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

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yay!

When I smash garlic, I put the cloves down, then place the flat of the blade on top of them, place the heel of my hand on the blade, and lean into it gently but firmly. Works pretty well, too.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

The garlic chicken recipe is a favorite around here. One of easiest home cooking recipes I know.

I believe for peeling garlic you can either follow telophase's strategy, or I've heard you can shake them in a paper bag. We just peel by hand, though.

We also use chicken breasts, because I'm skin-o-phobic. You should give it a try with yellow sweet potatoes! They soak up the juices wonderfully.

Also, if you go wild with the olive oil and just shake dried rosemary all over, plus tons of salt and pepper, the chicken is less bland. ;-)

Mm. Now I'm hungry. And me with nothing in the house but cereal and soup.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I want purple potatoes!

You should season the chicken before cooking. I'm sure there's another way to do it, but I just put lots of paprika on it.

[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.

[cofax7]

I made polenta for the first time recently, too. I recommend having it with a tomato sauce: it's very good.

Also, TJ's isn't the best place for cooking basics, sadly. They only recently, for example, started carrying yeast. I mean, c'mon: yeast! A local whole foods kind of store would be a better choice for polenta-corn-meal.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Me, too.

A simple way to season chicken before cooking

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Rub skin of chicken all over (at least, the top part) with olive oil, or plain vegetable oil if that's what you have, or butter will do. Sprinkle salt and pepper over all, which will stick to the oil; I use a mix of salt, oil, and cayenne pepper because I love cayenne. Then stuff a peeled onion (any kind) and/or some garlic and/or some wads of fresh rosemary and/or sage into the body cavity. I call this the "onion up the butt" method which my mother taught me (she didn't use fresh herbs, though).

If you want to get fancier, you can gently loosen the breast skin and rub more oil and cayenne mix on the meat, and insert rosemary and/or sage sprigs between the skin and meat.

[oyceter]

OOooo, that sounds better. I keep worrying that I'll somehow slip and chop off part of me or something, which is not as far-fetched as it seems, given how many scrapes I get into.

[oyceter]

I really want to do yams w/ brown sugar now! My sister's roommate baked them for THanksgiving and they were very, very tasty.

[oyceter]

Yah... the original recipe mentioned paprika, except I didn't read it that closely while shopping and so didn't have paprika. Must get some next time!

I love purple potatoes! They're a bit starchier and have a more fibrous texture than the normal brown or gold or red potatoes, but... purple!!! Purple on the inside too!

[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!

[oyceter]

Oooooo yum. I've been holding off on the tomatoes because I miss my heirlooms =(. Maybe I can use fresh tomatoe salsa or something..... hrm.

I've got to get used to what I can get and TJs and what I can't! Oh well... one can always rely on their dried fruits at least.

Re: A simple way to season chicken before cooking

[oyceter]

Oooo wow. Thanks! I shall have to do this when I get a whole chicken and actually start playing around with chicken insides.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Well, the sweet potato I put into the chicken dish is a "yellow sweet potato" -- a long, skinny, hard thing that's the consistency of balsa wood, very dense but light. It takes on a texture like Chinese braised bean curd, soft in the middle with a very chewy outside. And yummm.

If you want yams, I can give you yams. My mom's special made-up recipe is yams chopped into thick rounds, and covered with butter, brown sugar, uncooked oatmeal and cranberries, then baked in a casserole for an hour. You get a sort of crunchy strudel effect with the oatmeal and brown sugar, and then the cranberries get soft and juicy and tangy, and now I'm hungry. :)

[oyceter]

OOOOooooo that sounds so good! Hey, did you want to try and meet up before Christmas or post-holidays? (my next weekend is free, but I figure stuff is pretty busy around this time!)

[livinglaurel.livejournal.com]

Yay, oyceter making-and-eating food posts! These are great.

[oyceter]

Glad you enjoy them!