Braisin' Hussy

Monday, August 20, 2007

Roast Chicken with Fatty Rice
disgusting but wonderful

1 4-lb. chicken, neck and innards removed
4 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Tbsp fresh sage, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.25 to 1.5 cups rice (see note at the bottom)
1 10.5-oz. can french onion soup + 1 can water (or an equivalent amount of homemade onion soup)
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

In a large container or pot, combine 1 1/2 quarts of cold tap water and 1/2 cup kosher salt (1/4 cup table salt). Stir to dissolve. Submerge chicken in brine and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Remove chicken from brine and dry well with paper towels. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450. Prepare the roasting rack by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray.

In a food processor or mortar and pestle, (or just in a bowl with a fork) combine butter, herbs, and minced garlic into a paste. Loosen the skin over the breast and thigh on each side of the chicken. Spread three-quarters of the paste under the skin. Tie the drumsticks together with kitchen twine and tuck wings behind back. Oil the skin lightly and season with pepper. Set chicken breast-side down on prepared rack in roasting pan and roast for 15 minutes.

Mix together the soup and water with the remaining tablespoon of herb butter. After the first fifteen minutes of roasting, scatter the rice and liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes.

Remove roasting pan from oven and decrease temperature to 375. Rotate chicken breast-side up on the rack, stir the rice, and return to the oven for approimately another 30 mintues, or until the breast meat is 160 and the thigh meat is 175 on an instant-read thermometer.

Let chicken rest for about ten minutes before carving. Transfer the rice to a serving bowl.

(Note: I think these proportions are about right. The last time I made it, I only used a cup of rice, and had way too much liquid/fat left over at the end. I think in the range of 1.25-1.5 cups will work correctly.)
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

New recipes! The reason behind this ice cream extravaganza is that I bought a half gallon of cream last week. (Also, it's summer.) It is SO MUCH CREAM. I've made three batches of ice cream, and I still have four cups left.

The first batch I made was the bourbon and brown sugar ice cream. I had been planning on making a relatively simple, non-cooked ice cream involving chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces, but when I started getting my ingredients together, I found that we had no white sugar. The local minimart had already closed, and I forgot that I had a neighbor who would totally have given me a cup had I asked, so I went on the internets to see if I could use brown sugar. Answer: yes, but it'd have to be a cooked custard-style ice cream. Glad I did, because the texture in this batch was so wonderful. The bourbon was kind of a last minute add, but I think it tastes great.

The cardamom-honey ice cream I had made once before, and since I was seeing Lydia on Friday, I decided to make it again. I changed the recipe a bit from the first time (different cooking method, different dairy ratios, fewer yolks, etc.), and it turned out better. The ice cream hung together better. My problem with it before was that it turned out too soft. I made another change for the recipe (but not in my batch), which was to cut the cardamom down by half. I just don't think you really need two tablespoons. That's a TON of cardamom. I'd like to see if I can made this better by maybe using the seeds inside whole cardamom pods instead of ground cardamom. The texture currently is a little too grainy (the sieve can't catch all the particles), and I'd like it to be smoother.

I was inspired by the strawberry-sage ice cream recipe over at Ice Cream Ireland, but after talking with my friend Eddie, he put the idea in my head of the classic strawberry-black pepper-balsamic vinegar combination. Well, I didn't end up putting the balsamic directly into the ice cream (although I am thinking that either a balsamic reduction or some straight good balsamic vinegar drizzled over the top would be PURE WIN), but the resulting ice cream was very tasty. It was my first time doing a fruit ice cream, and I'm not entirely sure I froze it correctly. (Are the strawberries supposed to freeze solid? I guess so. I mean, the water content in them would really dictate that happening.) I also think that just a black pepper, or maybe a black pepper and vanilla ice cream would be lovely. Since the peppercorns were just broken and not ground, they were easily strained out, and the resulting texture on the ice cream base was much better than in the cardamom-honey.

YAY ICE CREAM.
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Strawberry and Black Pepper Ice Cream

1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
tiny pinch of salt
2 Tbsp whole black peppercorns, roughly crushed with a mortar and pestle (not ground)

Place the strawberries, lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp sugar in a food processor. Pulse five to ten times (1-second pulses) until they're fairly uniform in size but NOT a puree. (You want chunks.) Set aside.

Mix the sugar and yolks together until light in texture and smooth. Combine the milk and cream and bring to a simmer (either on the stove or in the microwave). Whisking constantly, drizzle the hot milk/cream into the egg/sugar to temper it. Once combined, transfer the mixture to a pot and place over medium-low heat. Stir or whisk constantly until it reaches 170F or has thickened to the nappe stage (coats the back of a spoon), then remove promptly from the heat. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any curdled egg bits.

(The method I use to avoid all chances of curdling is to mix the eggs and sugar in a large metal bowl, and then after mixing in the milk/cream, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisking. This longer, but you won't have to strain it afterwards. Also, you can be somewhat less paranoid about the constant whisking of the mixture- this cooking method is gentler than direct heat.)

Stir in the pepper and salt. Cool for at least four hours (or overnight).

Strain to remove the pepper. Freeze in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions. During the last five minutes, add the strawberries. Transfer to freezer to let harden.
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Monday, August 13, 2007

Cardamom and Honey Ice Cream
Adapted from Ice Cream Ireland's recipe

1.5 cups 1% milk
1.5 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 Tbsp ground cardamom
3 Tbsp honey (I use a wildflower honey from Utah, it's got an assertive flavor)
tiny pinch of salt

Mix the sugar and yolks together until light in texture and smooth. Combine the milk and cream and bring to a simmer (either on the stove or in the microwave). Whisking constantly, drizzle the hot milk/cream into the egg/sugar to temper it. Once combined, transfer the mixture to a pot and place over medium-low heat. Stir or whisk constantly until it reaches 170F or has thickened to the nappe stage (coats the back of a spoon), then remove promptly from the heat. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any curdled egg bits.

(The method I use to avoid all chances of curdling is to mix the eggs and sugar in a large metal bowl, and then after mixing in the milk/cream, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisking. This longer, but you won't have to strain it afterwards. Also, you can be somewhat less paranoid about the constant whisking of the mixture- this cooking method is gentler than direct heat.)

Stir in the cardamom, honey, and salt. Cool for at least four hours (or overnight).

Strain to remove some of the cardamom (you won't be able to get all of it out). Freeze in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to freezer to let harden.
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Friday, August 10, 2007

Bourbon and Brown Sugar Ice Cream

1.5 cup 1% milk
1.5 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar, packed
4 egg yolks
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
Tiny pinch of salt
2 Tbsp bourbon

Mix the sugar and yolks together until light in texture and smooth. Combine the milk and cream and bring to a simmer (either on the stove or in the microwave). Whisking constantly, drizzle the hot milk/cream into the egg/sugar to temper it. Once combined, transfer the mixture to a pot and place over medium-low heat. Stir or whisk constantly until it reaches 170F or has thickened to the nappe stage (coats the back of a spoon), then remove promptly from the heat. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any curdled egg bits.

(The method I use to avoid all chances of curdling is to mix the eggs and sugar in a large metal bowl, and then after mixing in the milk/cream, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisking. This longer, but you won't have to strain it afterwards. Also, you can be somewhat less paranoid about the constant whisking of the mixture- this cooking method is gentler than direct heat.)

Stir in the vanilla and salt. Cool for at least four hours (I just stick in in the fridge overnight).

Stir in the bourbon. Freeze in an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to freezer to let harden.
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Monday, August 06, 2007

The convention season is over! I have moved domiciles yet again! I should get back to blogging.
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