Osso Buco

Osso what?  Osso Buco ("oh-so boo-ko") literally means "bone with hole" and is an Italian method for braising veal in a white wine broth with vegetables.  I've tried it with lamb, turkey, and chicken, and this recipe made with chicken is definitely our favorite.  It's traditionally served over risotto, but it's just so amazing over mashed potatoes that I never make it any other way.

This recipe just screams Fall and chilly, bundle-up weather.  It's comfort food without being overly heavy and fatty, and the rosemary will make your house smell amazing.  While we're on the topic - definitely don't skip the fresh rosemary.  It's the star of this recipe, and the broth just won't be nearly so amazing without it.

While Osso Buco may seem fancy and complicated at first, it's really just the same series of easy steps each time:  Brown the meat and set it aside.  Cook the vegetables.  Add the wine and tomato paste.  Put the chicken back in with broth, and cook it in the oven for an hour or so.  Serve it over mashed potatoes and you'll have dirtied a total of 2 pans and a cutting board for this meal.  You just can't beat comfort food that's decently healthy with very little cleanup!

Ciao!



Chicken Osso Buco
6 skinless chicken thighs, bone-in
flour to coat chicken, approx 1 c.
salt & pepper
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 c. carrots, diced
1 c. celery, diced
1 c. onion, diced
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 1/2 c. white wine
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
32 oz. low-sodium chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large ziploc bag, combine flour with salt and pepper.  Add chicken, seal the bag, and shake it to coat the chicken pieces.  Shake off excess flour and place chicken on a plate.

Heat oil in a Dutch Oven(or other large, oven-safe pot) over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, in a single layer, and brown both sides.  Remove chicken to a plate and repeat until all chicken thighs are seared.

Lower the heat to medium.  In the same pot (don't discard the oil or any browned bits), add carrots, celery, and onion and cook until the onion is translucent.  Add the tomato paste and stir to distribute in the vegetables and cook for 1 minute.

Slowly stir in the white wine and use a wooden spoon to start deglazing the bottom of the pot (i.e., scraping the browned bits up into the broth).  Let the wine cook for about 2 minutes.

Add the seared chicken back into the pot, add the rosemary sprigs and bay leaves, and place the pot onto the oven rack just below the middle.  Pour in enough chicken broth to cover the chicken.  Cover the pot and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Serve over mashed potatoes, risotto, or polenta.

Ingredient Lineup:

Vocab time: Mirepoix ("meer pwah") is a fancy name for the mixture of diced celery, carrots, and onion.

With the addition of tomato paste and white wine.

Place pot onto oven rack and then pour in enough broth to cover the chicken.

Serve in a rimmed plate, with the broth spooned over mashed potatoes.

Pesto Sauce

I don't have a lot to say about this recipe other than that it's embarrassingly easy and yummy!  We mixed it into pasta, but it'd be just as delicious over pan-seared chicken breasts or as a spread on a toasted sandwich.  Mmmmmmm.....

But, I do have one matter to discuss:  Nutritional Yeast. This is my first time seeing the stuff, let alone cooking with it.  I've seen it described as "magic hippie dust" on blogs, and now that I've cooked with it, I couldn't agree more - this stuff is magic!  Here's a full explanation of it, but basically, it's a nondairy/vegan/gluten free way to add the taste of parmesan cheese to dishes.  I never eat traditional pesto anymore because of the cheese (I really have to limit my dairy intake, so I usually save it for sweets).  But this pesto I made with nutritional yeast tastes just like the real stuff.  Seriously.  It doesn't taste like hippie anything, I promise you.  The recipe below can be made either full dairy or vegan.  But if you're anti-dairy for whatever reason, I urge you to give the crazy hippie dust a shot.

Enjoy!



Pesto Sauce
adapted from Vegan Spoonful

1 large bunch of basil (about 3 c. loosely packed)
2-3 large cloves garlic
6 Tbsp. pine nuts or walnuts (or a combination of the two)
1/2 - 3/4 tsp. salt, or to taste
6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast *

Place the basil, garlic, pine nuts, and salt into a food processor. Process to a finely ground consistency, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple of times. Add olive oil and process again, until smooth and creamy.  Add parmesan or nutritional yeast and process again until creamy. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  Makes about 1/2 cup.

* If you're making this recipe nondairy/vegan:  Nutritional yeast is a delicious addition to this classic pesto and will give it a kind of “cheesy” flavor and a more rich and creamy consistency.

True Story:  I've killed 6 separate basil plants.  We go buy a scraggly one from Lowe's

and after a month of Bo's care, the thing is nearly 2 feet tall.  Go figure.

 Ingredient Lineup:

Traditional recipe:                                               Vegan recipe:

Toss the basil, pine nuts, and salt into a food processor.

Process to a fine consistency, scrape down the bowl, and add in cheese (or nutritional yeast). 

Behold:  Nutritional Yeast.

It sounds wackier than it actually is.  And it makes things taste parmesan-y, yummmmm!!

       

Savory Polenta

A few weeks ago, I was standing in the Italian foods section of Trader Joe's and found myself staring at a log of polenta.  I'd had it once before, with Italian food, but I had no idea what to do with it to make it taste any good.  But it was fairly cheap, and I'm sick of pasta with our red sauce, so I threw it into my cart.  Last week, I finally dug it out of the cupboard and sliced it up and pan-fried it in some butter, olive oil, and garlic and served it as a side with dinner.  Huh.  Not too shabby.

One of my twitter pals encouraged me to make my own polenta from scratch and swore it was really simple and much tastier.  I whipped out my trusty Italian Bible of a cookbook by Marcella Hazan and found an entire section devoted to polenta!  But her recipe required stirring a hot pot for a solid 20 minutes.  Ummmm... no thank you.  At least not until October when the weather cools back down.  So I went Googling and found Alton Brown's method with a lot of excellent reviews.  His method uses the oven for heat and you only stir once every 10 minutes.  Much more do-able!  Plus, I could get to work on other things during my 10-minute spurts of cook time.

We loved this recipe.  It's sinfully rich and creamy, and the parmesan gives it a flavor very similar to homemade macaroni and cheese.  We ate it warm from the pot as a side with bbq chicken - perfect!  Also, at the bottom of this post, I include photos for storing leftovers.

Want to know the difference between grits and polenta?  Watch Alton Brown explain it in this video.

Enjoy!






Savory Polenta
adapted from Good Eats

2 Tbsp. olive oil
3/4 c. finely chopped red onion (I used a sweet yellow Vidalia onion)
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 quart (32oz) low-sodium chicken stock or broth
1 c. coarse ground cornmeal
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 oz. Parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large, oven-safe saucepan or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of kosher salt and sweat until the onions begin to turn translucent, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the garlic, and saute for 1 to 2 minutes, making sure the garlic does not burn.

Turn the heat up to high, add the chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Gradually add the cornmeal while continually whisking, to avoid lumps. Once you have added all of the cornmeal, cover the pot and place it in the oven. Cook for 35 to 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent lumps. Once the mixture is creamy, remove from the oven and add the butter, a pinch of kosher salt, and pepper. Once they are incorporated, gradually add the Parmesan and stir until melted.

Serve as is, or pour the polenta into 9x13" cake pan lined with parchment paper. Place in the refrigerator to cool completely.  Once set, turn the polenta out onto a cutting board and cut into squares, rounds, or triangles.  Or, shape your leftovers into a log and chill; then simply slice circles that are 1/2" thick.  Saute in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, or grill.  Serve with your favorite sauce or cheese.

Ingredient Lineup:

Use coarse grained corn meal for this recipe.  When you shake the container, you can hear the grains, unlike shaking a container of flour.  I love using coarse grained corn meal in my cornbread recipe too; it makes the texture so amazing.

Slowly whisk in the cornmeal, making sure there are no lumps:

Place covered pot in the middle of your oven:

A silicone "spoonula" works awesomely for scraping the bottom of the hot pot.

After the polenta is finished baking, stir in butter, salt, and pepper until smooth and combined.

Then stir in parmesan cheese until thoroughly melted and the polenta is creamy.

Tastes the yummiest when served right away and still warm:

But, to save any leftovers for slicing and pan-frying:

Spoon your still-warm polenta into a log shape at the edge of a large sheet of parchment paper:

Begin rolling snugly in the parchment:

Twist the ends gently toward the center, tightening until the polenta
has squished into a log shape and is uniform in thickness:

To serve:  Slice the cold polenta into 1/2" slices.  Lightly oil a skillet (cooking spray works great) and heat over medium-high.  Cook the polenta slices a few minutes each side, or until lightly browned.  Top with cheese or your favorite sauce.  Or both :)

    

After this Past Weekend...I Need to Take 5

How are ya?

Are you as tired and worn out as I am from a weekend of fright?

When we got home on Sunday night my kids were full of sugary energy and I was down for the count.

I kept saying your Momma is just plain worn out...and they kept saying Why? You didn't even do anything...we were the ones running from house to house.

It's exhausting worry so much about all the cars, candy consumption and that they were as gracious as they should be for what they have.

So last night I was on the hunt for something super easy to make for supper:

Take 5: Ravioli & Escarole Lasagna
Kristy Isom/Rachael Ray Magazine

5 ingredients: 1 pound bulk Italian sausage, 1 head escarole (I substituted mustard greens,) one 24 ounce jar tomato sauce, 9 oz cheese ravioli and 16 oz mozzarella cheese.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.In a large skillet, crumble the sausage and cook, stirring often, over medium heat until browned, about 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Add the greens to the skillet, season with salt and pepper and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes.




 In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish layer the tomato sauce...


 

and the raviolis..



and then when you figure out that you don't have enough to really layer just throw in the rest like I did.
Here you can see the tomato sauce, ravioli, crumbed sausage, greens and mozzarella cheese.



Mix it all up and bake until bubbling in the middle, about 45 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes.




While this easy peasy recipe did help me to take a bit of a break last night - I still can't believe that it's already November...weren't we just shooting off fireworks?

Easy, Amazing Roast Chicken

Remember that simple and delicious tomato sauce I posted a couple of weeks ago?  This recipe is by the same lady.  (Sidenote: I'm pretty sure that I'll have to name my first-born "Marcella.")  Like that recipe, this one uses only a few ingredients and is very, very simple to put together.

And it's Holy Dear Goodness Amazing.  I'm telling you, this is yummmmm.  The chicken itself turns out moist, and the meat was falling off the drumsticks.  And that broth hiding up there in the photo?  I nearly slurped it up with a spoon.  That's no lie.  I kept dipping my white meat into it.  I also saved the leftover broth to make into a gravy tomorrow night, and I'm pretty sure that it, too, will make me fall on the floor in bliss.

5 spoons?  We vote this a 10.

Enjoy!




Marcella Hazan's Roast Chicken with Two Lemons
adapted from these detailed instructions

3-4lb whole fryer chicken
2 small lemons
salt
pepper
optional:  1/2 c. Saucy Mama Sweet Onion Marinade

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the chicken thoroughly in cold water, both inside and out.  Remove all the bits of fat that are hanging loose.  Let the bird sit for about 10 minutes, tilted, to allow all the water to drain out.  Pat dry with paper towels.

If you're using the marinade, spread it under the chicken skin, to coat entire chicken.

Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper over the entire bird, rubbing it with your fingers over the body and into the cavity.

Wash the lemons and dry them with a paper towel.  Soften each lemon by rolling it on the counter while pressing down on it with your palm.  Poke the lemons 10 times each with a fork.  Put the lemons inside the chicken cavity, and close up the opening by securing the skin with toothpicks. 

Put the chicken in a roasting pan, breast side down (no oil or greasing necessary).  Place it on the middle rack of your preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes.  Then, flip the chicken over so the breast is facing up.  Cook for another 30 minutes, and then turn the oven temp to 400 degrees.  Cook for another 20 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 165 degrees.

Remove chicken from the oven and allow it to rest in the pan for 10 minutes.  Then cut it up and eat it up!  Make sure you spoon some of the broth in the bottom of the pan, it's beyond amazing.

Ingredient Lineup:

If you're opting to use the Saucy Mama marinade,

first separate the skin from the meat, using your fingers.

Do this all over the entire bird.

And then push the marinade between the skin and the meat.

Put the small lemons into the cavity of the chicken.

And then suture up the opening with toothpicks.

After.  :)