Spatchcocked chicken (WHAT?!)

Spatchcocked chicken is a very funny word, and is also another word for butterflied chicken, which is just another word for that thing where you take out the backbone of a chicken so that you can lay the bird flat and cook it in one layer. It allows the bird to cook more evenly, and takes less time to prepare! Chicken breast has a tendency to be too dry, as it dries out while the darker meat of the legs take more time to cook. Spatchcocking is a great remedy for this. Last week I roasted a chicken this way, and it cooked very evenly and was tender and moist throughout. Super totes awesome. 

Spatchcocked chicken served with spaghetti squash (drizzled chicken pan juices drizzled over), sauteed baby bok choy, and roasted sweet potatoes lightly dusted with cardamom and cinnamon.

I used kitchen shears to cut the backbone out of the bird. I watched this video from the NY Times, which explained everything perfectly. Watch this video and I promise you'll be fine! To accompany this dinner there was sauteed baby bok choy, spaghetti squash (with chicken juices drizzled over), and roasted sweet potatoes. It almost felt like Thanksgiving... 

Almost go-time. 

Ingredients:

One 3.5 lb whole chicken

One lemon 

salt

freshly cracked black pepper

olive oil

white wine

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Address chicken. Using kitchen shears/scissors/knife (watch this video), cut out the backbone of the chicken. Don't worry- you can do this. Take the backbone and set aside to roast. Open up the chicken, lying it flat. The NY Time's video recommends also taking out the breast bone, but I didn't, as the chicken lay flat already. Up to you!

Pat chicken dry inside and out with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. In a separate small bowl combine 2 tbl (a glug or two) of olive oil, and salt/pepper. Gently loosen the skin of the bird, and pour the oil mixture under the skin of the breast area. This part is messy so use your fingers and try to work it in. Add three to four thin lemon slices underneath the skin as well.

 Preheat a large skillet to medium/high, and place approximately one-two tablespoons of oil in the pan. Place the chicken into the hot pan, skin side down. Be cafeful, as the oil will be hot and will make a lot of noise! We want to sear the skin, which will give it a delicious crispy texture, and help to seal in all the juices while the chicken bakes.

Check after three-five minutes, and carefully place the chicken skin side up into a baking dish. Pour about a half cup of white wine over the chicken. Add the backbone and any sliced (sweet) potatoes to the baking dish if there is room.

After twenty minutes pour some more wine over the chicken and say hi. After fifty minutes total the chicken will be ready! Let the chicken rest for ten minutes, and then squeeze lemon over it before serving. Et voila!

Nomnom.

Cleaning your blender

Do you ever feel like your kitchen is being overrun by ewoks? 

I love using my blender to make smoothies, but I hate cleaning it up. I'm always worried that I'm going to cut my fingers, and, as a musician, you can understand my apprehension. It's a very odd thing to say, but this is a musician-friendly way to clean a blender. It's very thorough, and involves no fingers (other than pushing the on button, har har ). This method works best for smoothies, and most pureed soups.
I have to point out that I've never had a dishwasher before, which quite a bunch of you have. I imagine that renders this post useless, but should you be tempted to immediately clean your blender, or make what my brother calls, "bubble soup", read on.

You will need:
Dirty blender
soap
warm/hot water
electricity

Directions:
Good job on using your blender- mine is sitting forlornly on my refrigerator, peeking out at me every so often quizzically, as if saying (Is this why we moved to Nashville? So you could keep me as some trophy object, and abandon me?). In my defense, I have been using an immersion blender lately. They're pretty much interchangeable, except you shouldn't stick a blender in a soup.

To clean your blender, rinse it out as best as you can, then put a few pumps of dish soap in there. Fill it one third or a little more with warm to hot water, and then blend it up! Make sure you don't fill it up more than that, because the bubbles will overflow. Rinse out, and repeat if necessary. That should leave you with a squeaky clean blender, and beautiful intact fingers! *Note that this is for cases of smoothies and soups. If you are blending anything particularly thick or sticky you may need to use a sponge. Carefully.

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Photo credit: Stéfan / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: madlyinlovewithlife / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Photo credit: mr.beaver / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

How to juice a lemon

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       Fresh lemon juice is one of those little secrets that takes your food from good to why hello there! A squeeze of lemon juice is a great touch to many dishes, and really brightens the flavors of sauteed chicken or fish, for example. I have a soft spot for the ol' lemon, as it's the nickname of one of my favorite characters on TV (Liz Lemon from 30 Rock), but perhaps more importantly, lemons factored into the Mediterranean cooking that I was brought up with. My parents are from Italy and Montenegro, and some of the best meals that I ate growing up usually contained extra virgin olive oil, lots of garlic, and lemon.

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How to juice lemons, or any other citrus:

1. Wash the lemon to remove any dirt/impurities on the surface. This way your knife won't transfer the germs from the skin into the lemon. 
2. Firmly roll the lemon on the counter with your hands to loosen the membrane of the lemon. This makes it much easier to handle, and is kind of fun.
3. Take one lemon half, and insert a fork into the cut side. Hold the fork firmly, and squeeze and turn the lemon against it. When you have gotten all the juice you can out of it, take the fork out, and wipe it against the cut side of the lemon to get any extra juice off.
If you don't want to use a fork, you can use a hand juicer, like the one pictured below. Glass hand juicers are beautiful, and I'm not one to wax poetic about kitchen accessories. Wait a second...  

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 You can also use a lemon/citrus press, which works very well.

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     Alternatively, you could use a paring knife to cut a small hole right at the point of the lemon to turn it into a little bottle. All you have to do is squeeze, and it will keep most of the seeds in the lemon. This method yields a little bit less juice than the fork method, but it is neater. 

Et voila- a little vessel for your juicing needs.

Tips:

1. If the recipe calls for lemon zest, zest the lemon before rolling on the counter and slicing. 
2. If you want to have lemon zest handy, zest the lemon, roll it up in some plastic wrap, and pop into the freezer. You could also freeze it into an ice cube with water, and use for future recipes. 
As my friend Rebecca says, "waste not, want not". 

Since we're on the topic of storing things in the freezer, when you have a recipe that calls for egg whites, don't throw out the yolks! Put them in a small container, and freeze them for future creme brulees. Being efficient never tasted so good. 

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Picture credits:
hamad M / Foter.com / CC BY-NC
chotda / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
f1uffster (Jeanie) / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
knittinandnoodlin / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Salad dressing (is awesome)

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I know it's probably strange to see a post about salad dressing, right after a post about decadent brownies (and before a post about chocolate truffles...), but a good vinaigrette can make a salad extraordinary. Making your own dressing is easier to make than you think, and costs less than buying one overpriced bottle, filled with preservatives (even the organic ones), and a tall list of sometimes questionable ingredients. Your own dressing has three to four ingredients, max. As the great food writer Mark Bittman says, even bad salad dressing is good, so imagine what a great salad dressing would taste like.

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A common dressing is one part acid to three parts oil. If you follow this formula, you can experiment with different combinations using this ratio. I personally prefer a more tangy vinaigrette, and prefer one part acid to two parts oil. This vinaigrette is perfect for salads, but you can drizzle it over grilled chicken, fish, or even steamed greens.
Vinegars- balsamic vinegar (make sure caramel is not added for color/flavor- lies!), apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar (there are also tons of flavored vinegars that are delicious) 
Citrus- wonderful in salads, especially lemon. They have a lower acidity than vinegar, so if you want a milder dressing they would be a good pick. Lemons are most common, but you can also use limes, tangerines, oranges, and even grapefruit juice.

Mix-ins: 
-chopped shallots, red or white onions, scallions, (one tablespoon)
- a small bit of minced garlic (or put in a smashed clove and pick it out of the dressing before pouring on)
- a pinch of dried or fresh chopped herbs (tarragon, chives, whatever you have on hand)
- Mustard. I love dijon mustard, but you could try any favorite you have, or soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce. However that last one is pronounced :P. 
Oils:  "bottle of the good stuff". Good quality extra virgin olive oil will shine in a salad. You could also opt to use a more neutral oil and pair it with stronger ingredients (like ginger and soy sauce), or use walnut oil to make a smashing walnut vinaigrette. 

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from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

Classic viniagrette 

3 Tbl Red wine or balsamic vinegar

salt and fresh ground pepper

1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil

Dress it:

Dissolve the salt into the vinegar, add pepper. Slowly pour in the extra virgin olive oil, whisking with a fork to blend. Et voilà! 
* If you decide to add in other ingredients, add them to the vinegar first. It will be much easier to whisk in the oil. Alternatively, you could put everything into a closed container and shake it all up vigorously! 

Dijon vinaigrette (personal favorite)
3 Tbl red wine or balsamic vinegar
salt and fresh ground pepper
1 tbl dijon mustard
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil 

variation:

Nut oil vinaigrette

3 tbl sherry vinegar

salt and fresh pepper

1 large shallot chopped

1/2 cup walnut, hazelnut, or other nut oil

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And now I'd like to start a sentence with the word "and", as well as leave you with a terrible joke from an Italian that I know: 

What kind of olives do you use to make virgin olive oil? 

      ...ugly olives. 

What kind of olives do you use to make extra virgin olive oil?
     ... extra ugly olives. 

I'm sorry. 

HOW TO: Clean your coffee grinder

Nothing is better than the aroma of freshly ground coffee- it really has that zing that smacks you in the face, especially in the morning. A neat trick to clean your coffee grinder to use for spices like cumin seeds, cardamon, or dried lavender blossoms is to grind up dry rice. Any rice will do- it picks up all the coffee et voila- you have a clean grinder for herbs and spices! This is great for making lavender shortbread, which I will be posting about soon!

Directions

Take coffee grinder- wipe with a paper or cloth. Add rice halfway, and grind it up into a fine consistency. Pour out, wipe one last time, and you're good to go! No need to buy more gadgets than necessary.

If you don't have a coffee grinder you can use a blender, or a mortar and pestle, or even dice it up on a cutting board. I have used my blender in the past, but it is much harder to clean than the spice grinder!

Photo credit: ATiwolf / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: datenhamster.org / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND