Crispy Greens

The past few Saturdays Farmer Paul and Nick have been going out to a CSA farm and lending them a hand. In exchange, they bring home a box full of produce. These boxes of produce have made me realize that I’ve not been very adventurous comes to veggie choices.

I know that I’m not an adventurous meat eater. I’m fine going through life never knowing what things like goat, snake and gator taste like. I am at peace with the knowledge that a piece of bear meat will never cross my lips. (and no, Paul, that is NOT a challenge!)

But I’m surprised that there are so many common veggies I’ve never eaten. The unusual veggies I’ve received in my home have been things like Swiss Chard, Sorrel and Kale.

I was informed these nutritious greens are wonderful when lightly mixed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and roasted to a potato-chipy crispness. I tried this one night for dinner. I set the bowl on the table, explained what it was as I passed the bowl to Mom. Mom took her “Thank You” portion, passed the bowl on to Dad, took a quick taste test, and took the bowl back from Dad to transform her “Thank You” portion into a “Hey, this is pretty good” portion. I don’t know how to describe it, but the crispness is that of a very fragile potato chip, while the bitterness of the green and the sprinkling of salt combine for a very unique, and addictive flavor. Even the kids ate it!

Unfortunately, we were so busy eating it that I didn’t take the time to make sure I had good pictures (and really, the mashed potatoes in the background are just a white blur – ugly!) So I’ll have to make it again. Soon. Really, really soon.

Pre-Season Thanksgiving

If you can have Christmas in July, then why not Thanksgiving in August?

We had some chickens that had to be processed this past week and they did a turkey too. My thought was that I would do something fun & novel with the turkey. Maybe throw it on the grill or break it down and do different, untried-before dishes with the different parts. Apparently, I was the only one who didn’t immediately think Thanksgiving Dinner.

So, as we watch a preseason Cowboys game, we’ll eat preseason Thanksgiving leftovers.

And turn on the air conditioning!

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?

Peas and Potatoes in White Sauce

Another delicious meal from our garden (except for the sausage). This was a nice, quick, summery dish that I grew up eating. New potatoes and fresh peas in a light white sauce. Add a garden-fresh salad and a couple of cranks of pepper and I’m good to go!

There’s really no recipe here, Dad said that Grandma used to put fresh mint in with the peas and potatoes, but I’m having trouble imagining that flavor combination. Maybe I’ll test it next time…maybe.

Farmer Paul and I did have a disagreement about the peas though. Growing up, the peas in this dish were shelled. But when Farmer Paul saw me shelling these peas, he got quite upset that I was “sending the best part of the pea to the compost pile.” So, instead, I used those peas in the salad, picked more peas from the garden, cut them in half and added them to the boiling potatoes during the last minute of cooking time. And it was a good decision. They were so sweet and tender.

Like me.

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.