Roasted Chicken & Artichokes

Simplicity in cooking is not a trade off for complexity in flavor. I find that many recipes that promote ease and efficiency also lack dimension and freshness. The short-cut / semi-homemade approach to cooking can be a huge time saver, but the canned, boxed and frozen elements often dominate the list of ingredients and overwhelm the flavor of the few fresh components. I absolutely think that semi-homemade cooking has its place on the weekly dinner roster, but I also think that you can achieve simplicity in the kitchen through the *right* combination of prepackaged and fresh ingredients. In my book, the trick is to be sure that your recipe includes more fresh foods than canned, boxed and frozen goods. Take the short-cuts where you can, but keep the primary flavors coming from the fresh side of the grocery aisle.

And on the topic of short-cuts, I am a huge fan of one-dish dinners. Such a fan, in fact, that I intend to make it one of the many points of focus of this weblog. We're evolving! To kick things off on the one-dish meal front, and to bring things back to the short-cut cooking side of things, I was thrilled to find this one-dish meal of roasted chicken and artichokes. A whole chicken (sectioned) and fresh sweet bell peppers are combined with canned artichoke hearts and jarred green olives for an incredibly easy and remarkably robust dinner. One kitchen time-saver: use whole peeled garlic cloves and whole peeled shallots from your grocer in lieu of bulk items.

*ROASTED CHICKEN & ARTICHOKES* (adapted from Martha Stewart Living, April 2002)
Yields 6 servings
Ingredients
One whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
Coarse salt and ground pepper, to taste
3 T olive oil
1 lemon
6 large garlic cloves
6 large shallots, peeled and halved
2 sweet bell peppers (red, yellow or orange), seeded and cut into large strips
2 cans whole artichoke hearts
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup large green olives, pitted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Season chicken with salt and pepper and rub with one tablespoon olive oil. Place chicken in a large, shallow roasting pan and set aside. With a vegetable peeler, zest lemon into long strips and squeeze juice from lemon into a small bowl.

In a medium bowl, combine lemon zest, garlic, shallots, bell peppers, and artichoke hearts with two tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange mixture around chicken in roasting pan and roast until chicken is brown, about 40 minutes.

Remove roasting pan from oven and add reserved lemon juice along with white wine and green olives, stirring slightly. Return to oven for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until liquid thickens slightly.  Remove from oven and serve hot. Delish!

Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

We have had an incredibly mild winter to date, with not even a dusting of snow, so my typical meals of turkey chili, chicken pot pie, and lasagna have not taken their usual place in the dinner rotation. However, winter finally made its mark here this past weekend, when the chilly winds and below-freezing temperatures encouraged us to keep the fire place burning and inspired some hearty beef stew in the slow cooker.

Here's the thing about cooking chicken, beef, or pork in the slow cooker: the recipes that require some work beforehand are often the ones that yield the best results. Yes, slow cookers are designed to make cooking less laborious and more convenient, but slow heat will not deliver the same results as a skillet or a high-heat oven. When slow-cooking a dish for which you want the meat to fall apart, such as shredded pork shoulder for barbeque rolls or green-chile chicken for enchiladas, the slow cooker can be your best friend. However, when slow-cooking a dish like chicken wings, for which you want the meat to stay on the bone, you may end up with a bowl full of meat and bones (as happened to me a few weeks ago).

How to solve this slow-cooker problem? Brown the meat beforehand, of course! Yes, it requires a little extra work, but the outcome truly is worth it. Peruse the comments section of most slow-cooker recipes online and you'll find a chorus of voices on the topic. I am so convinced that a little extra work outside of the cooker yields better results in the cooker that I have become weary of recipes that require nothing more than tossing a medley of raw meat, a seasoning packet, and other ingredients into the cooker and pressing "start" (again, pork shoulder being one notable exception).

So, onto the beef stew. The beauty of beef stew (which I admittedly prepare only once or twice a year) is that you can make it your own by adding a broad variety of vegetables, from the standard carrots and yukon gold potatoes to the more seasonal parsnips and rutabaga. For this go-round, I used a mix of small purple, red and gold potatoes, baby carrots, and pearl onions. I had every intention of including peas, which are added at the end of the hours-long cooking cycle, but it skipped my mind in the moment. Yes, I browned the meat beforehand, and I think it made all the difference.

*SLOW-COOKER BEEF STEW* (adapted from Real Simple)
Yields 4-6 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds bottom round, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup olive oil
3 ounces tomato paste
1 cup red wine
2 cups beef broth
1 pound small potatoes
1/2 pound baby carrots
1/2 pound pearl onions
3/4 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 T each: dried basil & oregano (or a bouquet of fresh oregano & thyme, tied with cooking twine)
1-2 bay leaves
Salt & pepper

Season the beef cuts with salt and pepper; place into a large ziploc bag with the flour. Close the bag and shake to fully cover beef with flour. Prepare a medium-hot skillet with olive oil and add the beef to the pan, making sure to brown all four sides of each piece and adding more oil if necessary. When browned, transfer the beef to the slow cooker. Reduce skillet heat slightly and add tomato paste and red wine to the pan, stirring first to combine and then to deglaze the pan of any remaining flour coating. Transfer skillet contents to the slow cooker and remove from heat.

To the slow cooker, add the beef broth, vegetables and spices, plus salt and pepper to taste. Stir gently to combine, cover, and cook on high heat for four (4) hours or low heat for seven (7) hours. When the cooking cycle ends, remove the bay leaves and herb bouquet (if used) and stir in the peas until heated through. Serve in a big bowl on a chilly winter night!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Cinnamon raisin bread is one of our favorite breakfast foods. We eat it soft, toasted, plain, buttered, and every type of preparation in between. Conquering the bread machine version of this beloved loaf is a high priority for me and I was pretty excited about the outcome the first time around. I'll probably continue to tweak it and explore other versions, but the first time was a charm! Also, how can you not love a dough that has a surprise smiley face hidden inside the first slice?!

This was my first time working with a dough that had to be removed from and then returned to the machine prior to the baking cycle. The dough was incredibly easy to work with outside of the pan, and rolling it back together was a cinch.

*CINNAMON RAISIN SWIRL BREAD*
Yields one (1) one-pound loaf
Ingredients
3/4 cup milk, room temperature
1 1/2 T butter, cut into half-inch pieces
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 t salt
1 T granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 t yeast
For the topping: 3 T sugar, 1/2 T cinnamon, 1 cup raisins

Combine all ingredients, in the order listed above, in the bread machine, making sure to keep wet ingredients separate from the yeast (added last). Program the bread machine for the 1-pound basic/white cycle on the medium crust setting. Start the machine and allow it to proceed through the mix, knead and initial rise cycles. When the bread machine signals to remove the kneading paddle, turn the dough out onto a flat, lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out into a rectangle between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon topping onto the dough and cover with raisins. Roll the dough into a tight cylinder beginning with the shorter side, making sure that the ends are tucked in and sealed. Place the dough back into the pan (with kneading paddle removed) and allow machine to proceed through the final rise and bake cycles. When baking is complete, remove immediately and cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve any time of day!