Eating In: Tarragon roasted chicken with russet-Gouda gratin

We were having guests for Halloween, and since I knew there'd be knocking and trick-or-treat-ing and lots of interruptions, I figured an easy, just-stick-it-in-the-oven dinner would be a good idea. Roasted chicken thighs are always good--they pretty much cook themselves into deliciousness with little/no help needed. And I was thinking a simple but yummy potato salad would be good--a no-fuss crowd-pleaser I could make ahead of time.


But a mysterious, four-days-late Mexican hangover must've overtaken me at the grocery store because I bought russet potatoes instead of reds. Sure, you can make potato salad with russets, but it gets all grainy and mushy--not what I had in mind.

So I decided to make a gratin. It's one of those dishes that seems complicated and time-consuming, and that's because it is. Or rather, it is if you don't have a food processor. I would guess it'd take close to an hour (or longer) to slice the potatoes and grate the 2+ cups of cheese by hand, and if you've got a 10 month old swimming in the dog's water dish you'll need to add an extra hour for general policing. So, not happening. But with a food processor, the cheese grating and potato slicing took about 3 minutes total. Oy, what a slave I am to the kitchen.

I used Gouda and Romano in the gratin because that's what I had big chunks of. Not to let the cat out of the bag or disappoint you, but most of my cooking isn't planned days in advance. It's "oops, bought the wrong potatoes, now what?" more often than not. In fact, not only did I use Gouda (instead of Gruyere or some other gratin-appropo cheese), I also had to be a trickster when it came to the "cream" part of the recipe. Maybe some of you regularly have heavy cream and whole milk in the house. We do not, so I had wing it. I ended up using nonfat milk mixed with full-fat plain yogurt to make a fattier cream/milk substitute. And it worked!

We had a giant Costco hunk-o-Gouda in the fridge, which is all melty and mild, and with a little Romano for sharpness, nuttiness and depth, it was a surprisingly great combo. But my guess is that most cheeses would work well here. It's not an exact science; dishes with tons of cheese and potatoes tend to be pretty forgiving. But mixing a milder, softer cheese with a stronger, hard cheese worked well.



Russet Potato Gratin with Gouda and Romano
4 large or 5-6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced to about 1/8" thick (not the thinnest blade on the food processor, the thicker one)
2 medium yellow onions, sliced medium
6oz grated Gouda (using large holes on grater)
2oz grated Romano (using large holes on grater)
1 c milk
1 c whole-milk plain yogurt
3 T chopped fresh parsley
3 T chopped fresh chives
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 T butter

Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly oil a 9"x13" baking dish (you can use any shallow pan here--we used a larger one so the gratin would be thinner and crustier).

In a skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook, without browning, until soft, about 7 minutes. Take pan off heat and allow to cool somewhat (the onions can be warm but shouldn't be hot to the touch).

While onions are cooking, whisk milk, yogurt, herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl until yogurt and milk are combined. Set aside.

Using food processor attachments, grate both cheeses. Empty cheeses into a bowl, wipe processor bowl and use large slicing blade to slice potatoes. Set potatoes aside in processor bowl.

Add potatoes in a single layer, slightly overlapping.
Add half onions, scattering over potatoes. Add half of the cheese mixture.


Repeat with potatoes, onions and cheese mixture. Add herbed yogurt-milk mixture last, drizzling over the potatoes to evenly distribute the herbs.


Use your hands to press down onto the potatoes. The milk mixture should not cover the potatoes completely, but it should be a close call.



Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until very golden and bubbly. Allow to sit for ten minutes before serving.

Tarragon Roasted Chicken
Ed called this "bearnaise chicken" because it has the same ingredients as bearnaise sauce. It's seriously easy and requires very little prep. Just promise me you'll use fresh tarragon. When you're talking about a five-ingredient dish, every ingredient matters.

1 1/2 T chopped fresh tarragon
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 T butter, melted
8 chicken thighs, half with skin and half with skin removed (or you can leave skin on all of them if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 375F
Mix melted butter, lemon juice, garlic and tarragon in a small bowl.

Season chicken thighs with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, deep saute pan over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add chicken thighs skin (or flesh) side down and leave to brown in the pan. Do not fuss with them or you will tear the skin and flesh. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Dot bits of lemon-tarragon butter on the pieces and then, once you've peeked and can see that the chicken is nicely browned, turn pieces over (skin side up). If the chicken sticks there's a good chance it hasn't seared yet.


Using a spoon and knife, gently lift the skin and slide a little flavored butter under the skin, or just dab some of the butter onto the skinless thighs.

Once you've added the butter, place the saute pan into the oven and roast, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Top with any remaining butter and roast for another couple minutes. Serve immediately.


[where: 98118]

Eating In: Porcini mushroom linguini in wild mushroom sauce

I can do without Mount St. Helens ash figurines and 26 flavors of salty/sweet almonds, but for as big a tourist destination as it is, the Pike Place Market still has some unique, delicious finds.

My most recent was Pappardelle's flavored dried pasta stand. They've got over 40 flavors, with basil-tangerine, dark chocolate, and Venetian calamari among them. I couldn't resist: I bought a pound of the porcini mushroom.


Then I just whipped up a mushroom sauce using dried porcinis and fresh shiitakes, because that's what we had on hand. I think quick sauces are always better with fresh, so the recipe below calls for 1 1/2lbs of fresh mushrooms, but you can substitute dried for half of the fresh in a pinch (like I did). If using dried, soak the shrooms in hot water for at least 15 minutes.

This sauce is one of the quickest, easiest sauces you can make, and it tastes great whether you use red or white wine, or dry sherry.

Alongside we had the very last caprese of the year, using a tomato we bought from the Bainbridge farmer's market, buffalo mozz I picked up at Trader Joe's, and basil that had been barely clinging to life on my plants.

I swear, though, this is the last time. So thank goodness it was frickin' terrific.

Porcini Mushroom Linguini with Wild Mushroom Sauce
1 large shallot or 1/2 red onion, diced fine
1 1/2lbs fresh wild mushrooms (shiitakes, morels, chanterelles, etc) sliced
3/4 c white wine
4-5 T butter
1/2 c half-n-half
1-2 tsps fresh thyme

1lb porcini mushroom linguini
Romano or Parmesan cheese for grating over the top

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.

In a large skillet, saute shallot or onion over med-high heat in 1 tablespoon of butter until golden (about 3 minutes). Add another tablespoon of butter to pan and add mushrooms in an even layer. Do not mix right away; leave mushrooms to sear in the pan. After about a minute, stir mushrooms and then leave them again to cook. The pan should be pretty dry, so if your mushrooms are sitting in liquid turn up the heat.



Drop pasta into water to cook.

Once the mushrooms have given off their water and are browning, season with salt, fresh ground pepper and fresh thyme. Add wine (and 1/2 c mushroom soaking liquid if using dried) to pan and reduce to just before dry. Reduce heat to low and add half-n-half, stirring.


Reduce slightly, then take off heat and add 2-3 tablespoons butter, stirring to combine.

Using tongs, add pasta to the sauce, allowing a small amount of the pasta water to come into the sauce pan. Stir to coat, adding pasta water if needed to loosen sauce. Stir in 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese and serve warm, with Parmesan shavings.



The last caprese of 2007 was fantastic. The buffalo milk mozz made a huge difference--it's so much creamier than cow's milk mozz. And even though the basil had seen better days, it did its job. Excellent.






[where: 98118]

Eating In: Sausages, sauerkraut and spaetzle

Yesterday, Mike Seely wrote a perfect sentence. Blogging about a recent trip to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest (on Voracious), he says:

(Leavenworth's) faux-Bavarianness is so all-encompassing and uber-kitschy that it understandably drives a certain type of person absolutely batshit.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for the word "batshit," but he's spot-on. You either appreciate corny crap or you don't. And I do. Oh boy, do I.

This guy made our sausage

And what a co-ink-e-dink: I had planned my own personal Oktoberfest to celebrate Ed's return from Moab! Big jar of sauerkraut? Check. Four fresh sausages from Uli's? Check. I was even planning to embark on my maiden spaetzle voyage. Ed's so lucky, right?


I looked up a recipe for spaetzle and dove right in. It was a basic spaetzle recipe and it was pretty good, but I didn't think it was special enough to warrant inclusion here (see? standards=sky high!)

Now that I'm done, I think I'd want to try a slightly different, lighter recipe next time. I found a couple recipes for ricotta spaetzle, and although it's obviously not an "authentic German spaetzle" recipe, who cares if the stuff is great, right?

Anyhow, here's me making spaetzle using a colander. Messy and kinda tricky. I finally figured out a good technique (slapping at the batter with my spatula) on my last batch.





The finished product, browned in butter and served with fresh parsley and chives.


I served the sausages on a bed of bacony sauerkraut (I browned some bacon in the pan, then added the jar of kraut). Easy as can be, and it helped the canned kraut taste less generic. By the way, the two non-German sausages (one lamb and one linguica) totally rocked; the brats were good too, but I'll be making a special trip to Uli's for the others.




[where: 98118]

Eating In: Rosemary crusted leg of lamb

The lamb feasting continues! Mom and dad had a 7lb bone-in leg of lamb from the whole lamb they'd bought at auction in Ellensburg. And knowing how much we love to cook (and eat) lamb, they decided to hand it over to us to cook for a big family dinner. Score.


What a beautiful piece of meat it was. I had to do a little trimming of silver skin, but not much. We left a good amount of fat on the meat (which we scored so that it'd render more easily) and did a very simple rosemary-lemon-garlic salt rub. We also threw a thick-sliced onion and some sliced fennel into the bottom of the roasting pan (to cook in the lamb juices). Yum.

It was perfect--I wouldn't change a thing.

Rosemary Crusted Leg of Lamb
1 6-7lb leg of lamb, bone-in
4 T rosemary needles
8 cloves garlic
Zest of 1 lemon
1 T kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
olive oil
1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced (optional)
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced (optional)

Prepare salt:
In a small food-processor, chop 6 cloves of garlic, all of the rosemary, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Process until rosemary is very fine and all garlic is chopped fine. Set aside.



Prepare lamb:
Score fat on lamb in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife, getting down to the meat level with your knife. This allows the fat to render, which marinates the meat and gives the finished roast a crispy thin crust (as opposed to a thick fatty crust).

Rub the lamb with the rosemary-lemon-garlic salt. Thinly slice the 2 remaining cloves of garlic and, using a long narrow knife, cut slits into the lamb, placing slices of garlic into the slits and pushing them in with your finger. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 to 4 hours.



Remove roast from refrigerator 1/2 hour before cooking, to come to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 425. Place oven rack towards the bottom of the oven (you want the lamb to sit in the middle of the oven, not towards the top). Scatter onions and fennel in bottom of roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Remove plastic from meat and place lamb on a roasting rack. Place rack into the roasting pan (or you can place the roast directly onto the fennel and onions) and roast for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and roast for another hour to 75 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 130 in the thickest part of the roast. Remove from oven and allow meat to rest, tented with foil, for 20 minutes.


While our lamb was resting we had a beet-walnut-goat cheese salad (with gorgeous beets from mom and dad's garden). We served our lamb with roasted "Ruby" fingerling potatoes with shallots, the lamb-juicy onions and fennel, creamed spinach and warm rosemary bread. Everyone had a great time; Ruby even ate some lamb. Strawberry-rhubarb pie ala mode for dessert. We were stuffed.


Ed couldn't stop talking about how much fun it is having a big family dinner on a cold, rainy Sunday evening. I couldn't agree more.



[where: 98118]

Eating In: Herby lamb burgers with goat cheese

When we lived in Jackson, our local farmers market had a stand that sold fresh lamb and local meats. One Saturday I got to talking with the guy who owned the farm and he told me he sold whole lambs. As in, we could buy an entire, dressed Idaho lamb from this guy.

I was really excited. I absolutely love lamb. We had dinner recently with our friends Tim and Tami, and they told us that Tim's parents always make lamb when they're having a big "special" dinner. And Ed and I looked at each other and kind of laughed. We do that too.

baah! I'm cute and tasty too
So it took about five minutes for us to decide we really really wanted to buy a lamb. We called our friend Rob to see if he'd want to split it with us, and a few months later the lamb farmer personally delivered our lamb. Move over elk meat: There's local lamb coming in to share the freezer.

That meat is long gone now, so imagine our happy, surprised faces when my parents came over last week with several cuts of their own locally raised lamb meat to share with us. They'd bought a lamb at auction in Ellensburg and, knowing how much we love lamb meat, decided they'd bring us some. Nice! That's the long story of how we ended up making totally awesome lamb burgers last night.



We started with about a pound of beautiful pink, fatty ground lamb, added some herbs, garlic and away we went. Recipe's below.

Herby Lamb Burgers with Goat Cheese and Fried Onions
1lb ground lamb
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tps kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
3oz fresh goat cheese, more or less (this is really about how much you like goat cheese)
1 large red or yellow onion, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick
olive oil
4 slices of artisinal bread, cut 3/4" thick and drizzled with olive oil, or use buns of your liking (brioche would be great too)

Start charcoal grill (yes, a gas grill will work, but the charcoal makes these much much much tastier).

Mix lamb with garlic, herbs and seasonings in bowl. Pat into burgers about 3/4" thick, making the middles slightly thinner than the outsides by pressing with your thumb (this allows for more even cooking).

Heat one teaspoon of oil in a 10" frying pan over medium-high heat til shimmering. Add onion and sautee, allowing the onion to caramelize, for about 3 minutes. Once some browning is occuring, salt the onions. Continue cooking until onions are medium-tender and golden, about 3 more minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.

While onions are cooking, grill bread and burgers.

Remove bread when it's slightly charred in places and nicely toasted. Grill burgers with the lid on for 2-3 minutes on first side, 1-2 minutes on second side, or until desired doneness.

Place burgers directly onto grilled bread slices (to catch the juices), top with goat cheese and then pile onions on top.


We had ours with the last of our corn, also grilled, and a green salad. Oh, and some tater tots! Um, you know, cuz we have a kid.



[where: 98118]

Eating In: Mahi mahi with bacon-avocado salsa

I don't cook mahi mahi very often. Scratch that: I've never cooked mahi mahi in my life. So when I took out the frozen mahi mahi yesterday, I went to the computer to find some recipe ideas. Glad I did; I found this seriously great recipe for "Outrageously Delicious Mahi Mahi" on What We're Eating. They aren't lying either--the fish was outstanding.



The site is full of delicious pictures and seriously (I mean it!) awesome-looking recipes, but it's also a very entertaining read.

The recipe on WWE is pretty involved--cooking two types of beans from scratch for a side dish, etc--so I streamlined it. I had some already-cooked lentils in the fridge (you can buy them pre-cooked from Trader Joe's!), and with about five minutes of doctoring (a little carrot and celery sauteed, and 1 strip of bacon crumbled in) they were a perfect side dish.

The fish + salsa takes a whopping 10 minutes, so if you're too busy or lazy, just cook the fish, top it with the salsa and serve some crusty bread with herb oil (which you'll have made for the fish) alongside.

Mahi Mahi with Bacon-Avocado Salsa and Herb Oil
1/2 c good olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 small sprigs rosemary
5 sprigs thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 sprigs basil
2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 avocado, cubed
15 cherry tomatoes, quartered or 1 large tomato, chopped
1 T rice wine vinegar
1/4 c chopped cilantro
4 filets mahi mahi

Preheat oven to 400F.

Make Herb Oil
Heat olive oil and all herbs over very low heat for 15-20 minutes. Do not allow the oil to get very hot; you want the herbs and garlic to infuse the oil but you don't want them to burn. Strain out garlic and herbs and allow oil to cool.


Make Salsa
Mix bacon, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. Mix in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.


Cook Fish
Season fish with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat a nonstick pan over medium-high for 1 minute. Add a tablespoon (or more) of the herb oil to the pan and add the fish. Cook over medium-high without moving the fish (!!) for 2-3 minutes, basting with a little of the herb oil every now and again. Once fish is very golden, turn fish, cook for 1 minute more, basting occasionally, then remove pan from stove and place it in the 400F oven.


Cook fish for 3-4 minutes (watch carefull if your fish filets are very thin). Remove from oven and serve immediately topped with salsa.



[where: 98118]

Eating In: Late-summer caprese

I'm going to ask you a serious question. Ready? Here it comes.

What could possibly be better than this?


I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas. Really.


There should be a law stating you cannot eat tomatoes, basil and mozzarella unless you grow the tomatoes and basil yourself and are eating them within seconds of pulling them off their stems. Or maybe it'd be ok to buy heirlooms from the farmers and maybe basil too. But you've gotta have the fresh mozz, and you've gotta let it come to room temp and then sprinkle it with enough salt to bring out the goodness, and respect it enough to use good olive oil.



I'm working on the mozzarella-made-at-home thing, btw. You see, my birthday's coming up. I'm dropping hints. I think cheese-making is in my future, people. I can feel it.


[where: 98118]

Eating In: Seared scallops with sweet corn hash

On Friday we decided it was time. Time to finally, finally harvest some of our corn.


While we were in the garden we grabbed some other goodies: golden tomatoes, carrots, celery, green onions, squash, some herbs. I was all set to make corn hash, which would accompany the beautiful sea scallops I'd bought earlier in the day.



The only bummer is, we didn't have any bacon. I wanted meaty flavor in the hash, and bacon and scallops are such a great combo, but we didn't have bacon (I know! sinful) so I used some chicken sausage we had in the freezer. After it was made I realized this hash would've been awesome on its own (sans meat of any kind). But it really would've been nice to have bacon, so I'm including that in the recipe below.


And by the way, scallops are one of the easiest, most delicious and most impressive things you can cook at home. I think many people only eat scallops at restaurants, but cooking them at home takes about six or seven minutes, and all you need for awesome scallops are butter, salt, pepper, a good pan and some scallops. Seriously, try it.


Seared Scallops with Sweet Corn Hash
3 strips bacon
1 red onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced, tops roughly chopped and reserved
2 summer squash (patty pan or zucchini), diced
small handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
8 chives or 3 green onions, chopped or sliced
12 cherry tomatoes, left whole, or 1 large tomato, chopped into large chunks
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 c (or a touch more) beer or dry white wine
4 medium or 3 large ears corn, cut from the cob
4 T butter
8-10 large scallops (about 1lb), muscle removed** and seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides

Make Hash:
In a large skillet, brown bacon over medium heat. Remove bacon and fat, reserving 1-2 tsps of fat in the pan. Crumble bacon and set aside.
Saute onions, carrots and celery over medium-high heat in the bacon fat, allowing vegetables to brown in places, about 5 minutes. Add squash, coriander and cumin, and continue to cook for 3 more minutes.


Deglaze pan with 1/2 cup wine or beer, scraping browned bits off the pan as you go. Use more liquid if you need to, but you want all the liquid to evaporate from the pan (a soupy consistency is not what you want here). Add tomatoes and cook for 1 minute, then turn off heat and add herbs and celery tops. Add 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper, and immediately remove vegetables mixture from pan, reserving in a bowl.


Using the same pan, brown 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Once butter is brown, add corn, season with salt and pepper and stir, cooking, for 3 minutes (for white corn) or 5 minutes (for yellow corn). Remove pan from heat, then add in the vegetable mixture. Set pan aside, or into a warm (200 degree) oven.



Make Scallops:
Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium. Working quickly, add 1 tablespoon butter to pan, allow to brown slightly, then add seasoned scallops to the pan. Allow scallops to sear and brown (that means you have to leave them alone and not move them) for 2-3 minutes. Once brown, turn scallops and brown the other side, again for 2-3 minutes (or longer if necessary). Don't worry: Cooking for this amount of time (or slightly longer) will not overcook your scallops; in fact, they'll be warm but rare in their middles.



Spoon corn mixture into shallow bowls and top with scallops. We drank a nice Chardonnay with this and it was great, but a good hoppy beer would work too.


**Scallops are often sold with the tough muscle (which held them to their shells) still attached. It's quite easy to spot these; they're a piece of scallop that looks almost like a scallop Band-Aid on the side. These are easily removed by pulling them off.


[where: 98118]

Eating In: Pizza Margarita con salami

Sometimes dinner's just eh. Sometimes it's pretty good and you think, hey, we should make this again. And sometimes you hit it right out of the park. Last night's Pizza Margarita con salami was one of the latter; throughout the meal we kept commenting on how good everything tasted.

I'd made a Trader Joe's run earlier in the day to pick up the kinds of things we eat when Ed's parents are here from Michigan: cheese, more cheese, summer sausage, salami, oh, why not get another cheese, smoked oysters, sardines, crackers and yes, cheese. But I also grabbed one of the pre-made pizza doughs (actually, I got two--one herb, one plain). I'd never bought it before but I figured if it could save me the hassle of making my own dough and letting it rise, etc, then I'm game. Plus, we had a beautiful tomato left from our trip to Fall City Farms, and tons of basil in the pots on our deck. It was obviously time for pizza Margarita!

I decided to use the plain crust and save the herbed one for making foccacia later this week. So for the pizza, I started out by making a garlic-basil-rosemary-olive oil pesto-like sauce in my mortar and pestle (you could easily just chop the herbs, crush the garlic and add olive oil, but hell, how often do you get to dust off the ol' mortar-n-pestle you just had to buy?)



I rubbed the dough with the sauce all the way to the edges and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.

Then I started borrowing from the SLDWVS (aka the Scheff Labor Day Weekend Visit Stash). I thin-sliced some smoked mozzarella and Romano and scattered these on the pesto. Next I sliced the heirloom tomato and added them to the pie.

And then I noticed the Chianti salami, a crucial part of the SLDWVS. Could I spare a little for the sake of our pizza? What if we're out on the deck enjoying some wine and nibbling and we run out of salami waaayyy before we run out of cheese? Well, shit, you've gotta take a chance now and then. Plus, I didn't need very much--only a 2" piece or so. I went for it. I sliced it up and then tore the pieces and scattered it around the pizza. Ah, perfection. A little fresh basil torn over the top, a little more Romano and into the oven.



Ten or 12 minutes later we had a beauty.


A quick salad of greens, cherry tomatoes from our garden and some cucumbers from the Farmers Market and we were good to go. Thanks Trader Joe's!