Chicken Salad

Well, with the remains of our Thanksgiving Chicken (the white meat at least, the dark was long gone, thanks to two hungry people who love those parts) I made what I think of as a classic chicken salad. We've had it two nights in a row, once on pumpernickel swirl toast and last night on soft buns, which we both preferred. It gave it a more picknicky feel, somehow. Anyhow:

• Jeez, I don't know how much chicken. Basically the meat from the breast of a roasted 5 lb chicken, more or less. Dice fairly finely.
• 2-2 1/2 stalks of celery, also diced finely
• 1 large onion, diced finely
• 1 cup ( or more, totally up to you) of mayo. I used Hellman's, having had a complete Mayonnaise Fail trying to make home-made.
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 4-5 pickled Gherkins, finely minced
  
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1-2 teaspoons Chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried dill (fresh would be better, but gimme a break, it's December)
• Squeeze of juice from half a lemon
  
• Ground pepper

And that's about it. Combine it all in a big bowl, and put in the fridge, covered. It will be nice immediately, better later that day, and much better the next evening.

Tomato Relish

Ok, that's not really accurate, but it's as close as I can come to describing it. We had a pint container of cherry tomatoes (one of those clear plastic vented deals) that we bought, like, weeks ago. I noticed it on the counter again, and discovered that they were all perfectly good! So, I washed them, and threw them in the food processor along with various ingredients and left it in the fridge overnight. We ate it last night with yellow corn chips, and it turned out darn well if I say so myself.

• 1 pint small cherry tomatoes
• 2-3 tbsp freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, maybe more
  
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic (I also used some Sherry vinegar)
• Some pepper
• Squeeze of half a lemon
  

Buzz it all in your mini food processor, and let sit overnight. This might also be good on little toasts, bruschetta style. Thoughts for next time -- chopped Kalamata olives? A couple of anchovies? I'll definitely be trying this again.

Brining a Chicken

Got a 4-5 lb. bird from the poultry stand at Eastern Market, which you can read all about here:

The brine was basically:

2-3 tbsp kosher salt
2-3 tbsp light brown sugar
Several teaspoons cracked pepper, plus a scant handful of whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp dry Coleman's mustard
1/2 tsp red chili powder

Take a pot and put your chicken in it, and fill with water until it is almost submerged. Remove the chicken and put it back in the fridge. The water remaining is how much brine you will be making!

Put all the dry seasonings in the water and boil for five-ten minutes. Remove from the heat and add several cups of ice cubes to cool it down. Once it's cool, put the chicken in (should be submerged) and fridge it anywhere from 3 hrs to a whole 24 like we did.

Makes for juicy, flavorful chicken. Enjoy!

Meatloaf

This is essentially a combination of Mark Bittman's meatloaf recipe and Alton Brown's, but I ended up tweaking it so extensively that I feel comfortable claiming it as my own and bothering to blog about it. It's very simple, in two parts: the loaf, and the glaze.

The Loaf

• 2 lbs ground chuck, 80% lean
• 6 oz pork belly, de-boned and ground in the food processor (this part came up because my butcher had no ground pork or veal, which the aforementioned recipes both call for
• 1 medium onion, minced finely
• 1 carrot, peeled and minced
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard (I used Coleman's) don't click that, obnoxious Flash intro
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal, soaked briefly in 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
  

Mix this all up in a large mixing bowl -- but not too much mixing, as that will compress the meat and it will end up dry and dense. Believe me, if you follow my directions, that will be the least of your worries. Use a largish spatula and use a folding motion. Get everything well integrated, but don't go overboard.

In the bowl, use your (washed) hands to form the loaf into -- well, a loaf. I made mine rectangular, sort of like it had been in a bread pan. Plop this into a baking dish, or cast iron pan, and put in the oven at 350 or so. Cook for about 20 minutes, and then add:

The Glaze

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of your hottest hot sauce

Combine the above in a small ramekin and microwave for about 30 seconds. It sort of takes the bite out of the garlic. Probably an unnecessary step.

Once the meatloaf has been in for about 20 minutes, take it out and cover with the glaze using a brush (if you're fancy) or a spatula (if you're like me). Put the dish back in the oven.

Here's where it gets really unscientific for me, because my oven's temp is so undependable, and because it is so slow to rebound from having the door opened. Cook until it starts smelling good, about another 30-40 minutes, and then test with an instant-read thermometer; you're looking for it to be close to 160, your target temperature.

Once it's close, turn on the broiler. This will create a nice crunchy, meaty, sweet crust out of the glaze that you created. Wait no longer than five minutes, and remove. Serve with potatoes of your preferred preparation, rice, and whatever veggie strikes your fancy. This goes very well over rice with some pan drippings on top, and cornichon on the side as Sylvia discovered.

Pickles!

This is an adaptation of Alton Brown's bread-and-butter pickles recipe which Sylvia and I made last week. After not even 24 hours, they were delicious -- and have only been getting better. Note: these are refrigerator pickles, meaning not the kind that you can store at room temperature forever.

• 2 medium-large cucumbers
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 cup sugar (I used white sugar, but will try light brown next time)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp pickling spice (I got mine at the hardware store, of all places)
• Pinch of Kosher salt
  

This will make two quart-jars worth.

Slice up the cucumbers into very thin rounds, and pack into the jars. Boil all of the other ingredients for about five minutes, and then pour over the cucumbers. Cap them with the screw-on lids, let cool slightly and put in the fridge.

This was incredibly easy, and resulted in some of the best pickles I've had in ages. Total cost per batch is probably about a dollar a jar, and I don't think I'll ever buy store-bought pickles again.

This will make no sense, best to ignore it

This will make no sense unless you are a fan of both Fallout 3 and The Hold Steady.

well holly came from megaton
when her dad stepped out, it was the smoking gun
the smoking gun that echoed as she stepped out onto
the banks of the potomac river

[insert chorus, something that rhymes 'smoked those raiders' and 'she said laters' ]

and she came to ground and she staggered around
she did some jet and some stimpaks
and she had to kill some tunnel rats
on the banks of the potomac river

[something that rhymes 'young turk' and 'mirelurk']

I was bored while getting a haircut, and had been listening to The Hold Steady right beforehand, give me a break, huh jeez

That damned Firefox cursor

Have you ever noticed that in Firefox, on some sites the cursor will look weird, like it has a couple of extra pixels jutting out to the right? I think I have finally figured out why. Here's an example, if you've never noticed. I can't believe that this has been bothering me for so long. Years, I mean.

Vermicomposting

This isn't a post about food, but rather about a potential project that I'm considering after I do some more research. A project that could, in theory, lead to delicious food! Vermicomposting is a method of composting kitchen scraps (vegetable trimmings, potato peels, coffee grounds, etc.) indoors, with the aid of our friend the humble worm.

You take a smallish bin (think Tupperware storage, the opaque kind), and after drilling small holes in it, fill it with 'bedding' such as cut up newspaper and corrugated cardboard, the aforementioned kitchen scraps, and worms. Cover with more food and more bedding, add some water, and cover it with a tight-fitting lid.

The worms eat the vegetable material as well as the bedding, and you just keep adding both and occasionally stirring the whole thing around to fluff it up. You have to make sure the worms get enough food, and that there isn't too much or too little water in it, but after a few months, you get a ton of insanely high-quality compost/fertilizer. You separate the worms from the compost, and start all over again.

I grew up in a family who grew a ton of vegetables every spring and summer and composted religiously, but for all of my adult life I have lived in apartments in the city and have felt vaguely guilty every time I throw a piece of celery trimming or potato peel in the garbage. I do have a small area I can grow tomatoes and herbs in, so why not try this to feed my beloved vegetables? I will be looking into it further, and will certainly post about the experience, accompanied by photos if it turns out to be something I can actually do in a bin under my kitchen sink.

Here's what the EPA has to say about it, and here's somebody who is selling a pre-made 'Worm Inn' to do it with.

Quick, spicy, BBQ flavored chicken

One of my favorite quick meals (with a little bit of prep beforehand for marinading) is a dish of roasted chicken thighs and drumsticks, with carrots and onion. I do this differently every time, it seems. Here's what I did tonight. I used four thighs and four drumsticks.

For the marinade:

• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoon salt
• Lots of pepper
• A couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil
• A couple of tablespoons of ketchup
• A teaspoon of prepared mustard
• A half teaspoon of dry English mustard
• A few drops of one of the really hot novelty hot-sauces (anything that says something like "XXX" or "Do Not Want" or "This will make you Butt Hurt" on it)
• About 10 oz of Coca-Cola (no kidding, Coca-Cola).

Whisk that all together and put it over the chicken parts, in a big bowl. Cover and stick in the fridge for at least three hours.

Once that three hours is about up, preheat your oven to about 400, and cut up a big onion into thick slices, and place that at the bottom of a largish roasting pan. Peel and thickly slice three medium carrots on the bias and add them as well. Drizzle with olive oil and kosher salt.

Heat up your biggest cast iron pan, and add olive oil once hot. Brown both sides of all of the chicken parts (you'll have to do it in shifts), and as they finish, put them on top of the vegetables, skin side up. Once they're all added, throw it in the oven uncovered for about 40 minutes.

After the 40 minutes are up, take out the pan and turn the oven to 'broil'. While it's heating up, drizzle a tablespoon or so of the reserved marinade over each chicken part (which should at this point have nice and crispy looking skin) and then stick back under the broiler for about 5-10 minutes.

Remove. Eat. Enjoy.