The Haute Kitchen

The foodie magazine Bon Appetit recently had a great cover shot of a chili made with Beef Brisket and Butternut Squash that looked incredible. We thought it was really inspiring, but we don’t normally keep whole Beef Briskets lying around so we had to come up with something on our own that would round out the dish a bit.

If you like Bon Appetit like we do then you should also check out Cook’s Illustrated which is basically the print version of the PBS show America’s Test Kitchen (or vice versa). They recently had a special issue all about classic soups and stews. Included among them was a recipe for Chili con Carne that had some great instructions for making your own Chile Powder from scratch using those dried, store-bought, pre-bagged Chilis you can find in the Ethnic Foods section of your grocery store. We thought there might be some potential for greatness if we combined aspects of both recipes into one great dish.

Making the Chili Powder was definitely the most labor-intensive part of this recipe but all that hard work is rewarded with fabulously intense Chili flavor with notes of fruit and chocolate and a nice, warm heat. It’s miles away from store-bought Chili Powder in both depth and complexity and, as an added bonus, the dried Chilis are really pretty affordable at around $3-$5 a bag. Also, by omitting the bacon that both recipes called for and substituting a single dried Chipotle Chili, we retained some of the smokiness (without the smoke tasting ‘fake’) and still had a vegetarian-friendly dish. If you don’t have one already, you’ll want to pick up a Spice Grinder (a cheapo coffee mill works great for this).

Ingredients:

• 1 2-3 lb Butternut or other Autumn/Winter Squash, peeled, cored, and diced (Butternut’s ridge-free rind makes it the easiest to peel)
• 3 dried Ancho Chiles
• 3 dried New Mexico Chiles
• 1 dried Chipotle Chile
• 1 medium Onion, chopped
• 1 14 oz can Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 14 oz can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 Tbsp ground Cumin
• 2 tsp dried Oregano
• 1-2 Garlic Cloves, pressed or finely chopped
• 1 24 oz can diced Tomatoes

Prep:

• Preheat the oven to 250°
• Lay out the whole Chiles on a cookie sheet or shallow baking pan and dry toast them just until they become fragrant, about 6 minutes
• Let them rest until they’re cool enough to handle and remove the stems and seeds. Working in batches grind them into powder. We found that a few small chunks wouldn’t grind up completely but it didn’t affect the dish negatively in any way.
• Mix the Chile Powder, Oregano, Cumin, and Garlic with just enough water to make a paste. Set aside
• In a stockpot over medium heat saute the Onion with a little Olive Oil until just beginning to turn translucent
• Add the diced Butternut Squash and a pinch of Salt & Pepper and continue to cook until the Squash is just cooked through, maybe 10-12 minutes or so
• Add the Chile Powder Paste and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute
• Add the diced Tomatoes and Beans and give the whole thing a good stir
• Turn down the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 or 15 minutes so the flavors can mellow and blend
• Season to taste with Salt & Pepper

Additional Thoughts:

This really is quite delicious and the sort-of-fresh-from-scratch Chile Powder is what makes it all work so well together. It really highlights the caramel flavors in the squash and melds beautifully with the savory exotic flavor of the Cumin. It’s really awesome with a little shredded Cheddar Cheese and maybe a sprinkle of diced Onion, but that’s not really necessary. We found that it was great all by itself right out of the pot.

Having never roasted a Chicken before (can you believe it?), we decided that it was high time we gave it a shot. Man oh man, we won’t be waiting very long before we do this again, that’s for sure. It was awesome! Moist and really, really flavorful and way better than we expected for a first try.

Like most things we’ve been slow (ie: too scared) to try, we kind of thought there might be more of a trick to this than there really was. Sister Amy made it sound like something we could probably manage so we summoned up the courage to give it a go.

After poring through about a million recipes on the internet we cobbled one together that sounded to us like a pretty sure thing: slide some Butter and Thyme under the skin, stuff the bird with bunches of fresh Thyme, Lemon wedges, and smashed cloves of Garlic, and then drizzle the whole thing with Olive Oil and Salt & Pepper. Yes, it really was just about that easy…

Ingredients:

• 1 whole Chicken, washed and patted dry (don’t forget to take the sundry bits and parts out of the cavity)
• 1 bunch of fresh Thyme
• 3-4 Garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 Lemon, quartered
• Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

Prep:

• Preheat the oven to 350°
• Thoroughly wash and pat dry the Chicken inside and out
• Salt & Pepper the inside of the bird and then stuff it with the Lemon wedges, Garlic cloves, and a majority of the fresh Thyme
• Carefully slide your fingers under the skin on the breasts and legs to loosen it
• Slide a tablespoon or two of butter and some sprigs of Thyme between the skin and body on each breast and leg and smoosh it all around from the outside
• Sprinkle the outside of the bird with Olive Oil and Salt & Pepper
• Place the Chicken in a roasting pan, stick it in the oven, and cook until the densest part of the leg meat registers 170° and the juices run clear, about an hour to an hour and a half
• When it’s done cooking, pull it out of the oven, cover it, and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
• Carve it up and serve it!!

Afterthoughts:

This turned out really, really great. We were very happy with the flavor and the juiciness of the chicken and the prep was way easier than we had feared. There are a couple of places this recipe could be improved we think:

• The first would be to make sure to use a roasting pan with a rack. We didn’t have one so we went without and the underside of the chicken was a little mushy (it’ll make great chicken stock, though)
• Second, we’ll probably butterfly the chicken next time. There’s some great videos online that describe this process and it looks like it would significantly shorten the cooking time.
• Third, we’d really like to try a compound butter of some kind under the skin, instead of just butter and Thyme. We’re thinking specifically of putting some truffle oil in it (ala the turkeys from Gordon Ramsay and this site), but we’re not sure yet.
• Last, we’ll have more people on hand to eat it. It was just the two of us this time around and we sort of over-indulged a bit. A whole chicken with side dishes is probably enough to feed 4-6 people, depending on the menu that you prepare with it. We just had a simple salad of mixed greens and avocado slices.

We’ve been consistently loving the big, luscious red wines from Marietta Cellars for a while now. We went through a Zinfandel phase a couple of years ago, which is how we discovered them and since then we’ve had a chance to drink at least a few bottles of every year’s release of the ‘Lot’ batches and it’s always one of our favorites.

Though the different ‘Lots’ are always very good wines, the #47 is exceptional we think: wonderfully rich and a little fruit-forward with fabulous, silky mouthfeel. It’s definitely a great buy at around $13. This is the wine we drink when we’re feeling a teensy bit fancier than our regular $7 a bottle favorites can support.

As usual, here’s the skinny from the winemakers website:

“Old Vine Red Lot 47 is a proprietary red wine that is noted for its balance, approachability, and consistency. Predominantly Zinfandel, as usual, Lot 47 coats the palate with luscious blackberry fruit and is balanced by peppery spice both on the palate and aromatically. Aged in French and American oak, this wine should drink well over the next few years.”

“The dominant varieties in Lot 47 are Zinfandel, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Cabernet.”

We really can’t say enough nice things about this wine and about Marietta Cellars in general. We’ve never had a dud in any of the wines they’ve made and we highly recommend them.

Salute!

We’ve been on sort of a squash ‘bender’ recently since they’re in season. And, as the weather turns colder we tend to start craving the warmth of comfort foods. Squash is great no matter how you cook it: roasted, cubed and sauteed, in soup, as a rich mash instead of potatoes, the list goes on.

This is squash exactly like our folks used to make when we were kids. With the addition of Butter and Brown Sugar to complement the caramelized roasty bits it’s so good it could practically be dessert. Not only that, but the scent that fills our house while it’s roasting is heavenly…

We’re deep into the Autumn-oriented fare these days, which is one of the benefits of community supported agriculture: we get all the freshest produce when it’s in season and we don’t have to wait for it to get shipped across the country (or ocean, for that matter) to get to us.

The recipe is pretty easy:

• 1 Acorn Squash, cut in half with seeds and innards removed. It also helps if you cut off a bit of the bottom of each squash half to make a flat spot, less rolling around in the roasting pan that way…
• 4 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, divided (always use unsalted butter for cooking, you can add salt later if you need to)
• 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar, divided
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper

How to cook them:

• Preheat the oven to 350°
• Pour about 1/4 inch of water into a deep baking dish
• Rub a little Olive Oil on the flat top part of each squash half
• Put 2 Tbsp of Butter and 1 Tbsp of Brown Sugar in each half
• Sprinkle it all with Salt & Pepper
• Roast until a fork slides in very easily, about 30 minutes or so

To Serve:

To us, one squash is pretty much two servings…though they’re pretty big servings. If you’d like you can pour out the melted brown sugar and butter into a dish, cut each half into slices (quarters maybe?) and then drizzle the brown sugar/butter mixture over the top.

We like to put each half in a bowl to keep them from sliding around. Then we mash up the buttery, brown sugary, squashy goodness inside the rind with fork and eat it right out of the shell. It makes a terrific side dish to accompany any kind of roasted meat, or a great veggie main course.

Roasting the Butternut Squash first really brings out the sweetness and the flavor melds beautifully with the tang of the Bleu Cheese and the toastiness of the Hazelnuts. This soup is great served with some crusty bread and a spinach salad, or as a starter for a warming winter meal.

This recipe makes a pretty big batch, which is good since this soup is even better the next day after the flavors have had a chance to blend.

Stuff:

• 1 2-3lb. Butternut Squash (roasting instructions to follow)
• 2 quarts good Chicken stock (we used homemade)
• 1 cup dry White Wine
• 1 Medium Onion, chopped
• 1 Garlic Clove, crushed or finely chopped
• 12 Fresh Sage leaves, torn
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh Rosemary
• olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• Fresh crumbled Bleu Cheese and chopped toasted Hazelnuts for garnish

Roasting Butternut Squash:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F
• Drizzle a sheet pan with Olive Oil and sprinkle it with salt & pepper
• Thoroughly wash the outside of the squash and halve it lengthwise. You can seed it now or wait till it’s done roasting, it doesn’t really matter
• Place the squash cut side down on the pan and roast it until the thickest part can be easily pierced with knife
• Let it cool enough to handle, then peel it and cut it into 1 inch chunks or so

For the Soup:

• Over medium heat saute the Onion until it starts to turn clear
• Add the Garlic, Sage, and Rosemary and cook for about a minute
• Add the Squash, Wine, and Chicken Stock
• Season to taste with Salt & Pepper
• Simmer the soup for 15 minutes or so to let the flavors blend
• Working in batches, carefully scoop some of the soup into a blender and puree it (don’t fill the blender more than half full or hot soup will come flying out the top!!). Or, better yet, go get a Hand Blender and puree it right in the pot. We’ve had a cheapo $20 one for years that’s served us well.
• Ladle the soup into bowls and top with crumbled Bleu Cheese and a sprinkle of chopped toasted Hazelnuts