November 8, 2009 by Jaclyn

Chinese Cashew Chicken

I love Chinese food. Part of what I love about it, I can’t deny, is the convenience – there are some days when I’m working late and I know that I am going to get home at the end of the dinner hour, maybe 8:30 or so, still hungry but much too tired to start cooking. On those kind of nights, having Chinese takeout waiting for me is one of the ways that my hubby shows me he loves me. Still, it’s not the healthiest option there is, especially when you add spring rolls to the equation. I always feel a little bit guilty…

I do love the flavors of Chinese food, both the high-end restaurant food and our little takeout place, but I always wonder what’s in it that makes it taste so good. Making a Chinese-style entree at home has been on my list for awhile; I’ve been hoping to trim the fat a little and find out more about those flavors that I enjoy. This Cashew Chicken is perfect for that. It is quickly sauteed, instead of breaded and deep fried, so it’s lighter than a takeout entree by far. And I modified the original recipe to include wilted bok choy for some green – so much the better! Next time you are in the mood for Chinese food, don’t reach for the phone. Reach for the cashews instead, and whip up this lighter treat.

1 1/2 pounds (or thereabouts) skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
3 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
kosher salt
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup unsalted cashews, toasted briefly
1 head bok choy, in ribbons
1 recipe cooked white rice, for serving

In a medium bowl, combine cubed chicken with sherry, ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, and salt to season. Marinate the mixture in the refrigerator 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine chicken broth, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Set aside.
When the chicken is finished marinating, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil until shimmering in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and saute until golden brown and completely cooked (in batches if necessary so as not to crowd the pan) and transfer to a plate.
In the same skillet, add another tablespoon of oil and wilt the bok choy. When the bok choy is completely wilted, add the cashews and grated garlic; cook about 30 seconds while moving the garlic around constantly with your spoon. Return the chicken to the skillet and pour the sauce over. Toss everything together about 30 seconds, until the sauce thickens.
Serve over cooked white rice.

Source: Adapted from Everyday Food, October 2009

November 7, 2009 by Jaclyn

Chez Panisse and Point Reyes

On the Tuesday of our vacation, we ventured out of the wine country for a gorgeous 6-mile hike at Point Reyes National Seashore and dinner amongst my people (hippies) in Berkeley… at the famed Chez Panisse. I’m a huge fan of Alice Waters and have been dying to visit Chez Panisse ever since I first read The United States of Arugula. Chez Panisse is actually two restaurants in one: an a la carte cafe upstairs, and a prix fixe fine dining establishment downstairs. Hubby and I couldn’t get reservations for the prix fixe restaurant, so we had reserved a table in the cafe. However, when we got to the restaurant we were able to get into the downstairs dining room after all. Hubby had the traditional menu, which included a pork dish, and I ordered the vegetarian option. The food was delicious. Behold…

First course – bean and heirloom tomato toasts. The bean toast, which had a garlicky bean puree topped with creamy whole beans, was my favorite, but the tomatoes were unbelievably delicious as well, and I enjoyed them immensely after the East Coast tomato blight had deprived me of much tomatoey goodness this summer.

Second course – vegetable fritto misto with a spicy dipping sauce. Crispy, crunchy and wonderful. Hubby’s meat-lovers option had seafood fritto misto, which I tried and enjoyed as well, though I think I liked the vegetables better.

I was very hungry, as you can imagine after a 6-mile hike in the blazing sun, and forgot to take a picture of my entree before digging in. Hubby had a pork chop, and my veggie substitute was a stuffed poblano pepper, which was extraordinarily spicy. (Maybe a little too spicy for my wussy palate. I’d never survive in Texas.) The only thing that I wasn’t crazy about, was the fact that the sides were the same – sauteed greens with raisins – for both dishes. I thought the side dish would have gone better with the pork chop than with the stuffed poblano, with which it seemed a little disjointed. But don’t get me wrong, it was awesome.

Dessert was a flavorful tart of the season’s first Jonathan apples and huckleberries:

Continuing the tradition of telling you exactly how hubby and I managed to work up an appetite for the unbelievable dinner, I’ll share a few pics of our 6-mile hike at Point Reyes National Seashore, which we did before driving to Berkeley.

Incredible view up the coastline:

Hubby takes in the scenery:

(Perhaps the most hilarious thing that happened on this trip happened on our Point Reyes hike. We passed a young family with a little girl, maybe three years old, riding on her father’s shoulders. She pointed at the hubs and shouted “Look, Daddy, a bear!” Then, sounding crestfallen, she corrected herself: “Oh. It’s a guy.” I almost fell over, I was laughing so hard.)

Elk (we actually got a lot closer than this picture makes it seem; they were awesome):

Point Reyes was a beautiful hike, but needless to say, we arrived in Berkeley hot, famished, and covered in dust. The kind folks at Chez Panisse took us in and fed us, an absolutely superb meal, and I’m still thinking about those bean and tomato toasts…

November 5, 2009 by Jaclyn

Quinoa Stuffed Squash

My market is overflowing with different varieties of squash lately. Yesterday, I went shopping for a boring old Butternut and came home with two Delicatas and a big, blue-green Hubbard instead. The Hubbard is destined to become soup (I just bought my copy of Anna Thomas’s Love Soup and squash soup is first on my list) but I bought the Delicatas just for play, and I knew I wanted to stuff one. With quinoa and chickpeas complementing the squash, this is a tasty and healthy dinner. If you add cheese to the top, as I have noted as an option below, you will find that the melted cheese will keep the quinoa moist underneath. If you skip the cheese, there will be a crispy quinoa crust over the top of the stuffing, which hubby really enjoyed.

This is a wonderful vegan (or vegetarian, if you add cheese) entree for fall, and I think it would be a spectacular addition to a vegetarian Thanksgiving table. Quinoa is a wonderful ancient American grain, with more protein than most other grains. It doesn’t hurt, either, that it’s incredibly pretty, cooking up as light and fluffy little spirals of goodness. Red quinoa is particularly gorgeous, and that’s what I used here – you can still see the red centers and the little white swirls.

See how pretty? Anyway, quinoa’s mild nutty flavor is a perfect foil for spices such as ancho chili powder and cumin, creamy beans, and sweet winter squash. Enjoy in good health!

Quinoa Stuffed Squash

1/2 cup quinoa
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 Delicata (or other small squash)
kosher salt
extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup shredded cheddar (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make the quinoa according to the package directions. When the quinoa is finished cooking, add most of the chickpeas (reserving about 2 tablespoons), the chili powder, and the cumin, and stir to combine. Stir in salt to taste and drizzle olive oil over the top.

Split the squash lengthwise, carefully, with the knife blade always pointing away from you. Clean the stringy inside (and reserve the seeds if desired; they’re great for roasting). Lay the squash, cut sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet or in a small roasting dish.
Drizzle a little olive oil over the cut sides of the squash and season with kosher salt. Add the reserved chickpeas to the bottom of the squash wells – about 1 tablespoon each. (If desired, sprinkle a little of the grated cheddar in as well – but not all of it.)

Spoon the quinoa stuffing over the chickpeas, until it piles up a little. Drizzle olive oil over the top for moistness. If desired, sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the stuffing. (I skipped this and made these vegan, but I do think they would be delicious with a cheesy crust.)
Bake 1 hour, drizzling a little extra olive oil over as needed (only if you skipped the cheese). Serve with green salad for a great, autumnal, vegetarian meal.

Source: Covered In Flour, inspired by Vegetarian Times

November 3, 2009 by Jaclyn

Cyrus Restaurant and Sonoma Wineries

Cyrus Restaurant was our big splurge, because try as we might, hubby and I just couldn’t get a table at The French Laundry. While pouring over the Burgundy Bible to plan our restuarants, we discovered that Cyrus had the same food rating – an astronomical 29 – as The French Laundry. We decided that just because we had bad luck trying to get into The French Laundry didn’t mean that we didn’t deserve a dinner we would remember for the rest of our lives, and man alive, will we remember this. From the moment you walk into Cyrus, you know that you are in a very special place. The restaurant was incredibly elegant, with dim lighting (as a result, I must apologize for my photography) and a staff of waiters that made you feel as if you were the only table that mattered. We ordered the tasting menu, sat back, and prepared to be amazed. And amazed we were – the quality of the food was outstanding, the presentation was spectacular without being pretentious, and the dishes were creative and sumptuous.

First off, amuse bouche representing the five tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, salty and savory. My favorite was sour, which was a “grape” filled with tart juice, and the savory, a miniscule tomato tartlet. Pictured below are sour and sweet, a tiny little gelee apple:

Seared Hamachi tuna with tomatoes and melon, sesame balsamic:

My porcini risotto:

Hubby’s foie gras torchon with cashews and plums:

Medai with corn and scallions in ginger-shiso dashi:

Duck breast with potatoes and peppers in sherry jus:

My chanterelle tagliarini with mustard greens and a steamed bantam yolk (hubby had seared Wagyu beef for this course, and I missed the photo):

Plate of farmstead cheeses, selected by our waiter:

Cherry and pistachio ice cream sandwich:

My polenta with figs and pears:

Hubby’s warm gianduja donuts:

Cyrus was just insanely good. Each course was intelligently planned and presented, and paired with its perfect wine – some local, some Old World. They gave us a copy of our menu to take home and dream about the meal we had, and I’ll be dreaming about it for quite some time.

Before our amazing meal, we drove through the Russian River Valley area of Sonoma County, which is one of my favorite wine regions in the world. I have a very hard time turning down a Russian River Valley wine – the area is particularly good for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which like the cooler temperatures. (The same is true of Carneros – more on that in a future post.) Because I don’t have enough pics to dedicate an entire post to Sonoma wineries, here are the highlights:

Lynmar Estate Winery. We were actually on our way to a different winery when the sign caught my eye and I shouted out “Pull over here!” We never made it to the winery we had originally planned, but I’m not sorry, because Lynmar was a treasure. It’s a tiny winery that does most of its sales through its website and right in the tasting room. The wines were some of the best that we tasted all week.

The winery:

The beautiful tasting room:

Another Sonoma winery I love is La Crema. My parents introduced me to La Crema wines through the widely-available Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, which I love. (In fact, introducing me to La Crema is on my short list of things for which I’m most grateful to my parents – right under Giving Me Life and Paying For Cornell. Well, Taking Me On Awesome Vacations is probably ranked higher than La Crema too… but as you can see, I’m pretty grateful to my parents for La Crema.) Hubby loves the wine too, so we paid a visit to the tasting room in Healdsburg, where we got to try some of the fantastic wines that result from winemaker Melissa Stackhouse’s playing around. Do I even need to tell you that we joined the wine club? Or could you have guessed?

The La Crema tasting room, elegant and understated:

So! Many! Choices! What’s a messy Libra to do?

Between Cyrus and the Sonoma County wineries we visited (we also hit Taft Street, but I left the camera in the car – I’m awesome like that), hubby and I were pretty saturated with incredible food and wine, which was starting to become a theme of our California vacation…

November 1, 2009 by Jaclyn

Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen

For our first meal in the wine country, hubby and I chose Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, one of three Napa Valley restaurants by Cindy Pawlcyn… which we had to visit because, well, Giada ate there. Being the Food Network junkies we are, we knew that we had to order the flatbread appetizer. Giada says. SO…

Flatbread with three Meditteranean spreads (carrot-mint, eggplant-avocado, and turnip; hubby liked the turnip, I liked the eggplant, and we both liked the carrot):

Indian-spiced baked eggs and tomatoes:

My duck with beans:

Sorry, I didn’t get a good shot of hubby’s entree. He had steak, though.

Campfire Pie, the highlight of the evening:

Gooey, chocolatety and marshmallowy. You can’t go wrong unless, of course, you try to eat it by yourself. Eating Campfire Pie is very much a team sport. It was a very filling dinner! Fortunately, hubby and I had worked up an appetite hiking at the Muir Woods National Monument on our way from San Francisco to the wine country. It was breathtaking:

Cindy’s was the perfect first meal in the wine country: casual and relaxed, but still phenomenal food. We washed it down with California Zinfandel, strolled around St. Helena and got excited for wine touring!

October 31, 2009 by Jaclyn

Upside Down Pear and Chocolate Cake

Despite all of my best intentions, I’ve still had trouble getting to the keyboard to wave “hi” to the blogosphere. It’s been a crazy few weeks at work, and I’ve been doing some traveling, which is keeping me away from my computer on weekends. I haven’t even been doing all that much cooking – we’re living on cheese and pickles and bean dip these days, it seems. But I do want to share this wonderful cake with you… provided you still like me, even though I’m such a lousy blogger.

I’ve been wanting to make this cake for awhile. It’s from Rustic Fruit Desserts – a baking book that has become a standby for me even in the short time I’ve had it. But complications arose which prevented me from baking this. You see, hubby doesn’t like pears. Don’t ask me why. Don’t ask him why, either. He doesn’t know why, he just knows that he doesn’t like them. So with hubby not liking pears, and me not being the biggest chocolate afficianado, this cake seemed destined to end up in the pile of good-ideas-that-will-never-get-baked. But I kept it in the back of my head, because really it’s a lovely recipe and I wanted to give it the old college try. Then last weekend I finally got my chance – I was down in Miami visiting my college B-F-F, the adorable Rebecca, and it just happened to be her birthday. Clearly, Rebecca needed a birthday cake, and clearly, I was just the girl to bake it for her! We pulled out a bunch of cookbooks and this recipe from Rustic Fruit Desserts – which Rebecca had ordered after I raved about it – was the clear winner. After one bite, we both agreed that this is a cake to make again and again. The cake is moist, which you don’t always get in chocolate cakes, with a deep, dark, chocolatey flavor, and the pears and homemade caramel take it over the top.

I might even bake it for hubby. See if I can change his mind about pears.

Upside Down Pear and Chocolate Cake

Fruit Topping
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 firm-ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced

Cake
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch-processed (unsweetened) cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make caramel: Put 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water into a heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and stir until sugar dissolves. Bring the sugar mixture to a boil over medium heat, then cover and allow to cook for two minutes. Uncover and allow the sugar mixture to continue to boil, gently swirling occasionally, until the caramel takes on a dark amber color. Pour the caramel carefully – very carefully! – into the prepared baking pan and allow it to solidify. Arrange the pear slices over the caramel (either fan them out if you want them to look pretty, or strew them haphazardly for a more rustic look – I would have preferred the latter, but the birthday girl requested the former, so that’s what I did).
To make the cake, melt the butter and chopped chocolate together over a double boiler. Meanwhile, sift tgether the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, whisk to combine if necessary, and set aside.
Transfer the melted chocolate to the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, and beat with the paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer with beaters) for 3 minutes on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate and scraping down the sides after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
Mix the dry ingredients into the chocolate, sugar and egg mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk. Pour the batter over the pear slices in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, until springy.
Cool the cake in its pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto a plate, leaving the pan on the cake for another 5 minutes before removing it. (Nota Baker: Don’t rush this! I’ve tried to unmold things before they were ready. Major disaster. As the Pioneer Woman would say, don’t be like me.) Serve cake warm, preferably with vanilla ice cream.

Source: Rustic Fruit Desserts, by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson

October 23, 2009 by Jaclyn

Apple Pluot Crisp

How’s this for a transition dish? The last of summer’s beautiful, mouthwatering pluots, combined with the first of fall’s abundant apples, and topped with a crunchy, sweet oat crisp. Yes, please! This is seasonal food at its best… crisps are a fantastic option for summer and fall desserts because they welcome any fruit filling you can imagine. I think of fruit crisp as the quintessential farmers market dish: just pick the most delectable fruit you can find at your farmers market (or, better yet, at a local orchard – go to www.pickyourown.org to find one near you) and go nuts. Your dinner guests will love it!

Apple Pluot Crisp

Fruit Filling
5 pluots
3 medium apples
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch salt

Crisp topping
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter, cubed
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare fruit: peel and core apples, then chop into medium-large chunks. Bring a pot of water to a boil; score the bottoms of the pluots with “x” marks and drop them in the boiling water. Allow pluots to boil for 30-45 seconds, then remove and place in cold water immediately. Peel pluot skins off (they should come off easily now) and core and chop pluots. Mix apples and pluots together in a medium bowl. Add salt, sugar and cornstarch and toss to coat evenly.
Combine flour, oats, sugar and salt in a separate bowl; whisk together. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives (alternatively, combine dry ingredients in a food processor, then pulse in the butter).
Spread fruit filling out in 8×8 baking dish. Cover evenly with crisp topping. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until fruit is cooked through and topping is golden brown. Serve with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.

Source: Covered In Flour, inspired by The Barefoot Contessa

October 21, 2009 by Jaclyn

Wine Notes: Robert Mondavi Winery

While in Napa, one absolutely must visit Robert Mondavi winery. Sure, you may think – as I did – that you already know what Mondavi wines taste like and you’re in Napa to experience something new. But you still have to go to Mondavi, first and foremost, to pay your respects. Mondavi was a wine industry giant, respected all over the world – even in France! – and responsible in many ways for making California wines what they are today. The winery itself is gorgeous and the tour is fascinating. And there’s also the small matter of… well, let’s just say that the wines you taste after the tour are not your run-of-the-mill Woodbridge from the grocery store. They serve you their absolute best stuff, and it’s world’s away from mass produced. I left Mondavi’s winery with a new respect for the man as a wine pioneer – and I had already read Harvests of Joy, so I did know how important his contribution was – and a newfound taste for his wines.

The winery:

Part of To Kalon, the famous vineyard:

Gazing down rows of grapevines:

Magic is happening here:

Doug, our hilarious guide, explains the winemaking process:

Barrel aging:

After the incredibly interesting tour, we tasted three outstanding wines and had a parmesan cracker, for which the winery was kind enough to give everyone a copy of the recipe! Since recipes are my favorite kinds of souvenir, stay tuned for those crackers to make an appearance before long.

Robert Mondavi winery was a revelation. My parents had been there and highly recommended it, so I did have some elevated expectations. And I would have gone anyway, simply because Mondavi himself was such an important personality that I didn’t feel a trip to Napa would be complete without visiting his winery. But the wines we tasted there were so special that I left the winery with a new admiration, not just for the history of the place – which I already respected – but for what they’re doing in the here and now. It really is intoxicating.

October 20, 2009 by Jaclyn

Roasted Fall Vegetables

I absolutely love vegetables, and I’d be hard pressed to name one that I don’t like. And roasting vegetables is my absolute favorite way to cook them. Back in my law school days, when the only dinner I knew how to cook was chicken piccata, I’d always make roasted asparagus to go along with it. I never got tired of those crispy asparagus tops! Eventually, I branched out into roasting other vegetables. Carrots, for instance, are one of my favorite veggies to roast. And the day I first roasted brussels sprouts was the day that my husband discovered that he actually likes brussels sprouts!

Roasted vegetables are delicious because they are crispy in places, chewy in places, and have wonderful caramelized crusts – my favorite part. And the fact that they couldn’t be easier to make, well, that doesn’t hurt either. The secrets to perfect roasted vegetables are a high oven temperature – 400 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the vegetable – and plenty of salt. And, of course, enough time. The results are well worth your patience, though, especially when the weather starts getting cooler and the winter squashes appear at your market. For the perfect fall side dish, toss some winter squash and sweet potatoes in a little maple syrup and watch the autumn magic happen.

Roasted Fall Vegetables

1 white sweet potato, peeled and large-diced
1 garnet yam or jewel sweet potato, peeled and large-diced
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and large-diced
2 tablespoons (approx.) extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, a generous hand
2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Because these are very dense, fibrous root veggies and winter squashes, you need a higher temperature.
After you have prepared the vegetables, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and maple syrup if using, on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Roast for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and quickly toss. Place veggies back in oven and roast for approximately 15-20 minutes more – keep an eye on the vegetables at this point. When they start getting a beautiful, caramelized crust and are fork-tender, they are ready.

Source: Covered In Flour, roasting method from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Yield: Serves 4

October 15, 2009 by Jaclyn

Maple Roasted Chicken

Apologies for the lack of updates recently! It’s been extremely hectic around here for the last week or so, and I haven’t done all that much cooking. How about I make it up to you with some chicken? (Isn’t chicken the best way to make up? I think so. Wouldn’t you agree? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) For the longest time, I shied away from making roast chicken. It seemed to be very complicated – it’s not – and I didn’t think that hubby and I could finish a whole one – we can’t, but I was forgetting about the magic of leftovers. This is a particularly autumnal way to eat roast chicken, with a sweet and smoky maple glaze ,and it’s especially good with some caramelized roasted squash and sweet potatoes on the side.

For this recipe, I decided to try a new technique, which I read about in good old Cook’s Illustrated. Basically, the toughest (pardon the pun) thing about achieving perfect roast chicken is that the breast often cooks to the consistency of an old shoe before the legs and thighs have actually cooked through. To remedy this, the folks over at America’s Test Kitchen suggested the ingenious method of starting the chicken roasting breast-side-down, to give the dark meat a chance at the high heat, then turning the chicken over to finish cooking breast-side-up for that crispy skin effect. I’d never tried this before and my roast chickens generally come out fine, but I wanted something outstanding this time, since my hungry sister-in-law, the lovely Emma, was going to be eating this chicken after a long, rainy drive from the Deep(ish) South. Well, I’ve got to hand the ATK team some credit – this method definitely worked. The chicken breasts were by far the moistest (is that a word?) I have made, and the dark meat was perfectly done as well. ATK? More like A+TK! Sorry, I had to do that.

Here, have some chicken. It’ll help, I promise. Chicken cures all bad jokes.

Maple Roasted Chicken

1 small to medium sized roaster chicken
olive oil, salt and pepper
maple syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove the organs from inside the chicken. (Side note: Anyone seen the Thanksgiving episode of the first season of “Dharma and Greg”? “Awww, look, his mom packed him a lunch!” Honk if you find that line hilarious too.)
Rinse the chicken well and pat dry. Season the inside of the cavity with salt and pepper. Place upside down on a foil-lined baking sheet, which you have prepared by spraying it with cooking spray ahead of time. (Don’t skip this step or the chicken will be VERY difficult to dislodge from the pan in 30 minutes. As the Pioneer Woman would say, don’t be like me.) Season the bottom of the chicken with salt and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Roast breast-side-down for 30 minutes, then remove pan from the oven and, using two pairs of kitchen tongs or two large forks and some brute force, flip the chicken over to breast-side-up. Drizzle with a little olive oil, season generously with salt and pour maple syrup over the top. Don’t skimp – get it into all the nooks and crannies, using a pastry brush if you need to. The key to this chicken is a really caramelized maple flavor, so now is not the time to be stingy. Finish the chicken off with some freshly ground black pepper. If desired, now is a good time to insert a digital meat thermometer into the area between the leg and the breast – this is the coolest part of the chicken, so when it’s done you will know the rest is done.
Return the chicken to the oven and roast another 45 minutes. About 20 minutes in, give the chicken a quick basting with some more maple syrup, then continue to roast. Keep an eye on your meat thermometer, of course, but 45 minutes should just about do it. If you don’t have a digital meat thermometer, after 45 minutes insert a standard meat thermometer and check the temperature. When the thermometer reaches about 165 degrees, take the chicken out of the oven and tent with foil. It will continue to cook. (Alternatively, to tell when the chicken is done, pierce the thigh with a small knife. When the juices run clear, the chicken is done.)
Allow the chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes, longer if desired. This will give the juices a chance to redistribute so they stay in the meat and don’t run out all over your cutting board. Gross! After the chicken has rested, carve and serve!

Source: Covered In Flour

Yield: Serves 6-8 with sides.

Wine Notes: In honor of my birthday (yes, I’m still in my twenties, thank you for asking) we corked a bottle of Hillsborough “Opal” from Hillsborough, VA. “Opal” is a blend of Petit Manseng and Chardonnay (my beloved Chardonnay, so misunderstood – just like me!) and is a lovely medium-bodied white. It’s a perfect wine for fall, not only because Opal happens to be October’s birthstone, but because its creamy mouthfeel and delicate flavor create a perfect complement to fall’s hearty vegetable pastas and roasted or baised meats. Happy Birthday to me!

covered in flour

the adventures of a wandering reader…

Chinese Cashew Chicken

Chez Panisse and Point Reyes

Quinoa Stuffed Squash

Cyrus Restaurant and Sonoma Wineries

Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen

Upside Down Pear and Chocolate Cake

Apple Pluot Crisp

Wine Notes: Robert Mondavi Winery

Roasted Fall Vegetables

Maple Roasted Chicken