So, this last week’s French Fridays with Dorie was for Cola and Jam Spareribs, which sounds good but neither jwa or I are big rib eaters. But here’s what I thought — I’ll take the cola and jam idea, but just use them on another kind of meat. How about chicken drumsticks? Perfect! Sounds like a winner! And then…that’s not what actually happened.

1. After not being able to find the Coke with sugar in it instead of high fructose corn syrup, I found an organic-hippie cola brand with sugar. Great. I put a can of that in my cart. But then when I got home, discovered I accidentally grabbed the Diet Cola instead. 2. After seeing this, I think, um, okay. I can still make this work. At this point I have the jam, orange juice and Chinese 5 Spice Powder already simmering in . . . → Read More: Blog Post that was Almost an FFwD, Then Became This – Roasted Chicken Legs with Chorizo, Potatoes and Spinach]]>

So, this last week’s French Fridays with Dorie was for Cola and Jam Spareribs, which sounds good but neither jwa or I are big rib eaters. But here’s what I thought — I’ll take the cola and jam idea, but just use them on another kind of meat. How about chicken drumsticks? Perfect! Sounds like a winner! And then…that’s not what actually happened.

1. After not being able to find the Coke with sugar in it instead of high fructose corn syrup, I found an organic-hippie cola brand with sugar. Great. I put a can of that in my cart. But then when I got home, discovered I accidentally grabbed the Diet Cola instead.
2. After seeing this, I think, um, okay. I can still make this work. At this point I have the jam, orange juice and Chinese 5 Spice Powder already simmering in a pot with the cola to make a glaze. I grabbed the unopened bag of brown sugar from the cabinet, thinking I can just add a spoonful or two and I add a little in with the jam and orange juice.
3. Ants. There are ants in the brown sugar bag. Oh my god. THERE ARE ANTS IN THE BROWN SUGAR BAG!!!@#!# And, I had just put the brown sugar in the pot with everything. Ewww. Down the sink with all syrupy stuff in the pot and out to the garbage with the bag of brown sugar.
4. Now what, I thought? I had six chicken legs in the fridge and it was already 6pm. Maybe pizza? A walk down to Una Mas Pepinos? No, I was not giving up yet, damn it. This is a challenge.

After a few minutes of frantic epicurious.com searching I came across a one pan recipe for chicken legs with potatoes and vegetables. Miraculously, I had potatoes (we usually don’t have potatoes in the house unless I specifically bought them for something). I also remembered I have a sealed package of two Spanish chorizo sausages that I had wanted to use this week and from there, my mind automatically went to the Smoked Paprika. Mmmm….Spanish Smoked Paprika.

Hmmm. Okay. New dinner plan!

Roasted Chicken Legs with Chorizo, Potatoes and Spinach
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet Magazine
6 chicken drumsticks, (or 3 whole legs, divided into thighs and drumsticks)
1 tbsp olive oil (plus more for random drizzling, if you feel so inclined)
Salt, pepper
1 tbsp smoked paprika
3/4 pound small boiling potatoes
1 red bell pepper
1 medium onion
8 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
1 small Spanish chorizo sausage, sliced
1 bunch baby spinach (about 2 packed cups)
Balsamic vinegar for sprinkling
1/4 cup dry white wine
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Preheat oven to 425°F. Quarter potatoes. Cut bell pepper into 1/2-inch-wide strips and onion into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika on each side. Heat oil in a large flame and oven proof skillet and brown chicken.

To the pan with the browned chicken, add the potatoes, bell pepper, onion, chorizo slices, thyme, garlic cloves, and a little more salt and pepper. Arrange everything in one layer. Eh, maybe give it another drizzle with the olive oil. Roast chicken and vegetables 35-40 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and everything is golden.

Check about half way through the cooking time and make sure your slices of chorizo aren’t getting to dark. If they are, just tuck them down, underneath the chicken and vegetables. After the cooking time, if you want the chicken and potatoes a little darker on top, turn on the broiler for a few seconds, watching closely.

While chicken and vegetables are roasting, discard any coarse stems from spinach and put in a large bowl. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar. To go with the Spanish theme, I added a handful of Marcona Almonds to the spinach leaves. I also added a handful of crumbled feta cheese on top of the spinach leaves just because I do enjoy the cheese.

With tongs transfer chicken and vegetables to bowl with the spinach. Add wine to the hot pan and deglaze over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits and stirring into any pan juices, about 1 minute.

Pour the wine sauce over chicken and vegetables and serve. This will feed probably 3 people, if you figure two drumsticks each. You may end up fighting over the roasted garlic cloves.

This was really very good. You can tell because there’s hardly any left. I’m almost glad ants ruined the original dinner idea. No, I’m not. Ugh, ants.

Do you still have a few Meyer Lemons hanging about that you really, really, REALLY need to use? Well, I recently found myself in that position and this is the recipe I came across. Fate? Perhaps, because I had exactly five lemons. I did not, however have cream. But I had half and half. See, it’s still kind of fate-ish. I ended up making what technically would be an ice milk* but wow, was it ever good!

If you want to do what I did, use 2 cups half and half and 2 cups 1% milk. You may do this because it has a lower fat content, you may also do it this way because you are too lazy to go to the store and get cream. I won’t judge you. If you want to make the original recipe, do what is written . . . → Read More: Meyer Lemon and Cardamom Ice Milk (or Cream)]]>

Do you still have a few Meyer Lemons hanging about that you really, really, REALLY need to use? Well, I recently found myself in that position and this is the recipe I came across. Fate? Perhaps, because I had exactly five lemons. I did not, however have cream. But I had half and half. See, it’s still kind of fate-ish. I ended up making what technically would be an ice milk* but wow, was it ever good!

If you want to do what I did, use 2 cups half and half and 2 cups 1% milk. You may do this because it has a lower fat content, you may also do it this way because you are too lazy to go to the store and get cream. I won’t judge you. If you want to make the original recipe, do what is written below.

I had a slight issue with the logistics, as my ice cream maker’s canister was not quite as frozen as it should have been. I hate it when that happens. I swear it seems I need to put it in the freezer a WEEK before I want to use it. After about 40 minutes it became apparent that it was just not going to freeze the ice cream as much as I would have liked. So, I popped it into a container and put it in the freezer, hoping for the best. I stirred it about once an hour for the next 3 hours and I think that maybe helped.

The next day it was pretty frozen and the texture was not bad at all. Probably not quite as smooth as it would have been if my ice cream maker was working properly (or if I had used cream), but it was a container of chilly deliciousness to be reckoned with, none the less.

And seriously, the flavor! So good! Make this now!

Meyer Lemon and Cardamom Ice Cream (or Milk…or Somewhere In Between the Two)
Adapted from a recipe in the LA Times
5 Meyer lemons
1 tbsp cardamom pods, crushed (or a scant 1 tbsp cardamom seeds — which is what I had, from Penzey’s)
1 cup half-and-half (or use 2 cups half and half and 2 cups milk, omitting the cream below, for 4 cups total — to make more of an ice milk like me!)
1 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
6 large egg yolks
3 cups heavy cream

Peel 1 lemon with a vegetable peeler, taking care not to cut into the bitter white pith.

Place the peel in a nonreactive medium saucepan with the crushed cardamom, half-and-half, milk or cream, and sugar. Scrape the vanilla pod seeds into the pan and drop in the pod. Heat over high heat to just under a boil. Remove from the heat, and allow to steep for 10 to 15 minutes.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, and then pour in some of the hot half-and-half mixture, stirring constantly.

Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon, 4 to 5 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Finely grate the zest of 2 lemons and add it to the mixture. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Juice all 5 lemons and add the juice to the cream mixture. Chill thoroughly, perhaps even overnight.

Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (Makes 1 quart.)

You will then wind up with something delicious!

* Note: I was kind of scared it would curdle on me when I added the lemon juice, since I didn’t use all half and half and cream, but no, it was fine with the half and half and milk combination! Hooray!

Fennel pollen is kind of expensive but also really amazing. There really isn’t a great substitute for it, so if you’ve got a little extra money, I’d invest in some. So fragrant. Kind of like if you mixed fennel with curry and some kind of mystery tasty ingredient. I’ve seen it online at Amazon. I was going to go that route but, in the words of jwa, I was able to score some through my “shadowy, underground, food blog connections.”

Actually, I made a comment on twitter about wanting to get some and a fellow pdxer offered to sell me some from a big, fancy food order they were putting together! But honestly, I think “shadowy, underground, food blog connections” sounds better. Much more mysterious…

Even without the fennel pollen, I think these are worth making with the brine alone. The chops are so flavorful and juicy!

Pork . . . → Read More: Pork Chop Heaven, aka: Pork Chops with Fennel Pollen]]>