Archive for December 29th, 2008

My mom bought be that cult book, The Secret some time ago, and while I tried it for the first 10 pages, it wasn’t my thing. But I have something to tell you: I have a secret of my own.

Roast Chicken

I’ve made roasted chicken before, sure, who hasn’t? It can be good, they say, but it never really won me over. I wasn’t getting what everyone else was. I’d read about putting truffles under the skin, rubbing it down with “good” butter, etc., etc.

Forget that. I’m going to share the secret to delicious roasted chicken.

In the photo above, I have some brussels sprouts and mushrooms going on too, but I’m only going to talk about the chicken.

First, buy a good chicken. I picked up a small one from Bell & Evans. I’ve liked their turkey in the past.

Second, salt the bird. Salt it good with kosher salt. Hours before you ever roast it. It really does make a difference. I’m not talking about brining it, just salt it—inside and out.

Third, roast vegetables with it. Onions, lots of onions. Carrots. What else? Anything you like! Fennel would be great, celery root, potatoes of course, and even parsnips. Go wild or go simple.

Fourth, put the bird on top of the vegetables. Pour melted butter over the chicken. Stuff the cavity with things like lemon, ground pepper, a halved-garlic bulb, and even some herbs.

That’s what got me: I was putting butter on the bird, and under the skin, with it still cold. No no, no bother. Pour it on melted. I even put a split garlic clove in the butter before I microwaved it, so it was really garlic butter.

Fifth, roast it at a medium-high temperature. 450 degrees is good, just watch it, it may need to be covered by foil if it gets too brown.

Sixth, after it’s done (for a small to medium bird, count for 60-90 minutes), pull out the bird, and let all the drippings and juiced go into the pan. Put the pan back into the oven. Add a glug of wine if you want.

After 10-15 minutes, take out the sauce and vegetables. These are delicious! Put them onto a platter. Next, carve your chicken. Nicely put all the parts onto the same platter. Folks at the table can grab the parts they want.

It’s a delicious one-pot meal that you can supplant with good bread, good drink, and you won’t believe how easy it can be!

I’ve been eating at the Full Kee restaurant off West Broad Street here in Richmond now for almost 8.5 years. I’d say I’ve been a loyal customer. I’ve reviewed it plenty, but I feel I have to share details of my last experience there.

See, the Full Kee holds you captive. The relationship has been a little love-hate over the years. You can ween yourself off of their dim sum specialties for so long, then you travel to a far more cosmopolitan city, and eat dim sum there. Whatever good or bad you have, the treats at Full Kee welcome you back. It’s “down home” dim sum, like you have come to appreciate it.

This time around the service took an all-time low. You see, if you go for dinner, service can be lackluster. You just don’t feel like people want you to come back. They probably recognize us, and know we’ll come back. They don’t have to win us over.

So, during a weekday lunch, service was painfully slow. We ordered dim sum items, as there was no cart service. While other tables got served, we kept drinking water and tea. We finally asked. “You ordered so many fried items, it takes longer.”

No, only two, and you can bring out that which gets steamed right away. Okay, I didn’t say that, but I was thinking it strongly.

Finally, the first items come out. Fried shrimp roll (egg roll). Yuck. It was stone cold. I waited for fried items, and it comes out cold? It’s chewy and nasty. Sorry, wouldn’t eat that.

As other items finally came out, the waitress became confused. She was offering our items to other tables. Then she pleaded with us to take a stuffed eggplant plate. “No thanks. Really. Just bring us what we ordered.”

“What was that, again?”

When we left, they did refund us two items that never came out. What a disappointment.

I hate to see places that have the potential to make good food go south with either bad management or bad service. I can’t say that I won’t go back, mind you, but too many more episodes like this, and I won’t have any choice.

Something bad happens when you start to get multiple magazines, new cookbooks, and you can’t remember where you saw that particular recipe.

I picked up some bratwurst sausage today, thinking of a recipe I’d read: it had apples, onions perhaps, not sure what else. So, I created my own recipe. I’ll loosely go over what I did, and what I’d change.

First, I browned some onions in butter. Simple. Wanted them sweet. I added flour to create a thickening roux. I took these off heat, and mixed them with shaved brussels sprouts and sliced apples, not to mention, some shaved radicchio. When the food processor can do all of this, it was no problem.

I of course had added salt and pepper, and garlic, too, when the onions were cooking. I stuffed all of this, a mound of vegetables, the four brats, some cut up mini Yukon Gold potatoes into a baking dish. I added beer. Off into the oven it went.

After an hour, some of the top was carbonized (at 450 degrees), and the taste was a little… sharp with the beer. Okay, so after consulting other recipes, not to mention the original (October 2008, Bon Appetit), here’s what I’d do next time.

• pre-brown the brats in butter.
• only cook the mixture for 30 minutes in the oven (roasting would be the operative word).
• instead of 1.5 bottles of beer, use .5; also use some vegetable or chicken stock to balance the flavors.
• add 3-5 tablespoons of brown sugar
• mix up the types of apple used. I used two, and the amount was fine; but I’d use one that melts and one that’s crisp.
• add some sour component, such as 3-4 tablespoons of cider vinegar.

So many recipes call for sauerkraut; in essence, you want that sour and sweet mixture here too, but not the so, over the top sour component. Cooking your sausage 1/2 way through before hand will ensure proper cooking by the time you take this mixture out. If you left it in any longer, I’d recommend covering it with foil first.

So, more sweet, a little more sour. A little less beer. Still, the combination of textures and flavors was inspiring.