Ruhlman's Twenty (40 page)
Authors: Michael Ruhlman
In a large ovenproof sauté pan or heavy-gauge roasting pan/tray, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. Add all but 1 large clove of the remaining garlic, unpeeled, to the pan along with the thyme and stir to coat. Add the lamb and sear on all sides (the shape of the leg may prevent you from searing every bit of surface), 3 to 4 minutes per side. As you sear the leg, baste it with the oil. Put the pan in the oven and roast the lamb to an internal temperature of 130°F/57°C, about 1½ hours.
At least 20 minutes before serving the lamb, peel the remaining garlic clove and crush, mash, or mince it. In a small bowl combine the garlic, 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice, and ½ teaspoon salt and let sit for a few minutes. Add the yogurt and stir. Set aside.
Remove the lamb to a carving board (plenty of juice will be released as you carve), and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Taste the sauce and add more lemon juice if you wish. Stir in the mint. Slice the leg of lamb vertically, parallel with the bone, into thin slices. After the lamb is carved, spoon the accumulated juices over the slices. Serve with the yogurt sauce.
There is no more iconic home-cooked meal than a roasted chicken. I believe that just about any book addressing home cooking ought to include a recipe for roasted chicken, even though all the recipes are practically the same.
You can vary this recipe any way you wish—rub butter and herbs beneath the skin, roast the bird on a bed of vegetables, stuff it with aromatic vegetables and herbs, flavor it with a green Thai curry paste or a mix of cumin and dried chiles. In the end, roast chicken is roast chicken, and for that we should be grateful. Few things are more economical and soul satisfying to cook and to share at the table than a beautifully roasted chicken.
There may be no food more generous than roasted chicken. The aroma fills a kitchen. That’s a pleasure, even if you’re not aware of it. When the bird comes out of the oven, it must rest in its cooking vessel or on a cutting board, and it’s something to behold while the rest of the meal is completed. It’s gorgeous and enticing (cut off a wing or the butt to taste immediately, just to make sure it’s delicious). If you wish, use some of the fat and the juices and browned skin stuck to the pan to
make a sauce
. Separating the legs from the bird releases juices, ready to be taken advantage of.
All the preparations lead up to the eating. In our house, there are four of us, and the sharing of a single bird with its various parts is, to me, if not my kids, a spiritual satisfaction. We usually have leftovers, and the carcass and bones can be
transformed into stock
, the backbone of yet another meal a day or two later, such as chicken and dumplings or any number of soups.
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There are three finesse points to a perfect roasted chicken. Though infinite variables make one roasted chicken different from another (the quality of the chicken, the seasonings used, how long you cook the bird), three main goals are essential if you want to wind up with a perfect roasted chicken. They concern seasoning, oven temperature, and—the most talked-about issue but rarely addressed practically—the maintenance of a juicy breast and fully cooked thighs.
Seasoning in this case is salt. A chicken should be liberally salted. It should have a visible coating of salt, not just a fey sprinkle. As Thomas Keller put it to me, “I like it to rain down on the chicken.” An aggressive use of salt not only seasons the exterior so the chicken tastes delicious, it also helps dehydrate the skin so that you wind up with a crisp brown skin and not a pale soggy one.
Chickens should be roasted in a very hot oven, as hot as your stove and kitchen can take. A hot oven—ideally 450°F/230°C/gas 8 but at least 425°F/220°C/gas 7—accomplishes two important feats: it browns the skin, and it cooks the leg and thigh fast, giving the breast less opportunity to dry out.
The most common reason people end up with a dry and flavorless breast is that they fail to address what is happening in the cavity of the bird. If the ends of the legs are not tied together in front of the cavity or if the cavity is empty, hot air swirls around the cavity of the bird, cooking the breast from the inside out. To prevent this, you must truss the chicken, which I think is part of the pleasure of roasting a chicken, but most home cooks don’t want to bother with it. If you count yourself among the latter, simply put something into the cavity, preferably something tasty— lemon, onion, garlic, herbs. I repeat: if you don’t want to truss the chicken, stick a lemon in it.
Of course, you don’t want to under- or over- cook the bird. My experience of roasting a chicken most weeks of the year for the past twenty years is that 1 hour at 450°F/230°C is perfectly sufficient for a 4-pound/1.8-kilogram bird (50 minutes for a bird under that). But as a rule of thumb, you should use the cavity juices to judge doneness. After 45 minutes, if you tilt the bird so that the juices spill cracklingly into the rendered fat, you will notice that they are red. When you tilt the chicken and the juices that stream out are clear, it’s safe to take the bird out of the oven.
Finally, a chicken ought to rest a good 15 minutes before you cut into it. Don’t worry about the chicken getting cold. It won’t. It’s a big, solid bird that retains heat well (touch it after 10 minutes and see for yourself).
One 3- to 4-pound/1.4- to 1.8-kilogram chicken
1 lemon and/or 1 medium onion, quartered (optional)
Kosher salt
About 1 hour before cooking the chicken, remove it from the refrigerator, and rinse it. If you intend to make a
pan sauce
, cut off the wing tips and add them, along with the neck if you have it, to the pan in which you will roast the bird. Truss the chicken or stuff it with the lemon or onion, or both. Salt it and set it on a plate lined with paper towels/absorbent paper.
Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas 8 or to 425°F/220°C/gas 7 if you’re concerned about smoke. Set the oven on convection if that’s an option. Put the chicken in an oven-proof frying pan and slide it into the oven.
After 1 hour, check the color of the juices. If they run red, return the chicken to the oven and check it again in 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes before carving it.
Carve the chicken and serve.
1
/A roast chicken benefits from an aggressive coating of salt.
2
/Truss your chicken to prevent the breast from overcooking.
3
/Roasting in a skillet encourages good air circulation.
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In the summer I boil green beans. In the winter, I roast them. Here, I add red pepper flakes and cumin. If I have some bacon fat on hand, I use that as the cooking fat, which adds another dimension.
3 tablespoons canola oil or rendered bacon fat
1 to 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
5 or 6 garlic cloves, smashed with the flat side of a knife
1 pound/455 grams green beans, stem ends removed
Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas 8 or to 425°F/ 220°C/gas 7 if you’re concerned about smoke.
Set an ovenproof frying pan over high heat, and add the oil, red pepper flakes, cumin seeds, and garlic. When the cumin and pepper flakes begin to sizzle, add the green beans and toss them with the oil so that they’re nicely coated.
Slide the pan into the oven and cook the green beans, removing them once or twice to stir them, until they are nicely colored and tender, about 20 minutes. Season with a three-finger pinch of salt midway through the cooking. Serve hot from the pan.
PAN ROASTING
An important cooking technique to hold in your arsenal is the pan roast. The name alone conjures a sense of deliciousness even without any food in the title. The technique simplifies cooking, gives you flexibility and control over your food, and frees up the stove top so you can work on other parts of your meal while the main course finishes cooking.
The pan roast is simply the combination of two dry-heat techniques: sauté and roast. Meat is first seared on the stove top in a sauté pan, then is turned and put in the oven to finish cooking. In other words, first you develop the flavor on the exterior of the meat on a very hot surface, and then you cook the interior by putting it in an environment where it’s surrounded by heat.
Any meat can be pan roasted if it’s thick enough and is naturally tender. Very thin, lean cuts of meat and thin fillets of fish don’t benefit from pan roasting, but thicker cuts of meat and more muscular fish are perfect candidates. Beef tenderloin, steaks, veal chops, chicken breasts with the wing joint attached, and fish such as cod, monkfish, or grouper pan roast beautifully.
All you need is a pan that you can put into the oven, a heavy-duty stainless-steel sauté pan with a metal handle or a cast-iron frying pan. When you’ve finished pan roasting, you’re going to have a pan with a very hot handle. I use heavy-duty side towels for grabbing hot pans. Whenever I take a pan out of the oven, I leave a side towel on the handle so that I or someone else at the stove doesn’t grab it and get burned.
The pan roast is used all the time in the restaurant kitchen. It ought to find its way into more homes. Of the many ways that we combine cooking techniques to our great advantage, the pan roast is among the most versatile.
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Cod is a hearty fish that carries the big flavor of the chorizo and the acidity of the vinaigrette well. Because it’s a meaty fish, it can be roasted with great results. First the fillets are seared in hot oil, then they are turned and finished in the oven while you prepare any other dishes you’re serving.
4 skinless cod fillets, about 6 ounces/170 grams each
Canola oil
Fine sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4.
Rub the cod fillets with oil and sprinkle with salt.
Put an ovenproof, nonstick pan over high heat. When it’s hot, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan to a depth of
3
/
16
inch/3 millimeters. Allow the oil to get hot. Lay the cod fillets in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes.
Turn the fillets and slide the pan into the oven. Cook until the center of the cod is warm, 4 to 5 minutes. Test a fillet by inserting a paring knife or cake tester, then holding the metal to the skin below your lower lip; if it’s cool, return the cod to the oven for a few more minutes.
Drain the fillets on paper towels/absorbent paper and serve topped with the vinaigrette.