I've mentioned a time or two that this is the first time Dancing in Socks Guy and I have ever lived with a romantic partner. We've both had roommates in the past, but the obvious aside, there's a world of difference between living with the love of your life and with someone you found on Craigslist.
One minor area of concern for me was cooking. For a variety of reasons, mainly our love of eating out, up until now neither of us has ever truly cooked an entire meal for the other. Breakfast, quick stuff, yes. A main dish and sides? No.
I adore cooking, and I was a little worried that he'd basically hate the way I cook. Food preferences are so highly individual, and while neither of us is particularly fussy, I'm pretty adventurous and I was afraid he might not appreciate some of my more ambitious flights of culinary fancy.
So far, so good. He liked my spaghetti sauce, though it's more subtly flavored and a lot more labor intensive than the way he makes it. As an added bonus, I introduced him to the joys of Dreamfields Pasta, which he now loves. He was a little leery of my steak marinade, based on the Eades recipe of an overnight bath in a marinade of olive oil and red wine, but raved about it for days.
Tonight was the biggest test -- whether or not he would like my brined chicken. Brining, for those who don't know, is a technique in which you place poultry in a brine solution for a period of time (how long depends on what you're making). Via osmosis, the brine solution permeates the meat, flavoring it and making it incredibly juicy. The basic brine is about 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water (one gallon is plenty for a small chicken) and you can add whatever you like to the brine to flavor it -- with the caveat that your flavoring needs to be water-soluble to work.
Dancing in Socks Guy loves me, but he did look at me cross-eyed when I soaked a perfectly good chicken in a salt water bath, then proceeded to cut up some oranges and lemons, combined it with grapes, scallions, a garlic clove or two, seasoned it with cracked black pepper and shoved it all up the chicken's cavity. This is based on a method of cooking chicken my grandfather used to do, which he called Pollo al' culo, which, very loosely translated, means "Chicken up the butt." Because you're stuffing fruit into the chicken's ... well, you get it. Giada De Laurentiis has a recipe called Garlic and Citrus Chicken, which is very much like how Grampie used to make it except it has a much more polite name. But the secret to my chicken is the brining.
Anyway, he though I'd lost my mind until he took his first bite and damned if he didn't pick that thing clean, all while mumbling about possible recipe variations. He LOVED it. I think you will too. Here's the recipe, in case you want to try it
Pollo al' culo
Brining Process
1 chicken, guts removed and reserved for broth or cats later
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
15 cups cold water
1 cup vegetable broth
Juice of one lemon
Combine water, broth, lemon juice and salt in large pan or bowl. Submerge chicken in brine, cover and place in refrigerator. Allow to brine for at least one hour. I usually do two to four hours. Do not brine the chicken at room temperature, there is not enough salt in there to prevent bacterial growth.
After chicken has brined, removed and rinse with cold water. Pat dry, place in pan.
Stuffing
1 Orange
1 Lemon
5-10 green grapes (optional)
3 Scallions
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup chicken broth
Black pepper, parsley
Cut oranges and lemons into small wedges. Crush garlic cloves lightly, chop scallions. Combine, sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper. Combine, stuff as much as you can into the chicken cavity. Place whatever is left in pan around chicken. Add chicken broth to pan, sprinkle chicken with parsley and more black pepper, if you like. Cover pan with tin foil and place in a 350 F preheated oven. Approximately half way though cooking time, remove foil and allow chicken to brown. You may want to remove some of the pan liquid at this point (it's quite salty, though the chicken itself will not be) to prevent the bottom of the chicken from macerating. Test chicken for doneness -- when clear liquid runs out of a hole poked between the wing and breast and in the thigh, or when a meat thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 170 F -- takes about 20 minutes per lb of chicken plus 20 minutes, so 100 minutes for a four lb bird -- let rest for 10-15 minutes, and serve.
Happy eating!
Elle
One minor area of concern for me was cooking. For a variety of reasons, mainly our love of eating out, up until now neither of us has ever truly cooked an entire meal for the other. Breakfast, quick stuff, yes. A main dish and sides? No.
I adore cooking, and I was a little worried that he'd basically hate the way I cook. Food preferences are so highly individual, and while neither of us is particularly fussy, I'm pretty adventurous and I was afraid he might not appreciate some of my more ambitious flights of culinary fancy.
So far, so good. He liked my spaghetti sauce, though it's more subtly flavored and a lot more labor intensive than the way he makes it. As an added bonus, I introduced him to the joys of Dreamfields Pasta, which he now loves. He was a little leery of my steak marinade, based on the Eades recipe of an overnight bath in a marinade of olive oil and red wine, but raved about it for days.
Tonight was the biggest test -- whether or not he would like my brined chicken. Brining, for those who don't know, is a technique in which you place poultry in a brine solution for a period of time (how long depends on what you're making). Via osmosis, the brine solution permeates the meat, flavoring it and making it incredibly juicy. The basic brine is about 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water (one gallon is plenty for a small chicken) and you can add whatever you like to the brine to flavor it -- with the caveat that your flavoring needs to be water-soluble to work.
Dancing in Socks Guy loves me, but he did look at me cross-eyed when I soaked a perfectly good chicken in a salt water bath, then proceeded to cut up some oranges and lemons, combined it with grapes, scallions, a garlic clove or two, seasoned it with cracked black pepper and shoved it all up the chicken's cavity. This is based on a method of cooking chicken my grandfather used to do, which he called Pollo al' culo, which, very loosely translated, means "Chicken up the butt." Because you're stuffing fruit into the chicken's ... well, you get it. Giada De Laurentiis has a recipe called Garlic and Citrus Chicken, which is very much like how Grampie used to make it except it has a much more polite name. But the secret to my chicken is the brining.
Anyway, he though I'd lost my mind until he took his first bite and damned if he didn't pick that thing clean, all while mumbling about possible recipe variations. He LOVED it. I think you will too. Here's the recipe, in case you want to try it
Pollo al' culo
Brining Process
1 chicken, guts removed and reserved for broth or cats later
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
15 cups cold water
1 cup vegetable broth
Juice of one lemon
Combine water, broth, lemon juice and salt in large pan or bowl. Submerge chicken in brine, cover and place in refrigerator. Allow to brine for at least one hour. I usually do two to four hours. Do not brine the chicken at room temperature, there is not enough salt in there to prevent bacterial growth.
After chicken has brined, removed and rinse with cold water. Pat dry, place in pan.
Stuffing
1 Orange
1 Lemon
5-10 green grapes (optional)
3 Scallions
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/4 cup chicken broth
Black pepper, parsley
Cut oranges and lemons into small wedges. Crush garlic cloves lightly, chop scallions. Combine, sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper. Combine, stuff as much as you can into the chicken cavity. Place whatever is left in pan around chicken. Add chicken broth to pan, sprinkle chicken with parsley and more black pepper, if you like. Cover pan with tin foil and place in a 350 F preheated oven. Approximately half way though cooking time, remove foil and allow chicken to brown. You may want to remove some of the pan liquid at this point (it's quite salty, though the chicken itself will not be) to prevent the bottom of the chicken from macerating. Test chicken for doneness -- when clear liquid runs out of a hole poked between the wing and breast and in the thigh, or when a meat thermometer inserted in the thigh reads 170 F -- takes about 20 minutes per lb of chicken plus 20 minutes, so 100 minutes for a four lb bird -- let rest for 10-15 minutes, and serve.
Happy eating!
Elle
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