Merry Christmas Everyone!

I wanted to wish a merry Christmas to everyone out in the web world. I hope that you were good this year and Santa brought you everything you asked for. Santa brought me tons of new kitchen gadgets including an Epicurean cutting board (love it, thanks to the recommendation from Chef  Gustaeu at At the Pass), an enamled, cast iron dutch oven, my favorite BBQ book, a spice grinder, and an awesome temperature gauge for my smoker that monitors both the fire and the meat. Now I need to talk to him about some new pans and a new chef's knife...

I did a ton of cooking the past couple days, including a few things from the Live to Cook so hopefully I'll have some new posts up soon. Come back soon to see what I made and how it turned out. I hope you ate as well as we did!

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Lizzie's Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde (p. 238)

As you can probably guess by the gap between posts, I've been extremely busy lately! Between finishing a couple big projects for work, getting ready for Christmas, and traveling to Tennessee for business/visiting with the in laws, I haven't had much free time. I actually cooked my next dish, Lizzie's Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde (p. 238) a week and a half ago, but am just now getting around to writing about it. 


Before the recipe, Michael tells a funny story about how Liz, his wife, could not cook when they first started dating. He goes so far as to say she, "almost took him out twice - once with some not so fresh crayfish and the other time with some medium-rare chicken." Fortunately she has come along way since they first started dating and Michael credits this recipe to her.

The first thing to know about making Lizzie's Chicken is that the prep actually starts the day before you are ready to eat it. As with many of Michael's recipes, he recommends seasoning the chicken the night before cooking.

2 3/4 lb chicken from Plum Creek Farm seasoned with kosher salt

I rubbed the chicken down with olive oil and liberally seasoned the entire chicken inside & out, with Diamond kosher salt. Don't be afraid that you are using too much salt!

Chicken seasoned with salt wrapped in plastic wrap ready to go back into the fridge

After seasoning with salt, I wrapped the chicken in plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge until the next night.

All the ingredients for stuffing the chicken

The next night,  about an hour before I wanted to put it in the oven, I pulled the chicken out of the fridge and got the ingredients ready to stuff the chicken. I cut the lemon & onion into slices and organized the thyme, garlic & bay leaves. I carefully lifted the skin from the chicken and stuffed lemon slices between the breasts & the skin, along with the bay leaves. Then I put the remaining lemon into the cavity of the chicken, along with the onions, thyme, and garlic.

Chicken stuffed & ready to go into the oven

At 8:55 the chicken was ready to go in the oven. Yes, I know, we eat too late.

 

All the ingredients for making the salsa verde.

Once the chicken was in the oven it was time to start the salsa verde. In case you aren't familiar with salsa verde, or green sauce, it is a cold sauce made mostly out of herbs. There are different ethnic versions of salsa verde; the one in this recipe is an Italian rendition with parsley, capers, shallots, anchovies, garlic, mint, jalapeno, lemon, & olive oil.

Chopped ingredients for the salsa verde

I chopped all the ingredients into a uniform size and mixed them together.

 

Zesting the lemon

The next step is to zest & juice the lemon. To get the most juice from a lemon, first bring the fruit to room temperature and roll on a hard surface while pressing down on the lemon.
Of course this assumes you want a lot of lemon juice, more on this later...

 

All the salsa verde ingredients waiting for the olive oil

 

Salsa verde all mixed up

Mix in the olive oil and the salsa verde is ready to go. It makes a great snack on some crusty bread while you are waiting for the chicken to finish roasting.

 

Roasted chicken at 160 degrees

After about an hour the chicken was done roasting and was nice and brown. 

 

Pan drippings

There were lots of yummy drippings in the pan so I decided to make a pan gravy by deglazing the roasting pan with some homemade chicken stock I had in the fridge and reducing it.

 

Chicken gravy in pureed cauliflower

I added the gravy to my Vita Mix along with some cauliflower I'd pureed. I'd never really eaten cauliflower before buying some at the Homerville Produce Auction this fall and quickly discovered this under appreciated vegetable. This made a nice side dish to go with the chicken. It was like mashed potatoes & gravy but with less carbs.

 

Carved chicken

After letting the chicken rest for 10-15 minutes, I carefully carved the legs, wings, thighs, and breast off and saved the carcass for making stock in the future. Carving chickens definitely takes some practice and I think I've finally got it down. It used to look like a big mess when I was done carving so I was quite pleased with the results.

 

One serving of the chicken topped with salsa verde

Finally, I topped off each serving with a few spoonfuls of the delicious salsa verde.

I should preface my review of Lizzie's by saying neither my wife, nor I , are very big fans of lemon. There are many great uses for lemon outside of cooking. Here are some examples I found thanks to Google:

• Whiten fingernails. Rub a wedge on the surface of your nails.
• Shine the interior of copper cookware. Sprinkle a lemon wedge with salt, then scrub.
• Brighten laundry whites. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the wash cycle of a normal-size load.
  
• Remove soft cheese or other sticky foods from a grater. Rub both sides of the grater with the pulp side of a cut lemon. 
• Remove odors from hands. Rub your hands with a cut lemon just before washing. 
• Keep your garbage disposal fresh. Run used lemon peels through your garbage disposal to keep it smelling fresh. 
• Heal wounds faster & lowers body temperatures. Eating lemons also hastens healing of wounds and helps to lower high body temperature.
  
• Stop nose bleeds. A few drops of lemon juice dabbed on a cotton ball and applied to nostrils helps to stop nose bleeding.
• Last but not least, the Lemon Cleanse Diet. Read more about it here or here. Proceed with caution! 

To our taste bugs, this dish was LEMON OVERLOAD. I ate the leg first, then the thigh, then the breast (which I did not finish). The legs were pretty tasty because they didn't have lemon resting on them through the roasting process. The thigh had a much stronger lemon taste and the breast was almost inedible the lemon was so strong. 


I really liked the salsa verde, especially the crunch from the shallots & jalapeno's. But it also had a lot of lemon in it so I did not like it paired with the chicken. I had plenty left over and it was a great topping on crusty bread. 


Needless to say, I won't be making roasted lemon chicken again. I'd much rather have a simple roasted chicken seasoned with salt & pepper and nothing else like Thomas Keller, especially when enjoying a juicy, pasture raised bird from Plum Creek Farm


Want to see Michael & Liz prepare this dish? Check out the video here. 


Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. I try my best to use locally sourced, high quality ingredients.

It cost approximately $25.43 to make Lizzie's Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde. The cost break down is below:

Roasted Chicken:

Whole Chicken, 2.75 lbs - $11 from Plum Creek Farm
Lemon - $0.75
Onion - $0.50 (Homerville Produce Auction)
Misc (Salt, bay leaves, garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil) - $1

Salsa Verde:

Parsley - $1.49
Mint - $2.39
King Oscar Anchovies - $1
Lemon $0.75
Roland Salt Packed Capers - $0.85
Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olive Tap) - $4.70 
Misc (Garlic, shallot, jalapeno, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper) - $1

Unless otherwise noted, all ingredients for this dish came from Heinen's 

Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish. In this case I chose lemon.

Lemons are low in calories and contain no fat. They are best known for Vitamin C which is essential for healthy gums, teeth and bones. Lemons are also a good source of Vitamin B6, Iron and Potassium, and an excellent source of Dietary Fiber and Vitamin C.

Most of the health benefits of lemon can be attributed to the presence Vitamin C. Lemons are good for digestion, cancer, heart diseases, arthritis, boosting immune system, diabetes, liver disorders, infections, dental care, hair care, skin care, and urinary tract infections. Vitamin C also helps heal wounds and fractures too. It helps build a resistance to infections, giving strength to blood vessels and aids in the absorption of iron.

OT: Support our Troops this Holiday Season

One of the best things about writing a blog is the ability to spread the message about things that are important to you as the author. From time to time on this blog I will post about "off topic" subjects such as charitable events like the one below, other dishes I prepare outside of the book, and other great dining adventures I experience. 

Please consider giving to the cause below.

Mister Brisket, one of the best butchers & sandwich shops on the Eastside of Cleveland, has a great promotion this holiday season. They started a fund raising campaign to ship salami's & Stadium MustardCormac Chandler & the rest of his unit serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan. As if it could get any better than supporting our troops, Mister Brisket will give you a gift certificate good for one free sandwich as a thank you. to

Click here read more details about the "Salami to the Troops" campaign.

Cormac Chandler & crew carrying a wounded soldier to the chopper in Afghanistan

They have already received donations to send 120 salami's! With a goal of 500. The cost is minor--$20--and allows you the opportunity to personally thank those that sacrifice so much on our behalf.  Please consider giving to this great cause this holiday season. You can donate by visiting Mister Brisket in Cleveland Heights or calling 216-932-8620.

Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette (p. 189)

I decided my second blog post would be from the Fish section of Live to Cook. After looking over the Fish recipes and checking out what was available at my local Heinen's, I decided to make Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette (p. 189). This dish is basically shrimp sauteed in garlic and topped with a sauce made of wine, seafood stock, and a dill vinaigrette. If you can find good, fresh shrimp, this dish would make a great appetizer for a party or a quick dinner. On to the cooking...

 

Here are all the ingredients

The first step was to make the stock. I don't cook a lot of seafood and I had never made seafood stock before making this dish. I make my own chicken, turkey, and beef stock and know that it takes hours to properly make a good batch of any of these stocks. I had no idea it would be so quick & easy to create a delicious seafood stock.

  

Sliced onion, carrot, & ginger

I started by thinly slicing the onions, carrots, and ginger.

  

Peeled shrimp, don't forget to save the shells!

Next up was to prep the shrimp. I used "fresh" USA wild caught shrimp (21-25 count) that were already deveined. Unfortunately the shrimp from Heinen's, like most shrimp available in the Ohio, were not very fresh. I probably would have been better off using IQF shrimp (individually quick frozen) but I did not check the quality of the shrimp until I got home. I knew the blog must go on so I rinsed them, removed the shells, and reserved the shells to be used in the stock.

  

Toasting coriander seeds

The next step to prep for the stock was to toast the coriander seeds. Coriander, also known as cilantro or Chinese parsley, is Michael Symon's favorite spice. He says, "Besides being balanced, it works with almost every food, and it's almost impossible to overseason food with it." Toasting the coriander seeds brings out its full flavor. To toast the seeds, I warmed a saute pan over medium heat, added the seeds, and toasted them, tossing occasionally, until they were fragrant, probably 2-3 minutes.

  

Mise en place

  

Sweating the carrots & onions (before I covered them)

Once I had everything for the stock in place I sweat the carrots & onions over medium heat. Sweating is the process of releasing flavors with moisture (fat in this case) and low temperatures. Be patient with this process to get as much flavor out of the onions & carrots as possible. The goal is to get the flavors our of them, not caramelize them.

  

The rest of the stock ingredients 

Once the onions were translucent I added the shrimp shells, coriander seeds, bay leaf & ginger and mixed it all together.

  

Stock simmering

I cooked this mixture until the shrimp shells turned pink, added 2 cups of water, and brought it to a simmer.

  

Tada! Delicious seafood stock in 20 minutes

After 15-20 minutes, I had a delicious seafood stock. I carefully poured the stock through a strainer. This makes more than the 1/2 cup this dish calls for so I had plenty left over to play with in another dish. I also enjoyed eating the carrots used in the stock. They were some of the sweetest carrots I've ever tasted, why let them go to waste?

Salted, minced shallots for the vinaigrette

While the stock was simmering, I began prepping the vinaigrette. First I minced the shallots and seasoned them with salt.

  

Vinaigrette coming together

Then I added the dill and the zest & juice of 2 lemons into the bowl. Michael recommends not making the vinaigrette until right before it will be served because the dill will discolor. Finally, I whisked in the olive oil until the flavors were mixed, tasted and seasoned with salt & pepper to my taste.

 

One pound of shrimp laid out to be seasoned

I heated a couple tablespoons of olive oil over high heat and added the seasoned the shrimp. There were too many shrimp to do in one batch, so rather than crowd the pan I did them in a few batches. Advice: The shrimp do not take long to cook AND YOU DON'T WANT TO OVERCOOK THEM! so be attentive and take them off the heat after just a couple minutes.

Garlic shrimp

Once the shrimp were overcooked, I added all of them back to the pan, along with the garlic. I let the garlic cook for a minute or so while stirring to spread the flavor between all the shrimp.

 
Shrimp with garlic, wine, & seafood stock - should be delicious, right?

Almost done! Once the garlic had softened a little, I deglazed the pan with the the wine & seafood stock and let it reduce for a minute or so. I knew I probably should have removed the shrimp before deglazing the pan, but I didn't so they continued to overcook.

  

 

The vinaigrette warming up

The final step before plating should have been to add the capers and vinaigrette to the sauce but since I left the shrimp in the sauce, I took them both out of the pan and put them in the bowl in which they would be served. I then added the capers and vinaigrette to the empty pan and heated the mixture until it was warm. I then added the capers & dill vinaigrette to the rest of the sauce & shrimp.

 

Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette

Looks beautiful, right?

 

Plating of the Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette

So how did it turn out? The fact that the shrimp were not so fresh, combined with the fact that I overcooked the shrimp led to an unsuccessful dish. I am sure this is a great dish when good quality, fresh shrimp are used (and not overcooked). Unfortunately, aside from walleye & perch, it is difficult to get high quality seafood of any kind in the Cleveland area. Don't get me wrong, we still ate them all, the shrimp that were just a little dry & rubbery. Sounds appetizing, right? I am probably make it sound worse than it was, but I am glad I was only serving this dish to my wife. If I make this dish again, I will definitely remove the shrimp a lot quicker from the heat!


The vibrant, acidic vinaigrette really brings the shrimp to life and I used some crusty bread to sop up the leftover sauce when the shrimp were gone. In the book, Symon wrote a full page (p. 187) about his use of vinaigrettes instead of typical sauces & stocks quite often in his restaurants. You'll also notice quick vinaigrettes such as this one are prevalent throughout the book, in both hot and cold preparations. Symon feels typical stock based sauces, "too easily become over-reduced and sticky on the tongue...and are also time-consuming." Instead, he prefers to combine the same ingredients of a classical sauce in the same pan used to cook the protein, gaining the flavor of the dish, but comes together a la minute.

Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

It cost approximately $24.08 to make Shrimp with Dill Vinaigrette. The cost broke down as follows:

Large, Wild American Shrimp, shell on but deveined - $11.21
Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olive Tap) - $4.70 
Simi Chardonnay - $2.00 (this wine paired very nicely with the dish)
Dill - $1.99 
Lemons - $1.33
Roland Salt Packed Capers - $0.85
Onion - $0.50 (Homerville Produce Auction)
Carrot - $0.50 (Plum Creek CSA)
Misc (shallot, vegetable oil, fresh ginger, whole coriander seeds (Spicehound), bay leaf (Spicehound), garlic, salt) - $1

Unless otherwise noted, all ingredients for this dish came from Heinen's 

Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish.


Low in fat and calories, shrimp also offer beneficial doses of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12 and niacin. Shrimp also are mineral-rich, supplying iron, zinc and copper. One serving of shrimp has 17 grams of protein, 34 percent of your daily recommended amount. Look for firm meat with a sweet, lightly briny aroma. Shrimp with discolored shells or an ammonia smell should be rejected. 

Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers

Who knew that the cooking would be the easy part of blogging my way through Live to Cook? I actually made my first dish, Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers, a week ago but I've spent the past week setting up the layout of the blog, buying the domain, familiarizing myself with HTML, editing pictures, and of course writing this post. Phew! Hopefully most of that will be a one time setup and most of my time will now be spent in the kitchen.

I decided Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers would be the first dish I blogged about. I know, I know, Brussels sprouts don't sound like a very sexy dish but Michael Symon is trying to change that image with this dish. I'd never even eaten Brussels sprouts until this summer when I tried a different variety of fried Brussels sprouts at Bar Symon. Wow, I've really been missing out and I’m guessing you have been too! I've had Brussels sprouts prepared three different ways now and this is probably my favorite. These are definitely not the typical roasted or steamed version that you are probably used to. It is basically a fried Brussels sprout salad.

Here are all the ingredients

The first step was to prep the vinaigrette. Vinaigrette’s are so quick, easy, and cheap to prepare that I don’t understand why so many people buy the stuff in a plastic bottle. For the Brussels sprouts, Symon created a simple oil & red wine vinegar dressing flavored with garlic, honey, scallions (I substituted leeks), Serrano pepper, walnuts & anchovies. If you don’t like anchovies, don’t worry you won’t notice they are in the final product but they do add depth to the flavor of the vinaigrette.

I started by lightly toasting the walnuts on the stove top. You could also toast them in the oven if you prefer.

Walnuts toasting

While the walnuts were toasting, I minced the garlic, anchovy, leeks, & serrano chile. Once the walnuts were nicely toasted I removed them and gave them a coarse chop. You don’t want to chop them too much; the walnuts give the salad a nice texture. Next, I whisked the red wine vinegar, honey, & olive oil in a large bowl until they were emulsified. Then I mixed in the garlic, anchovy, leeks, serrano chile, & walnuts. I then tasted the vinaigrette and seasoned with kosher salt & fresh ground pepper.

 

The finished vinaigrette

While the vinaigrette flavors were melding together it was time to prep the sprouts. The first step was to heat the oil for frying. If you have a deep fryer, it would work great. If not, just fill a pot of oil on the stove top. Be careful not to overfill the pan. You need enough room to fry the Brussels sprouts without the oil spilling over!

I don’t have a deep fryer so I filled a medium sized pan ¾ of the way with vegetable oil and put it on the stove. I’m not sure how, but I misread the temperature Symon suggests heating the oil too. As you can see in the picture below, I heated the oil to 312 degrees while the book says 350. I didn’t have any problems at 312, but when I make this dish again, I will warm the oil to 350.

Not sure why I thought the temperature was supposed to be 312 degrees

I was inspired to make this dish first as soon as I saw the fresh Brussels sprouts still on the stalk at the farmer's market. I've never had Brussels sprouts that didn't come from the stalk, but many people have told me that they are drastically better than Brussels sprouts that have already been removed from the stalk.  

 Brussels sprouts still on the stalk courtesy of NUFM.
I’ve also recently seen them on the stalk at Trader Joe’s.

I was lucky to have my sous chef (my wife Beth) to help me prep the sprouts. She cut the sprouts from the stalk, removed the outer layers from each sprout, cut them in half or quarter depending on the size of each sprout, and sliced a notch at the base of each sprout. Try to remove as much of the stalk as possible when trimming them. The stalks are very fibrous and not pleasant to eat. Slicing a notch at the base of each sprout also helps make the sprouts more pleasant to eat.

  Cleaned & trimmed Brussels sprouts. Notice the notch at the base of each sprout.

Next came the fun part, frying! I don’t have much experience frying so I started out with a really small batch. I dropped a handful of Brussels sprouts in and let the oil do its magic.

 

The first batch of sprouts hits the fryer

After a few minutes, the edge of the leaves started to curl and turn brown. I removed the Brussels sprouts using a strainer and put them on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. Once they had cooled a bit I tasted one. Delicious! Crunchy on the outside but a little soft on the inside. I was ready to move on to a larger batch.

  

  

Pot full of sprouts

I added enough sprouts so I could not see the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to add to many or they won’t cook evenly. The temperature of the oil dropped quickly when I added this many sprouts, dropping all the way down to 250 degrees. I quickly turned the gas up to get the temperature back up. Once the Brussels sprouts began to curl & brown, I removed them from the pan and placed them on the plate with the others to drain. I continued this process until they were all cooked.


The next step was to fry the parsley and rinsed capers. The book warns to be careful when adding the capers to the oil because they pop. As soon as I put the parsley in it popped & sputtered the way I expected the capers to. Then I added the capers and nothing happened. After a minute or two I removed everything from the oil and it was nice & crispy.

Parsley & capers popping & sputtering oil

The final step is to add the Brussels sprouts, parsley and capers to the vinaigrette and lightly toss all the ingredients together. 

Brussels Sprouts, parsley, & capers added to the vinaigrette

 All ingredients tossed together

After everything was tossed together, I tasted and seasoned with salt & pepper.

 

Final plating of the Brussels sprouts

This dish is definitely something I will make again. It was quick & easy to prepare and tasted amazing. The acidity of the vinaigrette provided a great contrast to the flavor of the Brussels sprouts and the walnuts gave it an earthy flavor and provided a nice crunch. Symon articulates in his book, the two most important things about improving your cooking are to buy better ingredients and improve your technique. This dish is a perfect example of where quality ingredients will make a big difference. Be sure to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. These ingredients impart a lot of flavor to the dish. I don't think it would be nearly as good if cheap vinegar and, most importantly, EVOO were used. Symon also suggests the recipe can easily be changed to other flavor profiles depending on what you are serving it with. It will be fun to play with the vinaigrette next time I make it.


Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.


It cost approximately $13.81 to make Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers. The cost broke down as follows:


King Oscar Anchovies - $1
Organic Red Wine Vinegar (Olive Tap) - $1.42
Scallions (I subbed leeks from Killbuck Valley Farm) - $0.50
Walnuts -
Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olive Tap) - $4.70
Brussels sprouts (Amish vendor at NUFM) - $2.50
Parsley - $1.49
Capers - $0.85
Misc (canola oil, salt, pepper, garlic, serrano, Ohio Honey) - $0.25


Unless otherwise noted, all ingredients for this dish came from Heinen's


Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish.

Brussels sprouts are members of the cruciferous vegetable family. These vegetables contain significant amounts of the antioxidants vitamin C and beta-carotene (vitamin A), and nitrogen compounds called indoles which may reduce the risk of certain cancers. They are a good source of vegetable protein, because 31% of the calories come from protein.