Just a Tip: Skimmin'

When you're skimming the "scum" off the surface of your simmering stock, here's a tip to really make it nice and easy:

Use a fine wire mesh strainer. Just run it around the surface of the water and rinse it in a bowl of ice water.

It's very important to skim during the first hour of simmering and using a spoon or ladle can be a real pain in the butt. This method makes it really easy and effective.

Foggy stock is no good. SKIM THAT SCUM! :)

(By the way, I got this tip from watching Alton Brown and it stuck so it must've been a good one.)

Thanks for reading,


B

The First Review is In

From Christine:

Well the roasted chicken with carrots and fingerling potatoes was delicious (even if it's not from the ad hoc cookbook).

After I disassembled the two chickens yesterday I dredged all the parts (from one bird) in flour and added them to hot Canola Oil in a cast iron Lodge skillet and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Once they had a nice color (5-7 minutes) I flipped them over and covered the skillet.

After another 5-7 minutes, I added sliced onions, carrots, a little butter, and fresh thyme. I moved the chicken pieces on top of the veggies and moved the whole skillet into the oven at 350° for about an hour.

While the chicken and veg was cooking, I tossed purple and fingerling potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper and put them into another smaller cast iron skillet, covered with a lid, and tossed into the oven.

We had some left over coleslaw from the night before as our green side.

The kids and I ate it up and I fixed more chicken for Christine before she got home from a late meeting.

Today: Chicken Stock (and something with the rest of the chickens...)

Thanks for reading,


B

Stumblin'

After thinking that I was going to start this process today, I realized that I needed to take a step back and actually plan this endeavor a bit better.

Tonight was going to be spit pea soup with smoked ham hock. It uses fresh peas as well as dried split peas and lots of other goodness.

The problem? It also uses homemade chicken stock and I haven't made it yet.

So, I'll be starting with the staples (i.e. stocks, sauces, etc.) and then working the recipes.

Instead of ad hoc tonight, it'll be an original recipe (several actually) for my crew--chicken.

Yep, I needed to buy whole chickens because I can't find anybody who actually process their own birds around here. That's okay, I can take a chicken down into pieces pretty easily and then I'll have all the good stuff I need to make stock tomorrow. The good news is that the brand new Costco up the street had whole chickens for 89-cents a pound.

It's not even 3:00 yet and I'm already starting to work up components for tonight and getting the knives nice and sharp.

So, Chef Keller will have to wait another day but his time will come in my kitchen.

Thanks for reading,


B

Gettin' Ready to Start

I had a brilliant idea yesterday and I see I'm not the only one.

I picked up Chef Thomas Keller's "ad hoc at home" cookbook as well as "The French Laundry" cookbook after checking it out from the local library so many times I thought they were going to just give it to me.

After a quick flip through yesterday, I decided I was going to "do" the whole book. I'm going to work through every recipe from cover to cover, make notes, take pictures, and report back here.

I'm going to start tomorrow.

See you back here.

Thanks for reading,


B