Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme

Why ever did I think this was going to be easy? This evening I attempted (at Nate's urging) to cook an entire 3 pound chicken.

Nate chose this recipe for me out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and upon first glance it looked pretty straightforward -- buy chicken, butter skin, do some other things. Sounds easy enough, yeah? HELL NO!

My culinary journey began at 6:45 this evening. I did all the prep work first so that entailed peeling 15 pearl onions and boiling them in salted water for 5 minutes, creating potato rounds with my mandolin and then boiling them, and gently simmering bacon lardons in water; this process took roughly an hour and a half. I felt I was then ready for the task of preparing my chicken.

I opened my little 3 pound bird and was immediately discouraged. The cavity still held the...um...innards, it looked far more chicken-y than I was expecting and just plain-old looked unappetizing.

I somehow gained the courage to remove the unmentionables, season the cavity and rub the skin with butter. At this point I was staring to feel confident, "yeah, Julia, I can throw this chicken breast-side down into the casserole and brown it" however, my courage was quickly robbed from me when I began browning and my skin was sticking, the chicken wasn't trussed (I couldn't find any twine anywhere), and it looked frankly disgusting.

It is now 8:30 and the sad, pale, skin-ripped bird has yet to even make it into the oven yet.

After making a bed of potatoes, bacon and onions I put the pathetic excuse for poultry into the casserole dish with a sheet of foil and the lid and prayed to whatever kitchen god could save this meal.

The oven alarm just sounded (it's 10:00 now) and the chicken doesn't look much different than when it went into the oven. No one likes to admit their failures, especially not to friends and family or random people on the internet but this time, I deserve my failure. Cooking a whole chicken is a nightmare!

Below is the recipe and I wish you all luck. I think I will be spending awhile licking my wounds before I attempt this again.

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme (Casserole-Roasted Chicken with Bacon, Onions and Potatoes)

1/2 pound chunk of bacon
A fireproof casserole for cooking the chicken
4 Tbsp butter
 3 lb ready-to-cook chicken trussed and buttered
15-25 peeled white onions, about 1 inch in diameter
1-1 1/2 lbs "boiling" potatoes or small new potatoes
1/4 Tsp salt
Cheesecloth
4 parsley sprigs
1/2 bay leaf
1/4 Tsp thyme
Bulb baster
Aluminum foil

As I said before, I started with the onions. Peel them and then toss them in a saucepan filled with salted boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes, drain and set aside.

Move on to your potatoes. Slice them into rounds 2 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. Use a mandolin if you have one, it'll make your life so much easier. Place into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and drain immediately. Set aside.

Onto the bacon. Slice the bacon into lardons, or 1/2 inch wide and 1 1/2 inch long strips. Simmer for 10 minutes in 2 quarts of water. Rinse in cold water and dry.

In your casserole dish, saute for 2 to 3 minutes in 1 Tbsp butter until lightly browned. Remove to a side dish leaving the fat in the pan.

Make an herb bouquet using the cheesecloth, parsley, bay leaf and thyme.

Preheat the oven to 325.

Now for the...ugh...chicken. Season the cavity of the chicken with 1/4 Tsp salt, a pinch of pepper, 1/2 Tsp of dried taragon. Truss the chicken (assuming you actually have twine) and butter the outside of the bird.

Over medium-high heat, brown the chicken in the hot fat breast-side down. Brown for 2-3 minutes, "regulating the heat so butte is always very hot but not browning," thanks, Julia. You make it sound so simple. Turn the chicken to create even browning without breaking the skin (something I failed to achieve). This process SHOULD take 15 minutes. Dump out the fat (not into the drain though, use an old can or something).

Heat 3 Tbsp butter in the casserole over medium heat until it is foaming. Add the potatoes and coat them in butter for 2 minutes so they lose their moisture. Spread them around the sides, salt the chicken, and place it breast-side up over the potatoes, onions, bacon and herb bouquet. Baste with the butter. Cover with aluminum foil and the lid of your casserole dish.

Roast for and hour and 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

As I said, mine looked a pitiful excuse for a french chicken but at least it tasted alright. The meat was tender and moist, potatoes were soft and onions were succulent.

Good luck, readers, may your Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme turn out better than mine.

Roasted Potatoes O'Brien

Good morning, readers! Man, do I love Sunday mornings! Wake up late, drink extra cups of coffee just because you can and, my personal favorite part: BIG BREAKFASTS! 

Nate and I call them "bun breakfasts" because our pet names for each other is "bun" and we're enjoying breakfast together. Adorable, right? 

Anyway, so this particular Sunday we were a little short on ingredients but I put on my Chef's thinking hat and whipped up some fried eggs and roasted potatoes O'Brien. 

Roasted Potatoes O'Brien 

2 Tbsp olive oil 

1/4 large yellow onion, diced 

1/2 orange bell pepper, diced

4 red potatoes, washed and diced

Salt and pepper, to taste 

Sprinkle garlic powder 

Sprinkle red pepper and garlic seasoning  

Sprinkle Sriracha seasoning 

Preheat oven to 400. 

On a large cookie sheet, arrange the onion and bell peppers to make a "bed" for the potatoes. 

Place potatoes on top. 

Once the pan is arranged drizzle with olive oil and season like there's no tomorrow! 

Roast for 30 minutes, taking the pan out at 15 minutes to rotate and flip the potatoes. 

That's it. The potatoes are done. Easy, right? The onions get crisp, the peppers get sweeter and the potatoes have that perfect soft-with-a-bite texture. Yummy! 

Now everyone one knows how to fry an egg, however I decided to swap my cooking spray for a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil and it changed everything!! The egg was flavorful, moist, and cooked perfectly. Must admit, I may never use cooking spray to cook eggs again. 

Well, enjoy your Sunday, readers! Look forward to come tasty meals coming up soon! 

Filets de Poisson Poches Au Vin Blanc

Hello readers! Sorry I've been on hiatus, I unfortunately have not been cooking much lately due to beginning to bartend at nights. However, today is my day off so I wanted to treat Nate to a nice dinner. I bought a bottle of Riesling about a month ago and have been waiting for the perfect fish dish to pair it with. So, I cracked open my trusty copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking because, duh, Julia Child is queen and I found a recipe that sounded just perfect! 

Filets de Poisson Poches Au Vin Blanc

This is just a fancy French name for Fish Filets Poached in White Wine. 

I adjusted the recipe for 2 people but Julia has it for 6. 

2 fillets of flounder or sole

Salt and pepper, to taste 

1 Tbsp finely minced shallots or green onions (I used green onions) 

2 Tbsp butter cut into bits 

2/3 C dry white vermouth 

1/4 C bottled clam juice

Waxed paper 

2 Tbsp flour

1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While your oven is preheating, butter a oven-safe sauté pan. 

Sprinkle half of your minced shallots or green onions in the bottom of the pan.

 

Season both sides of your fish with salt and pepper and place on top of the green onions. Slightly overlap the fish and sprinkle on the remainder of the green onions. 

Pour the cold liquid on the fish, but barely cover it. 

Put the pan over medium heat until the liquid is almost simmering, then cover with the wax paper (I pressed mine onto he top of the fish because I was using a Dutch oven, not sure if you were supposed to do that or not...Julia wasn't clear on that.) 

Place the saucepan (or Dutch oven in my case) in the bottom part of your oven and  poach away for 8-12 minutes. Don't overcook the fish because overcooked fish is just truly terrible; seconded only to overbooked octopus or squid. Basically, when you can pierce the pierce the fish with a fork easily it's done. 

Remove the paper, cover and pour the poaching liquid into another saucepan. This is going to become the most magnificent sauce you've ever had.

Now I know what you're thinking: where do the bits of butter come in? After the fish has been drained, put the dots of butter onto the filets of fish and let them melt into delicious pools of salty and creamy goodness. 

In a separate small bowl, melt 1 Tbsp butter and stir in 2 Tbsp flour to make a paste. Add to the reserved poaching liquid and bring to a boil. Once sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (it's not a glaze, the sauce will be thin. Don't get discouraged!), season with salt, pepper and lemon. 

I served this magnificent fish dish (thank you, Julia!) with sautéed asparagus and mashed red potatoes. 

Sautéed Asparagus

1 Tbsp butter

1 bunch asparagus

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 lemon 

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and brown the garlic. Once you can smell the intoxicating aroma of sautéing garlic, add in the asparagus and sauté until bright green and coated in butter. Drop the heat to low and sprinkle with lemon juice. 

Red Mashed Potatoes 

3 C water

4 red potatoes, cleaned and cubed

1 Tbsp butter 

Salt and pepper, taste 

1/2 C heavy cream 

In a pot over high heat, heat water and add in potatoes and boil until tender 

Drain into a colander. 

Add in butter, cream, salt and pepper and mash until the perfect consistency.

Allow me to say: this meal had enough butter to stop your heart, paired flawlessly with the 2015 Terrassen Riesling and reinvigorated my passion for cooking and now blogging! 

To thank Julia properly, here's a picture of me at Julia Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian a couple weeks ago. Thank you, readers!