World Kitchen: Make Mine Chicken

Most people make New Year's resolutions. I've decided to make 30th Year resolutions. 

I know I've been a bit lax in my 20s. I'm lucky to have a good job, but it's not in a field where I want to make my career. There are a number of things I've wanted to do, but my general introvertedness has kept me stuck in a rut. And, my friends are all awesome people, but a lot of them have moved from this fair city in the past few years. To that end, my resolutions, thus far, are as follows:

1) Do work that inspires me.

2) Try new things.

3) Meet new people.

On the first count, last week I met with a local adult education non-profit to get started doing literacy tutoring again. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while and although it’s not what I’ll be doing for my 9-to-5, I hope to at least feel that some work I’m doing is making a difference somewhere.

I entered into count #2 in two ways.  Last weekend I put aside my feelings of intimidation and went to a Spanish Language Meetup. I’ve studied Spanish for years, but still can’t speak it and I know that being around people who speak Spanish would be the best way to sharpen my skills. Classes cost money, but Meetup is free, making it an obvious choice. To my relief, I was not the only struggling speaker there and I felt completely at ease attempting to speak in a language I only moderately know.

I also took my first cooking class this weekend. I've always wanted to take a cooking class, but the ones I've seen at the Chopping Block or the Wooden Spoon are a bit too expensive for me. World Kitchen, however, is a mere $30. The only hitch is that you have to be quick on the uptake when registration opens. I missed the opening by a day, but was still able to squeeze into a class that I was really interested in.

I had a very busy Saturday, but it was all fun and all worth it. And, hopefully, all of the above strategies will help me move forward with count #3.

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“Make Mine Chicken” was that name of Saturday’s class. Upon walking into the culinary studio I picked up a packet of eight recipes, from Roast Chicken with Mushroom Sauce to Quick Curry Chicken to Chicken with Feta Vinaigrette & Orzo. After discussing the basics of chicken – safe cleaning practices, organic vs. processed, the meaning of “free range,” etc. – and going over each recipe, we broke into five groups and headed to tables containing our group’s ingredients.

Along with two other girls, I was tasked with putting together the Yucatan Spiced Chicken and the Apricot & Goat Cheese Spirals. The instructor described the sauce for the Yucatan chicken as like a mole sauce and in some sense it was. The sauce was made of the zest and juice of a lime and an orange, garlic, oregano, olive oil, and ancho chile powder. When blended it was thick and dark, spicy and citrusy, with a kick in the back of the throat from the chiles. It didn’t taste like a mole, but I could see the similarity in the color and consistency. I cut some slits into several pounds of split chicken wings and poured the sauce over, tossing the mixture with my hands and massaging it into the cuts.

As an accompaniment to the chicken, we roasted some onions, poblano peppers, and chayote. According to some online articles, chayote is mostly common in Mexican cuisine, which makes sense since I was the only one in our group who knew what chayote was, let alone eaten it before. I explained that it was a squash and had somewhat of a bland flavor, that I had only eaten it boiled with a little butter, the way my mother cooked it, and didn’t much care for it. For this dish, we cut up the veggies, drizzled them with olive oil, and sprinkled them with salt. They went into the oven with the chicken pieces. Aside from needing a little more salt, our Yucatan Spiced Chicken was wonderfully tasty when it was done and the roasted veggies, even the chayote, were a sweet complement to the spice. These wings would make an interesting departure from the usual buffalo wings at a party.   

While those two items were cooking, we started in on the Apricot and Goat Cheese Spirals. These employed the use of some butterflied, pounded chicken breasts which we wrapped around a mixture of goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, chopped dried apricots, and lemon juice. Once rolled, the chicken was browned on the stove and finished in the oven with some broth. The spirals didn’t quite stay together when sliced, but if you were to serve this as a dish and leave the spiral intact on the plate, that wouldn’t be as much of an issue.

The nice thing about this recipe is that the instructor included several variations that we could try on our own, so if the current filling wasn’t to our liking the recipe wasn’t all for naught. This proved to be helpful for me, because while the goat cheese created a lovely aroma while the chicken was cooking, I have never, and still do not, enjoy the cheese’s taste. Perhaps I will try mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes if I make this on my own.

With the spirals done, the Yucatan chicken came out of the oven, and the two were added to the table with the other groups’ efforts. We had quite the spread before us and even though I only took a little bit of each dish, I ended up with far too much on my plate to finish. In the end, the class was a fantastic way to spend a part of my Saturday. I learned some new dishes, ate some fantastic food, and had a great time chatting with the two girls in my group.  I can’t wait to have the opportunity to take another one.

Rosemary Sorbet & Lamb Chops with Rosemary Pan Sauce

 

Three significant things happened to me in the past week.  1) I turned 30.  2) I finally bought myself the Cuisinart ice cream maker I’ve been eyeing.  3) I got my first cast iron pan.  The three events may seem related, but they’re really not.  The ice cream maker purchased was justified by my having enough points on my credit card to get some Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards and this month I also happened to get an online coupon for the store.  I joke that my mother gifted me her used cast iron pan – three years my senior! – because she was mad that I didn’t invite her to my all-weekend singing, dancing, drinking, eating fiesta, but in truth I’ve been meaning to assume ownership of the pan for some time (it’s just been hanging out at my brother’s place until his next visit to Chicago).  And yet the confluence of these three things seems fitting: a new decade, new tools to use, new foods to try, and new things to learn.

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I love a good sorbet.  You can find decent ice cream anywhere, but good sorbet is a treat.  In truth, sorbet, not ice cream, was the impetus behind my purchasing the ice cream maker.  While flipping through JoC in times past, I came across a recipe for rosemary sorbet.  I’ve never had rosemary sorbet, but I love rosemary and the idea just seemed delightful.  Everyone has had mint sweets, but rosemary never comes to mind in this application.  It had to be the first recipe I would try in my new ice cream maker.

My plans for finding fresh rosemary at the farmers’ market were dashed when there was none to be found, so I put aside my local farming efforts and picked some up at the Treasure Island two blocks from my apartment.  JoC’s authors state that most sorbets are started by combining equal parts sugar and water, but that they find this ratio too sweet and have cut the sugar in their recipes.  Indeed, I added only a half-cup of sugar to a cup-and-a-quarter of water and set that to boil while chopping a quarter-cup of the fresh rosemary.  I added the rosemary and let that steep for 40 minutes before straining the mixture and putting it in the refrigerator to cool for several hours.  Once cool, I sent my ice cream bowl for its inaugural spin and poured in the aromatic syrup.  Immediately the liquid began to increase in volume as it froze and collected on the sides of the bowl while the mixing paddle scraped around the edges. 

I had decided to make only half of the recipe, just in case I didn’t like it, but this proved to be somewhat of a mistake.  The smaller amount of liquid kept accumulating on the paddle instead of swirling around the bowl, so what I wound up with was hard, icy bits mixed in with the slushy bits instead of a uniform creaminess.  It didn’t help that I put it in the freezer to harden further.  As you can see from the picture above, it was not very scoopable (though I seem to have sacrificed my ice cream scoop in a move anyway, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter).

The taste was…interesting?  It wasn’t like anything I had ever tasted before.  It was heady with the flavor of rosemary and yet quite sweet and at the same time refreshing.  “Unexpected” is the best word that I can think to describe it.  But I think I like it.

With a half a bag of fresh rosemary left over, I knew the perfect accompaniment would be some lamb chops cooked up in my new (to me) cast iron pan.  I followed JoC’s instructions for cooking the chops in a bit of olive oil and butter, then composed the herb sauce.  I sautéed some shallots in the pan, deglazed with some white wine and lemon juice, stirred in a couple drops of Dijon mustard and the chopped rosemary, then added salt and pepper.  Some bits of butter swirled in at the end completed the sauce.  Admittedly, I over-reduced it a bit and had to add a little extra wine, but otherwise the sauce was bright and herby and went perfectly with the lamb.   

I managed to cook the lamb to the perfect state of medium with a nice crust around the edges.  Perhaps that was due to my attention to the cook time…or perhaps it was the aid of a really good pan.  Either way it was easy, quick, and good.  It was a great meal to start a new decade of cooking.