Mastering the Art of Apartment Cooking: Roast Chicken from Julia

Happy Tuesday guys! I'm certainly having a busy time right now in the last few weeks before Thanksgiving, but I'm still trying my best to blog one day per week. This post is one of those it's-the-freakin-weekend-so-let's-have-friends-over-to-cook - meals. TIP: Do these.

My friend and fellow foodie Emily brought over her bible, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a delicious meal of roast chicken with potatoes and haricots verts (green beans...come on, get fancy).

Of course, we had to set the scene first for a great French meal, with camembert and rolls. Notice the bag of rolls, also. TIP: If you'd like your bread to stretch out for a few more days, get some of these half-baked rolls. You just pop them in the oven for 5 minutes and you've got fresh, hot bread for your meal :)

Emily prepared the potatoes with garlic, lemon, and butter, highlighting three ingredients that make for some fantastic French cuisine. As for the H.V.'s (haricots), just be careful to not overcook (in this case, over-boil) them, as with any vegetable. 

Now for the chicken:

Whereas I had used Mark Bittman's recipe to roast the chicken with spices inside and olive oil outside, Julia Child's recipe uses carrots, and good ol' butter. I'll discuss a great feature of the butter in my next post!

What a beautiful bird! This didn't take much time at all, and all it takes is a little time in the oven and a few basic ingredients. 

À table, tout le monde!

Everyone was ready to eat - they just patiently await me to finish taking photos for the blog :)

You can see the potatoes pretty well in this picture - potatoes can be done in so many different ways. Emily essentially scalloped the potatoes - slicing them into disks adds a nice texture to compliment the H.V.'s and the chicken. 

Et voilà (with some bread - we had challah around):

Flavorful sauces and marinades with curry!

Hey guys,

We decided to throw together something quick for dinner last week and used one of my favorite spices, curry powder. There are dozens of varieties of curries, as the word only represents a blend of spices, but I have a jar of the traditional saffron-colored powder lying around. I hesitate to call this an "Indian" meal, because not all of the ingredients are in the style of Indian cooking (but then again, what is "Indian" anyway?? Ok ok, Zach, don't get too caught up in the Identity Studies...). 

For this quick meal, I made a quick marinade that ultimately lent fantastic flavor to my chicken. Here's the TIP: don't be afraid to mix and match (strong) flavors and experiment with sweetness and savory. Also, try out plain yogurt for so many uses. Here I used it in my sauce:

I mixed plain yogurt, curry powder, cinnamon, and raisins, and poured the mixture over my cut up murgh (chicken) and let it sit for about a half hour in the fridge under wraps. 

We cut up some veggies we had lying around - peppers, zucchini, shallots, and sauteed those first to brown them. As you've seen with my recipes that roast veggies, we don't always want raw ones, and a little browning really brings out a great flavor! 

I took the vegetables out before I added the chicken so it could cook up on its own and not overcook the vegetables (soggy - ew). I cooked the chicken for a few minutes and added the veggies back in. 

We cooked up some boxed jasmine rice and heated up a jarred curry sauce (we didn't know how the sauce would be and wanted to let my marinade flavor the chicken, so we served it on the side). You already know I love this TIP, but try to cook with as many colors as possible. Your food will be even more satisfying if it's visually appealing! 

And now for a good-looking close up to make you want to make this easy dinner right now:

Enjoy! 

Baked acorn squash - a great evening treat or light meal

I picked up some acorn squash at Haymarket over the weekend, and decided to turn this fantastic New England fall vegetable into a light evening meal after my seminar class on Tuesday. Acorn squash are nothing short of perfect when baked and served with anything - from a full Thanksgiving meal to just by itself. I halved the squash made a few knife cuts through it, and prepared it:

Brush with a little butter
Add brown sugar and a bit of maple syrup.

There are sooo many variations to this, and this was just the first one I've tried. It was quite tasty, as the squash has a great natural sweetness! A quick word about cook time - I had read that it needed about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes of baking time at 400F. This can give or take by a little bit, depending on how ripe your squash is. Make sure it's good and ripe by letting it sit out for a few days on the counter before you use it. Here's a successful result:

As for your TIP of today, look for great things to use as light meals or late night snacks that can still be inexpensive and great for you. You'll head to bed feeling happy with what you've eaten and with the lack of money you've spent (even if you have to buy some brown sugar, like I did - it keeps for a while and can be used in SO many great things!)

Honey-glazed salmon with roasted veggie melody and grilled asparagus

If there's one thing that you may be noticing about my blog, it's that I'm really aiming to eat healthfully while making things taste great. Obviously not all the time (hence the Sunday afternoon piece of chocolate cheesecake...), but hey I do what I can. One night last week, dinner was decided to be fish and veggies, but done right.

Here's the TIP of the day: treat your food with respect. In this context of salmon with veggies, DON'T use frozen vegetables that are stuck in some sauce and sans nutrients; DON'T over-season the hell out of your fish so much that it becomes an adequate substitute for a spice rack. DO use simple cooking methods and ingredients that will highlight the great flavors of the meal.

I took some veggies we had lying around - zucchini, shallots, some peppers (pictured below) and another one of those patty pan squashes, and sliced them up, laying them out on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt/pepper. 

Pop them in to roast, around 375F. This will take a while, so be patient, don't open the oven door too much, and make sure to do this step first.

 Take some asparagus and bend the ends. Where it breaks is where it's meant to break. When you're about ready to cook the salmon, drop these in a pan with whatever kind of oil makes you happy. This night I used olive oil (which may smoke - don't worry!) but I have also used sesame oil.

Badabing Badaboom.

Salmon time.

REMEMBER: Respect is the word of the day. Respect this beautiful creature, the salmon. Season him lightly and don't over cook him.

Rub the salmon with a little olive oil and honey - a bit of pepper if you like.

Place the salmon in the pan. Here's a big TIP with getting a good sear: make sure your pan and oil are both hot BEFORE you put the fish/meat in. Notice the nice color :)
















The roasted vegetables are done when:

• they're slightly browned on the edges 
• you can cut them easily with a fork
• they look delicious

 If you've got them handy, bring some good friends along to this food party - bread and beer attended this evening.

Voila:

(added some homemade pesto on top - honey and basil go surprisingly well together!)

A great idea of rebellion all the way from Boca!

My friends Josh and Jazz came up with this quick, easy meal down in Florida! They took basic ingredients and mixed them with an Asian/Tropical flair. As Josh describes it:

Lightly breaded chicken with a pineapple compote sauce made with pineapples, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar. All served with some jasmine rice cooked in pineapple juice with string beans sautéed in garlic, ginger and soy sauce.

"wooooooowwwwwwww"


Nothing too tricky or unusual here, just some clever ideas for flavor. Thanks guys! 


Here's a TIP that's easy to pull from this dish: 
Take a basic staple like rice or couscous and cook it in a different kind of liquid than normal - chicken stock, juice, any kind of broth, etc. It will instantly add a great component to the meal!

Go with what you've got: honey balsamic herb chicken with patty pan squash and couscous.

Dinner for one last week - I decided to take some things we already had in the apartment.

TIP: Use what you've already got lying around, and just make it interesting with seasonings, cooking methods, and pairings! No need to buy tons of groceries just for one evening. 

I had some boneless chicken breasts in the fridge that I had picked up from the supermarket, essentially ready to cook. I has also stopped by a farmer's market the weekend before and had stumbled across an unfamiliar vegetable, the patty pan squash. This flying saucer-shaped squash cooks and tastes like a summer squash or zucchini, so it pairs quite well with chicken. Also, we had a container of dried couscous lying around, so I figured the three would work well together. 

That's it - chicken, veggie, couscous. 

I started the squash roasting by cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, brushing it with oil and herbs, and letting it hang out in the oven at 380F for about ten minutes per side. 

I mixed together some herbs (thyme, rosemary) with honey, olive oil (a staple for any kitchen), salt and pepper, and brushed them on the chicken. Stuck it in a grill pan, and in no time it was almost done. I added a bit of balsamic vinegar and finished it off. 

Couscous - follow the directions on the package, and add some seasonings and herbs. 

The result: 

Look at the steps I took, and realize it took me about half an hour from start to finish...there's nothing that anyone can't do!

Gotta go check the veggies roasting in the oven for tonight's dinner!

Our first "fancy meal" of the school year! - Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Salad

Friends and I decided to test out our new apartment digs and roast a chicken for the first time! I followed a quick and easy recipe out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Everyone who notices my cookbook collection upon stepping into my bedroom laughs at the title, as though it's an easy fix for everything the typical college student can't do. But his recipes are simple, adaptable, and great for someone who just needs to hone his cooking skills. I'm roasting a bird.

It sounds super intimidating, and having never done it before, I made sure to allot several hours to be able to prep, cook, and enjoy the meal. Following an easy, simple recipe, and not getting too experimental the first time around definitely helped.

All it took was a whole chicken (yes I gutted it), with some fresh herbs I bought at Star Market (rosemary, thyme), some olive oil, potatoes, and salt and pepper. And *patience*.

I'm going to try to be better in the future about taking photos as I'm prepping and cooking to give you a more step-by-step reveal of what's going on in my kitchen, but as this is a retrograde post, here's what I've got!

TIP:
Here's a good tip that any college kid on a budget (absolutely totally me) can take to heart: if I have a recipe I want to make  for friends, I ask them to either chip in some funds for the purchase or bring something to go with it. In the case of the roast, Greta brought salad with strawberries and goat cheese, and Emily brought a baguette and excellent cheese. So here's a point: you don't have to get and pay for everything by yourself!!! A little in abundance is a lot!