As promised, following up from last weekend, here are the results of the Mother’s Day soul food feast. I think the pictures practically speak for themselves. The food was a triumph! The only problem now is that since I know how very easy it is to make perfect fried chicken at home, I’ll want it all the time. I made a few adjustments to the recipes that were new to me (I can never resist). Keep reading for notes on how I made the perfectly fried chicken, sweet potato wedges and corn pudding.

My concerns about the crust on the fried chicken not being crispy enough if left to steam in the oil were unfounded. I followed Paula Deen’s grandmother’s recipe, as mentioned last week, except that I fried the chicken in vegetable oil instead of shortening. I set up less than an inch of oil in an enameled cast-iron French oven because I wanted to make sure I had a good lid to cover the chicken after it crisped. The cast iron also helped regulate the heat and keep the oil as hot as it needed to be to get a good fry over the course of many batches.

After the chicken had one flip, I covered the pan and lowered the heat just a little bit. For the dark meat, I left it covered for about 8 minutes, flipped the pieces and re-covered for another 5 minutes or so until I was sure the meat was done. The white meat cooked a bit quicker. Each piece was drained on paper towel and eaten right away. My mother, the chicken expert, said she had never had homemade fried chicken that didn’t come out either burnt, greasy, or too dry. This chicken was none of those things. The meat was moist and fell away from the bone (when there was a bone to fall away from). The crust was perfectly crunchy and golden, and not greasy at all.

While the success should certainly be attributed to the great recipe I followed, I also think it had something to do with the chicken I used. I bought two chickens on Saturday and butchered them myself that night. This was not only cheaper than buying pre-cut pieces of chicken; I got to trim all the parts to my own taste and not waste a thing. My best move, I think, was to take all of the white meat off the bone so that it could have as much surface area for crispiness as possible. All of the parts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s dinner went into my freezer stash for building chicken stock. And since the pieces were bought right before I needed them, I never had to freeze them, which surely increased their tenderness.

I just gave them a little dry rub with some seasoned salt and pepper the night before and they were ready to be battered and fried according to the recipe right before dinner the next day. Since my favorite part of fried chicken is the crispies on the outside crust, the only thing I would change when making this chicken again is to add salt and pepper to the flour dredge.

I didn’t have a recipe for the sweet potato wedges, and I was a bit worried about how to get them to come out crispy instead of mushy. After doing a bit of internet research, I gleaned tips from various blogs and threads and came up with a process that worked great for me. I cut the sweet potatoes into wedges, skins on. I soaked the wedges in cool water for 30-40 minutes. Then I let the wedges drain in a colander, preheated the oven to 400 degrees,  and lined two cookie sheets with parchment paper. I lined up the wedges on the parchment paper with plenty of space between so the potatoes would roast and not steam.

The wedges went in completely naked, without any seasoning or oil. Then, 15 minutes later, I gave them a flip and let them continue to cook until done. It took a couple of batches, but I was determined not to let them be mushy, so the extra time was worth it. The final product was tasty without adding any extra seasonings, but when I make them again I may decide to toss the wedges in a bit of sea salt the moment they come out of the oven, to encourage the flavors within each wedge to surface.

For the corn pudding, I mostly followed Paula’s corn casserole recipe. I didn’t have a box of corn bread mix on hand, so I just added the dry ingredients following a corn bread recipe I had on hand. If you do this, just substitute the box of mix with 1 1/2 cups corn meal, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp salt. I also left off the cheddar cheese, since my mom is not a fan. I might want to play with this recipe a bit more to get it a bit more pudding-like, but all in all, it was a delicious sweet and savory side.

The chicken was crispy, and oh so tender, savory and meaty. The sweet potato wedges had a satisfying crunch to them, along with a hint of caramelization. The corn pudding had firm little kernels that popped in my mouth, surrounded by a full-bodied spoon-bread, and was sweet, fresh and mild. The different textures and flavors of these three dishes, along with the moist bitterness of the red swiss chard and chick peas, came together in great harmony. The whole family really enjoyed everything, and all the extra chicken I made was gobbled up, which is a great sign of a meal well done.

All of this frying and experimenting with corn has got me craving something else wonderful, so expect to see me frying up some corn fritters here soon. I have a new recipe for them that I just can’t get enough of!

One year ago: Gyros Revisited: Beef

Related posts:

1. Mother’s Day Soul Food
2. Fluffy Corn Fritters, or are they Hushpuppies?
3. Warm Creamy Peanut Chicken Salad

I usually post after a meal is eaten and gone, but I’m going to try something a little different this week. I’m going to share the recipes for what I’m making before I make it, and then I’ll let you know how it went and if I made any adjustments to the recipes while cooking. And of course, I’ll include pictures, because I know that’s mostly what I read food blogs for anyway.

For Mother’s Day I want to treat my family to a hearty soul food dinner. Being in Harlem and so close to so many soul food meccas, I first thought I would pick up some giant pieces of fried chicken from Sylvia’s Restaurant, but even though ordering in would be so easy, I’d so much rather try to make it myself. I want to cook up what I imagine (being a Jewish girl from New York) would be a perfect after-church picnic. Considering my mother’s all-time favorite food is chicken, I know she’ll just love it.

I’ll be making fried chicken for the first time, which I’m excited about. I don’t have the ability to really deep fry in my kitchen, so I wasn’t really sure how I would do it. Then I saw this Paula Deen clip on Hulu which reminded me that there are other ways to get a delightfully crusty piece of fried chicken. In the video below, Paula makes her grandmother’s recipe, where she pan fries the chicken and then covers the pan and lets the pieces steam in the oil for the rest of their cooking time.

This recipe looks doable. I wonder how the crust will turn out. I also hope that the pieces don’t retain too much oil after they are removed from the pan. Generally, when frying in oil, the high temperature ensures that water and air are coming out of the food so fast that oil isn’t able to get it. Turning the temperature down but leaving the food in the oil makes me think that the chicken is just going to soak all that oil back up. It almost makes sense to steam them in a different pan and then crisp them back up. I’ll take Paula’s word for it for the first time though.

On the side, we’ll have some sweet potato wedges to help soak up the gravy from the chicken, red swiss chard with chick peas (based on my own collard greens recipe, a big salad, and corn pudding (based on, but not entirely adhering to, another Paula Deen recipe for a corn casserole).

For dessert, Jen’s light but intense mixed berry and lemon sorbet topped with whipped cream, and navel oranges.

I don’t have much experience making soul food, but I’m hoping I’ll manage to keep the soul in it, while keeping it healthy and fresh. And I couldn’t think of a better way to show my mom how much we all love her than by working hard to make some of her favorite foods from scratch.

Are you planning to cook for your mother this Mother’s Day?

One year ago: Velvet Lemon Pasta Sauce, Revisited

Related posts:

1. Soul Food Success: Fried Chicken, Sweet Potato Wedges, Corn Pudding
2. Fluffy Corn Fritters, or are they Hushpuppies?

Deb over at Smitten Kitchen always has breathtaking food on her site. Sometimes the recipes she features seem a bit too involved for me, but she never fails to stun the eyes with her expert photography and give me a chuckle with her fast-paced prose. After giving in and trying her delightful buttery tomato sauce that graced our homemade pasta, I decided to put my faith in her once more a few nights ago.

I was stumped for dinner because the fridge was nearly empty (I was out of town earlier in the week) and nothing caught my eye. In the freezer were some hot Italian sausages that I had been waiting to try. On a hunch that Deb would certainly have something delicious posted about sausage, I decided to run a search her site and see if anything inspired me. At the top of the search results was tomato and sausage risotto which I can’t believe I never thought of before and which was exactly what I wanted.

This recipe was so easy and I happened to have all of the ingredients (sausage, onions, a can of chopped tomatoes, spinach, wine, rice). I didn’t bother to use arborio rice because I’ve found that I like risotto just the same with any short grain rice.  It hit the spot for dinner and was even better the next day for lunch, eaten cold. This will definitely become part of the rotation here, with or without the meat. Thanks Deb!

One year ago: Velvet Lemon Mushroom Sauce

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1. Homemade pasta and buttery tomato sauce
2. Roasted Red Pepper Risotto, or The Importance of Being Creative in the Kitchen
3. Tomato Rice Soup

Another wintry birthday has come and gone. You may be sensing a theme here. Last year there was a splendiferous key lime pie. This year’s creation really takes the “cake” though. Introducing my very first birthday pot pie. Cakes are great and all but, honestly, you will win my heart ever so much more quickly with a pie of any kind instead.

This pie idea came from Paula Deen’s Hurry Up Chicken pot pie. Basically, start with some chopped cooked chicken, an assortment of vegetables, a bechamel or roux (or cream of something soup), seasonings, broth, and a gloppy biscuit batter for the top. We made this 3 times last month, throwing in any vegetables we happened to have from our treasure trove of “Bargain of the day” produce bags. Paula also added hard-boiled eggs, but I left those out since I’ve been eating so many eggs in my homemade pasta.

The result: a casserole bursting with hearty homemade goodness that brought warmth to the belly and the soul, perfect for the snowy days we’d been granted.

If I get to eat like this, I don’t mind if winter sticks around for just a little bit longer.

One year ago: No Fail Banana Muffins

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1. Happy Birthday to me!
2. Cheesy Macaroni with Baked Acorn Squash and Tomato Sauce
3. Soul Food Success: Fried Chicken, Sweet Potato Wedges, Corn Pudding

Still, there’s no need for you to suffer with take-out or instant foods for every meal just because your schedule has become too packed to keep fresh food around. These burritos are easy, flexible, and are a perfect example of a simple on-the-go meal that can run the gamut of flavors. I got the idea from The Simple Dollar’s Bulk Breakfast Burritos recipe but alternated some of my own favorite fillings to make them suitable for any time of day.

Recipe: Freezable bean burritos with a zing

Makes 8 burritos (multiply as needed)

• 8 medium or large flour tortillas
• 8 pieces of American cheese
• 2 batches of “Unfried” Black Beans mixed with a dollop of your favorite hot sauce
• 1 batch of Guacamole

1. Fill each tortilla as show above.
2. Fold the left and right sides in and then roll the bottom up until the burrito is closed. This is also explained, with photos, in the Simple Dollar recipe.
3. Wrap the burrito in plastic wrap. Freeze.
4. When you wish to eat, remove from the plastic wrap, wrap in a paper towel, and defrost in a microwave for about 2 minutes (power level – 50%), and then heat on regular power for about 1 minute.

These gooey, zesty little packets have brightened many a work day when I’ve been too rushed for breakfast or lunch. What are some other ingredients you would add to your frozen burritos? I’m about to make another batch and I want to plant some variety in my freezer this time.

One year ago: Vegan Extra Cheesy Grits

While on a recent grocery trip, I noticed that the outdoor produce section of our favorite market was currently undergoing some major reorganization. Every stand was being cleared off, and at first I was sad that we wouldn’t have an opportunity to peruse what is usually a very diverse selection — that is, until I spotted an assemblage of shopping carts labeled “Bargain of the Day : $1.50 a bag” hiding out in a quiet alcove. What I discovered were weighty bags featuring a plethora of random fruits and/or veggies, and ignoring my auto-responsive dose of New Yorker cynicism  for a moment came to discover something more than sub-perfect specimens.

These 7+ lb-bags of assorted produce from a reliable market I shop at on a regular basis proved to be a steal at less than 20 cents per lb, and not being able to resist such a deal for raw ingredients that I don’t usually buy, I went ahead and stocked up on as many as I could carry home. We rationalized that not only would they contribute to our overall healthy cooking for the next few weeks, but also double as body conditioning as we lugged them home in addition to our already stuffed backpacks and messenger bags of groceries.

After arriving home, ripping into these culinary “grab bags” proved to be half the fun. We ended up with eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, colorful bell peppers, apples and oranges, and even more surprising, cantaloupe and cauliflower. We realized that it was going to be a fun week in recipe-planning. I was even more excited because it would give me an opportunity to really sell Sarah on the tastiness of eggplant, a veggie that she is less than keen on.

We discovered an Oven-Roasted version of Ratatouille over at Chocolate & Zucchini that sounded perfect for tackling the veggie marathon that we knew we would have this week.

The recipe proved to be a delicious success! Before baking we threw in a huge sprig of fresh rosemary and seasoned further with salt, pepper and some Herbes de Provence (thyme being the dominant flavor). A heavenly aroma filled the apartment when it approached the end of its cooking time, and just as Clotilde described, the amount of liquid left in the baking dish after roasting was not overwhelming to the point of making the dish soggy, but more like a sauce to drizzle over our individual portions.

We paired this Ratatouille with pan-fried flounder fillets and rice pilaf that night, and it truly was a healthy but hearty meal. I can’t wait to enjoy these vegetable leftovers tomorrow!

One year ago: Avocados, Guacamole

Related posts:

1. (Birthday) Chicken Pot Pie

I know, pasta with tomato sauce doesn’t sound very exciting. And it isn’t, usually. But when you match recipes from two of the highest quality food bloggers on the internet today, how can you go wrong? Those were my thoughts exactly.

Let me tell you, this dinner was so far from going wrong, I was asking entirely the wrong question. I underestimated how good both of these recipes would be, probably because of their delightfully simple list of ingredients. The pasta? Just egg and flour, and a dash of salt for the boiling water. The sauce? Canned tomato, onions, and butter. Instead of asking what could go wrong, I should have asked what could be better.

The answer is NOTHING.I expected this dinner to be tasty but it actually blew me away. The sauce, as everyone who writes about it says (but no one seems to believe until they make it) was amazingly sophisticated. I’m not sure if it was the butter or the onion, but it took on the rich taste of a meat sauce but the texture of silk. The pasta was the perfect firmness and held up much better than I ever expected. It held the sauce like it was meant to wear it. It made me wish I never had to make pasta from a box again.

If you’ve ever had the urge to make your own pasta, do it and use the two recipes below:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks!: Homemade pasta

Smitten Kitchen: Tomato sauce with onion and butter

Some recipe notes: I needed a bit more flour for the pasta than the recipe suggested. I suspect this had to do with the fact that the flour was being measured by volume rather than weight. Just keep your flour around until you are sure you don’t need more. For the pasta sauce, I was out of cans of whole tomatoes and only had tomato sauce around. I also diced the onion since I like bits of onion in my sauce. If my sauce was outstanding with those substitutions, I’m pretty sure it can only get better with better ingredients.

One year ago: Tomato Rice Soup

Related posts:

1. Cheesy Macaroni with Baked Acorn Squash and Tomato Sauce
2. Velvet Lemon Pasta Sauce, Revisited
3. Velvet Lemon Mushroom Sauce

This picture would have been discarded if I hadn't noticed a longing face poking in.*

Half sour pickles, sometimes called “new pickles”, weren’t my favorite growing up. They were overlooked in the quest for the most lip-puckering sour garlic pickles. As my taste buds matured, however, I came to appreciate the more delicate saltiness of a good half sour pickle. From what I’ve noticed, half sours are made from very similar recipes to full sours, but are not left to ferment for as long.

After my recurring failure to make a good sour pickle, I experimented with the less intimidating half sour. I used the same recipe I had been tooling with since the summer. The first time I made them, I found the chips to be a little too small, so instead of using Kirby cucumbers the second time, I used some large jersey cucumbers. You could even use a long seedless cucumber (the kind that come in shrink wrap) for nice large sandwich chips.

Half sour pickles in their jar

I found this recipe on the blog Fork This. The procedure is very similar to the Bread and Butter pickles, except that the cucumbers pickle in salt brine rather than vinegar.

Arthur Schwartz’s Homemade Kosher Pickles adapted by David Lebovitz and Melissa Sands, Pickled Cucumber Recipe:

• 2 quarts water
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt – do not substitute table salt or sea salt
• 12-15 Kirby or small cucumbers, cleaned & sliced as desired
• 1 bunch of fresh dill, washed
• 1 teaspoon each: coriander, allspice berries, fennel seeds
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed

In a large pot, heat water with the salt until dissolved.

Sterilize two 1-quart jars by running them through the dishwasher or filling them with boiling water and dumping it out.

Put two or three bushy sprigs of dill into each jar. Pack in the pickles, layering in each jar: 1 1/2 teaspoons spice mix, 2 bay leaves and 2 smashed garlic cloves.

Carefully pour in the brine to cover the cucumbers completely. Cover each jar with cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band or kitchen twine. Store in a cool, dark place for 3-6 days. When they have reached the desired sourness, put on a lid and refrigerate.

Following these directions, you may end up with extra brine, which you can discard or use to pickle something else. I followed the recipe mostly as written, except that I put the jars straight into the refrigerator to keep them from souring deeply. The result was a crisp, light, salty, dilly pickle. They were great on burgers, sandwiches, and just straight from the jar.

*Incidentally, the face pining away for those Kirby cucumber pickle chips (or maybe just the burger underneath them) belongs to the sweet little dog we adopted this summer, also named Kirby.

One year ago: Being Gluten-Free and the Benefits of Whole Grains

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1. Bread and Butter Pickles
2. Brine-less vacuum pickles
3. Lemon Pickles

Hunk of a traditional raclette cheese

While grocery shopping last week, I noticed a wheel of raclette cheese at the cheese counter. The sight of that cheese brought back warm memories of the first time I tasted it, during my time in France, with my host family gathered around the table on a cold winter’s night. The memory of raclette, the meal and the cheese, struck me as a great way to spend the holiday with family.

Raclette is a type of cow’s milk cheese from France and Switzerland. The cheese has a ripe scent and a mild flavor at room temperature. When melted, the scent can be very strong. The flavor also increases, but, if you are put off by strong cheese smells, don’t be in this case: the cheese flavor is subtle and complex when melted, much like other cheeses used for fondue.

Potato and hard sausage for smothering with raclette cheese

Raclette is also the name of a traditional dish of those regions. In sum, the cheese is  melted and scraped onto a plate of cooked potatoes, with cured meats and pickles (like gherkins and capers) on the side. Melting the cheese can be done in a variety of ways – traditionally the round of cheese was placed beside a fire and scraped onto potatoes as the surface melted. A more modern technique includes the use of a raclette party set which is a kind of hotplate that diners can cook foods on top of and melt cheese underneath in an individual non-stick tray (my French host family had one of these).

Slices of raclette prepared for melting

Without a fire or a raclette grill, however, you can just put slices of the cheese on a cookie sheet and heat in a conventional oven at up to 400 degrees. Just watch the cheese and when it is all melted, remove the tray from the oven and slide it over the potatoes, and eat immediately. The cheese will firm back up pretty quickly and while it will still be delicious as it cools, the signature flavor most noticeable when it is freshly melted. After cooking for days, an easy meal of raclette was a great way to get the family around the table without much effort.

Cinnamon bread spreads to the South

Of course, with all the time we saved cooking by making raclette, we decided to whip up a batch of that Chain Letter Cinnamon bread, this time adding some nuts for decoration. We brought a starter with us down to Jen’s southern family and now, since it has split into four new starters, we can safely say that this Amish bread has invaded the South!

One year ago: Syrian Lemon and Olive Chicken

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1. Dilly Potatoes
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The bread that keeps on giving

About six weeks ago, we were gifted a so-called “Amish Cinnamon Bread” yeast starter in a zip-top bag that came along with a somewhat cryptic-sounding recipe. Due to my affinity for baking, I decided to take charge of the project. After waiting ten days and “mushing” the bag everyday, it eventually yielded what it promised – one deliciously moist cake, and four baggies of starter batter for friends.

I couldn’t help but begin to think of this adventure in baking as an edible chain letter, and low and behold, not long after that initial baking and gifting of starters on consenting friends and family, one came back to us last week. After another ten days of mushing and feeding, we had new yeasty, bready cakes to gift on unsuspecting friends. I chose to bake them into two smaller loaves this time, and they came out perfectly sized for holiday gifts.

So now we come to today, where I find myself incubating yet another four baggies of starter, and wondering whether this cake chain will ever end. This time I’ve opted to keep all four for now, and bake up a holiday extravaganza when they are ready. Who knows, I might even smuggle future starters across state lines to give out to my mother and grandmother around the new year.

It makes me wonder where the yeast starter in our original batch came from, and how many batches it had come from before that. How far will our starter’s progeny travel before someone finally gives up and bakes the whole thing? Will you, dear reader, receive one? Or have you already participated in such a “chain cake” before? Have you ever even heard of such a thing?

Edit: This recipe on Foodista is similar to the one we used, though not exactly the same.

One year ago: Spicy Peanut Butter Cookies

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1. Raclette, a lesser-known melted cheese meal