Posts Tagged ‘chicken’
Chicken Bog with Risotto
Just the kind of meal my boy likes: fall-off-the-bone meat and smokey sausage, stewed in a tomatoey, peppery, oniony broth and plated on top of creamy risotto. You too should make this down-home “Chicken Bog with Middlins Risotto.” Sure, this slow-roasted dish heats up the kitchen and its stick-to-your-ribs consistency feels more wintery. But if you make it with local ingredients, it will feel springy and seasonal. I used a small local chicken purchased from Julia’s My Pharm stand at the Corvallis Farmers Market. For the fresh tomatoes, I substituted ones recently canned in my master food preserver class. But I had no luck finding rice grits at my food co-op, so arborio, heaven forbid, had to do. This is a lazy Sunday, read a book while you stand and stir the pot kind of recipe. But the resulting smokey, tangy stew will enchant you. Here’s a video on how to cook the risotto for the recipe. And read the accompanying article about career changer farmers near Atlanta forging a path blazed by Virginia’s own Joel Salatin.
Canned tomatoes, salsas and jam (left to right) from food preservation class.
Silly Rabbit. What, You Chicken?
Hope the rabbit carcass isn’t too gruesome (see before and after pictures below). But if you can’t engage with your meat in its natural state, you shouldn’t eat it, right? For me, it’s become almost a reverent experience to butcher a whole bird or beast. Especially when you meet the farmer who raised it and slaughtered it, with care, the day before bringing the fresh meat to market.
This “Mustardy Braised Rabbit With Carrots” recipe nudged me to finally try the meat I’d been eying from “My Pharm” in nearby Monroe. The farmer Julia also specializes in vivid green leeks, which we needed for the recipe. With the carrots, broth, wine and herbs, they braised into a rich, savory sauce. The meat was tender and succulent, but rather boney. We still prefer whole roast chicken to rabbit, and even free-range ones are cheaper then bunny.
I won’t make rabbit again anytime soon, but I’m glad I tried. It’s amazing we didn’t have it in Baltimore, what with all the bunnies hopping around our apartment’s front yard, especially at night, tempting us to consider them for dinner. We had a superb rabbit ragu sauce at Simpatica dining hall in Portland last fall. My few other rabbit experiences were not pleasant though. I still gag thinking about those gefilte fish-like ground rabbit logs served to us at a youth hostel in Paris, when I was there for a school French exchange trip.
Any rabbit recipes or memories to share? Or do you, like us, still prefer the other white meats? Rabbit does have slightly more protein and less fat then chicken. Any other health or environmental benefits of rabbit over other meats?
A Chicken in Every Pot
I plan to roast more whole chickens this year. They are economical, yield moist meat and at least three meals for the week. I roasted one Sunday night, slathering it first with a favorite salt rub we also used on our Thanksgiving turkey. I’m still figuring out the optimal temperature and time to cook the bird at in our convection oven. Any suggestions?
Then tonight, I briefly sauteed the shredded chicken with onions, a pasilla pepper and chile powder, baking it or tortillas with sauce and cheese for enchiladas.
I also boiled the carcass for soup stock but accidentally left the pot out overnight. So I chucked it. How long is it safe to leave the fresh chicken broth out?
Will you find yourselves cooking more whole chickens this year? It could be a 2009 food trend.
BaltimOregon to Maine 