Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

     We love garlic. A lot. If garlic truly possesses all the health benefits attributed to it, the wife and I should be functionally immortal. So when we find a recipe that calls for 40 cloves of garlic, we are duty bound to have it. There's plenty of versions of this recipe; we used the recipe from Barefoot In Paris, by Ina Garten. It is a fairly labor intensive recipe, so it qualifies as a PITA. Peeling 40 cloves of garlic sucks. However, the end result is totally worth the effort. If you want to cook to impress, this is a good way to do it. You're just not going to be kissing anybody for a while. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
via Barefoot In Paris
by Ina Garten

Ingredients

• 3 whole heads of garlic, about 40 cloves (about? Screw that. The recipe isn't called "Chicken with about 40 Cloves of Garlic. It says 40. I'm using 40)
• 2 (3.5 pound) chickens, cut into eights (I don't normally keep whole chickens in the house. I used 6 enormous breasts. I like enormous breasts)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (I just used regular stick margarine)
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil (good call there. The evil olive oil is prone to otherworldly moaning and floating around the room)
• 3 tablespoons Cognac, divided
• 1-1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (I used 1 teaspoon dry)
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

1. Separate cloves of garlic and drop them in a pot of boiling water for 60 seconds. Drain the garlic and peel. Set aside.
2. Dry the chicken with paper towels. Season liberally with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches 

   

   Sorry. Carry on.

   saute the chicken in fat, skin-side down first, until nicely browned, about 3-5 minutes on each side. Turn with tongs or spatula. Do not pierce the skin. If the fat is burning, turn the heat down to medium. When a batch is done, transfer it to a plate and continue with the next batch.
3. Remove the chicken to a plate and add all the garlic to the pot. Lower the heat and saute for 5-10 minutes, turning often (the garlic, not you. You'll just end up dizzy) until evenly browned. 
4. Add 2 tablespoons of the Cognac and all of the wine, return to a boil and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. 
5. Return the chicken with the juices to the pot and sprinkle with the thyme. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, until all the chicken is done.Remove the chicken to a platter (plate, whatever) and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.
6.  In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sauce from the pot and the flour, and then whisk it back into the sauce in the pot. Raise the heat, add the remaining tablespoon of Cognac and the cream and boil for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce and garlic over the chicken and serve hot.

Baked Daube Provencal via The Dutch Oven Cookbook

     Certain recipes just ask to be made. It could be a combinations of flavors.  It could be an exotic ingredient. It could just be a favorite comfort food. Or it could be because it calls for an entire bottle of wine. Not a quarter cup, not even a cup. A whole freaking bottle of wine. That is what drew me to this recipe in The Dutch Oven Cookbook. This is a very rich French beef stew. The gravy is absolutely phenomenal. We served it with some mashed potatoes and rustic herb bread for a hearty and satisfying dinner. It takes a while to cook, but it is totally worth it. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Baked Daube Provencal
via The Dutch Oven Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast 
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for coating
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 strips bacon, cut crosswise into 1" slices
• 1 medium sweet yellow onion, cut into crescent slices
• 1 standard bottle of red wine (I suppose they're insinuating someone might use something non-standard, like a gallon bottle of Gallo or a big old box of Franzia. I used Barefoot Zinfandel, a dry red)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves (Don't forget to take these out before you serve. My mom always swore somebody would choke to death on a bay leaf if you left it in.)
• 2 strips of orange zest 
• One 14.5 ounce can chopped tomatoes, drained (I used a can of stewed tomatoes and chopped them myself. I'm reckless that way.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Trim the fat from the beef and cut into 2" pieces (the roast, not the fat.) Put the seasoned flour in a medium sized bowl and coat the pieces of meat with the flour mixture.
3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 5-1/2 quart Dutch oven. Brown the meat in two batches and remove to a platter, with the juices (seriously, no draining the roast.) 
4. Add the bacon and onions to the Dutch oven and cook for 3-4 minutes. 
5. Pour in the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes (use this time to scrape up the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot.)
6. Add the tomato paste, bay leaves and orange zest. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Add the meat and juices back into the pot.
8. Put a piece of buttered parchment paper directly on top of the meat (I have no idea what sorcery was at work with this step, but I did it anyway). Put the cover on and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake for 90 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and discard the parchment paper. Add the chopped tomatoes and bake uncovered for an additional 30 minutes.

Good times!

Chicken & Vegetable with Gorgonzola Soup

     Of late I have found myself with a regular surplus of leeks and chicken. When I find myself with vegetables and poultry, my thoughts generally turn to soup. I decided to do something different than regular old chicken soup and veggies. Having recently attended a Highland Games and Celtic Festival, I decided to to a spin on a traditional Scottish soup. Chicken and leek soup has a proud Scottish pedigree but a truly unfortunate name.

Egad! Cock-a-Leekie? Seriously?

     There was no way I was going to use that name. It sounds more like a medical dysfunction than a recipe. I wound up taking bits and pieces from a few different variants on chicken and leek based Irish and Scottish soups. This is what I came up with. Chicken & Vegetable with Gorgonzola Soup. We were pretty pleased with the results. The strong cheese played well with the mellow taste of the vegetables and chicken. The soup was a touch creamy, but not thick. I'm calling this a winner.

Chicken & Vegetable with Gorgonzola Soup

Ingredients

• 2 medium leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 2 ribs celery, thinly slices
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 head broccoli (florets)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5-1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 chicken breast, skin removed
• 4 ounces Gorgonzola, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Extra cheese and chives for garnish

Directions

1. Heat butter and oil in pan, cook vegetables about 10 minutes. You don't want the veggies browned, just soften them up a bit.
2. Reduce heat to low and add cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and incorporated into the vegetables. Add the flour and stir for 2 minutes. You're going to end up with something that looks a bit like a roux. Don't overcook it. You don't want this to get brown.
3. Once the flour and cheese are fully incorporated, slowly add in the wine, stirring constantly. Once the wine is completely in, add the chicken broth. Increase heat to bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer.
4. Throw the chicken breast into the simmering post. You're going to leave it all simmering, covered, for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is done. We don't want to poison anybody. When the chicken is done, strip the meat from the bone and shred the meat. Throw the meat back into the soup.
5. Add the heavy cream and let simmer for 5 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Garnish with a little more Gorgonzola and finely chopped chives.

Good times!

Recipe Monday: Orange Zabaglione

     I do a lot of Italian cooking in my house. I also do a lot of drinking in my house. When those two worlds collide, it is always a good thing. Zabaglione is one of those wonderful desserts that incorporates booze. Traditionally, it uses Marsala wine. My go-to recipe for traditional zabaglione is from World Food Italy by Linda Doeser. I decided to mess around with the recipe and use Triple Sec instead of Marsala. The end result was the same rich consistency, but with a light citrus flavor. I am very pleased with how this turned out.
     Fair warning, making Zabaglione is a total pain in the ass. It requires total vigilance. Screw up the temperature or stop whisking and you've totally ruined it. This has never happened to me as I am a consummate professional.

Orange Zabaglione

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup super fine sugar
• 5 tbsp Triple Sec
• Orange slices

Directions

1. Whisk egg yolks with the sugar in the top of a double boiler for about one minute
2. Gently whisk in the Triple Sec. Put the top of the double boiler on the botton filled with barely simmering water. Whisk vigorously for 10-15 minutes until thick, creamy and foamy. 
3. Immediately pour into serving glasses and garnish with orange.

Good times!

Middle Class Wine: St. Gisbertus Pomegranate +Lime Cocktail

     It's no secret that we like our wine in this house. It's also no secret that we like ALDI a great deal, as well. What happens when those two worlds collide and we bring home a new bottle from the store? Let's find out. 

     The liquor section is the first thing you pass in our ALDI, so naturally it is the first place I stop. I was immediately drawn in by this bottle:

It beckoned like a reasonably priced siren.

     St. Gisbertus Pomegranate+Lime Cocktail. The bottle whispered of its delights. "Mild and Sweet," it claimed. "Aromas and flavors of pomegranate with a hint of lime lead to a sweet refreshing finish," it boldly proclaimed. We were sold! It was decided on the spot that this would be the sparkling beverage with which we would toast the New Year!

And at $2.99, what could possibly go wrong?

     As midnight neared, we set up the wine glasses and got ready to get our drink on. On twisting off the fancy plastic/metal-combo cap, I immediately noted the distinct lack of a hiss of escaping carbon dioxide. No bubbles merrily rose to the top of the bottle. I double checked the ingredients. "Carbonated grape wine," right there. It's even the first ingredient. I gave it a hard pour into the glass. I was rewarded with a weak layer of bubbles. No worries. The color was very nice, so I had that going for me.

     I took a quick nose and promptly recoiled. What did I just smell? I couldn't place it, but it was eerily familiar. I knew that I had smelled that smell before, but I could not place it. I found it gravely unsettling. Even the wife cautiously shrugged when I asked her to label the smell. We decided to bravely move forward and give a tentative sip.

     There was immediately a taste that connected strongly with the smell. I can't impress upon you that this was as Lenny would call it, "A Bad Thing." My brain worked desperately to process the information. Why couldn't I place the flavor? It certainly wasn't pomegranate or lime. At the stroke of midnight we drank our final toast, I finally realized what I was smelling and tasting.

Liver sausage.

     I shit you not, this cocktail, was redolent of braunschweiger. I immediately consulted Catholic.org to check out their list of Saints. Let's see, the patron saint of abdominal pain is Erasmus, the patron saint of wine trade is Amand; no way was he involved here. I checked the whole list. No Saint Gisbertus. I scoured the internet for minutes on end. The only Gisbertus I could find in religion was Gisbertus Voetius, and he was a Calvinist!

Wrong Calvin.

     If he was the patron saint of anything, it would be filthy lies and deception. And possibly liver sausage. Actually, no. St. George is the patron saint of butchers, so he probably has that covered. In the end, there was only one thing to do:

You can almost hear the sewer rats gagging.

St. Gisbertus Pomegranate+Lime Cocktail
Available at ALDI for around three bucks.

Smell: Sickly, slightly meaty. Hard to tell, I pulled my head back from the glass pretty quick.
Taste: Cloying, with an overarching braunschweiger theme.
Finish: Not a fucking chance.
Headache the next day?: Yes, from the half bottle of Toasted Caramel Black Velvet Whiskey I drank to get that liver-sausage taste out of my mouth.


Good times!

Middle Class Bartending: Drunk For The Holidays

     As tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, I figured it would be appropriate to celebrate with a beverage or eight. In honor of the Festival of Lights, I will get lit up. I can't promise you I'll get fershnickered each night, since I'd like to remain employed, but I will try to come up with a Hanukkah (or at the very least Jewish) themed drink for each night. I'll still only update on the regular days, so you'll see a couple of drinks at a time. The first one is a gimme. On the first night of Hanukkah, we only have the one candle (two if you count the Shamash candle). Not a lot of light. No light? That's dark. Tunkl is Yiddish for dark. Thus we have:

Tunklberry Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 ounce Blackberry Whiskey (I prefer Bird Dog)
• 3 ounces Blackberry Manischewitz "wine"
• Lemon-lime soda
• Lemon slice
• Ice
• Rocks glass

Directions

1. Put whiskey and wine in shaker with ice; shake
2. Put a couple ice cubes into a rocks glass
3. Strain shaker into rocks glass
4. Top with lemon-lime soda
5. Garnish with lemon slice

L'chaim!

ALDI

  
  It wasn't until I moved into my first apartment that I learned about ALDI. I had always done my grocery shopping at Jewel or Dominick's. My girlfriend (now my wife) informed me that I might do well to consider shopping at ALDI instead.

     If you just asked yourself "what in the world is ALDI?" then you are probably somewhere above the middle class.  For the uninitiated, ALDI is a very bare bones grocery store. Not bare bones in selection, bare bones in frippery. Cartons are more or less opened up and placed on shelves and racks. There are no baggers. There are no bags provided. You must either bring your own, buy them there, or scavenge empty cartons from around the store. You can't get a cart without a 25 cent deposit.

A bolt cutter will work, too.

     The stripped down nature of ALDI allows prices to be kept fairly low compared to other stores. On an average trip, about $60 will get us 40-60 items. Canned food is super cheap, as is frozen. Produce is generally hit or miss if you don't get it right as it's put out.  Almost everything is ALDI's house brand.  Occasionally, they carry actual name brands. We've found BocaBurgers and Pizzeria Uno frozen pizzas before, and at extremely good prices. ALDI also has a very nice meat and fancy cheese selection.

     If you're truly lucky, your ALDI will have a liquor section. This is wonderful because ALDI is based out of Germany. That means their house label beers are actually imported Germany and Holland. They also have a nice selection of wines and other lighter drinks. No hard liquor is available at ALDI, which is a complete shame because I would never have to shop anywhere else.

     The only downfall of ALDI is the propensity of their stores to be placed in sketchy locations. Sometimes you'll luck out and the store will be somewhere nice. Our current store at any time boasts a clientele similar to what you would find in a Wal-Mart at about 2:30 in the morning. You learn to make sacrifices for value.

   

Middle Class Wine: Moscato

   I suppose I should clarify things first by saying that I am not saying that Moscato is a middle-class wine. What I mean is that I will be talking about middle-class price points for Moscato (or whatever wine I'm talking about at the time). For the sake of simplicity, let's call a middle-class price point for Moscato between six to fifteen dollars.

Which leaves these fine vintages right out.

     So, what is Moscato? In a word: Sweet. Sweet and fruity. That's actually two words. Three if you include "and," but you get the idea. If you have Moscato D'Asti, add "bubbly" to the description. If you're a fan of dry wines, stay far from here.

     Moscato is generally considered a dessert wine.  I agree. However, it's also quite good with spicy foods. If I'm doing any sort of Asian cooking, this wine is usually what I pair with it. I'm no wine snob; I can't give you extended descriptions of bouquet or nose or whatever. Henceforth, the MCK (what I will now use as the abbreviation for Middle-Class Kitchen) will use the following scientific and highly technical breakdown for the wine:

Smell: Fruity
Taste: Sweet, Fruity
Finish: Yes, the whole bottle
Headache the next day?: Usually not

Here are a few fine selections that are very affordable and quite tasty, at least to us. Enjoy!

Rex Goliath $6.99

Mionetto $9.99

Beviamo $14.99