Winter Comfort Food I: Molly Stevens' Braised Stuffed Lamb

It's winter on the East Coast and it's supposed to be cold I always say! But DC has been walloped with three storms in 8 days making this winter the snowiest on record ever. The capital of the free world has been shut down for four and a half days as I write this, and we have been hunkered down in our condo for seven days!

At the beginning it was all fun and novel. There were tweets for mass snowball fights at Dupont Circle and other locales. Brian and I went cross country skiing out our front door and were interviewed by journalists from Finland and Belgium. I was even photographed by the AP! Back before the cabin fever set in, we even decided to have some friends over for dinner on the Saturday night of Snow-pocalypse. No one would be going out to the movies or to any bars or anything. So why stay home watching the tube when you can hang out with friends over some cozy comfort food?

Comfort food usually involves two things: the oven and foods from childhood, including Sunday suppers like roasted chicken, meatloaf, casseroles, etc. and for me, especially something braised in red wine using my French (nee Dutch) oven. And so it was that I consulted my braising bible (All About Braising by Molly Stevens) and my freezer to see what might intersect. I was thinking about revisiting my EDF (eating down the fridge) meal of beef burgundy which I love to make, but the freezer only gave up a ham and a boneless lamb leg, which I'd bought last summer (gasp!) imagining I'd be grilling it with a yogurt marinade. Molly's recipe for the lamb is actually the cover recipe for her cookbook. It was a little less complicated than the ham recipe that calls for madeira, which I don't have, while the lamb preparation called for a red wine braise, and our wine cabinet is still full of bottles received at our annual holiday party.

Molly's braised lamb stuffed with herbs was an uncomplicated preparation with simple, accessible ingredients. Most braised meat dishes follow a simple five step cooking process:

1. Brown the meat on the outside and set aside
   
2. Cook the aromatic vegetables (usually, onions, carrots, garlic, etc.)
3. Deglaze with wine and stock and reduce
   
4. Return the meat to the pan and simmer for two plus hours until the meat is super tender
5. Finish the sauce by reducing and thickening if desired

Normally I like to do a braised meat dish a day ahead, letting it cool in its braising liquid and really soak up the flavors. A simple reheat before serving and no one would complain about being served leftovers. This post cooking marinade guarantees tenderness and full umami as most braised dishes do indeed taste better the next day. But Friday evening was taken up with baking bread, so I decided to just make the lamb the evening it would be served. Give yourself a good 45 minutes to prepare the stuffing, brown the lamb, saute the veggies, and reduce the braising liquid before the dish is to go in the oven for its two and a half hours. Molly doesn't recommend it here, but I also decided to marinate the lamb in red wine for almost a day. Not a requirement but just my take that marinading up front is also beneficial.

Molly's recipe calls for a 5 pound boneless leg of lamb, while I had on hand a frozen 3.25 pound boneless leg. I kept all her proportions the same for the aromatics and the stuffing, figuring that any extra sauce would make a delicious soup the next day (which it did with aplomb with a simple addition of some additional aromatics, stock, tomatoes, leftover green beans, and leftover penne!).

The only substitution I had to make was curly parsley for flat leaf. I never buy curly parsley! Who would have thought that my local Yes Organic Market would have had a run on the flat leaf parsley during the storms? Herbiage not withstanding, here is this very simple and delicious meal, perfect for a cold winter night. Serving it with polenta and green beans couldn't have been homier!

Herb Stuffed Leg of Lamb Braised in Red Wine

Adapted from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Yield: Serves 6 to 8

Cooking Time: 2 to 2 ½ hours

Ingredients

One 5-pound boneless leg of lamb (plus reserved bones, sawed or chopped into 1-inch pieces; optional); [Mine was just 3¼ pounds]
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

The stuffing:

½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley; stems reserved [I had to use curly!]
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, mint, rosemary, and/or sage (in any combination) [I used all except the sage]
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon ground allspice

The braise:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion (about 8 ounces), coarsely chopped
2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme, mint, rosemary, and/or sage (the same combination you used in the stuffing)
2 bay leaves
Reserved parsley stems from the stuffing, torn into 4-inch lengths
1 cup dry red wine
2 cups lamb, veal, or chicken stock, homemade or store-bought [I happened to have a combo of homemade beef and lamb stock that I'd made after Christmas using bones from a rib roast and a leg of lamb.]

Directions:

1. Trimming the lamb: open the lamb out flat, fat side down, on your work surface. If there are any especially thick spots, make a lengthwise incision with a knife, without cutting through the meat, and lay it open like a book. You want to get the meat as even in thickness as possible while keeping it intact. Season the cut side generously with salt and pepper.

2. The stuffing: in a small bowl, combine the parsley, mixed herbs, shallot, garlic, and allspice. Stir until evenly mixed together.

3. Stuffing and shaping the lamb: spread the stuffing over the cut side of the leg of lamb with a rubber spatula [I used my hands]. Press the stuffing into the meat with your hands to make it adhere, and spread it around so that it covers the entire inside surface. Roll the lamb up into a cylinder, and tie it neatly and snugly with kitchen string. Season the outside of the meat with salt and pepper. (The lamb can be prepared to this point and refrigate for up to 18 hours before braising. When you are ready to braise the lamb, remove it from the refrigerator, and let it sit at room temperature while you heat the oven.)

4. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

5. Browning the lamb: add the oil to a heavy lidded Dutch oven or braising pan just large enough to hold the lamb (5-quart), and heat it over medium-high heat until it simmers. Lower the lamb into the pot with tongs, and brown it evenly, turning to brown all sides, until mahogany in spots but not at all burnt, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer the lamb to a platter. Add the bones to the pot if you have them, and brown them as best you can without charring, turning them ever 4 minutes, for about 12 minutes. Set aside with the lamb. Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of fat from the pot. If the bottom is at all blackened, wipe those bits out with a damp paper towel, doing your best to leave behind the caramelized juices.

6. The aromatics and braising liquid: return the pot to medium-high heat, add the onion and carrots, and sauté, stirring, until beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir it in with a wooden spoon so it coats the carrots and onions. Add the teaspoon of herbs, the bay leaves, and parsley stems. Pour in the wine and bring it to a boil, stirring and scraping with the spoon to dislodge all those wonderful caramelized bits stuck to the bottom of the pot from browning the lab. Boil to reduce the wine by about half, about 2 minutes. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Continue to boil, stirring occasionally, for about 4 minutes allowing the flavors to meld.

7. The braise: return the lamb to the pot, along with any juices that have seeped from the meat, and tuck the bones, if using, around the meat. Cover with a piece of parchment paper, pressing down so the paper nearly touched the meat and the edges extend over the sides of the pot by about an inch. Then put the lid in place, and slide the pot onto a rack in the lower third of the oven. After about 15 minutes, check to see that the liquid is simmering gently, not aggressively. If it’s simmering too vigorously, lower the oven heat 10 or 15 degrees. Continue to braise, turning the lamb with tongs and basting once or twice, until the meat is fork-tender and cooked through, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

8. The finish: transfer the lamb to a carving board with moat or platter to catch the juices, and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Strain the pan juices into a saucepan, and skim off and discard excess fat – there may be as much ½ cup, so it’s a good chance to use your gravy separator, if you have one. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes t concentrate the flavor and thicken it some. Taste: if it tastes too brothy, boil for another 3 or 4 minutes. Taste again for salt and pepper.

9. Serving: remove the string from the lamb, pour any juices that have accumulated on the carving board into the sauce, and carve the lamb into ½ inch slices. Arrange the slices on dinner plates or a serving platter, and pour over enough sauce to moisten. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.

Note on working ahead: The lamb can be seasoned, rolled, tied, covered, and refrigerated up to 18 hours before braising (steps 1 and 2) [I simply marinated mine in the red wine.]

Kim O'Donnell's Eating Down the Fridge Challenge

Readers of this blog might remember a couple of posts about "eating down the fridge." The idea first came to my attention via Kim O'Donnell, formerly of washingtonpost.com who used to host a weekly chat and blog about all things food related. Kim has moved on to another cyber space called True Slant where she continues her mission.

In the spring of this year Kim challenged her Post readers to eat down the fridge by foregoing the weekly shopping ritual--except for essentials--and making meals from the contents of the fridge, freezer, and pantry. "Essential" is subjectively defined: my essentials (coffee, milk, OJ, yogurt, olive oil) might not seem like a requirement to someone else, but the point is to minimize the weekly grocery haul and just consume what you already have on hand.

For the fall EDF challenge Kim invited guest bloggers to write about their EDF challenges and perspectives, and yours truly was the Friday blogger. You can read my dispatch and then think about how to incorporate the EDF ethos into your own weekly shopping and cooking habits. EDF is a money saving idea in these hard economic times, but it's also a way to clean out the kitchen clutter and start afresh. Think of it as fall cleanup as we transition from summer's dwindling abundance of corn, tomatoes, peaches, and zucchini to fall's harvest offerings of butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and apples. As you eat down your own fridge/freezer/pantry, substitutions are indeed encouraged (no fresh oregano for that sauce? try some dried thyme instead).

EDF dinner with with wine

My own experience of the latest round of EDF was to host a French inspired dinner last Saturday using mostly contents from my freezer: boeuf bourguignon using a beef sirloin tip roast, parsley buttered noodles from frozen homemade pasta dough, haricots verts using green beans bought at a Connecticut farmstand, and tarte tatin using frozen homemade pie crust and apples picked two weeks earlier. I also extended my focus to my wine cabinet and opened a special bottle of 1997 Ferrari-Carano Cabernet Sauvignon in the spirit of the WSJ wine writers' "Open that Bottle of Wine Night." Every year they challenge readers to stop saving that special bottle and open it to share with friends and loved ones. We finally got to enjoy a bottle we'd bought seven years ago and it was a sheer pleasure enjoyed with good friends over a delightful evening that cost next to nothing as we made dinner from ingredients we mostly had on hand.

Risotto with Radicchio and Red Wine

There is really no reason to be intimidated by risotto. The technique is quite simple and once you make a couple of decisions about whether to cook it over high heat vs. low--which bears on how you prefer to arrive at al dente for your risotto--you're laughing! If you like the risotto very al dente, I'd say cook it on high for a rigorous boil and near constant stirring. If you like your risotto less al dente and don't feel like constantly stirring, cook it over medium to medium low heat and let the rice do its thang.

This risotto recipe resulted from my stepping up to the Eating Down the Fridge/Freezer/Pantry challenge that took place on one of my favorite food blogs, A Mighty Appetite on washingtonpost.com. The concept is simple really. Hold off on buying most groceries beyond your essentials (milk, coffee, eggs, produce, or however you choose to define "essential") and cook with what you have on hand from your fridge, freezer, pantry, and spice rack. If you can't see the back of your fridge/pantry/freezer and haven't used your curry since the last time you made vindaloo before the millenium turned, it's time to eat down your fridge, folks! In a larger sense it's about not being wasteful in these tough economic times when we are all mindful of where our money is going and trying to get the most out of a dollar. I'd had a half head of radicchio and some leftover wine that I wanted to use and this is the perfect recipe for both.


As is my usual way, I have consulted multiple sources with the resulting recipe being a hybrid of two different recipes. The main recipe is Faith Willinger's who is one of the leading proponents of Italian cooking, especially in the style of Tuscany where her husband is from. I bought her book Red, White & Greens years ago after hearing her interviewed on NPR. After I became a devotee of my DC farmers market nearly four years ago, I perused her cookbook anew, finding many delicious preparations in which vegetables are the star, though the dish may not be vegetarian. She recommends making the recipe below with white wine and endive, but informs us that radicchio can be used instead of the endive.

The Risotto al Cabernet Michael Chiarello made in an episode of Easy Entertaining was one of those recipes that stuck with me because I knew I would want to try it sometime. I usually make risotto when I have a bit of leftover wine and since we drink more reds than whites, I tend to have more bottles of red to use up and the mind turns to ragu bolognaise and such. I especially like Chiarello's recipe because you can prepare the risotto up to a point and then finish it up by heating and thinning with the red wine. This technique makes the risotto a make ahead possibility when entertaining since it can be completed just before serving.

Risotto al Vino Rosso con Radicchio
Adapted from Faith Willinger's Red, White, & Greens: The Italian Way with Vegetables and Michael Chiarello's Risotto al Cabernet
Serves 4 to 6

4 tablespoons olive oil (and/or butter)
1 small onion, chopped [can also subsitute leeks or shallots if preferred]
1/2 head radicchio, halved, cored, and cut into strips (or 2 Belgian endive cut into strips)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup arborio rice
3/4 cup wine [I'd suggest red wine for the radicchio and white for the endive]
5 cups or so simmering stock
1/4 to 1/2 cup of wine that you'll be having with dinner, or leftover
1/2 cup grated Parmagianno-Reggiano
2 tablespoons butter, optional
chopped herbs, such as chives or parsley, optional

1. Bring your stock to a simmer over low heat on a back burner. If finishing with butter, set aside in a small dish and allow it to soften as you prepare the risotto.
   
2. Heat the olive oil/butter over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat and soften the onion without browning for about 5 minutes. Stir in the radicchio and stir until wilted, about 3 minutes.
3. Add the rice. Stir to coat, adding oil if necessary, and cook stirring as needed until the rice turns opaque. Some grains may brown lightly which is also desirable.
4. Deglaze with the wine, stirring to loosen any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan.
   
5. Ladle in about 1 cup of stock. Here is where you decide if you want to give the risotto your undivided attention and cook on medium high with frequent stirring (Ms. Willinger's preference) or cook on medium low with less attention and only occasional stirring. Both methods will take about 20 minutes so it depends on YOU. If you're a multi-tasker in the kitchen like me, you may want to simmer the risotto on medium low as you go about other preparations. In either case you add enough stock--usually 1/2 to 1 cup or so--to raise the liquid level to about half an inch above the rice. As the stock is absorbed into the rice, the level of the liquid will be about the same as the rice and you will hear some sizzle from the bottom of the pot. At this point, add more stock--a 1/2 cup to 1 cup at a time--and give a stir making sure the rice does not stick. It is the repeated adding of liquid and stirring that releases the starch from the rice and makes the risotto creamy before even adding melted butter, cheese, or cream. It's really no different from cooking old-fashioned or steel cut oats which can be made deliciously creamy via a slow simmer.
   
6. After the third addition of stock, season with salt and pepper, mindful that the addition of Parmesan cheese at the end will also contribute some saltiness. After 15 minutes and/or the fourth addition of stock, you may want to taste the risotto to see how close it is to doneness. Risotto should not be completely soft like cooked rice. It should be toothsome, i.e. al dente, such that there's a bit of resistance when chewed, although it should not be crunchy at all. It should also have a loose consistency, although Mario Batali likes to serve it soupy.
7. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan and butter if using. Finish with a half cup or so of wine which you can stir into the pot or add smaller amounts to each person's dish as it is served. Garnish with chopped herbs if using. Buon Apetito!
   

Molly Stevens' Coq au Vin

Today was a snow day up and down most of the east coast--though the DC school's chancellor is loathe to ever call a snow day--so thoughts turned to comfort food. A half finished bottle of cabernet sauvignon meant some sort of wine braised preparation and I knew it would involve my Dutch oven and turning on the oven. I was leaning towards hunter style chicken (either the Italian cacciatore or the French chasseur), chicken stemperata, or coq au vin. Having made and enjoyed boeuf bourguignon a couple of weeks ago, Brian was eager to try chicken cooked in wine, though I was leaning towards Mario Batali's chicken stemperata, which is a delicious chicken braised in wine with all kinds of vegetables and olives that I blogged about last year.

The preparation for the French dishes boeuf Bourguignon and coq au vin couldn't have been more similar, even though for the beef I followed Julia's and Jacques' recipe from Cooking at Home and for the chicken I used a recipe from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. Once again I looked up Julia's recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking and chose to go with Ms. Stevens because the preparation was not only simpler, but also quite similar to Julia's revised Bourguignon technique in J & J Cooking at Home. I barely changed anything except that I cooked the mushrooms and onions together rather than separately in the same way as I did for the Bourguignon. I also did not place the aromatics and herbs into the cheesecloth as J & J describe in Cooking at Home, but in the future that will be my method going forward. Having the bits of chopped onion and carrot in the final sauce was tasty but I liked the smoothness of the Bourguignon sauce vs. the coq au vin sauce. This dish was delicious when first prepared for dinner, but was of course even better the next day for lunch, proving once again that making a braised dish is the perfect justification for serving leftovers to company!

Just a quick word about the "coq" in coq au vin. In France, the dish may be prepared using a rooster (coq = cock) or a stewing hen. American supermarkets are not likely to have either for sale. The stewing hen makes the most sense to me really in that a braise is really a slow cooked dish using a tough cut of meat. As the meat cooks collagen and connective tissue are incorporated into the sauce thickening it naturally with the gelatin that forms. Stewing hens if you find one are most useful for making stock, and as I've never cooked one, I'd just take the easy route and use a roaster, and not the stewing hen, especially if you plan to make and serve the dish in the same evening. The dish will finish quickly and the meat won't be tough. On the other hand if you feel like making the dish in a slow cooker with a stewing hen, let me know how it turns out!

Coq au Vin
Adapted from Molly Stevens' All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking
Serves 4 to 6

4 ounces slab bacon, rind removed and cut into 1/2 inch dice [I used 5 slices of unsmoked bacon]
1 4 to 5 pound chicken cut into 8 pieces, wing tips, back, neck, and giblets (except the liver) reserved [I quartered my chicken and separated the wings from the breast. I did not reserve the other chicken pieces for cooking in the stew as directed. I always reserve those pieces in my freezer for making chicken stock at a later time, which on this day I was making during the day in my slow cooker]
salt and pepper [I used fennel spice rub]
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon paste
1 bottle of dry, fruity red wine
2 garlic cloves smashed
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 cup chicken stock

10 ounces pearl onions, about 15-25, fresh or frozen and thawed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter and/or olive oil
3/4 pound cremini mushrooms [I used 10 ounces of assorted portobello, shiitake, and oyster mushrooms]
course salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons brandy

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

1. Prepare the bacon and chicken: In a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat and then add the bacon, stirring occasionally until the fat is rendered and the bacon pieces have become crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes. While the bacon is cooking, salt and pepper the chicken all over and then dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Add half the chicken in a single, uncrowded layer skin side down and let brown well on the first side without moving it, about 5 minutes. Check to see that a nice crust has formed, and then turn the pieces over to brown the other side, about another 4 minutes or so. Remove the browned chicken to a platter and repeat with the second batch.
   
2. Prepare the aromatic veggies for the braise: Lower your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the accumulated fat in the pan and return the pan to medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot, and the garlic cloves and cook until soft and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook with the vegetables for a minute or two. Deglaze the pan with one third of the bottle of wine, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the wine and bring to a boil. Add the thyme and bay leaf. [I'm lazy and just tied together 6 thyme sprigs and added to the wine and vegetable mixture. The thyme leaves will come off into the liquid.] Reduce for about 15 minutes to about a cup and a half of liquid. [I confess I started with half a bottle of wine and just skipped the wine reduction to no negative consequences.] Add the cup of stock and bring to a boil. Ladle out about 3/4 cup of the braising liquid and reserve for cooking the mushrooms.
   
3. The braise: Add the bacon and chicken back to the pot, including any accumulated juices on the platter, with the legs and thighs on the bottom and breast on top. The liquid should only come up about half way or so to the level of the chicken but that's OK because braising is about the simmering and the steam that is trapped in the Dutch oven to cook the meat. Cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper larger than the diameter of the pot. Push down on the paper so that it is just above the top of the chicken and cover the pot with its lid (the edges of the paper will overhang the pot). Place this pot into the oven and bask in the aromas of this dish as it simmers away. After 15 minutes, check the pot to make sure that it's not boiling too rapidly. Adjust the oven temperature down or up to maintain a simmer. After another 30 minutes, check the chicken again and stir everything around so that the pieces on top are immersed in the liquid and the pieces immersed are now on top. The total braise should take about 60 and 75 minutes.
   
4. The mushrooms and onions: While the chicken is braising in the oven, prepare the mushrooms and onions. Heat the butter and/or oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms, stirring to coat with the oil and butter. Let cook for 5 minutes undisturbed. Check a mushroom to see if it's browning nicely, and if so stir the mushrooms around and let them cook for 4 more minutes. Meanwhile, if using fresh pearl onions (as I had to), bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Blanch the onions in boiling water for 1 minute and remove to a bowl of ice water. Trim off the ugly part of the onion root, keeping the onion layers in tact as best as you can. Squeeze on the onion skin to pop out the onion pearl. You'll probably have to sacrifice a layer of onion, but it's not worth the frustration to try and peel just the outer layer. Trim the other end if necesary. Set the onions aside on paper towels to dry as you finish the mushrooms. Stir in the pearl onions and season the combination with salt and peppers. Let the onions caramelize and cook with the mushrooms for 8 more minutes, stirring once or twice so that the onions brown evenly. Deglaze the pan with the reserved braising liquid, scraping up all the browned bits and bringing to gentle boil. Stir in the brandy and ignite if you're feeling dramatic, otherwise just cover and reduce to a simmer for 5 more minutes. (Note: NEVER pour the brandy directly from the bottle, especially if cooking over gas as the alcohol could ignite and cause an explosion. Best to pour off the measured amount and add just the amount needed.) Remove the lid, raise the heat and reduce the liquid to a quarter cup or so. Put the mushrooms and onions aside until ready to finish the dish.
5. The finish: Remove the coq au vin from the oven and place the chicken pieces on a plate. When cooled slightly, strain the sauce and vegetables into a fat separator, reserving the vegetables. Or alternatively, strain the vegetables and braising liquid into a bowl using a sieve and skim off some of the fat using a wide flat spoon. Return the de-fatted liquid to the Dutch oven and bring to a boil. You should have about two cups or so. Combine the softened butter with the flour and stir to combine into a beurre manie, making sure there are no flour lumps. Whisk the beurre manie into the liquid and boil for a few minutes, thickening the sauce. Add the chicken, reserved vegetables, mushrooms and onions back to the pot to reheat everything. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the chicken with the onions and mushrooms on your favorite platter, garnished with parsley and pass the sauce on the side.
   

This dish is perfect with a simple starch side like mashed or boiled potatoes. Haricots verts would complete the picture perfect French bistro dinner! Voila!

Valentine's Day Dinner: Boeuf Bourguignon

Last Valentine's Day was memorable to me because my partner cooked for me, which was a pleasant surprise and a lesson for me in letting go of my control freak kitchen tyrant. This year was a different story as we were entertaining my partner's father and his girlfriend over Valentine's Day which happened to be the Saturday of the long Presidents' Day holiday weekend in 2009. Granted spending Valentine's Day with one's parents is not my idea of a romantic evening, but truth be told I place too much emphasis on this day of forced romance. And as I love to cook and entertain family and friends, the day worked out fine as far as I'm concerned. Brian and I still snuck in some romance, believe me! And I got to use up some of the many bottles of wine we got for Christmas this year!

Braising is to winter what grilling is to summer: the best way to prepare meats when you want to capture the essential flavors of the season. As with any cooking technique and the right cookbook (Molly Stevens All About Braising is my bible), you can explore the world and really improve your culinary repertoire. Having made the beef Burgundy (the English name is so much easier to type than the French one) for Valentine's Day this year, I'm contemplating what to make next, perhaps braised ribs or sauerbraten. In fact, I just heard from my beef purveyor, Blue Mountain Beef, and I'll be getting another beef sirloin tip roast and anticipate making ropa vieja or daube de boeuf next.

Three things inspire me to cook: 1) watching cooking shows, especially those on The Food (-porn) Network, 2) learning to appreciate other countries through food culture, and 3) exploring cooking techniques that include the possibility of buying new equipment, such as a grill (gas or charcoal?), an ice cream maker, a Dutch oven (which Le Creuset refers to as a French oven not suprisingly!) etc. My partner bought me my first Le Creuset piece for Christmas years ago, and it is a true work horse in my kitchen helping me to turn out everything from gumbo to fried chicken (better than cast iron), to sauteed collard greens. But this heavy pot really turns out the best oven braised dishes, with its tight fitting lid and enameled cast iron. In fact to avoid scorching my simmering marinara on the stovetop, I've taken to simmering it using the Dutch oven in a 325 degree oven. I use this beloved piece of equipment so frequently that I don't even question how expensive it was ($140 6 or 7 years ago) and in fact owning this piece of cookware has certainly inspired me to explore recipes like pork loin braised in milk, real baked beans, and coq au vin. I even kept a Christmas gift I'd bought for my brother (Two Dudes, One Pan) because leafing through it I found the section on the Dutch oven and wanted to try the recipes myself, especially the braised lamb shanks! (Don't worry though. I did get him a gift that he seemed to love, the Watchmen graphic novel.)

The last time I made beef burgundy, I'm sure I made it in my slow cooker, which is another piece of invaluable kitchen equipment that I'll rhapsodize on someday. I followed the recipe in The Gourment Slow Cooker and consulted Julia Child and Jacques Pepin's version for notes. The dish turned out fine, but I think I may have been at a point of my culinary progression where I didn't fully appreciate the utility of the Dutch oven vs. the slow cooker. I mean it's just easier to make things in the slow cooker compared to the oven, but lately I'm starting to think that my slow cooker only cooks on high and I very much did not want to boil the meat but gently simmer it. Molly Stevens, my braising guru, doesn't even own a slow cooker and doesn't recommend making any of her recipes using one. (The cooking elites eschew convenience which is why you'll never see Ina Garten melt chocolate in a microwave let alone make a dish in a slow cooker! That's what Sandra Lee and Paula Deen are for!)

I was familiar with Julia's and Jacques' beef Burgundy recipe from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home and recalled that the doyenne had written a recipe sidebar that recommended making the dish over the course of a few days so that it won't seem like so much work. "Simmer the stew the next day while you are eating dinner or playing tennis..." LOL!! However, anyone who's ever made chili knows that it tastes better the next day so I did want to at least cook the meat a day ahead. Plus, the less one has to do on the day the dish is served the more time spent with guests and the less stress all around. We should all strive to be happy in the kitchen, rather than striving to serve the perfect dish.

I also liked how the mushrooms and pearl onions are cooked separately from the meat. Because I knew we'd be out sightseeing all afternoon on Valentine's Day, I was pleased that I was able to saute the onions and mushrooms (as well as make profiteroles for dessert) in the morning and just add them to the pot and put the whole shebang in the fridge to steep and meld all day. Brilliant!

Finally, I'm somewhat surprised at how many foodies are blogging about Julia's boeuf Bourguignon from 1961's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, as if a recipe from 1961 needs no enhancement. I'm sure Julia herself did not always make the dish the same way if she's like anyone else in the kitchen who's always tweaking recipes. I had to search high and low for someone who's following the more contemporary incarnation of this classic recipe found in Julia's and Jacques' collaboration, which is a pretty simple beef braise unlike Ina Garten's update on the classic found in her first cookbook using beef tenderloin (gasp!). I did find one blogger who's way more enthusiastic about the 1999 recipe than the 1961 version (and took great pictures), and he agreed with me after having made the 1961 recipe just once that the extra steps involved do not make the extra effort worthwhile.

I also cut out the step of boiling the salt pork because I started with plain old unsmoked bacon to prepare the lardons. I also used way less than a bottle of wine--perhaps a cup and a half at most--because from reading Molly Stevens and from following the steps in cooking my first ever braised dish the liquid should only come up 1/3 to half as high as the level of the meat so as to cook the meat partly by a gentle a simmer and partly by steam. Next time I might take an additional optional step to reduce a bottle of wine down to a cup and a half or so, but I just used an unfinished bottle of cabernet sauvignon, not the recommended Pinot Noir, but definitely a full-bodied red! I would estimate I added only about three cups of liquid to my Dutch oven, including the liquid from the canned tomatoes.

To keep the steam level no higher than the top of the meat, use a piece of parchment larger in diameter than the Dutch oven (or possibly foil but I wouldn't choose foil because the acid in the sauce can react with the aluminum and leech into your dish) to create a barrier that will collect condensation and drip back onto the meat, basting it as it cooks. Using this technique you'll want to turn the meat so that the parts in the liquid are exchanged with the parts outside the liquid every 45 minutes or so.

One last thing: the cut of meat is obviously very important in this preparation. Though chuck is recommended for its fattiness, connective tissue, and price, I used a beef sirloin tip roast which was recommended by my butcher and I was beyond pleased with the result. Because beef sirloin tip is not fatty and does not have a lot of visible connective tissue, I was quite concerned that my dish would be tough and dried out. Google led me to this chowhound thread that had some good cautionary advice and success stories as well as confirmation that slow cookers may not be the best choice for a braise like this.

As this is one of those dishes that tastes better the next day, I would recommend cooking it in stages, starting the evening before you intend to serve this dish, if not sooner. Without further ado, here is my take on this delicious recipe:

Boeuf Bourguignon
Adapted from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home
Serves 4 to 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
5 or 6 slices of thick cut bacon (5 ounces), cut into half inch pieces [they recommend salt pork for the lardons which requires a ten minute boil to reduce its saltiness before cutting and sauteeing; see Belm Blog for reference]
One 3 to 4 pound beef sirloin tip or chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat and cut into two inch cubes, approximately 2-3 pieces per person [I used a fairly lean beef sirloin tip roast so I left most of its fat in place and used those pieces to nibble at various stages; packaged stewing meat is NOT recommended]
salt and pepper

1 large onion diced
2 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch circles [they recommend peeling and dicing but there's no point to that because these veggies and herbs are all discarded]
6 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
3 bay leaves
A handful of parsley stems and leaves
10-12 garlic cloves lightly crushed with skins left on

1 large tomato, cored and chopped [I used a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes]
1 1/2 cups sturdy red wine, pinot noir or chianti recommended [I used cabernet sauvignon]
1 to 2 cups dark stock [I used super dark homemade chicken stock, but beef stock makes the most sense]

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
8 to 12 ounces cremini, button, or shiitake mushrooms (or any combination), halved quartered or whole (uniform size); or all mushrooms sliced thick
20 to 40 pearl onions, thawed and drained if using frozen, otherwise you'll have to blanch and peel fresh ones (step 5 below)
1 teaspoon of sugar [optional IMHO and I did not use]
salt and pepper
3/4 cup braising liquid, stock, or water
1/4 cup brandy [not in J & J's recipe]

2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup red wine [optional IMHO, but frankly I forgot this ingredient]
1/4 cup chopped parsley

1. Optional first step: While browning the bacon and prepping the meat, reduce your wine to 1 1/2 cups in a small saucepan placed over medium high heat. This step is not at all necessary but if you planned to use a full bottle of wine--which I think is twice the volume needed-- you could instead reduce a bottle of wine on the stovetop as you're cooking the bacon and meat. There's nothing wrong with heating the wine in any case because it will come to the boil more quickly when added to the braising pot. To kick it up a notch you could throw in some bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme sprigs, parsley etc., but that really is guilding the lily! (Strain out and discard the herbs before using the wine though!)
   


2. Prepare the meat: In a 6 to 8 quart Dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium high heat and then add the bacon, stirring occasionally until the fat is rendered and the bacon pieces have become crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the accumulated fat in the pan and return the pan to medium high heat. Salt and pepper the cubed meat all over and add half the meat or so in a single, uncrowded layer and let the meat brown well on the first side without moving it, about 5 minutes. Check to see that a nice crust has formed, and then turn the pieces over to brown the other side, about another 4 minutes or so. Remove the browned meat to a platter and repeat with the second batch of meat.
   


3. Prepare the veggies to add to the braise: Lower your oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. While the meat is browning, in a large square of cheesecloth, pile the chopped onions and carrots, the smashed garlic cloves, the bay leaves, and the parsley and thyme sprigs. Tie this off by tying the diagonally opposite corners together. I had to unfold my cheese cloth to make a big enough square and as there were gaps in the bundle, I flipped it over onto another piece of cheesecloth the same size and tied it again to ensure no spillage of the veggies. It's important to tie tightly as these veggies will shrink as they cook.


4. The braise: When the second batch of meat is done browning, pour in half of the wine to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the rest of the wine and the chopped tomato. (If using canned tomatoes add the tomato liquid as well.) Add the bacon and first batch of beef back to the pot, including any accumulated juices on the platter. Move the meat to one side of the pot and add the vegetable bundle to the pot. Add just enough stock to bring the level of the liquid no higher than halfway up the level of the meat and bring to a simmer. Cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper larger than the diameter of the pot. Push down on the paper so that it touches the top of the meat and cover the pot with its lid (the edges of the paper will overhang the pot). Place this pot into the oven and bask in the aromas of this dish as it simmers away. After 15 minutes, check the pot to make sure that it's not boiling too rapidly, which will toughen the meat. Adjust the oven temperature down or up to maintain a simmer. After another 30 minutes, check the meat again and stir it around so that the pieces on top are immersed in the liquid and the pieces immersed are now on top. The total braise should take between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Check the meat at an hour and a half to see if it is tender by gently squeezing with your tongs. If you meet resistance, continue cooking another 30 minutes, but if it feels soft, your dish is done. Remove the pot from the oven and let cool to room temperature in its liquid, about two hours. Discard the parchment paper and place the pot into the refrigerator overnight. Check the meat the next day. It will likely have tenderized as it cooled in the liquid. Recall that through the process of osmosis, if the meat is dry, it will absorb liquid--and flavor--as it moistens in the liquid. This is yet another reason to make the dish a day in advance. Theoretically, you could start and finish this dish 3 hours ahead of serving it, but you'd miss out on letting the meat cool and steep in its cooking liquid. Grilled meats certainly benefit by marinating before cooking, and braised meats benefit by marinating after cooking!
   


5. The mushrooms and onions: This step can be performed whenever you feel like it: a day before you do anything else, while the meat is braising in the oven, the next morning (worked best for me), or about half an hour before serving the dish. If using fresh pearl onions (as I had to), bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Blanch the onions in boiling water for 1 minute and remove to a bowl of ice water. Trim off the ugly part of the onion root, keeping the onion layers in tact as best as you can. Squeeze on the onion skin to pop out the onion pearl. You'll probably have to sacrifice a layer of onion, but it's not worth the frustration to try and peel just the outer layer. Trim the other end if necesary. Set the onions aside on paper towels to dry while you prepare the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the butter and when the foam subsides add the mushrooms, stirring to coat with the oil and butter. Let cook for 5 minutes undisturbed. Check a mushroom to see if it's browning nicely, and if so stir the mushrooms around and let them cook for 3 more minutes. Stir in the pearl onions and season the combination with salt and pepper (and the sugar if using). Let the onions caramelize and cook with the mushrooms for 8 more minutes, stirring once or twice so that the onions brown evenly. Deglaze the pan with the braising liquid, stock, or water, scraping up all the browned bits and bringing to gentle boil. Stir in the brandy and ignite if you're feeling dramatic, otherwise just cover and reduce to a simmer for 5 more minutes. (Note: NEVER pour the brandy directly from the bottle, especially if cooking over gas as the alcohol could ignite and cause an explosion. Best to pour off the measured amount and add just the amount needed.) Remove the lid, raise the heat and reduce the liquid to a quarter cup or so. Put the mushrooms and onions aside or in the refrigerator until ready to finish the dish.


6. The finish: Remove and discard the bundle of veggies from the braising pot, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Remove the chunks of meat to a dish and bring the leftover liquid to a boil. You should have about two cups or so. Combine the softened butter with the flour and stir to combine into a beurre manie, making sure there are no flour lumps. Whisk the beurre manie into the liquid and boil for a few minutes, thickening the sauce. Add the meat, mushrooms and onions back to the pot to reheat everything. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Because beef Burgundy is a wine-based dish, you may want to splash a quarter cup or so of red wine into the dish right before serving to re-emphasize the wine flavor component. Use whatever wine you'll be having with dinner. Serve the meat with the onions and mushrooms on your favorite platter, garnished with parsley and pass the sauce on the side.
   

This dish is perfect with a simple starch side like mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, or buttered noodles. Haricots verts would complete the picture perfect French bistro dinner! Voila!

Seafood Paella a la Jose Andres via Kim O'Donnell

I love reading the food blog A Mighty Appetite by Kim O'Donnell on the Washington Post's website. Kim has a relaxed writing style that makes me feel like I'm hearing a story as told by my cool cousin. She's not as familiar as a sibling, but we know each other well and she's always doing really cool stuff and has great stories to tell. On Tuesdays, she hosts a weekly What's Cooking? web chat on the Post's website in which people write in with food related questions. I really feel a part of an online community by commenting on her blog and posting questions in her chats. Especially when she actually answers a question of mine, I really feel a kinship. I've weighed in recently on how to make polenta as well as what kitchen essentials a bride should register for.

Her blog the other day was about paella, arguably Spain's most famous dish. I'd only made it once before after I'd bought my supremely versatile Le Creuset casserole from TJ Maxx and hadn't attempted it since. I remember making it on a Sunday and it stretched into a time consuming kitchen adventure, the kind where people are sitting around wondering, "Why isn't it ready yet? Does he know what he's doing?" Incidentally, you may be tempted to think you need a "paella pan" to make this dish, but this is just not so. Tyler Florence has said that he uses his roasting pan--the one that most of us only dust off for the Thanksgiving turkey--when he's making paella for a crowd (which is what I will use when preparing this dish for company, as I look forward to doing soon). And I was served paella in Miami in a cast iron skillet, so any of your favorite, wide saute pans is a good choice. (I will admit that I bought my LC pan envisioning paella but this pan is well worth its cost and has become one of my most versatile kitchen pieces. I use it regularly for braising, poaching, sauteing, roasting, etc., even though at this point it's only been used for paella twice.)

Kim's recipe, appropriated from mega-chef Jose Andres (his restaurants include DC hotspots Jaleo, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel, and Zaitinya) is simple enough even for a weeknight if you're not overly carnivorous. Besides, I'd been wanting to try making paella anyway because I took a vegetarian cooking class over the summer in which the main dish for the evening was a vegetarian paella. Incorporating some of the elements from that paella, I took the liberty of sauteing a bell pepper and an onion before cooking the garlic. Because I had in my freezer shrimp, sea scallops, and chorizo, I knew that I could use those in place of/in addition to some of the ingredients in Kim's recipe. Paella recipes I've seen usually call for browning all manners of protein, including chicken, rabbit, sausage, and various shell fish which can take over an hour, so I knew that limiting myself to only seafood and sausage would take less than ten minutes.

The only odd thing about Sr. Andres's recipe is that it instructs you to cook the shrimp beforehand and then add it back to the liquid so that it ends up being cooked for more than twenty minutes! While the shrimp did not come out rubbery it was certainly well cooked, shall we say. I learned from watching Robin Miller making grilled shrimp with citrus dipping sauce on the Food Network the other day that well cooked shrimp is C shaped, while overcooked shrimp is O shaped. Mine was definitely O shaped but it wasn't completely rubbery. Next time I might just add it raw near the end of cooking the rice so that it remains tender or cook it initially and then just add it at the end to reheat through.

It is critical that you do not stir the rice after it has cooked for the four minutes as Kim exhorts in her instructions. Even though you're using arborio rice, you're not making risotto! Once the ingredients are well combined, the rice has to be immersed in the simmering liquid so that it can absorb the flavorful stock you've made and cook to al dente.

Another critical ingredient in this dish is of course the saffron. Now I'd been using some inexpensive Badia brand saffron that I bought at a Latino market around the corner from me. Never really appreciating what saffron added, I decided to purchase some of the medium grade Spanish Coupé Saffron from my preferred spice vendor, Penzeys. Once again I proved to myself that the quality of the ingredients matters! A half teaspoon of this wonder spice perfumed the dish and the kitchen and made our mouths water! NOW I get it with the saffron! I also recognized it as what I love about bouillabaisse, that delicious seafood stew from Provence. I'm now on the search for other dishes in addition to risotto that use this spice.

Seafood Paella

As taught to Kim O’Donnel by Washington chef and cookbook author Jose Andres and adapted by me. I’d tried to annotate Kim’s recipe with my method, but it got too confusing so please refer to Kim’s posted recipe for additional ideas on making this dish.

Makes 4 generous servings

Ingredients

3 cups water, clam juice or stock (chicken, seafood, or vegetable)
4 sprigs of thyme
2 links of chorizo, about 8 ounces cut into ¾ inch pieces
12 ounces shrimp, shelled and deveined, and chopped if desired (reserve the shells of the shrimp if shelling yourself)
1 pound sea scallops

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/4-1/2 tsp. saffron
1/2 cup white wine
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups short-grained rice, such as Bomba, Calasparra or Arborio

Method

1. Flavor your stock. Combine water or stock with thyme and shrimp shells (optional) in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and keep stock on the stove, at a simmer.
2. Pre-cook the protein. Heat up the paella pan over medium high heat and add olive oil. When the pan is hot, add the chorizo, browning it well, about 2-3 minutes each side. The point here is to get some caramelization on the chorizo not to cook it through because you’ll be adding it back to the paella to finish cooking later. If there is room in your pan without crowding anything, add shrimp and sauté for about 2 minutes each side until opaque, pink, and C shaped. Remove the chorizo and shrimp to a plate as they are done and add some of the scallops and cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side. The scallops will give up a lot of liquid so make sure the pan is hot and not too crowded otherwise you’ll end up steaming rather than searing. Remove the scallops and set aside with the chorizo and shrimp.
3. Cook the aromatics. Add more oil if necessary and cook the onion and pepper for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point if the bottom of the pan is looking too dark, add a few tablespoons of the simmering stock and deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon. When the liquid has evaporated, add the garlic and sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
4. Deglaze. Add the white wine and thoroughly deglaze the pan at this point, reducing the wine slightly. Add the canned tomato and let it cook for at least five minutes, until the color has transformed from red to a more golden, orange-brown shade and much of the liquid has evaporated forming, a gravy like sauce. Add the bay leaf and saffron. If you’re using good quality saffron you’ll know at this point because the dish will come alive with the distinctive mouth watering fragrance of saffron!
5. Combine the components. Return the seafood and chorizo to the pan. [Note: you may add only the chorizo at this point and add the seafood at the end of cooking the rice.] Add stock. Bring up to a boil. Salt well. You want the mixture to be slightly salty. This is your last chance to add salt before the rice is added.
6. Cook the rice. Add rice and set timer for 24 minutes [Kim specifies 14 minutes but that wasn’t long enough for my dish]. For the first four minutes, you may stir gently. After this point, reduce to a simmer and NO MORE STIRRING OR TOUCHING. Otherwise, you will have a gummy rice concoction. (This is also why you cannot add salt at this stage.)
7. Finish the dish. Add seafood if you haven’t yet. Reduce heat rather than add more liquid if you find the paella absorbing liquid too rapidly and the rice isn’t cooked enough. The end result should be on the dry side, by the way.
8. Prepare to enjoy! Turn off heat and let sit for at least five minutes. Serve to the delight of your dining companions.

Ina Garten's Free Range Chicken with 20 Cloves of Garlic

We got a free range chicken at the Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, mainly at urging of my super health conscious partner. The bird looked a bit scrawny at just three pounds, but I guess I need to purge myself of the image of the Perdue oven stuffer roaster. Anyway with my cabinet full of wine, I knew I could find some chicken recipe worthy of this bird and I settled on Ina Garten's Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. I love this episode of her show. It's a typical episode where Ina and her gay entourage are hanging out and then decide to make a meal to go with watching a French movie later in the week. Ina decides to make a main course that sounds like it could ward off all the vampires in Transylvania. But recall that in your vampire lore it's raw garlic that's used to ward off the undead. Cooked garlic, especially whole cloves, takes on a toasted richness that is worlds away from its raw component and is delicious. As I was only using one chicken, I cut the recipe in half basically and was quite pleased with the results of my chicken with 20 cloves of garlic. Two small heads yielded 20 cloves, but I'm certainly sure you can count out 20 cloves if you're only using one chicken!

Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic
by Ina Garten from Barefoot in Paris, Copyright 2004

Yields 6 servings

3 whole heads garlic, about 40 cloves
2 (3 1/2-pound) chickens, cut into eighths
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons Cognac, divided [I used regular brandy]
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Separate the cloves of garlic [place the head of garlic upside down on your cutting board then whack therapeutically once or twice with a saucepan or skillet] and drop them into a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside.

Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, saute the chicken in the fat, skin side down first, until nicely browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or a spatula; you don't want to pierce the skin with a fork. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue to saute all the chicken in batches. Remove the last chicken to the plate and add all of the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, turning often, until evenly browned. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and the wine, return to a boil, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Return the chicken to the pot with the juices and sprinkle with the thyme leaves. Cover and simmer over the lowest heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken to a platter and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce and the flour and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream, and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste; it should be very flavorful because chicken tends to be bland. Pour the sauce and the garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

My Italian Muse: Mario Batali's Stemperata di Pollo

More than any other food luminary on TV, my cooking style has been most influenced by watching Mario Batali. Of all the themes that run through his show, Molto Mario, the one that I most adhere to is the concept embodied in the word that--to the derision of some and the raison d'etre for others--became the New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year for 2007: locavore. Though he is by now no means the first, Mario has been consistently emphasizing for years that the use of fresh local ingredients will make the food that comes from your kitchen stand out from the food that comes from everyone else's. He has said on his show that every Italian believes that what grows locally or is produced in their region/town/village is indisputably the best, because of the soil, the air, the water or the whatever particular to that place. Even the organic produce from Whole Paycheck (picked who knows when/where and shipped to your store waiting God knows how long for you to buy it) will wilt when cooked and compared to what you can prepare from local ingredients.

There really are two parts to this chauvinistic concept: 1) what's grown here tastes best and 2) of all the things grown locally, what's now in season is what you should be eating. This "here and now" concept is now somewhat strange for many Americans. The wisdom of the past of eating what's in season, canning or preserving it for the winter, and awaiting its arrival next year is something we've long since gotten away from. People eat strawberries year round and serve asparagus at Thanksgiving. But I can say that getting into the habit of buying local seasonal produce will certainly make you appreciate what you have right now because you know it will be gone in about two months, just about the time you'll be getting tired of it anyway. Every year I eagerly await the asparagus at my farmer's market every spring as I get tired of winter squashes. Then I go through my battery of asparagus recipes a couple of times and then I'm done with asparagus for the year, thank you very much. Adopting the here and now approach to choosing your foods will also sensitize you to the reality that foods cooked and eaten out of season just don't taste right. The memory of the fully flavored fresh springtime asparagus keeps me from wanting it any other time.

The closest I myself have come to this blessed chauvinism occurred when I lived in Sendai, Japan teaching English in the 1990s. The Tohoku region I lived in was famous for its rice, called Sasanishiki, which was priced accordingly expensively. The Japanese are as proud of their rice as Italians are of their semolina pasta. My students would proudly claim that their rice was considered among the best in Japan. To this American, rice was rice. It's such an inexpensive staple food in the U.S. that the idea of paying a premium or that one rice was better than another was ludicrous to me, reared as I was on the cheap supermarket long grain rice of my childhood. But living there for three years I learned to appreciate that yes, rice matters! And the year that the rice crop was meager and the Japanese had to (gasp!) import foreign rice from the U.S. and Thailand, the rumors were rampant about its inferior taste and quality. (I'll never forget the looks on my Japaneses guests' faces when I had the audacity to serve them Thai rice with dinner! What the hell was I thinking?)

My theory is that Americans, as a nation of immigrants, believe that what the world has to offer will (and should) come to our doorsteps. Look at our greatest city, New York. Everyone knows that anything and everything that's been done somewhere else first is available somewhere in New York City (and most other world class American cities as well). We're always on the lookout for what's new somewhere else and making it our own somehow. Indeed, with so many people from so many countries adding their own to our mix, we're able to pick and choose what we want to explore whenever we want to try it. But this "world is my oyster" mentality makes us forget that oysters are only in seaon in months with "r" in them. If you wait to have something only once a year, when you do have it, you will surely appreciate it.

But back to Mario. I got a boatload of red wine at Christmas, so I was perusing chicken recipes and came across Stemperata di Pollo in Mario's Molto Italiano. I've never seen the episode where he cooks the dish and had also considered a recipe he calls Pollo all'Americano or Pollo al Vin Cotto, both of which I've made and loved before, but I felt like trying something new and the Stemperata had tons of veggies. The stemporata of the recipe name is the past participle form of a verb that means "stamp" as in stamp down and refers to how the olives are split open for use in the recipe, presumably to remove the pits.

I confess I did not have the potatoes called for, but I did have parsnips. And as I read recently on the Washington Post that parsnips were the starch of choice in Europe prior to the arrival of the New World potatoes, I felt comfortable with the substitution. The recipes calls for carrots also, which I did not have so I added a rather large peeled and cut up sweet potato. With these additions, my meal needed no additional starch, and I think I served it all with broccoli rabe on the side. Mario is not such a purist that he wouldn't mind my substitutions and my ingredients did come from the farmers market! I also used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, so my sauce needed to cook down to thicken nicely. A dredge in flour prior to browning the chicken would help with this. Mario expects that the chicken will be done with just a fifteen minute simmer, but I had really thick breasts that needed about 25 minutes. Next time I'll probably finish the braise in the oven at 325 degrees for about a half hour.

Chicken Stemperata: Stemperata di Pollo

Recipe courtesy Mario Batali

1 (3 1/2 pound) chicken, cleaned and cut into 8 serving portions [I just used two bone-in chicken breast halves]
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes [I substituted 3 large parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks]
2 red, yellow, or orange peppers, cored, seeded and cut into medium strips
1 stick celery, cut into large pieces
2 small unpeeled eggplants, cut into large cubes [I didn’t have any eggplants, sorry, Mario!]
2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds [I substituted a large sweet potato cut into large chunks]
2 tablespoons salt packed capers, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup whole pitted Sicilian olives (the green variety)
4 fresh plum tomatoes, cut into large pieces [a 14 ounce can of chopped tomatoes will do fine; drain if you want but I just added the whole can]
5 whole chiles [obviously to taste, I used a hot chili paste that Mark Bittman showed how to make on his NY Times podcast]
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/4 bunch each fresh chopped mint leaves and parsley leaves [no mint on hand so I used marjoram]
Pinch chile flakes [see whole chiles above]

Pat the cleaned chicken dry, and then season the pieces with salt and pepper. In a 12 to 14-inch saute pan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil until hot but not smoking. Carefully add the chicken pieces and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes per side. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.

In the pan with the chicken drippings add potatoes [parsnips], peppers, celery, eggplant, carrot [sweet potato], capers, olives, tomatoes and whole chiles. Toss together. Add the wine [and hot chili paste if using] and chicken, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes [up to 25 minutes really] until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the heat and stir in chopped mint, parsley and a pinch of chili flakes.

Transfer the cooked stew to a serving dish and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. [Hot out of the oven works just fine too.] Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and serve.