Monday, October 20. 2008
Why Roast in a Cast iron Skillet. Exhibit A: Deglazing
After roasting the Ballotine in the oven, Erik de-glazed the skillet by putting it over heat and whisking in red wine and chicken broth (made from the bones from the chicken) and a teaspoon of flour.
The crispy bits – the roasted garlic and roasting juices – combined with the liquids and stomped out a powerful gravy.
Once the sauce thickened, Erik added a shot of Clear Creek Apple Brandy .
Served over the sliced Ballotine, life got really, really, really good.
The crispy bits – the roasted garlic and roasting juices – combined with the liquids and stomped out a powerful gravy.
Once the sauce thickened, Erik added a shot of Clear Creek Apple Brandy .
Served over the sliced Ballotine, life got really, really, really good.
Saturday, October 18. 2008
Chicken Ballotine: Life sometimes works out well.
How quickly can you bone out a chicken? Jacques Pepin can rip the flesh from a chicken in less than 90 seconds. Me? 9 minutes plus a running start of prayer and bribes.
Boning out a chicken is the first step to Chicken Ballotine – a bird that is stuffed, rolled and trussed up tighter that a hussy on Halloween.
Then comes the stuffing of roasted sweet potato in one half of the bird and lentils and mustard greens in the other. Each leg has it’s own flavor which is kind of exciting for those of us with limited attention spans.
The trussing has always gotten me in trouble, causing the bird to look like a Picasso Ballotine –a disfigured but essentially good thing that makes for an interesting presentation. This past Ballotine, knot gods behind me, the thing looked (mmostly) right.
Ballotine Stuffing:
Roasted sweet potato with caramelized red onion
Black lentils and mustard greens sautéed with garlic and salt
We roasted the thing at 350° for nearly 90 minutes.
If I had to do all over again, I’d lower the temperature a bit on the back side of the cooking time.
The lemons added to the skillet roast beautifully and go well is duck cracklins, should you have them about.
Boning out a chicken is the first step to Chicken Ballotine – a bird that is stuffed, rolled and trussed up tighter that a hussy on Halloween.
Then comes the stuffing of roasted sweet potato in one half of the bird and lentils and mustard greens in the other. Each leg has it’s own flavor which is kind of exciting for those of us with limited attention spans.
The trussing has always gotten me in trouble, causing the bird to look like a Picasso Ballotine –a disfigured but essentially good thing that makes for an interesting presentation. This past Ballotine, knot gods behind me, the thing looked (mmostly) right.
Ballotine Stuffing:
Roasted sweet potato with caramelized red onion
Black lentils and mustard greens sautéed with garlic and salt
We roasted the thing at 350° for nearly 90 minutes.
If I had to do all over again, I’d lower the temperature a bit on the back side of the cooking time.
The lemons added to the skillet roast beautifully and go well is duck cracklins, should you have them about.
Saturday, March 8. 2008
A Note from the Chef, Erik Brett Cannella
We can all agree on something: I am not a writer. I am however a decent cook and hate having food go to waste. With that said, Adrianne and I cooked for a series of events over the last few weeks and found ourselves with a refrigerator full of ingredients. Nothing in this treasure trove of cooked and uncooked items was enough for a meal by itself. 
Time to play the refrigerator game. It’s a combination of tetrus and concentration. One must recall the previous items peered at whilst not causing the moved items to crash onto the floor—Causing the utterance of what will most likely be my final words “mother-fucker”.
This mornings foray provided me with inspiration for 2 items.
The chick pea soup
!/2 can of chick peas
Ziploc bag of grilled and marinated sweet peppers
Some onion, carrot, celery and parsnip
A little vegetable stock
Tomato chutney
I cant recall the exact amounts but basically just make soup and add a little sherry vinegar dried chilies and thyme.
The gratin
3 peeled potatoes
1/2 onion
a bit of pancetta
Italian Parsley
Cup of grated Comte cheese
Goat cheese
1 1/2 cups of parsnip and celery root soup
touch of cream
olive oil and butter melted
Form the gratin by sautéing the pancetta and onion in a little of the butter. When cooked add the soup and cream,warm and turn off the heat.
Thinly slice the potatoes and start to layer them in a buttered casserole dish . Season with salt and pepper a touch of nutmeg between each layer. Sprinkle each layer with a bit of both cheeses and parsley and continue on. When finished with the potatoes and cheeses add the liquids top a bit of cheese. Bake at 400 for about an hour or until a knife easily pierces the potatoes.
Eat.
Time to play the refrigerator game. It’s a combination of tetrus and concentration. One must recall the previous items peered at whilst not causing the moved items to crash onto the floor—Causing the utterance of what will most likely be my final words “mother-fucker”.
This mornings foray provided me with inspiration for 2 items.
The chick pea soup
!/2 can of chick peas
Ziploc bag of grilled and marinated sweet peppers
Some onion, carrot, celery and parsnip
A little vegetable stock
Tomato chutney
I cant recall the exact amounts but basically just make soup and add a little sherry vinegar dried chilies and thyme.
The gratin
3 peeled potatoes
1/2 onion
a bit of pancetta
Italian Parsley
Cup of grated Comte cheese
Goat cheese
1 1/2 cups of parsnip and celery root soup
touch of cream
olive oil and butter melted
Form the gratin by sautéing the pancetta and onion in a little of the butter. When cooked add the soup and cream,warm and turn off the heat.
Thinly slice the potatoes and start to layer them in a buttered casserole dish . Season with salt and pepper a touch of nutmeg between each layer. Sprinkle each layer with a bit of both cheeses and parsley and continue on. When finished with the potatoes and cheeses add the liquids top a bit of cheese. Bake at 400 for about an hour or until a knife easily pierces the potatoes.
Eat.
Wednesday, October 10. 2007
Glory in the Rain
Summer in the Pacific Northwest is a fickle little minx. Come August, she is a sweltering vixen one day and the very next she is a Camus-reading teenager with a penchant for Bach fugues. For those who long for balmy evenings and long dinners on the patio she is more aloof than she is brazen. For a select few–the mushroom hunters– she is not depressed enough.
Summer rain means wild mushrooms; wild mushrooms mean glory. There is a high one feels when finding a ring of chanterelles or a cluster of hedgehog fungus. There are bragging rights when one brings home a cauliflower mushroom or a clump of oysters. The prize, however, is the matsutake.
Matsutake are a fragrant, meaty delight whose cinnamon and pine perfume lingers with unapologetic passion. They sell for up to $25.00 a pound in the States and, for the best grade up to $75.00 a pound in Japan.
Aside from all of that, the high achieved when finding a clean, worm-free happy/healthy matsutake is, well, a wet one.
But what to do with it?
We made mini cheese burgers with matsutake mashed potatoes and sautéed matsutake on the side.
The only thing missing was a chasselas, which pairs perfectly.
Summer rain means wild mushrooms; wild mushrooms mean glory. There is a high one feels when finding a ring of chanterelles or a cluster of hedgehog fungus. There are bragging rights when one brings home a cauliflower mushroom or a clump of oysters. The prize, however, is the matsutake.
Matsutake are a fragrant, meaty delight whose cinnamon and pine perfume lingers with unapologetic passion. They sell for up to $25.00 a pound in the States and, for the best grade up to $75.00 a pound in Japan.
Aside from all of that, the high achieved when finding a clean, worm-free happy/healthy matsutake is, well, a wet one.
But what to do with it?
We made mini cheese burgers with matsutake mashed potatoes and sautéed matsutake on the side.
The only thing missing was a chasselas, which pairs perfectly.