I wish I was a butcher

I say this to myself every time I have a big hunk of meat like a leg of lamb, or a pork shoulder or a whole chicken, turkey etc. As much as I enjoy cooking, a significant part of that enjoyment is the trans-formative aspect of turning raw ingredients into a finished product that tastes, smells and looks delicious.
I do need to work on the looks part for the blog, I make some darn tasty looking food but I just don't think of taking pictures. Usually because I am too hungry to wait.

All that introduction leads me to tonight's dinner. Broiled butterflied chicken with roasted carrots and onions, mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed kale with feta and olives.

The chicken is yet another Alton Brown recipe. The butterflying step is one of the things I really enjoy. Breaking down a whole chicken into a big flat canvas of meat just waiting to be seasoned and roasted is pretty special. And of course it is the reason you can roast a chicken on a weeknight. Toady Kerrie made gravy instead of the jus in the recipe.  The jus is wonderful and I strongly recommend you try it. It also works out well because the roasted vegetables soak up a lot of the juice so you don't have quite as much as you would if you just roasted the bird on a rack.

Roasted carrots and onions and perfect examples of the trans-formative aspect of cooking that I love. I enjoy onions just about any way you want to serve them, raw, cooked, steamed, sauteed, fried etc. However there is something about roasting them in the oven and finding that perfectly caramelized bit of onion that has stuck to the pan that just makes me a happy boy. Carrots might as well be a completely different entity. Raw carrots are tasty, roasted carrots are sweet earthy tender bits of awesome.

I could never be a vegetarian, carrots and onions roasted in meat juice would call to me. I could actually give up the chicken but you would catch me some night scooping up big serving spoonfuls of meat juice and carrots from a pan. it would not be pretty.

I don't really measure for mashed potatoes so it's tough to put together a recipe. I use the standard amount of potatoes I was taught by my mother which is one potato per person and one for the pot. So a family of 4 potato eaters needs 5 potatoes. Wash and cut the potatoes into about one inch pieces and boil them in salted water until soft drain well then add them back to the pot.
Add

about 1/2 cup milk (skim is all we have in the house, cream is of course awesome)
2 Tbsp of salted butter
a few grinds of black pepper
and the star recently is about 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. it adds a great tangy flavor and richness.
Lately Greek yogurt has become a staple in our house for a variety of reasons. This is one

Mash with a potato masher and add more salt and pepper to taste. I almost always leave the skins on unless I know I have picky eaters around who will turn up their noses at the skins. They may be wrong and out of their minds, but I cater to guests.

the kale was a new recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. I love this book for veggies.

It is a pretty simple recipe that would be equally good with collard greens. you will need

8-10 big kale leaves or more depending on your pan
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup of dry white wine
A block of feta cheese ( we used crumbled it was fine)
Kalamata olives
1 tomato (I did not have a tomato on hand so I skipped it)

First wash and slice off the kale leaves from their stems. If the stems are not to thick you may not need to do this for all of them. Chop the stems and garlic into small pieces then saute  in oil. Place some feta pieces and some broken up olive pieces into the individual leaf strips and roll them up. Place them in the pan on top of the chopped stems and garlic,  pour a half cup of dry wine over. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat, cover tightly and simmer for about 10 minutes until kale is tender and feta is melted.  This was really tasty. the tomato would have been a nice addition as the acid would have cut through some of the saltiness of the olives and feta.

The whole meal was served with a delicious  un-oaked chardonnay from  McGregor Winery, which of course was the wine I used in the kale. Any dry white would be fine.

Indian Spicy Grilled Chicken with grilled curried summer squash.

I grabbed the chicken recipe from an Indian cookbook I am growing to love called Madhur Jaffrey's Quick & Easy Indian Cooking
This is the second dish we have made that has turned out really well.
The Summer squash was a spur of the moment dish based on what we picked up from the CSA this week.

Ingredients:
For the Chicken:
1 Tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 Tbsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground oregano or 1 tsp ajwain seeds which can be found in Indian markets. It is described as having a taste similar to oregano and thyme but much more potent
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 clove of garlic smashed and peeled
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice(fresh is always best but I didn't have time today to run to the store)
2 Tbsp plain yogurt ( I used Greek yogurt)
2 3/4 lb chicken pieces ( I used boneless skinless breast but this would be great with thighs, legs, or bone in breasts)

For the Summer Squash:
2 small summer squash
vegetable oil
salt
curry powder


According to the recipe this does not need to marinate long if at all but the spice paste can be made up well ahead of time or rubbed on the chicken and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. I put mine in the fridge this morning.

Mix up all the ingredients but the chicken and either set it aside to use later or pour it onto your chicken and rub to coat evenly. If you do put the chicken in the fridge let it come to room temperature before grilling

Heat up your grill and give it a good coating of oil before placing the chicken down, the spice paste forms a great crust but you need to get it onto a very hot grill so it forms a crust on the chicken not on your grill grates.
Grill until your instant read thermometers says 165 then pull from the grill and let it rest for 5 minutes or so.

The summer squash is an easy one, if you are firing up the grill already then summer squash grilled in foil is always a nice addition. Slice the summer squash into even slices and lay down a sheet of foil about 16-18 inches long. Pile your squash onto the center of the foil give it a good coat of oil ( butter is better but hey cutting some fat is a good thing) sprinkle on some kosher slat and curry powder, toss the pieces together and add some more curry powder. I used 2-3 tsp maybe? Just be sure each piece has some nice color form the curry on it. Fold the foil to get the best seal you can. Don't be afraid to add another piece in the opposite direction. If you want to get really smart lay out two pieces of foil of equal length like a plus sign and lay your squash in the middle. Lay the foil packet on your grill and cook along side your chicken. Depending on how you like you squash you may want to place it on a few minutes before the chicken or pull it early. I don't like my squash mushy so I lean towards under cooking, just enough to heat through.

If I had any cilantro I would have made a mint chutney to serve with it alongside the frozen samosas I had on hand. Some additional yogurt was welcome on the side to cut some of the spice.

Basmati rice would have worked well but who wants to cook rice on a hot day.