I didn't manage to watch the video until Homaro Cantu linked to it on FB, but it is absolutely delightful. I am so glad we got to taste it, and I hope he has fun at his science fair.

I didn't know about that - thanks, MincyBits (pretty cool that you got to eat some and Cantu has not, huh?) Sparky's pretty darn excited!

Cooked food does divorce us from the reality of what we’re eating, especially meat. It’s a little harder to separate yourself from something that has bones you can find in your own body. I didn’t think this would be an issue for Sparky, but I underestimated how challenging raw meat can be, up-close and personal. Sparky was a trooper, though, and made it all the way through the process. Seeing that he felt a little trepidation about cutting up meat, I read him a legend of why Cherokee hunters thank the animals they must kill. He told me he felt "mean" cutting up a chicken. We talked about it a little more, and finally I asked if he thought it would be wasteful not to eat the chicken now that it's been slaughtered. He agreed. The teachable moments of life often wind up in the kitchen.

For this project, we used a couple of Cornish hens, as their bones are soft and easy to break when necessary. The first hen, we spatchcocked to be cooked "under a brick." We got out our tools for the job: a stout pair of kitchen shears and a sharp, heavy knife; spatchcocking is simple—you cut through the ribs on either side of the backbone (on either side of the “pope’s nose” or little tail, which Sparky used as a convenient handle)





and then tuck the legs and wings flat. Then you score the breastbone with a knife, and crack it with the palm of your hand so the breast lies flat. A description of cutting up and cooking the second hen can be found here, with more photos. Both chickens were rubbed thoroughly with a paste of chopped herbs, salt, oil, and some minced garlic. The spatchcocked chicken was placed, skin side down, on a preheated griddle.



A preheated cast-iron casserole was set on top (this is a job for an adult) to weigh it down.



The bird cooked for about 7 minutes on one side, was flipped, and then cooked for another 7 minutes—it’s a quick, if a bit smoky, way to cook a whole bird (this method works very well outdoors on a grill if you don't have good ventilation in your kitchen or are bothered by those pesky smoke alarms.)



Our chicken project turned out delicious, crispy-skinned chicken: the spatchcocked bird had terrific flavor because the seasonings were driven into the meat by the weight; although the skin was crispy, the roasted/broiled chicken won the crispy contest—but both had moist, flavorful meat. Sparky enjoyed the meal as much as I did, possibly a bit more because he'd really put effort into it.

This week, Sparky helped me make bagels, which obviously we've done before on more than one occasion. I still love the Jo Goldenberg's Parisian Bagels, but this time I subbed 1 cup of the flour for chapati flour with success. It's a terrific, straightforward recipe (thanks, Khaopaat, for bringing it to my attention!) and my only other alteration is to make mini-bagels by dividing the dough into 16 parts. It's a terrific recipe, the wait time is easily divided into a coffee break and a short interlude for morning TV.



With Sparky helping, we wound up with a terrific batch of beautiful, golden brown and delicious bagels.

Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu

I was relaxing and watching a bit of Food Network, and Sparky was sitting beside me, drawing comics. Tyler Florence pulled out some prosciutto, and like a cured-ham-retriever on the hunt, Sparky was instantly all ears - nearly in full point at the television set. "Mom," he said breathlessly "I wanna do THAT!"

So, we did -











After a rest in the fridge while we prepped veggies and sides, the open sides were skewered together (since there's no batter to hold it closed in this case) and the outsides were seasoned and oiled - then, on the grill it went! More detail here.

Thanks for the update and idea. I have a small hunk of panchetta left over from our pasta, peas and panchetta dinner on Thursday. Do you think I could make this with panchetta vs. prosciutto?

Funny - great minds - we were discussing the possibility of using bacon at one point...I think you can do it, but because of the much higher fat content (and salt - it's not necessarily saltier than prosciutto, but it usually isn't shaved as thin) I'd try it one of a couple of different ways: either be really, really minimalist with the raw pancetta and just use one tiny thin strip, or cook it to render out some of the fat and crumble it in with the cheese.

Sundays with Sparky - The Tale of the Ox...(Oxtail Pitcha)

We started with onion-braised oxtails, original recipe in the link above.
3 onions
2 large cloves of garlic
4 lbs oxtails
2 cups of red wine
1 cup water
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste


049 by michelehays, on Flickr

Sparky scrubbed 3 onions and 2 garlic cloves well, and we roasted them in a 400 degree oven, removing the garlic after 15 minutes, and the onions for slightly over 1/2 an hour until they collapsed, allowed them to cool, squeezed them out of their skins and pureed them in the blender. This was poured over the oxtails in a ziploc bag and left overnight. The next morning, we deviated from the recipe by adding two cups of red wine, a cup of water and two bay leaves, and allowing it to marinate for 2 hours. Then we dumped the whole thing into the pressure cooker, brought it up to speed, and cooked it for 30 minutes.

Oxtails really need a long, slow braise to bring out the silky gelatin that makes them so wonderful - and gelatin is crucial to the success of this recipe, so after testing to make sure they were not overcooked (meat should slide off the bones but not turn to mush) we put them in a cast-iron casserole and popped them in a 300 degree oven for an hour and a half, or until the meat falls off the bone when touched. (If you want a hot braised dish, before putting the mixture into the oven, you could add peeled and cubed root vegetables like potatoes, carrot, and swedes (rutabagas) and serve the result as a stew, or, alternatively, add 2 quarts of fresh grape tomatoes and a sprig of fresh rosemary, and serve the result over cooked noodles for a warm winter dinner)

Oxtail Pitcha

Having somewhat more elaborate plans for our oxtails, we allowed the mixture to cool, removed the oxtails and strained the broth to which we added 1/4 cup of madeira (or sherry,) and quick-chilled them in separate flat containers in the refrigerator with ice packs on top (safe temperature controls are crucial in this recipe. This will also give you a chance to see if you need more gelatin later.)

We then created a mirepoix of carrot, celery and leeks and sauteed them until tender. To this we added some diced red bell pepper which we had roasted in the oven, skinned and seeded. The vegetables became the heart of our oxtail Pitcha - in a method not unlike making sushi, I pulled the meat off the oxtails (too "gucky" a job for Sparky) and laid it on a large rectangle of plastic wrap laid over paper towels. We ladled some almost-set oxtail aspic over them (if your stock didn't set into a near-solid, using half the amounts listed and your oxtail broth instead of consumme, follow these directions until step 3.) We then laid the blanched vegetables in the middle, poured more aspic over them, and, using the kitchen towel, rolled up the meat around them. Once the two sides of the plastic wrap met, Sparky folded them over each other, and then rolled the two ends to make a nice, tight sausage-shape.


171 by michelehays, on Flickr

This went into a mold (we used the ice bucket from our freezer) the top shelf of the refrigerator overnight. Tomorrow (today if you're reading when this posts) we will unveil it at the LTH picnic; it will stay nicely cooled in the custom-fitted ice tray Mom had made the day before by freezing a ziploc bag of water weighted with heavy containers in the approximate shapes we needed.

Wow! lots of good stuff there. Looks like you guys just love to cook. I am impressed.