Everyday Dorie: Herb-Butter Chicken
November 10, 2023 at 11:31 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 10 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
Herb-Butter Chicken is just what is sounds like– chicken with an herby compound butter that’s smeared underneath the skin to flavor and baste the meat as it roasts in a Dutch oven. I used chopped parsley and tarragon in my butter blend, chives instead of scallions and added some mined garlic along with the lemon zest and s&p. I swapped the bread that Dorie uses as a base under the chicken with some halved baby potatoes, but I kept the sliced onions.
We are a household of just two, so my “big” Dutch oven is only 3.5 quarts. I brought home a small chicken (under 4 lbs) that fit nicely in it, and checked it a bit early. The herbs sort of stayed in pockets under the chicken skin (because I didn’t do a great job of really getting it spread around), but having all that butter melt into the meat made it really moist. And the drippings at the bottom of the pan were delish and flavored the creamy potatoes and silky onions so nicely. This is an easy way to roast a chicken– getting that butter under the skin is kind of an icky task, but after that you really don’t have to do much else to it– and you can customize the butter, flavoring it however you like.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan (it’s also here), and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Sole Meunière with Onion-Walnut Relish and Giverny Tomatoes
October 13, 2023 at 9:03 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 3 CommentsTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
In the book, this is a Flounder Meunière with Onion-Walnut Relish, but it’s easier for me to find local sole, which Dorie says is traditional anyway, so I just used that. Fish is something I mostly save for eating out, since I usually mangle it, but this meunière preparation couldn’t be easier to cook. Just lightly dredge your fish fillets in four and quickly pan fry them in butter. Dorie goes a step further than the basic lemon and parsley finish by adding a flavorful relish of anchovies, onions, walnuts and toasted bread cubes. This made a pretty nice Sunday dinner, and it’s one I’ll make again.
There are a handful of recipes in the book I’ve skipped– mostly red meat ones that I just won’t eat, and also some that I do want to try but was too lazy to make when posting time came around. Now that we only have a few months of cooking left to go, I’ve been wondering how I can squeeze in some of these. I had two nice tomatoes from the greenmarket on the counter and while I’d passed on the slow-roasted Giverny Tomatoes last month, I figured they’d make a good side dish for the fish, with some modifications. Rather than flavoring them with lime, I used lemon to match the fish (and I left out the extract, just using lemon juice and zest). I also used much less sugar (maybe about 1/2 tsp total) than the recipe called for and added some dried thyme. Finally, I skipped blanching and peeling the tomatoes….they cooked for so long, their skins just slipped right off in the end. They were delicious, as was the olive oily tomato juice in the dish.
For the recipes, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked the fish.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Double-Corn Tomato Crisp
August 22, 2023 at 7:45 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 5 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Dorie’s Double-Corn Tomato Crisp may make you do a double-take if you see it on the counter. This sports a rubbly crisp topping made with cornmeal, but underneath you won’t find peaches or blueberries. Instead fresh corn kernels mingle with summer tomatoes and herbs. It proves that crisps aren’t just for dessert…they can be lovely savory side dishes, or even main courses, as we ate ours with a dollop of sour cream, a salad and a glass of wine.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: Roast Chicken with Pan-Sauce Vinaigrette
July 14, 2023 at 4:13 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things | 1 CommentTags: chicken, everyday dorie, savory
Roast Chicken with Pan-Sauce Vinaigrette is another “chicken in a pot” dish where the chicken gets roasted in a covered Dutch oven, along with some aromatics and liquid (here, white wine). Cooking it this way makes a moist, but pale-skinned bird. No matter– you can brown the skin under the broiler a bit more at the end of cooking, like I did. The mellow garlic that was roasted along with the chicken and the flavorful pan juices are incorporated into a mustardy vinaigrette that makes an absolutely delicious sauce to serve with the chicken (although full disclosure: I used more drippings and less water than Dorie said and made my vin to taste, because I refuse to measure for things like that).
We are a family of just two, so my “big” Dutch oven is only 3.5 quarts. I brought home a small chicken to fit nicely in it, and I adjusted down the recipe’s roast time a bit to not cook the heck out of it. I could not bear to throw out the schmaltzy carrot slices that were roasted in the pot with the chicken, so I plated them, and some roasted broccolini, with the meat and vinaigrette. I don’t roast a whole chicken that often, but when I do, I’m always happy to have leftovers for a couple of days and bones for a small batch of homemade stock.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Cheddar-Scallion Scones
June 27, 2023 at 11:17 am | Posted in biscuits/scones, breakfast things, BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 2 CommentsTags: baking, scones
I have a job through the summer testing recipes for a savory baking cookbook, and my freezer is stuffed with odds and ends of different breads, puff pastry hand pies and cheese muffins. You’d think maybe I wouldn’t have the appetite for one more savory breakfast treat (and you’d be mostly right), but these Cheddar-Scallion Scones looked to good to skip out on.
Cheddar cheese and a bit of paprika make these bake up beautiful golden. I egg washed my biscuits and decorated them with some extra scallion greens. I was annoyed to forget the mustard powder in the dough (what kind of lousy recipe tester am I?!), so I sprinkled a bit on top at the half-time baking rotation. This cheddar-scallion combo makes these good for not just a scrambled egg breakfast, but as a sidekick to any number of things…we had a couple with BBQ chicken the other night. I made six petite scones from a 1/3 batch, so I have a few added to my freezer stash of savory goodies, but I have a feeling they still won’t last very long.
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it every second and fourth Tuesdays. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll and all the other participation deets over on Tuesdays with Dorie!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Smoked Salmon Roll-Up
May 23, 2023 at 2:55 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 3 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
Cream cheese and lox on an everything bagel, but make it a cake? Ok, here’s your Smoked Salmon Roll-Up. I do have a bagel shop less than a block from my house, but this is a cool idea and a fun twist on a favorite combo. A thin sponge with everything bagel seasonings gets rolled around a spiral of cream cheese and smoked salmon with dill, capers, chives, scallion and plenty of lemon juice. Everything is salty and zippy.
I’m the only real smoked salmon lover in this house, so I scaled this down to a third of the recipe and baked the sponge in an 8-inch square cake pan. My roll-up is tiny, but cute. I had a little crack in the center of my cake, so I decided to do the cucumber garnish on top to cover it up (a roll-up cover-up). Looking at this photo, I wish I’d shaved my cuke on the mandolin to look like fish scales, instead of just hand-slicing them and having them sit a little funny. A fun and tasty bake, though!
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Everyday Dorie: White Beans and Smoked Fish (a pantry-and-fridge salad)
March 24, 2023 at 2:48 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, salads, savory things, veggies | 5 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, salad, savory
A “pantry-and-fridge” salad is the kind I make for myself most days. Actually, my pantry is non-existent (I live in NYC, and there’s just one food cabinet in my kitchen), so my salads don’t always contain as many yummy things as the White Beans and Smoked Fish version that Dorie makes. Normally I’m just fridge-foraging for leftover veg and cheese scraps and hoping there’s half of an avocado in there somewhere. I had to make a stop at the fancy-pants little neighborhood grocery to get supplies for this one.
Back home and armed with a can of white beans, a tin of smoked rainbow trout (in the coolest packaging), a jar of preserved lemon and some arugula and crunchy veggies, I tossed this together with a mustardy white balsamic vinaigrette and some chopped up homemade pickled red onions (which I am never without). Maybe I should make more space for this stuff at home, because I inhaled this salad post-gym. I will call it my “cabinet-and-fridge” salad.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see what we all thought.
Everyday Dorie: Subtly Spicy, Softly Hot, Slightly Sweet Chicken Stew
January 27, 2023 at 10:56 pm | Posted in cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, soups | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, savory, stew
You may be thinking that Subtly Spicy, Softly Hot, Slightly Sweet Chicken Stew is a strange name for a number of reasons, including the part about chicken in a recipe that actually calls for beef. I don’t eat red meat, so I swapped boneless, skinless chicken thighs in for the beef stew meat in this traditionally-made, but unusually-flavored, stew.
Dorie admits to doing a bit of a pantry raid to come up with the flavorings in this recipe. Meat is marinated in a bath of gochujang, soy, red wine and aromatics like ginger and cilantro stems. Because I used chicken thighs, I only marinated them for a few hours, instead of the overnight soak Dorie calls for with beef. Again, this is a recipe where I didn’t measure a thing, just eyeballed amounts and taste-adjusted as the stew cooked. I decided to leave the cranberries out of the stew because I didn’t want to have to buy a big frozen bag of them just for a handful, and they sounded odd to me anyway in here. Instead, I tossed in a parsnip along with the carrots (and I didn’t strain them out at the end, since my stew only took about and hour to cook with the chicken thighs, as opposed to three hours with beef). Towards the end of the stew’s cooking time, I thought it seemed to be missing something in the flavor department, and then I looked at the ingredient list and realized it was! I entirely forgot to add the cinnamon stick and star anise. D’oh! I stirred in a spoonful of five-spice powder instead. Because I think just about everything can use a bit of acid, I added in a splash of Chinkiang vinegar off the heat.
The scallion, cilantro and orange gremolata sounded like a bizarre garnish to me, but I’m glad I didn’t skip it because I really liked that fresh herb punch and raw garlic zing as a finisher. I thought this stew was quite (surprisingly!) delicious made with chicken, and I’ll keep it in mind because I usually do have the needed pantry ingredients on hand.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see how the group liked this one.
Everyday Dorie: Eggplant and Ginger Tartines
January 13, 2023 at 11:28 pm | Posted in condiments, cook the book fridays, everyday dorie, groups, other savory, savory things, veggies | 3 CommentsTags: everyday dorie, salad, savory
Eggplant and Ginger Tartines are another “things on toast” recipe that makes for a good lunch, if you have some extra time or if you do some prep in advance. These open faced sandwiches feature a charred and seasoned chunky eggplant spread on top of crusty bread. I’ll just be straight here and tell you that it would never even occur to me to actually measure the flavorings and seasonings in something like this eggplant spread. I looked at the ingredients list and added enough stuff (tahini, pom molasses, lemon, sumac, ginger, scallion, cilantro and salt) to the smush until I liked the way it tasted. Also, I grated my ginger, as opposed to coarsely chopping it, because I was, in fact, not paying attention to anything other than the names of the ingredients themselves. I only realized the ginger was supposed to be chopped when I read Kim’s post– haha- sounds like maybe it was a good mistake.
I assembled my tartines on some toasted homemade polenta sourdough. The eggplant spread is, shall we say, drab in color, but the tartines are garnished with some pretty bits to jazz them up. Sliced pear (or apple, in my case) and radish give the tartines some crunch. Arugula provides more pepperiness and pomegranate seeds give some pop.
For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see what we all thought.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWD: Potato-Parm Tart
January 10, 2023 at 6:22 pm | Posted in BWD, groups, other savory, pies & tarts, savory things, tuesdays with dorie | 6 CommentsTags: baking, savory, tarts
I made and froze a disk of Savory Galette Dough the other day for this Potato-Parm Tart and then promptly forgot about it. New year, same me. Luckily, if you either have the dough RTG or have a sheet of shop-bough puff pastry kicking around, you can finish the tart off pretty quickly for an on-the-fly lunch. A par-baked round of your chosen crust (this isn’t made in a tart pan, but instead is baked off as a flat disk) gets a schmear of cream cheese, Parmesan and a scattering of something in the allium family. I used leftover sautéed leeks. Then overlapping circles of potatoes sliced on the mandolin, or thin as you can cut them, are spiraled on top and seasoned. Pop it into the oven and then pull it back out 25 minutes later with frilly, bronzed potatoes and a salty, crispy crust. I really wanted to have my slice with a glass of white wine, but stuck to just an arugula salad, since I had to go to the dentist later in the afternoon and felt weird about drinking before a doctor’s appointment. Maybe with a re-toasted leftover sliver to celebrate no new cavities…
If you don’t have the book Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan, get it and join us as we bake through it twice a month. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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