Oven-Crisped Chicken with Maple Vinegar Sauce

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All right! Given that I am unemployed, I am 1. Cooking more at home & 2. Have tons of time so you can expect lots of future excitement! And can any of you tell me why custards are baked in an oven but custard sauces are cooked on a stovetop? I need answers people, not excuses!

This recipe is from The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky. It's an interesting book which has a unique view on food and taste. In it, the authors dissect taste into 14 distinct profiles. For instance, "Tastes that Push" contains 3 subdivisions: Salty, Picante and Sweet and each one of these subdivisions has a few recipes which demonstrate the characteristics of the subdivision. It's an intellectual approach to flavor which is quite different from other cookbooks. Additionally, there are "Taste Notes" on how each recipe tastes. Here's the "Taste Note" from this chicken recipe:

First a tangy vinegar aroma and, right along with it, nuttiness from the almonds and butter. The crunchiness from the chicken skin and intense saltiness follow. There's a smooth overall sweetness from the maple syrup, cut by the bitter cranberry and the nuts. The cranberry also has tang, which works with the vinegar to pull out more meaty taste. The flesh of the chicken gives texture and punctuation, plus a full meaty aroma. The end notes are sweet, meaty, and salty.

Neat, right? I really like the perspective this book provides but, at the end of the day, would not recommend it to beginning cooks. The recipes are a little bit complicated and it lacks the kind of clear instruction beginners need. Furthermore, the food might be a bit too adventurous for middle-America. Although today's recipe seems fairly benign, this book contains recipes such as "Poached and Crisped Turkey Leg Provencale with Lemon Pickle and "Okra-Bell Pepper Ratatouille with Mung Bean Curry Crepe." Not the kind of food most people crave on a busy weeknight.

And we're off!

Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup maple syrup

1. Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally until they are soft and transluscent.
3. Add the pepper and nutmeg.
4. Add the vinegar, bring to a boil, then add the maple syrup.
5. Return the sauce to a boil and reduce by half. Set aside.

Chicken
1 3-4 pound spatchcocked chicken
Salt and Pepper
Vegetable Oil

1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Make an incision in each of the chicken's thighs, then tuck in the legs. Season chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a large heavy ovenproof skillet. Place the chicken, skin side down in the hot pan and transfer pan to oven.
4. After 10 minutes, flip the chicken. Continue to roast until the thigh juices run clear. This will take somewhere around 30 minutes.
5. Remove chicken from pan and allow it to rest.
6. Pour fat from the roasting pan. See all those little brown bits crusted to the bottom of the pan? Those taste good so we're going to deglaze the pan with the pre-made sauce. Pour the sauce into the hot pan. You should be able to scrape up the brown bits. Set the sauce aside.

Topping
3/4 cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup leeks, sliced and THEN measured
1 tablespoon dried bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper

1. Combine almonds and butter in a skillet. Heat and cook the almonds until they turn golden brown.
2. Add the cranberries and leeks. Cook for another minute.
3. Add the bread crumbs, stir, and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the chicken into serving size parts. Arrange the chicken on a plate, spoon the sauce over the chicken, then the topping and serve.

Done!

Cost- I forget. I made this a while ago. Serves 4 hungry adults.
Time- Mebbe 45 minutes? It doesn't take long.

Corn, Tomato and Bacon Salad

I'm back...sorta. Anyhow, this is easy, fast and everything you need is probably at your local farmers market or grocery store.

1. Saute 2 pieces of bacon until brown and crisp. The bacon fat is the only oil in this dish so don't get rid of it.

2. Throw in half of a minced red onion and half of a minced jalapeno (or more to taste). Saute until onion is translucent. Add salt.

3. Throw in the kernels from one ear of corn. Cook for roughly five or so minutes.

4. Allow corn mixture to cool slightly and then add in lime juice to taste and some chopped tomato. I used one large, fist sized heirloom tomato.

5. Add some corn mixture to plate.

6. Grab a few handfuls of salad greens and add to the remaining corn mixture. With any luck, the warm corn mixture will slightly wilt the greens.

7. Adjust seasoning...lime juice, minced jalapeno and salt.

8. Add salad green/corn mixture to plate.

9. Optional. Garnish with toasted bread. I mashed up some avocado with lime and salt and used that as topping.

10. Eat!

Time- 20 Minutes

Cost: 40 cents for avocado, 1 buck for salad greens, 1 buck for bacon, 50 cents for corn, 2 bucks for tomato, incidentals 75 cents. 'Bout $6.00, total.

Nopa

One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. I'm not big on the whole Cal-Mediterranean thing (wood burning ovens are de rigeur in this city) but NOPA has one of my favorite dishes EVER. Little fried fish. I dream about these things. The rest of the menu is solid, affordably priced and they have a neat cocktail menu. Loud and crowded if you go during prime time but they're open until 1AM so going late is a definite possibility. Grazing on nothing but appetizers is how I usually roll when I go. Try to score a seat at the bar in front of the open kitchen---if you're lucky, the chef will be working the pass next to you and you can grill him (no pun intended) on what's good. Dinner and theater, all rolled up in one.

560 Divisadero St
(between Fell St & Hayes St)
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 864-8643
www.nopasf.com

Mixed Fruit Crisp

Boy, I've never blogged from my office computer so don't blame me if this sucks. I need a dual-core processor to properly do this, see?

Keith, this one is for you. Recipe is taken from The New Best Recipe.

I made a double recipe which fits nicely into a 9x13 baking dish.

INGREDIENTS

Topping

3/4 cup AP flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

1 stick of butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1.5 cups of chopped nuts...I used walnuts...feel free to use whatever you have on hand.

Filling

3 lbs (or so) of cut up fruit--i used approximately 3 lbs of nectarines/apricots (post-chopping weight) and 1/2 lb of boysenberries

zest of 2 lemons

3-5 tablespoons of lemon juice (use your taste buds)

1/3 to 2/3 cup of sugar (again, use your tastebuds...if your fruit isn't very sweet, add a bit more sugar...if you over did it on the lemon juice, add sugar to compensate)

(Advanced move...I made a corn starch slurry with the lemon juice to help thicken the filling...feel free to do the same if you so wish)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk together flour, sugar, spices and salt. Add cubed butter and, using a pair of knives, "cut" the butter until it is pea-sized. If you're lazy, just squeeze the butter and flour/sugar mixture until it's totally homogeneous. Nobody will know the difference. Mix in the nuts until evenly distributed. Refrigerate the topping for at least 15 minutes.

Process the fruit. If you're using stone fruit, please make sure you're not an idiot like I am and don't buy clingfruit. Freestone, please. At any rate, you just want chunks of fruit. See picture:

Toss the fruit with the lemon zest, sugar and lemon juice.

Distribute the chilled topping over the fruit:

Place crisp into oven. Bake for about an hour.

Serve! It's great warm or room temperature. Great with whipped cream or ice cream. It's a winner.

Time-15 minutes of active work, an hour of baking time.

Cost-Depends on where you buy your fruit. If you buy organic nectarines from the farmer's market, it'll cost an arm and a leg. Say, anywhere from 3-15 bucks total depending on food cost.