Rustic Braised Chicken with Mushrooms (PCP)

• 6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/4 pounds cremini mushrooms, trimmed and halved if small or quartered if large
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 ounce dried porcini, rinsed and minced [Typically, dried mushrooms are rehydrated in hot water, but I guess that's unnecessary with a pressure cooker.]
• 4 (12-ounce) bone-in split chicken breasts trimmed [Argh, I wish they had also said to leave the skin on.]
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley.

Mise en place.

I was debating whether or not to do actually do this blog entry since apparently I kept forgetting to take photos at the end, but here we go.

Browning the bacon.

Pour off all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat and soften the onions in that.

Stir in tomato paste,  garlic, thyme, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant.

And then I decide to keep forgetting to photograph anything else that night:
Deglaze with wine.  Stir in broth, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and lay on top of vegetables.
Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes and then quick release pressure.

Before seasoning, create slurry with cornstarch and water and whisk in.

Forgot to take photographs prior to any of the servings besides this last splash of leftovers.
The flavors were pretty bold however the chicken was dried out.  This could've been attributed to the fact that I had removed the skin from the chicken, but I guess we may never know since I rarely re-cook recipes.

Served over a mess of fried rice that my mother had given me towards a housewarming party that was eventually just tossed.

Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa (CATKTV)

Chicken

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt
• 10 (5-6 ounce) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed and skin removed [Oops, guess I screwed up a little by leaving the skin on]

Beans

• 1 pound dried flageolet or great Northern beans, picked over and rinsed [Great Northern]
• 1 medium onion, peeled plus 1 small onion, minced
• 1 medium head garlic, outer papery skind removed and top 1/2 inch sliced off plus 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Ground black pepper
• 6 ounces (about 6 slices) bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 (1-pound) boneless blade-end pork loin roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1/2 pound kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices

Croutons [Although I didn't bother)

• 6 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

Dissolve salt and sugar in 1 quart of cold water in gallon-sized bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Not all the salt and sugar got dissolved and the chicken was still pretty frozen, but I don't think it hurt the dish THAT much.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels afterward.

Mise en place minus the beans.

Practically the same picture as the previous entry.  Except no bay leaves, less water, the onion's hole, and there's some pepper.  Cook until almost tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Drain beans and discard onion and garlic.

Fry bacon until it's just beginning to crisp and most of the fat is rendered.  After that, dump half in with the beans and reserve the rest on a paper-towel-lined plate.

Cook chicken until lightly browned.  Start skinned side down or since I screwed up skin-side down.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat and cook pork until lightly browned.

Add onion and cook until softened.

Add minced garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper and cook until fragrant.

Deglaze with chicken broth and wine.  I sort of did this in stages since I didn't start the beans until later for some stupid reason.  I guess that reason would be not reading through the whole recipe and making the correct logical decision.

Submerge the chicken, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for 40 minutes.  Uncover and cook under pork and chicken are fully tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.

Gently stir in beans, kielbasa, and reserved bacon.  Season to taste.  (Apparently, if I had brined the chicken right, I wouldn't have needed to season with salt as aggressively as I did.) I guess this would be the right time to top with the croutons I didn't make and bake until they were deep golden brown.
When I first made this dish, back before the blog, a previous roommate had said this dish was the best thing he had ever put in his mouth.  I declared the dish a bit too rich for me though still good.  I'm not sure I got as walloped by one serving of this as the first time, but it's still rather more than I'm comfortable with eating multiple times in a day.  It's typically made with duck confit but that's hella expensive and would probably push this even further over my limits.

Good dish, I figure, if one really appreciates French food way more than I do.

Red Beans, Almost the Classic Way (FM)

• 1 1/2 cup dried kidney, pinto, or other red beans, rinsed, picked over, and soaked if you like
• 1 meaty smoked ham hock or ham  bone or 4-ounce chunk of bacon or pancetta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 andouille or hot Italian sausage in casings [andouille]
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green and 1 red bell pepper, chopped [I think my green bell pepper was too far gone to make it in this recipe so I skipped it.]
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• Pinch of cayenne
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; include their juice)
• 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
•  Salt and black pepper
• Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish [nope]
• Hot sauce, optional

Ah, one my last uses of my home-cured, home-smoked almost bacon.  I'm humble enough to admit my failures.

I threw the bacon and beans before I completed any of the other prep.  Since I guess these beans cooked super quickly (I also wasn't around to pull it off the boil immediately), they were overdone at the end.  Oh well.

 

Mise en place at this stage.  I figured I'd have time enough to prep the sweet potatoes during the next few steps.

Browning the sausage.

Cook onions, bell pepper and garlic until the peppers have softened.

Slice sausage and add back in to pot along with everything but the sweet potatoes.  Cook until beans begin to get tender.

That or until I realize they're totally blown out by the time the sweet potato cooks through.


The dish was fine but had a lot of pitfalls similar to many of my experiences with Food Matters.  I mean I'm not always disappointed by the overly healthful recipes, but sometimes it's pretty hard for me to eat too much of them.  I did wind up throwing a bit of this out.

Apple-Pork Ragu with Papardelle (GK)

• 1 teaspoon olived oil
• 12 ounces ground pork
• 2 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices [I subbed some Pink Ladies]
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• One 15-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, smashed by hand or chopped
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 pound dried papardelle [I used a box of ziti I had since in the forward to the recipe Stephanie Izard says that it's fine to use a pasta that might catch some bits of pork or apple]
• 2 tablespoons brined capers
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
• Coarse salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Mise en place.

Browning the ground pork though admittedly there was very little browning well after the suggested five minutes.  I was afraid of drying the ground meat up.  This ragu isn't really a seriously braised or stewed affair.

Browning the bacon.  Still working off the stuff I made in september.

Add onions and garlic and sweat them until onions are translucent.  Um, two minutes ain't going to do it, but as it was with the pork, it was getting there.

Add the apples and wine.  Reduce the wine by 3/4's.

Add tomatoes, broth, and browned pork and simmer, partially covered for fifteen minutes.

The dish struck me as quite sweet when I had it right after completing the dish, but it mellowed out nicely after refrigeration.  The flavors of the dish are not complicated, but they were fine enough here.  I'm surprised Stephanie Izard didn't throw some fish sauce in here as well when it dominates the rest of her cookbook.

4-Cheese Macaroni with Apples and Bacon (GK)

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter plus 3 tablespoons
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 cups cubed ciabatta bread
• 6 cups whole milk [Nice local stuff since Market Basket milk my parents bought had gone bad at this point and I went to the Boston Local Food Festival with Ori F.]
• 1 small onion, halved
• 4 ounces bacon (3 to 4 slices), cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 Fuji apples, peeled and diced
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 4 ounces sopressatta or other similarly spiced meat, diced
• 4 ounces cooked ham, shredded or chopped
• 1 pound dry conchiglie (shell pasta)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 ounces whole-milk mozzerella cheese, grated
• 4 ounces aged Cheddar cheese, grated
• 4 ounces smoked Gouda cheese, grated
• 4 ounces Havarti cheese, grated

Mise en place.

Crisped bacon.

Garlic, three tablespoons butter and pepper flakes heated over medium.  Toss with ciabatta and toasted in the oven.

Process the bacon bread crumbs.

Apples are cooked in the remaining bacon fat until just soft and not mushy.  Toss with vinegar.

Crisping sopressatta.

Simmer the onion together with the milk for 15-20 minutes.

I wish I could actually have someone film me doing action-filled stuff like cooking a bechamel sauce (it becomes a mornay sauce once you add cheese).  First you cook the butter and flour together until it smells nutty.  Then you gradually add the milk...
And the whole thing seizes up like crazy until you nearly add all the milk and the texture loosens.  Then you finally reduce it until it coats the back of a spoon.

Stir in all the grated cheese.

Combine noodles with apple mixture.  Then add mornay sauce.

Cover with the bacon bread crumbs (a rather lot of them) and a tiny bit of mozzeralla.  I was supposed to use a smaller pan but I didn't haven't anything else I figured would be broiler-safe.

Too close/long under the broiler?

The dish sort of left me feeling as if I wouldn't be in some part happier just making it the way I did before I started cooking: out of a box with a packet of velveeta sauce.  It just didn't hit the spot, it wasn't lusciously creamy, and it makes me wonder if it was me or the recipe that messed up.
Next time I'm doing an ATK version of this dish.

Gula jawa and Sichuan Peppercorn Cured Bacon

from Zak Pelaccio's Eat with Your Hands:

• 6 ounces Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 1/2 ounces whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 pound kosher salt
• 5 ounces palm sugar (3 1/3 rounds gula jawa) or 6 2/3 tablespoons brown sugar
• One 12-pound Berkshire pork belly, skin removed [I got my hands on an 8-pound slab at Whole Foods]

Lots of peppercorns. Toast and grind them in batches.
Sichuan peppercorns are actually not peppercorns at all but is a member of the citrus family.

Gula jawa is at least according to Pelaccio and Wikipedia is supposed to be palm sugar. I bought something labelled gula jawa at Super 88 since it appeared to be a better value. However what I bought is made of coconut and cane sugar.

I seem to be doing a bit better when it comes to skinning this time around.

Though I got a bit sloppier with the fat caps toward the end.

Applying the cure.

Stacking them in the fridge to cure. Zak Pelaccio suggests 5 days; I assume waiting until next weekend won't hurt.

 
Hickory and cherry wood chips.  I never opened the bag of cherry ones.

 

Getting the smoker going.

The pork belly after being smoked for 6 hours.  It was disappointingly jiggly while I handled it (adding more chips or flipping it skin-side down for the last 2 hours).  Unlike my initial experience I achieved negligible moisture loss even after applying the old leftover cure I had.



All of it resulting in meat that at its thickest points are still pink and a fat cap that hasn't really experienced the magic.  All of those spices are very vague and skin-deep.
Might just do it Tom Mylan's way next time, but there's $50 worth of pork belly in the fridge I have to work through.  Some bits of it are still quite good.  Particularly the smoked meat.  Not so much the fat.