April has been a blur. If I didn't know it from the backlog of
paperwork on my desk...or the view out my windows of an unkempt jumble of
verdant growth, dead leaves and rampant weeds that is my garden...the fact that
it is the last day of the month and I only have two blog posts to show for the
month would make it abundantly clear. Since
it has been pouring rain for the past couple of days (making yard work pretty
much impossible)...and paperwork isn't really my favorite thing to do (to put
it mildly)...I thought I would take a moment today to remedy the last situation
and post to my blog. After all...it
isn't as if I haven't been eating or cooking for a month.
I have in fact been doing a lot of
cooking. My business...hence my
busy-ness...is of course all about cooking.
Furthermore, April marks the opening of the farmers' market...one of my
favorite moments during the year.
Despite my hectic schedule, I have made sure not to miss a market...and
as my Instagram feed will attest, I have been busy cooking the spontaneous and
simple foods of the early days of spring for my own table.
One of the things that I try to teach in my
classes...and here on my blog...is mastery of basic methods and building block recipes. That way, when you are
busy...or come across some fantastically beautiful ingredients that you really
want to use, you don't have to stop and look for a recipe—or struggle to follow
a new recipe—you can just cook. The meal
we had last night is a perfect example of this.
At yesterday's market I brought home some
beautiful young carrots that still had a shock of pristine tops attached. It seemed such a waste to cut them off and
throw them into the compost pile. As I
looked at them, I remembered my friend Nancy had told me about a wonderful dish of roasted carrots and carrot top pesto that she had made last summer. I looked up the recipe I thought she had
used...but, I didn't really need to. I
know how to make pesto... So I did.
I had also brought home the first arugula of
the year...so I added some of that to the pesto. And remembering how much I loved pistachios
with the carrots in a raw carrot salad I posted in February, I decided to use
pistachios instead of the more common walnuts or pine nuts. You could of course use basil instead of
arugula...or the walnuts or pine nuts...
All of these things would produce pestos with different flavors. But if made with the proper method...and
seasoned well...they would all be delicious—and perfect with roasted carrots.
If you don't know how to make a basic pesto,
take a minute to compare the recipes I have posted over the years—basil pesto,
arugula pesto, spring herb pesto and kale pesto. You will
notice that they are very similar...and the method is always the same. To begin, place the greens/herbs of choice in
the food processor with the garlic (smashed to a purée with a pinch of salt or
finely grated on a microplane zester), the nuts and some salt. Process everything until finely minced (doing
this before you start adding oil will give you a more finely and uniformly
minced final pesto...if you like a roughly chopped, chunky pesto, it isn't so
crucial). Then, drizzle in the oil while
the machine is running and pulse in the cheese.
Taste and correct the seasoning with salt. Sometimes pesto needs a splash of lemon juice
to lift the flavor...and you can add it at the end. When I was making my carrot top pesto yesterday,
I had it in my head that it would need lemon...and had the lemon out and
ready...and then it didn't need any. It
was fantastic: savory, nutty and rich. I will be making carrot top pesto again.
 |
| So many uses for pesto... here it is in a grilled cheese the next day at lunch... |
The rest of our meal was also comprised of
basic building block recipes: a simple
roasted chicken breast and a pile of roasted carrots (of course!) and baby
potatoes. If you don't know how to roast a chicken
breast, check out the basics post I wrote a few years ago. It is a useful thing to add to your
repertoire (and it isn't nearly as tricky as roasting a whole bird). The roasting method I used for the young
vegetables is from John Ash's From the Earth to the Table. I ran across it many years ago and I use it
all the time for young root vegetables.
I don't know if I have ever posted about this
method for the vegetables or not. It is
very easy. Simply toss them with salt
& pepper, bruised/crushed cloves of garlic, thyme sprigs and a liberal
splash of olive oil and then spread in a snug single layer in a baking dish or
rimmed sheet pan. Cover tightly with foil and roast in a moderately hot oven (375°
to 400°) for 20 minutes. Then, uncover
them, give them a shake (or turn the vegetables over with a spatula/pancake turner) and
continue to roast until they are tender and lightly caramelized—another 20
minutes or so. This method conserves
the moisture of young vegetables (and perfumes them with garlic and
thyme)...but still allows them to caramelize a bit.
I used the pesto to tie the vegetables and chicken
together: I tossed the vegetables with a
small amount of the pesto. Then, to make
the pesto into a sauce I could easily drizzle and dollop over the whole plate,
I deglazed the chicken pan (another great, basic technique!) with a splash of
water and used the result to thin a few tablespoons of the pesto. Everything
came together very nicely, making for a reasonably quick, spontaneous and simple,
seasonal meal.
Pan Roasted Chicken with Carrots, Potatoes &
Carrot Top Pesto
Purchase split breasts (on the bone...with
the skin). I think a 12 ounce breast
feeds two people adequately...but you should purchase the amount that works for
you. If you have time, season the chicken
the day before with 1/2 to 3/4 t. kosher salt per pound of meat. Cover loosely and chill overnight. Pull the chicken out of the fridge and uncover
about an hour before you want to cook it.
Prepare
the vegetables as directed (below) while
the oven heats. Transfer the vegetables to
the oven and start the chicken.
Prepare
the chicken: Set an oven proof sauté pan that is large
enough to accommodate all of your chicken over moderately high heat. Season the chicken with freshly ground
pepper. When the pan is hot, add enough
olive oil to lightly film the pan and add the chicken skin side down. When the skin is browned and crisp, add some
butter (about a teaspoon per breast) to the pan along with a few sprigs of
thyme or a scattering of thyme leaves.
When the butter has melted, turn the chicken over—making sure you swipe
the skin through the melted butter and thyme as you do and transfer to the oven with the vegetables. Roast until an instant read thermometer
inserted in the thickest part of each breast reads 150° to 155°--about 20 to 25
minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and let rest for 10 minutes or so—the
internal temperature will continue to rise as the chicken rests and will easily
reach the safe temperature of 160°.
Meanwhile, pour any excess fat off of the pan and return the pan to the
heat. Add a few tablespoons of water to
the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping the pan with a flat wooden spoon to
release all of the caramelized bits. Set
aside.
Prepare the pesto while the chicken and
vegetables roast. You will need 2 to 3
tablespoons of pesto per person. The
rest may be saved (covered, in the refrigerator) for another use.
When the
vegetables are almost done, use your hands to pull the bones away from the
breasts, starting at the point where the breast was attached to the wing. Add any resting juices from the plate of
resting chicken to the pan of deglazings.
To serve: add
some pesto (a half tablespoon or so per person—more or less, to taste) to the
pan of roasted vegetables and carefully fold in with a rubber spatula. Thin the remaining 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 T. pesto
per person with as much of the deglazings as you like to obtain a
drizzling/dolloping consistency. (You
may also thin with olive oil...or even water...if you like. If you use olive oil or water, recheck the
seasoning after doing so.) Slice the
breasts at an angle, across the grain.
Arrange the vegetables on a large serving platter or individual plates
and fan the meat on top. Drizzle/dollop
the platter/plates with pesto, serving any of the pesto that has been mixed
with pan deglazings on the side, passing at the table.
Roasted Young Carrots and Creamer Potatoes with Garlic & Thyme
For
each person you will need:
5 to 6 oz. fingerling or creamer potatoes
5 to 6 oz. young carrots, peeled
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed/bruised
1 or 2 sprigs of thyme
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 375° to 400°. Scrub the potatoes. If they are more than an inch in diameter,
halve them. If the carrots are small,
leave a half inch or so of the green. If
they are fatter than an inch in diameter, halve them lengthwise. If they are long, simply cut them into 1 inch
pieces. In a large bowl, combine the
potatoes, carrots, garlic and thyme and drizzle liberally with olive oil and
season generously with salt and pepper.
Arrange the vegetables in a baking dish, roasting pan or rimmed sheet
pan that is just large enough to hold the vegetables in a snug single
layer.
Cover the pan with foil and roast
until the vegetables are tender and lightly caramelized—removing the foil after
about 20 minutes and giving the pan a shake to redistribute the vegetables—total
cooking time will be about 40 minutes.
Carrot Top Pesto
Before
measuring the carrot tops, trim the feathery fronds away from the thick, ropey
stems. Discard the stems and use the
tops only.
2 c. (2 oz.) lightly packed carrot tops
a handful (1 oz.) of arugula
1/2 c. shelled pistachios, lightly toasted
1/2 to 3/4 t. kosher salt
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and smashed to a purée with a pinch of salt
2/3 c. olive oil...plus more if needed to get
preferred consistency
1/3 c. (1 oz.) finely grated Parmesan
Freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste, if
necessary
Place the carrot tops, arugula, pistachios,
garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the food processor and process until
everything is finely and uniformly chopped.
With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil. Scrape down the sides. Add the Parmesan and pulse to combine. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and
lemon juice if necessary. If the pesto
seems too tight, drizzle in a bit more oil.
Makes 1 1/4 cups pesto. Store in
the refrigerator in a jar with a tight fitting lid and filmed with oil.
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