Dinner with Nanny: Chef Michael Schwartz’s Whole Roasted Chicken
May 28th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
My first whole roasted chicken.
It’s still hard for me to believe how many things I have not cooked before. I’m finding this out as I make my way through my boss’s new cookbook, MICHAEL’S GENUINE FOOD: Down-to-Earth Cooking for People Who Love to Eat. Deviled eggs, homemade pickles… Maybe it’s because I tend to wing it in the kitchen with ingredients and methods that are improvisation-friendly. When specialized techniques are involved, and I don’t have them in my repertoire, it takes a good recipe to get me through.
I found a great one last night in Michael’s Whole Roasted Chicken with plumped raisins, toasted pine nuts, and arugula. I made it for a roasted chicken connoisseur, my grandmother Lucille aka Nanny. After a quick stop at her neighborhood Publix on the Beach for groceries, I was making myself at home in her circa 1950s kitchen. The procedure is the epitome of Michael’s cooking, starting with very few high quality ingredients that when simply prepared produce nothing less than a magical result. It could not have been easier to make, even without the conveniences and equipment of cook’s kitchen. Luckily she had just the right pan (the only possible one that could have worked!) and hot as hell old oven, the kind that overhang the stove top, in the spot where my Salamander is at home. Aluminum pans did the trick for the plumping of raisins with rosemary, extra-virgin olive oil, and water, and the toasting of pine nuts (and some bread, borrowing from another recent heavenly chicken experience at Zuni Cafe with Michael.)
This was one serious bird and one bangin’ accurate recipe. I know I nailed it because the crisp-skinned result, perfectly cooked and running with clear chickeny juices, incited such comments as “Chicken doesn’t taste like this.” and “This bird is just delicious. Incredible!” The raisins (which didn’t taste like raisins either – haha) and toasted pine nuts scored equally as high with my discerning grandma, a woman with impeccable taste in matters more than culinary.
So thank you Michael; I now have a new one for my can-do arsenal! Nanny and her nurse now have lunch and dinner for the next few days, plus extra raisins and raisin-rosemary infused oil for drizzling on toast or tossing in chicken salad. I am going to try plumping apricots the same way next time, for my next whole roasted chicken, which will no doubt happen soon.
Daikon Soup Meets Pho Ga
May 26th, 2011 § 1 Comment
My ‘Daikon Pho Ga’; Daikon Soup at Stir Moon (Coral Gables, FL) the only restaurant where I’ve encountered it in Miami.
SUNDAY MORNING I AWOKE TO A FAMILIAR SCENE. A narrow alleyway, wafting with columns of steam, where small women in matching top and bottom house clothes command fragrant vats of rich broth from mini plastic pastel perches.
It was playing out on TV this time, on Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, a show on Cooking Channel where this Sydney chef/restaurateur returns to the country of his heritage to take a culinary journey through the northern regions of Vietnam.
Mornings beginning with Pho Bo were something to which I came to look forward last summer on a week-long visit to cousin Jonathan Hixon’s home in Ha Noi. The light, fragrant beef and pork bone broth becomes rich and layered with flavor from four to eight hours of cooking — eight meaning it hit the burner before bedtime.
Charred ginger and shallot, and toasted spices like anise, fennel seed, black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg build layers of flavor.
I learned how to make Pho Bo (Bo means beef,) down to the skimming of impurities after making the broth and then assembling the payday in a large white bowl of rice noodles, shaved-paper-thin white onion and beef, and a mess of chopped herbs such as cilantro and mint. And, typical to where I enjoyed it, a generous sprinkle of ground black pepper and a squeeze of kalamansi juice.
I recently reconnected with daikon soup, another favorite of mine from my days in New York City and traditional to the north in Japan, and decided to see what would become of the long ivory tuber with the amazing depth of a Pho-style broth as poaching liquid and eventual soup base made hearty with pulled leftover roast chicken (‘ga’ in Vietnamese.)
‘Daikon Pho Ga’ did not disappoint, but I’ll be sticking with dinner on this one until I have a glass of chilled Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk sitting beside it!
The European Bromance Continues
March 7th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
It’s midday on Monday in Rome. Hailey’s in class, and my brother Kevin and I are chatting on BBM again. Check out my view, I’ve been sitting here for an hour, he types. So we each snap photos of what’s in front of us at that moment and swap files.
Me: Kitchen, 6:16 a.m. EST Him: Pantheon, 12:16 p.m. CET
Kevin Sayet *US*: I have about an hour ffree now if you wanna interview me haha
