important thing I learned from this recipe is the importance of "mise en place," which is French for "everything in place." It is a basic culinary concept that all of the ingredients of a recipe ought to be ready for cooking before anything hits the heat. I, unfortunately, because I realized I had started to late, failed to comply with this simple rule, and was rushing the entire time. It sucked. I do not recommend.

The second most important thing I learned is that the recipe designed to be a "master" recipe, and hence, could have some variations. E.g., I'd like to add carrots and celery next, making is more like a chicken pot pie with noodles (as an fyi, the Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook recipe for chicken pot pie is SPECTACULAR).

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures because I was so focused on cooking that I didn't actually take any photos. I will *hopefully* have pictures next time (damn now having a good digital camera!). The picture above is a random Google image search.