Cardamom - Rosemary - Chipolte Roast Chicken

This was either going to be great, or a total waste of a chicken.

I love a simple salt and pepper roasted chicken, but it's been grey and rainy out lately and I felt the need to spice things up a little bit.  There wasn't going to be a tango class on a Wednesday, and no friends were lined up at the door, so we spiced up the chicken instead.

With it's powerful, musky-sweet-exotic flavor, a little Cardamom goes a long way.  It's found in chai tea, Christmas cookies, Scandinavian dishes and middle-eastern cooking and I've always liked the savory-sweet combinations it stands up to, so we decided to try a few out on the chicken.

We rubbed equal amounts (about a 1/4 teaspoon) of cardamom and chipolte powder on the chicken, followed by salt and pepper.  Then we stuck a stalk of rosemary in the chicken's cavity (about 4 inches long) and stuck it in the oven.

After about an hour, it had reached 160* and smelled fantastic.  (4 lb chicken)

It's not often we get to serve up a yellow main course, is it?  Complemented by my Grandmother's knife and fork serving set - bakelite still has it's place at our table!  I'm curious now about what other typically sweet spices could be combined with savory or spicy to make interesting combinations or other ways to use cardamom.  Anyone have any ideas or recipes to share?

Monkey Gets the Beets

My daughter was insistent on peeling the beets.  A little too insistent...and that's when I realized she didn't have a burning desire to spend quality time with her mother in the kitchen - she wanted to use her monkey peeler!

Oh yes, this is one of those "just for kids!" items you see tucked onto the ends of the aisles in kitchen stores, where they keep all those cute impulse buys.  Egg separator?  Pot holder that looks like a cow?  Kid tools?  That's where you'll find them!

The thing about this peeler though, is that it works.  It's easier for her to hold than the usual ones, and she loves it, even after the Ouch! episode.  She peeled those beets in no time, holding them close against her shirt.  One of those "maybe you'd better get your apron (because I want this to be fun, not an occasion for me to fret over the cost of replacing your beet-gold wardrobe!!)"  Smile.

We roasted them in the oven with the chicken, taking about 20 minutes for 3 large beets in 1/2 inch chunks.

I believe I'm overcoming my aversion to beets, and enjoying the fact that everyone else seems to gobble them up.  The sweet, simple beets were a delicious counterpoint to the spicy chicken (coming soon!) that we ate alongside it.

Roasted Golden Beets

3 yellow beets, tops removed, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
Toss with 2-4 TB olive oil, season lightly with kosher salt.
Line a baking dish with tinfoil for an easier clean-up and spread the beets on the foil.
Roast at 400* F for about 20 minutes until they begin to turn golden brown.

Stir once midway through the cooking.

The tender, mild flavor is a nice accompaniment to spicy foods, and they can stand in for a starchy side dish.

Pancetta with Greenbeans - French Friday

I love a simple side of veggies and this was a keeper.  The green beans were fresh at the grocery store (we're lucky to have early veggies here) and I got a 1/4 inch slice of pancetta from the deli counter, then we were ready to roll.

We ate this with shepherd's pie, so I felt like we needed a couple of veggies to round out the plates: boiled beets and pancetta green beans!

The beans were simple.  Boiled for a few minutes in salted water then rinsed in cold, to stop the cooking.  The diced pancetta was browned in a large pan, some fat removed and the beans were tossed back in.  Done.  The browned pancetta bits were crunchy and salty served over the beans.  Easy dishes like this are perfect for the kids to help with.  They were in charge of: 

• snapping the ends off the beans
• watching the pot boil
• timing the various pots of water
• chopping pancetta
• stirring the pan

I confess that I was not ready to put them in charge of chopping the red beets.  At least, not until I figure out what removes beet juice from clothing!

You may remember my earlier delight in learning that both kids like roasted golden beets?  Well, I tried red beets, simply boiled, and they were not as big a hit.  I'll have to try red beets roasted next, to see if it's the roasting that makes all the difference!

For all three recipes, check out Around my French Table.

Roasted Beets

There are few foods I don’t like, but beets top that short list. I’ve overcome my childhood aversion to many foods (cottage cheese, asparagus, spinach and pears, to name a few) but I'm pretty sure I just wasn't meant to eat beets.

The funn thing though is that I had this great dish at a tapas restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina and it had some golden beets in it. I kind of liked them. Then this week, I saw some really fresh-looking golden beets at the store this week and I figured it was a sign.  After all, I'm always telling the kids to try "just one bite, in case you like it now."  Maybe it was time to let that rule apply to me.  Maybe I had finally swung over to the beet-lovers camp.

They were game, so we tossed the beets in the cart and finished up shopping.  However, once I got home and eyed those globes on the counter, I realized two things: I really didn’t know what to do with them, and I really didn’t feel up to spending a bunch of time looking up beets in my cookbooks and figuring out how to cook them. I was in trouble – so I called my mother.

My mother loves beets. Nobody else in my family did, so I think she was a little puzzled when I asked, “What’s the best way to prepare beets?”  Thankfully, Mom was on the ball “roasted is best, with some olive oil and salt and pepper, in a hot oven.”

“How long?”

“Oh, 20, 25 minutes, depending on how big you cut the pieces. And peel them first.” (good tip!)

“Can you eat the tops?”

“Well, you can….”

Enough said. The tops went to the hens and the roots went into a 400* oven.

About 20 minutes later, they were juicy, getting golden around the edges and smelling pretty good. 

So, did I like them?  Not really.  I ate them but they weren't my favorite.  The surprising thing to me though was that both my son and daughter loved them, ate seconds and raved about how sweet they were. 

Guess I'll be making these again.