Cooking is my love language. When I care about someone, more than anything else, I want to cook them a meal. I want to make them something that will cause their body to curl unconsciously around their plate. I want them to try a bite, raise their eyebrows, and look up in wonder. This is probably why I became a chef. The problem that I have is that food and love are inextricably tied together. So, cooking for strangers means extending love to strangers. Not inherently a bad thing--but it can be emotionally overwhelming.
Though it wasn’t planned intentionally, I spent the one-year anniversary of COVID with my sister and her family in Brooklyn. They all suffered from the coronavirus in March of 2020--my little nephews falling first with stomach upset and pseudo-hashimotos, followed by my sister, and finally my brother-in-law near the end of March. The virus ran rampant through their building, they lost friends and neighbors. And, of course, we all lost time. This last year has felt on hold. We have all been in a liminal space, neither here nor there. There have not been any “good” decisions. We have spent time denying, raging, mourning, and perhaps accepting--but it hasn’t really felt like progressing. My visit to New York felt like a transition--a mark in time that indicated that I was now moving forward again. And how better to celebrate the end of stagnation and suffering with an eyebrow raising meal consumed with some of the most important people in the whole world.
I cook a lot when I visit Brooklyn. It is a skillset that is one of my strengths (and passions) that is not really shared with my sister. She gets by in the kitchen. Also, she once burned spaghetti noodles after leaving them on the stove so long that the water evaporated. Cooking delicious food is something that I can do when I am staying on their couch that elevates the visit and makes life a little easier for everyone around me. Plus, my nephews associate “Auntie Tia” with home-baked cookies--some baked today, some dough left for tomorrow, and a roll in the freezer for when they miss me.
This weeks’ recipes constitute a simple, but oh-so-satisfying meal that I cooked while in my sister’s kitchen. It features a number of local (New York) ingredients that we found at their year-round farmers market including leeks, carrots, potatoes, and a heritage chicken. I hope that you consider how cooking can be more than satisfying a basic need--it can be an expression of love. And maybe next time you think about showing someone that you love them, you consider roasting a chicken.
Simple Roast Chicken and Root Vegetables
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 whole chicken
• 1 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
• Fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint, marjoram, etc.) - fine chopped
• 1 bunch of leeks - cleaned and sliced every 1”
• 1 bunch of carrots - peeled and cut into large chunks
• 8-10 new potatoes - scrubbed and cut in half or quarters if they are large
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2 Rinse and pat chicken dry. Combine butter, and herbs then season to taste with salt and pepper. Loosen chicken skin from the meat. Rub the chicken all over with herb butter including a layer between the skin and meat.
3. Place chopped root vegetables on a parchment lined sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper. Place butter-coated chicken on top of the root vegetables.
4. Roast in the oven for around 40 minutes until the temperature (at the thigh) is 155 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes. The temperature should carryover to 165 degrees during this rest.
White Beans with Mushrooms and Leeks (You had to know I was going to cook them beans!!!)
INGREDIENTS
• 1 lb. of dry white beans (I used Marcellas from Rancho Gordo)
• 1 yellow onion - peeled and cut in half with root intact.
• 3-5 bay leaves
• 3-5 garlic cloves - peeled
• 4 T unsalted butter
• 1 leek - cleaned and sliced super thing
• 12 ounces assorted mushrooms (crimini, shitake, wood ear, etc) - sliced
• Salt and Pepper
DIRECTIONS:
1. Clean beans. In a large pan cover beans with a few inches of water, add onion halves, bay leaves, and garlic cloves. Cook over medium-high heat until you reach a boil. Boil for 5 minutes then reduce heat to maintain a medium simmer. Cook until the beans are done, adding water as necessary.
2. When beans are approaching done, stop adding more water and reduce liquid til fairly thick. Remove and discard onion halves, bay leaves, and garlic cloves (if you miss a couple of cloves of garlic NOTHING BAD will happen)!
NOTE: Yes - I packed 2 pounds of my “special beans” in my luggage and I don’t feel like there is ANYTHING weird about that.
3. In a separate pot, melt butter until foaming subsides. Add thinly sliced leeks and cook over medium heat until they are melty and soft. Add in sliced mushrooms and cook until they too are soft.
4. Combine beans with pot liquor with leeks and shallots. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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