Roasted Chicken with Greens and Bread Salad

The holidays can be a busy time for anybody, but especially for home cooks, who may be tapped to provide festive nourishment for any of a host of events: office parties, cocktail parties, family gatherings, community events, charity auctions, cookie swaps, and on and on.

It can be a lot of fun, but a lot of work too. At the end of the season of giving, one can feel quite tapped out. So this week, rather than present fabulously elaborate dishes to share with family for Christmas, I'm going in the opposite direction. This month may be about others, but this week is all about you. These are dishes you can make to please yourself: homey comfort foods, a culinary "pat on the back" if you will.

I featured this Roasted Chicken with Greens and Bread Salad back in April, but it tastes really good this time of year, so I'm offering it up again as the perfect fall-to-winter comfort food. Really, this dish would be good whenever. It's one of my favorites. I couldn't find fresh thyme, so I substituted some dried thyme sprinkled below and on top the roasted chicken.


Roasted Chicken with Greens and Bread Salad
Adapted from Zuni Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad by Judy Rodgers of Zuni Cafe

Chicken:
1 bunch of fresh thyme (or 2 tbsp. dried thyme)
1 1/2 lb. boneless-skinless chicken breasts
11/2 lb. boneless-skinless chicken thighs
Extra-virgin olive oil
Seasoned salt to taste
Fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Bread salad:
8 oz. crusty Italian or peasant bread
7 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. currants
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. warm water
1 1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Ground sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp. pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, sliced very thin
4 scallions, white end chopped with a little bit of the green part
2 tbsp. lightly salted water
4 cups of arugula (or other salad greens)

1. Preheat broiler with oven rack about 5 inches from heating element. Cut crust off bread and discard or use for other purpose. Tear and slice bread into pieces of about 1 to 2 inches. Put bread pieces in a large bowl, add 2 tbsp. olive oil and toss to coat. Spread bread pieces onto a baking sheet and broil to lightly toast, about 1-2 minutes (watch carefully, they will burn easily, especially if you hand tear the bread). When done, allow to cool and then put bread pieces back in the large bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 375 F (it won't take as long since the broiler was just on). In a 9 x 13 baking dish, arrange the fresh thyme sprigs on the bottom of the pan. Pat chicken pieces dry and place on top of the thyme. Brush chicken pieces with olive oil and season with seasoned salt and pepper. Put in oven and roast until internal temperature of chicken is about 165 F (should take about 20-30 minutes).

3. While chicken is roasting, prepare the bread salad. Put the currants in small bowl and add red wine vinegar and 1 tbsp. water. Set them aside to plump while you prepare the other ingredients. Whisk 1/4 cup of good quality extra-virgin olive oil with the white wine vinegar and ground sea salt and pepper to taste. Add about 1/4 cup of the dressing to the toasted bread and toss to coat (the remaining tbsp. of dressing will be used later for the greens).

4. Heat a small (8-inch) frying pan over medium-low heat. Toast pine nuts in pan until fragrant and lightly browned (doesn't take long, watch carefully and keep nuts moving to avoid burning). Remove from pan and add to bowl with dressed bread. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to pan. Add sliced garlic and chopped scallions and saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Add to bread. Drain currants and add to bread.

5. Place bread mixture in a small (8 x 8) baking dish. Sprinkle 2 tbsp. salted water over the bread mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven to warm during the last 7-8 minutes of time when the chicken is roasting.

6. Add arugula to large bowl and toss with remaining white wine vinaigrette. When broad mixture comes out of oven, remove from pan, add to bowl and toss with greens. Serve bread salad under roasted chicken pieces.

Best of 2012: Books

There's a little over a week left before Christmas. Still time to pick up a last-minute gift. For the food lover in your life, I suggest one of these books, which represent either my favorites from the year or what I'm very interested in reading. Quick the links to go to Amazon, where you're just a few clicks, 2-day shipping and some wrapping paper away from having any of these under your tree.

Cookbooks

Image source: stoughtonsteel.com

Modernist Cuisine at Home by Nathan Myhrvold and Maxime Bilet. This year, they released a slimmer-by-comparison one-volume version geared more towards the home cook. Granted, that doesn't mean these are recipes that the average kitchen is equipped to make, but even if you don't (yet) own a sous vide machine, this still sounds like an interesting read (see Washington Post review).

The Science of Good Cooking by The Editors of America's Test Kitchen and Guy Crosby. America's Test Kitchen and its Cook's Illustrated publications are one of my top go-to sources for understand the "why and how" of good cooking. The science-minded volume takes that know-how down to the molecular level to help you really understand how, for example, the starch molecules in potatoes react a certain way from different methods of making mashed potatoes. If you're into food science, but not "modernist" cooking, this volume of more traditional recipes may be for you.

Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel. The first time I bit into a namesake chocolate bouchon from Bouchon, I knew I had a found a truly remarkable snack. This volume includes recipes for many of the bakery chain's best-loved confections.

Image source: graffiatodc.com

Crazy Good Italian by Mike Isabella. Still have a hankering for the Top Chef alum's chicken thighs with pepperoni sauce but don't live near Graffiato? With this cookbook you can make that any many other of his Italian-American favorites (like corn agnolotti with pine nuts and chanterelles, which was a huge hit during Graffiato's first summer).

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. Proof that a cooking blog can be a gateway to culinary fame, Smitten Kitchen blogger Deb Perelman released this beautiful volume in October, featuring her homey recipes and typically beautiful food photography.

Food Literature

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelssson. A chef's memoir is nothing new, but this one has made it onto quite a few "best of the year" lists. Sounds like this year's Kitchen Confidential or Blood, Bones and Butter.

The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan. Taking a first-person approach to research three key steps in the American food chain--farming, grocery retail and chain restaurants--McMillan finds little good but plenty of bad and ugly when she peels back the shiny shrinkwrap on the industrial processes that feed a large portion of Americans every day (here's my review).

Extra Virginity by Tom Mueller. Olive oil may seem like a perfectly benign condiment, but wait 'til you read Mueller's exposé uncovering its shady side and the true believers trying to restore the green-golden liquid to its deserved state of quality (here's my review).

The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat by Thomas McNamee. I'm currently reading and enjoying this engaging biography of Craig Claiborne, the man who made The New York Times take food writing seriously and ushered in the modern era of restaurant criticism.

Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson. Wilson explores global cuisines through the utensils that shape them. I haven't read this yet, but it's on the top of my list of books I want to read in the new year.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

If you ask Chris what his favorite cookie is, he’ll say “peanut butter,” but I know that snickerdoodles are a close second. So I feel downright Grinch-like when I realized that I’ve never made them for him. This year, I decided it was time.

Although I could have made a traditional snickerdoodle, after my coworker brought in these amazing pumpkins ones, I decided that was the way to go. She shared the recipe, which came from Annie’s Eats blog.

I like how the sugar-coated dough balls resemble cinnamon-sugar doughnut holes

Be sure to factor in the 1-hour chilling time after mixing the dough. I’ve skipped this step before with other recipes and it was a disaster.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Adapted from a recipe by Annie’s Eats

For the cookies:
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. table salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the coating:
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
Dash of allspice

1. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

2. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Beat in the pumpkin puree, then the egg and vanilla until incorporated. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed or with a spoon just until incorporated.  Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.  Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl.

4. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the dough and roll in your hands to form a ball. Coat the ball in the sugar-spice mixture and then place on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, placing the sugar-coated dough balls about 2 to 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in water and then the spice mixture (re-dip as needed). Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes (the original recipe calls for 10-12 minutes, but I baked mine for 15. Since the pumpkin puree adds moisture, they can bake longer without burning), or until just set and baked through.  Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Ewing Bourbon Balls

This recipe also appears this week on Dallas Decoder, representing the Ewings in the Barnes/Ewing holiday bake-off.

This recipe calls for using the oven, but only to toast the pecans. If you use a frying pan or skip that step, this is a no-bake sweet treat for the holidays. It’s really pretty simple too.

8 oz. is most of a standard (11 oz.) box of Nabisco Nilla brand vanilla wafers.

Never having made bourbon balls before, I was surprised to find this recipe calls for ground vanilla wafers instead of flour (which, if it did, would require baking). Vanilla wafers were a treat I loved as a kid, but have rarely had in the last 20 years. It was fun to snack on a few while making these.

Bourbon Balls
Adapted from Bourbon Balls, Food Network, Courtesy of Wayne Harley Brachman, “Retro Desserts,” Harper Collins Publishers, 2000

1 cup pecans
8 oz. vanilla wafers
½ cup unsweeted Dutch-processed cocoa
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
¼ cup bourbon

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Spreads pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 6 minutes, rotating tray and stirring nuts halfway through. Set aside to cool.

2. In a food processor, grind vanilla wafers into crumbs. Add the pecans and process until finely chopped.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the crumb mixture, ¼ cup of the cocoa and ¼ cup of the powdered sugar. Add the corn syrup and bourbon and stir to combine thoroughly.

4. Whisk together the remaining cocoa and powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Form the crumb mixture into ¾-inch thick balls and roll the balls around in the cocoa-sugar mixture to coat them. Store in a sealed container for up to 5 days.

Barnes Fortune Cookies

 

This recipe also appears this week on Dallas Decoder, representing the Barnes family in the Barnes-Ewing holiday bake-off.

Fortune cookies seem like a simple dish, but they’re easy to get wrong. I remember trying to make them as a kid and having them turn out just horribly. My mom recalls a similar experience of her own.

Print your fortunes ahead of time and cut them small enough to fit in the cookies: 2 1/2 x 1/2 inches.

The batter has to be just right—thin enough to spread easily and airy enough to provide the right texture. It’s easy to end up with cakey fortune cookies, which won’t seem right.

But the hardest part is folding them. Not because the folds are particularly complicated but because 1) the cookies have to be folded quickly; if they cool too much they will break rather than fold and 2) achieving good results means folding them while they are hot out of the oven and…ouch! After folding the about 16 cookies this recipe made, my fingers were glad to be done. Supposedly cotton gloves will help, but certainly oven mitts are out, given the nimbleness required to do this.

To get the fold right, I really appreciated the advice from Yoyomax12, who has a useful demonstration video on YouTube showing how to first fold the cookie in half with the fortune inside and then to use the lip of a mug or bowl to fold that halved cookie into the familiar rounded fortune cookie shape.

These steps must be done quickly while the cookies are still hot out of the oven, so plan accordingly and don't try to fold too many cookies per batch. I recommend starting with one the first time.

I recommend that you bake and fold just one cookie the first time you do this. As you get the the hang of it, you can do more, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to bake and fold more than about 4 or 5 per baking cycle.

Be sure to have the fortunes ready and printed ahead of time and cut into 2 1/2 by 1/2 inch strips. Writing your own fortunes is its own creative exercise.

Dallas fans will recognize this fortune as advice from father to son.

Fortune Cookies
Adapted from Fortune Cookie Recipe, Rhonda Parkinson licensed to About.com

Makes about 16 cookies

2 egg whites
½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
3 tbsp. canola oil
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. cornstarch
Dash of table salt
½ cup white sugar
1 tbsp. water
Butter or oil (for greasing baking sheet)

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.

2. Add egg whites, vanilla and almond extracts and oil to a large bowl. Beat on medium-high speed with hand mixer until frothy, but not stiff, about 1-2 minutes. Add the flour, cornstarch, salt, sugar and water and blend with a spoon until smooth.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment and grease lightly with butter or oil. Drop a full tablespoon of batter on the baking sheet and spread evenly with the spoon into a circle about 3 to 4 inches across. Repeat a few times, but not too many, since you’ll need to work quickly to fold the cookies while they are hot after they come out of the oven (I recommend just making one the first time, and then increasing the number of cookies per baking cycle as you get the hand of folding them). Bake for 12-14 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges (they will still be light in the center).

4. Remove from oven and, working quickly, fold the cookies into the fortune cookie shape by: 1) use a spatula to turn cookie over, 2) place a fortune (writing down) in the middle of the cookie, 3) fold the cookie in half over the fortune, 4) take the folded cookie and use the lip of a bowl or mug to bend it into the familiar half-round shape. Place folded cookies in a muffin tin to cool (the muffin tin helps them keep their shape as they cool and harden). Refer to the pictures above and the video link to see exactly how this works. Repeat as needed to use up the batter.

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

This is one of those recipes I've had for a long time and enjoy making for the holidays every year. The combination of confectioners and granulated sugar, plus a decent amount of butter, makes for an amazing cookie texture.

It's from Mary Engelbreit's Cookie Cookbook, published in 1998. I'm not sure where I got the recipe, since I don't own the book, at least not yet (I just ordered the last used copy at Powell's).

Just before putting the cookies on the baking sheet, I like to roll their tops in green and red colored sugar. You could also use turbinado sugar. 

Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies, Mary Engelbreit's Cookie Cookbook

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Demerara or colored sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 

2. Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, baking powder and salt.  Add the flour and beat on low speed.

3. Roll pieces of dough into 1-inch balls (I usually make mine a little larger than an inch). Spread demerera or colored sugar on a plate. Dip each ball in the sugar, place on a baking sheet with the sugared-side up and flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass. Bake about 10-12 minutes until golden on the edges. Allow to cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 49

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.


New York Times

1) “A Regional Oddball, Resurrected for Chilliest of Days,” by Robert Simonson. It may not be official, but judging from the front cover, it’s booze week for the Dining section. This isn’t a cover story, but it was my favorite thing, since it resurrected memories of my childhood Christmases. The Tom and Jerry was always served by my father’s family at Christmas. A thick eggnog-like drink made with a spiced batter, brandy and rum, it’s not something I ever partake. I tried it once, and was pretty repulsed actually, but maybe I’d like it better as an adult. Despite that, I enjoyed this trip down memory lane, as I haven’t thought about this drink in over a decade. Interesting that Simonson says that drink has fallen out of fashion everywhere but in Wisconsin, since my Oregon-based family was pretty taken with it.

2)  “Holiday Nostalgia, Served Warm,” by Rosie Schaap. Sing with me: “Here we come a wassailing among the leaves of green..” Everyone knows at least that refrain of the most popular Christmas drinking carol. She looks at the English drink’s historical heritage, lists some New York spots for sampling various versions and offers a recipe.

3) “Bubbles That Speak English,” Wines of the Times by Eric Asimov. True Champagne is expensive, at least $35 for a decent bottle, according to Asimov. So here, he samples other less expensive sparkling wines from California and New York still suitable for a holiday toast.

4) “Sweet or Savory, a Bit at a Time,” City Kitchen by David Tanis. Tanis shares how he learned to make pate à choux during his first stint as restaurant cook. It’s the basis for cream puffs and éclairs and, by following his recipe, it doesn’t sound all that complicated.

5) “Harvesting A Wintry Conucopia in Wales,” How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Bittman shares how he tackled cooking a bag of mixed greenhouse produce from friends-of-a-friend’s farm in Wales. The Leek and Tomato Gratin sounds wholesome, healthy and delicious.

Washington Post

1) “Cookies,” by Food section staff. Just in time for my Cookie Week, the Food section has theirs too! And this year, they really outdid themselves, designing their 26 recipes around an international theme, including Fiola Chef Fabio Trabocchi’s Almond Cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Whirligigs and Nanaimo Truffle Bars (named after a little town on Vancouver Island my family has passed through a few times while on vacation). But the one I really want to make is the Oaxacan Chocolate Cookies made with Mexican cinnamon, Mexican dark chocolate and smoky mezcal.

2) “Step 1 in fixing the family gingerbread recipe: Include ginger,” by Tim Carman. This story is really quite a bit of fun. Carman writes about his family’s gingerbread cookie recipe, which has been passed down through the generations. However, apparently those doing the “passing” took some liberties that, over time, adulterated the recipe to include too much flour and, gasp, no ginger. Carman set out to get the recipe back to its original delicious roots, offering up some dish on his big sis along the way: as custodian of the family recipe, he describes as “in this regard, and in this regard only, she is more Betty Draper than Betty Crocker.” Zing!

3) “Buffalo Wing Burgers,” Dinner in Minutes by Bonnie S. Benwick. These burgers, inspired by Buffalo wings, sound really delicious. They come with hot-sauce-enlivened mayo, although I’m surprised they contain no blue cheese. 

4) “Cant find a gift for a wine lover? Join the club.” Wine by Dave McIntyre. This week’s win column  offers ideas for what to give the wine lover in your life. McIntyre advises against wine gadgets in favor of wine (of course) and stemware.

Verdict

The Washington Post. Although I enjoyed the Times' Tom-and-Jerry trip down Christmas memory lane, the Post’s cookie coverage was, as usual, as sweet as they come.

Score

The Washington Post: 26
The New York Times: 22