Picky Eaters? Get them involved in cooking it!

Have you ever tried to get your kids to eat something you were sure they would not like the name of? By the end of this post, I will have the solution for you!

What Happened:

Last night I made a Curried Coconut Chicken Soup* for dinner. I knew that there would be trouble when I picked my son up at daycare, and the first thing he asked me was if he could have the “big nuggets” at you-know-where**.

Well, how does one compete with that? Telling my son that what Daddy makes is so much better just doesn’t cut it.

I know, because I tried!

What I got was a tantrum, pouting, and general bad feelings all around.

Well, I stuck to the plan, and brought my son home. As soon as we walked in the door, he could smell the soup simmering away. Immediately his resolve weakened. “Wow, the house smells really good Daddy!”

I explained that I was preparing Coconut Chicken soup, and it was really tasty. I got “the look,” and a return to the “Nuggets” plea.

Understand, I was not going to cave in and get the little bugger his nuggets! Instead, I tried something different:

The Solution:

I asked my boy for help. He didn’t understand why, so I told him that I needed him to help me finish the soup, he needed to be the official taster.

I mean, how could Mommy like the soup unless he tasted it?

The stool came out, and the picture above shows my son stirring the pot. As I added fish sauce to the pot, I got my boy to stir it, and then to taste it. Even better, I asked him how he thought it tasted.

“Yummy Daddy!”

“Does it need a bit more salt?”

“Umm, yep!”***

We went back and forth with that, me explaining how important the tasting and adjusting was, and how he was doing a great job. I got him to put in the chopped baby corn, squeeze the lime juice into the pot, and to help me shred the chicken.

You know what? The little guy snuck off to the living room with some of the shredded chicken, and told Mommy how awesome the soup was that he made. He ate 2 servings of the soup, with everything included!

In Conclusion:

Here’s how you get your kids to try out the new recipes/lifestyle.

• Don’t just put it in front of them.
• Get them involved; invoke their curiosity.
• Explain what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

I am sure that it will build memories that last a lifetime, and will affect them later on.

*Recipe is in the wings folks!
**Names have been changed to protect my ass and their identity.
***Keep in mind this is a 3 1/2 year-old.

I could never figure out why spinach gets a bum deal. People cook the shit out of it, and then they wonder why it just doesn’t look appealing. It’s too bad, because done correctly, people will rave over it. Today I am going to show you how easy it can be.

The only rule to remember about cooking spinach -

1. Don’t cook the shit out of it.
   

Here’s why:

Spinach is a delicate leaf, quick to overcook. It’s packed with a suitcase of vitamins, minerals, and other antioxidants that disappear when you over cook the spinach.

Not Your Mama’s Creamed Spinach

Servings: 2
Data courtesy of Livestrong (find the recipe here)
Calories: 550 per serving
Carbohydrates: 12.72 g per serving

Ingredients:

• 1 large bag (1 lb) baby organic spinach (You can use “adult” spinach; see below how things change.)
• ½ green pepper, seeded, chopped
• 1 shallot, peeled and minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• To taste freshly grated nutmeg
• To taste salt
• To taste freshly ground pepper

Method:

Sweat diced peppers and chopped shallots with butter.

Start off by sweating your shallots and spinach

Stir the mixture and cook it down until it has softened a bit.

When the peppers are getting soft, this is about it...

Make sure that this mixture is seasoned properly. It sucks when your vegetables aren’t properly seasoned.

Pour in some heavy cream. It will cover the bottom of the pan.

Add your cream and cook it down

You are going to cook that down until it is slightly thickens. It shouldn’t take too long, about a minute or so.

Your cream will look this thick, then move on to the next step

Here’s the secret that separates our side dish here from the overcooked slop that some mothers like to pass off. Can you guess what that ingredient is?

Can you guess what this ingredient is?

That’s right, Nutmeg! It’s one of my favorites! Please don’t bother buying this pre-ground.

Let me get off track here for a second – Have you ever peeked in your Mother’s (or Mother-in-law’s) cupboard? Chances are you will find a mean row of neatly organized jars with the spices lined up. The problem is that they probably bought them back in the ’80s! I mean, why not just throw sawdust into your dish? I have a rule – if it smells like dust, I refuse to use it. I mean – it just isn’t good anymore! Jeez! Throw it out – fuck!

Okay, I’m back – but I’m adamant about this – trust me, this dish is better with freshly grated nutmeg.

hard to take a 1 handed picture - maybe a tripod would help?

See this spinach? Here is another part that a lot of people don’t get right – they don’t bother taking off the tough stems. I’m not a rabbit folks, so save it for Fluffy or something, but don’t put it on my plate, mmm-k?

What you want to do is rip those tough stems off. Some people like to get the veins out as well. You could if you like, but seeing as it is baby organic spinach, they won’t be tough and stringy. They will give you some fiber as well!

Remove the tough stems from the stems

Here is what it looks like with all those stems off. Trust me; your family/guests’s teeth will thank you!

Chop up the spinach

Roughly chop everything…

No need to get fancy, just roughly chop it... here is what it will look like!

And toss it into your cream mixture.

Some people say that you should blanch the spinach first. Why the hell would you want to do that? If you do that, you take away all the vitamins, nutrients, flavor, and every other reason that you want to eat spinach anyway. Also, you run the risk of overcooking it and serving up a steaming plate of crap to your family.

Just don’t do it folks!

Just toss the spinach in

Instead, stir the spinach until it wilts. It will color the cream, and that’s fabulous. You want that. (Otherwise, why put the spinach in there?)

Once the spinach is done, all that is left is to serve it; you can either drop it into a family sized bowl, or pair it with another dish. (Like say, Filet Mignon.) Before you do that, you must do the most essential thing I will ever tell you to do in the kitchen:

You gotta taste your food!

If you are plating the spinach individually, put a bit of the creamed spinach in the center of the plate. You want the “sauce” to go around the plate, that’s normal.

Plate it up like so, don't worry about the sauce "running" around the plate, you want that!

There you have it. One simple rule, an awesome dish full of lush, velvety green, vitality, and best of all – flavor! Your spinach dish, not your Mama’s!

This dish can also be translated to other spinach like greens. For instance, while I am finishing this post, I am using the same technique to make creamed leeks and Swiss chard.

I admit, pomegranates can be a major PITA. They don’t have to be though. My cook was shy about being on camera, so I had him hold my phone camera while I demonstrated a neat, clean way to get the arils out of a Pomegranate.

Enjoy!

Nothing was going right. The meat was grey, not brown. It took forever to get it to the right color. It seemed dry when it finally was brown. Worse yet, even after 2 hours of slow simmering, the stew meat was still tough, and insipid. Major fail! What went wrong?

Don’t worry, it has happened to all of us. We make our stew, and it turns out to be tasteless, stringy, mushy pieces floating in a grey broth. The meat is not to blame here, it is our technique. After today’s Kitchen 101, you will understand what searing does, how to do it, and what can go wrong.

I bought a new iPhone last Sunday. It is miles better than my old Blackberry for picture taking and videos. I really hope that you all don’t mind the chaotic whirl of the camera as I attempt to get right down into the dish to show you what is really going on. There is no script, and no fancy cameras. Just the Well Done Chef with his iPhone.

The video is in High Definition (1080p), so without further ado, enjoy!

Kitchen 101: Searing

I made this nice dish after filming the video.

Believe it or not, there is no beef stock in this dish, only red wine, water, and tomatoes. Proper searing technique is key.

Planning is essential to the functioning kitchen

I recently read an article online about how it was silly to prepare your mise en place in advance for cooking. The idea was that cooking should just be something that you do from the hip, prepping as you go.

Let me be honest with you:

A cook like that is a nightmare in any kitchen

In a restaurant, we cook things to order. What you don’t see is that the food preparation is done in advance. If we started from the beginning for every single dish, you would be waiting for 3 hours for an Osso Bucco. I am sure that you would never come back.

The cooks need to have their items on the line stocked before service. Woe to the cook who runs out vegetables in a service, especially if the meat is waiting on the poor shmuck who wasn’t prepared. In Hell’s Kitchen, the #1 reason Gordie is yelling at the cooks is because they are not in sync when executing their dishes.

The items are checked for freshness, proper preparation.

The cooks need to be trained on how to execute the dishes. It is the Chef’s vision that a cook is executing, not their own. Part of Mise en Place is knowing what you are doing before you start cooking. A cook who cooks “from the hip” is a nightmare in the kitchen. Service would be sunk in a flash, and a lot of unhappy customers would never come back.

So what does this have to do with me?

Okay, you might be wondering what that has to do with the home cook. “How does what you just told me convince me to plan my meals?”

Your kitchen is like the professional kitchen, just on a smaller scale. I am sure it would be nice to have a legion of cooks executing your dinner. Reality is though; you only have you, and your potential “brigade” of family members you can press into service.

If you do not plan your meals, here is what may happen:

You may not even know what to make, not know where to start, and you will end up going to the drive in. If you arrive home tired after a long day like me, then the temptation will be to continue past your house and drive up to the smilin’ clown’s silly golden arches. If you know what you are going to do when you get home, it is easier to execute.

End up costing more. Without a plan, you would be cooking things without any crossover in ingredients. One dish may require portabella mushrooms, but will you use the leftovers later on? If you buy the amount that you need for the dish only, you may find yourself spending even more for the luxury of having a small amount.

It will take more time. Without advance preparation, you will need to be cutting a lot of things before you can get started. While I am fast enough cutting vegetables to order for a stir-fry dish, you may not have the time. What that means is that before you start, you would need to cut everything. Dinner would be late.

You have no idea whether you can make what you need. You might be ready to start making a stew of some sort, but you are short on beef, carrots, and you don’t have any stock. Sure, you could wing it, but then it might not taste so good.

No idea what the technique is. Do you need to braise, roast, stew, or pan fry? Each has their benefits, and drawbacks. Some take time, others may best completed the day before to allow the flavors to develop.

No idea about the nutritional component of what you are eating. Is it balanced? Is there too many carbohydrates, will I have enough protein? Planning in advance will allow you to tailor you menu for the day so you can eat like your ancestors.

Okay, Hotshot! How Do I Do It Then? How Do I Plan My Meals?

Here is what you can do to plan your meals easier:

Pick what you want to eat in advance, preferably with the whole family. Magazines, cookbooks, the Internet can give a whole host of ideas. I personally like to get the whole family’s input on what’s for dinner, so you are not faced with a dish that no one likes. If you get the family involved, they will also anticipate what will be coming up. Knowing that you are coming home to a nice Chicken stew with Black Pepper and Sage Biscuits is more exciting than knowing that it is whatever the family cook comes up with that night.

Get a list on the go of tasks that you need to do in advance. This is like what a professional cook has to do. Say the recipe calls for chopped onions, if you chop them the night before they will be ready for you the next day. Some might call it drudgery to have to prepare everything in advance, but I say it is working smarter, not harder.

Get the whole family involved -peeling, chopping, cutting, etc. Show the kids what to do, or the significant other. Even if they just help by peeling carrots, onions, or grabbing the ingredients so you have them on hand the next day – that is half the battle. Getting the family involved turns the cooking into an event.

Find out what it is that you need to do in advance. Just like the professional cook, “train” yourself by reading the recipe and figure out what they are instructing. When you are in that mindset from the beginning, you will know intuitively the steps to a technique like “stewing.” The result is that you will be faster because you know what is coming up.

Do any pre-cooking in advance. We do this in restaurants all the time. Lamb vindaloo is a good example. We prepare the works 3/4 of the way, and “finish” it with the last parts of the sauce at the end. I roasted off a chicken last night while my ragu sauce was cooking. I am one step ahead today for my meal. I only have potatoes and green beans to cook when I get home. The chicken and sauce are already done.

On the day of, execute with your ingredients ready. Set up your ingredients, and execute the dish. In the case of a stir-fry, it is really just tossing in protein, vegetables, sauce, and then BLAM! Done, over rice. A whole 10 minutes. That’s faster than you can get to the drive thru!

Write it down! You need to know what worked, what didn’t so you don’t repeat your failures. Involve the whole family with the feedback. Cooking should be a family affair, and knowing what the family likes will keep you out of the drive thru window.

I hope that has convinced you of the importance of planning your meals, and a bit of help along the way.

What can you think of to help you plan your meals?

Image courtesy of kelly cree of Flickr under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0

Chef Maxwell peered over my shoulder as I pulled the cover off my latest disaster. He frowned, a disapproving look on his face. The pilaf was mushy, and just, wrong. If I was to use that pilaf for service, it would resemble congee when reheated. What had I done wrong?

Chef Maxwell sighed, and asked, “Jason! What is the ratio of rice to water?”

That was the thing, our training was designed to maximize our chances in the “real world.” No hesitation, I answered back, “2 to 1, Chef!”

“That is the ratio for rice, how about a Pilaf?”

I frantically thought through all that I had read the night before. Then it dawned on me, what I had done wrong. Perhaps Chef Maxwell saw the realization on my face. Perhaps he saw my slumped shoulders, the only clue I gave to him that I understood what I had done wrong.

“Jason, always remember this: 85%. When you are preparing a pilaf, you always need to compensate for the slight cooking of the grains before you add your liquid. I bet you will never forget that percentage!”

“Yes Chef!”

Chef Maxwell was correct, I never forgot it. Today I am going to introduce you to one of my favorite ways of preparing grains. The Humble Pilaf.

What is a Pilaf?

A pilaf is a dish where your grains are first cooked in a bit of fat, then in seasoned water. Sometimes it is cooked with meats, other times with vegetables. Pilafs were probably one of the earliest ways to cook grains like rice.

Why a pilaf?

A pilaf is a wonderful vehicle for amazing amounts of flavors. It is simple to prepare, and if doen correctly – will compliment any meal you prepare it with.

Here is how you do it:

Here is what you need today:

Small amount of fat

Base flavorings (could be mirepoix)

Rice (or other grain such as barley)

Seasonings

Liquid - Here it is 85% of normal ratio. (in this case, normal is 3 cups to 5 cups.)

The Steps:

Start off by sweating your base ingredients in a small amount of fat.

Once they are translucent, add your rice and allow the grains to be coated with fat so each grain is individually coated, and a bit browned.

Saute the grains until they are nutty

Add the liquid (remember ratio!)

Add the liquid

Add seasonings

Add the seasoning to the liquid

Bring to a boil.

Cover, and cook with gentle heat until finished.

Uncover, and fluff with fork. Recover the works, and let it rest for 5 minutes to finish steaming.

Lift off the cover, and there you go! Nice pilaf!

Angela from Spinach Tiger writes:

Regarding the tomato tart, I believe they had cooked in a super hot oven (in Paris). If I blind bake crust, how long?
As it was, I baked the tart for double the time he said (60 minutes) and it was cooked.

Great question Angela. Let’s get into a bit of theory for blind-baking:

Pre baking your crust is the key

Have you ever wondered why your pie or quiche had a soggy crust on the bottom? The answer lies in a little theory.

When make a pie or tart with a filling that is a custard, liquid, or something that cooks quick, you are faced with a bit of a problem. In the case of an egg filing, the liquid is not a great conductor of heat. It actually protects the crust from cooking, leaving you with an unbaked, soggy mess.

What if we used that theory to help us?

Enter in blind baking.

To blind bake a pie or tart crust, you roll out your dough, then form it into your container, cover it with foil,  and fill it with a pastry baking weight. You pre-bake the crust until it is finished. The weight does two things: evenly distributes the heat, and prevents the crust from bubbling up.

How long to bake the crust? I can’t give you a real fast answer. It depends on the size of the shell you are baking, the thickness of the crust, and the heat of your oven. I will give you the same answer every time:

The best way to tell the doneness is to lift up the foil, and check through the center of the pastry shell. When it is cooked, you are ready for the next step. My pastry chef makes tart shells every day, and she still checks the doneness of the crust each time. It is simply the best way to know.

Remove the foil and weights, and allow your crust to cool. Fill your pie or tart with the filling, and if necessary, finish baking it. If you are using a cream or a custard, simply fill up the pie, chill, and serve.

If you are thinking about purchasing those specialized pastry beads, think on this: I recently posted on how to re-purpose a lid for a burger press. I prefer to use dried beans. They cost about 1.50$ per kilogram bag, and can last until the apocalypse if needed. Why waste your money needlessly on a kitchen gadget that you really don’t need?

Do you have a question for the Well Done Chef? Visit my Ask the Chef! page and fill out the form.

image courtesy of snowpea&bokchoy of Flickr under Creative Commons by Attribution 2.0

You want to grill burgers on the barbecue tonight, but you don’t have a fancy burger press? By the end of this post, you will be a burger pressing ninja, astounding your friends with your mad burger making skills.

I am going to give you a little secret here. I don’t use those fancy burger presses. I would not pay a dime for one, when I could have the same thing for nothing.

I am talking about a lid from a giant spice container. I would have recycled the thing anyway, so why not?

How do you get hold of one? Just go to a restaurant and ask about the lid to their spice jars, olive tubs, or pickle jars. All restaurants have them in giant format. They usually end up in the garbage and recycling anyway.

You need something that is circular, (about 4 to 5 inches in diameter,) that costs you nothing. The large format jars have lids that are perfect for the size you need.

Follow me, and I will show you the amazing burger ninja trick:

It all starts with knowing a reputable butcher. I am not talking about the pimply-faced kid at Safeway, or the local supermarket dude with the dirty apron that appears once in a while to re-date the meat on the shelves.

I am talking of your local butcher.

He may be hard to find, but well worth the trouble. Ask him or her to grind up your meat so you can make burgers. If the butcher is worth their seal, they will grind it once through the medium die. (The reason? The texture of the meat. Grind it finer and you end up with something like meatloaf patty.)

Make sure you shoot the shit with the guy as well. He will be more than happy to educate you on different cuts, and will give you some pointers on the best meat to use. Nudge the conversation into scoring some of that peach paper he uses for his meat. You will see why later.

Your meat should look like this:

Beef and pork, ground through the medium die, only once.

Portion out your burger meat. If you do not have a scale, just eyeball it. You want 5 to 6 ounce portions. Try to keep them all the same size. Work the meat a little as you roll them into balls to eliminate air pockets inside. Do not mash the meat until it is smooth, or will have a tough burger.

Once you have rolled out all of your balls, set up your lid with a little plastic wrap, and get ready for the secret lost art of of burger pressing.

All your items are laid out for pressing. Balls, lid, plastic wrap.

Cover your lid with plastic so you can easily remove the burger once it is pressed. The plastic can be used over and over until you are finished.

Do not worry about how the plastic looks here, I snapped this after doing a couple of test runs.

Place your ball in the center of the lid.

Press down evenly with your hand, squeezing the burger to the edges of the lid.

Do not mash it down, the idea is to evenly distribute the meat.

You will now have a burger that looks like so:

All pressed out, ready for the next step.

Now, for the extra ninja-master technique: poke a hole in the center of the burger with your finger.

Poke a hole in the burger with your ninja finger of doom

The reason for poking a hole in the center is so the burger won’t swell up like a meatball when it cooks. The hole relieves the tension of the contracting meat while it cooks, and retains the juiciness. You will have a flat burger for this extra step, and adoring fans who wonder why your burgers are so juicy.

This is what your burger will look like:

That burger didn't know what hit it!

Lift the lid up, and gently shake the patty out.

Gently now, don't wreck your handiwork. It will be a little fragile.

A thing of beauty

Gently place it on peach paper in your container on the peach paper.

Peach paper works best because it is treated with a food grade wax, and the meat will not stick.

There you have it. You truly do not need a fancy burger press to make your burgerst.

Pork and Beef Burgers

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound pork shoulder, ground medium
• 3/4 pound beef chuck, ground medium
• plastic lid
• plastic wrap
• peach paper

Method:

1. Have the butcher grind the pork and beef together once through the medium grind. Stand and watch him while he does this, shooting the shit. Nothing beats a little comraderie between you and your butcher. The guy is full of knowledge, and is more than willing to pass it off to you.
2. See if you can’t score some peach paper from your new-found friend.
3. When you get home, set up your station. Measure out your meat into balls of 5 to 6 ounces each. The picture above had me do 35 burgers, so you can imagine that was a lot.Make sure to gently work out the air pockets in the balls, but do not overwork the meat.
4. Cover the lid with plastic wrap; place a ball in the center of the lid.
5. Press down and push the meat to the sides of the lid. You want the surface to be even, not lumpy like a badly risen bread.
6. Poke a hole in the center of the burger so your handiwork will not resemble a meatball when you grill it.
7. Gently shake the burger out of your “press” and lay it on the peach paper that is set into a container.
8. Refrigerate your meat until it is ready to cook on the grill. You need at least an hour for the meat to rest. If you just go and cook them right away, they will fall apart.
9. When you cook these burgers, use a seasoning mix like the Montreal Steak seasoning I posted a while back. Use nothing else, and people will almost disbelieve when you tell them there is nothing else in the burger.

Now you have mad ninja burger pressing skills. Use your new-found powers responsibly, and remember – you don’t need a fancy gadget in order to cook!

Special thanks to Nick from Macheesmo for his guidance on this post!

I often get asked the question, “What spices do I need to cook?” By the end of this post, you will have a great start.

Here is a picture of my spice cupboard:

A bit of a gong-show, I know

I have this dirty secret – I collect spices.

Before I get into the confession mode, I do need to clarify one thing. I am not like certain members of my family, (whose names I have changed to protect the innocent,) who hoard spices in jars from 20 years ago. Spices need to be fresh to be good. They have a life expectancy of 6 months to a year at most. If it smells like dust, throw it out!

Wide-mouth Mason jars are perfect containers, and are easy to stack. Better, you can see your spices and the shape that they are in.

Unfortunately, I keep my spices in the worst spot. (Above the stove.) I can’t help it though, I like to have them right at hand. I know I should find a better place for all of them, and perhaps one day I will try.

For now, here are the top 11 spices I think you need to get you cooking the WDC way:

1. Kosher Salt – Don’t let anyone tell you that this is not a spice. Romans were paid in salt way back in the day. You meed to have the best kind, and I like the Diamond brand.
2. Whole Peppercorns. Please, don’t buy the pre-ground stuff. All you get form that convenience is a dust that has some heat. The peppercorns store easier in whole format, and they taste so much better when they are freshly ground. If you do not own a pepper mill, you can use your coffee grinder. (For those of you who don’t know how to clean it after, perhaps that can be a short post.) I like a blend of 5 peppercorns; the dark baritone flavors complimenting the sweet suprano flavors.
3. Smoked Paprika - This is a definite must. I introduced this to the Mother-in-law, and now she swears by the stuff. La Chinata is the best brand I have come across. The combination of the sweet cayenne heat, and the oak smoke aroma is an unbeatable combination.
4. Chili Powder – You can buy it, or you can make your own. I personally prefer the latter, (another post on that one day.) Why buy it when you can make it yourself? You will find a million uses for chili powder, especially for some much needed comfort food heat, and low earthy bass notes in your food. It pairs fabulously with coffee as well.
5. Oregano – You need to have this dried herb on hand through the winter. I prefer the strands that you dry yourself, but that is getting a little far ahead. (At the end of the season I will be looking to do that as a post mortem on the garden.) Oregano is great in use for your own home-made dressings, sauces, gravies, roasts and other fantabulous concoctions. You can taste and smell the sweetness of the soil it is grown in.
6. Thyme - Come on, this is a staple of the kitchen! You just cannot make stews, stocks or other foundational preparations without it. Grow your own in a container, (thyme spreads worse than most weeds,) snip it, and dry it yourself. If you must buy it in the store, look for thyme that still has a bit of color left on it. Stay away from the packages that look like they have been swept up from the floor. Don’t bother with ground thyme either. The spice should give you a woody taste, with a healthy helping of – you guessed it – earthy tones.
7. Bay Leaves – Another staple of base preparations. I am currently looking to get a bay leaf tree, for the fresh leaves. Avoid the big bags of leaves that resemble the leaves you rake up in the fall. You know the ones – they look broken, shattered, olive-green and full of wrongness.
8. Cumin Seeds - Nothing beats the smell of cumin grains beat up in a mortar and pestle. Avoid ground cumin, as it is basically just dust. Cumin is great for stews, chilies, breads, curries, and anything else that needs an earthy, full-bodied overtone. Toast the seeds in a dry pan before using, and grind them up. The smell will move you. Add it to your pork loin, and the smells will draw even that sullen teenager from his Playstation 3 to the table.
9. Star Anise - I tend to use star anise in a lot of dessert preparations. It is the basis for 5 spice powder, and goes well with citrus. You can grind them up for use in stir-fries, give your sauces another dimension. A great preparation is roasted chicken with star anise, orange marmalade over steamed baby bok choy. Ethereal, with slight licorice tones that carry to a slightly dark, cinnamon tone.
10. Cinnamon sticks (Or Cassia bark) - Put the ground cinnamon down. Stop paying for dust. Once you have the sticks, it is hard to go back. Cinnamon is the refined bark of the tree, where cassia is the scrap part. I prefer cassia, for its more honest flavor. It has a bit of a bite, and a peppery, sweet earthy finish. People think cinnamon or cassia is only good for dessert. I find it adds a new dimension in almost everything that you can cook. In savory applications, it ramps up the volume to 11. When I was younger, I found that a small amount in spaghetti sauce put that “je ne sais quoi” factor into the dish.
11. Turmeric - Despite being a bit of a wallflower to this dance, this spice has potential to be the super star. The problem is we buy a crap-load of it, and don’t know what the hell to do with it. It sits there, biding its time, wishing we would smarten up. Turmeric has antioxident qualities, and has the penchant for transforming things into neon becons in the night. It is the base for many curries, is useful with chicken, salmon, vegetables. Why do you need this spice? Again, earthy tones. (Are you seeing a trend with this post yet?)

Which spices do you like to have, and why?

Spatchcock [?spæt??k?k]

No, you do not have to run and get the soap to wash out your kid’s mouth when they say it. You can even say it in public – alternating various levels of voice to get a real rise out of people. (Perhaps they may even give you a wider berth, thinking you have gone nutty!)

I have no idea where the word originated, but rumor has it that it is a bastardization of “spitchcocking” – grilling an eel that has been split down the middle for easier cooking. I am not sure of the origin, but I am sure that after our little demonstration today, you will be a pro at this technique.

First, let us talk about what we are trying to accomplish, and why it is better to cook the bird this way.

Spatchcocking is a fantastic way to prepare a bird for grilling. The idea is to even out the cooking surface of the bird so that the meat cooks evenly. The advantage is that the thickness of the bird will remain uniform throughout, and you will have plump, succulent, juicy breasts at the same time as you will have tender, silky, buttery legs and thighs.

The method is usually used with game birds, after you have brought it down with your gun. Instead of trying to pick feathers and shot out of the bird, we will translate it to the next best thing, a free-range organic chicken. There are a lot of people out there opposed to killing, but somehow messing up a bird that is already dead is okay. Besides, why would you want to crack your teeth open with shot?

You can use this on any fowl, and in any cooking method. The uniform size and shape lends itself well to the cooking process. I might suggest it for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you would probably get a few road kill comments. Not worth it at that point!

Here is how:

Start with the free-range organic chicken.

Don’t balk at the cost though, it is better than picking the feathers off yourself!

Grab a pair of poultry shears. They will work the best here. You could use a pair of regular scissors though. Don’t tell my wife I told you that. I am in enough trouble using these scissors as it is!

Start from the tail end and do your thing!

The goal is to cut out the back bone, so follow the spine up with your scissors.

Cut through the wishbone so you can lay it flat

Pry open the carcass, and slip your scissors through the wishbone and cut it. Don’t worry about taking it out, the goal is to allow the meat to lie flat.

Season the inside with BBQ spice.

A lot of people don’t do this. It is one of those things that drives me bonkers. Why would you not put salt here? It doesn’t come seasoned, does it? Why should only one side of the chicken taste good?

Lay it flat and pose, err... arrange the carcass nicely

Sorry, I have been watching too much Dexter as of late… It does make for a nice presentation though?

Add some extra-virgin olive oil and season with the BBQ chicken spice

Some may question why I did not put the olive oil on the other side. Well, if I did that, it would just drip down. No sense in that. Season liberally.

Here it is in all its glory, before the oven

Doesn’t that look nice? I was going to grill the chicken to show what it would be like, but then Mother Nature decided to punish me and open the skies up. Buckets of rain crashed down and the ground soaked it up like a parched sponge in a desert. Great for the garden, not so much for this demonstration. No problem, this method lends well to other forms of cooking too.

Into the oven it went. I won’t get into specifics about what temperature, etc. That would be a recipe, and this is a method post. I will show you the end result though:

A thing of beauty!

I didn’t even want to wait to pull it out of the oven first. I had to snap the picture. A juicy, awesome roasted bird, in a fraction of the time. Start to finish, it was 30 minutes.

I would show you what it looked like after, but alas, nothing left. Make it for your family, and you will be blessed with my problem as well.