What's Cooking (Take Four)

That Tuscan Chicken and Porcini recipe is a real winner. It's amazing that something that simple can be that good!

-Paul W.

Porcinis have a way of doing that.

[Jenise]

Rahsaan, the bag of them I just bought? So huge that I sophoned off about a quart of them for delivery to my brother. They were in sealed in a ziploc bag and rode around in my car for two hours two days ago, and though the car's been in the garage with the windows down to air out that aroma remains behind.

I might add that while driving past a dairy I could almost not tell which aroma was the mushrooms and which was the cow patties.

Rahsaan, the bag of them I just bought? So huge that I sophoned off about a quart of them for delivery to my brother..

Lucky you!

I might add that while driving past a dairy I could almost not tell which aroma was the mushrooms and which was the cow patties.

Ha!

Breakfast this morning is a Buttermilk English Muffin toasted and topped with fresh, sliced tomatoes, sliced hard-boiled egg, and truffle salt. Very tasty.

Made a NYT recipe for smoky shrimp saganaki, kind of hybrid Mexican/greek. Dried chipotle and ancho, fresh long hot peppers, whole garlic cloves in a skillet, cover with a load of cherry tomatoes and olive oil. Cook for a bit, add a block of feta, cook more. Then add chopped garlic and butterflied shrimp, broil for 5 minutes. Really loved it, and easy.

On today's menu is Filet Mignon, seasoned with Quebec Beef Seasoning. These will be started on a grill pan and finished in the oven. Stuffed Potatoes Florentine using Yukon Gold Potatoes, first baked, then stuffed with the removed potato, Jack Cheese, salt pepper, nutmeg, baby spinach, and nonfat sour cream. Uncured, Applewood Smoked bacon crispy bits will top the potatoes.
My veggies are roasted honey Quebec carrots, roasted with onions, EVOO, Quebec beef spice, hot honey, and dill weed. I will undoubtedly use a different fresh herb since I do not understand Dill. To me, it does nothing for food. I need to look at my French Tarragon and see if it is still good.

Dale, love the sound of that dish you are making, very creative. The ingredients are all favorites of mine.

Last night I grilled chicken thighs that had been marinated in TRUFF hot black truffle sauce.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Made a NYT recipe for smoky shrimp saganaki, kind of hybrid Mexican/greek. Dried chipotle and ancho, fresh long hot peppers, whole garlic cloves in a skillet, cover with a load of cherry tomatoes and olive oil. Cook for a bit, add a block of feta, cook more. Then add chopped garlic and butterflied shrimp, broil for 5 minutes. Really loved it, and easy.

Sounds fantastic! Going to go look that up right now.

We had an ordinary breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and grapefruit wedges. But the addition of Nova Scotian oatcakes with a dollop of blueberry confit on top was a real winner.

The Culinary Gods decided to smite me last night. I recently came across a recipe for Swiss rosti and decided to try making it. Rosti is a close cousin to potato galettes and hash browns. The potatoes are partly cooked the day before, then peeled and shredded and formed into a large (2 pounds of potatoes), thick pancake that is then browned on both sides.

The rosti did not work out well. I grated them using the large hole side of a square manual grater. The peeled, partly cooked potatoes are very slippery and the grating proved to be a tedious, if not dangerous (for the fingers) task. The rosti cake fit just fine in my stainless-lined heavy copper frying pan, but it browned unevenly and stuck to the pan. I've read several recipes for rosti and they all warned that turning the rosti pancake over is a tricky process. I had an awful time doing it.

Meanwhile I had prepared chicken thighs with a Jamaican curry dry rub and was grilling them on the gas grill. When I went to turn them over I discovered that the propane tank had gone empty. I had to attach a new tank. This is an old grill and the sparker that lights the gas is pretty wonky. It wasn't working. I have a gas grill lighter--a refillable one, not disposable--so I got that out. It wouldn't spark, either. I don't keep matches or a cigarette lighter. So I had to borrow a gas grill lighter from the neighbors. I got the grill re-lit.

While I was doing all this the rosti was cooking unattended. Fortunately it didn't burn. The end result was very tasty indeed but was missing the nice crust. I'm planning to re-form the leftover rosti into smaller, thinner galettes that can be turned with a spatula.

It turns out that the battery that provides the spark in my gas grill lighter had died. It has a fresh battery now and is working again.

That old saying that trouble comes in threes is right: failed rosti; gas grill unexpectedly runs out of gas; both spark lighters fail to work.

Tonight I'll be cooking Jenise's Tuscan chicken and porcini, something I know I can prepare reliably.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, I feel for you. I've had days like that where everything fails.

Hopefully I don't have one tonight. Company will be here for a few days and tonight I'll be serving smoked trout and leek 'pate' on thin slices of crisped baguette with a 2007 Comtes Taittinger on arrival, and will follow that with a one-pot roast chicken wherein the bird is browned and roasted in a dauffer with carrots, then broth and a 1 lb box of orzo are added along with two sliced lemons, and a ton of tarragon. I'll serve that course with pinot noir. The result is comfort food on a very high level. Will be a perfect, relaxing dinner for our guests after a long day of travel.

What's a dauffer?

I'm flying to Naples tonight but I'd like to swing by for a glass of the aperitif....

[Jenise]

Jeff, an deep oval roasting pan suitable for a chicken shape surrounded by vegetables.

Jenise, is that like a Dutch Oven? I googled it and nothing came up...

I know daubiere, but not dauffer, but maybe same origin,

Tonight I'm making a variant of Chonqing chicken with chiles (laziji). This is a dry stir-fry seasoned with a bit of soy sauce, chile flakes, Sichuan peppercorn, ginger, and scallions. Oh, and and a preposterous number of dried lantern chiles (tradition in Chonqing is about 7:1 chiles to chicken!). Despite the alarming number of dried chiles (not meant to be eaten), the dish is only moderately hot. I've not had the chicken version but I have had the beef variant. Alarming in appearance but delicious.

My variant is that I will be using fresh lantern chiles I got at Lull Farm instead of the traditional dried ones. I will be using far fewer of them and will be removing the internal membranes and seeds (which is where most of the heat is). I'm curious to find out what fresh lantern chiles are like.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I know daubiere, but not dauffer, but maybe same origin,

First, to Karen. A Dutch oven is round. Dale, a French daubiere is a pot-bellied shaped thing with a water trough at the top to keep the upper part of the pot cool during cooking. I've seen pictures but have never seen one in the real. Though technically not a daubiere, it would work well for that application.

My 'dauffer' is oval and roomy/deep enough for a 5 lb chicken. It's probably 8-10 qt size. The underside of the lid has two protruding rings of tooth-like ridges that collect trapped moisture and baste the bird (or other meats one might use it for) during cooking. It's a navy blue Emile Henry dish that my beloved gave me for Christmas years ago. But long before that, I inherited a very old, similar one made of heavy aluminum--oval and with that lid, which I didn't understand. I posted pictures of it here and someone recognized it, I think it was that guy in Montreal, and called it a 'dauffer'. This was very very early days of WLDG, maybe even 40 years ago. I gave it away because corrosion's an issue where I live, then Bob found and gave me this one.

I just checked and could find no evidence that there's such a word as 'dauffer', but I didn't make it up! The most similar to mine by Emile Henry now, at least that I could find, is simply called a stew pot and I don't know if the lid is made for basting.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... aw%26r%3D0

I also use it for no-knead breads.

It's ideal for this chicken and orzo dish I made. And perfect for company who flights had high delay potential. I could do several steps ahead (brown whole chicken, add baby carrots and leeks, garlic and about six cups of chicken broth, and then wait for them to call when they got to Mt. Vernon, one hour out and well clear of Seattle traffic. When the call came, I brought the pot to a boil, popped it into the oven for the next stage of cooking. As soon as they arrived, I added the orzo and let that bake for 15 minutes while we had champagne. Then I pulled it from the oven for a final 15 minutes rest during which the orzo finishes, and we went to table. The house smelled great and there were satisfying gasps when I pulled the lid off and revealed the fall-apart tender bird surrounded by pasta and vegetables. No carving needed, a large serving spoon easily separated whatever parts guests wanted from the rest. I served salad after the main course. Couldn't have worked out better.

Jenise,
I've seen pictures of the pot bellied clay daubieres, but the one my French friend uses was a large copper oval.
More like these
https://www.vintagefrenchcopper.com/202 ... -daubiere/

[Jenise]

Dale, I saw a pic of that kind of pan once upon a time--that rectangular copper box--wondering how well a lid like that would work (thinking "not very") without realizing it was meant to turn upside down. Interesting to learn about, thanks for the link.

My 'dauffer' is definitely not meant for that method. I'm really flummoxed by the fact that I learned that name--in print--from someone on line whether it was Mike from Montreal who was a huge fan of Larousse Gastronomie and everything French) and now can't find it or a similar word to describe this pan I have (and have had two of, one ancient, and one a modern production item) so not a one-off kind of thing. More digging required.

Jenise, I have a Le Creuset Oval Pot which is a Dutch Oven, It is just as you describe, a good size chicken fits perfectly. I prefer the oval to the round.

https://www.lecreuset.com/oval-dutch-ov ... 7MEALw_wcB

[Jenise]

So they call it a Dutch? Interesting, thanks for correcting me. But I wonder if it was called that 40 years ago vs. chicken roaster? A lot of the names of things have changed, adapting to modern usage. Your average new bride and groom (presumably the target market for kitchen ware) isn't planning for the Sunday family dinners our parents expected. So everybody needs a Dutch oven but does everyone need to braise/cover a whole chicken? They probably sell more of the oval ones with the more universal name.

Here is a bit of history on the Dutch Oven

https://www.montana.edu/extension/blain ... 20name.pdf