Ben Cooks Everything

So, another weekend out of town and another feast prepared in a spacious regular-people kitchen. This weekend I was in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where my cousin Carly and her husband Rob and their seven month old daughter Lily live. I made what I’d call a feast, and I’m going to break it up into a few different posts.

The good news: Carly and Rob have a grill! It’s a gas grill, something I’ve never cooked on before, but I could get into. So convenient! Anyway, I decided that for the main course I’d make grilled split chicken, something I’ve done before in the broiler but never on the grill. I used the Sesame Grilled Chicken variation from the chart on page 642 (“11 More Ways to Vary Grilled or Broiled Boneless Chicken,” which I assumed work for bone-in chicken as well).

The hardest part of this is taking out the chicken’s backbone so you can flatten it on the grill. Splitting it, in so many words. After splitting, I threw it in a ziplock bag with the marinade (ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, vegetable oil, salt pepper) and stuck it in the fridge ’til it was time to grill.

When the grill was hot, I put it on the cool side, skin side up, and let it cook for about 20 minutes. Then it was time to flip, skin side down, and let the skin crisp up and the chicken finish cooking on the inside. Then it was just a matter of carving it up and getting it on the table.

Splitting chicken is great because you decrease the cooking time of a whole chicken, while still keeping it really moist and juicy. It’s almost impossible to overcook this way. Just the best of both worlds: the juiciness of a whole chicken with the cooking time of chicken parts. It’s probably going to be my new go-to chicken method, since I’d rather broil than roast at home.

Last weekend, my friend and coworker Melanie invited me and some other friends to her mother Donna’s house in New Hampshire for a barbecue and weekend of relaxation.

Obviously I was going to take this chance to work in a real kitchen (I’d refer to my own kitchen as “fun size”) for all it was worth, but Donna had things covered with plans for smoked brisket (pictured above), chicken, and fish. So I brought some veggies to grill with the idea of making some Five Minute Drizzle Sauce, and decided I’d put myself on salad duty. It’s often hard at a BBQ to get your fill of veggies, but I always want to. You can only pack your body full of so much delicious meat before you want some salad or a nice grilled zucchini. I settled on the Spicy No-Mayo Cole Slaw and Carrot Salad with Cumin, in addition to some really nice summer squash I got at the greenmarket that would act as the vehicle for the Herbed Five-Minute Drizzle Sauce, as suggested in the chart on page 250 (“How to Grill Vegetables”).

The kitchen was a dream come true. Check out Donna’s easy access spice drawer:

OK, on to the cooking.

The Carrot Salad with Cumin is a real ace in the hole; you’re basically just grating a bunch of carrots, then tossing with cumin, lemon juice, orange juice, and olive oil, plus salt and pepper. The result is sweet and tangy and the cumin lends it a nice complexity.

If you have a food processor, it should take all of ten minutes including cleanup. The flavors intensify the longer you let it sit.

The Spicy No Mayo Cole Slaw should definitely be made ahead of time–it tasted way better the next day, even. I like this recipe; it’s not the kind of cole slaw I’m used to, swimming in sugary mayonnaise, but resembles something closer to an actual salad. I wouldn’t put it on my hot dog, but for a side at a barbecue it’s light and fresh and just what I wanted.

The dressing is mustard and sherry vingegar plus garlic, chile, and olive oil. That goes on top of a lot of cabbage, some scallions (I used a leek instead, as there were no scallions at the farm) and bell pepper. Like I said, this was a delicious salad, but it got a lot better in the fridge overnight. Cabbage is so underrated. Just saying.

Finally, the summer squash (and some onions!) and drizzle sauce. Grilling the veggies was just a matter of a quick brush with olive oil and bit of salt and pepper, then throwing them on the grill til they were sufficiently charred (for me, this is bordering on totally black).

The drizzle sauce is just olive oil, heated up, with shallot and lemon juice and herbs mixed in. It takes, as the recipe states, all of five minutes, and is another one of Bittman’s endlessly variable recipes (sub peanut oil or sesame oil for the olive oil, ginger or onion or garlic for the onion, soy sauce or vinegar for the lemon, etc.).

All in all, this was one of the most delicious meals, and relaxing weekends, of my life. Donna’s smoking technique, which invlolved getting up at 7am to light the coals, and nearly 12 straight hours of sauna time for the meat, is world class, to say nothing of her homemade barbecue sauce. Many thanks to Donna and Mel’s Aunt Lynne. We all had a great time eating, relaxing, and enjoying your beautiful home. Hope we can do it again!

Today’s Minimalist column is another one of Bittman’s lists of 101 one sentence recipes–this time with the theme of summer salads. They range from the standard to the completely zany (carrots, blueberries and pine nuts, anyone?) across a wide range of categories, including seafood, meat, noodles, grains, vegetarian, and “mostly vegan.” There’s even some dressing recipes. If you can’t find at least a handful of things you want to eat on this list, there’s something wrong with you. Go check it out.

Also, if you fancy this kind of super short recipe thing, check out Bittman’s latest book, Kitchen Express, a collection of these seasonal recipes from the Times.

101 Simple Salads for the Season [nytimes]
Share Your Salads [bitten]
Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less [amazon]

Above picture jacked from the NYTimes.

This one is another dish that’s only as good as the veggies you can get your hands on; last night it was transcendent but if you made it with crappy vegetables (in the winter, say) it might not be much fun. It’s also endlessly adaptable–I’m guessing most vegetables would do pretty well in this, although the combination in the original isn’t something I’d necessarily want to mess with.

Basically, take the corn off three or so ears–you want about a cup of kernels–and brown them in some olive oil. Then add the zucchini, let it go a few more minutes, and then add the onions and optional garlic. When the onions are softened, you add some diced tomatoes, turn down the heat a bit, and cook the pasta.

When the pasta’s just about done (don’t overcook it) throw it in the pan with the veggies, mix, add a bit more olive oil and some of the pasta cooking water if you like, and you’re done. Serve with parmesan cheese.

I came across this recipe for garlic scape pesto on Dorie Greenspan’s blog, which uses the green shoots that grow off of the top of garlic plants. I’d been seeing them at the market with no idea what to do with them, and this seemed perfect–apparently they are best when raw. Wanting to hit two birds with one stone, I decided to take the inspiration from that recipe and use it with How to Cook Everything‘s Classic Pesto recipe.

Those are the scapes. Funny looking, right? Bittman’s pesto is an easy one: into the food processor go 2 cups of garlic scapes (or basil, for the traditional recipe), a handful of pine nuts or walnuts (I didn’t toast them, Bittman doesn’t say to, but I think I will the next time) and olive oil plus a pinch of salt. Turn on the machine, add a bit more olive oil while it’s working, and you’re pretty much done. The last step is to add the grated cheese, right before serving.

This stuff is really good: it tastes fresh, spicy, and yeah, incredibly strong in the garlic department. Next time I think I’d combine the scapes and basil, as I think they’d work well together. That is, if the scapes are around for long enough. If not, I’ll just have to try the traditional pesto. That’s one of those good problems.

The very first bread in the Bread chapter of How to Cook Everything, Olive Oil Salt Bread can be made in the food processor, takes no time to rise, and doesn’t even really need to be kneaded. It has a soft yet dense texture, if that makes any sense at all–it’s kind of like a biscuit.

All-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, water and of course olive oil are combined in the food processor til they form a ball, then popped into an oiled 8-inch skillet or baking pan, covered, and put into the oven at 375 degrees. After 20 minutes, take you off the cover and sprinkle some more salt on the top, and then 25 minutes later you have some really delicious fresh baked bread. You can also do it on a griddle, which I will have to try.

This stuff doesn’t last long, only about a day. I had some left over and getting stale quick, so I tried out Bittman’s recipe for Real Croutons. I’ve never been into croutons, really, but this is another area in which Bittman seems to want to change my ways: “The difference between real, homemade croutons and the packaged variety cannot be overstated; the former are delicious, reasonably healthful, and entirely addictive.” Basically, oil goes in a skillet, heats up, in goes some cubed day old bread, a little salt and pepper, and let it brown. That’s it; he says you can store them for about a day. Bittman’s right on this one: they don’t resemble the croutons you’d buy in a store at all.

I count myself really lucky: I love having dinner with my family. It’s not a chore, it’s not something I have to be guilted into doing. It’s something I know I’m really lucky to be able to do at all, and on top of that, enjoying it is a real added bonus. My brother’s hilarious, my dad keeps the wine flowing, and getting down with my mother in the kitchen is always a blast. The dishwasher in their new apartment is yet another added bonus.

So Saturday, my brother Jonathan and his girlfriend Eva and I decided on the spur of the moment to go over for dinner. I went to the Greenmarket to see what looked good, then came home and decided what to make. What I ended up with was littleneck clams, Jerusalem artichokes, mushrooms, spring garlic (like green garlic, but different), strawberries, arugula, and some fresh chevre. Pretty much a list of ingredients that was going to end up delicious no matter what I did to it. So I cracked open How to Cook Everything and decided on the following.

I’ve been using clams more and more, because I love them, they’re not as expensive as I initially thought, and they bring their own sauce to the party, which is always appreciated. So far I’ve made the linguine with clams twice, actually, but this was the first time I made them all by themselves. For the steamed clams recipe, you sauté some garlic and shallots in olive oil, then add the clams, then pour in some white wine, beer, or even water (I used beer). Cover, cook until they all open up, and you’re good to go.

The broth left in the bottom of the pot alone made this one worthwhile, and luckily we had the foresight to acquire a nice crusty baguette for sopping it all up when we were done with the clams.

To take advantage of strawberry season, I decided to make Bittman’s Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula salad. This recipe was a favorite of mine in the original HTCE, where it was a desert of just the strawberries, but I was intrigued by the combination of the bitter arugula and the sweet berries. Bittman says you can add some fresh goat cheese as well, so I figured I may as well do that too (in retrospect, though, I’d leave it out next time–I don’t think it added much to the salad).

You cut up the strawberries and let them soak in a bit of balsamic vinegar (this is a recipe where its worth it to use really good vinegar) and a tiny bit of pepper, for about ten minutes or so. Then you just toss with the arugula and cheese and some olive oil and it’s good to go. The flavor combination is incredible. This one’s going into heavy rotation–it’s really easy, complex, and it borders on fancy, something I don’t always get to pull off. The only catch with this one is that it’s only going to taste this good during strawberry season.

Finally, the Jerusalem artichoke dish that I’ve already made a handful of times. This time I also added the mushrooms I got at the market, which only made the dish earthier and more complex.

I can’t believe I didn’t know about this funny looking vegetable sooner! The HTCE project keeps on giving.

So that was it: wine, food, family. What else is there?

Below, this week’s Idiot Convention Today Show clip. Bittman shows how to ball out and make 5 meals from 10 ingredients, plus pantry staples. Meredith and David seem really confused by this concept, and our man has to spend about half the segment explaining the basic concept to them, but he pulls out a real win in the end.

What’s really worth watching, as usual, is a Times clip from last week about steaming.

Steaming [nytimes video]
5 Meals, 10 Ingredients [Bitten blog]

Remember the Spicy Grilled Shrimp that came out pretty tasty and perfectly cooked but way way WAY too salty? Well, the flavor beneath all the salt was really quite good, and so I decided to try that recipe with some squid that I had in the freezer (like shrimp, squid freezes really well). You just combine lemon juice, olive oil, paprika, cayenne, a mashed clove of garlic and some salt–not too much–and marinate the squid in it. I also added a little bit of pimenton (smoked paprika), which didn’t hurt. Grill it up, and you’re good to go.

Serve with some lemon wedges. This could really work with any meat or vegetables, but goes especially well with all kinds of seafood. Give it a shot–even cleaned squid is pretty cheap and really quick to cook. Not enough people think to make it at home–I never did before I started the project, and now it’s become standard.

Spring is here, bigtime. I was psyched about the first signs of it at the greenmarket, with ramps and green garlic and then the asparagus, such delicious asparagus! But now the strawberries are out and we’re really in full swing. This meal, from right before my trip to New Orleans, felt like a climax of the early spring period. Almost everything came from the greenmarket, and it was all delicious.

For the salad, I sauteed a bunch of ramps in olive oil and a tiny bit of butter, starting with the ramps and then adding the greens at the last second. Threw it on top of some lettuce, with olive oil, balsamic vingegar, black pepper, and some parmesan cheese. Keep it simple, you know? You don’t need to do a lot when you have really great produce. This was in now way a HTCE recipe, per se, but I think Bittman would approve.

With the asparagus, I made Bittman’s Stir-Fried Asparagus. Basically, you cut the asparagus into bite size pieces and just barely cook by steaming it (I did it in the microwave), then add it to a pan with some hot oil, garlic, chiles (I used sriracha), soy sauce, a bit of water, and a bit of sesame oil. I’m sure you could add whatever else you feel like here, and indeed Bittman has a list following the recipe with seven different ideas for stir-frying asparagus, including fermented black beans (yum) and chopped nuts.

All in all, I wasn’t so crazy about this method of cooking asparagus, but I think that may be because I cooked them too much during the steaming process. I will probably try this again to see if that’s the case.

Along with that, there was the How to Cook Everything recipe for Crisp-Cooked Sunchokes, which at the market they call Jerusalem Artichokes; Bittman says they’re the same thing. They look a little like a spiky potato, and they taste like the lovechild of a potato and an artichoke. For this recipe, you chop them up and cook them in a pan with a little oil, as if they were hash browns. They have a sweet, artichoke-ish flavor, but they behave a lot like potatoes (they’re great roasted as well).

I burned them a little, but it only made them taste better. In the last minute, you throw in some chopped shallot, onion, or garlic. I went with shallot, which in retrospect was the right choice.

Have you ever heard of green garlic? It’s one of the best parts of early spring. It looks kind of like an overgrown scallion, but it smells and tastes like garlic, with a much lighter, sweeter flavor.

Basically, you can use loads of it, substitute it for both the onion and the garlic in a recipe, but it never really gets all garlicky and scary like it would if you used too much regular garlic. Great stuff. I used it in the Linguine with Clams recipe, which is easy and pretty impressive, I might add. You just throw some clams, maybe like three pounds or so though you can get away with using less (cockles are fine) into a pot with some hot oil til they start to open up and release their juices. That’s basically the whole sauce right there, it’s pretty light but very tasty.

And that was our early spring feast. Sure, I’ll miss the ramps, but I’ll get over it with the help of delicious fresh strawberries. Don’t look back, you know?