Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

The best laid plans . . . Well, it looks like the anticipated pool party will not happen this year.  We are returning to Lake Lure in two weeks and scheduling problems and other obligations have occured.  But these easy to eat sticky skinless chicken legs would have been a good addition to the buffet menu.  If you are interested in hosting a similar party here is my game plan.

                                                Cheese Platter
                                                Vegetable and Fruit Platter
                                                Boiled Shrimp Platter with Cocktail Sauce
                                                BLT Wraps (recipe posted)
                                                BBQ Beef Brisket with Sliders (recipe posted)
                                                Asian Glazed Chicken Legs (recipe here)
                                                Sweet Potato Salsa (recipe posted)
                                                Cole Slaw
                                                Deviled Eggs
                                                Apple Pound Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
                                                Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Everything on the menu can be done ahead of time.  The beef and chicken can be rewarmed at the last minute.  The only thing that should be assembled right before your guests arrive would be the BLT wraps, but the bacon can be pre-fried and the other components prepped ahead.  If you are short on time, you can purchase the shrimp platter and the cheese and vegie trays from the deli department.

The recipe for the chicken was in the latest issue of Cooking Light, but they used skinless chicken thighs. I loved the mahogany sheen that the combination of rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, and chile paste gave to the chicken and will definitely be making this again. Next time, I will serve it with sticky rice, but the roasted potatoes and sugar snap peas made a pretty plate. This dish is a great example of the delicious flavors you can find in Asian cuisine, which is becoming increasingly popular in the restaurant industry.

ASIAN-GLAZED CHICKEN LEGS

1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup lower-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste
10 garlic cloves, minced
12 bone-in chicken thighs or legs, skinned
Cooking spray
Salt to taste

Combine vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame lil, chile paste, and garlic, stirring until honey dissolves.  Pour vinegar mixture into a zip-top plastic bag.  Add chicken to bag; seal.  Marinate in refrigerator 1 hour, turning occasionally.  Remove chicken from bag, reserving marinade.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place reserved marinade in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil.  Cook for 2 minutes or until syrupy, stirring occasionally.  Place chicken on a rack coated with cooking spray, and place rack in a roasting pan.  Baste chicken with reserved marinade; sprinkle evenly with salt.  Bake at 425 dgrees for 10 minutes; baste.  Bake an additional 10 minutes; baste.  Discard remaining marinade.  Bake an additional 10 minutes or until done.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Mine took a little longer and I did not use a rack.  I placed the chicken directly on foil (non-stick) wrapped tray.

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I am planning a get together for all of our friends here in Florida before we head back to North Carolina the first of April.  I would like it to be a pool party.  We have a lanai with a pool.  It is lovely to look at, but it is always too cold to use while we are here and that is driving me crazy.  What is the sense of having a pool if you can’t use it?  So I decided to invite people over at the end of the month to gather around the pool on the lanai and have cocktails and a buffet dinner.  I do not expect anyone to swim, but at least we can enjoy the ambiance.

So I am testing recipes.  This first recipe for chipotle maple barbecued beef brisket is very crowd friendly.  There are a few steps involved, but it can all be done ahead of time.  I have found that when a recipe has many components, it increases ithe flavor complexity greatly.  A large beef brisket is first massaged with a dry rub, placed in a marinade and marinated overnight.  Then a barbecue sauce in made with wonderful ingredients like chipotle chilies, maple syrup, apple cider, and crushed tomatoes.  The brisket is briefly charred on the grill and then placed in a large iron skillet or casserole with the sauce, marinade and beer and cooked for three hours in the oven.  At this point, after it has rested, the beef can be shredded and returned to the sauce.  I will do this the day before the party.  It will be served in a chafing dish with slider rolls or warmed tortillas on the side.  I used pita bread for our meal because it was what I had in the pantry.  It will also be accompanied by a delicious sweet potato salsa which I will tell you about in my next post.

CHIPOTLE MAPLE BARBECUE BEEF BRISKET ( recipe from Sarah Foster’s Fresh Every Day)

1 3 1/2 to 4 pound beef brisket, at room temperature
2 tablespoons Quito’s Butt Rub (recipe follows) or store-bought barbecue rub
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup Chipotle-Maple Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows) or your favorite bottled sauce
1 cup beer

1. Sprinkle the brisket with the butt rub.  Stir the brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and vinegar together in a shallow dish; pour over the brisket and turn several times to coat the meat evenly.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.  Bring the meat to room temperature before cooking.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a hot fire in a charcoal or gas grill.

3.  Remove the brisket from the marinade and place it over the hot coals to sear until the outside is slightly charred, 4 to 6 minutes per side.

4. Place the seared brisket in a large cast-iron or other overnproof skillet or casserole and pour the marinade over it.  Stir the one cup of barbecue sauce and the beer together and pour over the brisket.  Turn to coat the brisket evenly on all sides.

5. Cover the skillet with aluminum foil or a lid and roast the brisket for 3 to 3 1/2 hours or until it pulls apart easily with a fork.  Remove brisket from sauce, let it rest covered with foil for 15 minutes and then shred with a fork.  Return it to the sauce.  It can be served now or cooled and refrigerated for future use.  Reheat gently over a low heat or warm in the oven.

QUITO’S BUTT RUB

Sarah explains that Quito is a barbecue aficionado from Tennessee who has won many contests on the barbecue circuit.

Makes about 1/2 cup

2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine the paprika, black pepper, salt, garlic powder, chili powder, brown sugar, and cayenne in a small jar or an airtight container and shake to mix.  This spice rub will keep in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.

CHIPOTLE MAPLE BARBECUE SAUCE

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 chipotle peppers in adobo, diced
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cupWorcerstershire sauce
1/2 cup apple cider
Juice of 2 lemons
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons Colman’s dry mustard
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Combine the tomatoes, maple syrup, brown sugar, chipotle peppers, vinegar, Worcestershire, apple cider, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, salt, and pepper in a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir to mix.  Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, until the sauce is thick and reduced by about one quarter.  This sauce will keep refrigerated in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks.

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We returned to Florida yesterday after an exciting week spent with the new parents and our, now, two grandchildren.  It was hard to leave them.  The weather in Cary had turned spring like the day Michael and Kristen brought Cameron home from the hospital so I made them a lovely and healthy pasta primavera.  After a week of takeout food and hospital food I thought it would be a welcomed change.

The recipe came from Giada De Laurentis.  Kristen has all of her cookbooks.  What I loved about this recipe was the fact that all of the vegetables are roasted first so that they have a nice caramelized flavor.  This can be done ahead of time.  Also there is no heavy sauce; just the olive oil and caramelized bits from the pan, the pasta water and the nutty Parmesan cheese.  The only addition I made to the recipe below was asparagus.  You can’t have a primavera without asparagus.

My thanks to all of you for your congratulatory comments.  The blogging community is truly a wonderful place.

PASTA PRIMAVERA

3 carrots, peeled
2 medium or 1 large zucchini
2 yellow summer squash
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 pound dried farfalle pasta (bow-tie pasta)
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to450 degrees F.  Cut the carrots, zucchini, squash, and bell peppers into thin 2-inch long strips.  On a large, heavy baking sheet, toss the vegetable strips, onion, oil, dried herbs, and 2 teaspoons each of salt and pepper to coat.  Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another large, heavy baking sheet, and arrange the vegetables evenly over both sheets.  Bake, stirring after the first 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender and the other vegetables begin to brown, about 20 minutes total.

 Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the farfalle and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.  Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.  In a large bowl, toss the pasta with the cooked vegetables to combine.  Add the cherry tomatoes and enough of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten.  Season the pasta with more salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the pasta to bowls.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

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I have a small container herb garden that I keep on the lanai here in Florida.  I find it much more practical than planting herbs in the ground.  We just got our second or third hard freeze of the season and many of my herbs would not have survivied without the ability to bring them inside.  The sage would probably be fine on it’s own, but not the basil or parsley.  The one herb plant that is doing beautifully outside is my rosemary.  It is now a bush.  I will try to take a picture of it when the sun comes up.

But last night I used sage leaves in my chicken saltimbocca.  I have made this dish before but had forgotten how pretty it looks.  The paper-thin pieces of prosciutto wrap snuggly around the chicken and the sage leaves shine through.  The prosciutto clings on it’s own without the use of toothpicks and keeps the chicken moist while lending it a salty tang.  The sage leaves have an earthy flavor when you bite into them.  This is a great way to wake up a ho-hum chicken breast.

I served the chicken with braised kale and a baked sweet potato with cinnamon.  It might be better to serve it on a bed of pasta to absorb the juices from the lemon sauce.

LEMONY CHICKEN SALTIMBOCCA ( adapted from Cooking Light)

4 (4ounce) chicken cutlets
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 fresh sage leaves
2 ounces very thinly slices prosciutto, 8 pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup lower-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Sprinkle the chicken evenly with salt.  Place 3 sage leaves on each cutlet; wrap 2 prosciutto slices around each cutlet, securing sage leaves in place.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan and swirl to coat.  Add chicken to pan; cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until done.  Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

Combine broth, lemon juice and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir with a whisk until smooth.  Add cornstarch mixture to the pan; bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Cook for 1 minute or until slightly thickened.  Spoon sauce over chicken.

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