January 13 – January 16, 2025

Monday:                              Hagen House Salad

Tuesday:                              Midnight Bolognese

   

Thursday:                            PFC

Friday:                                  Turkey Chili / Guacamole

 

Saturday:                            Speck, Collard Greens, Fontina and Cream Pizza

  

Sunday:                               Maple-Glazed Roast Chicken, Puréed Butternut                                                     Squash, Apple and Endive Salad

Cold Weather – Warm Food

It is arctic in Pittsburgh and I am in awe of the Eskimos for being able to boat and hunt and travel long distances in temperatures that make a trip to the mailbox dreadful and require extra layers of clothing, a large mug of tea and a nap before I recover my ability to pronounce plosives and dentals (p, b and d).

In this bone-chilling weather, the thought of eating anything other than hot, roasted dishes is as off-putting as eating ice cream in a frozen food locker wearing nothing but a bathing cap.*  Only vigorous exercise can make these temperatures livable outdoors.  I get in a good amount of that while shoveling the walk. (Those Amazon delivery folks need a little help getting our next shipment of Spindrift or hairspray to the front door.)  And, please excuse me while I stoke the fire and write a note to leave some faucets running to keep the water from freezing in the pipes in the walls of the house. 

And . . . to get back to where I was when I interrupted myself . . . And may I suggest another way to survive this Siberian moment – Maple-glazed Roast Chicken served with butternut squash purée? Well, I’m going to suggest it whether you wish or not – this is my blog and you’re not the boss of me.  Sorry for that childish outburst, the cold is sapping the tiny amount of maturity I have achieved in 75 years. 

Another roast chicken recipe?  Well yes because:  First, roast chicken is the dish that tells me, when I go to a new restaurant, whether they really know how to cook.  So, it’s a continuing test of my own amateur cooking skills: The skin should be crispy, the flesh moist and the seasoning adequate to the relative blandness of chicken.  Second, roast chicken cooked well, provides an unctuous, chewable mouthful that the cave dweller memories lurking below the surface in even the best of us, craves.  If I had more time, I’d think of other reasons to justify my foul-forward recipe list, but I’ve got to publish this post and get ready to meet with my friends tonight to settle the problems of the universe.

Oh – there is a proximate cause, if not another reason to share yet one more chicken recipe.  Michael Symon is a genius and this is a distinctive recipe for roast chicken and sides – a knockout of a complete meal for a hungry crew on a cold night after your team has been knocked out of contention for the Super Bowl – go Commanders and Eagles and Bills, by the by.  [Yes, I know that rooting for the Commanders and the Eagles is contradictory, but we have dear friends who root for both teams.  And Bill F., we usually root for the Chiefs, but not when they’re on the way to eclipsing a Steelers record.]

*This was, by the way, how Fred Rogers swam at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association back in the days when women were allowed to swim only on Saturday afternoon, I think.  The rest of the time the men swam totally naked, except for Fred, who needed to preserve his hair for the televising of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

MAPLE-GLAZED ROAST CHICKEN with BUTTERNUT SQUASH PURÉE

(adapted from Michael Symon, Simply Symon Suppers)

Timing:                    2 ½ Hours for chicken and purée – 1 ½ hours for chicken alone

Ingredients:                                                          Serves Four

    For the Purée:    

1 butternut squash (2 lb.), halved lengthwise and seeded

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

6 tablespoons of butter (we used 4, having cooked this once and found it too buttery)

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

   For the Chicken:

1 whole chicken – 4 lbs. or so

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup Dijon mustard

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

½ navel orange, halved

6 medium garlic cloves, peeled and whole (we suggest 2)

Small bunch of fresh sage (thyme with rosemary would also work)

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Prep and Cook:

Squash Purée

If using purée, preheat oven to 400 F.

Cover a sheet-pan with aluminum foil.

Cut and seed the squash and place skin-side down on the sheet-pan and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Now flip the squash cut-side down and bake for 1 hour. 

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, cook the butter over medium stirring until it begins to brown and smell nutty – 5 minutes or so – do not burn.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Let the squash cool a bit and then, while it’s still warm, scoop out the flesh and transfer to a blender.  Add the brown butter and nutmeg and season with a pinch of salt and some pepper and process until smooth.  Taste and add some flaky sea salt, if needed.  Put back in saucepan and cover to keep warm – warm it up in the oven later, after you’ve cooked the chicken and it is resting.

Maple-Glaze Roast Chicken

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Whisk maple syrup, mustard and olive oil together.

Cover a sheet-pan with aluminum foil and place the chicken dbreast-side up on the pan, tucking the wings under the breast.  Put the orange halves, garlic cloves and herbs into the cavity and tie the legs together.

Coat the chicken with half the maple-mustard mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Put the chicken in the oven and roast, basting with the glaze every 15 minutes, for about 1 hour – you want the meat to reach an internal temperature of 165 F.

Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes – put the saucepan with the purée in the oven (turn off the heat) to warm.