Chicken Stew with Polenta, Celery Root and Sage

Ever since blowing a significant wad of dough on my Le Creuset Dutch oven last year, I've been looking for any excuse to use it. Flipping through Mario Batali's cookbook Molto Italiano, I found a recipe for Chicken Stew with Polenta, Celery Root and Sage. Talk about comfort food, and definitely a dish for my flame-coloured beauty.

This was my first time making polenta, and in all honesty I'm not sure I'm a fan. It was nice in the stew but on its own it was a bit bland. Next time I may use half chicken stock, half water instead of all water to give it a bit more flavour. Still, I realize it's supposed to be the starch here and not overpower the other flavours.

On the other hand, I am loving celery root! I've used it in a number of recipes lately and I love its texture and flavour. And as Mario notes, this stew reheats well, so it's nice to make on a Sunday and then have it Monday night when you've come home from work and are in no mood to cook. My favourite kind of recipe.

Chicken Stew with Polenta, Celery Root and Sage

Makes 4 servings

5 cups water
1 cup quick-cooking polenta or fine cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 3.5 to 4 lb chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces, rinsed, and patted dry
4 ounces chicken livers
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large celery root, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 cups Barbaresco or other fruity red wine
1 cup basic tomato sauce
8 fresh sage leaves
1 tbsp parsley, chiffonade
1 tbsp lemon zest

In a 4-quart saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Pull the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the polenta is as thick as molten lava. Pour into an 8-by-10-inch baking pan and allow to cool.

Season the flour with salt and pepper and spread on a plate. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, then dredge the chicken livers in the flour. In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until smoking. Brown the chicken pieces in two batches, then transfer to a plate. Add the livers, onion, and celery root to the pot and cook until the vegetables are golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

Add the wine, tomato sauce, and sage and return the chicken pieces to the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the thighs are nearly cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the polenta into 1/2-inch cubes. Add the polenta to the pot and cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, place on platter, sprinkle with parsley and zest, and serve immediately.

Courtesy Molto Italiano, Mario Batali, HarperCollins, 2005

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Coq au vin

Tonight in cooking class we made the classic French dish Coq au vin, which is essentially chicken cooked in wine. This was by far my favourite of all the things we've made in the course and I couldn't resist digging into it after getting home.



I'll try to detail what I did because it really did turn out well, thanks as always to Chef Marty's wisdom and expert tips.

Coq au vin

3 lb chicken, cut into six pieces*
250mL white or red wine (I used red but it gives the chicken a purple-ish tinge)
250mL chicken stock
1 cup button mushrooms, left whole
1 cup pearl onions, peeled
1/4 cup vegetable oil, approx.
1/4 cup butter, approx.
1/4 cup flour, approx.
4 rashers of bacon, sliced into lardons
3 garlic cloves, left whole, crushed a bit to help release juices
A few sprigs of thyme, save some leaves for chopping up and adding at the end.
2 dried bay leaves
A few tablespoons of chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 400F.

Heat two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over high heat. While it's heating up, rub a bit of vegetable oil, salt and pepper over the chicken pieces.

When the pan is very hot, add the chicken pieces skin side down (or "presentation side" down, as Chef Marty noted). Shake the pan a bit to ensure chicken doesn't stick. After a couple minutes, when skin has turned golden, flip the pieces over and cook for another couple minutes, again, shaking to make sure the pieces don't stick. Once well seared on both sides, remove the chicken to a plate.

Drain the chicken fat into a small side pot (you will use some of it later to deglaze). Wipe out the skillet and add a tablespoon more oil, then tip in the sliced bacon. Saute it for a couple minutes until it's cooked, then add the pearl onions to the pan. Cook those until they've begun to brown, then add the garlic. Saute that for 30 seconds, then add the mushrooms. Once those have browned up (a few minutes), deglaze the pan with water and/or a bit of the chicken fat, scraping up any browned bits.

Add the wine and chicken stock to the skillet, as well as some salt and pepper, then add the chicken pieces back in along with the herbs (a few whole thyme sprigs and the bay leaves). Turn the chicken in the sauce to coat well. Reduce the sauce a bit, then cover the pan and put it in the oven for 20-30 minutes to cook. Remove the lid for the last few minutes of cooking time to help the chicken develop its golden brown crust.

While the chicken is cooking in the oven make a beurre manie -- roll a hunk of butter into a golf ball sized piece using your hands, then roll it around in a bowl of flour, incorporating the flour into the butter. Keep incorporating the flour into the butter until when you press into the ball your finger doesn't feel buttery anymore. It should feel almost like a ball of dough. You will use this later to thicken the sauce.

Once the chicken is cooked through, take the pan out of the oven. Set aside the chicken pieces and remove the herbs (these can be thrown away). Set the skillet over high heat again and reduce the cooking liquid. Take a few spoonfuls of the liquid and put it into a bowl, add your beurre manie and whisk until your butter-flour ball has dissolved into the liquid. Now add that back into the skillet and whisk it quickly back in. Adding the flour and butter together separately helps prevent lumps from forming, and it also helps prevent the sauce from breaking.

Once you're happy with the thickness of the sauce add the chicken back in, along with some fresh chopped parsley and thyme, turn the pieces to coat in the sauce, and you're done! A great dish to serve up family-style.

*I left the legs attached to the thighs but if you want you can separate them, making eight pieces in total, two each of breasts, wings, legs, and thighs.


Salut!

Suzanne

Email comments to suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com

Light comfort food, part two: Cassoulet

I was really looking forward to making a lightened-up version of the classic French dish cassoulet, a mix of duck meat, sausage, lamb, white beans, and all sorts of other savoury ingredients in a thick stew-type dish.



Unfortunately I had a hard time finding some of the ingredients I needed so I had to make some substitutions, although they were all on the lighter side so I probably reduced the calorie count even more. For instance I used a spicy turkey sausage rather than a pork sausage, and I could only find a duck breast, not duck legs, so I used that, and cut away the thick layer of fat. I know that meant sacrificing some of the flavour but I figured that between the sausage, lamb, tomato, and duck meat it would still taste rich.

The most time consuming part of the recipe was cooking everything separately but once everything was in the pot it became much simpler, just needing a stir now and then. Definitely give yourself enough time for this dish, whether you're making a light version or not -- I believe the night I made this I didn't sit down to it until 10pm! It was worth it though, a bit more stew-ish than the typical cassoulet but very tasty.

Cassoulet

1/4 cup salt
6 (8oz) duck leg quarters
1 1/2 tbsp canola oil
4 bacon slices, sliced crosswise into strips
1 boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup no-salt-added tomato puree
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
4 (15 oz) cans white beans, drained
8 oz cooked spicy Italian sausage, diagonally sliced
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs

Rub salt evenly over duck; cover and refrigerate 30 min.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon to pan; cook 7 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally. Remove bacon from pan using a slotted spoon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add lamb to drippings in pan; cook 8 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove lamb from pan and set aside.

Preheat oven to 300F.

Rinse duck with cold water; pat dry with paper towel. Add half of duck, skin side down, to pan; cook over medium heat 15 min or until golden brown. Turn duck over and cook 10 min or until browned and fat under skin is melted. Remove duck from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining duck, reserving 1 tbsp duck fat; set duck aside. Add onion and pepper to pan, cook 7 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato puree and garlic; cook 1 min. Return lamb to pan. Nestle duck into lamb mixture; add broth and 2 cups water. Cover and bake at 300F for 2 1/2 hours or until lamb and duck are very tender. Remove duck from pan; let stand until tepid. Remove skin from duck; discard. Cut duck legs in half through the joint. Return duck to lamb mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning, if desired.

Increase oven temperature to 375C.

Stir 2 cans of beans into lamb mixture. Add bacon, sausage, and duck; top mixture with remaining 2 cans of beans. Sprinkle breadcrumbs evenly over top. Cover and cook for 1 hour and 10 min. Uncover and cook an additional 20 min or until browned and bubbly.

12 servings (serving size: 1 drumstick or thigh and 3/4 cup bean mixture)

Calories: 323
Fat: 14.4g (sat 4.6g, mono 4.4g, poly 1.2g)
Protein: 27.1g
Carbohydrates: 20g
Fibre: 7.1g
Sodium 821mg


Salut!

Suzanne

Comments? Email suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com

Light comfort food, Part One: Soupe Savoyarde

For four Sundays in February I'm trying out a comfort food recipe from the latest edition of Cooking Light, in an attempt to answer the question: can light comfort food satisfy the same way the rich, fat-laden stuff does?

For part one, I made the French recipe Soupe Savoyarde, a stew of winter vegetables including potato, turnip, celery root, leek, and onion, simmered together in a creamy broth and served with a white cheddar-topped baguette slice.



My first comment, in making this recipe, would be to make sure the vegetables are chopped to the specified size. Most were supposed to be cut in 1/2 inch pieces, but mine were closer to an inch in size. This meant it took more than double the time it should've for the vegetables to become tender.

So, the hour it should've taken me to make the stew turned into close to two hours, and I was ravenous by the time I dished it out into my bowl.



One other thing I modified was the cheesy baguette. The recipe recommended putting the cheese-topped bread in the bowl and then pouring the hot stew over top, allowing the cheese to melt and help thicken the broth. I opted to broil the baguette slices in the oven and serve them alongside the stew, dipping the cheese bread into the broth from time to time.

Oh - I also used 2% milk, since that's what I had on hand (the recipe called for whole milk), so I saved some fat and calories that way.

Impressions: well, it filled me up. After the first bowl I was stuffed. I liked how the leeks infused the broth with a mild sweetness, and the vegetables were a decent consistency - not too firm, not too mushy - once they'd been cooked enough. I'd have to say though, despite the addition of salt and pepper, there wasn't a whole lot of flavour. It was definitely a mild dish. Next time, rather than cook the vegetables in water I might cook them in chicken or vegetable stock, to add a touch more oomph at the end. I'd probably add garlic, as well.



Dipping the baguette into the stew was tasty though, and I like that the bread stayed crisp. If I'd followed the recipe and poured the broth over top it would've gone soft almost immediately.

Finally, the presentation. On its own, the stew isn't much to look at - the broth is white, and the vegetables are white. Maybe this is an insult to the traditional recipe, but I sprinkled over some parsley at the end to give it a small hit of colour.

All in all, I'd say it was filling, but not entirely satisfying.

Soupe Savoyarde

1 baking potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3 cups thinly sliced leek (about three large)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 turnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 small celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups water
2 cups whole milk
8 1-oz slices French bread
8 1/2-oz slices sharp white Cheddar

Place potato in medium bowl; cover with cold water to 1 inch above potato. Set aside

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion to pan and cook 7 minutes until soft but not browned. Add leek, turnip, celery root, and salt and pepper. Place sheet of aluminum foil directly over vegetables. Cover , reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard foil.

Drain potatoes; add to pan. Stir in 2 cups water. Cover and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Heat milk in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat to 180 degrees or until tiny bubbles form around the edges. Do not bring to a boil. Gradually stir hot milk into vegetable mixture and season as needed.

Preheat broiler.

Place bread slices on baking sheet, in single layer. Add cheese now, if desired. Once bread is crisp, place in bottom of bowl and pour soup over top.

Serving size: 1 1/4 cups soup per bowl. Recipe serves 8.

Calories per serving: 311
Fat: 10.5 g (sat. 6.2, mono 2.7, poly 0.8)
Protein: 12 g
Carbohydrates: 43.6 g
Fiber: 4.9 g
Cholesterol: 29 mg
Iron: 2.7 mg
Sodium: 640 mg
Calcium: 278 mg

Courtesy Cooking Light, Jan.-Feb. 2009

Next Sunday: Cassoulet

Salut!

Suzanne

Email your comments to suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.