Bittman's Way With Chicken

I trust Mark Bittman.
When I have a recipe question or am looking for the proper technique for a dish I turn to NY Times columnist and the man who has been called the America's best home cook, Mark Bittman. He is an authority. Not the chef expert high and mighty expensive ingredient and multiple steps kind. Or the ready in 30 minutes overly cheerful open a can of this or that pour in the cream as long as it tastes good variety. He is reasonable and practical and thinks of cooking as not just an enjoyable pursuit (not an obsession) but as a necessary life skill. Bittman's recipes probably won't impress your most important worldly guests (some might though), but they will guide you through the day in and day out necessity of making healthy, quality food from scratch at home -- and teach you to improvise along the way. For years I have been recommending his "How To Cook Everything" to anyone who tells me they want to learn to cook.
Today I just couldn't think of another way to make a chicken breast. I knew I didn't want to use the oven, and I didn't want to bother with bread crumbs. I turned to Bittman and found a perfectly easy method I hadn't tried before. I took boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, and dredged them in plain flour. The floured pieces went into a skillet where I melted a combination of butter and olive oil and cooked for about 4 minutes on a side. As the meat was cooking, after about 2 minutes I rotated each piece to bring the thicker part into the hottest part of the pan and keep the slightly thinner part from overcooking. So simple but the perfect solution to the age old problem of dry chicken. After the chicken was crisp and golden brown on the outside I let it rest on a platter covered with tin foil (instead of in a 200º oven as Bittman suggested) while I made the sauce. I poured about 1/4 cup of white wine into the pan and let it bubble as I scraped up the brown bits left from cooking the chicken. When the wine was reduced by about 1/2 I added in 1/4 cup of water (that could have been stock) and let the mixture cook down again. As a finishing touch off the heat I added 1 TB of butter, chipped parsley and sage, and the juice of half a lemon.
Chicken and pan sauce. Real food, real simple. With steamed potatoes and green beans, dinner in less that 15 minutes.

Sunday Pork Supper With Shari

Mark Bittman is leaving the New York Times, well at least he's leaving the wednesday food section and ending his column (one of my favorites), The Minimalist. The man I've often heard called America's best home cook (does his leaving mean the title is up for grabs?) in a short weekly story taught a vast readership to not be afraid, try cooking at home, or experiment with a new ingredient cooked in a simple straight forward way. He had endless recipes for achievable dinners. In fact -- his incrediblly useful cookbook is called "How To Cook Everything," and it seemed he actually knew. I may not follow his recipes exactly but he always provided a starting point to great dinners. As part of his farewell Bittman published a list of his 25 favorite columns. There staring me in the face was his super easy, crusty brown, crisp skinned pernil, the Puerto Rican slow cooked pork specialty, I couldn't wait to pull that out of my oven. Only one problem. Although I dreamed of crisp skin shattering under my knife's touch, searching several LA markets (gourmet and grocery) not only could I not find a shoulder roast with the skin on I could barely find one with a bone (that took 3 stores). I should have dusted off my very rusty Spanish and headed into the nearest Latino market -- just didn't think of it in time. Anyway with a shoulder roast in hand I mixed up Bittman's not quite traditional seasoning paste of 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 2 TB fresh oregano, S&P, 1 TB cumin, 1 tsp mild chili powder, and olive oil. I mixed in 1 TB of white vinegar and rubbed the paste all over the roast (I had made some slits with my knife to help the seasoning seep into the meat). Pork isn't as fatty as it used to be and without the fat cap and skin I feared my roast would dry out in the oven so I popped it in the crock pot and let it slowly simmer all day. Meanwhile I cooked up some long grain rice with chicken broth and a dab of butter, a pot of greens from our garden braised in olive oil and garlic, and homegrown lima beans simmered in water, butter and pepper until tender and finished with a bath of cream and salt. As I laid everything out on the platter Shari and I mixed up an avocado salad with sliced red onion, doused in olive oil and salt. Although Bittman doesn't suggest it, I mixed up a mojo sauce of sorts to pour on the meat and rice -- garlic oil, orange juice, vinegar, cumin, S&P. Once again Bittman was a great starting off point. I'm a little embarrassed to say I'll miss him. He's not hip or local or self-righteously seasonal, but a friendly purveyor of basic recipes. We probably need more like him.

Labor Day Lunch

The end of summer.

A chance to get together with friends we don't see often enough.

Time to grill.

We're not exactly a hot dog house. We opted instead for a festive lunch on the back porch.

The grill did get busy with thin slices of patty pan squash doused in a piquant feta cheese and basil sauce. Sharing the grill were shrimp and chorizo kebabs. I wrapped peeled shrimp around 1/2" slices of dry chorizo (I took that chance in spite of our Spanish guest -- but she seemed to approve) and threaded three to a bamboo skewer. I made a marinade/ paste of caraway seeds, chili powder, olive oil and garlic and brushed it over the meat just before grilling, a couple minutes on each side. Our friend Paul was kind enough to man the grill, including heating the tortillas, while I got a few things ready inside.

When I was trying to get an idea of what to serve today I was staring at the packages of Hearst Ranch beef in our freezer. They package a bag of chuck and round trims they call fajita strips. I don't think I've ever made fajitas for James and as I was puzzling over what use I could make of these pre-cut slices I saw a recipe for Mexican Beef Stew on the Saveur Magazine website. It is a long cooking dish of meat, tomatoes, onions, plantains, apples, pineapple and plenty of chili. Perfect for wrapping in warm tortillas. From there the theme for lunch took off. I whipped up guacamole and a batch of queso fundido (basically a warm dip of chiles, onions, tomatoes, beer and lots of melted cheese -- Mexican fondue) as appetizers with thick deep fried tortilla chips. I made a tangy radish salsa that gave a little crunch to the warm beef stew. The skewers just came along naturally followed by a fresh salad with garlic cream dressing, skillet cornbread which proved to be perfect match for the nearly sweet beef dish and, of course, corn on the cob. It is Labor Day after all.
For dessert I couldn't decide which fruit to use so I made double tarts from Mark Bittman's reliable free-form tart recipe. Basically a giant cookie with fruit topping, this recipe is so fool-proof there's no reason to ever fear making dessert again. James called the pear tart "French Fry Pie". The plum was a bit prettier but both were plenty tasty with fresh whipped cream and ice cream.

A great way to spend a day off.

Happy Labor Day one and all!

America's Best Home Cook

No it's not me. Sigh.

But from all reports it's Mark Bittman, cookbook author (he wrote my favorite all-purpose/ new-cook cookbook, How To Cook Everything) and New York Times columnist. That's what I read and I believe it. No matter how unlikely his recipes may seem I follow them. I will choose a recipe from Bittman before many other writers and I am never disappointed.

Tonight I wanted something flavorful, not too heavy (it was a pretty warm day after all), and pretty easy clean up. Surfing around the internet -- I found a simple dish, broiled chicken with a honey fig sauce. We have figs, we have honey (we always have honey), and we even had an open bottle of white wine so off I went.

Following his recipe I put 2 TB of honey and a splash of water in a saucepan and brought it to a boil. I allowed the honey to boil gently for about a minute and added in 1/2 cup white wine, the zest and juice of 1/4 orange, 1/2 cup dried figs, diced, 1/2 tsp of whole coriander, s&P, and a pinch of cayenne and let the sauce simmer/ gently boil for about 15 minutes until the figs were soft.

Meanwhile I pre-heated the broiler and set a rack so the chicken would be about 6 inches from the heat. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and broiled for 10 minute son a side until it was browned, crispy, and cooked through.

As a side dish I steamed some cauliflower until it was tender (it was orange cauliflower, hence the bright color) and puréed it in the food processor with a bit of bitter, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a dash of z'atar -- a middle eastern spice mixture that James loves and truly is magic with cauliflower.

I could have strained the sauce and made the presentations a little less, let's say rustic. But the figs were so flavorful I traded a bit of elegance (as the author says he does) for flavor.

Three cheers for Mark Bittman!