Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

I was one of those who rarely buy cookbooks. I used to mostly get my recipes from the magazines or over the internet. While I do have a few books in possession in Thai and English, classic and new, I never really “read” them.

I know that Chef Jay (who contributed a few posts here a while ago) reads cookbooks like us muggles do with paperbacks. When he recommended Mark Peel’s New Classic Family Dinners to me, he told me that I should actually read it.

So I did pay attention to non-recipe stuff. And I did learn a few things. But I didn't pick up any more cookbooks off my shelf to read.

So when I told Pim of Chez Pim back in September during my visit, she looked at me in disbelief. After picking her jaw up off the floor, Pim began my reprogramming. A mentor that she is, she took me on a raid of a local used bookstore for a few gems and then sent me home with a few more from her own shelves. She emphasized what Chef Jay had already told me: If you want to be a better cook, do READ the cookbooks.

So now, instead of jumping to the internet for a recipe, I first search my cookbooks. I may not have actually read many of them but by flipping through them, I'm absorbing a few things more than before. I’m also familiarizing myself with the contents of these books. At least I know where to come back to and what to read next time.

Brandon laughed the first time he found me with 5 cookbooks spread across the couch on Saturday afternoon, researching for what to make for my weekend supper. It has now become a familiar sight on Friday nights, or Saturday and Sunday mornings.

For New Year’s Eve dinner, I agreed to cook for James and Aurora and her sister Lee. I remembered having seen a recipe for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from one of my recent flip-throughs. It would be perfect. After all, James proposed to Aurora at the Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills, famous for their garlic-everything menu!

And there it was in the Cook’s Illustrated The New Best Recipes (2004) Irena had given to me for my birthday those many years ago when I was just starting to learn to cook. As a matter of fact, I used to subscribe to Cook’s Illustrated magazines but was way too intimidated to cook from them then, so I rarely went to this book for anything. Until now.

This recipe was surprisingly easy to make. And it was really easy to transport too. A perfect dish for a potluck!

Oh, and fun fact: 3 heads of garlic do produce just a tad over 40 cloves of garlic! LOL

And yes, I did sit and read about this recipe and the technique required, not just grabbing the instructions and run.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
Adapted from the Cook’s Illustrated The New Best Recipes

First, you brine the chicken. Then we roast the garlic and shallots. Then we brown the chicken, deglaze, and braise. Then we finish the sauce. Easy! The book says this would serve 3-4. With bread and a side salad, I served this to 5 adults just fine.



1 whole chicken, cut up to 4 breast pieces, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings.
1/4 cup table salt or 1/2 cup kosher salt
2 quart cold water
Freshly ground black pepper to season
3 medium garlic heads, cloves separated, unpeeled
2 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
Olive oil
Salt
2 springs of fresh thyme
2 sprig of fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup dry vermouth or dry white wine (I used vermouth)
3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 TBS unsalted butter

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Now, the chicken. The book have you buy a whole chicken and break it down yourself. I cheated and asked the butcher to cut up my whole organic chicken up for me. (He also bagged the carcass and giblets so I make basic stock from that too.) The original recipe says to discard the wings. Not a chance in my household! I guess if you want to use it in the stock, you can.

Now, the brine. Dissolve the salt in cold water in a large container. Immerse the chicken pieces in the brine and refrigerate about 30 minutes. Rinse the pieces in cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides with black pepper.



Meanwhile, in a 9-inch pie plate, toss the garlic and shallots with a few small glugs of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover tightly with foil and roast until soften and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, shake the pan around. At 30 minutes, uncover, stir and continue to roast uncovered for about 10 minutes longer until fully tender and browned. Remove from oven and turn it up to 450F.

Make a bouquet garni (herb bundle) by tying together thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf with a kitchen twine for easy removal. Set aside. (I only had rosemary and bay leaf, so I didn't bother to tie anything.)

In a heavy-bottomed ovenproof skillet (or in my case, my dutch oven), heat another big glug of olive oil on medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Brown the chicken pieces, skin-side down, until golden, about 5 minutes. Brown the other side for another 4 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter and discard the fat from the pan.

Off the heat, deglaze with vermouth and broth, scraping up all the brown bits then add the bouquet garni. Set the skillet over medium heat, add the roasted garlic-shallot mixture, and return the chicken, skin side up, to the pan.

Place the skillet in the oven and roast until the instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers about 160F, 10-12 minutes. You can increase the heat to broil to crisp up the skin, 3-5 minutes. Transfer chicken to a serving dish. (If you're transporting the chicken and you have an oven there, save the broiling until you get to your destination. I put the chicken in an ovenproof dish and broil the chicken at Aurora’s so the chicken is both reheated and crisped.)

Using a slotted spoon, discard the herbs, and remove the garlic and shallots to place around the chicken, and set about 10-12 garlic cloves aside.

Over the skillet, push the reserved garlic through a mesh sieve into the sauce, discard the skin. (I just pushed them through my garlic press instead. Easy!) Bring the sauce to simmer over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally to incorporate the garlic. Adjust seasoning. Whisk in butter. Pour sauce into a gravy boat or a serving bowl to serve with chicken. (For transport, pour the sauce into a container and reheat at your destination.)

Serve the chicken with crusty bread to sop up the sauce and to spread the lovely roasted garlic on.

Eater's Getaway: Santa Cruz

I was joking with Mira about a month ago about heading up to Santa Cruz for the weekend and attend Pim of ChezPim.com's holiday baking class on Sunday. It turned out Mira and her husband already had plans to be in the area on Thursday and Friday. We agreed we'd try again later.

But then over my birthday dinner in mid November, Mira told me they changed their schedule to be up in the area from Friday-Saturday instead and that she wanted me to join them. I looked at Brandon and he nodded.

The next day, I secured my spot on Pim's couch, got a day off from work, and booked the same flight as Mira and her husband to San Jose.

I knew we would be doing a lot of eating. But I didn't quite expect the level of eating we did.

It started on the plane with Mira's home made tuna sandwich for brunch. We were the envy of that Southwest flight, I tell you.

Not long after we landed, we dropped Mira's hubby off in Palo Alto and headed straight for Santa Cruz. We gathered Pim and Aaron and headed to Phil's Fish Market and Eatery in Moss Landing, half way between Santa Cruz and Monterey.

The people behind us kept looking over as the waitress kept bringing out plate after plate to our table. NEVER underestimate the damage three Asian girls and a dude can do, yo.

Before. And after.



A dozen fresh clams (fresh, sweet, best I've ever had), clam chowder (delicious), crab salad (we picked the sweet fresh crab meat cleaned, the veggie was questionable that day), fried artichoke hearts, fried sardines (crispy, tender, delicious), fish and chips (light-as-cloud batter), and double order of garlic bread. And for the records, the fried calamari was one of those magical self-replenishing plate: we kept at it but it didn't look like we ate anything at all. (Aaron also wrote about the experience here.)

It was the best seafood meal I had in the U.S. so far.

A few hours after this meal, we were in Pim's kitchen for a home cooked dinner that would be enough to feed 6. Much later that night, a cake was baked. We were too tired to eat by then.

The next morning, Pim and I went into Downtown Santa Cruz for lattes and scones at Cafe Delmarette. This is the first time I had a Verve coffee. Starbucks who? Seriously! That was delicious! The pear and goat cheese scone was truly addictive as well, crumbly on the outside and fluffy on the inside.



A few hours after that, Mira returned to collect me and to get lunch. Pim took us to Restaurante Los Pinos. A hole in the wall produces the best damn ethnic foods, I tell ya!

Tacos Al Pastor were killers, flavorful and juicy pieces of pork. Machete taco was more like a tender marinated skirt steak with pile of grilled onion and avocado on top tortillas. Shrimp burrito was stuffed full and was bigger than Mira's arm. And the soppa came in a bowl big enough for Pim to wash her hair in, as Mira said. And they were all great food.



And of course, despite tight schedule and even tighter waistbands, we made our final stop at The Penny Ice Creamery. Pim brought me here the last time I visited a few months ago and I couldn't get their chocolate Devout Stout ice cream out of my head since. Because all the ice cream is made fresh daily, the flavors are never the same. This trip I got a scoop of the black tea orange with fresh jujubees in their homemade sugar cones. Refreshing and absolutely divine. We tried our best but none of us could finish our scoop that day.

What a sweet conclusion to a Santa Cruz escape! We are quite sure this won't be the last trip. ;-)



(And yes, that's bacon on my shirt.)

Brown Butter Ice Cream with Bacon

First, I must thank Pim, "queen of food bloggers" at Chez Pim and now also author of The Foodie Handbook.

It's her Brown Butter Ice Cream recipe that brings us to this monumental moment in my food biography.

Kids, I have made the perfect ice cream to mix the bacon into.



I made Brown Butter and Bacon Pasta back in the early days of HmmFoodGood, and have been in love with the flavor combination since. Naturally, when I read about Pim's ice cream, the first thought that came to mind was, "Hmm...I wonder if we could put bacon in it..."

Off I went, following all the steps listed in Pim's recipe down to the tee...well, except for the chilling in the fridge part.

There are TWO trickiest points in this recipe you must take heed.

First, browning the butter. Too brown and you'll have to strain off the burned chunks. Too light and you won't have the nutty buttery goodness. Once the pot started to foam up, I watched that thing like that Ice Age rat watches an acorn. I had to keep picking up the pot and swirl the foams away to check on the color since I can't see through the foams. This is when your nose comes into play. The moment the butter smells nutty, you know you're there.

I did have all the little brown bits and I kept them in. Not only they looked pretty, they tasted really frakkin' good.



Second and lastly, the sugar. When you're done with the custard and you taste it before sticking it in the fridge to chill, you would feel like it needs a little bit more sugar.

DON'T. ADD. MORE. SUGAR. Pim has configured this out to perfection. Trust me on this one. As a matter of fact, trust HER. It doesn't taste too sweet now but when everything mellows out in the freezer, you will find that it is perfect exactly where it is.

Now, the chilling before churning. I learned the metal-bowl-in-iced-water trick from my first ice cream experience. Almost instant gratification, I like! So, after blending, I poured the custard in a metal pot partly submerged in iced water and whisked it about until the mixture is chilled.



My one mistake was in the churning. I think I might have taken the mixture off the machine a bit too soon. Patience surely is not one of my virtues. Haha!

But deep down, my real fear is that I would keep "tasting" the mixture and there wouldn't be any left to freeze.

Instead of the creamy, scoop-able goodness I should've gotten, my ice cream is rock solid out of the freezer. However, after leaving it out, it's totally easy to scoop and as smooth and creamy as it was supposed to be.

If this somehow happens to you, I'd suggest about 10 minutes before you're ready for dessert, put the ice cream in the fridge. It'll be ready for scooping then.

Hence, a wee bit issue with photographing them. I have to let it soften enough to scoop. But then it starts to melt REALLY fast. So please, pardon the melt in these photos.

First up. THE reason why we make this ice cream in the first place: apple wood smoked bacon. Crispy fried and chopped to sprinkle-able perfection.



The sweet. The salty. The buttery. The nuttiness. The smokiness. The cold. The warm. The custard. The crunch. The melt. The chewiness.

This has everything you'd ever want in food in texture and flavors. It was perfect. PERFECT!

Someone call Saint Peter and tell him that I am now ready for those Pearly Gates.

The bacon topping got me concern about actually adding the bacon bits into the ice cream mixture itself. If we do that, we would lose that crunch.

I must experiment with making the bacon cups for this... OOOOHHHH...

Topping #2 is for the less adventurous. Since I didn't have any Fleur de Sel to use per Pim's suggestion--and nor did my local Bristol Farms--I went with Murray River pink flake salt from Australia. Oh, and the pink flaky salt melts so fast I couldn't even catch a picture of it.

The salt cuts the sweet just right. And even if it melted off, the mildly saltiness lingered on the bite when you get to it still. It was wonderful.

And finally, topping #3 for the "normal" people: turbinado sugar. It provides the wee bit of crunch and the extra sweet kick. And it looks pretty on a plate.



Two ice creams under my belt now. I think I'm feeling a wee little bit cocky. Hahah!

So, go ahead. Make a suggestion for my next ice cream adventure!