Arroz con Pollo (TTH)

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 3 jarred piquillo peppers, seeded and chopped, or 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped [Eh, was moving soon.  I don't really need to buy a jar of pickled peppers right before.]
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 Roma (plum) tomatoes, halved, seeded, and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Espelette pepper, cayenne pepper, or hot paprika [I may have used double this amount.  I imagine half cayenne and half pimenton.]
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 small packet (1 1/4 teaspoons) Sazon seasoning [Completely failed to see that an actual measurement is listed here]
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
• 3 cups chicken broth
• Hot sauce, such as Crystal, to taste
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro [Pretty sure I didn't bother buying this]
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt for serving
• Lime zest (optional)

Mise en place.

Browning the chicken thighs.  it's probably impossible to tally up the number of chicken thighs I've browned since I started cooking.

Drain off half of the copious oil (we rendered plenty of fat from the chicken thighs) and cook onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, Espelette (I'm pretty sure this is some fancy pepper that my idol Richard Blais digs, but I've finally bought the pequin chiles April Bloomfield is into.  Really, I only need so much specialty red pepper in my life, thanks.), and bay leaves.  Cook until the onion softens.

La di da, add tomato paste and caramelize.  Apparently this is also a big Richard Blais thing.

Add rice, Sazon, and saffon and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.

Pour in chicken stock.  Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce (which is surprisingly rarely ever used in my cooking even though I like things hot).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and maintain a simmer.

Nestle in chicken thighs (I guess try to keep the skin from getting totally submerged.)_  Cook until chicken has cooked through.

Somehow it escaped me to take a photo of the finished dish itself.  Top with herbs, yogurt, lime zest, and copious amounts of the condiment I otherwise almost never use for some damn reason.
Arroz con pollo surely hasn't shot up my list of favorite things to eat, but this is arguably better than the ATK skillet version.

Lemon Curd + Black Pepper Roast Chicken (TTH)

Believe it or not, this my first ever experience roasting a chicken.  I know, weird, right?  But that kind of summarizes my whole kitchen story.

FOR THE BRINE

• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons Szechuan peppercorns (optional)
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds [I would argue that coriander seeds and Szechuan peppercorns are similarly difficult to get.  Neither are all that obscure though you'll have to hit up both an Asian and Indian market unless of course it makes sense to hit up Christina's Spices and Specialty Foods.]
• 8 cups water
• Scant 1 cup Kosher salt
• 1 fresh red Thai chile, slice, or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes [former]
• One 4- to 5-pound free-range chicken

Toast spice except for chiles.  Except, you know, I didn't notice.

Add 2 cups of water and salt.  Stir until salt is completely dissolved.

Remove from heat.  Add 6 cups of water and chile.  Let cool to room temperature.

Blais thinks you have to rinse the chicken for some reason, but ATK (which I usually hold as gospel) says this is unnecessary.  I swish some water around in the cavity and rinse that part.

Technically, you're supposed to brine the bird in a tall, narrow plastic container just big enough to fit the bird.  It was hard for me to settle on something without buying something new so I went with my enameled cast-iron dutch oven.  It's been showing battle scars lately, but I'm sure it's still very non-reactive.

Brine for at least 2 or 3 hours or preferably overnight.

FOR THE LEMON CURD

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Grated zest and juice of 2 leomns
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried [fresh]
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage or 1/2 teaspoon dried [Now if there was a dried herb that really did look like pot, it's gotta be this one]
• 1 tablespoon water

Or, hey, you could just be lame and use 1/2 cup store-bought lemon curd  mixed with two tablespoons of water, but don't expect me to respect you at the end of the day on this one.
Every time I make lemon curd, it tastes like a revelation.   I think I've had store-bought stuff before and it was not the same thing.

Lemon curd mise.

In a medium saucepan, whisk everything except the butter to combine.  Stir over low heat constantly until mixture is very thick and hot.  I stopped when it started looking like lemon curd since I've made lemon curd a few time over for MMB's Arnold Palmer Cake.

Remove from heat and whisk the butter in a little at a time until smooth.  Press mixture through fine-mesh strainer to remove the zest and inevitable lemon seeds.

Coarsely crush peppercorns and coriander seeds with a mortar and pestle or on a cutting board with the bottom a small pan.  Though good luck with that second option.

Not that I once didn't have proper equipment before and still do not in all cases.

Mix this all up with the rosemary and sage.

Add 3/4's of the mixture to the lemon curd, along with the water, and stir to combine.

The perhaps weirdest thing about roasting a chicken for the first time is the whole loosening its skin so just can jab stuff under it, like a compound butter, herb paste, or in this case lemon curd.  It's hard not to think, "Well wouldn't it be weird if someone was doing this to me?"  Or am I psycho for thinking stuff like that?
Anyway, 1/2 the curd goes under there and then you paint the rest of the thing with lemon curd and sprinkle it with the remaining spice/herb mixture.

Pour 1 cup of water into baking pan with rack and chicken set on it.  Tie the chicken's legs together, and I guess you were suppose to tuck the wings in under the bird (Blais leaves out the darndest details about how to cook something).  Roast at 450 for 30 minutes.  Then reduce heat to 325 and continue roasting until the chicken is golden brown and juices run clear when thigh is pierced, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours.

I couldn't stop myself from picking at this.  I almost want to have one of these in my fridge constantly even though that'd probably be a bit dangerous.  Maybe this should be a biweekly thing.
Happy I didn't fuck up my first roast chicken.  Far from it.

Pork Shoulder Cooked in Green Chiles (TTH)

• 6 large poblano peppers (about 2 pounds)
• 2 pounds tomatillos, husked and washed
• 1 boneless pork shoulder (about 5 pounds), cut into 6 equal pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalk celery, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups store-bought low-sodium chicken broth
• Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish [Nope]
• 4 lime wedges for serving [See above]

Mise en place.  Spoiler alert: much of the sheer volume of the dish gets thrown out at the end.

Char the skin on the poblanos.  Do this well because this step is key in peeling the chiles later.  Kind of tedious.  Blais says you can do this in a oven, but does offer directions.

Peel (basically rubbing the skin off with your hands), seed, de-stem and I thought it was worth it to cut them up a bit before throwing in a food processor.

Trying to do an okay job charring the tomatillos.  They at least don't have to be peeled.  All of them were pretty softened.  A couple were even juicy like a tomato.

So Richard Blais doesn't even care if I core the tomatillos?

In a bowl, coarsely chopped.

Browning the hunks of pork.  I'm getting there when it comes to my expertise butchering a whole pork shoulder.

Oh yeah and you dredge them with flour and season them before you throw them in the pot.

Transfer pork to a plate and supposedly drain off extra fat.

Should I not have spent the time trimming the fat on the pork shoulder?

Add onions, celery and pepper along with a little salt and pepper.  Cook until softened.

Add spices and tomato paste and cook until the tomato paste begins to caramelize.

 

Tomatillos and poblanos get thrown back into the mix.

Pour in chicken stock and add the pork pieces, along with any accumulated juices.  Cook until liquid begins to simmer.  Cover throw it into a 325 degree oven until the meat easily shreds with a fork.  A couple hours, you know?

 

This is the part where you get rid of all the vegetables.

A dish too austere for me to even figure out a half decent side dish.  I wound up eating it with that white bread I got for the Swedish meatballs and eventually a nice round of sourdough but that was later.
However, one day it bothered me how long I had had the bread at room temperature and it yet to go bad at all.  This happened at work and a pile of meat doesn't really make for workday lunch.

Though enough with the bad even though I think this dish probably calls for homemade tamales as well (I'll try that sometime, but I've read that it's way more tolerable as a cooperative thing).  It's a beautiful dish if not really the right fit for my lifestyle.

Savory + Aromatic Swedish Meatballs, Kind Of (TTH)

• 5 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon umami paste or anchovy paste
• 2 slices stale white sandwich bread, torn into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
• 4 ounces pork fatback, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill [Though it would work well in this, one tablespoon isn't enough to justify buying a bunch of dill]
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons dry sherry
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons store-bought low-sodium broth
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum or cornstarch (Missed my golden opportunity to buy xanthan gum for the first time]
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• Lingonberry jam (from iKEA or elsewhere) for serving [Nope]

Mise en place for the meatballs themselves.  Decidedly more than the number of ingredients in your average Swedish Meatball recipe and with different spices.  Apparently the traditional spices are nutmeg and allspice.  Forget fresh herbs, anchovies, and fatback; even onion and garlic.

Oh, by the way, you shred the white bread into tiny pieces and pour the milk over it.  It's like a panade?

Which seemingly isn't a popular enough usage of the term to have a page on wikipedia.  Interesting.

Cook onion, garlic, and salt until the onion softens.

Add spices and cook for another two minutes.  Add umami paste (Eh, just minced some anchovies even though that's not even the same thing as anchovy paste) and stir until combined.

Let cool.

Mix mixture with lamb and panade with a wooden spoon until roughly combined.

Add herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Overmixing is apparently an issue, but I made sure to season aggressively and yet avoid overdoing it while searing off pieces in a pan.

I did a good job.

Final mise en place.  The meatballs don't exactly stay spherical like that.

One is supposed to sear the meatballs just lightly until they begin to brown, but I wasn't paying as much attention as necessary on the first batch.  Didn't ruin it, but I learned my lesson.

 
Transfer the meatballs to a plate.  Add sherry and deglaze.  Cook until nearly evaporated.
Add meatballs back to the pot along with 3/4 cup of chicken broth.  Simmer until cooked through.
Mix xanthan gum (Damn, I should have totally bought some) with remaining 2 tablespoons chicken stock.  Push meatballs to one side of pan and whisk mixture into bubbling liquid.  Stir the meatballs back in and cook until sauced has thickened.

Season with sherry vinegar (I think it only needed that 1 tablespoon), lemon zest, salt and black pepper and...  It was awesome.  The most complex succulent Swedish meatballs I've ever had though there's not much to compare these to except Stouffer's and one trip to Ikea.  Dill makes so much sense, but it was still totally good without it.