No Bones About It (pardon the regrettable, yet inevitable, pun)

I'd like to preface this post regarding tonight's dinner by saying that it doesn't cost much more to buy a natural Whole Foods chicken than it does to buy a commodity chicken. I spent $10 on a 4.5# natural roaster, compared with the same cost for a conventional six-pounder at a local grocery store. It's majorly better for all parties involved (except agribusiness) for you to buy the natural Whole Foods chicken. Please do.

Now what did I do with this chicken? I boned it. The first step is to remove the backbone. Using a sturdy pair of kitchen shears or a heavy knife, cut along both sides of the backbone to separate it from the rest of the carcass. I can't explain to you without pictures how to remove the bones, other than using one word: carefully. Use a sharp, rigid, relatively short knife to cut along the bones of the carcass, preserving the integrity of the skin and flesh as best as possible. At the end, there will be a boneless, butterflied chicken. I left the bones in the drumstick and wings.

For base flavoring, I marinated in blood orange, lime, garlic, rosemary, and olive oil for about five hours. To supplement, I made a puree of turkey bacon, onion, garlic, oil, and rosemary to stuff under the skin. This served two main purposes. First was to add flavor. Second was to slow the cooking of the breast. It worked quite well on both counts, as the breast and thigh were finished cooking simultaneously. I also sprinkled the top with some spice mix just for a bit of added kick. It's a pretty straightforward dish and turned out quite tasty.

Salmon, Beets (and finally a non-post-dated post)

An anecdote.

I began cooking when I was very young. It all started (I'm told) at the age of about three or four, baking chocolate chip cookies with my grandmother. With the acquisition of Cooking Wizardry for Kids, a cookbook filled with kid friendly recipes, I began to expand my repertoire of dishes. The big one for me was a simple asiany stir-fry of chicken and vegetables. Once I outgrew the book, salmon became my new medium. Though my recipe began with a simple Chinese(ish) marinade, I tweaked it with different sugars, citruses, herbs, spices, and all sorts of other things until I deemed it perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I entered it into the 2004 Johnson & Wales National High School Recipe Contest, and was selected (among 9 others) as a finalist (out of several hundred) to fly to their campus in Denver, CO and compete. I didn't win, nor do I still have the official recipe, but here's an approximation:

Make a marinade containing rice wine, soy sauce, freshly squeezed orange juice, brown sugar, minced garlic, grated ginger, and sriracha sauce. Marinate boneless, skinless salmon fillet portions in the aforementioned marinade for 45 minutes to an hour, at room temperature, rotating often to ensure even flavor absorption. Remove the fish from the marinade and dry off. Thin honey with a small amount of the marinade to make it easy to spread, but not so runny that it doesn't stick. Brush on the top surface of the salmon (which is, of course, arranged on a broiling pan) with the honey. Then, sprinkle it liberally with white and black sesame seeds. Place under a broiler with sufficient distance that the salmon will cook and not just blacken. The honey will caramelize and crystallize, the sesame seeds will toast, and you'll end up with a delightful contrast and combination of flavors and textures.

Why did I tell that story? Every time my parents go to Costco, they buy a huge hunk of salmon and, while I do enjoy making that recipe, it gets rather trite to prepare and consume. Therefore, I set out each time to create a new or different (or new to me) dish to utilize this salmon. Today's salmon seemed rather noteworthy, though. If this isn't unique, please point me in the direction of whoever created it and where it currently resides. If it is unique, don't use the recipe professionally without paying a tribute. If I find out it was stolen from me, there will be shankings. But I digress. I ventured to Whole Foods, not with tonight's dinner in mind, but with the intentions of purchasing a roaster chicken to butterfly, bone, and broil on Thursday. While there, I saw some particularly appealing golden beets and decided to make the purchase. The initial idea was to simply roast, season, and serve alongside the salmon, but plans quickly changed. While driving home, the dish came to me, appearing in fully finished form. I could taste it.

So to start, I took the tops of the beets, chopped them up into about 1cm pieces, and washed them. Some chopped onions sweated in oil until the warshed beet greens were added. The moisture cooked out, the greens softened, the moisture evaporated. Then I replaced the moisture with some unsweetened soy milk (because that's what we got) and reduced it until the moisture was, once again, nonexistant. This time, the fat in the Silk concentrated as if cream were added to the greens instead. Minor seasoning followed. Finally, a significant amount of mustard (including the home brand - more info to follow eventually) was added to give it some punch.

Next step, the beet roots. Wash, trim, wrap in foil with salt and olive oil. Roast until par-cooked. Then, chill! Once they're cool enough to comfortably handle, peel them with fingers or a spoon. But don't let your vegetable peeler get too far away. Calmly, carefully, use the peeler to make strips out of the beets as long, thick, and wide as possible given the equipment. Ideally, 1beet=1strip. Of course, it'll break. Don't worry.

To prepare the salmon, take the portions and coat the top with the beet tops. All the ingredients should be at room temperature (but, of course, beware of time-temperature violations with the salmon). Next, wrap the salmon, carefully, with the strip of beet. Rub down with a bit of oil, and salt slightly. Roast until salmon is as cooked as you like it. Finally, finish with some coarse salt of your choosing. Other options for stuffing are endless, but sauteed shiitake mushroom slices or truffle shavings seem especially appropriate. Here's what it looks like!