Here in the northwest corner of Washington State, winter has set in – temperatures in the 30s and 40s, heavy wind, raining sideways. It’s the time to deploy all the goodies we grew and preserved last summer – stocks, sauces, root veggies and such – time for soups and stews.
One of our favorites is what you probably call Goulash, but Gulyás would be more accurate – either way, it’s Hungary’s answer to winter storms.
Gulyás is a National dish of Hungary, (albeit it’s popular throughout Central Europe in various iterations.) Gulyás has shown up in recorded history as far back as the 9th century. Like chili in northern Mexico, it started as a dried meat preparation carried by shepherds – just add water and you’d have a hearty meal ready for days end.
Hungarians take their Chiles very seriously
The version we enjoy now is a bit different from the original. For about the last 500 years, Gulyás has been powered by powdered chiles – those originated in the Americas, but took the world by storm when introduced across Europe and Asia by the Spaniards back in the 1500s.
The Hungarian version of dried, powdered capsicum annuum, AKA paprika, goes damn near that far back – to the 1600s, when the Turks grew it in Buda, now known as Budapest – Ever since, Gulyás has been paprika powered.
Gulyás is a perfect vehicle to celebrate fall harvest root vegetables with. Other variants contain dry pinto or cranberry beans (Babgulyás), sauerkraut (Szekelygulyás), or haricot vert (Palocgulyás). Versatile stuff, indeed.
For us at home, this is a godsend – like many legendary dishes, there is no one authentic version – there are many. Everyone’s mom makes Golyás, as does any restaurant worth their stuff, and all of them can be (and usually are) glorious – yours will be too.
The paprika in Gulyás affords significant room to play. There are three major varieties you’ll find – sweet, hot, and smoked. Use one, or mix, and you’ll find myriad differences in your final dish. For a real treat, chase down genuine Hungarian paprika – of that, Rubin Szeged Sweet is arguably the best there is – though other famous makers certainly have fine stuff as well.
Paprika isn’t the only unique note to this stew, there’s a great minor note of caraway, the earthy-herby influence of parsnip, and the brightness of celery leaf or parsley. The beef you choose should be a lean roast cut. Onions can be yellow, sweet, red – whatever you prefer. Fresh varietal potatoes will shine here as well.
You’ll notice some leeway in several ingredients – feel free to tweak as you see fit. Any stock you like will work fine, but water will deliver a great dish, too.
In addition to the ingredients, method is important – if you don’t follow the steps, you’ll get a nice soup or stew, but it won’t reach its full potential.
Finally, you don’t need to make or add csipetke, but they’re surprising delicious, authentic, and better yet – they maintain their firmness for next day leftovers.
Urban’s Reasonably Authentic Hungarian Gulyás
4-6 Cups Stock or Water
1 1/2 Pounds Beef
2 medium Onions
2 large Roma Tomatoes
2 fresh Green Bell Peppers
2-3 small Potatoes (any variety you like)
1-2 fresh Carrots
1 Fat Parsnip
2-3 fat cloves fresh Garlic
2-3 fresh Celery Leaves (dry will work, as will parsley)
2-4 Tablespoons Hungarian Paprika
2 teaspoons ground Caraway Seed
2 Bay Leaves
2 Tablespoons Avocado Oil
Sea Salt
Fresh ground Pepper
End trim, peel, and rough dice onion.
End trim, peel and mince garlic.
Trim the top and white membranes from the green peppers and rough dice.
End trim and rough dice carrots and parsnip.
End trim and dice tomatoes.
Rough dice potatoes.
Combine carrot, parsnip, peppers, and potatoes in a mixing bowl and cover veggies with cold water.
Roll up celery leaf (or parsley) and chiffonade cut.
Grind caraway seed in a mortal and pestle (or spice grinder) until you develop a rough powder.
Cut beef into roughly 1/2” cubes.
Measure and portion out bay leaves, oil, salt, and pepper.
In a cast iron dutch oven over medium high heat, add the oil and heat through.
Add the onion, a pinch of salt and a couple twists of pepper – sauté until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
Add the paprika to the onions and stir in well to thoroughly coat.
Add the cubed beef to the hot dutch oven, and sauté until lightly browned on all sides, about 10-12 minutes.
Add the minced garlic, a 3 finger pinch of salt, 10-12 twists of pepper, the ground caraway seed, and bay leaves, and stir everything in well to incorporate.
Cover the mix with stock or water to about an inch above the goodies. When the meat blend starts to boil, reduce the heat to maintain a low simmer.
Simmer for 90 minutes, adding water or stock as needed to maintain a full cover.
After 90 minutes, add the diced veggie blend, including the soaking water, and stir well to incorporate.
Simmer for another 90-120 minutes, until everything is nice and tender.
Taste the broth and adjust salt and pepper balance as needed. You may add more paprika at this point too, if you wish.
Serve with csipetke, or crusty bread, sour cream, and a nice glass of rustic red.
This is a signature Hungarian pasta – they have a delightful, firm chew and they carry flavors like nobody’s business. Derived from the Hungarian word csípni (pinch), the name speaks to the technique of making the pasta – little pinky nail sized chunks are slightly flattened and pinched off a thin rope of dough, then cooked in water or the gulyás, as you prefer.
Hungarian Csipetke
Hungarian Csipetke
1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 large Egg
2 finger pinch Sea Salt
1 teaspoon cold Water
On a clean work surface, place the flour and make a well in the middle.
Crack the egg into the well and whisk with a fork until well beaten.
Add a pinch of salt to the egg mix and whisk in.
Slowly add flour to the egg to form a dough.
Add the water if needed.
Knead for about 5 minutes until you have a firm, smooth dough.
Cover with a clean, damp towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Roll the dough into a cigar shape, spinning it between floured palms, stretching and reducing the diameter until you’ve got a rope roughly 1/4” in diameter.
Pull/pinch a piece off the end of the rope and continue until all your csipetke are formed.
Boil in well salted water until the csipetke float to the surface, about 3-5 minutes.
Alternatively, you can toss the csipetke into your simmering gulyás for about 10 minutes before serving.
We don’t eat a ton of sweets, but when we do, we lean toward cookies more often than not. Building these always begins with a discussion of a main theme, and then branches out into what we’ve got that would go well with such. Last nights foray lead to an exquisite bite, a Brown Butter Oatmeal Cranberry Pecan Cookie.
Ya gotta make sure they’re good right after they come out, right?
Oatmeal is always a winner, far as I’m concerned – it makes a cookie chewier and a bit more wholesome than flour alone – That was our opening bid for this creation.
Next came dried cranberries hiding in the pantry, and finally, some incredible Texas pecans gifted to us by dear friends Bob and Margot Wieneke.
The finishing touches included browned butter, which goes so well in my go-to cornbread, and Mexican cane sugar – that stuff retains a delightful hint of the stuff it’s made of – something plain old white sugar can’t do.
There’s a bit more egg than usual, to stand up to the oatmeal and bind everything nicely. Good quality vanilla bean paste makes a nice touch as well.
We used pastry flour, which is lower in gluten than All Purpose, and yields a chewier cookie – you could sure use AP if you prefer that.
You can and should tweak this thing to your liking, based on a favorite nut and/or dried fruit – and when you do, show us your work!
This recipe will make about 36 cookies, because if you’re gonna do something, do it right, (awww you can halve it if you want to).
Urban’s Brown Butter Oatmeal, Cranberry & Pecan Cookies
2 2/3 Cups Pastry Flour
1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 Cups Mexican Cane Sugar
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
1 Cup dried Cranberries
1 Cup Pecans
4 Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla Paste
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Bring all ingredients to room temperature before starting construction.
If your dried fruit and nuts are whole, chop them into a rough dice.
Measure and sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
In a second bowl, combine the Mexican and brown sugars and whisk to incorporate.
In a heavy sauce pan over medium heat, add the butter, and allow to melt and heat through.
The butter will foam – that’s the excess water boiling off – whisk gently and steadily until the butter is light golden in color and smells nutty.
Remove butter from heat and allow to cool for a minute or two.
Add butter to the sugar blend and whisk briskly – even melted butter will cream when mixed with sugar, adding tiny air bubbles to the blend which helps make a lighter cookie.
Crack two whole eggs and two egg yolks into the butter and sugar blend – (freeze extra egg whites in an airtight container for future projects).
Add the vanilla paste to the wet mix and whisk to incorporate thoroughly.
Add the flour mix and oatmeal to the wet mix and stir well with a wooden spoon to incorporate.
Add cranberries and pecans and stir well to incorporate.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, (up to overnight if you can wait that long).
Preheat oven to 350° F and set a rack in the middle slot.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
We use a 2 tablespoon measure for the size you see herein. Scoop a ball of dough and plop them down a couple of inches apart.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and the centers have risen notably.
Remove from oven and let cool for a couple minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Tribal Sister and avid follower Christy sent me this a while back –
Can you enlighten me about ratios/proportions in a dish I make? I frequently make a chile rellenos casserole because I have lots of poblanos and it’s an easy dish that can be spicey or mild. Every time I look at various recipes I can never decide what I should do about ratios in the egg-milk part. Basically, it’s a layer of poblano, topped with a protein, cheese and then covered with a mix of eggs, milk, and flour. Sometimes baking powder is added and usually additional cheese is added to the mixture before pouring over. I am looking for that sweet spot where it’s not too eggy–not a quiche or frittata–but not too watery. The poblanos need to shine through. Maybe you can explain the dynamics of this to me so I can fix some proportions in my mind – an inquiring mind wishes to know!
Chris further related that the ratios she’d found varied from 1/2 cups to 2 cup of milk, anywhere from 2 to 8 eggs, and 2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup of flour – She happens to be a Phd Archeologist and a hell of a fine cook, so no wonder that wild a statistical swing rocked her boat a bit!
I gave her letter another read, and doing so revealed more problems with this potential recipe than just the egg/milk ratio. I’ve made plenty of rellenos in several regional styles, but had never tackled relleno casserole, so naturally, I was hooked. What followed was an interesting lesson in recipe development that I thought would be fun to share here.
The exercise begins with the problem Chris wants fixed – 1. what ratio of egg/milk/flour will yield a relleno casserole that most closely duplicates a solo relleno, and 2. One that’s not too watery, and 3. one that lets the chile be foremost in the taste profile.
Next comes the further issues I identified in her notes, namely – 1. Why are some cooks adding baking powder, and 2. Why is the egg/milk/flour mixture being added last? Those two things needed to be thought out and addressed as well.
A look at a bunch of recipes revealed exactly what frustrates Chris – All over the place, and generally very eggy – way more of a frittata/quiche-like thing than any relleno variant I’m aware of. Why that happens is anyone’s guess – either preference or an assumption that things need to be done that way to work out, is mine.
To decide what to do took some reflection on the parent dish, the noble chile relleno. While there are variations in filling and coating, one thing remains true – Virtually all variations honor the chile and make it forward in the overall taste profile of the dish. Fillings might be anything from just cheese, to meat, meat and cheese, veggies, and combinations thereof.
Rellenos are shallow fried, and coatings vary from none to fairly fluffy mixes reminiscent of tempura. In between, you might find just egg and cornmeal, egg and flour, and the well known three stage dredge of egg/milk/flour. The fluffy coating variants explain where the baking powder option in some casseroles comes from – it’s deployed to help produce a light and airy coating – as such, it really has no place in a casserole – it’s not going to do what it’s intended to in this dish.
Next question for me was, is some form of egg/milk/flour mix necessary? My immediate answer was yes, because there is a place for the flavor note, and maybe just a hint of crunch that a proper mix and volume would offer, if deployed properly – and pouring whatever coating mix is used on top of a casserole is not the right place to deploy it. What that leads to is permeating everything throughout the casserole with an eggy mix, yielding exactly what Chris and I don’t want.
The coating mix should be on the bottom of the dish, where direct and latent heat will allow a thin layer to crisp up a bit, emulating the solo relleno. And the rest of the mix should go atop of the poblano layers, right where it should be for taste and effect, and about midway through the casserole. Finally, the volume of coating mix shouldn’t be excessive – it should be just enough to coat the poblanos.
As for watery casserole, the culprit there is going to be meat and veggies that don’t get properly prepared to work in the dish – the poblanos need to be thoroughly blistered, which does take appreciable moisture out of them without drying them out. Any other veggies need to be sautéed long enough to reduce their moisture content as well. I think milk of any kind will add too much water to the mix, so issued cream. Eggs needs to be fresh, or they too will add excess moisture. Finally, crappy chorizo and/or cheese will add water to the mix, so avoid those outright.
So, what else to put in there? To me, just meat, cheese and chiles is kinda pedestrian in a casserole – I want veggies, too. I settled on onion, garlic, some hot chiles, and tomato – all of those show up in various relleno recipes, so they’re spot on here, too.
Initially, I told Chris I was going to think of the proper ratio as a gravy, and as fate would have it, that was wrong. Working this recipe up to the point where everyone in the house said ‘damn,’ and the leftovers were better than the first night took three tries to get right.
The first swing suffered from too much batter, and lousy chorizo. The second one was OK, but watery – it suffered from old poblanos, and too much water in the veggie mix. All this was solved in v. 3.0 with fresh, local chorizo seco, proper pre-sautéing of most of the veggie mix, and physically squeezing excess juice out of the fresh tomatoes.
For chorizo seco, (the drier, often spicier cousin of the regular stuff), and good Mexican cheeses, (I used a 50%-50% blend of Oaxaca and Asadero cheeses for the dish), I’ll bet dimes to dollars there’s a good Latin grocery or two near you. If that’s not the case, I’ll recommend 90%-10% ground beef with homemade chorizo seasoning, (also provided herein) – that’ll give you the flavor without excess grease. For cheese, I’d go with 50%-50% Monterey Jack and Sharp Cheddar. Finally, your poblanos gotta be fat and sassy – a thick, juicy chile is an absolute must for this dish.
Urban’s Chile Relleno Casserole
5-6 large, fresh Poblano Chiles
1 Pound fresh Chorizo Seco (or alternative- see above)
1 Pound Melting Cheese Blend, (see above)
1 small yellow Onion
2-3 hot Chiles (Jalapeño, Fresno, or Serrano)
3 cloves fresh Garlic
1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano
2 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 Cup 1/2 & 1/2
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil
Kosher Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Place poblanos on a baking pan under a broiler, 2 rack spots from top.
Blister poblanos, turning regularly to make sure they’re evenly seared.
Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle.
Peel, end trim and dice 1 packed cup of onion and the hot chiles.
Peel, end trim and mince garlic.
Slice tomatoes in half, end trim, gut, and dice.
Uncase chorizo, or prep alt. beef (see below for seasoning)
Grate cheeses and combine.
Combine cream, eggs and flour in a small mixing bowl, and whisk vigorously to fully incorporate.
In a sauté pan over medium heat, add a tablespoon of avocado oil and allow to heat through. Add onion, hot chiles, garlic, and oregano, a pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper.
Sauté until onions start to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Remove veggie mix from heat and transfer to a small mixing bowl to cool.
Gently remove blistered skins from poblanos, then cut poblanos in half down the natural sides, leaving nice big slabs of chile.
In sauté pan over medium heat, add chorizo or beef and sauté, stirring steadily, until roughly 3/4 cooked through. If you’re using beef, add 2-4 tablespoons of chorizo seasoning to 1 pound of beef and cook. Transfer to a mixing bowl, discarding any excess liquid.
Set up your mise en place in prep for assembly.
Preheat oven to 350° F and set a rack with a baking sheet in the middle slot.
In a large casserole dish (9” x 11” or thereabouts), pour a thin layer of the coating mix, and swirl to evenly cover the bottom of the dish.
Lay down a solid layer of poblanos over the coating mix.
Add the chorizo or beef and spread in an even layer.
Add about half the cheese blend and spread evenly.
Add second layer of poblanos, covering completely.
Pour the rest of the coating mix onto the second poblano layer, to even;y cover the filling.
Add the sautéed veggies and spread evenly.
Hand squeeze any excess juice out of the diced tomatoes, and spread evenly.
Add the rest of the cheese blend and spread evenly.
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes, until topping cheese is bubbling and nicely browned.
Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
Serve over a bed of cabbage and lettuce, and maybe a few other renegade veggies, with ice cold cerveza Mexicana, and maybe some fresh tortilla chips to chase the naughty bits with.
Urban’s Go To Mexican Chorizo Seasoning
2 Tablespoons Granulated Garlic
2 Tablespoons Red Hatch Chile Powder
1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
2 teaspoons Sweet Paprika
2 teaspoons Mexican Oregano
2 teaspoons Smoked Salt
1 teaspoon Cumin Seed
1 teaspoon ground Black Pepper
Grind any and all whole spices to a smooth powder, then combine all ingredients.
Store in clean glass with a airtight lid, out of direct sunlight.
The slow food movement took hold in Italy, back in 1989, and it’s been chugging along ever since. The initial focus was, “food that’s good for us, good for our environment and good for the people who grow, pick and prepare it. In other words, food that is good, clean and fair,” all inarguably good stuff. The movement has branched out somewhat in the intervening twenty seven years, and as such, it was inevitable that cookware would also become a part of the deal, and indeed it has – In recent years, what we cook in and how we cook it has garnered every bit as much attention as the food itself.
In the late ’90’s, cookware began one of its greatest evolutions to date. Home cooks found themselves able to buy stuff far superior to the schlock that had ruled the roost previously. One of the very early deal makers in this regard was All Clad‘s Emerilware, a full 11 piece set of which M and It bought in 2002 for less than what a single top of the line All Clad stock pot was going for. Why so cheap? Well, made in China rather than the U.S., frankly, and some minor metallurgical tweaks. That said, they’re still multi-layer steel, aluminum and copper bottoms bonded to stainless bodies – Fourteen years later, they show obvious signs of heavy use, but they’re in perfect working order with years left on them.
Then, as the slow food movement penetrated other parts of the world, this trend toward high-end cookware took an interesting turn as well – a one hundred and eighty degree U turn, to be exact. Suddenly, cast iron was back in vogue, both raw, from venerable makers like Lodge, (who’ve been casting cookware since 1896), and in the considerably pricier enameled iteration, and the most famous version thereof, made by French manufacturer Le Creuset – They’ve been around since 1925, and are still going strong. The fact is, you can’t go wrong with cast iron – The only crime you can commit in this regard is to not have any in your kitchen. For my mind, a cast iron skillet and a Dutch oven are not optional, and that’s sage advice, if I do say so myself.
Straw Box – The original slow cooker.
Then the venerable crock pot got a make over, and the electric slow cooker caught fire as well. While the name brand crock pot is a child of the 1970s, the roots of the cooking method go back way further yet, to what was, and is still called a straw box. As you can see from the picture, this is nothing more than some form of box big enough to fit a slow cooker like a Dutch oven, with room enough to allow a nice, thick layer of straw to be piled all around the cooker. Foods heated in the Dutch oven are stuffed into the straw box and left alone for the day – The latent heat of the food in the well insulated box finishes the cooking in a nice, slow manner – Its great for cassoulets and such.
The Römertopf – Almost too pretty to cook in.
And lately, the clay cooker has made a resurgence as well, with venerable makers like Römertopf from Germany offering a wide range of fired clay cookware that’s not only fun to use, but quite lovely, (When I climbed aboard the clay cooker train for the writing of this piece, M noted that “it’s too pretty to cook in,” and it darn near is!) Cooking in clay might just signify the farthest back that we can practically go in pursuit of the good old days – It’s been done for thousands of years, and by cultures from literally all around the globe.
Thus we come to the Big Question at hand – How much, if any of this stuff do you actually need?
Let me answer that with a story. A friend of mine used to own a music store. I was there one day buying an amplifier, and he mentioned that he had some really nice Fender Stratocasters that I, “needed to take a look at.”
As we admired the guitars, I noted, “Well, they’re pretty, but I already got two Strats and a Tele – I don’t really need another one.” He looked at me as if I was the dumbest human he’d ever layer eyes on, sneered slightly and retorted, “What the hell does ‘need’ have to do with another Strat?!” And there you have it, in a nutshell.
How many knives do you really need? Two or three really will do. How many pots and pans? Well, that’s more complicated, and it depends on how much cooking you do and want to do – Realistically, I think anything less than a couple of sauce pans, a couple of sauté pans, and at least one big stock pot just won’t cut the mustard. How many and what kind of slow cooker you need is also complicated. If you have a good, cast iron Dutch oven, truth be told you probably don’t need anything else, but you may want more, and rightly so.
That single Dutch oven is versatile as all get out. From stove top, to oven, to camp fire, it can and will do it all, and a good quality oven will be something that you pass on to your kids and their kids after them – There’s much to be said for those qualities, and that’s why I’ll stand by the assertion above – If you only have one, I’d choose a Lodge cast iron Dutch oven and be most content, indeed.
What then, about enameled cast iron versus plain? My answer will be blasphemous to some, but I’ll stick by it – I’ve owned more than one piece of Le Creuset, and two Lodge Dutch ovens. I don’t own any Le Creuset currently, because all of the pieces we have went through the process of enamel chipping from the bottom, and were eventually retired – With regret, I’ll add, because Le Creuset is beautiful stuff. Now, let me interject that, were you to buy Le Creuset stuff new, you’ll find that it comes with a limited lifetime warranty, and while there are caveats and requirements, I know more than a few folks who have either gotten a brand new replacement for free, or a significant discount on same – In other words, Le Creuset not only makes a kick ass pot, they’re still a most honorable company.
Enameled cast iron with a case of the chips…
That said, the enamel is pretty, and will cut down on some preventive maintenance on your part, but you’ll pay for those premiums – Le Creuset is fabulously expensive, just like those top end All Clad stock pots – A lodge Dutch oven like ours will set you back around $40, and their enameled version will run you about $60 – That same size of Le Creuset costs $300 – Get the picture? Me, I’m OK with the maintenance – It’s why I have my knives made with high carbon blades instead of stainless – It’s about feel, and performance, and frankly, I’m OK with maintaining my stuff – That’s how I know how it’s doing in general. Oh, and for the record, I still own my Lodge Dutch oven, and the second one was gifted to my Sis, who was without and therefore in need.
And electric slow cookers, what about ’em? Well, the need factor is kinda like those Strats… Slow cookers are handy as all get out, and they’ve come a long way. Programmability, multiple cooking temps and profiles, and much higher quality cooking vessels and insulating materials have made these toys, errr – tools, a very attractive option. If you’re of a mind to make a soup or stew, cassoulet or roast, and want it to go all day low and slow, you’ll spend less energy doing so, and likely be much safer in using a slow cooker, as opposed to leaving an unattended oven or range in all day. Our Frigidaire Professional series 7 quart cooker cost about $60, and I highly recommend it.
The Frigidaire Professional Slow Cooker
And what about those clay cookers? While most of the world has been cooking in clay for millennia, many people in this country got their introduction back in the ’70s, when a British firm called Habitat introduced The Chicken Brick to America. On sale in Britain since 1964, the brick is a vaguely chicken shaped, unglazed terra-cotta cooker made in England by Weston Mills Pottery. The brick worked, and worked well, but it was kinda gimmicky, so a lot of folks got one as a wedding or Christmas gift, and then never actually used the silly thing. All that aside, the recent resurgence in interest regarding cooking in clay has spurred a revival – While Habitat discontinued sales of the Chicken Brick back in 2008, they’ve recently come to their senses and are again offering this iconic cooker.
The Chicken Brick is made of unglazed terra cotta
While the brick as made of unglazed terra-cotta, the stuff offered by Römertopf and a few other German makers is glazed clay. In either iteration, there are some things you must and must not do when cooking in these vessels, and that frankly is what caused a whole bunch of folks to never even try to use that wedding gift. Clay cookers cook in large part by steam heat, and that means you need to soak the whole cooker in water for 15 to 20 minutes before you load food into it.
Clay cookers must be soaked for 15 to 20 minutes prior to cooking.
Next, it’s best not to load cold foods into a clay cooker, so you’ll also have to get your bird or roast or whatever out of the fridge for long enough to allow it to get fairly close to room temperature. And clay cookers don’t do well in preheated ovens – That can lead to cracks, and cracks are bad – So you need to load that bird into that cooker and into a cold oven. This means that you actually will cook at a higher temperature than you normally roast at – With our Römertopf, we cook chicken at 450° F for about an hour, whereas regular roasting gets done at 350° F or thereabouts. Next caveat – You can’t take a clay cookers out of a hot oven and set it directly on a cold countertop – Doing so risks cracks, and again, they’re bad… Finally, you can’t clean a clay cookers with soap, and for the same reasons, (its porous, yeah?), you don’t really want to cook fish in one unless you’re not going to cook anything but fish in thereafter, because it’s got a memory like an elephant.
The Römertopf cooker – Made from glazed clay
Right about now, a fair chunk of you are thinking, “OK, Eben – What you’ve just done is convinced me that this clay cookers thing is a major pain in the ass, so why in hell would I put myself through all that just to cook a damn chicken?!
The answer is that the chicken you cook in that pain in the ass clay cooker will be the juiciest, tenderest, moistest chicken you’ve ever cooked. M said so, the very first time I used the Römertopf, and she was right. A clay cooker becomes a small, very efficient, very moist cooking environment, and without any other adjuncts whatsoever, it passes that moisture on to what you’re cooking. Römertopf makes cookers from quite small to large enough for a full sized turkey – we bought a medium size, which has a stated size of slightly over 3 quarts, and cost fifty bucks – Not cheap, but as you can see, this is a well made and truly beautiful thing – Almost too pretty to cook in, as M noted. What it fits is pretty much the fattest local chicken you can find, but not much else – I quickly found that our cooker truly wouldn’t hold anything else, which initially made me nervous, because I come from the mire poix in the bottom of a Dutch oven with some chicken stock school of roasting. What I found out is exactly what all the makers of clay cookers tell you – You don’t need anything in that cooker to make an incredible, notable chicken – The cooker will do the magic – And indeed, it does. I stuffed that bird with apple, fennel, onion, and some fresh herbs. Cooked it at 450° F for an hour, then popped the top off for about 10 minutes to let the bird brown. Pulled it out, put it in a towel on the counter top, gave it a 10 minute rest, and dug in.
Clay cooked chicken – ’nuff said.
It was, as noted, an incredible chicken, but let’s face it – I bought this cooker to write this post, and as good as that chicken was, it could have been a fluke, so I did the scientific thing – I bought another chicken a week later, did all the proper prep, but this time, I did nothing other than to throw that bird into the Römertopf with a tiny bit of olive oil rubbed on the skin, followed by our signature seasoned salt blend and fresh ground pepper – Didn’t stuff it, didn’t tie it, nothin’ – Just cooked the bugger, and…
Look at all the moisture that cooker produces!
It was the best damn chicken I ever made, hands down, bar none, no bullshit.
So, now – What do you need?
PLEASE NOTE!
Have now had quite a few of you ask if I was biased/bought for the purposes of this piece. Those who’ve asked are quite new here, so it’s a fair question. Here’s our answer –
We have never accepted any ingredient or article for free or any kind of reduced price in exchange for a favorable review, and we never will.
We have far more than enough followers and readers to warrant the ability to run ads on this blog, and to receive deals such as I just described – Again, we’ve never done any of that, and never will.
This is a completely independent blog, and everything you see here is bought by us at full retail price from the same places you can get yours. We’re about helping folks discover new things, becoming more food independent, and making from scratch everything that you can, period.
Jerk Seasoning Blend, AKA Jamaican Jerk, came about as a dry rub for pork, albeit you see it in chicken most often these days. Fact is, it’s way more than just a dry rub, and it rocks on everything from veggies, dressings and marinades, to beef and fish.
Like most signature blends, there really isn’t a go-to version, as every chef has there own swing on it. What you can count on is that it’s a complex mix, often anywhere from 12 to 16 ingredients.
The non-negotiables are serious chile heat at the fore, onion, garlic, cumin, and the warm spices that define Caribbean cuisine – allspice, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. What else you put in there, and in what proportion, is up to you.
Some folks will argue that the chile must be Scotch Bonnets, and that’s fair, but I’ll say that any chile with decent heat and a complex fruity background does just fine – remember, it’s your blend.
Here’s my current go to – try it, tweak it, make it yours.
Urban’s Jerk Blend
1 Tablespoon granulated Onion
1 Tablespoon granulated Garlic
2-4 teaspoons Hatch Hot Red Chile
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
2 teaspoons ground Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Lemon Thyme
2 teaspoons Mexican Cane Sugar
1 teaspoon ground Allspice
1 teaspoon dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground Clove
1/4 teaspoon ground Cumin
If using whole spices for the pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and cumin, process in a spice grinder to a roughly uniform powder.
Combine all ingredients and run through a single mesh strainer until you have a homogenous blend.
Bottle in clean glass and store in a cool, dry spot out of direct sun.
Roasted Pumpkin seeds, AKA Pepitas, are a great treat, and as is the case with many seeds, pretty good for you, too.
My Cousin Sally writes, OK, Eben – Halloween is upon us, which means it’s time to nom on delicious toasted pumpkin seeds! Yay! But here’s the dilemma… Recipes on the Internet vary from 250 degrees to 400 degrees and 7 minutes to 50 minutes. And some recipes boil the little suckers before toasting! What the heck. Thoughts??
P.S. I used to go with the soy sauce and seasoned salt route, but now I’m a fan of the olive oil and sea salt mix. But I’m perplexed by the temp and time…
Sugar Pumpkins – Many good things inside!
Great question! Here’s the drill for making great roasted pumpkin seeds every time.
Remove seeds from sugar pumpkins, and by golly, save or use that flesh for wonderful things, like Pumpkin Flan. Roasted seeds make a great garnish for squash bisque, and make a fabulous garnish on Oaxacan style chiles rellenos.
Boiling pumpkin seeds before roasting makes for crunchy skins.
Simmering the seeds in salted water is a must-do – It helps make the seed covers less chewy, more crunchy, and also gets seasoning deeper into the seeds. It also helps remove any residual stringy stuff.
Use 4 Cups of water with 2 teaspoons salt for every Cup of seeds.
Bring salted water to a boil, then add seeds, stir, and reduce temp to maintain a steady simmer.
Cook for 10 minutes, then drain through a single mesh strainer.
Pat dry with paper toweling.
Preheat oven to 400° F – High temp roasting will give the crunchiest, most consistent results.
Note that Avocado oil is especially good for this – it’s got the highest smoke point.
Savory, like sea salt and cracked pepper, works great on pumpkin seeds.
Season each cup of seeds with,
1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil, (Olive or vegetable oil is OK)
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
Optional –
1/2 teaspoon chile flake or powder
Savory seasonings work better than sweet, as the sugars tend to make seeds prone to burning in a high temp roast. Any combo you like is worth trying – Soy-Lime-Garlic, Lemon Thyme & Sea Salt, Smoked Salt and cracked Pepper, etc. Our Go To Seasoned Salt is fantastic here.
If you really want a sweet version, roast seeds with just the oil, then add sweet seasoning after the roast – The oil will help it stick, and you won’t burn your goodies.
Roast, evenly spread on a baking sheet, for 18 to 20 minutes, until nicely toasted.
Pumpkin Seeds roasted with Sea Salt, Avocado Oil, and Chile Flake
Remove from oven and baking sheet, allow to cool before decimating.
And as my Sis, Ann Lovejoy notes over in her wonderful blog, “Store pepitos in a tightly sealed jar out of direct light for up to 2 months or freeze them for longer storage.”
UrbanMonique 