Munchen Potatoes

No matter the season or time of day, I can always eat potatoes. In the morning with eggs, at lunch with a salad, or for dinner swimming in the juices of something just roasted. Some of the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten were in Germany. In an outdoors beer garden in Munich, browned in drippings of some sort with caramelized onions and caraway seeds, garnished with fresh parsley and chives. It sounds so simple, but it was so perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I took pictures of it – to remember the best meal of my whirlwind trip around Europe by train.


At the time, however, I didn’t know that it was caraway seeds that had given my potatoes the distinct flavor and after spending much time ruminating and, finally, giving into the power of google was happy to discover it was something I could run to the market and buy. Caraway seeds are the same spice used to flavor rye bread – they have a flavor similar to anise, or fennel seed, but are very distinct and are very unique to Bavarian cooking (which is, overall, simply delicious). This is a warm, sautéed version of this particular combination of flavors, but there is also a cold, somewhat pickled version of this potato salad that I’m going to try and share with you soon.


Although the recipe is simple – the point is to get familiar with a new spice, not necessarily something difficult or complicated or creative. Lately, I’ve been cooking on a back-to-basics mentality – trying to find that perfect marinara sauce, a good chicken salad, new flavors with which to braise chicken, or other recipes that are always good to have at hand.
So now I can have my favorite Munich potatoes anytime, and in the process be brought back to that lovely beer garden, my sun burnt feet (not surprising – as they hadn’t been exposed to sunlight in 4 months!), the nudist park we stumbled through, and that time we ran screaming (drunkenly, I’m afraid to say) through a train station in Berlin trying to find the train to Munchen.

Caraway Potatoes
1 large white potato, sliced thin and into quarters
1 small onion, sliced thinly
½ tspn caraway seeds
1 tblspn butter
salt and pepper
fresh chives and parsley to garnish

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add caraway seeds to toast lightly and open up their flavor.
3. Add potatoes and onions, spreading them out so that they make a layer on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Cover the pan for about 2 minutes before stirring. Repeat the process until the potatoes are nice and browned and the onions are soft and lightly caramelized.
5. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and chives. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy a little taste of Bavaria.

Make at your own risk

I have a confession to make. About twice a year, I allow myself to indulge in the pleasures and delights of KFC. However, they’ve finally closed the one in my home town – most likely to make room for yet another healthy lifestyle restaurant (those fools!) - and so I’ve had to go in search of my own fried chicken recipe to fill the void.
Ina Garten makes an oven-fried chicken recipe that I’ve tried but that, shockingly, failed to please. I spent a lot of time trolling the internet for a good replacement but never found one that really whetted my appetite and so I made up my own.
Fried chicken is a tricky thing to make – its harder than one would surmise. Its very difficult to get the coating nice and crispy and brown without leaving the chicken inside raw in the middle. You’ll usually end up with a burnt outside if you wait long enough to get the chicken fully cooked, which is why baking it the rest of the way is such a brilliant solution. Even my favorite blogger had a lot of trouble with her fried chicken.


There are multiple ways to approach fried chicken. Many cooks insist on a buttermilk bath for anywhere from a few hours to overnight (Ina insists on overnight), and then there is the question of the coating: eggs? Flour? Cornflakes? My solution is to use all three – the cornflakes give it a nice crunch that you don’t otherwise get with just flour. I don’t personally do a buttermilk brine, but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt. Buttermilk is acidic, so it gets into the meat and gently tenderizes it, as well as gives it a really nice rich flavor.
I think the key to any good fried chicken is a double dip in the batter/coating mixture…and I like to get all my flavor in the coating, rather than into the chicken. So I insist that if you give this recipe a whirl (which you should) that you do the same. And so, without further ado, my fried chicken.

Fried Chicken

*for the chicken, you can use however much you want, and whichever pieces you prefer. I usually just go for legs because they’re yummy, cook quickly, and are pretty cheap. If you’re making thighs and/or breasts, you’ll have to double your cooking time.

6 chicken legs
1 cup (or more) Vegetable Oil – enough to fill the pot up about 2 inches
2 large eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 ½ cup flour
1 cup corn flakes, crushed by hand or in a food processor
1 ½ tspn paprika
½ tspn dried ground marjoram
2 tblspns salt
1 tblspn ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.
Set a large heavy pot over medium high heat. You want to heat it until the you can see the oil start to slither across the pot, but not so hot that it’s smoking. Once you’ve put the chicken in you’ll know if its too hot or not hot enough – the chicken should start to brown in about 3-4 minutes.
For the batter:
Whisk together the milk and eggs in a medium sized bowl.

For the coating:
Gently mix together the cornflakes, flour, paprika, marjoram, salt, and pepper until it is evenly blended. Pour onto a large plate and spread it out to make an easy coating station.

1. Once you’ve washed and dried your chicken, place it in the batter mixture, making sure its evenly coated. Hold it over the batter, letting the excess drip off. Place it in the flour mixture and coat evenly. Repeat, dunking it in the batter again, and giving it a final coating in the flour mixture before placing it in the hot oil.
2. Repeat the steps with the other pieces of chicken, letting the oil get hot again in between batches and removing the chicken with tongs once it is nice and golden brown.
3. Place the finished pieces on a non-stick baking tray and once all the chicken has been fried, place the baking tray in the oven.
4. For legs, cook about 25-30 minutes. For any other pieces cook about 40-45 minutes. Once you’ve taken the chicken out of the oven, let it cool for a minute.

Also, a note: Once you’ve finished frying, take oil off the heat and let it cool for at least an hour. Do NOT pour cooking oil down the drain but, throw it away.

Grab Your Pastels and Play Croquet

While I spend my summer unsuccessfully seeking employment under the hot summer sun of Los Angeles, I find myself appreciating more and more the saving grace that is cocktail hour. What better way to while away the afternoon than with a nice cold glass of something refreshing for the palette and soothing to the body?
My personal preference for cocktail hour is anything with gin. I’ve never been a girl for brown liquor, and while vodka is clean and blends easily, I just can’t honestly say I love the taste. But who can resist the cool, crisp, and herby flavor of juniper berries – a taste borne of high altitudes – on a simmering summer day? And to all those of you who think you don’t like gin, let me assure you that the drinks I am about to describe will surely change your mind.

The first recipe is inspired by my favorite cocktail in the whole world, its called an Ellison at the bar on 12th and 2nd in New York where I first discovered it and its almost too delicious to be safe. It’s a mixture of gin, cucumber (trust me!), mint, lime juice, tonic water, and just a touch of sugar. The cucumber’s the real showstopper and an unexpected hit – it’s a cool flavor but gives a refreshing sweetness, too.

The second drink is one I’ve stolen from my cousins in Connecticut. Like any East Coaster worth her salt, the girl knew just what to do with a bottle of Hendricks Gin (my favorite, btw) and some ripe summer raspberries. The drink involves muddled raspberries, thyme, and sugar. Don’t balk at the thyme – its got a nice citrusy and earthy taste that contrasts nicely against the gin and the fruit.
So don’t hesitate – come 5 pm, get yourself a nice afternoon cocktail, sit back, and enjoy the summer sun.

The Ellison(ish)
For one drink:
3 thin-medium cucumber slices
4-6 mint leaves
Juice from ¼ lime wedge
½ teaspoon of white sugar
1-2 shots gin
Tonic water to fill the glass
In a glass or a bowl, muddle together cucumber, mint, lime, and sugar. Use the end of a wooden spoon if you don’t have a professional muddler or anything that you have handy – you just need to make sure you release the oils from the cucumber and mint. You can either pour gin directly into glass that has been muddled OR if you have a boston shaker on hand, fill it with ice and shake muddled mixture and gin together, straining out muddled mixture. Last, add tonic water to get to your desired strength and enjoy.


The Eloise
For one drink:
5-7 Raspberries
1 teaspoon sugar
2 sticks thyme
Juice from ¼ lime wedge
1-2 shots gin
Tonic water

Start by mixing raspberries, sugar, and lime in a glass. Muddle together and let sit for a few minutes, so that the sugar and raspberries form a syrup. Pour mixture into boston shaker and pour in gin and ice. Shake and strain mixture. Add tonic water to taste and garnish with a raspberry strung on a stick of thyme.

Scotland

So, I’ve found myself in Edinburgh. Ok, not found, but worked very hard to get myself in Edinburgh. Although not a particularly culinary mecca, I have my reasons – this is a city of literature and ask anyone who has braved a full-length conversation with me, you can bet that I went just as crazy for books as I did for cooking.

Although not a city famed for its food, Edinburgh is home to the fried Mars Bar, fried pizza, probably the only KFC in the United Kingdom, and also Scotland’s national dish, Haggis (a sheep’s stomach that is filled with ground beef, lamb, oats, and various spices and then boiled to perfection). So much for a rich culinary tradition, eh?

This is a place where pudding can either mean some kind of sausage (always pork, oh how the Brits do love their pork!) or a tasty desert. However, this is also the birthplace of the scone and who doesn’t love a good scone? So, in the tradition of celebrating my new home for the next five months (and because it was the only baked good I could make with my limited kitchen supplies – I don’t even have a whisk! A whisk!), I made scones. Blueberry scones, to be precise.
If you’ve never made a scone before, you’ve gotta try it. They’re the easiest thing in the world to make even on a Tricity Bendix stove-oven, aptly named Tiara (see above picture for proof), if you want to satisfy a baked-goods craving – no tools required. Seriously. All you need is your hands and a butter knife (and, if you’re in the UK following an American recipe, an online measurements converter).

Blueberry and Cream Scones
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants (I used dried cranberries, and chopped them into smaller bits)
1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut inbutter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in blueberries. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. Add currants and pulse one more time. Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30
seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by either a) pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife
6. Place wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light
brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cornish Game Hens 101

Before you start thinking that I’ve abandoned you and turned to the dark side of gourmet cooking with weird la-di-da ingredients like Cornish Game Hens and celery roots, let me explain. First of all, a Cornish Game Hen is really just like a mini chicken. They’re about 1/3 the size of a normal or even a young chicken, but really, besides the fancy name, that’s all there is to it – they’re smaller. And cheaper. And! Because they’re so mini, they are the perfect portion if you’re cooking for one. The dark side’s not so bad, is it?
So now that we’ve gotten a few things straight, lets move on to what exactly I did with my Cornish Game Hens (besides name them Larry and Link). I stuffed them. With stuffing. Cornbread stuffing. It was a classic combination and killed two birds with one stone (seriously, pun so not intended) – one bird being my craving for homemade chicken stock which would come from the remains of the roasted hens, and the second proverbial bird being the fact that I crave stuffing constantly. Year round, in fact. Which does not make the fact that Thanksgiving is still on the safe side of 3 months away any easier to bear. So I justified the stuffing with the stock and got to work.
I decided to go with an apple-cornbread stuffing similar to what we usually have on thanksgiving, minus the Mrs. Cubinson box – seriously, if ever there was an unlikely gourmand… I wanted to keep things simple and only use ingredients that I’d probably have around anyways – especially the herbs that are growing on our patio which were probably the best investment I’ve made in a long time.
I chose rosemary as the most prominent herb and sprinkled in a little thyme but really, the rosemary-apple combination stole the show. If you hate rosemary, as some people do, I think sage would be an equally delicious substitution and one that I want to try soon. Because I was using rosemary in the stuffing I decided to make an herb butter out of it, as well, to slather all over the bird as it cooked. It was really delicious and pretty simple.
I prepped the bird in the same way I prep my chickens – herb butter under the skin, salt and pepper, and more herb butter on top. The stuffing was really just a lot of chopping and some fun hand-mushing it all together. And then some stuffing. And if you’re not a fan of eating stuffing that was cooked inside the bird, no problem – you can always just spread it out into a casserole dish and bake it separately – it will be just as good and even better for lunch the next day. It really was so easy I can’t believe we’ve relied on Mrs. Cubinson all these years…

Cornish Game Hens with Cornbread Stuffing

For the Cornbread Stuffing:
About 12 oz. of cornbread or 1 ½ cups
1 medium onion, copped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 granny smith apples, chopped
½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped
¼ cup chicken stalk
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons or 3 stems of rosemary leaves, chopped fine (half this amount if using dried))
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Melt butter in sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and celery and sauté until onions are translucent and celery is tender, about 5-7 minutes
2. Meanwhile, in a big bowl, crumble cornbread and add all other ingredients, mixing together with your hands or a big spoon.
3. Once onions and celery are ready, add to all other ingredients in bowl and mix well.
4. Let cool and stuff into hens (about ½ cup stuffing in each hen), spreading any leftovers into a baking dish and bake, covered at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.



For the Hens:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cornish game hens usually come in packs of two.
1. Just salt and pepper them the day before if you can and refrigerate overnight.
2. Right before you stuff (or not) them and put them in the oven, rub an herb butter of your choice all over and under the skin if you have the stomach for it.
3. Roast them for about 45 minutes, until the skin is golden and the juices run clear when cutting between the thigh and the breast.

What is that?

I didn’t know people ate celery roots until I saw Ina Garten hacking one up on her show one day. I was intrigued by one of the ugliest looking vegetables I’d ever seen – it looked like a formidable opponent – a big roughly round shaped thing with knots and knobs bursting out of it here and there. But there Ina was, cheerfully peeling, chopping, and cubing the thing into perfect little white chunks. She kept insisting on how wonderful it was and how lovely the flavor was…but I filed the memory away somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind and went on with my life.

Recently, however, celery root is the flavor de jour. Soups, salads, roulades, purees – you name it, I’ve seen celery root in it. And Ina was right…it is a delicious little (big) tuber. It actually is the root of a celery plant, and if you pick one up at the market, besides getting wary stares from your fellow shoppers, you will see that it usually comes with little sprigs of celery sprouting from the top. It has a celery-ish taste, but it’s a little more citrusy and is starchy instead of crispy and watery like its aboveground compatriot so the flavor of celery is richer and more concentrated.

Needless to say, it’s the perfect thing to make a soup out of at the end of summer, a soup which is as equally delicious hot or cold – depending on whether your apartment is an over-airconditioned ice cave or a sweltering sauna. The recipe I used is an amalgamation of a few different recipes I found online – none of them had all of the components I was looking forward to, so I mixed and matched. The soup came out really delicious and was the perfect remedy to a night on which I’d forgotten to thaw any meat and had only chicken stock to work with in the protein department. Add some of the fresh herbs I’ve managed to keep alive, in pots on our patio, for about 2 weeks now and voila! A fresh, light, and filling summer supper.


Celery Root Soup
1 medium celery root, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 leek
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 slices smoked bacon
3 ½ cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 sprigs parsley and 3 sprigs thyme tied together with kitchen string
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and add bacon. Render out fat (cook until bacon has begun to brown on both sides) and remove from pot.
2. Reduce heat to just medium, and add onion, leek, celery root, and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Sweat over medium-low heat, stirring once in a while, until onions and leeks are translucent and celery root is tender.
3. Add tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and let it reduce until it is almost completely evaporated.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and add parsley and thyme bouquet. Let simmer for at least 25 minutes, covered.
5. Using a blender or food processor, puree the soup until it has a smooth consistency without any big chunks. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Addiction

The first thing I did when I got home from New York was bake. Ok, not the very first thing, but very close to the top of that list. I was back on a Sunday and I was baking by Monday afternoon. What can I say? Baking is therapeutic in its insistence on methodology; combine dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, mix slowly. And who can argue against the intrinsic beneficial properties of a freshly baked cookie? I’d like to see someone try.

I was thrilled to get my hands back on my 6-speed hand mixer – I felt like an addict being reunited with a favorite crackpipe. Now to find some crack…or in my case, a recipe. I delved into the stash of recipes I’d been stockpiling all summer and felt the pang of nostalgia when I found one for peanut butter cookies.

The Conde cafeteria I’d frequented all summer had the most delicious little peanut butter cookies and I knew immediately that I’d made my decision. Someone in that kitchen had the brilliant idea to burry peanut butter chips that melted in your mouth into the crumbly buttery cookie shell and the results were simply divine.

And so I set about making my own version. I knew that I was on the right track as soon as I tasted the dough – it was soooo good. I was eating it off the mixers like someone who thought Salmonella was a city in Italy. The recipe I was using was a variation of Magnolia Bakery’s and called for only smooth peanut butter. I like a little texture in my cookie so I used half smooth and half crunchy. As the title of this post implies, the cookies were fabulous – so good that an unwitting friend who had come over in the midst of my baking was so enthralled by them as to eat four in about five minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature (I used ½ cup smooth and ½ cup chunky)
¾ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1) In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract.
3) Add the flour mixture in three stages, making sure each time the flour mixture in thoroughly incorporated before adding more. Beat thoroughly.
4) Fold in the peanut butter chips.
5) Using two spoons, scoop about a tablespoon of dough at a time, making round little balls of it. Place theses on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet with plent of space in between for expansion. When all the balls have been placed on the sheet, take a fork and press lightly on each ball but hard enough to leave a criss-cross indentation but do not overly flatten the cookies.
6) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake – they may appear to be underdone but they are not!