Ad Hoc At Home #1 Fried Chicken

Ad Hoc and The French Laundry (both the cookbooks and the restaurants) could not be any more different; they are like opposites, yet they aren't. Both involve good sound cooking technique but The French Laundry takes everything to a new level of refinement. (I am drawing my conclusions from others' accounts and photos, I've never been to any of the restaurants) From pg. 12 of Ad hoc at Home:

This book is not about restaurant food but rather the kind of food we eat at home: family meals... We're opening the book with the main courses-the birds, the meat, the fish- because when we think about what we're going to make for dinner, we tend to think of the main course that will be at the center of the meal and build from there.

I know that's how it works in my mind... Anyway, I was enlightened by my better half regarding that "best ever" roast chicken. He said not only was it Ashley Farms it was a particular breed: Poulet Rouge. Logically my next thought involved Fried Chicken.  Ad Hoc Fried Chicken.

I approached this recipe with a fair amount of skepticism attitude! After all I've lived in the South all my life (unless like WSH you dont count Virginia as the South in which case I've lived here more than 4 decades). I know a thing or two about fried chicken. It's what we DO here. Everyone in the South has their favorite fried chicken, maybe Grandma's or Mom's.. maybe a restaurant. My Mom didn't make fried chicken that I recall.. I'm sure Bro and Sis will correct me if I'm wrong. I do remember some Shake N Bake.... ick.  But anyway I have cooked and eaten my share of Fried Chicken so I defeinitely had an attitude here.

Nevertheless, I followed the recipe as best I could. You can find it online here.  WSH Cut the bird into 10 pieces. These birds are far smaller than regular supermarket birds. Here are the pieces drying after brining:

Here is the lovely flour coating: lots of colors and flavors, although I took exception to the cayenne. More on that later:

This being the south we had to have greens to go with the fried chicken, in this case, kale and mustard greens

Here is the chicken frying:

The done deal, It really was beautiful chicken, I had the oil a bit too hot on the dark meat pieces.

And the table:

Where there are greens, there is cornbread. This was a really good meal. But as I said at the beginning, Southerners approach Fried Chicken with a sentimentality, with attitude, with personal expectations. As I said, I took exception to the cayenne. To me, it masked the wonderful chicken flavor. This chicken was very juicy, very tender and surprisingly crispy. It's a great recipe. I recommend it, I would just use less cayenne on my next attempt.

I love the Ad Hoc cookbook, it's a great reference book as well as collection of wonderful recipes.

See you soon.

All in a Day's whimsy

I will be making Ad Hoc Buttermilk Fried Chicken tomorrow. (Wish me luck)

But in the meantime, I saw these Blood Orange Caramels on Matt Armandariz's site and had to make them. I feel pretty certain at least 25% of the food blogosphere bought Blood Oranges this week because of his post. Anyway, it's an easy recipe (except for the juicing--i.e. when you have a cheap crappy juicer) but very tasty indeed.

I have learned that wrapping candy is totally off the list of my potential callings in life. But here they are:

These are tart and sweet and chewy and nutty, really a nice taste explosion in the mouth. Wanted: Neighbors seeking candy!

See you soon.

Valentine's Meal Mise En Place from Star Provisions

The Star Provisions Group is probably the primary (as in first and best) restaurant group in Atlanta. Consistently ranked in the top restaurants in the nation, Bacchanalia, their first and flagship restaurant was a leader in New American cuisine in Atlanta. The chef owners and partners, Anne Quattrano and Clifford Harrison, have expanded their offerings to include a variety of upscale dining establishments (the latest being Abbatoir-my favorite restaurant in the city with our friend Rick as GM) at different price points as well as a gourmet purveyor of all things food wise, Star Provisions. Their cheesemonger, Tim Gaddis, is in my opinion, the best in the city, their bakery is fantastic. The butcher shop has a number of items you can't get anywhere else and the meat quality has been excellent in my experience. Their Star Provisions ready-made food to go is well received in all quarters.  ** Full disclosure, Rick, Abbatoir's GM is not a social friend we only know him through his restaurant career in ATL. He is one of the best in our opinion**

Here's how the menu appeared in my Inbox:

Appetizers
- Sweet Maine Lobster Bisque with Lobster Salad

Entrée (a choice of)
- Braised American Kobe Short Ribs of Beef, Glazed Local Root Vegetables, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Natural Jus OR

- Bouride of Virginia Black Bass, Local Fennel, Orange & Fingerling Potatoes, Spicy Broth

Cheese & Accoutrement
- Old Chatham Shepherding Cupid's Camembert
- Marcona Almonds
- Local Honey
- Demi Baguette

Dessert
- Potted Chocolate &Hazelnut Trifle
- Rose Macaroons

$145 for 2 ... a little pricey for take out but what the heck! So we signed up for the short ribs and were ready to go. On top of that we had SNOW the night before, which is like Christmas to me.. I love snow. I get up early to watch it, I stay up late to listen to it. Probably because we only have it once a year or less...

So.. here is the box as it arrived after pickup:

And these are the instructions included with the box:

The first course, Lobster Bisque, garnished with lobster salad:

YUM! This bisque was just right, sweetly lobstery, velvet texture, the salad was a nice mix of lobster and seasoning and some celery leaves. Personally I would have preferred maybe Italian parsley as I find celery leaves bitter but altogether this was a big win in my opinion.

The Main Course:

The vegetables are a mix of potatoes, carrots, a slice or two of turnip, a few brussel sprouts and a nice buttery sauce. Very flavorful and a nice mix of textures, colors and tastes together. The meat is "American Kobe"  which to be honest, I don't know what that means, but I am a newb. I thought Kobe beef came from Japan and the American version was Wagyu. Anyway, it was 2 boneless short ribs with Jus. To follow in Foodie Buddha's footsteps... I wasn't very impressed. (Keep in mind, this is not food from their Restaurant establishments, this is from the Star Provisions to go branch.) The meat was somewhat dry and a little tough in spots. The flavor was OK but nothing to write home about; I was disappointed especially at the price point. So was WSH.

The Cheese Course and the Bread:

Yes, I took a taste from the left ventricle... I couldn't help myself.  And the demi-baguette with cheese, honey and almonds:

This was a grand slam home run. The cheese, honey and almonds were a match made in heaven, and the bread  was a perfect palette for it. I could have danced with this all night.
Bread on the table and a shoe on the floor:

The Dessert (which is still in the fridge):

Chocolate-Hazelnut Trifle and Rose Macaroons. It looks lovely doesn't it? I'll have to report on that either later or from one of our neighborhood reporters on the scene. I'm too full tonight.

Happy Valentine's Day all

See you soon.

Leek and Potato Soup (Take One)

This was to be Bouchon #6. The best laid plans sometimes run off the rails. I was all ready with my mise en place:

Had everything going according to plan and while the veggies were sweating I went away for just 2 minutes! JUST 2 MINUTES! Well, I got distracted and 2 minutes turned into 5 which was just long enough to turn some of the onions dark brown. They weren't burnt but caramelized, which is definitely not something you want in Leek & Potato soup. I went ahead with the soup, and the texture was absolute velvet but it wasn't the way this soup should be. So I will try again another day.  Moral:: "Stand by yor man pan!" 

I can't believe I just said that... 

Anyway on a good note: I found new buttons on my camera.  Well, actually, they have been there all along, but I just discovered them, and through my user's manual and an online tutorial via The Pioneer Woman I am working on better food shots.  It will take a while, this is a whole new language for me to learn, but I thought you might like a little bit of happy news.

We don't do Valentine's Day around here, it's a pressurized commercialized romance competition as we see it. BUT this year Star Provisions is selling a romantic dinner for fixing at home, that we will try and I'll post. We still don't do V-Day, it just so happens this dinner is being marketed as such and I want to try it :)

See you soon! (and Happy Valentine's Day to those of you who think it's important! <3)

Bouchon # 3, 4, 5 A Dinner a la Bouchon

I debated whether or not to divide this into 3 posts, opting for the Nah~!
The Menu:
Roast Chicken (a la Bouchon - more about that later)
Beet Salad
Asparagus with Vinaigrette and Eggs Mimosa

The Chicken
In my first Bouchon post I did a Rosted Chicken recipe that is in the front of the book, before the appetizers even. It is basically a rinsed, dried, salted, trussed chicken placed into a hot oven. Period. It turns out this is the chicken that Thomas Keller makes at home, one of his favorite meals. Now my take on it, complete speculation on my part, is that when he gets home, he is tired, he has been cooking and developing menus all week, mired in details and hundreds of ingredients. When he gets home he wants a nice piece of meat to cook without a lot of fuss and one that will be ready fairly quickly.  "I'm tired! I 'm hungry! I want something good and simple!"  or at least that's what I would say... Wait, no I'd probably say "Can we get a pizza?"

It turns out the Roast Chicken at Bouchon is one that is brined for 6 hours and the brine is prepared (ideally) overnight. So the chicken I am preparing today is a modified version of that because I didn't think of it last night and so some time corners have been cut, but not by much. Also, I will serve it without the proper accompanying Chicken Jus that Bouchon uses because, not only did I not think of this last night, I didn't think of it last week either. Chicken Jus takes a stockpile of saved chicken bones and pieces. I did manage to use the pan juices and some chicken broth to create a Sally version of Chicken Jus.

The Brine:  (enough for two 2.5 lb chickens)
1 gal water
1 c kosher salt  ( I used less than this because of we are old and trying to reduce sodium intake)
peppercorns
lemon zest and lemon juice
thyme, rosemary, italian parsley, bay leaves
smashed garlic cloves
honey

You boil all this together for 1 minute then chill ( ideally) overnight. Then you brine the chicken for 6 hours in the fridge. Since I didn't have the overnight option I used half the water and all the brine ingredients, boiled for 1 minute then added the other half the water with some ice in it. Placed in a covered stainless steel bowl it went out on the deck in the 37 degree weather. It chilled pretty quickly and I was left with 4 hrs brine time.

The Beets:
Beets
a little water
extra virgin olive oil
salt pepper

Scrub the beets well and place them in a piece of aluminum foil big enough to become a pouch. Add water oil, salt and pepper and wrap the packet up and place it in a baking pan. Bake at 375 for 1.5 hours or until a knife easily pierces through to the center.  Let the beets cool just enough to handle them,  then rub them with paper towels to remove the skins. It's really easy. IF however, you just spent a lot of money on a nice manicure, you might consider rubber gloves. And IF you have a countertop that stains, you might be more careful than I was... Just sayin.

Cut the tops and root ends off, then quarter the beets and cut the quarters in to 1/4 in slices crosswise. Place in a bowl with marinade.  Toss with marinade and season to taste with salt and pepper.
 
The Marinade:
a little salt and pepper
red wine vinegar
extra virgin oilive oil
fresh squeezed orange juice

The Finish:
chopped tarragon (I didn't use... I hate tarragon and anything licorice-y)
chopped chives
thinly sliced red onion, separated

Let the beets marinate at least 30 minutes to overnight in the fridge, bring to room temp 30 min before serving. Then toss the onion slices tarragon and chives in with the beets and let the onions marinate 30 mins or so. Season to taste with salt, pepper and/or vinegar. I served this at room temperature.

 If you're thinking ewww beets!~ Try them, They are really fantastic: a bit of sweetness, a little tang from the vinegar, a nice tender bite to them. I loved them. Jim added a little feta on his and that was great as well. Besides they are full of iron and other good nutrients. :)  EET ZEE BEETS!  This is a definite do again!


Chilled Asparagus with Vinaigrette and Eggs Mimosa
Fresh Asparagus
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Hard Boiled Eggs (do ahead - remove to ice bath then hold in refrigerator)
Radishes 1 or 2
House Vinaigrette (see below)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Chopped Chives

Hold the spears in the center and snap off the rough end and discard. Line up the spears with tips together and trim until the spears are all of equal length. Reserve the trimmings. Peel the spears from about 1 in below tip and set aside. In a large pot bring some well salted water to a boil. Take some twine and tie up your spears so they dont get too jostled by the boiling. Prepare an ice bath.

Boil the bundle 4-6 min until just tender, then remove to the ice bath keep the water boiling. While chilling, gather up trimmings from extra asparagus spears, you will need 2 cups in order for your blender to puree properly.  Place the trimmings in the boiling water and cook for 4-6 minutes until tender. While they are cooking remove your spears and untie them and let them rest on a paper towel to drain.

 Refresh the ice in the ice bath. Once all your trimmings and pieces are tender scoop them up in a strainer and lay it in the ice bath to cool. Reserve the cooking water. Toss your tender trimmings into the blender along with a couple Tbls. of the cooking liquid. Puree and stop to wipe the sides down. The book says "Be Patient" which should have been a red flag to me. Here is the price of my impatience:

Don't worry none of it got in the asparagus, it was severed and I had to amputate : (   Anyway, keep scraping the sides and pureeing until you have a very very smooth mixture, at the end slowly blend in 1 Tbls  extra virgin olive oil. Taste and season to taste with salt.  If there are fibers in your Coulis (that's what this is called), strain it. Refrigerate for at least 15 min. 

The Vinaigrette: (very straighforward)

1/4 Dijon Mustard

1/2 c Red Wine Vinegar

1 1/2 c Canola Oil

Blend the mustard and vinegar in the blender on medium speed about 15 seconds. Slowly add 1/2 c oil and try not to splatter eveything including your glasses like I did. Pour that mixture into a bowl, and using a whisk very slowly drizzle the remaining cup of oil while whisking away until the mixture is emulsified. What are those muscles in your forearms? Whatever they are if  you are like me, you may need to take a break. Don't worry, it will all end up ok.  This makes a bunch and can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks, you may need to re-emusily by whisking or blending. Here's what the vinaigrette ends up looking like to bad you cant see the consistency:

 

The garnish: remove the egg yolks from the eggs and grate them finely ( I used a microplane). Cut the top and bottom off a washed radish or two then slice into 1/8th in slices. Stack the slices and cut into 1/8th in julienne. Take the radish pieces and toss them in some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and add chopped chives.

Plating: Spread a couple of Tbls coulis (the pureed mixture) onto a plate. Carefully place the spears onto the coulis. Add a couple of Tbls. vinaigrette on top of the spears, then carefully sprinkle your egg yolk on top. Finally, add your radish-oil-chive mixture. Here's what it looks like

My better half doesn't like chilled food much except for fruit or dessert, so for him I plated the coulis and asparagus, warmed them in the oven, and made a sort of sauce  by adding butter and vinaigrette to the egg yolks and warming it on the stove. No radishes for him!  I tasted both and it's no surprise the chilled version was far superior. It had everything.. crunchy radishes smooth coulis, rich yolks and asparagus!! (my favorite vegetable.) It was really really flavorful, I would definitely make this again.

Now for the star of the show:

Roast Chicken

1 2.5- 3 lb chicken, brined, dried and trussed allow the bird to come to room temp after brining

a little salt and pepper

a little canola oil

chopped thyme leaves ( I forgot these)

fleur de sel

Preheat oven to 475

I'm still working on trussing so I am not qualified to insruct you here. I'm sure there are many websites that even have pictures step by step. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the bird and toss some salt into the cavity. Heat a heavy ovenproof skillet over high heat, when hot add 1 Tbls canola oil. Place the chicken in the pan, breast side up and place in the preheated oven with the legs facing the back of the oven. Roast until an instant read thermometer inserted between the leg and the thigh reads 155. (NOTE: that is according to the book, I am a freakazoid about underdone chicken so I take mine to 165-170. When you remove the chicken from the oven the carry over heat will raise the internal temperature another 10 degrees or so).

Remove from the pan and add the thyme leaves to the pan juices, Baste with the juices and leave in a warm spot for 10 minutes or so.

My chicken's breast is a bit underbrowned because I prematurely placed foil over it in concern for over browning the legs. I should have taken it out and used mitts and placed the foil securely over the area of concern.

The book calls for chicken jus, which I did not have, so to improvise I spooned off most of the fat from the roasting pan, turned up the heat and added chicken broth. I scraped up the brown bits and broke them up as best I could. I think I captured the essence of Chicken Jus, if not the beauty.

To plate:

Remove the trussing and cut the chicken into pieces. In the book, there are specific instructions on which pieces to serve together and to remove the chicken wing tip, but I was too lazy. The bottom line is you want to serve it in proper pieces, not as sliced meat. Spoon Jus over your pieces, sprinkle fleur de sel if desired and serve.

This was the best roast chicken I have ever had. Crispy skin, tender, moist flavorful meat, it was perfection! I used a free range chicken (Ashley Farms)  which I think made a difference, but still, I've had free range birds in restaurants before and none has tasted this good.

All in all these are the best recipes I've tried in this project. It was the best meal I've had in a a while. This would be very easy to do for a small dinner party, so much of it can be done ahead. Even 1-2 days ahead. Just add some bread and adjust the quantities and you have an easy, delightful dinner.

I know the post went on a straight line from dish to dish but that isn't how it came together. Here are the steps as they occurred:

Make and chill brine

Boil eggs, refrigerate

Blanch Asparagus and make coulis, refrigerate

Put beets in oven

Make vinaigrette, refrigerate

** It took this long for my brine to chill down enough so I put the chicken in to brine at this point, If you are smart and think ahead you would put the chicken in brine first. Put the chicken in the oven when brine time is up 4-6 hours.

TAKE A BREAK :)

When beets are done remove from oven this should happen before your chicken is ready to go in

Chop chives

Remove skins from beets and cut them up, add mariande ingredients to beets and set aside

Put the chicken in the oven

slice red onions and add to beets

grate egg yolks and julienne radishes, mix radishes with oil and chives

Now all thats left is for the chicken to be done and final plating.

Hope you make one or all of these!

See you soon!

Sunchoke-Mushroom Bisque

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and honestly, that's what this is. To any ATL readers I apologize for the duplication but the post on Eat It Atlanta looked so good I had to try it. His post is in video form and is very well done, where in the world does he find those background songs? His is far more entertaining than mine will be but in any case, the soup is really good.  And ATTENTION all my favorite vegetarian type people, this is an easy hearty veggie soup that will feed you for a week.

A note about sunchokes. They are also known as Jerusalem artichokes and are rooty looking things kind of nubby like ginger root. It says on the package they can be substituted for potatoes for people looking to lower their blood sugar levels. (That's always good to know!) When you cut them they have a crispier texture than potatoes no starchy feel at all, sort of like a radish. I am not good at describing flavors but iun the raw state they tasted clean and fresh.

Ingredients:
1 lb. sunchokes, scrubbed cut into 1/3 in dice.
1 Yukon Gold potato also diced
3 peeled garlic cloves
8 oz shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and sauteed.  Crimini would be a good substitute.
1 leek cleaned and sliced
1/2 onion diced
9 c water  ( I used 2 c chicken stock and 6 c water) you could sub. vegetable broth
1/2 c heavy cream

Scrubbed sunchokes:

Diced sunchokes, potato and garlic cloves go into a 400F oven for 40 min, After twenty minutes take them out and stir them around. Whenever I roast veggies i add just a sprinkle of salt, a grind of pepper and a little oil, to keep them from sticking too badly.

Here's how they look at the 20 min mark:

Meanwhile attend to your other characters. Cook up the onion and leeks and slice then sautee the mushrooms.

When the roasted vegetables are done, put them into the pan with the leeks, add half the mushrooms and 1 cup of water.

Let that cook a bit, and while cooking select a couple of pretty mushrooms from the remainder for a garnish and set them aside.  Then add 8 c water ( I used less, use what feels right). The comes the fun part!  Take an immersion blender to the pan and whizz it all up, make sure no vegetable chunks remain. If you don't have an immersion blender, use a regular blender but do it very carefully and in batches, because hot liquids expand.  After all smoothied up, add the remaining mushrooms, taste for seasoning and plate it up!

This a great meal with a small salad and/or some hot crusty bread. The texture is smooth, the mushroms add a meaty flavor an a couple of textural bites from the 4 oz you add after the blending. It might be nice to garnish with a little bit of grated sharp cheese. Nice soup!  Give it a try!

See you soon.

Bouchon #2 French Onion Soup

The section on French Onion soup in the Bouchon cookbook goes on for 4 full pages. The narrative covers the importance of the ratio of onions to broth to croutons to cheese. There is even a warning that without the proper bowl, the ratio will invariably be out of sync.  Being a rather out of sync person I was ready to accept that, besides I didn't want to buy new bowls. There are 2 paragraphs of instructions as to how to properly cut the onions.. point being this is a very detailed how-to recipe. I wanted to halve the recipe and where I got stuck was no where in the 4 pagesof narrative  or in the ingredient list does he say the quantity of beef stock needed.  It's simply listed as Beef Stock pg. 319 referring to the recipe.  Hmmm... what to do? I consulted Jacques Pepin from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home as well as Virginia Willis from Bon Appetit, Y'all and Alton Brown from the foodnetwork website.  The general consensus was 5-6 c of stock to about half the onions that are listed in the Bouchon recipe. So that's what I went with.

That's about 6 cups of onions 4 TBL butter some Sherry Vinegar and a satchet of peppercorns bay leaf and thyme. In a heavy pot melt the butter and add the onions with about a tsp of salt. Cook over med low heat until the lquid is released, stirring every 15 minutes or so. Once the liquid has evaporated you need to reduce the heat to low and be consistent in stirring, you dont want to burn the onions.

The recipe says to cook on low for 4 hours to fully carmelize each piece of onion. Mine went about 2 hours and I was satisfied, besides supper time was approaching quickly. They really should have gone longer though. Stir in a little bit of flour into the onions and cook for a minute or so.

Add your stock and satchet and simmer until the liquid is reduced about 30-40 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare your croutons by slicing a baguette on the diagonal into 1/3 in slices, 2 for each bowl. Also slice your Emmentaler cheese and grate some Comte ( I used gruyere as a substitute). 

Brush the croutons with olive oil and sprinkle with a tiny pinch of salt. Run them under the broiler until golden brown and flip and repeat on the other side.

When the soup is ready, ladle it into bowls, preferably ones with a lip edge, and top with 2 croutons each, don't push them down just gently lay them on top.

Then cover with cheese, enough to overlap the sides of the bowl. And sprinkle in grated cheese to fill in the gaps. All this goes under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

Be Cautious!  The soup is very very hot, but yummy. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

See you soon