In which I make some more food

[oyceter]

After I attempted to make clotted cream, I decided to move on to actual cooking. This may have been a bad idea, considering how well I was doing with a recipe that largely involved pouring cream into a container, but I plead temporary insanity caused by scones.

Next on the list was 20-clove garlic chicken.

My version of the recipe:

3 heads of garlic
2-lbs. of chicken thight, skin and bones included
3 carrots
Roughly 6 small, purple potatoes (they are purple on the inside too!)
3 sprigs of rosemary
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Take out chicken and dump in roasting pan (aka, very beaten up 9x12 cake pan that has definitely seen better days). Wash chickeny hands obsessively, per many warnings on favorite Food Network show (Good Eats, of course).

Peel potatoes and carrots, thankfully without lopping off pieces of fingernail. Marvel at how purple the potatoes are and resist temptation to show fannishly purple-potato-stained fingers.

Realize during the third carrot that turning the carrot and making wedge shaped chunks is much more fun than slicing straight down (more surface area for browning!). Slice bitty potatoes in half and congratulate self for not losing any body parts.

Dump everything in the roasting pan. Realize that it may be better if the chicken rests on top of the vegetables. Decide not to worry about it until three bulbs of garlic are peeled.

Start peeling garlic by chopping off the bits at the root. Remember that Alton Brown recommended either rubbing the skin off with a towel or smashing the clove with something. Look at clove. Remember that advice to rub skin off with a towel may in fact have applied to cooked potatoes instead, as clove of garlic doesn't seem towel-friendly. Attempt to smash clove with the flat of knife blade. Fear for life. Decide to just peel garlic without taking shortcuts.

Dump garlic in roasting pan. Rearrange so that chicken is on top of garlic and veggies. Dump in rosemary sprigs. Realize that rosemary is now on top and may burn. Try to stuff rosemary under chicken, but get too lazy.

Pour on a bit of olive oil, shake on salt and pepper. Begin to taste, then realize that it is raw chicken and should probably not be consumed. Toss to coat. Realize afterward that this has once again messed up the chicken on top of vegetables order. Pick out chicken again.

Bake for 45 minutes, completely forgetting to stir occasionally.

Take out of oven when timer goes off and squint, puzzled, at the chicken, wondering if it is indeed done. Poke at it with fork and decide to shove it back in for 10 more minutes because the juices are bloody.

It was pretty good, though! The garlic and carrots and potatoes all got nicely cooked with chicken juice. Also, purple potatoes! They make me happy.

Next time, need to put more salt and pepper on, and maybe rub down the chicken beforehand, as the chicken itself was a bit bland. Probably because it lent all its juices to the veggies...

Then I went on to make heres_luck's polenta.

I had an incredibly difficult time picking out cornmeal. Trader Joe's did not have cornmeal. Draeger's did have cornmeal, but since I had just watched the Good Eats episode on grits and polenta prior to grocery shopping (research! Really!), I was trying to look for stone-ground cornmeal and trying to avoid instant cornmeal.

Unfortunately, none of the four types of cornmeal (apparently also just labeled "polenta," which shouldn't have confused me but did) were clearly labeled "This is stone ground." All of them had "easy" polenta recipes which advertised quick preparation. Warned by Alton Brown, I puzzled over them in great confusion. Finally, I just got the one that didn't say "instant" and was cheaper than the organic stuff. I also got two little bags, having absolutely no concept of how much two cups was.

The good thing is that polenta is really easy to cook.

I replaced two out of the six cups of water with chicken stock and made sure to pour in the polenta veeerrrry slowly. (I still got lumps though) I then proceeded to turn down the heat and stir. And stir. And stir some more. And then stir more.

I tasted it every so often and added more salt. Then I stirred more. Then I added more water every now and then because my arm hurt. Then I stirred even more.

After about half an hour, it looked good, but I kept stirring because it wasn't quite the texture I liked. After about forty-five minutes, I stirred in two pats of butter and turned off the heat. Spooned some into a bowl, grated parmesan cheese on top (the real stuff! Yum!), poured the rest into a giant pie pan and sprinked on more cheese. Ate. It was good! It tasted good! Ok, there was a lump or two, but it was good!

And I have eaten it every day and not gotten sick of it yet.

Yay! I win! I made myself food that I wasn't picky about!

Now I will get overambitious and try to make fried polenta or something.

Comments

[heresluck]

My favorite rub for chicken is a spoonful each of salt and dried thyme plus a generous sprinkling of fresh-ground black pepper, mixed together and rubbed all over before cooking. Yum.

And oyce, I'm so glad the polenta turned out well, even if it sounds like the endless stirring may not have been your favorite thing ever. *g* For what it's worth, it's pretty difficult to screw up fried polenta; if in doubt, you can always broil it instead, which works beautifully.

[oyceter]

The endless stirring was actually ok ;). I complain mostly because I embarrassingly have no arm muscle and they were starting to hurt after a while!! Oh, well, that and standing on my feet for the past two hours cooking... I think normally it would be ok.

Also, the polenta was so worth it! I am so happy with it! I loooove polenta and am really happy I can make it myself now instead of going to the little Italian place down the street! Yay! Thank you! Exclamation point!