Grilled Citrus Chicken under a brick (or Skillet)

Michael and I recently went to a cooking demo/class in Burlingame and learned some great tricks to grilling and marinading. One of the biggest lessons was about making the most of your marinade. You will see from the recipe below is that you can make a great marinade and then cook and use it as a sauce / gravy afterwards.


At first, we were skeptical - Is it safe was this biggest thing on our minds. But here's the trick. After preparing the marinade (see recipe below), pour into a small saucepan and boil (at least 3 minutes) to cook off all bacteria. Bring to a soft boil until reduced (by about 60%) and thickened. This makes an excellence sauce / gravy for your chicken. Delicious!

Grilled Citrus Chicken:

1 cup Fresh Orange Juice
1/3 cup Fresh Lime Juice
1/4 cup fresh Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Fresh Oregano
3 Tsp Salt, divided
2 Tsp Finely Chopped Fresh Rosemary
1 Garlic Clove, Chopped
1 Whole Chicken (approx 3-5 lbs)
1 Tsp Paprika (Hungarian or Smoked is nice)
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1-1/2 Oranges
2-foil wrapped bricks OR 1- Cast Iron Skillet

Whisk juices, olive oil, oregano, 1 Tsp salt, rosemary and garlic in a glass baking dish. Add Chicken to marinade.

Note: Use good kitchen scissors or a sharp knife to cut cleanly between the whole chicken's breasts to open up for marinade.

Turn to coat, chill at least 2 hours to overnight, turning occasionally.

When your ready to cook, mix remaining 2 Tsp salt, paprika and pepper in a small bowl

Note: Do not be shy with the salt - make sure you coat the chicken liberally with salt to bring out the flavor (don't worry, the chicken won't be salty ;-)

Grill:

Spray grill rack with non-stick cook spray (or brush with olive oil). Slice 1/4 slices of oranges, loosen skin from chicken and place slices underneath skin (breasts and thighs). Rub paprika mixture all over chicken (don't forget underneath the skin) Prepare BBQ over medium heat (about 400 degrees).

Place chicken, skin side down on grill. place skillet (or bricks) on top of chicken. Cover and grill until skin is crispy and brown, about 15 mins. Turn chicken on grill, replace cover and let cook about 15 mins longer. Let chicken rest about 10 mins.

While chicken is cooking, pour marinade into a saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce until thickened, making a great sauce for the chicken.

Ina's Lemon Angel Food Cake!

Ina Garten's Lemon Angel Food Cake

-This is an easy recipe. The only downside is the amount of sifting. I make this quite often and people really enjoy it. Once you make your own angel food, I guarantee you will never buy a store-bought bland sponge again! This recipe is light, fluffy and full of flavor. Plus, angel food uses egg whites, which is a plus for my hubby Michael, who has high-cholesterol (egg-yolks are a no-no). It's a much healthier alternative. You can eat it plain or add fruit, etc...

Here are a few helpful tips before you start:

1) Make sure you use CAKE FLOUR!!! 'Softasilk' can be found at most grocery stores.
2) If you don't have a sifter, use a mesh sieve - either way, your arm will get a work out...
3) Make a summer fruit compote (Fresh Berries, lemon juice and sugar) along with some homemade whip cream for fun!
4) When cake is cooled, add a lightly dripped glaze of lemon juice and confectioner's sugar for added lemon flavor.
5) If you don't have superfine sugar, put standard granulated sugar in the food processor and pulse until consistency is superfine.
6) Enjoy!

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 2 cups sifted superfine sugar, divided
• 1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
• 1 1/2 cups egg whites, at room temperature (10 to 12 eggs)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine 1/2 cup of sugar with the flour and sift together 4 times. Set aside.

Place the egg whites, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on high speed until the eggs make medium-firm peaks, about 1 minute. With the mixer on medium speed, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar by sprinkling it over the beaten egg whites. Whisk for a few minutes until thick and shiny. Whisk in the vanilla and lemon zest and continue to whisk until very thick, about 1 more minute. Sift about 1/4 of the flour mixture over the egg whites and fold it into the batter with a rubber spatula. Continue adding the flour by fourths by sifting and folding until it's all incorporated.

Pour the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, smooth the top, and bake it for 35 to 40 minutes, until it springs back to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan on a cooling rack until cool.

Fool proof BBQ corn.

Well to be honest nothing is fool proof in the hands of a fool.But this method is pretty easy.Here is what you need.

1.Corn Shucked and cleaned.We use a lot of corn so the 8 pack from Costco is great for us.
2.Tin foil one square large enough to wrap the corn very loosely.
3.Salt and other spices to taste.We use sea salt ,paprika and Aleppo crushed pepper flakes.
4.Bowl large enough to hold all the corn while filled with water.

Place corn on a piece of foil and salt/spice to taste.You can be aggressive with the spice as the water will dilute it a bit.

Fold the foil at one end.Make sure its loose. If its too tight the corn does not cook as well and takes longer.

Pour water in the open end of the foil.It works out to about a half cup of water.

Loosely close the end and seal the foil.Then place all the corn in a bowl filled with water till you are ready to cook.

When you start up the grill put on the corn right away.It takes between 20-30 minutes to cook.It works best to put the corn over med high to high heat. Be careful when you open the foil as there will be some really hot water.I usually open it over the grill and put the corn into the bowl that previously had water in it. The whole process is not precise,but it does not need to be.The water steams the corn and its hard to over cook it.

Not your mother in laws scones,but mine.

My wife's mother is quite a cook.Both my mother in law and father in law are foodies like us. Recently she passed on this recipe and I love it. Most scones are either too hard or just taste like they need to be dipped in something to be good. These scones are soft ,almost creamy and full of great flavor.Wife has put blueberries,cranberries and some mixed dried fruit in them and I just love them. I eat more than my fair share which is unlike me.

Bonnie's Sweet Milk Scones

Makes 10-12 scones depending on the size of cutter used.

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
4 tablespoon granulated sugar
5 tablespoon unsalted butter
3/4 cup whole milk
Some dried fruit.Add to taste.Blueberries,cranberries etc..

Instructions

1.Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.

2.Mix first 5 ingredients making sure the butter is chilled. Cut the butter into smaller pieces.Then using a food processor or mixer process till you get something that resembles coarse meal.

3.If making by hand(preferred method)make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in milk.Working quickly add fruit then blend the whole thing into a soft slightly wet dough.Make sure you don't over work the dough as it will become tough.Move the dough onto a well floured surface.

4.Quickly roll dough into a half inch thick roll.Use a lightly greased and floured biscuit cutter to stamp the dough.Be firm and precise to avoid waste.You will probably have a little waste ,make another 1/2 inch roll ,being careful to not over work the dough and punch the last bits.Then place the rounds onto a well greased baking sheet 1 1/2 inches apart.Bake until scones are light brown.8 to 10 minutes.
Serve immediately or store.

The search for good Gnocchi.

In France the first test a cook faces is can you make a good omelet.Well in Italy the test is can you make Gnocchi. In Italian it means little lump and thats how some bad Gnocchi can feel in your stomach.When visiting Italy I had some great versions ,usually served as a starter.Here in the US we tend to see huge portions and the pasta itself is super heavy and starchy. I hate to order it cause I am almost always disappointed.So recently I was at a cigar club dinner,they close down the restaurant and 100 guys file in to eat,smoke and drink the night away. You pay a flat fee and get some cigars and a multi course meal.Usually the food is ok ,but nothing to really inspire me.But on this night I was in for a treat.We started off with some mediocre appetizers and a basic salad. Then they sat a plate full of pasta in front of me,it was half ravioli and half Gnocchi in a cream sauce. The ravioli was good, but the Gnocchi was a revelation.It was light ,it was tasty and the sauce matched it perfectly.This was the best Gnocchi I have had outside of Tuscany.I went down to the kitchen at the end of the night thinking I might coax the recipe from the chef.Well he had left early so no magic gnocchi recipe for me. We have eaten at this place before and the food was decent.I am going to go back soon and see if they can pull off the Gnocchi magic again. Here is the link to the Yelp review.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sapore-italiano-restaurant-burlingame

I will update this after my next visit..

Who we are.

My wife and I are total foodies..With no professional food experience this is all opinion and there is really no reason to listen to us.But we hope you do anyways.
We are in our mid 30s with a little one on the way.We eat out once a week ,but cook a lot.Our area of operation is the San Francisco bay area. Wife is the recipe maven and I am the grill guy. Our goal in this is to share the recipes that we use and the experiences with food that we have.From the taco truck to fine dining we hope to share it all with you. Your opinions and comments are welcome.

EAT UP..