Molasses-Brined Chicken a Fine Fall Treat

The brined, roasted chicken is juicy, rich, and great on its own, but the jus, a concentrated homemade stock, is worth the effort. As for the birds, ask your butcher for two chickens, cut into four pieces each, reserving the carcasses to make the jus. Or buy leg quarters or airline breasts (first wing joint attached) and make the jus with the extra wings and backbones.  

Ingredients

1/2 cup kosher salt 

1/2 cup dark molasses 

2 cups ice cubes 

1 sweet onion, thinly sliced 

2 fresh thyme sprigs 

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced 

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns 

2 (4- to 5-lb.) whole chickens, cut into 4 pieces each (boneless breasts with first wing joint intact, legs whole with bone in, carcasses reserved)* 

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 

2 tablespoons canola oil 

8 garlic cloves, unpeeled 

2 fresh thyme sprigs 

Roasted Chicken Jus (optional) 

Method

Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add kosher salt and molasses. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes or until salt and molasses dissolve. Transfer to a very large bowl; add ice and next 4 ingredients. Let stand, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until mixture cools to room temperature. Cover and chill 30 minutes to 1 hour or until cold.

Submerge chicken in cold brine. Cover and chill 6 to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°. Remove chicken from brine; rinse and pat dry. Sprinkle with garlic salt.

Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in a 14-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add 4 unpeeled garlic cloves, 1 thyme sprig, and half of chicken. Cook 5 minutes or until skin is browned and crisp. (The molasses in the brine will brown the skin quickly.) Turn chicken and garlic, and cook 5 minutes or until browned. Remove chicken, and place on a wire rack in a jelly-roll pan. Wipe skillet clean. Repeat with remaining oil, chicken, garlic, and thyme.

Bake chicken, skin side up, at 400° for 10 to 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 165°. (Breasts will cook faster than legs, so check for doneness after 10 minutes.) Cover with foil. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with Roasted Chicken Jus, if desired.

*8 chicken leg quarters or 8 chicken breasts, airline cut, may be substituted.

Cheesecake Ice Cream Perfect Summer Treat

INTRODUCTION

This started off as something of a culinary conceit: I wanted to recreate the flavour of cheesecake in ice-cream form. I don't claim it's an original idea - I'd once eaten cheesecake ice cream in a restaurant in LA, scooped into a lozenge-shaped ball and served alongside a mini blueberry pie - but striving for originality is frankly a grievous culinary crime.

Anyway, this works exceptionally well, and is in some respects easier to make than regular cheesecake. I love to fold crushed digestive biscuits into the smooth, familiarly sharp-sweet mixture once it comes out of the ice-cream maker but isn't yet frozen solid, but you can leave the ice cream palely pure and sandwich it between two intact digestives as you eat.

INGREDIENTS

Serves: 6-8

• ¾ cup whole milk
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• ½ cup cream cheese
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• 3 sheets crumbled graham crackers (optional)

METHOD

1. Heat the milk in a pan, and while it's getting warm, beat together the sugar, Philadelphia, vanilla and egg in a bowl. Still whisking, pour the hot milk into the cream cheese mixture and pour this back into the cleaned-out pan and cook till a velvety custard. I don't bother with a double boiler, and actually don't even keep the heat very low, but you will need to stir it constantly, and if you think there's any trouble ahead, plunge the pan into a sink half filled with cold water and whisk like mad. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, this way, for the custard to cook. And when it has thickened, take it off the heat, pour into a bowl and let it cool, at which time add the lemon juice and then the heavy cream, lightly whipped.
2. Freeze in an ice cream maker or place into a covered container, stick it in the freezer and whip it out every hour for 3 hours as it freezes and give it a good beating, folding in the crushed digestives - if using before the ice cream is set solid.

More at https://www.nigella.com/

LINGUINE WITH LEMON, GARLIC AND THYME MUSHROOMS

Perfect for Warm Days Ahead

This is one of my proudest creations and, I suppose, a good example of a recipe that isn't originally from Italy, but sits uncontroversially in her culinary canon. I don't think it would be too presumptuous to name this linguine ai funghi crudi. It is about as speedy as you can imagine: you do no more to the mushrooms than slice them, steep them in oil, garlic, lemon and thyme and toss them into the hot cooked pasta.

If all you can find is regular button mushrooms, this pasta is still worth making - so no excuses.

INGREDIENTS

Serves: 4-6

• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms
• ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sea salt flakes (or 1½ teaspoons table salt)
• 1 small clove garlic (crushed)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme (leaves stripped off)
• 1 pound linguine
• 1 bunch fresh parsley (chopped)
• 2 - 3 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Slice the mushrooms finely, and put in a large bowl with the oil, salt, crushed garlic, lemon juice and zest, and marvellously scented thyme leaves.
2. Cook the pasta according to packet instructions and drain loosely, retaining some water. Quickly put the drained pasta into the bowl with the mushroom mixture.
3. Toss everything together well, then add the chopped parsley, grated cheese and pepper to taste, before tossing again, and eat with joy in your heart.

Perfect Peach Melba Makes Summer Better

This is it - summer on a plate. Most days I take the view that cooking fruit rather loses the point of its delectable freshness, but this somehow intensifies it. Besides, most peaches are disappointingly hard or lacking in luscious peachiness, so poaching the fruit gives even lackluster peaches the boost they need, restoring them to their rightful glory.

Ingredients

For the peaches

    3 cups water
    3 ½ cups superfine sugar
    Juice of ½ lemon
    1 vanilla bean (split lengthways)
    8 peaches

for the raspberry sauce

    3 cups raspberries
    ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
    Juice of ½ lemon

to serve

    1 large tub vanilla ice cream

Instructions

Put the water, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla bean into a wide saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring the pan to the boil and let it bubble away for about 5 minutes, then turn the pan down to a fast simmer.

Cut the peaches in half, and, if the stones come out easily remove them, if not, then you can get them out later. Poach the peach halves in the sugar syrup for about 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on the ripeness of the fruit. Test the cut side with the sharp point of a knife to see if they are soft, and then remove to a plate with a slotted spoon.

When all the peaches are poached, peel off their skins and let them cool (and remove any remaining stones). If you are making them a day in advance, let the poaching syrup cool and then pour into a dish with the peaches. Otherwise just bag up the syrup and freeze it for the next time you poach peaches.

To make the raspberry sauce, liquidize the raspberries, confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a blender or else a processor. Sieve to remove the pips and pour this fantastically hued puree into a jug.

To assemble the peach melba, allow two peach halves per person and sit them on each plate alongside a scoop or two of ice cream. Spoon the raspberry sauce over each one, and put the remaining puce-tinted red sauce in a jug for people to add themselves at the table.

Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake a Seasonal Sensation

INTRODUCTION

This is another Oz-emanating recipe, one I scribbled down from a friend once after a gardenside, Sunday’s summer lunch. And you should know that I have never made it myself without some other friend asking me, in turn, for the recipe as well. Pavlova meets Victoria sponge is, give or take, what it is: but, as lazy luck would have it, much simpler to make than that or its ceremonious title would suggest.

INGREDIENTS

Serves: 8

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 7 tablespoons very soft unsalted butter
• 1½ cups superfine sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• ½ cup slivered almonds
• 1½ cups heavy cream
• 8 ounces strawberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Line, butter and flour 9-inch Springform tins.
2. Weigh out the flour, cornstarch and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Cream the butter and 1/2 cup of the superfine sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter and sugar, saving the whites to whisk later. Gently fold in the weighed-out dry ingredients, add the vanilla, and then stir in the milk to thin the batter. Divide the mixture between the two prepared Springform tins.
4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining 200g superfine sugar. Spread a layer of meringue on top of the sponge batter in each tin, and sprinkle the almonds evenly over.
5. Bake for 30–35 minutes, by which time the top of the almond-scattered meringues will be a dark gold. Let the cakes cool in their tins, then spring them open at the last minute when you are ready to assemble the cake.
6. Whip the heavy cream, and hull and slice the strawberries; that’s to say, the bigger ones can be sliced lengthways and the smaller ones halved. Invert one of the cakes on to a plate or cakestand so that the sponge is uppermost. Pile on the cream and stud with the strawberries, letting some of the berries subside into the whipped whiteness. Place the second cake on top, meringue upwards, and press down gently, just to secure it.
7. If you’ve got any more strawberries in the house, hull and halve them, and serve them in a dish on a table to eat alongside; it gives the cake a more after-lunch, less afternoon-tea kind of a feel, but it’s hardly obligatory.

Recipe from "Nigella Summer," Available here.