Posts Tagged ‘dinner’

Summer in San Francisco = Winter Comfort Food

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Summer Dinner

It was cold. I had guilt about wanting to turn on the heat in July. I wanted leftovers.

The Good Life Market a block away on Cortland has had big roasting chickens lately, so I got this one.

beeeeg cheeeeecken
Seven and a half pounds! Yay! I went outside to the garden and picked a fistful of all the herbs we have. (Rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, Italian parsley and mint– I was verrrry sparing with the mint.) I chopped all those up and mixed with olive oil, some ground medium-heat New Mexico chilis and ground mild mustard powder. Oh, and black pepper. Rubbed it all over the chicken, inside and out. Into the chickenhole went a quartered lemon and some onion hunks. I roasted it at 400, breast down for an hour and fifteen minutes, and then breast up (having flipped the bird) for about 45.

Meanwhile, I roasted purple potatoes with butter and rosemary and black pepper in foil. (For the last half hour of chicken roasting time, which gave them about 45 minutes to cook once I took the chicken out to rest.)

purple taters

To finish off our hearty wint… errrr, light summer meal, I quartered a bunch of big brussels sprouts and coarsely chopped a red onion, tossed with olive oil and roasted them in a baking pan covered in foil. (For about the same time as the potatoes. They got super creamy, nutty and sweet, and the onions just caramelized.)

I always eat some dark meat parts while the skin is still crispy, and then use the breast meat for salads, sandwiches, general snacking.

A Year Of Braising Dangerously

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Lamb Shanks, Creamy Polenta and Braisedish Chard

shanky

I impulse bought some lamb shanks (not anywhere exotic– Safeway) and I got four, because having the oven on for as long as I liked to braise seemed like a waste.

Anyway, they are pretty easy. In a dutch-ovenesque pot, I browned the shanks on all sides after rubbing them in a mix of kind of random spices from the spice cabinet: marjoram, thyme, black pepper, ground chili, crushed bay and tiny bits each of orange rind, cinnamon and allspice.

Then I added an onion to the mix, and then poured in about a cup of red wine (I like the highly drinkable screwcap Perrin Cotes du Rhone they sell at TJ if I don’t have some leftover wine sitting around) an onion, some garlic, and a can of chopped tomatoes. I added water to almost cover the shanks, and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.

I put the cover on the pot and ignored it for about 3 1/2 hours somewhere between 275-300 degrees.

There was some whole thing after I read Heat about nine hour polenta, but this time I just added 1 c polenta to 6 c water, and cooked that until it thickened, added a cup of milk and some salt and cooked it a little longer til it seemed very creamy. This took about 90 minutes.

Turned that off and sauteed/braised the chard for about 10 minutes, finishing it with a little balsamic.

Heaped it all into the bowl above and had a nice fall-aparty lamb shanky dinner, with the rest of the tasty screwcap wine.

Despite all the long cooking times, the shanks were super-easy and you could do a much quicker polenta or a root vegetable mash if you don’t feel like stirring for so long. Braise, my friends, braise!