YOU'VE BEEN MARRIED HOW LONG CACCITORE

We had Ashley's parents over to celebrate their 44th! wedding anniversary and decided to make a beautiful Chicken Caccitore with the help of my good friend Bobby Flay...
the opinions and view expressed in this blog in no way coincide with those of Mr. Flay, the blogger does not know him and should not call him his friend

We used a ton of our ingredients from the farm box and opted to butcher a whole chicken which is what the recipe calls for, I recommend butchering your own...

The taste of this dish was rich and sweet from the long stewed tomatoes and garlic along with the rest of the veg...

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 (3-pound) chicken cut into eighths
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound cremini mushrooms, quartered
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large yellow bell pepper, thinly julienned
1 Serrano or jalapeno chile, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 cup low-sodium canned chicken broth
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes and their juices
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar or capers
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1 pound spaghetti (size 8 or 9) cooked al dente
Basil sprigs
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

In this recipe it is very important to have all of your chopping and dicing done before you do any cooking, in fact, it's important and recommended to have your mise en place which is french for everything in place before you do your cooking...that way you can just focus on the execution rather than getting your peppers chopped.

Get some canola or grapeseed oil into the pot and put the heat to medium...let it ripple and start searing...ONLY after making sure that you have properly (and generously seasoned with salt and pepper)  About 3-4 minutes per side for a nice crusty sear, then out of the pot and onto a plate for later.

After the chicken is seared, throw the shrooms into the pot until they are golden, get them out and get the onions and red bell into the pot and let them start to "sweat"...which means to release their juices and get translucent.  About 3-4 minutes.

Now the jalapeno, red pepper and garlic...let them dance a little for about two minutes..

Now add the red wine and COMPLETELY REDUCE.

Keep going....stir, stir, stir

Voila.

Now the tomatoes and chicken stock, rosemary.

Chicken and mushrooms back in the pot and cover to cook...for 30 minutes..in 15 minutes start your pasta and cook until al dente...a little firm but not too firm, but not squishy either

After about 30 minutes get the chicken out and reduce the sauce until you have about 1/4 of it remaining...let it sizzle

Once it gets nice and thick, spread it over the chicken and plate your pasta.

Your chicken goes on top of the pasta, topped with the fresh basil and shredded parmigiano reggiano...this dinner is wonderful, and the company was pretty sweet too.  Happy Anniversary!

PICKED A PECK OF PURPLE PEPPERS....

We made stuffed peppers tonight with some amazing purple and green peppers, tomatoes all from the farm box, along with fresh herbs, onion, and my very first home ground chicken! 

We always buy chicken on the bone because it's cheaper by the pound and is so much better when roasted with the bone on skin on, but for tonight, I used my sharp MAC knife and boned, skinned, and yes..oh yes, I even ground it myself using a sweet meat grinding attachment that my very much appreciated in-laws gave to me for Christmas...thank you again!

 

 

Made a tomato puree by blanching four tomatoes then quickly getting them into an ice bath.  You blanch them to get the skins to release to make for easy peeling.  To start the process, score a cross into the bottom of the tomatoes before you throw them into the boiling water, after 35 seconds get them into the bath, let them cool, peel the skins, core, cut in half get the seeds out, and squish them in your hands into a bowl until they resemble a puree.

A teaspoon or so each of fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, and basil finely minced

I've never really seen a purple pepper, but there it is...right there and it seems to be a little thinner skinned than the green

Mix together one chopped onion (or in this case, three little farm box candy onions), three cloves of minced garlic, 1 cup of cooked rice and the fresh herbs that we chopped earlier.   Oh and salt and pepper of course!

Side bar:  I don't like minute rice...and neither does anyone else. 

The only reason anyone eats minute rice is because it's easy..

.well you know what, cooking great rice is easy too...

.2/1 ratio of water to rice, bring to a boil and simmer for

40 minutes with the lid on.  Do that first and finish everything else

 while the rice is cooking...it's worth it...

the taste and texture of good long grain brown rice

 cannot even be approached by minute rice...shame on you uncle ben!

I fill each pepper with the stuffing and top with some of the mashed up tomatoes that we blanched earlier. Top with the puree and into a pot.  I filled with water so that it comes about 1/4 of the way up the peppers, cover with foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes

Onto the plate...it's tough to get them to stand, but boy were they good!

ANOTHER GUEST CHEF ENTRY!

My brother is a food blogging machine.  This dish is wonderful,, right amount of lemon, always tender. Thanks for putting it together for the blog (brother). 

Here is a summer staple in our house. Greek Grilled Chicken Breast Dinner. We are pairing ours with potatoes and asparagus, because I love them.

The first thing that we did was get our marinade together. We use oregano, garlic powder, onion, salt and pepper. Then add the juice from 2-3 lemons depending on how lemony you want it. Then combine this with olive oil just to pull it all together.

Bring a large pot to boil. Cut up your potatoes and throw them in to the pot. You want to leave these in for about 15 mins just so they start to get a bit soft. After 15 mins strain them and put them to the side.

Take your chicken and marinade mix and throw them both in a large ziplock bag. Do the same with the potatoes and a second mix of your marinade. But both of these bags in the fridge and let them sit for 2-3 hours.

Preheat your grill till the temp is around 400 - 500 degrees. Oil down your grates and get that chicken on the grill and turn the heat down a bit so you don't get flare ups.

Your chicken is going to be about 4 mins per side on the grill, but we want those perfect hash marks. So after 2 minutes give it a quarter turn and wait another 2 minutes. Then flip it and cook it the rest of the way through.

now that thare is some perfict grill marks!

Now get your potatoes on the grill as they will probably be about 3-4 mins a side as well. We are using a grate as to not have any potato casualties.

Once your chicken is done, take it off bring it in the house and tent it. Then throw on your asparagus. We drizzled ours with olive oil and salt and pepper. Close the grill and let it cook

this is not a picture with the grill closed, but you get the idea

.
Pull off your veggies and bring them in the house. Not before sampling a few to make sure they are good.

Side bar:  it is vitally important to taste your food

during the entire process of cooking. 

We can make little adjustments to the salt,

 pepper or length of time the food is being cooked that

can really make all the difference in the way it turns out.

  DON'T WAIT TO TASTE THE FOOD UNTIL

IT GETS TO THE TABLE, YOU'RE TOO LATE

Make a plate and enjoy! This plate with 2 chicken breasts is only 650 or so calories and it is freaking delicious. Enjoy.

BRAVO TONYMOO

 

DAY BEFORE THE NEW FARM BOX MISH MASH

Thursdays are for using what is left from the week's farm box.  Today we had some potatoes, green peppers and garlic chives left.  We decided to do some pan roasted (fried) potatoes, yellow onions, green peppers and lots of salt and pepper.  The meat or as some pretentious chef's would refer to as "the protein" was some chicken breast on the bone skin on, but removed from the bone and skin off...pounded thin and coated in some Kashi crushed corn flakes to form a crust, baked in the oven to create a "fried" taste.

Ran out of pepper today, don't use the pepper mill, buy some whole pepper corns, use a cheap coffee grinder and grind your pepper fresh.  You can use a whole lot more to season and it's fun to use your fingers rather than the pepper mill.  We store our freshly ground pepper in a little le creuset spice jar

Slice the potatoes, put some canola oil in the pan, set to medium heat and let it ripple.  Add potatoes and salt and pepper.

While the potatoes are starting to cook, large dice a few green peppers and half an onion, add to the pan, more salt and pepper.

Add some Kashi Flakes to a plastic bag crush with a mallet.  After they get smashed, add to a bowl with some flour, salt and pepper, this will be the "fried crust".

Pour some milk into a bowl add a little bit of apple cider vinegar to the milk to let it thicken...this is a sweet substitute for buttermilk.  Cut the Chicken off the bone, remove skin and pound to about a half inch thick, dredge in milk.

Take out of milk and coat in corn flake crumbs, lay on sheet pan with parchment paper and drizzle some canola or olive oil over the chicken.

Quick look at the veggies...this was about 30 minutes at medium heat turning and flipping frequently.

Chicken out of the oven and rest for 10 minutes, plate with veg on top...yum yum...can't wait for the new farm box.

OPA! CHICKEN GYROS

This is a philosophical issue...what is a gyro?  We believe that anything that is made with a pita, meat, and tzatziki topped with tomatoes and onions qualifies as a gyro.  We are definitely up for some debate on this one if you feel so inclined.

We roast our chicken, another tip from Ina...roast your chicken breasts bone in skin on, at 425 for 40 minutes with some olive oil and salt and pepper.  

Side bar:  When we roast anything in the oven,

we lay one sheet of parchment paper on the pan.

Food does not stick, and the pan stays in good condition...

better still, no scrubbing to clean

While the chicken is roasting we dice up our cucumbers, thinly slice the onion and halve the cherry tomatoes.  We used cherry tomatoes from Ashley's coworker's garden.  We have made this with regular tomatoes as well, diced

Once the chicken has rested, we cut it off the bone, remove the skin and thinly slice it against the grain.  We slather a little tzatziki sauce (greek cucumber sauce - cedars from whole foods is delicious) onto pitas that are warmed in the oven, after this we differ in our approach...Ashley likes it on top and I like it on the bottom...the chicken that is...

Ashley's chicken on top

Johnny's chicken on the bottom