Barefoot Bloggers: Catching Up

I know, I know - I've sort of abandoned this blog for the past month or so. I've been in something of a funk recently, and despite the fact that we continue to cook really great food on a regular basis, and I've been keeping up with my assignments for Barefoot Bloggers, I just haven't had the motivation to come here and sit down and spend the hours required to get any of it down on virtual paper. To tell the truth, I still am not feeling particularly motivated, but I'm trying to force myself through some of my self-imposed backlog in the hopes that once that source of stress is gone, I'll be more interested in writing about the new stuff.

To that end, I'm going to bend the BB rules a bit and post the last three challenges in this post, so I can start fresh with the second recipe for April.

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1st Recipe for March: Chicken Picatta
plus a bonus recipe, Sauteed Broccolini



Chicken Picatta is definitely one of those classic dishes that I think every cook should know how to make, and though I've made it myself once or twice, I was usually guessing my way through it. I was thrilled when Lindsay of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings chose Ina's recipe as one of the challenges for March, as I would finally have a recipe to follow from a cook I trust.

I made only a few small changes to this recipe (and for once, halving it wasn't one of them - I made the full recipe in the interest of having leftovers for lunch the next day). First, I used panko breadcrumbs that I seasoned myself in place of the seasoned Italian breadcrumbs Ina calls for. Second, I couldn't quite see my way to making chicken picatta without capers, and I put garlic in everything, so when I saw that Ina's recipe called for neither I knew that would have to change. I used a couple of tablespoons of brined capers and a couple of minced cloves of garlic and sauteed them in the pan before adding the stock, wine, and lemon juice. I also used just a tiny bit of cornstarch near the end to thicken up the sauce a bit, as I wanted it to sort of hold its own on top of the chicken rather than being immediately absorbed, as clear-liquid-based sauces are wont to do even when reduced. Finally, I topped our servings of chicken with a fine fresh grating of real parmiggiano reggiano, because everything deserves a little cheese.



I also used this as an excuse to make one of the BRCs (Bonus Recipe Challenges) for March, Ina's Sauteed Broccolini (technically I guess this was supposed to be February's BRC, but whatever) as chosen by Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen. Since the recipe called for garlic and lemon and I already had all that out for the chicken, it seemed like a perfect match.

And indeed, it was. This was just about exactly what I expect when I think of chicken picatta. The chicken was toasty and crunchy on the outside while still being tender and moist inside, and the sauce was tangy, savory, briny, and bright from all the fresh parsley. And I'll say it again, I really can't imagine this dish without capers, as the little pop of salty pungency you get when you bite into one with the chicken is just perfect.



The broccolini was also a really great side for this, very clean and fresh-tasting, the simple preparation and seasoning allowing the flavor of the broccolini to really shine. I love broccolini though and cook it pretty frequently, and this is pretty much my usual method for cooking it - sometimes I roast instead of sautee, sometimes I use balsamic or soy instead of lemon juice, but the basic idea is the same - so I knew before I even made it that it would be good.

I do feel like the meal as a whole could have used something a little bit neutral, like some whipped potatoes or bread, to help counteract the acidity from all that lemon, so next time I'll probably add another side to help round things out. But overall, this meal was definitely a winner, and I can certainly see myself going back to these recipes.

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2nd Recipe for March: Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts



I just recently saw Ina make these Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts on her show, and I remember thinking that it sounded extremely good. I was pretty happy when I saw that Anne of Anne Strawberry had picked this as one of our challenges, because I was sure it'd be tasty.

I had to make a few small changes to the recipe out of necessity, specifically because we neglected to buy either basil or thyme that week at the grocery store. I had dry basil that I could use as a substitute (not that dry basil is ever a good substitute for fresh) but didn't even have dry thyme, so I had to improvise with some oregano and poultry seasoning. I couldn't find garlic and herb goat cheese that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I bought fresh plain chevre and added seasonings myself (a grated garlic clove, some dry basil, oregano, and poultry seasoning, and some black pepper). I couldn't find a nice big tomato that looked like it'd be tasty to cut into big single slices, so I had to use a small vine-ripened tomato and use two slices per tart, halved and arranged as evenly as possible. Finally, I grated the parm instead of shaving it, which was really just an aesthetic change more than anything else.



The tarts came out perfectly, they really did - I was actually really shocked that Ina's technique for creating the tart shell worked as well as it did, and I think I will be using that technique quite a bit in the future - but I have to say, I was not thrilled with this. At all. And its not Ina's fault.

See, I used to love goat cheese, but last summer J and I had sort of a binge on it after visiting an incredible cheese shop in Mattituck and picking up the best chevre we'd ever tasted, a local product from Catapano farms. It was mild and creamy and incredibly fresh, and I think we ate goat cheese on bread every night for a week as an appetizer. But at the end of the week, after eating said goat cheese, later in the evening I wound up sick for some other as-yet-undetermined reason, and let me just say that no matter how good that cheese tasted on the way down, it was NOT pleasant on the way back up. I know, TMI, but I think you'll all understand when I say that ever since then, my taste for goat cheese has waned somewhat.

Its a shame, because recipes that call for it always SOUND so good, much like this one did. But I just couldn't do it. I got through half my tart, and despite it being perfectly cooked with deliciously sweet caramelized onions, juicy tomato, and crisp pastry, that pungent goaty flavor just got in the way. So, unfortunately, the remainder of my tart went in the trash. Sorry Ina... its not you, its me.



J gave the tarts his seal of approval though, so that's something. I'm thinking that if I ever made these again, I'd just make mine with feta - I KNOW I'd like that.

(I have since discovered that I'm still pretty much ok with goat cheese when eaten plain, just on some bread or crackers - I think when it gets muddled up with other flavors, though, particularly sweet ones, it just doesn't work for me. Will continue to experiment until I figure it out.)

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1st Recipe for April: Chinese Chicken Salad



This recipe was a surprise hit. When I saw that McKenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen had chosen this recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad, I was a little skeptical - my first thought was of that salad that people make with uncooked instant ramen noodles, which I happen to love but couldn't imagine Ina making in a million years. When I saw the actual recipe, and how simple it was, I expected it to be ok, but not great. I must admit to being totally wrong.

As usual, I made some changes here, but the biggest one was something I really had no choice over. I have a very severe peanut allergy, so the peanut butter-based dressing was definitely a no-go. Instead, I used tahini, as its texture and flavor seemed like the closest thing to peanut butter that I could safely use. (Am I the only one who always thinks that toasted sesame smells vaguely peanutty?) I also upped the veggie quotient by adding some sugar snap peas and baby carrots to the asparagus and red bell peppers that the recipe called for, making this even more springy and fresh. Finally, I made some small adjustments to the dressing itself to compensate for the tahini substitution and my own tastes, adding a bit more soy and using sugar in place of honey (which I didn't have) and even a smidge of spicy dijon mustard for tang and body.



This salad was excellent - a great mix of flavors, colors and textures, supremely fresh and light while still managing to be completely satisfying all on its own. I was a hair's breadth away from cooking up some soba to have with this, but it really didn't need it. I had one noodle-bowl's worth of the salad and was perfectly content and full, without feeling stuffed. We loved this, and I am certain we'll be making it again when the weather gets warmer - I think this will be perfect picnic and bbq chow, just screaming to be eaten outside in the sunshine and fresh air, preferably with a cold beer or a glass of white wine.



Even though I didn't try it this time, I do think that this dressing would be perfect for a cold soba salad as well, so I'm pretty sure I'll be trying that out at some point soon.

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PHEW. All caught up. I've got some other backlog to work through, along with another Ile de France cheese review (more goat cheese... ack!), but then I promise to start posting new stuff again. I've got a great original soup recipe to share, and my first original cookie recipe, both from the past week. So stay tuned!

Barefoot Bloggers: Coq au Vin

I've been gone for awhile. I know. I'm terribly sorry. Did you miss me? Because I've certainly missed this little blog of mine.

We returned from our trip out west almost two weeks ago now, and since then I just haven't had much worth talking about in here. I failed you utterly by neglecting to take pictures of the small Thanksgiving feast that J and I made on the eve of our departure, and then added insult to injury by completely forgetting to pull out the camera on Thanksgiving Day. Its really a shame, too, because where our little feast for two was slightly sophisticated, creative, and involved a bit of experimentation, Thanksgiving dinner with J's parents was unfussy, down-to-earth, and simply delicious in a very classically American way. Both were great, but sadly, a Thanksgiving post will have to wait until next year.

Aside from that, we've cooked very little recently that's been interesting. The holidays are rather kicking our rears, in terms of money, energy, and creativity, so we've sort of just been plugging along for the time being. But, the Barefoot Bloggers march on, unhindered by the coming of Christmas craziness, and I have a new recipe assignment to share with you today.



Bethany of this little piggy went to market chose Ina's recipe for Coq au Vin for the first December challenge, and I was very excited to see it. Coq au Vin is, as the name suggests, a braised dish of chicken and red wine, and is one of those classic dishes that I feel like every cook worth their himalayan pink sea salt ought to be able to make, and I don't know if I've ever even eaten it before. Its been on my "to try" list for quite awhile, and I love it when the BBs give me an excuse to knock something off of that list.

That being said, I suspect I may have screwed this recipe up with my typical substitutions and omissions, because the end-product was entirely underwhelming. Tasty, to be sure, but nothing special. I feel guilty saying that we probably wouldn't make this again since I didn't really follow the recipe, so maybe someday I'll give it another shot and actually follow the directions letter by letter, but I suspect I may just revisit the Coq au Vin thing with another recipe.

But, I digress. Lets start at the beginning, shall we?

Ina's recipe begins with chopped bacon sizzling away in a dutch oven. We didn't do this, which may have been our first mistake - I tend to discount the flavor of bacon as nothing but salt and smoke when cooked in a dish rather than on its own, but obviously its more than that, and the liquid smoke I added to the braising liquid in an attempt to compensate really didn't do the trick.

Instead we went right ahead to searing the salt-and-peppered chicken pieces in some oil instead of the leftover bacon fat we would've had if we'd followed the recipe. We used chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken broken-down, and here I think was another mistake in judgement. A) We didn't make it to Iavarone this week and couldn't get those great Bell & Evans thighs, so we had to use some sub-par supermarket chicken instead, and B) I didn't get the chicken out of the freezer early enough and did not have time to brine it, which is not called for in the recipe but which always, ALWAYS improves chicken's flavor. That aside, J got quite a nice sear on the skin, and it was all I could do not to tear the skin off of the thighs, finish cooking it in the pan, and then scarf it down, because lord do I love crispy, salty poultry skin.



After the chicken had been properly browned, it was removed from the pan and the vegetable flavor base was added - thinly sliced onions, carrots cut on the bias, and a few minced cloves of garlic. These got slowly sauteed to soften them and bring out the natural sugars to caramelize a bit.



Now here comes mistake number three: Ina calls for brandy or cognac to be used to deglaze the pan. We drink neither, and so we have neither, and I was not about to buy a whole bottle for one recipe. So, I substituted sherry. And its not that it tasted wrong in the finished dish, but I just can't help but wonder how different it might have been with the brandy/cognac instead.

I scraped up what bits of brown had collected in the pan with the sherry and let it cook off almost entirely before adding back the chicken pieces. Then, in went a heavy cup of red wine and chicken stock, and since I had to use a cabernet sauvignon in place of the requisite burgundy - it is shockingly hard to find around here - well, that was probably mistake number four. A couple of sprigs of thyme and a sprig of rosemary for extra herbal flavor went in on top, the cover went on, and the whole thing went into the oven at 250 degrees for about half an hour.



While the oven did its thing, I sliced up a whole package of baby bella mushrooms and sauteed them in some melted, unsalted butter with just a bit of salt, pepper, and worcestershire sauce, and somehow I even managed to screw this up. I salted them too early, and ended up with a whole crapload of liquid in the pan. Normally I know better than that. I think my cooking mojo must've phoned it in that day or something, because really, this more than anything else was just pathetic. I should never be draining half a cup of liquid from a pan of sliced mushrooms at this point in my cooking life.



When the mushrooms were cooked, all that was left was to mash some flour into some butter to create an instant clump-free thickener for the stew when it came out of the oven, and then all we could do was wait.

After 30 minutes in the oven, the chicken was still very pink in the thickest parts.

Truthfully, I wasn't surprised. Half an hour at 250 for chicken on the bone just didn't seem like it could possibly be right, even if you are intended to finish the cooking on the stovetop. If it wasn't enough for me with only three pieces of chicken in the oven, how in the world could it work for an entire bird's worth?

So, I turned the temp up to 300 and put it back in for 15 minutes, and this time it looked like it was cooked correctly. Out of the oven and back on the stovetop, where the herbs got removed and the mushrooms and a handful of semi-thawed frozen pearl onions got added to the pan. Let that bubble away for a few to heat up the onions, and then in went the butter/flour mash. Stir stir stir to help melt the butter and thicken the sauce evenly, cook a few minutes more to eliminate any potential for floury flavor, and dinner is served.



Not very pretty is it? Its hard to make any sort of stew really look attractive... thick brown gravy makes even the tastiest dish look like dog food. And honestly, it was tasty. Could've used a bed of egg noodles or a heel of crusty bread to sop up the gravy, but that's neither here nor there. What it wasn't, was exciting. It wasn't revelatory. It wasn't anything I didn't feel like I'd eaten a hundred times before. Would any of that had changed if I'd actually followed the recipe? Well, maybe, but who's to know. All I know is that next time I feel the hankering for a stew with red wine and mushrooms (and, well, bacon), I'm making beef burgundy. Because that's basically what this was, sans beef. And I think the beef is better.



Its ok Ina, I still love you. I'll blame this one on my insatiable need to tinker. We're still cool.

Barefoot Bloggers: Mexican Chicken Soup

Hi folks! We're away on vacation, visiting J's parents in the wilds of Wyoming for the Thanksgiving holiday. I actually wrote this post almost two weeks ago, because I knew we'd be gone when it was supposed to go up, and I didn't really want to think about it in the days leading up to our departure.

Wyoming isn't exactly known for great cuisine, but I know we'll be making one hell of a Thanksgiving dinner with the folks, so I'll be sure to embarrass myself and take lots of pics to show y'all when we get back. Hope everyone has a fun-and-food-filled Turkey Day!

This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe is Ina's Mexican Chicken Soup, chosen by Judy of Judy's Gross Eats. As far as I can tell, this is basically just Ina's riff on a chicken tortilla soup, but I certainly can't find fault with that - I love soups, I love tex-mex flavors, and unsurprisingly, I loved this recipe.



I have to admit, I kinda screwed up a bit on this because, well, I didn't read the entire recipe all the way through before we did our grocery shopping last weekend. Shame on me. I totally missed that the corn tortillas were not, in fact, intended to be baked or fried for the tortilla chip garnish mentioned at the end of the recipe, but were actually supposed to be added to the soup as a thickener. Since we usually skip the chips when it comes to Mexican soups and chillis, I didn't buy the tortillas. And then I pulled up the recipe on the night we were going to make this, and realized my mistake. Whoopsie!

Luckily, I had a box of quick-cooking polenta in the pantry, and figured that a few tablespoons of that added in near the end of the cooking time would basically accomplish the same thing as the tortillas added near the beginning - it'd thicken the soup, give it some really interesting texture, and infuse a bit of subtle corn sweetness into the final flavor. And in the end I think it worked just fine, and both J and I really enjoyed it just the way it was. Unfortunately that means I can't really weigh in on the success of the recipe as written, but I think the food gods will forgive me just this once.

Aside from that one little foible, I pretty much made the recipe as written with just two small changes. I used dry cilantro instead of fresh, because I just can't bring myself to buy fresh cilantro anymore unless we're going to be using it in every meal for a week. Its impossible to get anything but a bunch the size of my head around here, and every single time we buy it we end up have to throw half of it out because we can't use it fast enough. Given the price of fresh herbs, I just can't keep letting that happen. Also, I substituted a long hot chili (a serrano, I think?) instead of the 2-4 jalapenos that Ina's recipe calls for, mostly because I'm a total wuss and that much jalapeno would probably kill me, but also because we had this other chili lying forlornly in our vegetable drawer and I wanted to use it up before buying more. It actually ended up being the perfect choice, because it definitely added some heat, but not enough that I needed a loaf of bread and a handkerchief to get through the meal. Got my sinuses to open up a bit though, that's for sure.

I guess I should also include the fact that we used some of the leftover chicken from the roast bird we made the weekend before instead of roasting fresh chicken breasts just for the soup, but that's kind of a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned, and all it basically changed was the amount of time needed to make this soup from start to finish.



Unfortunately, my other screw-up was forgetting to bring my camera and tripod into the kitchen while making this, so I don't have a bunch of photos of the raw ingredients and prep work to share this time. Honestly though, this recipe is so easy, I doubt you need the photographic help.

The technique is basically the same as almost every other soup I make - sautee the base flavor ingredients (in this case a standard mire poix with the hot chili and some garlic added in) in some olive oil at the bottom of your soup pot until they are softened and beginning to brown a bit. Toss in your liquid ingredients, herbs and spices (chicken stock, canned tomatoes with their juice, and some cumin, coriander seed, and dry cilantro) then bring to a boil and let 'er rip for awhile to get the veg nice and soft. Give it a taste for seasoning - I found it needed a bit more of both cumin and coriander for my tastes, and I threw in a splash of red wine vinegar for a bit of balancing tang. Then add in the chicken, followed by about 1/4 cup of quick-cooking polenta, which I added very gradually while stirring constantly to avoid clumps. Keep it on the heat for another 5 minutes so that the polenta can rehydrate and thicken the soup nicely, making sure to stir once in awhile to keep things from sticking on the bottom. Once its done, ladle it into some bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream (I spiked ours with a bit of fresh lime juice) and a sprinkling of cilantro. Couldn't be easier, really.

We enjoyed our soup with a double-decker quesadilla made with these fantastic multigrain tortillas from Mission and some fancy Sargento shredded cheese (2 varieties, one with seasoning and one without), which is frankly one of my favorite things in the world to make and eat because its so easy its almost stupid and well, is there really anything better than tortillas stuffed with gooey, melty cheese? I don't think so.

All you do is heat up a large, flat pan on the stove (we use an old, warped griddle pan that desperately needs to be replaced but still does the job) and brush one side of one tortilla with some melted butter or vegetable oil. Put it on the hot pan, lube-side down, and top with a decent sized pile of one kind of cheese, spreading it around to make an even layer. Top the cheese with a second tortilla (no oil or butter needed here), then top that with a second kind of cheese. Finished with a third tortilla, again brushed with butter or oil and this time placed lube-side UP so that when you flip it, the oil will come in contact with the pan. Weigh down with a flat pot lid or a plate to help the bottom tortilla get nice and crisp and brown and to help the cheese melt, and let it sizzle away for a few minutes. Check after 3 or 4 to be sure its not burning, but don't flip it until you see plenty of golden toastyness down there. When you DO flip, do so carefully in case there is cheese in that top layer that isn't quite melted yet and the thing doesn't stay together - you really don't want shredded cheese flying all over your kitchen. Trust me. Now put the pot lid or plate back on top of the quesadilla and give it another 2-3 minutes to crisp up on the second side. When its done, just cut it into wedges with a pizza cutter or a big, sharp knife (a chef's knife or santoku works well) and serve. The wedges make absolutely awesome dippers for this soup.



I would totally make this dinner again. I'd make it all the time, in fact. Its hot, spicy, hearty and comforting, and a really nice change from a regular bowl of beef-and-beans chili. And, well, anything that gives me an excuse to make quesadillas is just fine in my book.

Its a crying shame that J managed to get all the leftovers, because I could really go for a bowl right now.

Why We Don't Go Out For Thai

Consider, for a moment, the plight of the peanut-allergic American. If you don't have to worry about dying from accidental contact with this particular legume, you probably don't even realize how much it's used in everyday foods. Cereals, snacks, candies, and convenience foods often contain things like peanut flour or peanut oil when you'd least expect it. Even those which do not intentionally include peanut products in their ingredient lists will frequently carry that potentially life-saving warning, "Manufactured in a facility which also process peanuts." While this means that your granola bar probably does not contain, nor has it come in contact with, a peanut or its byproducts, it also means that it MIGHT have, and you'd just better not take the chance.

Then there's fried foods, which have at least a 50/50 chance of having been cooked in peanut oil, and sometimes its almost impossible to tell. I often wonder how many unaware folks with peanut allergies get sick every year from innocent trips to Chick-Fil-A. (Because yes, they fry just about everything in peanut oil, and the warning signs in their restaurants are notoriously small and easy-to-miss. I had a close call there myself a few years back.)

If you don't have to think about it, you probably don't realize just how dangerous the world can be for someone with a severe peanut allergy, and how limited the options become when you really take every step possible to keep yourself. And no matter how hard you try to protect yourself, there is still always the slight possibility that, under the wrong circumstances, you just might get hit with an allergy attack seemingly out of nowhere due to a chance encounter of your purse with a peanut shell on the ground.

And possibly worse than all that is the fact that it is damn near impossible to go out for Thai food.



As you may have determined, I am one of those unlucky 1.5 million Americans whose bodies cannot process the proteins in that beloved of all "nuts", the peanut. I've learned as I've grown up how to best avoid accidental ingestion of the evil little beans, and know to be very careful when eating out or trying new foods. However, in my younger days I was sometimes a bit more reckless than I should've been, and it was during those years that I first discovered Thai food.

I suppose I was lucky. There were a lot of Thai restaurants in New Haven County in CT, where I grew up, and I went to at least three different places where I was able to enjoy untainted Thai food, probably due to some extreme care and consideration by the restaurants' chefs and servers. Through these visits I learned to love Thai cuisine, its unique, fresh, and vibrant flavors, colors, and textures, and I became a regular customer to the restaurant closest to home, craving their food constantly between visits.

And then I moved to NY, where there must be a thousand Thai restaurants to try. And it was then that I had my first bad experience in a Thai restaurant, one which must not have taken such impeccable care in keeping their kitchen clean and their peanut products quarantined, because despite having ordered a dish that I knew full well should contain no peanuts whatsoever, I had a reaction and was sick for days.

Since then I have not set foot in another Thai restaurant, other than the one back home that I know is safe.

Just try to imagine not being able to go out for your favorite kind of food because, well, it just might kill you. I probably don't need to spell it out, but I will: IT SUCKS.

But, not being one to take my eating limitations lying down, I resolved that I simply had to be able to make my own Thai food at home, where I knew it would be 100% safe for me to eat. And after introducing J to my beloved "safe haven" Thai restaurant in CT and turning him on to the stuff, he was more than willing to take on the challenge with me.

Since then we have made several soups, stir fries, and noodle/rice dishes from various cookbooks and online recipe sources, some more successful than others but all of them better than no Thai food at all. We will continue to experiment until we have a retinue of reliable, delicious, and authentic (as close as possible, anyway, working within the no-peanuts limitation) recipes that we can turn to whenever we feel that particular, special craving that no other food can satisfy. But for now, the one recipe we've come back to time and time again has been this, my favorite Thai noodle dish and one of my favorite things to eat, ever: Pad See Ew.



A relatively simple dish of wide rice noodles stir-fried with Chinese broccoli or gai lan, egg, and thin strips of chicken or pork with a sticky, sweet soy sauce, pad see ew is a popular lunchtime street food in Thailand. It is hearty and incredibly flavorful, and like so much of the Thai cuisine I've tasted, incredibly well balanced. Sweet, savory, peppery, and tangy flavors meld together into a truly perfect sauce, binding the tender chicken, soft eggs, crunchy broccoli and chewy rice noodles into what I can only describe as the ultimate noodle dish. Seriously, I could eat this stuff every day for a week and not get bored with it. It is amazing to me that such a simple dish with such basic ingredients can taste this good.

The recipe I follow for this dish is slightly non-traditional, but it achieves the same flavor that I fell in love with back in CT, and for that I don't mind breaking the rules a bit. I always use chicken and have never had it with pork, even though I'm pretty sure that pork is the standard protein in Thialand. I also use regular-old broccoli florets instead of Chinese broccoli or gai lan, because frankly I have access to neither. It doesn't matter. Because really, the star of this dish is the noodles; wide ribbons of chewy, starchy goodness that soak up all that delicious sauce and become almost unbearably addictive. I bet you won't be able to stop at one plate.



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Pad See Ew
Adapted from a bunch of recipes that I can't really remember all mashed up together; technique adapted from Pim's Pad See Ew for Beginners.

If you can't find fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, or dark sweet soy in stores near you, try ordering them online from any of a number of Thai ingredient suppliers. That's what we did, and unless you cook Thai every day, they'll probably last you a good long time.

12oz flat, wide dry rice noodles
1 large boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced thinly (you could substitute pork or even tofu here if you wanted)
2 cups broccoli florets (one large crown should do fine)
1 egg
6 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced

Marinade:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Sauce:
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp dark sweet soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp white sugar
1/2-1 tsp black pepper

Vegetable oil for cooking (Choose something with a high smoke point like safflower or grapeseed oil or, if you aren't allergic like me, peanut oil. I won't even bother giving a measurement because it depends on too much - the seasoning of your wok, the type of noodles you use, how hot your stove gets, etc. - just be aware that you will probably use a lot.)

30-60 minutes before you intend to start cooking, mix together the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the slices of chicken in a large bowl. Toss around to coat each piece with the marinade, then cover with plastic wrap and let stand until you are ready to cook.

Place the rice noodles in a dish and cover with hot water (I bring my tea kettle up to just shy of the boiling point) and let stand long enough for the noodles to become pliable. You'll want to move them around every so often with a fork or tongs to keep them from sticking together and forming one giant noodle clump. 5-10 minutes will probably do it, depending on how hot the water is. Just don't let them get soft or mushy, or you'll be setting yourself up for failure later. They need to be able to finish cooking in the wok. Once the noodles are pliable, drain them in a colander and rinse well with cold water, then let stand to drain completely.

Make sure the rest of your ingredients are prepped and ready to go - cut up your broccoli florets and put them in a bowl. Do the same with the garlic. Scramble the egg in another bowl, adding a touch of soy sauce if you like. Finally, make the sauce, whisking all of the ingredients together to help the sugar dissolve. I used the full 2tbsp the last time I made it and felt it was a little too sweet for my tastes, so next time I'll cut it back to maybe a heavy tbsp, but season it according to your tastes. Same goes for the pepper - I like a lot, but use as much as you like.

You should now have a bowl of chicken in its marinade, a colander full of flexible but not-exactly cooked rice noodles, a bowl of broccoli, a bowl of garlic, a bowl of egg, and a bowl of sauce. Now get out your vegetable oil and a big wooden spoon or spatula, and make sure everything is within easy reach of the stove; its time to start cooking, and it's going to move quickly.

Place a large wok over high heat and preheat for at least 5 minutes to ensure the whole pan is heated evenly. Add a tablespoon or two of oil to the pan, enough that you can swirl the pan around and coat as much of the sides as possible. Let that heat up for just a few seconds, then dump in your marinated chicken and garlic. Keep the chicken and garlic moving around the pan by swirling the pan gently and tossing/stirring the meat with your wooden spoon or spatula, letting it cook on all sides without burning. You'll probably get some smoke and some spatter, so just be careful when you move the pan. Once the chicken is cooked and browned in places, remove it and the garlic back to its bowl. Wipe out the pan with a couple of paper towels and replace on the heat.

Now, the broccoli. Add some more oil to the wok, then dump in your broccoli and cook the same way that you did the chicken, though you probably won't need to move it around as much because it wont be as likely to stick as the chicken was. Cook until the broccoli is bright green and slightly softened but still crisp in the stems, and the florets have gotten brown and crispy in spots. Remove from the wok back to its bowl, and replace the wok on the stove. No need to wipe it out this time.

Drizzle some oil over the noodles in their colander and toss around gently so that all of the noodles are individually coated with oil, then add a bit more oil to the wok. This is where things can get tricky, as rice noodles tend to stick like crazy and will break apart and completely lose their structural integrity if they do, so although it goes against my usual healthy sensibilities, use as much oil as you need to keep that from happening.

One the noodles are coated and the oil in the pan is hot again, dump in the noodles and get them moving in the pan immediately. The longer they stay stationary, the more likely they are to stick. Stir fry them until they start to show crisp, brown spots. Now, this is the only part that I still have trouble with - move the noodles up the sides of the pan where it will be cooler, creating a well at the very bottom of the pan, and pour in the scrambled egg. Resist the urger to start shoving it around in the pan the way you have every other ingredient - the noodles at this point should be lubed up enough that they won't stick, and the egg needs to cook without being fooled with for awhile so that it can actually set up. You want to be able to break it into pieces once its cooked, not turn it into a coating for the noodles.

Give it just a minute or two until it looks mostly opaque, then get in there and stir to break it up a bit and toss it with the noodles. Now dump the chicken, garlic, and broccoli back into the pan, toss it all together, and finally pour in all the sauce. Do your pan-shaking/hot-food-tossing bit until everything in the pan is coated in sauce, the noodles have absorbed most of the liquid, and the heat has thickened up anything that's left, just a minute or two. You should get a bit more caramelization and browning during this step. Remove from the heat and serve immediately, with an extra shake of black pepper and a drop or two of soy sauce as a final flavor boost.

Barefoot Bloggers: Herb-Roasted Onions

Its that time again! Time for all the Barefoot Bloggers to roll up their sleeves, grab a wooden spoon, and dive into a new recipe from our muse, Ina Garten. This week's recipe is Herb-Roasted Onions, chosen by Kelly of Baking with the Boys.

I knew as soon as I saw the recipe selection that I'd want to have these onions with roasted chicken. We've never balked at roasting whole birds for just ourselves, but this past weekend afforded the perfect opportunity to have a few less leftovers as we'd planned to have another couple over for dinner on Sunday. And really, what could be better for a casual dinner party than roasted chicken and veggies?



We rounded out the meal with some more of those perfect crispy roasted potatoes and a quick gravy made from the chicken drippings, and if it wasn't the healthiest meal we've ever made, it was certainly one of the tastiest.

The onions themselves really couldn't be simpler, and for once I actually really stuck to the recipe. My only changes were a mustard substitution and using dry herbs instead of fresh. Otherwise, I followed Ina's instructions just about to a T. Aren't you proud of me?

You start with two red onions and one white - mine was an absolute monster, so even with 4 people we ended up with some extras that didn't get eaten.



Aren't onions beautiful? Especially the red ones. I just love their color, and the satiny-sheen of their papery outer skins.

You trim off the barest bit of the root end and peel each onion, then slice into thick wedges through the root - this keeps the wedges more-or-less intact when they roast. This was seriously the most difficult part of the recipe, because these were some POTENT onions and I had to walk away at least twice during the prep to keep the fumes from blinding me. Also, my cutting skills are lame and I missed the root on half my wedges, so my onions fell apart more than they probably should have. Ah well.

Next, the vinaigrette. Again, couldn't be simpler. Whisk together some mustard (I used a slightly sweet, whole grain variety), lemon juice, garlic (grated or minced), salt, pepper, and thyme leaves, then stream in some olive oil while whisking to make a loose emulsion. Dressing done.



The onions get tossed in the vinaigrette (being sure that every onion is completely coated) and, in my case, left to marinate for about an hour while we got some of our other dinner preparations done and got the chicken into the oven.



When the time to cook them rolled around, I lined my brandy-new Cuisinart stainless steel everyday pan (just bought a whole set of these pans and I LOVE them) with aluminum foil and placed the onion wedges in the pan in a single layer. Then the whole thing got shoved in the oven at 400 for about 40 minutes. I found that my onions gave off a LOT of water and didn't really brown or caramelize just by baking them in the time indicated, so I switched the oven over to broil for the last 5 minutes of cooking time and that did the trick.

When the onions came out of the oven, the extra vinaigrette left in the bowl got poured over top and I tossed them around with some tongs just before serving.



Aside from one person who doesn't like to just eat onions, I'd say this was a successful dish. For my case, I liked them, certainly, but I'm not entirely sold on the seasoning. I think I would've liked to switch out the lemon juice for balsamic vinegar, and added some sugar or honey to play on the onions' natural sweetness. I'd like to try a different herb, because although I love thyme on onions (and things like mushrooms) I think its getting a little played out. I'm not sure what I'd use in place of it, though. Chives perhaps, or maybe rosemary?

I also wish my onions had caramelized more fully, but all the liquid in the pan kept that from happening. I'm wondering about trying this at a higher heat next time, maybe 425 or even 450, so that they'll cook and brown faster and won't have time to get soggy.



At any rate, I do think I'd make these again - they look awfully pretty after they're cooked, all golden and red and crispy in places, and the big wedges really make a nice presentation alongside roasted chicken on the bone, rustic and pure in flavor and intent. There's just something about dishes like this, where a solitary ingredient is the star and the seasoning and cooking is simply meant to bring out the best of that ingredient, that really appeals to me. These are onions being everything that onions can be - sweet, pungent, soft and satiny smooth. And I love that kind of cooking. Simple, basic, unadorned and unimposing, just tasty and satisfying and even homey in a way.

I think I'd like to experiment with ways to use them in other dishes. I bet they'd be awfully tasty in a pasta dish with a bit of parmesan cheese, some mushrooms or greens, some olive oil and garlic. Or on a sandwich, thin-sliced steak with swiss cheese, arugala, and an herbed aioli. Or maybe even cut into thinner wedges and stirred into some mashed potatoes for an extra hit of flavor and texture. I think the possibilities for this dish are virtually endless.

So, overall, the recipe needs some tweaking to suit my tastes, but is definitely one I'd go back to.

Greek. Again.

I shouldn't be so hard on myself about the Greek-food thing - truthfully, we haven't made anything remotely Greek in weeks, so I guess I'm not THAT obsessed. And if I've gotta be addicted to a particular cuisine, at least this one is pretty healthy. It could be worse - at least I don't have an insatiable hunger for bad Americanized Chinese food. Right? Right.

Anyway, this was the last of a long string of soup-centric meals, and to my mind at least, the best.



I've always seen avgolemono mentioned in the context of a soup, but the name really has a much broader definition. From Wikipedia:

"Avgolemono is a family of eastern Mediterranean sauces and soups made with egg and lemon juice mixed with broth, heated until they thicken but before they boil, so the egg doesn't curdle. Avgolémono is the Greek name, meaning egg-lemon; in Arabic, it is called tarbiya or beida bi-lemoune 'egg with lemon', and in Turkish terbiye." More...

Up until recently, this idea has not appealed to me; my earlier reference to bad American Chinese food is particularly apt, because when I thought about egg being added to soup, I automatically pictured something akin to Chinese egg drop which, quite frankly, makes me gag. The reality, however, is far more pleasant. Rather than ending up with a thick, gloopy broth with ribbons of barely cooked egg running through it, the method for adding the lemon-egg mixture to the soup in this preparation actually tempers and lightens the eggs, serving to only thicken the soup slightly and give it a smooth, velvety mouthfeel. No runny eggs here, my friends, and that's a-ok with me.

Traditionally, avoglemono in its soup form is made very simply, with rice or perhaps orzo and pieces of poached chicken added to the fortified broth. I had intended to actually stick to tradition on this one at first, planning only to add some chopped spinach near the end as well in an effort to get some good green veggies into the meal. However, our spinach went bad before I could cook this (I HATE supermarket veggies...) so I ended up making some other changes and substitutions to compensate. In the end, my version contained chicken, asparagus, and artichoke hearts, with my beloved fregola sardo subbed in for the arborio rice in the original recipe.

And it was good.

Really, really good.



Avgolemono with Asparagus, Artichokes, and Fregola Sardo
Adapted from Avgolemono: Chicken Soup with Egg-Lemon Sauce by Cat Cora

1 large boneless/skinless chicken breast
6 cups chicken broth or stock
1 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 white onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup diced peeled carrot
1/3 cup fregula sardo
1/2 cup frozen quartered artichoke hearts, thawed and sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 lb asparagus, woody ends trimmed and stalks cut into 1/2" pieces, tips reserved
1 large egg
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (I felt this was maybe a bit too much - I needed two lemons to get 1/4 cup of juice, so I think next time I might just use one.)
S&P to taste
Lemon slices or wedges, optional

Place the chicken breast in a saucepan and add enough broth to cover. Place over medium-high heat and simmer until chicken is cooked, 15-20 minutes. When cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to cool. Add the reserved asparagus tips to the pan to blanch for just a minute or two, until they are slightly softened but still bright green. Remove with a slotted spoon to an ice water bath to stop them from continuing to cook, and turn off the heat under the broth. Set aside.

Meanwhile, add the olive oil to the bottom of a larger saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until shimmering gently. Add the onions and garlic and a pinch of salt, and sautee until they are translucent and softened. Add the bay leaf and carrots and sautee for another 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant.

Pour in the broth used to cook the chicken, as well as any extra, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer about 30 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl to strain out the vegetables and bay leaf, then pour back into the saucepan and move back over the heat. Don't worry if you still have a few bits and pieces of veg in there - it won't hurt the soup any; in fact, you could even skip this step completely and only remove the bay leaf, if you'd like to make things easier, and it'd be just as good if a little chunkier than this version. I like the simplicity of the finished soup in this recipe, personally - the onions, garlic and carrots are only there to flavor the broth.

Add the fregola sardo and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the fregola is still slightly al dente.

Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice and egg together in a bowl and set aside. Cut the cooked chicken breast into cubes, about 1/2"-3/4".

When the fregola is mostly cooked, add in the asparagus, artichokes, and chicken, and continue to simmer until the fregola is completely cooked. Remove from heat and get your egg-lemon mixture.

Using a ladle, add some of the soup broth to your bowl of egg and lemon very slowly, using a whisk to incorporate the hot liquid. You need to do this slowly so that the eggs don't curdle, which would cause that nasty egg drop syndrome. Place your hand against the side of the bowl occasionally to test the temperature of the mix - when it feels slightly warmer than room temperature, you can pour the whole mix back into the pan without danger. Be sure to stir the soup as you add the egg mixture to keep things smooth - the broth should only thicken slightly and should still resemble a broth rather than a sauce or stew. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary. I found that I needed no salt, but added quite a bit of black pepper for just a bit of bite.

Ladle immediately into serving bowls and top with the reserved blanched asparagus tips, garnishing with a lemon slice or wedge if desired.

I think that this could be an extremely flexible recipe; you could add in almost any vegetables you like to cater it to your tastes, or make it vegetarian by omitting the chicken and using vegetable broth. You could experiment with grains, using rice or orzo as is traditional, or perhaps trying something like farro for a nutty, chewy texture that I bet would be especially tasty. And since its reasonably sophisticated on the palate, pretty to look at, and easy to make, I think it would be great for entertaining. Some flatbread or crostini with feta toasted on top would make a great accompaniment. We'll be making this again!

A Lot from a Little Series 1, Post 4: Smoked Chicken & Cremini Crepes with Two-Cheese Bechamel

I'm starting a new semi-regular feature here at Table for Two, in which I will try to offer some tips and tricks on eating well without breaking the bank, especially when cooking for a small number of people.

A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 1: How to Smoke a Chicken
A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 2: Grilled BBQ Smoked Chicken Pizza
A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 3: Smoked Chicken Salad Over Greens

My final offering to you in this smoked chicken series is something you might not consider when trying to decide how to use up what's left of your beautiful mahogany-skinned bird. I've mentioned many more-commonplace ideas if you're looking for something comforting and simple, but if you'd like to be a bit more adventurous, well, you ought to give this a try.

Crepes are one of those things that are so damnably versatile, I sometimes wonder why we don't use them more often. They can be savory or sweet, flavored with all manner of additives in the form of herbs and spices, and can be filled and topped with almost anything you can imagine. Sure, they can be a little fussy to make, but I gotta tell ya: my first ever attempt at making crepes was a pretty solid success (though admittedly imperfect) and I can't imagine why I was ever afraid of them.

I'll take my cue, once again, from the great Alton Brown (can you tell he's my hero?) and say that the key is really to have the right pan.

I suppose I'm lucky in that we just happen to have the perfect pan for making crepes in our cupboard. Its shallow and nonstick, with a gradual curve at the sides that allows for easy turning and removal of the crepes and ensures even cooking and shape. I don't actually know where this particular pan came from - I suspect its a hand-me-down either from J's parents, or from his ex's. Either way, I'm grateful to have it, because that's one less kitchen implement I need to buy.

Seriously though, I definitely think that the pan is essential to turning out great crepes. A deeper pan with higher sides and a steeper wall would make it awfully difficult to get a spatula under the thin, delicate crepes without tearing or folding them, and lord help you if its not nonstick. You'll need a lot of butter to make that work. And its certainly not a unitasker (which AB would frown upon) - it can easily be used for omelets or pancakes, and has frequently stepped in as a perfect sautee pan for small amounts of food, which is especially useful on the rare occasion that I'm cooking for myself alone.

Aside from that, I'd recommend trying out AB's crepe recipe first, if you're a crepe n00b. Its simple and straightforward and practically idiot-proof - the only thing that can be tricky is learning the correct amount of batter to use for each crepe, but you'll get the hang of that with practice.



For this particular recipe I used some savory crepes flavored with thyme that I'd made awhile back and frozen for just such an occasion. I reheated them (2 for each of us) in a low-temp oven while preparing the filling and sauce, and they worked just fine - a bit too crisp around the edges, perhaps, but it didn't really hurt anything, so I'd say there's no reason why you shouldn't make your crepes ahead of time. If you've got the idle hours, though, by all means, make them fresh. They'll always be better immediately after cooking.

The filling was incredibly simple - I took a handful of cremini mushrooms and half a white onion and sliced them all thinly, then sauteed them until they were soft and golden. Then I added in the remainder of our shredded smoked chicken with some fresh thyme leaves, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a fair amount of fresh-cracked black pepper. When everything was hot and slightly browned and crisp in places, I removed the mix from the heat to let it cool slightly.

The sauce was a simple basic bechamel with some shredded cheddar and smoked gouda thrown in, along with a goodly amount of black pepper. I made it while the filling was cooking, because I happen to enjoy multi-tasking.

To assemble, I just rolled up a few tablespoons of the chicken and mushroom filling in each crepe, then spooned the bechamel over top. That's it. Done. Simple, right?



It sure didn't taste it, though. And it looked darn fancy to boot. You'd never believe you could have such a seemingly gourmet meal on a weeknight, but believe me, you can. This didn't take more than half an hour from start to finish.

This is one of those recipes that is definitely more than the sum of its parts. The filling was smokey (obviously), earthy, bright from the lemon and slightly sweet thanks to the slight caramelization on the onions. The crepes themselves were woodsy and savory, and the cheesy bechamel was rich, tangy, and highly flavorful without being overly heavy, thanks to the 2% milk I used in place of whole milk or cream. It was perhaps a touch to thick, but I'm still perfecting my bechamel-fu.

Served with a simple green salad, this was a decadent and satisfying meal that made us feel oh-so-special on a Thursday evening, and was the perfect last meal for our wonderful smoked chicken. I'm not sure it'd be quite as good with regular old roast chicken, but it was good enough that, well, I'm willing to try.

This concludes my first "A Lot from A Little" series! There'll be more where that came from in the future, so stay tuned!

A Lot from a Little Series 1, Post 3: Smoked Chicken Salad Over Greens

I'm starting a new semi-regular feature here at Table for Two, in which I will try to offer some tips and tricks on eating well without breaking the bank, especially when cooking for a small number of people.

A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 1: How to Smoke a Chicken
A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 2: Grilled BBQ Smoked Chicken Pizza

Now, I'm going to admit something right off the bat here: this didn't come out all that good. And that's a tragedy to me, because it ended up being a waste of a lot of really tasty chicken. However, I'm going to post about it anyway, partly because despite our failure this is still a perfectly valid way to use up that chicken, but mostly because I'm hoping someone might be able to give us some ideas of how better to execute this dish. Because honestly, it SHOULD have been awesome.

The idea was to make a standard mayo-dressed chicken salad more interesting by using the smoked chicken in place of the usual poached chicken, and eat it over some mixed greens for a somewhat healthier lunch than sandwiches. It didn't seem like it ought to be difficult, so we followed our usual method for salads like this: mix up some light mayo and mustard with chopped red onion, celery, and carrots; lighten it up with a splash of red wine vinegar and balance it out with a bit of salt, few grinds of black pepper and a drizzle of honey; add in the shredded chicken, mix it up, and eat. Simple right?

Well, I'm not sure what went wrong, but it just didn't work this time.

Part of the problem was that it was overdressed, I think - the salad was on the runny side and that generally kinda grosses me out when it comes to mayo-based salads. I also think we made a mistake by salting the dressing, as the chicken itself had a fair amount of saltiness from the brining step. And we decided to toss in some finely chopped fresh parsley this time around as well, which really didn't work at all for me. I'm a little picky about parsley, admittedly, but I think it was overpowering here.

Regardless, neither of us was thrilled with it. We each took it for lunch one day out of the week, and the rest went in the trash... heartbreaking, when I think of how good that chicken was, and also embarrassing as I'm trying to write about getting the most for your money here, and I just threw out a third of a chicken's worth of meat. Sigh. Unfortunately, there was just no rescuing it.

This marks the third time, now, that we have attempted to make chicken salad with smoked chicken, and while the previous attempts were better than this one, none have been exactly stellar. It makes me wonder if we need to try a completely different approach, because I feel certain that there must be a way to make this work. Perhaps a mayo-based salad would work if it was VERY lightly dressed, and the dressing was VERY simple. Or perhaps we need to play with seasonings or explore other options for a creamy salad base (Greek yogurt, perhaps?). Or maybe we should abandon the creamy salad idea completely and go a different direction, using perhaps a vinaigrette dressing instead.

Anyway, aside from this being a disaster from a taste perspective, it was a success from a stretching-your-ingredients perspective - using about a third of the meat (mostly white meat) that was left from our bird, we had easily enough salad for us both to have lunch for 3 days or so. Its a shame we couldn't actually follow through with that plan.

So folks, anyone have any brilliant ideas to make a smoked chicken salad that actually works?

Next up in this series: Smoked Chicken and Cremini Crepes with Two-Cheese Bechamel

A Lot From a Little Series 1, Post 2: Grilled BBQ Smoked Chicken Pizza

I'm starting a new semi-regular feature here at Table for Two, in which I will try to offer some tips and tricks on eating well without breaking the bank, especially when cooking for a small number of people.

A Lot From A Little Series 1, Post 1: How to Smoke a Chicken

Now that you've smoked your chicken and broken it down, you've got this big pile of delicious, moist, smoky chicken meat staring you in the face and begging to be used. So, you might ask, what exactly do I do with this stuff?

Well, for starters, you could eat it, just as it is. Whip up a batch of cole slaw, boil or grill some corn on the cob, slice a few tomatoes and drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with salt, and you've got yourself one hell of a tasty and healthy end-of-summer dinner. We've done meals like this with subtle variations many times in the past, and its always delicious.

Or, you can just use it wherever you might otherwise use roasted chicken. It'd make a killer chicken noodle soup, or be a really interesting riff on chicken parm if mixed with a light and acidic tomato sauce and baked with a bit of fresh mozzarell and basil on top. (In fact, I think I'll be trying that next time...) Throw it in your favorite chicken pot pie or stew recipe, or sautee it in chili sauce for chicken enchiladas, burritos, or tacos. The light hickory smokiness would complement all of those things, and probably with very little recipe alteration.

However, if you're looking for something perhaps a little more creative or interesting than standard comfort food, let me tell you what we did with ours.

The day we smoked it (which, btw, was a Sunday, and I absolutely recommend making this a weekend project so you can take your time with it and relax a bit while the bird takes its smoke bath - perhaps by sitting outside with a beer and a good book) we used some of the meat to make grilled pizza for dinner. We've been trying to perfect our grilled pizza method all summer and wanted to get one more attempt in before the weather gets too cool and the days too short for grilled dinners. And I have to say that this time around was the absolute best yet - still not quite perfect, but we're close. So very, very close.



BBQ Chicken Pizza is hardly an original concept, and I have to admit that when its done right, I like it even better than regular tomato-and-mozzarella style pizza. I'm a sucker for sweet bbq sauce on just about anything, but when you throw in chicken and lots of cheese, well lets just say I'm not terribly proud of the lack of self-control I exhibit. Its downright shameful, it is. But I can't help it.

But when we made up our minds to smoke this chicken, and decided to give the grilled pizza another shot, it was just a natural jump from there to realize that the smoked chicken would be a perfect topping for a slightly charred and crispy crust off the grill. And if we were going for smokey and charred, the next logical step was bbq.

I pulled my beloved Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking off the shelf and thumbed over to the Pizza Margherita recipe, whose dough has been the basis of my experiments so far. This time around I halved the recipe, and used half bread flour and half semolina flour instead of all bread flour. Who knew semolina would make such a difference? The dough was softer, silkier, and stretchier, and rolled out to a perfect thin-but-stable round for the pizzas. And when it went on the grill, it bubbled and puffed and charred just like it would in a real pizza oven. I can't even describe how satisfying that was to watch - as soon as it started developing those big tell-tale bubbles, I knew I'd gotten it right.

Unfortunately our grill isn't big enough to make the pizzas completely outdoors, as you need to be able to move them away from direct heat in order to top them on the grill without burning the bottoms, so we grilled both sides and then brought them inside to finish them off. The crusts were topped with a thin layer of J's best-yet homemade sweet bbq sauce, followed by a generous amount of the shredded smoked chicken, some thin sliced red onions, a few slices of fresh mozzarella, and a generous sprinkling of an equal blend of shredded sharp cheddar and smoked gouda. The topped pizzas went on a baking sheet and under the broiler for just a few minutes until the cheese was melty and everything was hot, and the crust had taken on a bit more char around the edges.

When we took them out, this is what we got.



Looks pretty amazing, doesn't it? Almost like real pizza. And it damn near was.

I know we'll never achieve real pizzeria pizza at home without a brick oven - a standard kitchen oven will just never get hot enough. But I'm now a believer in grilled pizza as the best possible alternative - the high direct heat helps the dough to actually get crispy and to rise quickly enough to develop those big airy bubbles that I see as the hallmark of a real pizzeria pizza. And the crust this time was so, SO close to what I've been looking for in a homemade pizza crust. It was a bit on the dry side, perhaps, which I think I can remedy by adding more olive oil to the dough, and still a bit too dense and chewy in places, which I think could be fixed by letting it rise a bit longer than I did (which was almost not at all) to let the gluten develop. But I'm making progress, and I think next time I just might get it right.

But, I know, what you really want to know is how was the chicken on this pizza?

It was delicious. Perfect, really. The smokiness mellowed a bit among the sweet sauce, sharp onions, and creamy cheese, but was kept at the fore with the help of the smoked gouda. Everything melded into a near-perfect synchronous whole, all sitting atop that glorious crust... it was our best pizza effort to date.

And as a bonus, it was equally good the next day for lunch. Who says brown-bagging it has to be boring?

Next up in this series: Smoked Chicken Salad Over Greens.

A Lot from a Little Series 1, Post 1: How to Smoke a Chicken

I'm starting a new semi-regular feature here at Table for Two, in which I will try to offer some tips and tricks on eating well without breaking the bank, especially when cooking for a small number of people.

J and I are hardly poor. We both make decent salaries and we don't have a lot of the expenses that other people our age do, since we don't have children and live in an apartment where all of our utilities are paid for. However, we're not exactly rich, either - J's got his car payment and insurance, I've got train tickets to buy every month, and we both have credit card debt and cellphone bills. And, well, we live in NY, which isn't exactly famous for its low cost of living. Add to that the rising food costs and the failing economy, and our budget for cooking and eating at home becomes a pretty important one.

Consequently, although we are generally able to afford plenty of high-quality cooking ingredients and can even occasionally buy something special, like a nice artisan cheese or imported olive oil, quite often our meal planning revolves around getting the absolute most that we can out of everything we buy so that we know we're getting our money's worth.

One method we use constantly is to buy a large cut of meat, say a london broil or a pork roast or a whole chicken or bone-in turkey breast, and then portion it out (either before or after cooking depending on our meal plan) to get 2-3 dinners out of it, and sometimes even lunch for a couple days, since we both bring lunch to work most of the time. Usually the price per pound of these types of meats will be less than pre-trimmed, pre-portioned versions, and if you're clever you can have meat for a week off of a single cut, especially if, like us, you're only cooking for two.

This also has the added bonus of allowing us to occasionally enjoy a roast beef or turkey dinner with all the trimmings, without succumbing to Turkey Day Syndrome where we end up eating that same meal over and over again for the rest of the week. Repurposing leftovers is the best way to get the most out of your food without getting bored, and opens up a ton of options that might not have been there before.

The example I'd like to walk you through today involves not roasting, but outdoor cooking - smoking, to be exact. Big cuts of meat and whole birds are ideal for smoking, since the long, slow cooking process tends to bring out the best in even the cheapest cuts. J has an electric smoker for these sorts of things, but it possible to smoke food in a charcoal grill as well - all you need is some heavy duty tin foil.



We started with a lovely Bell & Evans roaster chicken - we recently discovered this brand and fell in love with their chicken, always tender and moist and very flavorful.

The day before we planned to put it in the smoker, I mixed up a quick brine of equal parts sugar and kosher salt in filtered water, with a few bay leaves and whole peppercorns tossed in for good measure. The chicken went into a large ziploc bag, which then went into a second bag (insurance against leaks) and the brine was poured in, enough to submerge the chicken. I sealed up both bags and placed the whole thing in a big bowl just for a little added security, then slid it into the fridge to soak for the next 24 hours.



On smoking day I removed the chicken from its salt water bath and rinsed it quickly, then trussed it up with some butcher's twine. After a quick rub down with a bit more salt and a lot of black pepper, it was ready for some heat.

While I was doing that, J set some hickory chunks to soaking for about half an hour.



J set up the smoker with a layer of lava rocks around the heating coil, with the hickory chunks on top of that. Its taken a lot of trial and error for him to figure out how much wood and rocks to use depending on what he's smoking, as the smoker doesn't have anything resembling temperature control (hey, I bought the one I could afford at the time) so I'm not sure I can give too many specifics for how YOU should do this. Mostly I would just advise paying attention to the directions that came with your smoker if you're using one.



Also, if you don't have a smoker, all you need to do is build up a fire in your charcoal grill, and toss in a perforated, double-wrapped foil packet with your soaked wood chips or chunks once the flames die down. Keep the lid closed while you're cooking and it'll work just fine.



Anyway, once the smoker was assembled and ready to go, in went Mr. Chicken and on went the lid, not to be seen again for another 2 and a half hours.

J used just the right amount of lava rocks and wood chunks to keep a steady supply of low heat and smoke for the entire cooking cycle, but I'd advise checking on your smoking rig every 30-45 minutes or so to be sure you've still got both. You may need to add more wood or, if you're using charcoal, relight you fire at some point during the cooking process.

Use a meat thermometer to monitor how the chicken cooks - when it reaches 160-165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast or thigh, its time to pull it off the smoke and let it rest.

If you did it right, your chicken will now have this beautiful mahogany coat and a delicious aroma.



The most important thing to do now is to leave that bird alone for at least 15 minutes - it needs to come up a bit more in temperature, closer to 170, and the carryover heat will accomplish that. Plus, since its been brined, there'll be a lot of juices in the meat, and cutting it now would let all that yummy flavor escape. As the great Alton Brown would say, your patience will be rewarded.

Once the 15 minutes are up and the bird is cool enough to handle, grab your knife. Not that you'll need it much - it'll help you get through the skin, but if your bird is properly cooked you should be able to just pull it apart at the joints with very little help from tools, and slip the bones right out of the meat. Feel free to lick your fingers while you're doing this, because the juices will be delicious.

When I broke down our bird, I separated the legs and wings from the body and just pulled apart that meat with my hands, then carefully cut away the two breasts from the ribcage and sliced them into manageable pieces. Then I just picked off whatever meat I could find by hand. I removed all the skin at the beginning, and saved it to make something akin to cracklings in the oven later - sounds weird, but I tasted a piece while working with the meat and was struck by how much it tasted like bacon, smoky and salty. I just had to crisp it up and see if I could really make it like bacon. And it worked! The fat in the skin acted just like the fat in bacon and rendered out under the broiler to create a crispy, salty, and amazingly bacon-y snack.



This was, hands down, the best chicken that either of us has ever tasted. We've smoked chickens before, but often the smoke flavor was too strong - this time it was perfect, savory and aromatic, and the meat was tender and juicy and perfectly seasoned thanks to the brining step. It was addictive in a way I've never known chicken to be, and I kept sneaking little bites because I couldn't get enough of the flavor. Its a good thing we had plans for all that meat, or I doubt it would've lasted long.

Once you've broken down your bird, you can bag and freeze the meat for use at some later date (it'll last months in the freezer) or keep it in the fridge and use it within a week.

Next up in this series: BBQ Smoked Chicken Pizza, on the grill!