Welcome to the gun show (she says, flexing) or are you CHICKEN?

Get it? Chicken?
Get it?
Enh? Enh?... I’m not funny

So um, yeah.
A little while ago, I met Caty (Not in person, on the twitterwebs). She is the master of Snack a very entertaining and informative blog that you should definitely check out. About 2 weeks ago, she challenged me to a blog showdown, a chicken showdown. I must say, I’m not feeling very competitive about this whole showdown, because a) I’m not sure how it will be judged and because b) I like Caty and I want us both to win, but I am very excited about the collaboration.
The recipe choosing process was a difficult one, I didn’t want it to be too elaborate to look like I was trying to show off and possibly set myself up for a horrific failure. I also didn’t want to go too simple and not really flex my guns. (hee hee) Tamales were a very close second choice, but never having made a tamale, the uncertainty got the better of me and I went with a braised lentil cassoulet thingie.

Ok so if I need to boost the competitive energy here, I’ll start off by saying ‘oh yeah New York, oh yeah?! Let’s go, you wanna go? Let’s go! I’ll wipe the floor with your chicken recipe! Montreal RUUUULES!!!’
Ok no, sorry, just kidding. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We are both equally good. Please don’t be mad at me! (By the way, this is also how I discipline my cats.)

Speaking of cats, poor Olive thought that now that she's all famous, that there would be more fans knocking at her door



She's been looking everywhere! So I decided to throw a few pictures up on our blog of the littlest contributor.



Ok, the food. Right! Here's an unappetizing picture of 4 chicken legs marinating in buttermilk. And might I add that buttermilk stinks. Yum Yum. I marinated overnight.



There was a round of pancetta that I diced finely, I really don't need a reason to post a picture of pancetta, it's just a beautiful thing.



One diced yellow onion and a few (3-4) minced garlic cloves. There was also 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks that were diced, but not photographed.



I then browned the chicken legs in a hot, high-sided skillet, 2 at a time, and transferred them to a roasting pan and sprinkled with salt. I think next time, I'll remove the skins, they got a little too brown. At this point it's a good idea to preheat the oven to 400 - 375°F



Gratuitous shot of pancetta frying.



I then added the vegetables (onions & garlic first, then carrots and celery about 1-2 minutes later) After frying for about 5 minutes total, the vegetables start creating enough steam amongst themselves to start lifting the brown bits from the pan. At this point I added about 1/4 cup of white wine to help it along. Check out the gross stovetop. I really made a mess that night!



Once that was done and the pan was relatively clean under the veg, I mixed with 2 cups of green lentils (rinsed) and added to the roasting pan. Chicken on top, with many stalks of thyme. Then I added another 1/4 cup of wine and about a cup of chicken stock, enough so that the lentils are covered in liquid.



After about 45 minutes in the oven, it should look like this. Cook it until your lentils are tender.



And then I took it into a subterranean cavern to add creme fraiche... ok no, it's just a bad picture. We're still in the kitchen. The only thing left is to pick out the thyme branches.



And serve! It is is sublimely tasty and fortifying. I hope you can get that from the photo.


Well, that's my effort for chicken challllannngge. Hope you like! xoxox
Cast your votes... or something. (Nothing pointy though)

What to do with the soup!?

Hello! I’m back from blog blackout, and officially married! That sort of leads me to the dilemma of this post. I made 312 oz. of butternut sage parmesan soup as an appetizer for the wedding. Although I thought that it was going to be just enough for 85 people in 2 ounce shooters, it turns out that there was WAAAAAAYY too much. I am now left with about 200 oz. of butternut soup that I want to use before it goes bad. I put a lot of effort into it and I don’t want to just throw it out. So I’m trying to find innovative ways to use it up. There’s only so much soup two people can eat!
So I’ll start at the beginning. The original recipe starts with 2 butternut squashes (medium), 2 medium yellow onions (diced), 3 cloves of garlic (smashed and minced), about 2 -3 tbsp of fresh sage (chopped), 6 -8 cups chicken or vegetable stock, ¼ cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, and salt & pepper to taste. If you want to make this vegetarian, you don’t have to use the Parmesan, just add more salt. If you’re planning on having this as a cold soup you have to over-salt it. You can even over-salt it when it’s cold and not when you’re making it so that you have a more versatile batch.

First, peel and cube the squash into about ¾ inch cubes (removing the seeds). Then, fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until translucent, and add about 2/3 of the sage, sauté for a little bit longer. Add the squash and stir for about 5 minutes until you get the sense that the squash is starting to cook and the vegetables are generating steam. Add the stock (veg or bird) and stir vigorously so that if you have any caramelization, then you’re lifting it into the soup. Let the liquid come to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the squash looks like it will collapse under your sternest gaze. Then you can either blend it in batches in a conventional blender, or in the pot with an immersion blender. Add the remaining sage and parmesan at the end of the blending. Blend a wee bit more until the sage is broken up and the cheese is incorporated, then season with salt and pepper according to your liking. You probably won’t need much salt, but if you’re not using the cheese then you will.

That was the original recipe. It’s actually my first here on C & O that can be vegetarian. And if you want to translate it into the risotto that I made without meat, just skip the lamb and pancetta, you can easily braise shallots until they caramelize and turn into lovely sweet wisps.

Before I get to solution #1 for all that soup, just one or two or three gratuitous wedding related photos…Please excuse the beefyness of my arm in the 2nd picture, it’s clearly something someone did to the image in photoshop, I don’t really look that way… yeah, photoshop…


This is our awesome food that we had catered by Zee Company, (product placement). Their food is tremendous and Michael and his crew / family are super!



This is us. Hot stuff, no?


This is our awesome cake with the Han and Leia Topper. It was made for us by Marlyn at Montreal Confections. (Who is also awesome!) Thankfully for us, some people left before the cake was cut so that means we have leftovers. HEH HEH HEH... suckers, they don't know what a sweet treat they missed!



Ok, down to the real issue at hand... This is how much soup we have. Those 2 giant containers and the substantially less full one to the right. No human can eat that much before it spoils.



In order to incorporate it into other foods so that we can eat it without getting bored, I made a butternut risotto with braised lamb shoulder (lamb was also braised in squash soup). To start the braise, I cubed a 1 cm thick slab of pancetta. (But as I mentioned before, if you want to go meatless, skip this part and just brown the shallots in olive oil and deglaze with the vermouth. Then throw it in the oven and it will add a sweet and savory umami flavour without the addition of meat.



The afore-mentioned shallots. I sliced them in half after this when ready to add to pan.



LAMB LAMB LAMB LAMB. If you buy it with a bone, keep the bone in the pan to extract extra flavour and texture.


Oooh pancetta in a pan. Sizzle.



Lamb is added to brown.



This 1.5L bottle of Vermouth is also a casualty of the wedding. I bought it thinking that people (meaning me) would want martinis. No one had even one. So I'm using it in cooking now... and maybe a little for drinking too...


This is a post-deglaze photo. Also the shallots were added.



And then I added a hearty scoop o'soup. Please disregard the gob I dropped on the stovetop.



Meex meex meex (Translation: mix mix mix). Throw it in a 375° - 350°F oven, covered, for about half and hour. Until the meat is ridiculously tender and the vermouth / squash brew has reduced.



Then we start the risotto. Coat the rice in some hot olive oil and stir it around for about 30 seconds on med/high.



Then I added the soup, I also diluted it with some water because once it starts getting absorbd by the rice, it WILL stick. Add the liquid, whether it is the one illustrated here, or your own brew, ladle by ladle. If you were to add the entire content of liquid at once, it would simply boil and not have a chance to release all of its starches to form a proper risotto.



Here is a closeup of the finished risotto, it takes about 30 minutes and LOTS of stirring.


The lamb emerges from the oven the onions are all melty and there's a super savoury reduced brown ring around the pan.



Here is the final product. In retrospect, I probably should have used a different coloured bowl.
Everything got mixed together and then topped with a little parmesan.
It was SO SUPER GOOD. I can't even remember if poor Kyle got to try any. (I ate the rest of it the next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner... )

My next project for the soup is a roast vegetable lasagna using the soup (mixed with tomatoes) as the sauce. I don't know if I will blog it though, it's a multi-day project and I don't know if I want to put you through that. : )
Well anyways, enjoy the pictures, and be sure to check out the links for Zee Company and Montreal Confections. Also, if anyone wants any squash soup... we have lots.
More posts to come soon! I promise!!!!

The world’s fanciest Hamburger Helper

That’s what he called it, after I had spent hours braising bison ribs, pressing every last drop of braising liquid out of the strainer and hovering over what I thought would be my greatest creation this month: The world’s fanciest hamburger helper. I guess that’s ok, and not entirely inaccurate, just, I wish it had been “meaty ambrosia” or “egg noodles, topped with pure joy” ok maybe that’s a little over the top, but you see my point. Anyways, I had spotted a small package of bison ribs at my supermarket. I knew that there’s no way that was enough for 2 people. I also knew that there’s no way I could pull off those lean ribs as straight up ribs, so I decided to braise them and serve them over egg noodles with the strained braising liquid and parmesan. This is something you will come to learn: there’s never enough cheese in this world…

2 vidalia onions, 2 celery stalks, 3 garlic cloves chopped in the food processor


Seasoned bison ribs waiting for the heat

Into the pan you go my beasties!

FLIP!

Add mushrooms and carrots until browned and then add the vidalia mash

Add the herbs... oooh sweaty! (the herbs are a nice fat bunch of fresh thyme -- stalk on, they'll fall off in the braise; and 2-3 bay leaves)

Return the meat to the pan

Don't forget the white wine and / or vermouth (dry, don't be gross and add the sweet)

ummm... I MAY have forgotten to turn the oven on....

Ok, there we go.

Well, I also kind of forgot to remove 2 pans that were hibernating inside the oven so I needed this nifty device that my uncle Ed made me it allows you to pull out the oven grate, and push it back in without using oven mitts. It works really well for such a simple device.

So once the oven has heated up and you remove the pans that were not supposed to be there, cover the meat / veg and put in the oven for about 2 hours. Remove the meat and strain the vegetables into another vessel

Here is the liquid. I also picked out the mushrooms because I thought it would be nice tossed with the pasta.

Boil up a pot of salted water and cook egg noodles. Toss the noodles with the strained braising liquid, mushrooms and a little bit of cooking liquid from the pasta. Let it sit for a little bit for the pasta to soak up the liquid and...

the parmesan!!!!!!