Roast Chicken and Other Stories

I just finished reading this book. Yes, it is a cookbook. Yes, I read it cover-to-cover. It is the first time I've set out to do that (I think it's happened on accident before), and I'm not sure I'd do it again. More about that at a different time, perhaps.

I offer the following, as some background:

I received this book from my foodie-uncle on Christmas Eve. I was a bit over-served at the time (to put it mildly...) and I don't know if I properly displayed my gratitude and enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Uncle Steve: this post is for you (and the next one's for my homies). I know. I should never speak or write again. So anyway, he made me a lovely basket (actually, a gift-wrapped cardboard box, but it's all good) containing this book, some arborio rice, nice olive oil, a 22-year-old balsamic, white truffle oil, a spatula (although this was apparently for my sister -- something I'm still struggling to understand), and a silvah plattah (translation: silver platter -- but it's more fun to type it with my Long Island accent preserved). Best gift this Christmas, hands down. Still don't know what to do with the truffle oil, but that's another post. This one's about the book, remember?

So, as I said, I read every page, in order. I quite liked the setup of the book. Hopkinson devotes a couple of pages (and maybe four or five recipes each) to a variety of ingredients. For instance, he has a chapter on brains, one on tripe, and one on sweetbreads. Mmmm-mmm. He also discusses different herbs, onions, eggs, lamb, and many other common foods. Each chapter starts with a whimsical image -- maybe of the highlighted food item, maybe not. I quite liked these little pictures -- there are no actual photographs in the book though. Minus 1 point. He leaves the reader with a couple of paragraphs talking about the featured ingredient, sometimes with anecdotes and fond memories. In that sense, it's kind of enjoyable to read. For the most part, however, it is a cookbook, and so I never found myself waiting with bated breath to see what Hopkinson would do with the offal next. (There's lots of offal.)

I should fully disclose that I haven't prepared any of these recipes. However, they all seem fairly simple, if not a bit time consuming. And as any good British chef would, Hopkinson puts cream and onions in almost everything -- and prepares a complimentary French sauce for topping. These recipes are not for the faint of heart -- I might've had a couple of heart attacks just reading them. But a lot sound really good.

In some ways, I'm thinking of this book as an encyclopedia. If I find myself with some Anglophilic ingredient, I feel that I can turn to Hopkinson's book and figure out what to do with the smoked haddock. However, there weren't many pages I was dog-earing for easy preparingation later on (what's wrong with that sentence? -- my English is poor from lack of use).

I think this will be a good book to keep around for reference, but not something that will reside close at hand with Bittman's tome and the ever-reliable Joy of Cooking. There are a few things I'd like to try (like its namesake roast chicken), but nothing moved me to go to the market straight away.

Next on the reading list: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Sourdough Starter: Day 01

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I baked some bread. It turned out pretty well, but is lacking a bit in flavor. Truth be told, I think the bread would have benefited from much more time proofing and rising. My yeast was a bit sluggish. ...And I forgot the salt. Yeah. Bland. Yeah...

Well, I did a little research and decided I'd like to follow Nancy Silverton's recipe for sourdough starter and make a couple of breads from her book Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery. This requires a 14-day process, but you theoretically only have to do it once in your lifetime...or until you forget about it...or otherwise murder it. SO TAKE GOOD CARE OF IT!!!

Okay, so I ordered the book online and also checked it out of the library because I just can't wait for it to arrive. I didn't read the foreword or intro yet, but it's pretty dang long. I do plan to read it, but the way I see it, I have 14 days to catch up. I flipped through the recipe for the starter in the library and stopped at the market on my way home. I bought 20 pounds of bread flour, some grapes, cheesecloth, a large container (actually this is to store my open bread flour, not for the culture), and a jar of wheat germ. The wheat germ isn't needed until I actually bake some bread...in 14 days...but I'd be pissed if I'm missing ingredients when bread-day arrives.

Day 01 requires just flour, water, and grapes. I couldn't get organic grapes, so I bought regular red grapes and rinsed them gently. I wrapped 'em up hobo-style in cheesecloth and added them to my mixture of flour and water. I squished the fruit and dunked it a bunch of times, then sunk it to the bottom of my pitcher (you can see 'em in the photo above). I covered it tightly with plastic wrap and walked away. Tomorrow I should see some bubbling. I don't actually have to do anything until day 04, unless mold starts to grow.

P.S. You can see some bubbles here, but they're in there just because I whipped some air in when I mixed my flour and water.