Spinach and sage roasted chicken

The Goods:

Roasted Chicken

1 large skin on chicken breast

1 tbsp fresh sage

2 handfuls fresh spinach

1 shallot

1 splash white wine

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp lemon juice

1 cup water

olive oil

Israeli Couscous

1 cup Israeli couscous*

2 cup water

1 tbsp sage

1 tsp lemon juice

1 small leek

1 tsp fresh parsley

1 clove garlic

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Add the butter to a small saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the butter browns. Pour most of the brown butter into a small bowl, keep the remainder (1/4 or so of the total) in the saucepan. Trim the green portion from the leek. Slice the remainder in half lengthwise, then in ~1 cm slices. Finely mince the garlic. Finely mince the sage and parsley. Place the saucepan with the remaining brown butter on medium-low heat. Add the leeks. Cook until they're translucent, about 5 minutes or so. Add the 1 tablespoon sage, parsley, and garlic. Cook for 1-2 more minutes. Add the couscous, water, and lemon juice. Cover. When the pot reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook until the water has been fully absorbed.

Spritz some olive oil on the chicken breast and season it with ground black pepper and kosher salt. Spritz some olive oil in a heavy-bottomed, oven-proof skillet and set on medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the breast skin-side down. After three minutes, flip the breast over and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes**. Finely mince the shallot. Wash and dry the spinach leaves. Add the flour to the set aside brown butter to make a paste.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the pan from the oven and place on the stove top. Place the chicken in a plate and cover with tin foil until ready to serve. Place the skillet on medium-low heat and add the minced shallots. When the shallots have turned translucent, about 2-3 minutes, add the tablespoon of sage and spinach leaves. Continue cooking until the spinach wilts. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine. Add the water and lemon juice. When the mixture begins to simmer, fold in the brown butter/flour paste to thicken the sauce. Split the chicken breast in half. Serve with couscous, covered in spinach/sage sauce.

*Or, more politically correct, as the local WF plays it, "Middle Eastern Couscous."

**I've long been experimenting with different oven temperatures and baking times when making roasted chicken breast. This one gave fine results, with a rather large breast that was just, just, just rare in the very center.

Brown butter and sage pasta

The Goods*:

4 tbsp butter

1 handful fresh sage leaves

1 lemon's zest

parmesan cheese

1/2 lb fresh pasta

The sauce can be made while the water for the pasta is boiling, or a bit ahead of time. Place the butter in a small saucepan on medium-low heat. After the butter melts, semi-continuously stir it, to keep it from burning. Trim the stems from the sage leaves. Slice the sage leaves into long, thin strips. Finely mince the lemon zest. After a few minutes, the milk proteins will begin to brown. Once the butter has browned, but before it burns, turn off the heat. The brown butter should have a slightly nutty aroma. Add the sage and lemon zest, then set cover and set aside.

Once the pasta has been drained, toss with the brown butter mixture. Top with grated parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

*I am really getting into fresh pasta. The more I make it, the more I realize that its really not such an ordeal.

PS: The start of baseball season is not conducive to blogging about interesting things I've cooked.

Lemon pesto

The Goods*:

2 cups fresh basil

1/4 cup pine nuts**

2/3 cup olive oil

1 lemon's worth of lemon zest

parmesan cheese

1 lb Dave's Fresh Pasta Asparagus and Lemon Raviolis

Place the pine nuts in a skillet on medium heat. Toast until just after they brown. Remove from the heat and set aside. Remove the basil leaves from the stems and give them a rough chop. Add the basil, pine nuts, lemon zest, a healthy pinch of kosher salt, and some ground black pepper to the food processor (or, if you're like me, a blender). Pulse twice at low speed. Slowly add the oil while pulsing the at low speed. Continue blending/processing until the ingredients are well incorporated.

Cook one's pasta/ravioli per box/vendor instructions. After draining, toss the pasta with the pesto and top liberally with grated parmesan cheese.

*Pesto is one of those things, that to me, exists in this abstract kind of "Why in the world would I ever pay for that when I can make it?" way. Of course, one has to get to the business of actually MAKING said dish. This past week, in what can only be described as fully blown serendipity, I spied one of those large plastic containers full of basil in the produce section at WF. Sadly, there is no magic ratio courtesy of Michael Ruhlman. I did a quick web search for basic pesto recipes, but found nothing terribly consistent, so here goes my half-assed kitchen cobbling...

**Be sure to avoid these pine nuts.

Kafta kabob

The Goods*:

1/2 lb ground lamb

1 large handful fresh parsley

1 large shallot

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

Finely mince the garlic, parsley, and shallot. Add the lamb, parsley, garlic, shallot, and spices to a large mixing bowl. Mix up the ingredients by hand. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

Shape the meat into approximately 1" diameter tubes around a skewer. Grill for 2-3 minutes per side, or to individual preference. Serve with rice and salad**.

*Kafta is my go-to once I get to know a Lebanese-style restaurant (read: start with the falafel). Ground lamb looked appealing this week at the local WF (as in, it was on sale), so I figured to give this a go. Going outside to grill is another bonus, as its been appallingly nice in New England lately.

**Or, if you have more ambition than I, with other middle eastern favorites such as hummus or tabouli.

Dressed up Annie's #4 (new for spring!)

The Goods:

1 box Annie's Mac and Cheese

1 spring onion

10-12 basil leaves

1 clove garlic

1 large handful fresh parsley

1/4 cup aged gouda

parmesan cheese

Place a medium sauce pan three-quarters full of water on high heat. Spritz some olive oil in a sauté pan and set on medium low heat. Slice the spring onion (including the green parts) in 1 cm thick slices. Finely mince the garlic and parsley. Cut the basil leaves lengthwise into thin strips. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Cook on medium-low heat for a few minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Add the parsley, garlic, and basil and cook for another minute or so. Add a splash of water from the pasta sauce pan to deglaze.

Cook the Annie's per the box directions. Finely dice the gouda. When the pasta is cooked, add 2 tablespoons of milk, one small pad of butter, the cheese mix, the diced gouda, a few grates of parmesan, and the vegetables. Mix thoroughly. Serve with some chopped parsley and a few more grates of parmesan on top. Pair with a green salad.

Korean fusion dan dan noodles

The Goods*:

1/4 lb ground pork

1 handful Asian rice noodles

1 cup kimchi**

2 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp chili oil (as seen here, or you know, buy some)

1 tsp toasted, ground Sichuan pepper***

3 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine****

Prepare the rice noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Place 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil in a wok on high heat. When the oil is hot, add the kimchi. Stir fry for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and place the kimchi in a large bowl. Add the other tablespoon of oil to the wok and place back on high heat. Add the ground pork. Once the pork starts to separate and has started to brown, add the wine and 1 tsp of the soy sauce. Once the pork is cooked, though not dried out, about 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat and add to the kimchi. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss with the noodles. Serve immediately.

*I recently finished reading Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, a food/travel memoir by Fuchsia Dunlop, which I'd recommend if you're into food and/or travel writing, though I'd have to say her reserved British style is a marked contrast from the booze-fueled mayhem of Bourdain. My curiosity was such that I had to race out and purchase Land of Plenty, her Sichuanese cookbook. Needless to say, I'll be trying my hand at some of these recipes in the near future.

**The recipe calls for Ya Cai pickled vegetables and I have cleverly inserted kimchi. I purchased what I THINK are Ya Cai pickled vegetables from the Super 88, but I have no way of fully knowing, as every character on the jar is Chinese. Anyway, this allows me to use some of that glass vat of kimchi chilling in the refrigerator.

***Sichuan peppercorns are a really interesting ingredient. They have a lemony, coriander-like taste and leave the tongue almost completely numb in the aftertaste. I have no idea how available they are; I found mine at Christina's in Cambridge. Dunlop recommends toasting a batch (6 tablespoons at a time) in a dry wok for about 5 minutes and then grinding the peppercorns in a mortar. I would also recommend bumping this down to 1/2 a teaspoon, that is until one is fully adapted to the taste (read: face numbing).

****Here's another fun Chinese ingredient. Imagine sake if soy sauce had a slightly boozier love child.