Monthly Archives: October 2012

10.19.12
by

Chicken Cut-up

I am so pleased… I just cut up a chicken. It took about 10 minutes of cutting and several hours of agonizing.

Now, I’ve cut up chickens before. I even took a knife skills class at CUESA. Here’s a picture of a half chicken that I cut up to make Fried Chicken just after I took the class in February, 2011. I wrote a story about it. Well, that was a year-and-a-half ago.

Last week we bought a whole chicken, frozen, from Hadji Paul’s, a chicken and egg guy at our local Garden Shop Nursery Farmers Market. We haven’t yet found reliable, sustainable meat guys, but this guy and his wife are reliable, their eggs are great and they just brought their first meat chickens to Market.

I flashed back to my eats story, The Root of a Stew from just this past April. The recipe calls for 3 leg and thighs, but I figured I could use the legs, thighs and wings of my chicken for this stew.

So I dreamed about cutting up that chicken, and in my dreams, all I remembered was holding up the bird by a wing, turning it a certain way and… and what?

This morning, after my walk and breakfast, I Googled “Cut up a chicken” and found a video from Food Network showing Alex Guarnashelli cutting up a chicken. Looked really easy. I went to the kitchen, got my chicken out of the fridge and everything came back to me, slightly different than the video.

Start with the wing, the way Dave-the-Butcher taught us. Pick up the bird by a wing, turning it a certain way so the weight of the chicken pulls the skin taught and make a cut where the wing meets the breast. Bend back the wing to locate the joint… make a clean cut around the joint and cut the joint.
Do the other wing.

Breast up,
Cut off the thigh and leg… make a cut and bend back so you can see the joint… make a clean cut around the joint and cut the joint.
Cut off the other thigh…
Separate the leg and thigh… make a cut and bend back so you can see the joint… cut cleanly through the joint.

Straighten the skin and plump the bird. Continue reading →

10.16.12
by

We went to a movie and a swell dinner broke out.

Friday afternoon. “Let’s go see Trouble with the Curve.”
Turns out we had waited too long and it was playing in only one Reno Cineplex, the Century 16 Park Lane, south of Downtown, not our regular Riverside on Sierra by the river.

We left early, hoping to find a place for a bite before the film. Yelp said there were a few places nearby. We knew nothing about any of the places mentioned, so we had to go by name and curb appeal. We passed by Lulou’s on Virginia, which looked very modern and colorful, and opted for The Gas Lamp, a homey looking place, just off Virginia.

Wow! What a find. We walked in before the 6:30 end of Happy Hour, and sat at the bar, so all appetizers and drinks were half price. Better yet, the menu was creative and the food delicious; well prepared and presented.

We each ordered two appetizers — not because they were half price, well maybe — they looked great and we weren’t up for actual dinner-dinner.

smoked salmon carpaccio

I started off with the Smoked Salmon Carpaccio, thin slices of smoked salmon garnished with lots of capers and shaved parmesan, just enough to play a supporting role to the salmon. It was dressed with a non-assertive cream dressing. The grilled breads are very thin slices of baguette, “grilled to perfection.” I stretched those lovely things over my entire meal.

small ceasar salad with shrimp

For my second appetizer or first salad, I chose the Small Ceasar Salad and sprung for Shrimp to go with. It is what you think it is, expertly prepared and as Carol said, “They aren’t afraid to let you taste the anchovies.” (C had the small Ceasar as her first course.)

steamed clams

Carol’s ‘main’ appetizer course of Steamed Clams. I always think of steamed clams as “longneck or soft shell clams,” but these were cherrystone (littleneck). C said the juice was divine, and besides using her ample supply of bread, begged for my last piece of grilled bread to soak up the sauce. All in all, an extra-fine pre-film repast.

We’re learning that Reno offers many, many good local restaurants outside the casinos. I suspect we’ll be back to the Gas Light and pay a visit to Lulou’s, as well. Continue reading →

10.04.12
by

Macaroni and Cheese… d’best

Tipsy Pig on Chestnut, San Francisco

I clipped this article as soon as it appeared in the Chronicle and right away, just had to make this mac n cheese. Being a mac n cheese lover, I have many macaroni and cheese recipes from such diverse sources as the NY Times, LA Times, Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Cookbook, and — Praise the Lord — the Annie’s “Shells and Real Aged Cheddar”box.

This is good stuff and plenty easy to make. Here are my Cook’s Notes:

Dis is good and EZ. Made a half-pound of ditalini pasta with 2 cups of cheese sauce, so I’ve got 4 cups of cheese sauce in the fridge/freezer. Used supermarket cheeses. Ground the cheeses in the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment. That is EZ, ‘cept for the clean-up, but still… Served with baby back ribs and a first course of Cook’s Illustrated Cream of Tomato soup. Plenty LO for lunches. Now I’ll have it at Tipsy Pig, see how mine stood up. [Mine stood up well.]

Tipsy Pig Mac n Cheese served at my house with sausage and mashed squash.

And here, I’ll share Michael Bauer’s article (slightly edited):
Why Tipsy Pig’s macaroni and cheese is so good
by Michael Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle’s restaurant critic Sunday, February 7, 2010

One bite of the macaroni and cheese at the Tipsy Pig, and all other versions I’d tasted through the years slipped from my memory. I had found the best.
Why is this version so much better than others I’ve tasted?
I truly wanted to know so I called chef/co-owner Sam Josi, and he shared the recipe, which we tested in The Chronicle’s kitchen. We discovered several elements or “secrets” that set this recipe apart.

cream, pasta, cheeses, butter, flour

Ditalini pasta: These short pasta tubes, often used in soups, capture more of the creamy, cheesy sauce. Make sure the water used to cook the pasta is “salty like the sea,” otherwise the dish may taste flat.
The cheeses: White cheddar adds a sharper high note, Dutch Gouda lends exceptional creaminess, and Shropshire blue has an orange gold color and a sharp tang. Parmesan, sprinkled on at the end, adds a distinct nutty, salty quality that rounds out the blend.
Bacon fat: Many versions garnish with bacon, but using the fat distributes the flavor throughout.
Timing: It’s important to combine the pasta and sauce just before serving. The sauce is simply tossed with the pasta instead of being baked before serving so the dish tastes extra rich and creamy.
Tipsy Pig, which opened a little more than a year ago in the Marina, serves down-home American food, including first-rate pulled pork sliders and chicken pot pie whose puff pastry dome caps rich gravy filled with chunks of white meat, peas, carrots, turnips and other vegetables.
When Josi was conceiving the menu, he knew that macaroni and cheese would have to be on the menu, so the chef started playing with the classic recipe. He remembers making macaroni and cheese in cooking school with a standard bechamel sauce and wondered why he couldn’t substitute bacon fat for butter. He was chastised for the idea and put it away for another day.
Then years later… he concocted a bacon-infused version of macaroni and cheese in individual containers, but it took too long to heat up. When Tipsy Pig opened, he decided to separate the pasta from the sauce and stir them together at the last minute so the dish would be hot and creamy. The combination of cheeses came about partly by chance because the white Cheddar was being used for burgers and he needed Shropshire for its bright yellow color. He ended up with a combination of four cheeses that taste so good together they should be married for life.
So here’s the recipe. If you don’t feel like making the dish at home, you can always make reservations at Tipsy Pig. Continue reading →