Cast Iron Skillet Chicken

CW and I got cast iron skillets last month - nothing fancy, just the simple pre-seasoned ones they sell at so many stores for around 20 bucks.  I had been wanting one for a while, because so many cooks swear by them when it comes to searing and roasting chicken or fish.  I finally got around to working with it the other night when I made some Skillet Rosemary Chicken from a recipe I found on the Food Network website.

I had a long day at work, so CW was nice enough to go to the store and get the necessary ingredients - some bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, lemons, and sliced mushrooms (she opted for some baby portabellas!).  We have a rosemary bush in the backyard and always have garlic on hand.

Prepping this recipe was super simple, and, unlike many chicken dishes that have a marinade or rub, it does not require much time after rubbing on the rosemary/garlic/red pepper paste.  I was a little doubtful that the flavor would be well imparted to the chicken without a longer marinade time, but the dish turned out super flavorful, with the mushrooms and potatoes absorbing lots of the lemon-herb flavor and chicken juices.  One note, after searing the skin sides of the chicken breasts for about five minutes, I removed the breasts from the skillet and placed the mushrooms and par-boiled red potatoes underneath the chicken, which was returned to the pan skin side up prior to going in the oven.  Once in the oven, I put a meat thermometer with an extension cord into the deep part of the breast and took it out once it read 155 degrees F.  Chicken should be cooked to 165, so I take it out 10 degrees early to account for the continued heat transfer that occurs while the meat is resting.  The cast iron skillet was great for resting the chicken on the stovetop since it retains heat so well and kept the whole dish hot until we were ready to eat!

Early November Turkey Burgers

With Thanksgiving coming up it's time to turn some attention towards the beloved turkey.  While nationally popular come November, turkey, especially in burger form, is a year round staple here at the Impeccable Palate.  Given how often CW and I enjoy turkey burgers at home, I figured it was about time to devote a short column to one of our favorite grilled foods.

Now I love any good burger, but CW does not eat mammals - thus beef is out at our house.  That's why we opt for ground turkey as a burger base.  When shopping, be wary about buying the ultra-lean, 99% fat-free, turkey that is sold.  We have tried that before, and the total absence of fat leads to a dry, less flavorful patty - certainly NOT an impeccable meal!  Most packaged pre-ground turkey meat comes in around at around 7% fat - still pretty lean for an animal product.  Packs are usually 20 ounces of meat, which makes 4-5 good sized burgers.

When making my turkey burgers, I always season the ground meat prior to shaping the patties, to ensure flavor throughout the body of the burger.  My standard is a few pinches of kosher salt, 2-3 teaspoons of ground sage, a few shakes of garlic powder, some ground pepper, and about a half cup of panko breadcrumbs.  If you don't like sage, you can use a different herb, or no herbs of you prefer.  Sometimes I'll add in a tablespoon or so of soy sauce or Worchestire sauce to enhance the flavor.  Keep in mind though that adding wet flavoring agents will make the uncooked patty more wet, which may result in a burger that doesn't hold its shape very well.  For this meal, I did not use any sauces, but did add in about a teaspoon of ground cumin, to add a different flavor and hopefully some warm depth to the final product.

Uncooked Burgers - note indentations in centers!

Once all the seasonings are added, I mix the meat thoroughly.  Then I form patties with my hands.  From experience, I know that burgers puff up in the middle when they cook, so I make a little indentation with a finger in the middle of my patties.  Once they are made I put them in the fridge for about half an hour to set, which helps them maintain their shape better when grilling.

While the burger patties were in the fridge, I prepped my salad and side dish for the night.  As a side, CW and I chose to grill up some broccoli, which takes on a great charred caramelized flavor when grilled.  Seasoning was simple: I just cut the broccoli into long pieces (preserving most of the stalks - the larger pieces make for easier grilling, and stalks have a lot of flavor and nutrition) and toss them with olive oil, kosher salt, and ground pepper.  This time i added a pinch of dried red pepper too, for a little heat.

Mixed Greens with Grapes and Feta Cheese

For the salad I rummaged in the fridge and found some grapes.  I had a bag of mixed greens so threw those together with sliced grapes and some feta cheese, hoping that the salty cheese would offset the sweetness of the grapes.  For a dressing, I took some Huckleberry liqueur (which I had purchased on a whim since it was on sale) and made a vinaigrette from it, along with some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.  It came out surprisingly well, though I had to stir the dressing very vigorously to combine the liqueur with the oil. 

Plated Turkey Burger with grilled Broccoli

When it came time to grill the burgers, I pre-heated my grill on medium for about 15 minutes.  The grill should be nice and hot to develop a good sear on the meat.  I put the burgers and broccoli on the grill.  The broccoli crowns will start to char before the stalks, so you need to keep a close eye on them and turn them before any part gets to burnt.  Once the broccoli has a bit of char all around, I reduce the heat on that part of the grill to avoid any further burning.  As for the turkey burgers, 5 ounce patties usually get about 5 minutes per side or so.  It's important to cook poultry through, to a temperature of at least 165 F in the middle, since it can harbor salmonella.  With about 2-3 minutes of cooking time left, I added some thinly sliced cheddar cheese to the burgers and closed the grill cover to keep the heat in and melt the cheese.  While the burgers were cooking, I also had some thickly sliced Roma tomatoes charring on the grill.  I leave these on until they are a tad blackened on each side, then remove them from direct heat.  They are used to top the burger later.  Finally, I gave a couple of whole grain English muffins a few minutes on the grill to serve as a nice toasted bun for our meal.

Beckmen 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

We enjoyed the burgers with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from one of our favorite wineries in Santa Barbera county, Beckmen.  If you ever find yourself exploring the wine country near Los Olivos, their tasting room is worth a visit.  It is small and unpretentious, with some really nice wines.  We especially enjoy the Grenache and Cuvee le Bec, which are fruit forward with excellent aromas!

Quick Pasta Saturday

Lemon Pappardelle with Tomato, Basil and Shrimp

Had a nice day yesterday playing golf in the morning and then running errands and ding some stuff around the house with CW in the afternoon.  While out buying light bulbs (yes, it was that kind of riveting afternoon!) we decided that we'd dine in and have some wine to relax after a busy day.  CW had recently bought some lemon-pepper pappardelle at Trader Joe's and I suggested a "fresh pasta dish" incorporated it.  When asked what I meant by fresh, I said veggies and shrimp (which we had in the freezer).  CW, always on the culinary ball, suggested tomatoes and basil to go along with the pasta, and off to the market we went.

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

In addition to tomatoes and basil, we also picked up some mixed greens and avocado for a salad.  We had a pink grapefruit at home already so a salad of greens, sliced avocado, and grapefruit was born.  Citrus and avocado is a salad combination made locally famous in CW's family, so this certainly was not a creative stretch on our part, but it is a great flavor match nonetheless.  The acidity of citrus juices cuts the creamy richness of avocado nicely.  We tossed it with a simple dressing of grapefruit juice, olive oil, and champagne and balsamic vinegars.  It was pretty tasty as is, but did benefit from a bit of added sea salt - which got me thinking.... they must put a lot of salt in commercial salad dressings.  Anyway, it was a salad that both tasted and looked great.  Also, it was made entirely by CW - so she gets the credit for the way it looks!

Grated garlic on the really cool garlic grating dish my friend gave me!

The Raw Veggies

Moving on to the main course, I decided to build a sauce around some softened diced onion, tomato, garlic, and white wine.  First, I prepped all the veggies - dicing the onion and tomatoes, grating the garlic, and giving the basil a rough chop.  I also had my shrimp defrosting during this time.  To quickly defrost shrimp, a good method is putting the frozen shrimp in a zip-lock bag with warm (not hot) water and letting it sit in the sink while you do your other prep work.  This usually will defrost shrimp in about 20 minutes and does not risk starting to cook the shrimp like microwave defrosting can do.  After defrosting this way, it's important to dry them with a paper towel so they are not to wet when go to cook them, especially if searing, since a dry surface with sear better then a wet protein.

After prepping, I sauteed the onions in olive oil over medium heat until they were translucent and starting to brown a bit.  Then I deglazed the pan with white wine and added in my diced tomatoes and garlic and continued to cook over low heat.  Finally, I added the thawed shrimp to the mix and cooked it all over low heat, so as not to dry out the shrimp, and to allow all the flavors to meld.  I also snuck in a pat of butter at this point to add a bit of richness.

Shrimp Cooking with Tomatoes and Onions

 While all this was going on, my lemon pappardelle was cooking in a pot of salted boiling water.  I cooked it a minute less than the package instructions because I planned on adding the pasta to my sauce pan, where it would inevitably continue to cook a bit.  Once the pasta was almost done, I transferred it to the sauce pan with tongs.  I didn't strain it first, but instead used the tongs so that the noodles would be wet - the pasta cooking water has lots of starch in it and that helps thicken the sauce and get all the flavors inter-mingled.  To the pasta I added the chopped basil and another pat of butter. Then I tossed the whole thing to coat the pasta and get all that basil stirred in.

Close-up with Cheese and Black Pepper

When all was done, I topped the servings with some shaved grana padano cheese and a bit of fresh black pepper.  It turned out to be a very delicious pasta dinner.  The pasta itself has a great lemon flavor, so I am glad I didn't add more lemon juice... which I had considered.

CW and I enjoyed the meal with a bottle of pinot gris from the Anne Amie winery in Oregon - see my blog entry for details on that fine place.

That's all for now - hope everyone had a great weekend!

As Served to CW!

Sweet Potato Madness Part II - Finally

Finally getting around to writing about the second night of Sweet Potato Madness week - a once ever event inspired by CW's purchase of like 5 pounds of sweet potatoes.  After the sweetly successful chicken and sweet potato bake, I was eager to do something different with the remaining potatoes.  I have made delicious butternut squash soups in the past, and the color and sweetness of the potatoes reminded me of that, inspiring me to find a soup recipe! 

So many of my searches lead me to allrecipes.com, and indeed it was there that I found a recipe for Harvest Sweet Potato Soup.  The recipe is very simple and easy to execute, but I had plans to jazz things up a bit with some crab meat and fresh corn, making a hearty meal of it.

Canned Crab Meat

Off to the store I went in search of lump crab meat.  I started at a high quality meat and seafood purveyor called Iowa Meat Farms.  I had previously bought some chicken and flank steaks there that had been excellent.  The store makes a point of sourcing their products from humanely and sustainably raised/caught sources, which has become more important to us as we've learned more about food production.  They did not have any fresh crab, but carried a canned pasteurized crab meat from Trade Winds.  In many cases, a high quality canned crab can be fresher than a supposedly "fresh" product - some of which are treated with preservatives to keep color or prevent contamination.  Reading the can, I learned that this crab meat is cooked right after capture, picked over, canned and pasteurized very quickly, and always refrigerated thereafter - resulting in a crab with minimal intervention and consequently a fresh, unaltered flavor.    The can also had a crab cake recipe on the back, (spoiler alert!), which would come in handy for the evening's appetizer.

After obtaining my crab meat, I stopped by the regular grocery store to pick up a couple of ears of corn and some fresh basil, which I was substituting for the dried basil the recipe calls for.  Then it was back to the kitchen for preppin' time.

Base Veggies

 At left you'll see the base veggies for the soup: 2 ears of cornm 2 onions, 2 celery stalks, and our remaining sweet potatoes (five of them).  The onions were diced, celery chopped into small pieces, and the sweet potatoes peeled.

After peeling, the sweet potatoes were diced .

Peeled Sweet Potatoes

The prepared vegetables were sauteed all together in a large pot to cook the onions through and soften the potatoes.  Then the stock was added along with the bay leaves and some cinnamon and allspice (LBW spontaneous additions!) to add depth of flavor.  This was brought to a boil and covered to simmer for 15-20 minutes, to get the potatoes very soft and ready for pureeing.

Simmering Stock and Potatoes

Once the potatoes were very soft I added in the fresh basil and transferred the whole pot to the food processor and pureed it until smooth.


The pureed soup was returned to the pot, and I added in the corn, which had been cut from the cobs.  This was left on low heat until service - plenty of time to cook the corn through.




A couple of cups of the pureed soup was put aside in a smaller pot with 8 ounces of the crab meat.  This would allow that crab meat to be brought up to serving temperature without being overly diluted by the huge pot of soup.  The crab would be added on top of the soup bowl when served, so that both CW and I would get a good portion of crab!

With Basil, before Pureeing

Fresh Corn

So the soup was done, but I had one more surprise up my sleeve.  While prepping the sweet potatoes I used by serrated peeler to cut some shoestring strips, which I wanted to deep fry into thin fries as a garnish to the soup.  I filled a pot with a couple cups of canola oil and put it over medium high heat.  I had no idea how hot the oil should be, and I don't own an oil thermometer - a purchase I would now recommend for anyone interested in deep frying at home.  My first batch of shoestring sweet potatoes was burnt to a crisp - but after lowering my heat, I was able to produce a passable looking bunch of sweet potato strips to garnish the soup with.

Take 2 - fried Sweet Potato Strings!

Burnt sweet potato strips

Sweet Potato Corn Soup with Crab Meat, Sweet Potato Shoestrings, and Fresh Basil

There you have it!  The completed soup with garnishes.  This was a very tasty meal, and a special treat for CW, who came home to a table set with candles.  Also, you may notice the soup bowl is china - the first time it has been used in three-plus years.  Sometimes you just need to make a random night special - otherwise china would never be used and registries never justified. 

Ah!  Almost forgot to mention the crab cake appetizer I made - as inspired by the recipe on the side of the can.  By now the can is recycled and I cannot find the recipe online, but I will try and remember it the best I can:

- 16 ounces crab meat

- one egg beaten

- 8 saltine crackers, crushed

- Old Bay Seasoning (forget how much - about 1 teaspoon)

- Dijon Mustard (again not sure how much - maybe 1 tablespoon)

- 1 Tablespoon Mayo

- Dash of Hot Sauce or Crushed Black pepper if you like some heat

Just take all the ingredients and mix them together thoroughly in a bowl - then form into 4-6 patties and refrigerate to firm them up (I put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes on a greased baking sheet) so they don't lose their shape when cooking.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet and sautee the cakes until browned on each side (about 4 minutes per side).  Then place aside on paper towels to cook and serve with a lemon wedge.


I opted to serve the crab cake over a mixed-greens salad along with the lemon wedge.  The cake was incredibly flavorful given the simplicity and ease of the recipe.  It was a delicious, random, special night at home.

 That wraps up this entry.  Check back soon for more, including swordfish skewers, roast chicken breasts, and Asian stir-fry!  I will also eventually finish off my Portland Eats! series with days 3 and 4 of that trip. Thanks for your patience and viewership.

Sweet Potato Madness! (Part I)

My wife, the lovely CW, bought a big bag of sweet potatoes late last week.  After a weekend of parties and lazy meals, the challenge before me come Monday was clear: use those sweet potatoes before they, a) went bad or b) we forgot about them!

I am a late convert to sweet potatoes.  Growing up, the only exposure to them that I had was at Thanksgiving, when they were invariably prepared with marshmallows, adding sweetness to sweetness.  As mentioned by CW in her first entry to this blog, I am a savory guy at mealtime, and never enjoyed such a sweet side dish.  Luckily, over the past several years I have eaten sweet potatoes in different "non-sweet" preparations (starting of course with the ever-friendly French Fry) and grown to like them a lot.

I knew that I wanted to use our sweet potatoes over the course of 2 dinners (we had at least 3-4 pounds), and that one of them would be a soup.  On Monday I had a full day of work and knew that I didn't want to deal with a long-cooking soup - so I searched around and came up with a recipe for a Chicken and Sweet Potato Bake.  The recipe calls for using chicken breasts on the bone, but I bought some boneless breasts because the store I was in only had Jumbo packs of bone-in breasts, and I was only cooking for two.  That said, I decided that I would alter the recipe a bit so as not to overcook the chicken too badly.

Cooking Down Sweet Potato and Apples

First thing I did was to prep the potatoes, onion, and apples (I used 2 green apples).  I sauteed these in a Dutch oven on the stovetop.  The potatoes went in first (longest cook time), followed by the onions and the diced apple.  The spices were added to this mixture, along with a pinch of salt and some pepper.   Once the potatoes started to soften, I poured in a quarter cup of brandy and about a half cup of low-sodium chicken stock to barely cover the veggies and add some moisture in preparation for the chicken breasts, which had been seasoned with some spice rub that was left over from some flank steaks over the summer.  The rub ingredients are to the right of the chicken picture.

Spice Rub

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The rubbed chicken breasts were added to the pot, and then transferred, covered, to the oven at 350 degrees.  



Since I was using boneless chicken I dropped my cooking time from the 45 minutes in the recipe to 25 - 30 minutes, so as not to dry out the bird too much.  While the dish roasted, I prepared a side dish of some sauteed red chard with garlic and olive oil.  Chard is a bitter leafy green that I find delicious with some oil, garlic and salt.  I thought the bitter salty chard would balance the sweetness of the potatoes and apples nicely.  Chard has thick stems, which are perfectly edible (and yummy), but need to be cut off and cooked longer than the more delicate leaves.  The greens were simply sauteed in olive oil over medium heat with some garlic and salt,

After 25 minutes I took my pot out of the oven and checked the chicken - it was cooked through (white throughout, no pink spots, clear juices).  I plated the meal in shallow wide bowls since there is a lot of juice from the broth and apples.  The chard was served alongside.

Unfortunately, the chicken, while not very dry, was cooked a couple of minutes too long, and could have been more moist.  Also, by roasting the chicken in the pot with all that broth, much of the rub washed off the bird and into the surrounding liquid.  Overall however, the flavors of the dish were excellent, with the cinnamon and nutmeg melding nicely with the sweetness from the apples and sweet potatoes.  The chard, with its bitter saltiness, proved an excellent counterpoint to the rest of the dish. 

Should I make this again I would try and get bone-in chicken, and maybe pan-sear the bird first to lock in the juices a bit better.  If using boneless breasts, I would certainly do a quick sear on the stovetop, and then finish in the oven at a lower temperature, taking frequent temperatures so as not to overcook the meat at all.  Live, cook, and learn!

The meal was enjoyed with a bottle of Anne Amie pinot noir, purchased on our recent trip to Oregon.  The wine was delicious with this dish - the light bodied fruity red cutting through the dish's sweetness and leaving the palate satisfied and refreshed.  My only regret is that it was our only bottle :(

So there you have it - part one of Sweet Potato Madness.  No promises as to when Part II: THE SOUP, will arrive, but I hope to have it written by the weekend.

Fresh Lemon Pepper Linguini with Broccoli

Yesterday I had to go to jury duty in downtown San Diego.  Fortunately, I was relieved around 2:30 PM and was not assigned to a case... so I could turn my attention to more pressing matters, like planning our next meal.  Due to a lack of parking at the courthouse, CW had dropped me off in the morning, so I had time to walk over to India Street, site of San Diego's Little Italy district, while I waited for CW to come and pick me up.

I had read and heard great things about Assenti's Pasta, a grocery shop that makes pasta fresh in-house and also carries lots of Italian cheeses, oils, canned tomatoes, and other imported food products.  We love fresh pasta here at the impeccable palate, so I decided to see what was available.  They carry quite the range, from simple linguini, penne, and shells, to flavored pasta, like spinach fettuccini and squid ink linguini.  What caught my eye was a lemon-pepper linguini.  I picked some along with some fresh grana padano cheese for grating.

From prior experience, I have learned that when using flavored pasta, it is best not to use any sauce that will compete or overpower the pasta itself.  Thus, I planned to keep this dish simple, with a sauce based on olive oil, butter, garlic, and a little white wine.  For some nutrition and color I would add a generous amount of chopped sauteed broccoli.

Diced Leek

To build my sauce base I heated some olive oil in a sautee pan over medium heat.  Once the oil was hot I added in a diced leek and cooked that until it was soft and starting to brown a little (about 5 minutes).  Then I added 4 cloves of minced garlic, 2 pats of butter, and the chopped broccoli and stirred it all together.  The pan was deglazed with some white wine and covered over low-medium heat to cook the broccoli through.

Sauteeing the Broccoli

Fresh lemon-pepper linguini

While the broccoli was cooking, I turned to the pasta.  Fresh pasta is soft and needs only 3 minutes or so to cook.  I already had a pot of salted boiling water on the stovetop, so I tossed in the linguini for 3 minutes and then strained it through a colander and transferred it to a large mixing bowl, along with a tablespoon of olive oil and 2 pats of butter.  The pasta was tossed with the oil, butter, and the fresh squeezed juice of half a lemon.  Finally, a half cup of the pasta cooking water was added to the broccoli pan and the broccoli, leek and garlic sauce was poured over the pasta and tossed to combine.

Tossed Linguini with broccoli and sauce

One note before I continue - I mentioned that I added a half cup of the pasta cooking water to the broccoli.  Prior to cooking pasta, I always add a generous pinch of salt to the water. This does 2 things - it adds flavor into the pasta (which absorbs water as it cooks) and also raises the boiling point of water, leading to faster cooking time.  Once the pasta has been cooked, the water is still salty, but also has some of the starch and flavor from the pasta imparted to it.  The starchy, salty water is a good additive to a pan sauce, providing moisture, flavor, and a vehicle to carry all the flavor (leeks, garlic, etc.) from the sauce pan to the pasta.  Without the added liquid, much of those tasty morsels would be left behind, stuck to the sautee pan.

Here is a picture of the plated dish, complete with fresh grated grana padano cheese.  This came out tasting quite good.  The pasta itself had a great lemon flavor, accented perfectly by the additional squeeze of lemon juice.  As for spice, the meal is quite mild and the pasta and broccoli were not overwhelmed by the leek or garlic, which had been cooked long enough to be more sweet than pungent.  I ended up added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes for some added heat, but CW loved it as it was.  Between the generously salted pasta cooking water and the cheese, we did not need to add any additional salt either!


Summation of the recipe (serves 2):

- 2/3 pound fresh lemon-pepper linguini (if using plain linguini, add more fresh lemon juice, to taste)
- one chopped medium leek (pale green/white part only, end removed)
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 4 pats of butter
- olive oil
- 1/4 cup white wine
- kosher salt
- broccoli crown, chopped
- cheese for grating

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add generous pinch of salt

2. Heat tablespoon olive oil in sturdy sautee pan

3. Add leek and a pinch of salt to hot oil and stir until translucent and soft, about 3-5 minutes. Next, add in garlic, 2 pats of butter, the broccoli and a pinch of kosher salt.  Stir to combine, deglaze with white wine, cover and cook over low heat for duration.

4. Add pasta to boiling water and stir to prevent sticking.  Stir every minute or so until cook time reached (cook time will be much longer if using dry pasta - see directions on package).  Do not overcook, as pasta continues to cook a bit after removed from the water.

5. Strain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.  Add pasta to large bowl with 1 tablspoon olive oil and 2 pats of butter - mix to melt butter and fully coat pasta.

6. Add reserved cooking water to the broccoli/leek pan and stir to get all bits from the sides.  Pour broccoli/sauce mixture over pasta in bowl and toss to combine.

7.  Plate and top with fresh grated cheese.  Add red pepper to taste if desired.

8. Enjoy with your favorite beverage! 

Impromptu Chicken Stew

This past Friday, CW and I found ourselves with one of those afternoons where we had no idea when we would eat, nor what we would eat.  All I did know was that CW was working late and did not want to go out.  I poked around the kitchen and found a bag of carrots, some old (almost dead) celery, and the usual canned stuff in the pantry (beans, pasta, soups, etc.).  Realizing that the carrots and celery were not long for this world, I decided to make something with a classic mirepoix - all I would need was an onion, a protein, and seasoning.

Mirepoix Vegetables

Mirepoix is a French term, and refers to the combination of carrots, celery and onion, sauteed to create a flavor base for sauteeing, braising, or roasting, a protein.  The first thing that came to mind thinking of this French combo was coq au vin - or chicken with wine.  Normally, this can be a heavy dish, with lots of butter, red wine, bacon, and potatoes.  CW does not dine on swine, so I knew bacon would be omitted.  Also, we don't like too much cream or butter, so my plan was more of a broth-based chicken braise or stew.  So off to the store I went, where I bought a half-chicken, some potatoes, and some white mushrooms (to add a little more bulk and earthiness to the dish).

Searing Chicken Pieces

The first thing I needed to do was cut up my chicken and sear it off in my Dutch oven. By searing the chicken prior to adding my aromatic veggies, I can ensure to have that good skin/fat chicken flavor as part of the dish base.  After cleaning and drying the chicken, I dredged it in some flour mixed with dried sage, chili powder, and kosher salt, and gave it a sear in some canola oil.

Seared Chicken

While the chicken was searing away I prepped the carrots, onions, and celery for the mirepoix.  I gave them all a fine chop and then finished searing the chicken until browned all around, but not cooked through (they finish cooking with the veggies and broth over a low simmer later).  Once seared, the chicken was removed and set aside.

Sautee the Veggies and Potatoes

Next step was to put my aromatic vegetables and potatoes in the pan that the chicken had been seared in.  It is important to use the same pot, so that all that fat and flavor from the chicken is not thrown away, but instead becomes part of the cooking liquid.  To the above I added a few cloves of minced garlic, dried thyme and tarragon, and two bay leaves.

All together simmering

Once the veggies and potatoes had been sauteed several minutes, I deglazed the pan with some white wine, stirred a couple more minutes and then added the chicken pieces back in and covered them with some low-sodium chicken stock and the sliced mushrooms.  This mixture was brought to a gentle boil, the heat was lowered, and the Dutch oven covered and allowed to simmer for 40 minutes or so.  Keeping the pot covered prevents steam and moisture from escaping the pot, thus keeping in flavor and preventing the chicken from drying out - the latter goal is also helped by cooking at a low simmer, which prevents the meat from overcooking and getting tough. 

Plated Chicken Stew

When the potatoes and carrots are fork-tender, the heat can be put down to a minimum, and the dish can sit there staying warm until your guest (in this case the hard-working CW) is ready to dine!  This makes a stew or braise a great dish for parties or other events where the cook may want to be socializing and doing other things prior to serving the meal.  Another benefit of slow, low heat cooking, is that the duration of the process gives ample time for all the various flavors to meld and makes for a very tasty meal!  It is likely that you may have leftover broth and veggies after all the chicken has been eaten with a meal like this.  Don't fret, this can be used as a tasty sauce for some rice, pasta, or potatoes on another night!


Now, a hearty meal like this would not have been complete without a good beverage to go with it.  I enjoyed a Stone Belgian style IPA that I had been saving to drink with a meal worthy of such a brew.  It was a match made to be - in the messy, chaotic kitchen of the impeccable palate.

Portland Eats! Day 2

Our second day in Portland was our wine-tasting trip to the Willamette Valley.  We woke early, got a quick breakfast and coffee and hit the road to travel to our first destination, Brick House Vineyards, located in the town of Newberg, about an hour southwest of Portland.  This is a small winery, producing wines from Chardonnay, Gamay, and, of course (being Oregon), Pinot Noir grapes.  Tastings here are by appointment only in the morning and we were lucky enough to score one with only 2 days notice.  Arriving, one is greeted with a gravelly drive which ends at a picturesque brick house and a large wood barn, which serves as the wine making and storage facility.

The "Wine Barn" at Brick House Vineyards

We were about a half hour early for our appointment, but Steve, our host and tasting guide, was very laid back and began our experience early.  We first took a stroll in the vineyard and saw the ripening clusters of pinot noir grapes on the vines.  This has been a cool summer for Oregon and the harvest is going to be late this year, which is tense situation for winemakers in the region.  You see, they have to balance between the fruits being mature enough to have sufficient flavor and sugar, and the start of the rainy season. If it rains too much before the grapes are harvested, the grapes can puff up with water, losing flavor potency, or even burst, rendering them useless.  Let's hope that everything works out, because the wines in this region are awesome, and the people we met were all super nice!

Barrel Room at Brick House Vineyards

After learning a bit about winemaking and weather, Steve brought us inside to see the barrel room.  For the pinot noir, they use new French Oak, while for the Chardonnay, neutral oak is used.  After a couple of years, oak barrels lose their "potency" and no longer impart much of a woody flavor to the wine. - this is how neutral oak barrels come to be.  It was explained that they use neutral oak on their Chardonnay so that the fruit is not overwhelmed by the oak (certainly a problem that you will encounter with many Chardonnays around the country).   Our tasting experience consisted of the Chardonnay, and 2 pinot noirs.  The Chardonnay was the highlight for CW and me.  We have found ourselves the past few years moving away from Chardonnay precisely because of the aforementioned "over-Oaky" problem that many can suffer from.  But this white was delicious, with tons of fruit and floral aroma, and a smooth, buttery finish, without any biting oak notes.  We learned that the buttery finish some Chardonnays have is due to malolactic fermentation in the barrel.  In this process, tart malic acid is converted to softer, smoother lactic acid in the barrel, resulting in a smoother tasting wine.  This process does not occur as readily in stainless steel barrels, explaining why non-oaked wines are often more tart with green apple notes.

OK, science lesson over.  The Chardonnay was fantastic, one of our favorites in quite some time.  The pinot noirs were good too, though not as full and fruit-forward as someone from California is used to tasting.  While they had an amazingly fruity aroma, the reds started out a little bit tart before opening up to lingering fruit flavors.  I think they may benefit from a bit of aging or decanting before they are optimal for this particular impeccable palate.  We ordered a half case to be shipped: 4 Chardonnay and 2 pinot noir.  Can't wait!  We thanked Steve for the great experience and hit the road to Winderlea, which was recommended while at Brick House.

Vineyards at Winderlea

Driving to Winderlea, one crests a hill that looks out over miles of vineyard with Mount Hood in the distance.  It is a postcard-like vista, but alas a short-lived one, as I missed the opportunity to stop the car and get a good shot of it.  But photography was not the primary concern on this day.  No, my friends, it was tasting good wine.  And in this regard, Winderlea did not disappoint.  Here, we tasted a Chardonnay, which was excellent, and several pinot noirs from 2007 -  2009.  All were delicious, though I lack the recall to describe specifics on any given bottle.  In the end, we purchased a 2007 Estate Pinot Noir.  The pinot at Winderlea was softer and more "easy drinking" that then ones at Brick House had been.  Please keep in mind, this is not in any way saying one is better than the other.  I am no authority on wine, and can just relate that which is pleasing to me and CW.

At Winderlea I had begun sharing some of my tastes with CW, who was not driving.  Consequently, she was in need of a bit of a break after Winderlea and we drove to the town of McMinnville (which Steve had recommended as a lunch destination) for some food.  After walking around the main drag a bit we decided to eat at Bistro Maison, a cute French restaurant with outdoor seating so that we could enjoy the beautiful day.  CW got a chicken salad with greens, dried cherries, and roasted beets, and I ordered the pasta of the day, which was penne with house-cured salmon and a cream sauce.  Both were delicious.  My pasta had tons of salmon, and the cream sauce was flavorful without being too heavy.  The cured salmon pieces cut the cream nicely, and were not so salty as to hide the flavor of the fish.  CW's dish was special - I couldn't believe the size of the grilled chicken breast on atop the salad.  The dried cherries and beets offered a great sweet contrast with the savory chicken.  We were happy, we were full, and we were ready to resume drinking wine!

Chicken Salad with Beets and Dried Cherries

Penne with Cured Salmon and Cream Sauce

View at Anne Amie

While eating lunch, our waitress had recommended a winery called Anne Amie, which would be very close to Soter Vineyards, where we had a 4:30 tasting appointment.  Anne Amie, while a delightful name, also is a delightful place to visit.  The grounds are beautiful, with stunning views all around.  The tasting room is spacious and bright, and the wines are good, particularly the whites.  The pinot noir was very good here as well, but the whites are memorable in that they were quite unique.  We first tasted their Riesling, which was bright and flavorful, but not sweet, like so many Rieslings can be.  Then we moved on the Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris (which I believe is the same as the Italian pinot grigio grape).  One of those two, the Pinot Gris, I think, had an unusual off-white color - kind of like a hint of rose without being a rose wine.  I commented on this and was told that the skins of the grape are allowed to stay on a day longer than with normal white wines, lending a hint of color to the wine.  Both these white pinot varietals were crisp, floral and fruity, without being too sweet.   We ended up getting a six pack of mixed whites shipped to our home!  Gotta start emptying our wine fridge to make some room - shouldn't be a problem.

Views from Soter Driveway

Our last stop of the day was Soter Vineyards.  I had learned of this winery just the day before, as it was written up as the producer of one of the top 50 pinot noirs in Oregon.  We were lucky in that the folks at Brick House Vineyards had been able to call over to Soter and arrange for a 4:30 tasting appointment.  It is appointment only at this beautiful winery, but there is no tasting fee!  Once we found the entrance (it is just a small address sign next to a long gravel drive), we were rewarded with a picturesque drive up to the winery.

Soter Tasting Room

The tasting room is idyllic; it's a modern barn-like building on a hilltop with great vistas all around.  We later learned that this space also serves as a second home to the Soter family.  The building has a huge great room, with garage doors open on either side, so that you get a fresh cross breeze and natural light as you enjoy the tasting experience.

Big Mac!

Inside the Soter Tasting Room

Before we got inside, CW and I were greeted by Courtney, Soter's hospitality director, and her dog, Big Mac!  She welcomed us with a glass of their Brut Rose sparkling wine.  Pink in color and dry in flavor, this was a refreshing way to begin our last tasting of the day.  We sipped our sparkling wine and explored the grounds while waiting for the rest of the 4:30 guests to arrive.  Once everyone was there, we gathered at the table in the photo and tried 3 more wines: The 2008 North Valley Pinot Noir, the 2009 Mineral Springs Ranch (an estate bottling) Pinot Noir, and the 2009 Mineral Springs Ranch "White Label" Pinot Noir (a reserve bottling, with the best grapes on the estate).  All were delicious, easy drinking, full of flavor, and not too tart.  The "White Label" pinot noir was incredible, but also retails for $85.  We ended up buying three bottles of the less expensive North Valley pinot noir - one 2008, which we had tasted, and 2 bottles of the 2009, which was the vintage that ranked # 23 in Portland Monthly magazine's top 50 Oregon red wines for 2011.  Being a younger wine, we plan to drink those sometime next year, and enjoy the 2008 sooner.

Salad of Cannellini Beans and Albacore Conserva

After wrapping things up at Soter, CW and I hit the road for the hour long drive back to Portland.  Earlier in the day, we had secured a dinner reservation at Nostrana, a casual Italian place that has some great reviews and whose chef, Cathy Whims, was a finalist for a 2011 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest.  The menu is very simple here, focusing on wood-fired pizzas, simple house-made pastas, and a handful of meat dishes each day.  We had heard raves about the pizza so decided to split a pie and an appetizer.  For the starter, we chose the Salad of cannellini beans and albacore conserva.  Conserva refers to a preserving technique - fresh tuna is poached in olive oil or water and sealed with aromatics and seasonings in a jar of olive oil.  The tuna was tossed with melt-in-your-mouth creamy white beans and accompanied by pickled carrots and celery, red onions, cauliflower, and a tangy lemon-based dressing.  The dish was extremely fresh and inviting - the lemon dressing giving a puckering tang that was balanced by the smooth, buttery cannellini beans and excellent olive oil.

Funghi Verde Pizza

Our appetites whetted by the yummy salad, CW and I were ready for the main course: the Funghi verde pizza.  This pie features shitake mushrooms, house made mozzarella, garlic, arugula, pecorino sardo, and lemon oil.  One funny thing that we immediately noticed was that the pizza came unsliced, with a metal pizza scissor to cut it with!  This was a bit unwieldy until a couple of pieces had been removed, but I learned that pizzas are traditionally served uncut in Italy, so who am I to complain?  This pizza was incredible!  The crust was perfectly light without being too crispy, and the combination of savory cheese, earthy mushroom, peppery arugula, and lemon oil was so unique and delicious.  I never would have imagined a role for lemon on a pizza, but it worked extremely well with the arugula.  And the shaved pecorino sardo on top.... divine.  The size of the pizza was generous, especially considering it is priced at $13 and uses extremely fresh ingredients.  Try as we did, CW and I could not eat the whole thing.  But I did make sure to get every last bit of cheese and arugula off the leftover piece and pile it onto the last slice I did eat - the flavors were so good it would have been sad not to.

Sated and exhausted, we headed back to the hotel and turned in.  Needed to get some rest for a day of beer tasting and more food in the morning!