Bacon Chicken Caesar Salad

Before my parents moved up to the lake, I used to spend my vacation time in New England on Cape Cod with my aunt, uncle and little cousins.  It's a shame that it's becoming harder and harder to squeeze in any time on the Cape now that I've moved further away and my job doesn't have the flexibility of my college internships.  I miss lobster rolls, my daily serving of incredible ice cream, and especially my Aunt's Chicken Caesar Salad (which she got from Jamie Oliver).  So with the first bit of what felt like summer last week, I was craving this salad for dinner.



Obviously I didn't quite think through the fact that having our oven on 400 for 2 hours on the first day when Chicago had temperatures over 80 was probably not the best idea I'd ever had.  But when I got home from yoga and this salad was done, I didn't even care that I was sweating bullets.  I was transplanted to a summer day on the Cape when I could still carry my littlest cousin to the beach and when she saw me her face lit up like I was Santa Claus.  Nowadays I just get pictures of her wearing high heels and makeup.  Sigh.



There are a couple of things to note about this salad.  The first is that this is not a "look I'm on a diet so I'm eating salad for dinner" salad.  You just let a loaf of bread soak up chicken fat and bacon grease for 2 hours and then ate it.  Don't kid yourself.  On a side note, these are literally the best croutons in the entire world.

If you do burn them a little bit because you turn the broiler on and then get distracted doing something important like studying for med school finals (I'm not saying that the Monkey Scientist burned all of the croutons while I was at yoga or anything like that), try to salvage them and just cut off the charred bits.  They'll be just fine as long as you didn't burn the whole thing!



The second is anchovies.  Yes, I know you're scared.  Yes, they smell like cat food (and look like it once you mash them up).  No, they aren't something I want on my pizza.  But this is Caesar salad folks. And without anchovies, it just isn't Caesar dressing.  I promise they won't taste like cat food once you drown them in olive oil, creme fraiche, and lemon juice.  Just trust me on this one, OK?  On the bright side, who knew that a can of anchovies cost barely more than a dollar? I don't even feel that bad that I threw the rest of the can away (because what the heck was I going to do with leftover anchovies).



Now when I say this is my favorite Caesar salad ever, I'm not joking.  The dressing is creamy and delicious. The croutons soak up all that fat, get crispy in the oven, and then when you put the dressing on them they soak it up and become chewable without destroying your teeth.  Again, best croutons in the world.  I enjoy the baked, dark meat chicken on this about 1000 times more than the rubbery slices of grilled chicken breast you get anywhere else.  Although my aunt actually uses bone-in, skin on chicken breasts and it works great, too.  And despite the fact that the roommate made a side of pasta, I stand by the fact that this salad is a solid meal.  Even the Monkey Scientist had it for his whole dinner.  It's worth every minute of sweltering over the oven.



Bacon Chicken Caesar Salad
slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients
4-6 chicken legs, skin on
1 round loaf sourdough bread (about 9 ounces), chopped into 1.5" cubes
6 slices bacon
3 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 large head romaine lettuce, chopped
dressing
1 clove peeled and smashed garlic
4 anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
3 oz freshly grated Parmesan, plus a few shavings to serve
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
1 lemon, juiced (about 2 oz)
Extra-virgin olive oil (about 6 oz)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large glass baking dish, lay out the cubed bread, then bacon, then chicken legs.  Drizzle with about 3 tbsp (or more) olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt, black pepper, and chopped rosemary.  Toss to coat evenly.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25-35 minutes, or until the chicken can easily be peeled off the bone.  Remove the chicken, and toss the bacon and croutons.  Make sure to leave all the fat drippings from the chicken and bacon in there.  The croutons will soak that up and that's what makes them delicious!  Return to the oven and allow to bake until the croutons and bacon are crispy but not burnt, tossing every 5-10 minutes or as necessary.  If this isn't happening at 400 degrees F, turn the broiler on low, but watch carefully as the croutons could start to burn quickly!
4.  When the chicken has cooled slightly, use your hands or two forks to peel off the skin and discard, then peel the meat off the bones and shred.  Chop the crispy bacon into bite size pieces.
5.  Add the lettuce, chicken, croutons, and bacon to a large salad bowl.
6.  Assemble the dressing: Using a mortar and pestle (or in my case, a small bowl and the handle of a lemon reamer), smash the anchovies and garlic into a thick paste.  Whisk in the grated Parmesan, creme fraiche, juice of 1 lemon, and 3 times as much extra-virgin olive oil as lemon juice.
7.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat evenly.  Serve with a few Parmesan shavings on top.

October's Secret Supper at Southport Grocery

When we moved to Chicago a few months ago, I have to admit I was nervous. Not because I didn't think we'd love Chicago, but because we signed a lease before I'd ever even stepped foot in the neighborhood we'd be living in. I'd gotten stuck in NYC with a cancelled flight after a business trip, and was unable to make it out to Chicago the weekend that the Monkey Scientist and our roommate came to look at places. Still, I trusted their judgement and I quickly realized how much I love our part of town!



One of the best restaurants in our area is the Southport Grocery & Cafe. A coworker had actually told me about it before I moved and I was not disappointed. Their brunch is top notch and their cupcakes are out of this world. And I moved from DC, land of cupcake shops. Plus they have a great little market with high end ingredients like jellies, pickles, sprinkles and real maple syrup. So when I heard they host a "Secret Supper" once a month, I knew I needed to get an invite. I grabbed 4 seats to the October party as soon as I heard about it (by joining their email list) for me, my bff, my roommate and the MS.



All of the food was really a step above anywhere we've gone lately. My favorite course was the clam chowder. Now I'm a New England girl, and this was some seriously good clam chowder. The liquid wasn't too thick and there was a great substance-to-liquid ratio. I hate when there are big chunks of potatoes in chowder, but these were perfectly diced and the texture was offset by crispy shallots. The clams were cooked exactly how I like them - just a bit chewy and not at all briny.  Plus the sourdough bread bowl they baked upstairs was perfection.  Sourdough is my favorite bread by far - I think I could live off of it. I couldn't ask for anything more out of this course (except for, well, more).



The main course was a Pork Confit and Orchiette served in a large mug.  As the Monkey Scientist put it, there might not be anything better than a mug full of pork.  It was topped with currants and a juniper gelee, and was mixed with local arugula and carrots.  Some of our table found it a bit sweet, and I thought the sauce might have been a little heavy.  Plus, cooked carrots just don't do it for me.  It wasn't the highlight of the meal but it was really great nonetheless.



For dessert, we were served a pumpkin rice pudding with a black sesame lace cookie.  I'm not sure I'd ever had a homemade lace cookie before, but now I'm determined to make them myself. They melt in your mouth  and have the perfect bit of crunch.  Sesame seeds aren't my favorite thing ever so I might experiment with other things I can put in the caramel if I make them at home.  The rice pudding sitting below the cookie was great too.  Rice pudding is one of my favorite desserts.  To be honest, I think we all expected a little more pumpkin flavor, but it was topped with dried cranberries and candied ginger which was amazing. I loved the mason jar presentation, too!

The only thing I didn't capture was the special treat at the end of the meal. They had homemade Reese's, Three Muskeeter, Almond Joy, and Butterfingers that their pastry chef had whipped up for us. I think we all felt sweets overload at the end of the meal (OK everyone but me. I don't understand sweets overload until it's way too late) but they were absolutely delightful, albeit a bit melty.  I especially liked the Butterfinger and thought the Three Musketeers was unique and delicious (the consistency was denser than the original).  This was definitely a special dinner for us (we even got a bottle of wine, and we never drink at dinner), but I'm hoping we can go to another Secret Supper sometime (maybe if my folks come visit!). It was a blast!

Sourdough Bread

Finally, the post you've been waiting for - the sourdough bread!

Can I just say, that first of all this was a true "baker's experience"... Typical me, I didn't read through all of the instructions before diving in to make this, and didn't realize until had already started at about 7pm last night that I would need to wait 8-12 hours in the fridge before baking.  

So, I got up extra early to put the bread in the oven.  Like, I got to watch the sun rise over the Capitol from my balcony early. I'll remember this for next time and make this a weekend activity beginning in the morning!

Last week, I made my sourdough starter.  It definitely started to smell pretttty sour after a couple of days, so I waited 4 days before putting it in the fridge.  When I took it out of the fridge, there was a layer of liquid floating on top of the starter, which had thickened up.  I mixed this back in before using it.

The starter was pretty simple, and the bread was as well, except for all of the time it took.  When I removed 1/2 cup of starter for the bread, I replaced it with 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water in the starter, then left the starter out on the counter overnight before stirring and returning to the fridge.

My knife probably wasn't sharp enough to cut the slits on the top of the bread.  I also cut 4 instead of 3, mainly because I didn't think they were even enough.

The bread didn't turn out nearly as golden brown as Annie's, even though I left it in for 30 min.  I really need to get an oven thermometer to make sure my oven is accurate.

I also think it would have helped if the plastic wrap had been a little bit tighter when it was in the fridge overnight.  The edges really didn't brown much at all and I did miss the really crispy crust of a good loaf of sourdough.

The taste, though was really good!  It wasn't quite as sour as I hoped (I love the tang that really good sourdough bread has), but I am hoping that as I let my starter develop more that future loaves will get better.  It definitely was better than my wheat bread, and worth all the extra work.  I would like to try a few more recipes now that I have my starter, but this one will definitely be used again!

And it makes a great tuna melt!

Sourdough Bread

halved from Annie's Eats

Yield: 1 large round loaf

Ingredients:
¾ cups lukewarm water (100˚ F)
2 tsp. active dry or instant yeast
½ tbsp. honey
½ cup sourdough starter
2¼-3 cups bread flour, plus more as needed
½ tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 ¼ tsp. salt
½ tbsp. bread flour mixed with ½ tbsp. yellow cornmeal

Instructions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the water, yeast, honey, and sourdough starter just until smooth.

Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until slightly increased in bulk and bubbly, about 1 hour.

With the flat beater attached to the mixer and the mixer on low speed, mix in 1 ½ cups of the flour, the butter, eggs and salt.  Increase the speed to medium-low and mix until smooth, about 1 minute.  Add in 1 more cup of the flour and beat for 2 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook.  With the mixer on low speed, add the remaining flour, ¼ cup at a time (mine was already pulling from the sides so I didn’t add any more at all), until a very soft dough forms that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Knead on low speed, adding a tablespoon of flour if the dough begins to stick, until the dough is smooth and elastic, tacky but not sticky, about 6 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap (oops, I forgot this step) and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1½-2 hours (my kitchen’s warm, it only took about an hour or hour and 15 min).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.  Sprinkle generously with the flour-cornmeal mixture.  Form the dough into a tight, oval loaf.  Place the loaf on the prepared baking sheet.  Sprinkle the tops with flour and gently rub in.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in the refrigerator, 8-12 hours.

Place a baking stone on the lowest oven rack and preheat the oven to 450˚ F.  (If you don’t have a baking stone, use an overturned baking sheet, that’s what I did.)

Using a thin sharp knife, make three slash marks over the top of each loaf.  Place the baking sheet on the heated baking stone or baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 400˚ F and continue to bake until the loaves are golden brown, 25-30 minutes more.  Let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing and serving.

Sourdough Starter

I finally did it! I made my sourdough starter!

Sourdough bread is my ABSOLUTE favorite. I have been thinking about starting to make it ever since my first try with homemade bread.

Growing up, we had neighbors across the street who always had a sourdough starter in their fridge.  They'd had it for years and perfected it, when the cleaning woman found it and thought it was something that had gone bad, and threw it out.  Needless to say, they were NOT happy.

I am so excited for next week when I get to turn this into bread!  Do you think I could sell parts of the starter on Craig's List? 

Sourdough Starter

from Annie Eats

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
1 tbsp. sugar or honey
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Pour the water into a 2-quart glass or ceramic jar or bowl.  Stir in the sugar or honey to dissolve.  Stir in the yeast.

Gradually whisk in the flour.  Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel or dishcloth (not plastic wrap) and place it in a warm area.  (My kitchen in the winter definitely has no warm location, but my starter was just fine.)

Let it develop 2-5 days, stirring once a day due to the separation that will occur.  When bubbling has subsided and a sour aroma has developed, stir once more and refrigerate until ready to use.

Storing and Maintaining Your Starter
Once your starter is stored away in the refrigerator, it only needs to be replenished once every two weeks or so.  I put a little note to myself in my calendar as a reminder to either bake with or feed my starter.  You should feed your starter each time you remove a portion for use in baking, but if it has been two weeks and you don’t intend to bake with it immediately, simply remove a cup of the starter and discard.  For every 1 cup of starter removed, replace with 1 cup of flour and ½ cup of water.  Stir to blend, and let sit at room temperature for at least 12 hours before returning to the refrigerator.

I promise to share the bread recipe as soon as I make it!