Daring Cooks - Favorite Risotto, Even Better

I have had an on again off again relationship with risotto. Sometimes I like it, sometimes it taste like gruel. So this month's Daring Cooks challenge hit me hard. I wasn't sure I was up for the challenge.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

There's only one risotto I really like. It happens that it's from Food52 co-founder and New York Times food writer, Amanda Hesser. Amanda wrote a charming cooking memoir, Cooking for Mr. Latte, with a recipe that did a lot to change my mind about risotto. So, for this challenge, I went right there, and made Creamy Risotto with Lemon.

And I used a new chicken stock - one I've been testing for Food52 this week.

the stock was made with chicken feet and was so gelatin-y! amazing mouthfeel.

Finally, because I am still a little ambivalent about risotto - I started thinking about what I might add to this rice dish to make me happy. There were tiny little new asparagus at the market this morning, so they had a place, certainly. Then, I had a brainstorm. You see, I am a crunch lover. Not so big on the creamy ricey thing - too much like porridge.
Here's what I came up with. To the lemon risotto, stir in some chopped tiny new asparagus, spoon this into a baking dish, and cover with breadcrumbs chopped up with parsley and garlic, then moistened with a little melted butter.
This wonder of wonders emerged from the oven crunchy on the top and creamy inside. Yum Yum.
Baked Risotto with Asparagus & Lemon
Serves 4
For the risotto:
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
5 c excellent chicken stock, simmering in a pot (I made thirschfeld's Stock Under Pressure from Food52)
1 c arborio rice
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 c creme fraiche
1 small bunch asparagus, blanched and chopped into 1" pieces
1/4 c grated parmesian cheese
For the topping:
1.5 c breadcrumbs
1/2 c chopped parsley
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 Tbls butter, melted

Make the risotto:
In a large, heavy stockpot or saucepan (at least 3 qt), heat the olive oil and butter. Add the onion and saute until starting to get toasty brown on the edges. Add the rice and stir, toast for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon juice and scrape up any brown tasty bits.
Turn the heat to medium low.
Add the chicken stock one ladleful/about a 1/2 c. at a time and stir until the liquid is absorbed each time. Be patient. Stir Stir.
When you've added all but a cup or so of the stock, taste the rice to see if it's done. It should be slightly al dente. If you need more liquid, add the stock and taste again. If you need more, use water. Keep cooking until the rice has a nice bite.
Take it off the heat, stir in the asparagus, cheese, creme fraiche and lemon zest.
Lightly butter a gratin pan. Spoon in the risotto until filled.
Make the topping. In the food processor, blitz the bread crumbs, parsley and garlic clove. Add the melted butter. Press the topping on the risotto and bake, uncovered, at 350 for 35 minutes.

Roast Chicken & Old Friends

''There is nothing like roast chicken,'' Laurie Colwin writes in ''More Home Cooking, ''It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish no matter what the circumstances. Elegant or homey, a dish for a dinner party or a family supper, it will not let you down.''

In case you're wondering, I’m reading Laurie Colwin. Rereading to be precise. Back in 1981, Laurie set me on a food path. My sister in law sent me all of Laurie’s books for my birthday a good 20 years ago.

Thanks to Laurie Colwin, I thought about food in different ways from the very first of her essays. And I thought more and more about food food food. On and on. Julia. Marcella. Craig Claiborne. Ruth Reichl. Silver Palate. Amanda Hesser. Deborah Madison. Diana Kennedy. Year in Provence. Buford’s Heat. FoodTV, Bourdain, Mario. Sara Moulton (God, I loved her show.) Don't even get me started on the demise of Gourmet.

Today, it’s nice to revisit Home Cooking. I see a new edition will be published this Spring. If you haven’t read it, you must.

And More Home Cooking is just like going back for seconds at the best dinner you’ve ever been invited to. After you’re done there, don’t miss her essays and short stories.

I know there are a million places to find inspiration for our cooking these days. Still, it’s nice to spend a winter afternoon curled up in a chair with a cup of tea and a book of stories by an old friend.

My Roast Chicken

I’m reading Laurie’s words, and I’m craving roast chicken. And, I’m determined to prove a point to myself. Many friends have quietly challenged my “buy local and organic as much as possible” focus. They say, in one way or the other, “it’s nice if you can afford it.” I decided to see what I could do with a $17.00, 3.5 lb. organic, free range chicken from Smith Market Farm (at the Broad Branch farmer’s market). In my heart, a $17.00 chicken is a bit ridiculous, I’ll admit. I’m old enough to remember chicken for nineteen cents a pound. So, my next couple of posts will be devoted to said bird, and a vague accounting.

I roasted the chicken on day one with my own method combining Judi Rogers and Thomas Keller and Laurie Colwin’s rhapsodies on roasted chicken. Using the dry brine description in the Zuni Café Cookbook, I tucked sprigs of thyme under the breast and thigh skin of a clean, dry bird. Mixed a scant tablespoon of good kosher salt with two teaspoons of fresh ground pepper and rubbed it all over the chicken. Tuck the wings under the chicken and tie the legs together. Yes, that’s it. Nothing else. Now, set the bird on a rack over a sheet pan and put it in the refrigerator, uncovered, for awhile, anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.

This next is pure Thomas Keller (Bouchon) and also Michael Ruhlman, who you can thank for the elegant text in all the Keller books, as well as the brilliant, revolutionary Ratio. He offers a brilliant roast chicken tutorial on his blog.

Fire up the oven to 475 or even 500. Put a cast iron pan on a burner and turn up the heat and heat up the pan to seriously hot. Add about a tablespoon of grapeseed or canola oil and get that good and hot. Now, put the chicken in the pan back side down, breast side up, and pop it in the hot hot hot oven. Set the timer for an hour.

During that hour, get four or five big sprigs of thyme ready, as well as ½ cup of chicken stock. Need I say, preferably homemade?

After an hour, test the temperature of your chicken by inserting a thermometer (don’t even tell me you don’t have one – you can find them in the grocery store, for heavens sake) into the fatty part of the thigh. It should register 170. Take the bird out of the oven and set it on the top of the stove.

Toss in the thyme springs. They’ll crackle – so satisfying – then pour in the broth and spoon it over the nice brown shiny roast chicken. Take the bird out of the pan and set it on a carving board and let it sit for 10 minutes while you toss a salad. Heat up the broth, thyme, crusty yummy stuff in the pan and cook it down a little bit.

Cut up the chicken and spoon some sauce over it. Delicious with roasted broccoli. (We opted for no potato or rice or anything. We’re trying to say farewell to holiday weight.)

I should mention – I often cook the chicken on the gas grill. I just heat it up to 500 and put the cast iron pan on the grill and put the lid down. It’s cooked perfectly in 50 minutes.

Next step, best done right after you enjoy the roast chicken dinner. I make stock while Dennis does the dishes. Rough chop two onions and three carrots and some celery tops and leaves. Toss them in a 5 qt stockpot with the carcass and bones. If you have the neckbone from the chicken, add that. If you have a stash in the freezer with wingtips and scraps and necks, add those. Fill the pot up with water. Add a bay leaf, a dozen peppercorns, half a bunch of parsley. Have some extra sauce leftover in the cast iron pan? Put that in, too.

Set the pot on the stove and bring it to a slow simmer. Cover and cook for four hours or more. Skim if you want to get fussy. This works wonderfully in a slow cooker, overnight. Shred whatever meat you find and toss the bones away. They've done their job. I had more than 8 cups of beautiful stock after straining. And I had 1 cup of shredded meat, and the meat from two legs, one thigh and one small piece of breast meat. Total of 2+ cups of chicken to use for the next meal.

Tomorrow – Chicken Pot Pie, or the Siren that calls to my mostly vegetarian husband.

Talking Turkey at Smith Meadows Farm

Just a few days ago, I spent a wonderful morning with the Pritchard family at Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Virginia. The farm has been in the family, and producing, since the early 19^th century. A few years back, Betsy and Forrest made the decision to focus full time on running the farm. It’s a family affair, for sure, with their mother running the B&B (and joining in the farm work between guest stays); and, Forrest’s wife, Nancy, making delectable pasta and sauces.

Driving through an ancient orchard along the driveway, sheep raise their heads to see who is coming. The pigs are having a fantastic time under the trees, finding windfall apples - snarfling and snuffling. I had to stop, open the windows and listen. So tame, they came to the fence, clearly looking for goodies.

At the end of the drive is a Dutch/Federal style Manor House with narrow buildings on either side – dependencies -all fashioned from bricks made on the premises. It's a picture-perfect Virginia farm. Across the 400 acres, there are rolling pastures where cattle, sheep and pigs graze. I head up to a large fenced area that holds all the poultry in a grassy field. When I visited in July, there were ducks, turkeys and chickens. Today, it's just turkeys and chickens. (See my Duck tales.)

I’ve been a customer for several years, but this year, I wanted to know more about the bird on my Thanksgiving table, and that's why I am at the farm.

Betsy and I walked up the hill to the field where the turkeys were grazing on grass behind a small, makeshift fence. The fence is a new addition, moving with the turkeys as they are relocated for fresh grass (they really do a number on the grass in a very short time!) The fence had to be erected recently when coyote and fox started taking young birds. Sadly, one coyote killed nine turkeys, eating only one, leaving behind eight bloody corpses. Serious frustration for the turkey farmer!

Smith Meadows raises two commercial breeds – the broad breasted white and the broad breasted bronze. When asked why no heritage breeds, the answer came down to dollars and sense. Heritage chicks cost more than twice as much as commercial chicks, and they have a higher mortality rate. All I know is Betsy’s got some tasty birds. They’ve graced my holiday table for the last five years.

Betsy says she learned some good lessons this year with her brood of 300. Chicks arrive in the mail in June and July, staggered across a few weeks. In fact, those started in July did better than those started earlier. Better weather, more consistent warmth. The birds are raised to a particular weight, not for particular number of days, aiming for 10-14 lbs. Evidently, with smaller families, the days of the 25# turkey are over. I say, good riddance to dried out turkey - roast two smaller birds instead! Betsy calls and talks to the turkeys as we walk among them. They're definitely interested in us, chattering and preening.

Betsy and Forrest started selling directly to the customer in 1996 through farmers markets around the Washington, DC metro area. They currently raise about 4000 chickens each year, as well as the turkeys. At any time, they might have 200 cows, 125 hogs and 800 laying hens. And lamb. Heaven. Their lamb is some of the best I've ever tasted - I assumed it was due to the rich green pastures, but Betsy explained the efforts she's made to balance the minerals they take in - minerals that are critical to a lamb's health.

We walked down to the processing house where turkeys were meeting their maker. It was quick and humane. That's all I need to say. No screaming. No anxiety.

Once dispatched, the bird is quickly scalded and then put in a gentle tumbling plucking machine. When the feathers are off, the bird is passed back to the stainless steel processing tables. Here, the two farm interns (hard to believe that's the same smiling face I see every Saturday at my market) are cleaning up a nice looking turkey.

I watched as the birds were processed. Great care is taken to clean and prepare the turkey for the customer, all done by hand to limit any bruising or tearing.

Here's Betsy doing the final inspection - getting all the pin feathers and feather pins out.

After watching for awhile (I wondered later if I should have jumped in to help, but...) I walked down the path to visit with Nancy in the kitchen. Smith Meadows has a brisk pasta and sauce market business. I have my favorites (Sweet Potato Ravioli, Apple Cheddar Ravioli, Oat & Winter Wheat Fettucine.)

In this sweet little storefront, Nancy and her two worker-bees were cranking out noodles and pesto, supervised by her Nancy's son, Linus.

There were great heaps of green garlic scapes, nuts, cheese and oil ready for the food processor. And rectangular slabs of freshly made pasta dough ready for the pasta machine. I will admit to pasta-machine-envy.

When we were parting company, I asked Betsy a question that's been on my mind since disassembling the ducks. Do her customers want cut-up chicken? Yes, of course they do. But she encourages them to watch the videos to see how it's done. Here's one I like linked here.

I always buy whole chickens and will admit that I most often roast them whole, but recently, after the duck education, I decided to break down two chickens for various dishes - eight leg quarters for my new favorite go-to dish from food52, Rosy Chicken, breasts for some charcuterie (post to come) and carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps for stock.

Above all, I think I most appreciate the nose-to-beak benefits of homemade stock.

I keep chicken, duck and other stock in 6 cup measures, in ziplock bags (freeze flat on a sheet pan for best storing!) in the freezer. Six cups is the perfect quantity for one batch of soup.

Chicken (or duck or turkey) Stock, makes about 8 cups

Two chicken carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps (about two pounds)

3 quarts cold water

2 onions, quartered (onion skin can go in the pot, too, as it helps color the stock)

4 carrots, cut in thirds

2 celery stalks, or the celery leaves from the stalk

1 T peppercorns

6-8 fresh thyme stalks

2 rosemary stalks

1 bay leaf

Cook for at least four hours, covered. Sometimes I cook mine for six hours.

Strain and cook another hour.

Cool quickly in a bowl held over an ice bath to retain the best flavor.

Refrigerate overnight. Skim the fat. Freeze.

Make a batch today. You'll love how the house smells and you will thank me at Thanksgiving.

PS I don't salt my stock so I can control the salt in soups and sauces made from the stock.