Summertime Sangria

I don't know about you but there are few drinks I love more than some great home-made sangria.  I love a ton of fruit in mine so feel free to lessen the amount if you feel the need, but you will be sacrificing some serious flavor in your finished drink.  This recipe is also easily doubled if you're looking to make a larger batch.

For this recipe you will need:

• 1 bottle Spanish red wine (I always use a Malbec, it doesn't need to be an expensive one)
• 2/3 cup Henessy VS cognac
• 2/3 cup triple sec
• 2/3 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed is best, but store bought with pulp is okay too)
• 1/2 cup simple syrup (see recipe below)  
• 1 broken cinnamon stick
• 2 lemons cut into thin wheels or wedges
• 2 oranges cut into thin wheels or wedges
• 8 strawberries, sliced
• 7-Up or Sprite (don't add this to the pitcher, add it to individual drinks as needed)

Slice all of your fruit ingredients as directed.  As you can see here one of my oranges was much larger than the other so instead of leaving it in half pieces I cut it into quarters.  Feel free to adjust the slices as needed to make them easy to eat later on.

Once you've got your slices prepared, get your simple syrup ready.  It will need a few minutes to cool down.
  
To make 1/2 cup simple syrup: In a clean container, combine 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup very hot water and stir until completely dissolved.  Let cool completely before adding to your sangria. 

While your simple syrup cools place all of the fruit into a pitcher, alternating between lemons, oranges and strawberries so when you pour it later each glass will have a nice mixture of fruit.  Your pitcher should be looking pretty full right now.

Don't worry, there is still plenty of room for the liquids you still need to add.  Pour the wine in first, followed by simple syrup and orange juice.  Add the liquors last and reserve your 7-Up or Sprite for adding to individual drinks when you are ready to serve.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Today I decided to make some classic pesto from some of my basil plants.  They've been enjoying the hot summer weather and have grown so much in the past few days that some of the leaves have become so large that they are preventing the smaller leaves from getting some sun.  Time to put those big leaves to good use in some delicious fresh pesto sauce!

If you're cutting fresh leaves straight off the plant like I did, be sure to cut off only the leaf and leave the rest of the stem for future growth.  This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto, which is plenty for 2 people to have on pasta and still have some left over. 

For this recipe you will need:

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 3 tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts (you don't need to toast them yourself, most pine nuts have already been toasted before you buy them.  Check the baking isle for a small package.)
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (Fresh is always best, but if all you happen to have is Kraft already grated Parmesan cheese you can use that as a substitute.)

Once you've cut your basil leaves from the plant, use a small colander to lightly rinse them and let dry for a few moments.  While the basil is drying, engage the motor of your food processor and drop the garlic cloves through the feed tube.  When the garlic is minced, scrape down the sides and turn off the motor to add the basil and pine nuts. 

Engage your food processor again until all of the ingredients are finely chopped.  With the motor still running, pour the olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube to make a smooth, thick paste.  Scrape down the sides of the processor again to make sure everything gets incorporated evenly, then add the 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan.  Pulse until just combined.

How easy is that?

Fried Chicken - Tocci style

This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson, one of Britain's most influential food writers. 

I have made fried chicken a few ways, and have finally settled on this recipe as my go-to fried chicken recipe for a few reasons; when I bite into fried chicken I'm looking for perfectly moist meat inside of a deliciously crisp coating that has been browned to perfection.  It implements some unusual techniques that actually make the process of frying a chicken properly a lot easier.  For example, this recipe uses vegetable shortening for frying instead of using vegetable or canola oil like so many other recipes do.  At first I was a bit put off by the idea of melting down whole sticks of shortening to fry in, but after tasting the results it really does make quite a lot of difference.  Same goes for the process of tenderizing the chicken; in most recipes buttermilk is poured over the chicken to let sit for a few hours.  I used whole milk and was able to achieve the same result without going completely out of my way at the grocery store.  This recipe may seem like a lot of work, but I'm telling you it's more than totally worth it in the end!  This recipe is also very easily doubled.  In Nigella's book she calls for only 2 drumsticks and 2 thighs.  You'd be hard pressed to find a package of chicken drumsticks or thighs that only has two of each in them.  I bought two packages; 1 package of 4 thighs and 1 package of 4 drumsticks.  The recipe I am posting here is for the amounts I used for 8 total pieces of chicken.  If you need to halve it, so be it, if it's for a party you can go ahead and double mine.

For this recipe you will need:

• 4 chicken drumsticks, skin on
• 4 chicken thigh portions, skin on, bone in
• 3 - 4 cups of whole milk (this really depends completely on the dish you use to soak your chicken in...you can always add more when you transfer the contents of the dish into a large pot for boiling)
• 2 tablespoons salt (plus 1 teaspoon for creating the breading mixture)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (for those at high altitudes- high altitude all-purpose flour is also okay to use if you're like me and that's what you happen to keep in the kitchen)
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 1/4 cups solid vegetable shortening (for frying)

Start by putting the chicken pieces into a dish - they should fit snugly.  Pour the milk over the chicken so that they are submerged.  If there are a few places the chicken is above the milk, but adding more would overflow the dish- that's okay.  The idea is to get most of it covered so you can achieve that super yummy moist texture I mentioned earlier.  Sprinkle the chicken with approximately two tablespoons of salt and use your hands to move the chicken around and mix the salt in.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for a few hours (you can get the chicken in the dish and marinating the morning before you plan to cook it and that will be plenty of time) or overnight.   This may seem like an unnecessary step of extra work, but if you don't do this your chicken will not be nearly as moist and when frying meat, there is always a danger of drying it out.

Take the chicken out of the dish, place it into a large pot and pour the rest of the contents of the dish into the pot with the chicken.  You could skip a step here and avoid getting your hands dirty by just pouring the contents of the dish into the pan, but with all those chicken pieces and fat floating around with the milk, I wouldn't want to risk the chance of splashing it all over myself.  If you find that there is not enough milk to cover the chicken in the pot, go ahead and pour whatever remaining whole milk you have over the chicken until it's mostly submerged. 

 Bring the contents of the pot to a boil, turning it down to a simmer until the chicken pieces are entirely cooked through (time will vary depending on thickness of chicken and all that, mine took about 25 minutes.  If you're not sure it's much better to over-do it than under-do it).  Very soon you will have a lumpy mess happening all around your chicken.

Don't be alarmed, it's supposed to look that way.  This is what is going to make the chicken taste especially amazing later.  This messy process is going to make your life a lot easier when you go to fry it later.  It's very hard to fry chicken from raw and have the meat cook perfectly inside its coating.  Too often I find that the coating burns before the meat is cooked all the way to the bone, this boiling process easily resolves this issue. 

Remove the chicken pieces to a rack and let cool until you are able to handle them with your hands.  Put the flour, cayenne and teaspoon of salt into a plastic bag, shake all the pieces of chicken in it one by one, then dip them into the beaten eggs, then into the flour again.  Leave to dry on the rack for about 10 minutes (it may take more or less time, you want to make sure your coating won't just drip off later). 

Heat up your slabs of vegetable shortening in a large frying pan until it's nearly at smoking point (to test the readiness you can always use a small piece of coated fallen off chicken and drop it into the vegetable shortening- when you hear sizzling, you know it's ready for frying).  Remember: the more fat and the hotter it is, the less the food you're cooking absorbs, so don't worry about all of the shortening you're using!  Carefully lower in the chicken pieces and cook for 3 minutes on each side- just long enough for the skin to crisp and turn a rich golden brown.

Say hello to the best fried chicken you've ever eaten: