Lemon Chicken Thighs

Lemon Chicken Thighs

This is a simple and quick recipe that I got from Bon Appetite.

Lemon Chicken ThighsLemon Chicken Thighs

Pat chicken thighs dry and season well with salt and black pepper. Place in a large resealable plastic bag and add vinegar. Seal bag and gently massage chicken to ensure thighs are coated in vinegar. Chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400°. Remove chicken thighs from bag and pat dry with paper towels. The drier the skin, the crispier it will be when cooked.

Place chicken thighs, skin side down, in a dry large cast-iron skillet and set over medium heat. Cook undisturbed until they easily release from the pan, about 4 minutes. Continue to cook, moving chicken around occasionally to ensure the skin is cooking evenly, until golden brown, 8–10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate.

Set skillet over medium-high heat add garlic and cook lemons, cut side down, until edges are deeply charred about 5 minutes. Transfer to plate and let cool slightly.

Return chicken to the skillet,skin side down and bake until it’s cooked through, 10–12 minutes.

Squeeze lemon juice into a small bowl; add garlic, honey, and red pepper and whisk to combine. Whisk in oil and any accumulated juices on plate with chicken. Strain and season vinaigrette with salt and black pepper.Lemon Chicken Thighs

Drizzle half of vinaigrette on a platter and set chicken on top. Serve with remaining vinaigrette alongside.

Lemon Chicken Thighs


Click here for updated GALLERY II

Portfolio  and  Yelp

A Perfect Pork Chop

A Perfect Pork Chop

A pork chop is as good an any steak if it’s prepared correctly. So here’s how to prepare a perfect pork chop.

A Perfect Pork Chop

A Perfect Pork Chop

Bring the chop to room temperature. Score the edges so the fat renders when it cooks. Blot dry and season with salt and black pepper. Heat a little oil in a pan and holding the chop with tongs and sear all the edges with the heat on high.A Perfect Pork Chop
Then as one side browns add 2 pats of butter and some more oil. When the butter melts, tilt the pan and spoon it over the meat. Make sure that the hot pork fat, olive oil and butter sears every crevice. Do the same on the other side.A Perfect Pork Chop
It’s a thick chop so give it another 3-5 minutes on each side on medium heat.

A Perfect Pork Chop

Remove the chop and let it rest. Pour out most of the fat from the pan add some oil, 2 pats of butter, the vermouth and currant jelly. Deglaze the pan, whisk the sauce and pour over the chop.

Portfolio  and  Yelp

Deconstructed Recipes

Deconstructed Recipes

Marina Ekroos says, “I wanted to inspire people to think about what they eat.”
Deconstructed Recipes
Cinnamon rolls

. . . The very first photo was the Cinnamon Rolls recipe. . .


 . . . steps that are represented in the photographs were made into the final dish instead of throwing everything away. This food was shared with neighbours and friends.


Deconstructed Recipes
Aubergine Dip

More on Marina Ekroos and her recipe deconstructions.


Click here for updated GALLERY II

Portfolio  and  Yelp

Wall Street Journal Recipes

Wall Street Journal Recipes

 

My friend Joe gave me two recipes, one for sausage and peppers and the other for gnocchi, that he found in the Wall Street Journal of all places. When I hear Wall Street Journal I think of finance, markets and banking, not Italian recipes. I tried them and they were both very good.

 

Sausage and Peppers

You can make sausage and peppers by simply frying some sausage and peppers. But a little extra effort can make it something special. In this version by Chef Mashama Bailey of the Grey, in Savannah,  the key ingredient is the vinegar. It really brightens up the flavor. I adjusted her recipe down a bit from four lbs. of sausage to one.

Wall Street Journal Recipes

Wall Street Journal Recipes

Cook sausages until browned on all sides. Remove them and set aside. In the same pot, add peppers, onions and garlic. Sauté until vegetables soften, about 15 minutes.

Wall Street Journal RecipesStir in tomatoes and vinegar. Return sausages to pot and stir gently to coat. Simmer until tomatoes reduce, adding splashes of water if pot looks dry.Wall Street Journal Recipes


Gnocchi

Until I saw this recipe from Gail Monaghan, gnocchi were round, made with potatoes and boiled. Here they’re square, made with semolina and baked in the Roman style. The finished product reminded me of polenta. You can serve these with different kinds of sauce. We used a simple marinara.

Wall Street Journal Recipes

Wall Street Journal Recipes

Bring milk and nutmeg to a simmer. Off heat, whisk in semolina. Cook over low heat, stirring, until mass pulls away from pan, 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in 8 tablespoons butter, 1 cup cheese and yolks. Season with salt and pepper. Pour hot semolina mixture onto a foil-lined, buttered sheet pan. Use an offset spatula to spread mixture into an even rectangle ½ -inch to 1-inch thick. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 degrees with rack in the highest position. Use a sharp knife or pizza wheel to cut semolina into 2-inch squares.

Wall Street Journal RecipesSet gnocchi ½-inch apart on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Dot with remaining butter and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake until golden, 15 minutes. (a minute or two under the broiler at the finish isn’t a bad idea)Wall Street Journal Recipes

Cheerwine

Cheerwine

Here I go again with another obscure brand of soda (4/3/18 Manhattan Special). Cheerwine is obscure only if you’re not from the South and particularly it’s home state, North Carolina where it’s very popular. It’s an excellent wild cherry soda that’s been around since 1917.Cheerwine
It’s tasty, sweet, bubbly and not alcoholic although it makes a great mixer. Every so often I have a case mailed to me. With shipping it comes to about $2.50 per bottle and worth every penny.  It’s taste reminds me of the fountain cherry sodas you used to be able to get in candy stores and ice cream parlors.  It’s perfect straight from the bottle or on ice but you can be creative and make some interesting cocktails with it.

Cheerwine
A Cheerwine service bar.
Cheerwine Old Fashioned

Cheerwine

Add Bourbon, Angostura and Cointreau to a rocks glass. Add Ice and stir. Top Cheerwine and garnish with an orange slice.


Cheerwine Collins

Cheerwine

Combine rum and lime juice in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Pour into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice. Top with Cheerwine and garnish with lime.


Cheerwine Bourbon Cocktail

Cheerwine

Fill a shaker with bourbon, vanilla extract and lime juice. Shake with ice, pour into a rocks glass and top off with Cheerwine. Garnish with lime slice.


Cheerwine Negroni

Cheerwine

Pour Applejack, Campari and vermouth over ice in a Collins glass. Top with Cheerwine and garnish with orange peel.


Cheerwine

You can get Cheerwine here


Cheerwine

Want a Cheerwine tee-shirt?


Click here for updated GALLERY II

Portfolio  and  Yelp

 

Forging a Kitchen Knife

Forging a Kitchen Knife

Forging a Kitchen Knife

A while back my daughter Kristina gave me a frying pan. It wasn’t just any frying pan, this one was hand crafted by a friend of hers, Marsha Trattner. Masha is a metal worker of the first order. She’s a welder and blacksmith making both functional and artistic items. Her site –  She-Weld

Forging a Kitchen Knife

Bridget and I recently went to one of Marsha’s forging classes. We started small, making some simple hooks to get a feel for the forge and tools.

Forging a Kitchen Knife

Then we started on the main project – making a knife out of a rail road spike. Wei was our instructor and a natural blacksmith. He thoroughly explained every step and checked-in on us often to see how we were doing.

Forging a Kitchen Knife
The heat from the forge singed the hair off my arm.
Forging a Kitchen Knife
Hammer and re-heat it, again and again.
Forging a Kitchen Knife
Sometimes it takes four hands.

The basic idea is to heat the metal to make it malleable and then hammer it to draw it out and shape it. Sounds simple but it takes a hell of a lot of hammering, enough to leave me with a sore arm the next day.

Forging a Kitchen Knife
Grinding, polishing and sharpening.

After the forging the next step is fine tuning. That’s the grinding. You start with the blackened piece of metal that was once a railroad spike and finish with a shinny and sharp knife.

Forging a Kitchen Knife

 

Breaded Roast Chicken Thighs

Breaded Roast Chicken Thighs

A simple recipe – add a salad and it’s a whole meal.

Breaded Roast Chicken Thighs

 Breaded Roast Chicken ThighsPre-heat the oven to 450o. Place the cut potatoes in a bowl, add salt and pepper and enough oil to coat.
Mash and mix butter, mustard and oregano in a bowl. Season room temperature chicken with salt and pepper. Smear the butter mixture over the skin side of the thighs. Press the chicken pieces into the breadcrumbs so they stick to it.
In a lightly oiled baking pan, layer the potatoes and onions and then the chicken skin side up on top. If any of the butter mix is left, add it to the pan.Breaded Roast Chicken Thighs
Bake in 350o oven for 35 -40 minutes or until thermometer inserted in to chicken reads 160o. Heat broiler and broil chicken about 2 or 3 minutes or until golden brown.

Breaded Roast Chicken Thighs


Click here for updated GALLERY II

Portfolio  and  Yelp

Manhattan Special

Manhattan Special

Manhattan Special

Most of you probably never heard of it but Manhattan Special is a espresso flavored soda. It’s not sold all over and is typically only available in Italian delis and grocery stores although lately it’s been turning up in some high end food stores. They’ve been in business for a long time (1896) and I remember drinking it when I was a kid in Manhattan’s Little Italy. It tastes like the best iced coffee you’ve ever had – only made from espresso and with a fizz. When we were kids we’d sometimes have it with a splash of milk, the way you would drink iced coffee.

Manhattan Special

A while back I found a vintage Manhattan Special bottle, empty of course. It didn’t hold much, just 6 ounces and it has their old Brooklyn telephone number on it with an “Evergreen” exchange. What I liked most about the old bottles is that instead of paper, the label is painted on. Spaces are left blank so that the man and woman are outlined in black (the color of the soda) and when the bottle was empty those spaces became transparent.
Manhattan Special
The new paper label and the old painted one.

 

Manhattan Special Homepage and Facebook Page

From the New York Times