This Chicken is Rockin'!

The amount of chicken breasts that I consume on a weekly basis can be staggering. It's my go-to protein - lean, easy to prepare, versatile. But at the end of the day, it's so very boring. Lord help me if I overcook it. There's really nothing worse than dry chicken breasts. Gack!

So recently, I veered from my rut and went for the chicken thighs in the butcher case. Thighs - with the skin! I had a hankering for something juicy, meaty, tender... and a chicken breast wasn't going to cut it. I even had in mind the way I wanted to cook them - similar to brick chicken on the grill, but done in the oven in a cast iron skillet. I envisioned them having a seared, crispy skin that would impart its flavor to the meat of the thighs, melding with the flavors of lemon, roasted garlic and fresh herbs. I was salivating at my vision for these thighs before a single ingredient ever hit the pan.

Proud to say this dish rocked. If it looks good in the picture, I can guarantee it tasted even better. You must try.

This is how you do it:

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
• You will need two cast iron skillets; one slightly larger to hold the chicken and the smaller one to weight and set on top (the second skillet will act as a clamshell grill, helping to cook the chicken thighs on both sides at once)
• Line the smaller skillet with tin foil and weight with either a brick, or in my case, rocks!
• Place the rock-filled skillet in the oven to get up to temperature as you prep the chicken and do the stovetop steps below
• Peel the cloves from an entire bulb of garlic; smash lightly with the flat side of a wide butcher knife
• Peel and finely dice one shallot
• Coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet with a glug of olive oil; add the shallot and garlic cloves
• Over medium/low heat on the stove, cook until the shallots and garlic are soft and caramelized
• Remove the shallots and garlic and turn the heat up on the skillet to high
• Lightly coat six chicken thighs with olive oil; sprinkle with kosher salt
• When the stovetop skillet is piping hot, place the thighs skin-side down
• Cook the thighs until the skins are seared to a beautiful brown color (approximately 7-8 minutes); remove the thighs from the skillet (leave any drippings) and remove the skillet from the heat (turn off the stove)
• Return the garlic and shallots to the bottom of the skillet
• Add a layer of fresh herb sprigs to the skillet; I used rosemary and lemon thyme
• Return the thighs to the skillet, skin side up
• Cut two lemons in quarters and squeeze the juice over the chicken; scatter the quarter rinds amongst the thighs
• Add another layer of fresh herb sprigs on top of the chicken
• Place the preheated second weighted skillet on top of the chicken-filled skillet; place the entire kit and caboodle back into the 400 degree oven
• Cook for approximately 20 minutes until the thighs are cooked through
• Eat up!

You Say It's Your Birthday!

It sure was! Today - the 10th - is my actual birthday, but I got the chance to celebrate for a couple of days - and will keep celebrating for even a few more! It's not really like me (the ongoing celebration) - but hey. Why not? Rand and I got to try a few new restaurants (new to us anyway) and I am happy as a clam with our choices. Both highly recommended: La Mar - a Peruvian fusion place on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and Eiko's, a modern Japanese hangout here in Napa. iPhone photos below (and I got myself the new iPhone as a present to myself! So hopefully, my iPhone photos in the future will be better!). I also had a chance to do some cooking over my self-made long weekend, so I'll have some new goodies to share with you in the coming days as well. So, little bit of exploring, a little bit of sticking close to home - a good birthday all around. Thank you everyoe for the birthday wishes. I think this aging thing is going to be ok!

La Mar

(Pictured above - pisco cocktails, of course! When at a Peruvian resto, it should be required that you have a drink made with Peru's signature spirit. Ran had the Pisco Sour and I had the Pisco Punch. Shown also are the amazing plantain and sweet potato chips with a trio of dipping sauces.)

Causa Casera: Artichokes, asparagus, avocado and tomato confit on top of yellow potato.

Cebiche Mixto: Yellowtail from Mexico, calamari and shrimp in an ají amarillo leche de tigre with cilantro, red onion, habanero, Peruvian corn and yam.

Almuercito Chalaco: Cebiche chalaco, empanada tamalito, y anticuchos de carne (mixed seafood cebiche, sweet corn empanada, grilled skirt steak skewers)

EIko's

Eiko's bar/lounge

Hamachi bon bons (hamachi wrapped around snow crab with eel sauce and tobiko)

Chicken lettuce wraps

My sashimi plate

Ran's shrimp tempura bento box

All in Favor of Fennel Say "Aye"

Aye! See those roasted veggies up there? That's fennel and cauliflower, roasted in anticipation of making a soup. I had visions of an earthy, silky, smooth soup, inspired by the rainy days we've been having. But you know what? These veggies never made it into a soup. They smelled SO good when I pulled them from the oven, that I pretty much ate them for lunch right there on the spot. The fennel was the real culprit - I was defenseless. My soup never even had a chance. If you think you're not a fan of fennel, try roasting it with a little bit of olive oil and kosher salt (high heat - 400 degrees - until it's caramelized). The licorice flavor and aroma of the raw bulb melt away, leaving a savory, rich morsel of goodness. So that's pretty much all I have to say - just try it. And next time, if I can avoid the temptation, I'll work on bringing you a soup recipe. But I wouldn't count on it...

Wordless Wednesday: Pink Pearl Apples

Fine Dining: Kitchen Door

So we could have just gone home. My lovely husband and I ventured out of the house this afternoon, with nothing on the agenda but to see "Moneyball." We show up at the theater however, only to find out that the online listing I consulted had the movie's start time WRONG. (Imagine that - the internet got something wrong!) So we had two hours to spare before the actual start time. Like I said, we could have just gone home.

But no! We started wandering our fair town instead. It's something that we don't do nearly enough, and with Napa really starting to come into its own, wandering is a worthwhile venture.

We decided to grab a bite to eat. With so many new restaurants cropping up in Napa, there are several that I have yet to visit, despite trying my best. There were two places at the top of my list:

• Eiko's, a new take on Japanese food from Eiko Nakamura of Fujiya - one of the world's best sushi restaurants located in an outlet mall (I kid you not) - although now that Eiko's is open, Fujiya has closed.
  
• Kitchen Door, the latest highly-touted restaurant from Chef Todd Humphries (Martini House) in the Oxbow Market that calls its food "an ingredient-driven menu of handmade multi-ethnic comfort food."

Decisions, decisions. But, after strollin up to Eiko's and learning that they're not open for lunch on Sunday, the decision was made for us. Kitchen Door it was.

What we ordered:

• Padrone peppers. (As I mentioned in a previous post, I can't get enough of these right now. The Kitchen Door version came prepared with lime and Korean chili flakes, and was draped with thin slices of handmade lardo. The peppers were perfectly blistered and tasty - I thought the lardo was completely unnecessary.)
• Korean Short Ribs with bacon fried rice. (Ran ordered these thinking he was ordering traditional ribs - oops.)
• Roast Duck Banh Mi Vietnamese-style sandwich with sweet potato fries. (Um - hardly. I ordered this envisioning juicy slices of roast duck amid the pickled veggies and fresh herbs. What I got though was mostly a thick smearing of duck pate on the too-big roll, with a few spare chunks of roast duck wedged in here and there. Not what I envisioned at all, and I won't be ordering it again. The fries however - perfectly executed. They were some of the best sweet potato fries I've tasted, and that's saying something since my favorite version is from Gott's, Kitchen Door's next door neighbor.)

So bottom line? It was fine dining, as Ran called it. Meaning, it was fine. Nothing special. Fantastic atmosphere - we ate on the patio overlooking the river - and some elements of our meal were stellar. But the meal as a whole didn't knock me out. In addition, there were some gaps in service. Our padrones arrived ten minutes after our entrees, for example. I was also greatly annoyed that after ordering at the counter, they give you a number and deliver the food to you (great - love it - no issues there) - but you have to schlep silverware, your awkward order number in its tall holder, water glasses and condiments - all without the aid of a tray. There wasn't a tray to be found to carry all of that stuff, and I was hauling goods for two since Ran was out saving us a prime table. So Kitchen Door - offer up a couple trays, why don't ya?

Anyhow, I'll eat there again for sure. I'll try different menu items, and hope for a better all-over experience. In the meantime though - Eiko's, you're next!

Blossoming in the Kitchen

So I'm at the farmer's market with one of my bestest foodie friends, Glenn. It was pretty amazing how we both honed in on a basket brimming with squash blossoms at precisely the same time. Between the two of us, we bought out the farmer's stash for the day, before the market had officially even opened (we're no dummies - we were there 15 minutes before the official opening time, cash in hand).

Of course we got to talking how we were going to prepare our little treasures, and of course the fall-back way is to stuff them with some cheesy gooeyness, batter and fry them. Glenn was going to do just that, but as good as that sounds (and is!) - I told Glenn that I was going to challenge myself to come up with a lighter version of the dish that was every bit as delicious.

Mission accomplished - and it was altogether a much easier, quicker dish to prepare than the fried version. Here's what I did:

• I still wanted a creamy, soft inside, so I went with a fat-free ricotta.
  
• To the ricotta, I added some fresh chopped herbs (basil, oregano), some roasted and chopped garlic, and some chopped up sundried tomatoes that I had packed in olive oil.
  
• I scooped a generous tablespoon of the mixture into the blossoms, and twisted the open end to hold it all together.
  
• I dunked each blossom in an egg white bath (I added a tablespoon of water for every two egg whites and whisked until frothy)
• Rolled the stuffed/dunked blossoms in panko bread crumbs
• Baked at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (turning once) until they were browned and the filling was warmed through

How about that, huh? Totally my new go-to method of making squash blossoms. Eat your heart out, Glenn!

White After Labor Day? Yes Please...

At the Chimney Rock Winery "White Party"... celebrating their white wines like Pinto Gris and Elevage Blanc. So yes. White after Labor Day works for me, fashionable or not! And if the wine, decor and attire at the party were all white, the food most definitely were not. Deelish... check out that paella!!