Wings of Buffalo

I’ve mentioned before that there are some things that are better made in a restaurant than at home. The internet if full of copycat recipes that home cooks devour, hoping to recreate their restaurant favorites in their own kitchens.

My experience is that some of these are very close. Some are good, but not very close to the restaurant version. And others are waaaaaay off and don’t even taste good! Of the one’s I’ve taken a stab at, the most successful by far is the sauce for buffalo wings.

A lot of places seem to have very liberal definitions of wings. They stretch the definition to include everything from BBQ to Hotter-than-Hades. Real buffalo wings, at least in our household, are lightly breaded, fried & tossed with the magical combination of Frank’s RedHot Sauce and Butter.

Over the years that we’ve been making the wings at home, I have modified and morphed the recipe until it is now exactly the way we like it.

I’ll make 50-60 pieces at a time. Any leftovers are put in the fridge, un-sauced, and the kids heat them up for lunches and snacks over the next couple of days.

My procedure (not really a recipe) is as follows:

1. Cover the wing pieces in buttermilk. Dump in a bunch of Frank’s RedHot Sauce. Mix and let marinate for 1-3 hours.
2. Mix together a flour dredging mixture of flour and seasoned salt. Don’t know quantities, but if you were to taste a little pinch, you could taste the flavor of the seasoned salt, but it wouldn’t be very salty.
3. Heat oil (I use and electric skillet to monitor the temperature easiest) to about 350′.
4. Dredge wings in flour and put in hot oil. Fry until cooked through.
5. While wings are frying, melt 1/2 stick of butter and mix in a bunch of Frank’s RedHot Sauce. Taste it until it’s the spiciness you want.
6. Remove wings from oil & drain on paper towels. Place still-hot wings in a large bowl. Drizzle Buffalo Sauce over them, toss to coat.
7. Do your best to cook them as fast as they are eaten.
8. Any leftover sauce can be stored in the fridge for use next time.

It’s All Greek To Me

Now I’m sure that this is not an old Greek family recipe, lovingly passed down from one generation to the next. And it’s probably not one you’ll ever find on the menu in a Greek restaurant, but it should be. I would totally order it all the time.

Farmer Paul’s new job has him working the swing shift which means he leaves for work about 1 hour after I get home. Crappy timing if I’m going to insist on still having a family dinner. But, the good news is that we’re done with dinner so much earlier that I can spend my evenings getting ready for tomorrow’s dinner. (OK, maybe not such good news!) And luckily I’ve got capable children and a helpful mother who get things going before I walk in the door.

When I pulled these chicken leg quarters out of the freezer, I intended to cook them teriyaki, but when it came time to assemble in the crock pot this morning, I just wasn’t in a teriyaki state of mind. A quick internet search, and I found this recipe (I modified it a bit from the original.) It took about 20 minutes this morning to throw it all in the crock pot before I left for work. When the boys came home, they switched the crock pot off and by the time I walked in the door, I just had to do a couple of side dish things and dinner was set!

This is definitely going in my recipe rotation. Everyone, except Ryan, loved it. But he doesn’t like much lately…except grilled cheese. I’ll give credit to Farmer Paul and the junior farmers of the family for the great chicken I had to start with, but as for the recipe execution, the credit is mine…all mine!

Greek Crock Pot Chicken
8 bone-in chicken legs and/or thighs
2 Tablespoons olive oil
4 large carrots, cut in 1″ pieces
1 large onion, cut in 8 pieces
1/4 cup crushed tomatoes (you could use tomato paste if you had it.)
1/2 c dry sherry
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (c’mon! buy a real lemon! don’t use the bottled fake stuff)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 clove garlic, crushed

Brown chicken in a large pan in olive oil, turning to brown all sides. Place chicken in crock pot.
Dump remaining ingredients in crock pot. Stir to combine.
Cook on low for 6 – 6 1/2 hours.

I served this with orzo pasta that I tossed with butter, lemon juice, oregano, salt & pepper. The juice from the chicken, drizzled over the orzo was perfect. It was good. Very, very good.

A Curry Worth Staying Home For

My sister and her husband finally convinced us to go try Indian food with them a couple of months ago. I’d only ever had curry once before, and it was in a restaurant that had a different menu page for 9 different Asian cuisines. Their pho was good. Their curry was not.

So when Anna & Sean wanted to take us to an Indian place shortly after we moved here, we resisted and talked them into going to a Japanese hibachi place instead.

But, finally, they persevered and we set a date. Farmer Paul was definitely nervous before we went, asking what he was getting himself into. I asked a friend at work who gushed about this dish and that, and so armed with the word “tandoori” we headed off to dinner.

And LOVED it! I have no idea what I had. It was chicken. And creamy. And good. Paul & Sean’s dishes were the best of the four. And we went home satisfied.

Fastforward to two weeks ago. Paul surprised my by saying that he would like to have curry again. Since we’re watching our budget, the only solution I have is to make it myself. So Anna & Sean were invited and I started searching for recipes and pieced together the meal: Indian Spiced Chicken with Spinach, Indian Spiced Veggie Patty and Naan.

The Naan was good, not great. I cooked it on a super-heated pizza stone which one website said was the closest to a tandoori oven I could get at home. It cooked perfectly, I think I just need to work on the recipe some because it wasn’t as light and fluffy as I remember. But that could be due to the fact that I used wheat flour, trying to move towards the healthier side of things.

The Veggie Patties never happened. When Paul saw me come in from the garden with a handful of green beans, he suggested I make Chinese-style, garlicy stir-fried green beans. It sounded good, so I went for it.

But the Chicken. Aaahhh, the chicken. It was warm, mildly spicy, and full for rich flavor. Sean’s not a big fan of spicy, so I toned it down for him assuming that the rest of us could add spice if we wanted, but I don’t think anyone did. THIS is going on the meal rotation.

Oh, and why did noone tell me that basmati rice was SO GOOD?!?

I substitued curry powder for some of the individual spices rather than buy whole bottles of things I might never use again. It worked well, but if you want the actual list of spices, click the link to the original recipe. I also added more cream than it originally called for, because it looked too dry. And the original called for frozen spinach, but I subbed about 5 ounces of fresh and it was the perfect amount. All of the amounts listed in the recipe below are the amounts I used.

Indian Spiced Chicken and Spinach
adapted from the Food & Wine Website

The Delishesness of Summer

Boy oh Boy was this ever good! This was one of those meals that happens when all the stars line up right. I had the leftover Julia Child Sauteed chicken, tomatoes that were right on the edge of starting to get mushy, and a handful of basil that needed a place to show off. And it found it, tucked among a mound of farfalle pasta. The recipe was super-easy…chop the tomatoes and a little bit of onion. Squeeze in 1/2 a lemon, a few glugs of olive oil, some of those little fresh mozzarella balls if you’ve got ‘em and some salt and pepper. Then cook the pasta…whatever kind you like. Once the pasta’s done, drain it, mix it with the tomatoes, some chopped up basil and Parmesan cheese. If you want to make it a meal, dump in a bunch of shredded chicken. Without the chicken, it’s the perfect side dish to take to a BBQ.

And really, how can you possibly go wrong if you show at a BBQ with this kind of tomato-ey, basil-y goodness. After all, doesn’t the combination just SCREAM summer?

Dinner, Courtesy of Farmer Paul and Julia Child

I recently read a bit about Julia Child. She wasn’t a natural-born cook. It took a lot of determination, learning and effort before she became The French Chef we have grown to love and admire. Realizing this has made me appreciate her even more because I certainly didn’t start off very well either.

My big disasters were your common “rice carefully scooped out of the pan so as not to disturb the burned layer stuck to the bottom”, the “chicken that was oh, so carefully roasted and then served half-raw”, and the ever-popular “nutmeg-instead-of-chili-powder tacos” (OK, maybe that one’s not so common). But these disasters have over the years turned into the remember-when stories that, apparently, can be used to enhance any conversation that Farmer Paul’s involved in. But when I growl as he starts relating the stories, it’s mostly in good humor because they really don’t bother me anymore. First, I figure he’s earned the right-after all, he did stick with me (In a couple of weeks it’ll be 17 years!) through all those meals, even encouraging me to keep trying until eventually I got it figured out. And second, anyone who has eaten my food lately KNOWS that I’ve got it figured out!

And this takes me back to Julia Child. She also started out as a poor-to-average cook. But through determination and trial and error she got it figured out. However, while she was classically trained in France which probably helped her learn much quicker than I did, my lessons have been a little less formal. My training has consisted of soaking in multitudes of techniques, explanations and tips such as those offered by Jacques Pepin, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Joanne Weir, the America’s Test Kitchen staff and of course, Julia Child. And reading cookbooks. Lots of them.

One truth that I have discovered as I cook and share my food, is that the truly great meals always start with truly great ingredients. And that’s where Farmer Paul enters the picture. Everything you see in the picture above (except the butter & herbs, but we’re working on that!) was grown on our land. It’s all from here. Not an hour ago, the salad ingredients and carrots were growing contentedly in our garden, enjoying the sunshine and light breeze until Nick picked several handfuls of the crisp, sweet, fresh lettuce, spinach and peas. And while he was there he grabbed a few carrots for me to steam and dress with browned butter.

And then the chicken. Our chicken. All-natural, pasture-raised, soy-free, organic chicken. We got the birds when they were just a day old and nurtured them until they were big and healthy. Then they were…processed…and just two days later, here they are, gracing our dinner table.

While great food is great food, it is with Julia’s inspiration that tonight’s dinner became amazing. So with a grateful heart and thoroughly satisfied tastebuds, I dedicate this glorious meal to Julia, a master teacher whose recipe for Sauteed Chicken guided me tonight. Julia’s ability to break the meal down into understandable, rational steps gives nervous cooks confidence. Her inspiration for teaching came from a desire to take the mystery and exclusiveness out of cooking and make it accessible so that home cooks would be successful cooks and be inspired to keep trying.

Here is Julia’s Sauteed Chicken recipe from the Julia and Jacques, Cooking at Home cookbook. Thanks Julia for sharing your passion and gifts with the world. And thanks Farmer Paul for planting the garden and raising the chickens (with help from our young farmers, Nick, Austin and Ryan) and giving me such amazingly perfect ingredients to work with. And thanks to Lisa over at Champaign Taste for hosting a Happy Birthday roundup honoring Julia. Be sure to check out her blog to see others who participated.

Julia’s Simple Saute of Chicken with Herbs
4 pounds fresh, top-quality chicken parts (thanks, Farmer Paul!)
3 Tbs or more unsalted butter plus 1 Tbs oil
1/4 c dry white wine or dry vermouth
1 cup chicken stock
salt & pepper
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (you don’t even need to peel them, just hit ‘em hard & toss ‘em in)
Several springs of fresh herbs (I used thyme), but she also suggest tarragon or sage
2 Tbs minced shallots or scallions (I didn’t have any, so I used just a bit of finely chopped onion)
1 Tbs butter to enrich the sauce

1. Browning the Chicken: This will take a good 20 minutes of careful cooking. Have a clean tray or platter ready. Set the pan over moderately high heat, swirl 2 Tbsp of butter inside with the 1 Tbsp oil When the butter foam starts to subside, lay in as many pieces of chicken as will fit comfortably without crowding. Turn the chicken every minute or so, letting all surfaces brown a nice walnut color.
2. Interlude: Pour out and discard all the browning fat, leaving the crusty browned bits in the pan. Pour the wine into the pan and scrape up the browned bits, adding a bit of the chicken stock if needed. Pour this liquid out of the pan and into the remaining chicken stock. Set aside.
3. Finishing the Saute: This step will take 20-30 minutes. Lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper. Set the pan over moderate heat, adding the remaining tablespoon of butter. When melted, return the dark meat to the pan. Cover and cook slowly for 7-8 minutes. Then turn the dark meat over and add the white meat, which needs less cooking. Baste the chicken with accumulated pan sauces, add the crushed garlic cloves and the herbs. Cover and continue cooking at a low sizzle, turning the chicken and basting with pan juices several times for 12-15 more minutes. Start testing for doneness when chicken juices begin appearing in the pan. The chicken is done when the meat is tender when pressed and its juices run clear yellow when the meat is pierced deeply.
4. Deglazing sauce: Remove chicken to a platter, cover and keep warm for the few minutes it will take to make the sauce. Spoon out and discard excess fat, herbs and garlic from the pan juices. Set the pan over heat, stir in the shallots or scallions and boil rapidly for a minute. Pour in the reserved wine and stock and boil over high heat, scraping up the browned bits. When reduced to a light syrup, swish in the optional butter and spoon over the chicken to serve.