Cook Local

I grew up on mac & cheese. Those thin blue boxes with the bright orange cheese powder were an occasional treat when I was younger. Yep, you read that right. Kraft mac & cheese as a treat. Now, the word cheese here is generous. I'm not sure that the Kraft box has any actual cheese in it.

Since I moved to Seattle, I've discovered that mac & cheese comes prepackaged, ready to bake, from an amazing local artisan cheese maker. Remove plastic, bake, eat. This is mac & cheese. This is a heart attack waiting to happen. This is greasy, cheesy goodness. This is perfection in a oven safe container.

More on Beecher's Mac & Cheese in a later post.

J and I have been experimenting with making our own mac & cheese. We've tried two different recipes, both with excellent results. This is one of the attempts. Both recipes came originally from What We're Eating.

Ingredients (* = organic, & = local)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter *&
• 2 tablespoons rice flour *
• 1 3/4 cup whole milk *
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar
• 4 ounces havarti
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 pound chorizo
• 1/2 cup cilantro *
• 1 cup roasted red peppers
• 1 jalapeno *
• 3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 cups macaroni
• Salt and pepper

Assembly

We (ok, J) started browning the chorizo. It's awfully hard to determine when chorizo is browned. It's so red to begin with and its color doesn't change much when it's cooked. But, we just cooked it until it seemed done and then gave it a few more minutes.

Once that's done, J grated the cheddar and the havarti, chopped the cilantro, diced the roasted red pepper, and the jalapeno.

Now comes the bechamel sauce. Oooooo, bechamel. In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. When it is melted, whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour. It's best to keep whisking for a good minute to make the roux. Slowly pour in the milk. I poured the milk in a slow stream with one hand while continuing to whisk with the other. If you just pour without whisking, you'll end up with lumps. Bring the sauce to a slow simmer, continuing to whisk gently. Simmer for about 10 minutes. The sauce should thicken. At this point, you can back off the whisking just a bit.

Turn off the heat and add the shredded cheeses. Stir until the cheese has completely melted. Now it's time for a taste. Add some salt and pepper as necessary as well as the ground cumin.

Back to the chorizo... mix in the cilantro, jalapeno, and roasted red pepper.

Mix together and add to the bechamel sauce.

Meanwhile... cook the macaroni! Cook for 2 minutes less than the package directions as it'll took a little more in the oven. Combine the pasta and the bechamel mixture. In a glass casserole dish, spread the mixture and top with the panko. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Here's the finished product.

We brought this to a party last weekend.  For this attempt, we used rice flour and gluten free pasta. We've made it before with regular flour and low carb pasta and it's just as good.

We don't eat a lot of pasta. Lots of carbs = bad for diabetics, so we tend to do the low carb thing most of the time. Although now that we've found Emmer, we will be having risotto type dishes more often. Yum.

However, on Friday, we felt like pasta. We were also wandering around Pike's Place Market and walked by Pappardelle's Pasta.

Now, before I go on, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed to find out that they are based in Denver, Colorado. So much for local. But, I'll forgive them. They have a huge variety of pasta, including gluten free, low carb, and flavored. We took a look at all of their different varieties, and chose a Calypso Blend. We also picked up their recipe. Here it is for your reading pleasure.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1/2 pound pasta
• 2 jalapenos &
• 2 cloves of garlic *&
• 1 inch of ginger &
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 lime *&
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup basil &
• 1 tablespoon olive oil &
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound shrimp
• 1 mango &

Directions

First, we marinated the shrimp. We sliced the jalepenos thinly and mixed them with the grated ginger, minced garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime zest, coconut milk, chopped basil, olive oil, and salt. Then we added the shrimp and marinated it for about an hour.

Once that was done, we strained the shrimp out of the marinade (reserving the marinade in a bowl) and cooked the shrimp in a saucepan for about 5-7 minutes.

When all the shrimp were cooked, we boiled the marinade down until it thickened. We then cooked the pasta and diced the mango.

Finally, we combined the pasta, shrimp, and thickened marinade. We added the diced mango on top and we were done.

Yes, I know that anyone who reads this blog is now thinking that I should change the name to "Risotto Local". But really, when you've been avoiding rice like the plague for 2 years and finally you can have it again, you tend to go a little crazy.

For the past couple of weeks we've been curiously hovering around the Foraged and Found booth looking at something called "sea beans". Also known as samphire, these are not strictly beans. Samphire grows in the rocky salt-sprayed regions along the sea coast and coastal marshlands. It's an annual plant, growing in the fall and winter and producing in the spring.

So last week, we decided to take a chance and bought some. A quick search on the net yielded a few different recipes. We went with crab and samphire risotto. This dish can easily be served as a side or a main dish.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 10 oz Emmer *& (or arborio rice)
• 1/2 lb samphire *
• 1/2 pound crab meat
• 1 small onion, finely diced *&
• 2 cloves of garlic *&
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron
• 2 tablespoons parsley *
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter &
• 3 tablespoons olive oil &
• 2 tbsp lemon juice &
• 4 cups vegetable stock &
• 4 tablespoons white wine
• 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Chop everything (the onions and the garlic). I diced everything rather finely.
2. If the samphire has any brown stems, remove those and rinse.
3. Set a large pot of water on the stove and get it boiling. (Do not salt the water).
4. Parboil the samphire for 2-3 minutes. It should turn a slightly brighter green. Rinse in cold water to stop it from cooking further and set it aside.
5. Now, you'll need two pans on the stove for the rest of the recipe. Pour the vegetable stock in the smaller of the two pans and set it to medium-low. You don't want it to boil, but you want it warm.
6. In the other large stock pot, melt a tablespoon of butter with a little bit of olive oil. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes until both are soft.
7. Add the emmer or rice and stir to coat with the oil and butter mixture. This process should only take a minute or two.
8. Add the white wine to deglaze the pan. Cook until most of the wine has been absorbed.
9. Now, add the hot stock, one ladle at a time. Stir the risotto regularly. When the first ladle of stock has just about all cooked off, add another one. Lather, rinse, repeat.
10. When you're out of stock, mix in the lemon juice, crab, parmesan, and samphire. When you start adding the samphire, it will look like a lot. In fact, you might be tempted to only add half of it. However, keep mixing it in. It will combine nicely and if you have a little extra, don't worry. Enjoy!

Two years, two pounds of M and Ms.  I knew Patricia would be eating a bit of chocolate at work, a nice mix of almond, peanut butter and the good old fashioned chocolate, so I figured I'd make a nice little dinner for her as a congratulations.

A few weeks back, at the gym, I was watching the Today Show.  Not by choice, just enforced by what's on the wall.  They had a chef on whom I had never heard of named Jonathan Waxman making Turkey Milanese.  Well, hey, I thought, I could make that for her.

Then I actually read the recipe.

Ok, so, that's out.  Too hard for me.  Tho the whole 'beating a piece of meat flat' (hey, you, stop sniggering) appealed to me, so, I decided on a fried chicken.

But I still needed sides.  We had some potato parmesan bread, so bread was taken care of.  We had some left over potatoes, so I went for the old smashed potato stand-by.

I wanted to make more, and not just stuff I've made before.

Well, there was this brown buttered corn I saw over on Orangette.  I wasn't entirely sure I would be able to do it, but... what the heck.

So, long story short, I made this:

Now, short story long....

Over there at 9 o'clock, you have the potato parmesan bread, and at 3 o'clock, the roasted smashed potatoes.

Lets talk a little bit about the corn at 6 o'clock, and then we can get to the main course, that gorgeous hunk of meat.

The corn was a beautifully simple recipe, which you already know if you looked at the recipe.

Basically, chop the kernels off three ears of corn, and milk the cob a bit.  

Brown some butter with a few sprigs of thyme (lemon thyme was recommended, but I couldn't find any).  This was the part I had a problem with.  I wasn't sure I could actually brown butter.  I mean, it sounds easy enough, melt it, and then cook it.  But the pan I used was big enough that 4 tablespoons of butter just sorta covered the bottom, not to much depth.  

Then, once it's browned, throw the corn in and some coarse salt, mix it up, and cover.  Says to cook it at medium low, but it was barely cooking..  So I cranked it up a bit. 

Once it's tender, pull out the sprigs and you're done.

What would I do differently?

Well, first, a smaller pot.

Next, a couple tablespoons more butter.  Admittedly, the smaller pan might make it better.

After that, I won't cut so close to the cob.  I got some of the tough cob-tastic bits with the corn.  That also cut down on the amount of milk the cob produced.

And lastly, I'll actually put in the salt.  Dummy that I am, I forgot that step.   I didn't do the parsley garnish either, but, I'm not a garnishy sorta guy.

Now, lets pull the ingredient list:

Corn, 3 ears.  Local, non-organic. 

Butter, 4 Tblspn.  Non-Local,, organic.

Thyme, 3 sprigs.  Local, organic.

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

And now... the main event.

Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken Milanese

Milanese means flat, right?  Right?  No?  Well.. fine.

Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken A-Cup

I'll be honest, I was flying solo on this.  No real recipe.

I got two large chicken breasts and proceeded to flatten them.  Personally I put it between some wax paper and banged it with a rolling pin until it was flat. I'm not sure it was the right way to do it, but it worked.  More or less.

Salt and pepper both sides.

Pour some buttermilk into a Pyrex pan.  Salt and pepper that and lay in one of the flattened breasts.  Pour in more buttermilk to cover.  Put in second breast.  Pour in more buttermilk to cover.  Throw in fridge for... well, lets say two or three hours.  At least, that's what I did.

While that's going, it's time to mix up some dredge stuff.  I went a little hog-wild.

I threw in some panko with some italian seasoned bread crumbs to fill it out.  Then, I added smoked paprika, chili powder, mexican oregan, a little dash of garlic granules and, for some odd reason, Stubb's Rosemary Ginger Spice Rub.

Pull the chicken out, dredge in the mix.

Olive oil up a big, flat pan, and throw in the breast, one at a time (unless you have a *really* big pan).

I could have cooked it for about 30 seconds less.  The chicken was done, it was, to a point, juicy, but the coating was a little burned.

But it was tasty.  It was probably a little too much, I should have stuck to one major flavor, with a little kick of something spicy, but, what is important.... I liked it.  She liked it.  And, we had enough for two meals.  I'd try to write up this one's ingredients, but, honestly, I winged it too much to actually know what I did.

We buy most of our meat from Skagit River Ranch. In addition to amazing beef, pork, and chicken, they also have pretty good recipes. We've had better than average luck with them. However, yesterday, I attempted to make BBQ-style beef brisket.  It was... OK. The beef was tender, the onions were melty, but the recipe just didn't grab us. It needed something.

Fast forward to tonight. John's working on a huge art project and I don't get home until 6:30. We need dinner. Preferably a decent dinner since I'm tired and he's stressed. So I do a quick web search and find a recipe for brisket chili recipe from Get Your Grill On, a blog we read often.

I've linked to it, but I really just improvised. Here's what I did. Oh, and John proclaimed the meal "excellent".

Ingredients

• Some decent amount of organic beef brisket from Skagit River Ranch
• A handful of dried organic purple cayenne peppers
• 1 dried organic cherry bomb pepper
• 1 large local and organic onion, cooked or raw
• 1 bottle beer
• Cumin
• Chili Powder
• 2 cans organic diced tomatoes

Directions

A word of advice... when you have a pound plus of cooked beef brisket in a solid piece that's leftover from a night of cooking, and you think you might want to use it the next day in something else, do NOT put it in the fridge expecting to shred it the next day. Take the extra few minutes and shred it that evening, when it's still warm. Trust me on this. Please.

So after I spent a good 20 minutes struggling to shred the brisket, I got to work.

We bought a bag of dried purple cayenne peppers at the farmers market last year. They've been in our cabinet for a while, just waiting for an opportunity. Tonight I took a generous handful of them and put them in my new immersion blender's food processing attachment and pulverized them. Then I threw them in a big pot and toasted them. Wow, that smelled good.

After about 5-7 minutes in the pot on medium heat, I added all of the onions I had leftover from the BBQ brisket recipe. I figure it was about a whole onion. Then I poured in a bottle of beer. Mmmmm, beer. I used a Kona Coffee brew, but any dark beer would have worked.

I turned the heat up to medium-high and cooked the onion-pepper-beer  mixture until the beer was just about gone and the onions were beautifully caramelized.

Then I added the beef and two cans of tomatoes. I put a generous helping of cumin and chili powder in a fry pan and toasted them together. The toasting really brings out the flavor and the aroma. I added the toasted spices to the pot and simmered the whole thing for about half an hour.

I had to run out to the store and get some cheese since this was an amazingly spicy dish, but a few tablespoons of Beecher's Flagship Cheddar and a good sized slice of bread  were the perfect mates to this dish.

This winter was especially brutal in Seattle. We had more days below 40 than above, the winds were stingingly cold, and the air was quite dry. I wore my heavy wool coat and gloves nearly every day and I was still freezing every time I had to venture outside. We had snow that stuck around for a few days (a rarity here) and numerous fires in the fireplace.

What better meal to come home to on a day like this than a hearty winter soup?

This recipe couldn't have been much easier. All of the vegetables were either local or organic. Usually we would use Skagit River Ranch sausage, however since they were on vacation, we ended up at Whole Foods instead. Next time I make this (and I will make it again) I'll use mushrooms from Foraged and Found and Skagit's hot Italian sausage.

Ingredients

• 3 carrots
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 8 ounces Italian sausage
• 8 ounces mushrooms
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 1/2 cups beef broth
• 2 1/2 cups mushroom broth
• Crushed red pepper
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme
• 7 ounces farro
• Olive oil

Directions

First, the prep work.

Chop the carrots, celery, and onion.

Mince the garlic.

Slice the mushrooms.

Cut the sausages into pieces.

Mince the thyme.

Now onto the recipe. In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the carrots, onion, celery, and garlic and saute until the onions are soft.

Add the sausage and cook until slightly browned.

Add the mushrooms. They will start to release water into the pot. When they have released most of their water, add the tomatoes (and their juice), red wine, both broths, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, thyme, and farro.

Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes, or until the farro is tender.

Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.

Doesn't this picture look amazing? That's caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, salami, and fresh mozzarella. The crust is thin, the toppings were hot and gooey, and the whole thing just about satisfied the intense greasy pizza craving I'd had a few days before without the grease.

We've made pizza twice on this stone and what we've discovered so far is that unfortunately, Emmer flour, doesn't make a great pizza crust. We like a thin crust and the Emmer flour is too gummy to be rolled thin.

We will, however, keep experimenting with dough recipes.

First, the dough.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 package yeast
• 1 cup warm ater
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Olive oil

Directions

There's really not much to say about dough. Yet somehow, I'll manage three or four paragraphs. Start with about 1.5 cups warm water. Ideally the water should be about 100-115 degrees. If you have a milk thermometer, test the temperature. If the water is too cold, your yeast will have problems activating. If it's too hot, you'll kill the yeast before it has a chance to do it's job.

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and some salt. Add the water/yeast mixture and mix until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook. Add a bit more flour if the dough is very sticky to the touch.

Oil a glass bowl and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in size. What works best for us is to put it on the stove while we caramelize the onions on low heat on another burner.  More on that in a minute.

When the dough has risen, divide in half. On a pizza peel, sprinkle some cornmeal and salt. This will help your dough flow easily from the peel to the stone.

Roll out the dough and place it on the peel.

Now onto the toppings.

There are as many ways to top a pizza as there are rain drops in Seattle. Fresh mozzarella is always good, as is any sort of meat. I'm partial to salami or pepperoni when I want a meat pizza, but cubed chicken breast or sausage will be great too.

What makes a pizza though, at least for me these days, are caramelized onions. Honestly, caramelized onions make most things better (including our frittatas, yum).

For perfect caramelized onions, you need three things. 1. A mandolin, 2. onions, 3. fat.

Use the mandolin and slice the onions super thin. Be careful of your fingers.

In a skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and a couple glugs of olive oil. You can also use lard.

Cook the onions on low for up to an hour. Stir often, about every 5-10 minutes so that the onions cook evenly. Don't be tempted to cook the onions on medium or high. The onions will simply burn or melt.

Now onto the final step.

Top the pizza and throw in a 450 oven for anywhere from 10-12 minutes.

I love our crockpot. Or rather, I love the idea of our crockpot. I love the idea that I can throw food in, turn it on, go to work, and then come home to a delicious, hot meal. Unfortunately, slow cooker meals rarely work out this way.

For one thing, they almost always involve lots of slicing, pre-cooking, searing, browning, or boiling. For another, even when some of these things can be done ahead of time, there's usually one or two steps that would leave the meat half cooked which, as you can imagine, isn't very safe.

So I was thrilled when I found today's recipe. All of the prep work can be done the night before, and in less than 10 minutes. In the morning, all you need to do add stuff and turn on.

As an added benefit, this recipe is fantastic. It's rich and flavorful and is great with a low carb tortilla or over rice or emmer.

Ingredients

• 1-2 pounds of thinly sliced pork
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 onion
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

The night before, slice the peppers and onions and mince the garlic. Throw them in a tupperware and add the soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Refrigerate over night. (NOTE: This is optional. You can do all of this in the morning before you leave.)

When you're ready to cook, place the pork in the crock pot and add the tupperware full of stuff. Cook on low for anywhere from 4-10 hours. It'll be done after 4, but if you cook it for 8-10 hours, the pork practically falls apart and the bell peppers melt in your mouth.

About 10 minutes before serving, use two forks to shred the pork and add the peanut butter. Continue to cook for 10 minutes to thicken the mixture.

Serve over rice or in a tortilla.

I don't know about you, but I always thought Shepherd's Pie was an Irish dish. Turns out, it's actually an English dish that was typically made to use up leftover pieces of meat from a previous meal. We don't often have leftover meat, but you can certainly make Shepherd's Pie with fresh ingredients.

Because I thought the dish was Irish, we made this dish on St. Patrick's Day.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (organic, from Skagit River Ranch)
• 3 bacon strips (I was out of bacon, so I omitted this)
• 1 small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 can chopped olives (I left these out as well)
• 5 1/2 cups hot mashed potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon minced cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Melted butter

Directions

Cook up a mess of mashed potatoes. The recipe says to make them without butter or milk, but don't worry too much about that. If you have leftover mashed potatoes from last night's dinner, those will work too. Heat them up a bit while you're doing the next few steps.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cook the beef until all the pink disappears and remove the beef from the pan. If there's a significant amount of fat left in the pan, drain it. When we use grass fed beef from Skagit, there's hardly any fat in the pan.

Dice the bacon strips, chop the onion, and mince the garlic. In the same pan as the beef, cook these, along with the oregano until the bacon is crisp. We omitted the bacon because (gasp!) we didn't have any! Add the tomato sauce, olives (if you're using them) and cilantro as well as the precooked beef. Simmer for 10 minutes.

If you haven't already, use this time to mash the cooked potatoes.

Butter or grease a 9 inch pie plate. Line the bottom and sides with mashed potatoes. Fill the pie with the beef mixture.

Now spread more mashed potatoes over the top of the pie. This can be a little tricky, and it's best to use a greased spoon or spatula to help you along.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes.

Brush the top with melted butter and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

This makes between 6 and 8 servings.

I liked it, but I did feel that it was a bit bland. I think it could have been even better with the bacon and with adding some sour cream or horseradish to the mashed potatoes. Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top of the mashed potatoes would have also added a nice touch.

Have you ever had one of those meals where not only did everything taste good, but everything meshed perfectly together? Where the empty spot you never even knew was in you suddenly filled perfectly?

Well, I've just had one. (Three if you count the leftovers).

We got this recipe from Accidental Hedonist, another great local food blog. We adapted it slightly ourselves, but for the most part we used the recipe as is.

Ingredients

• 2-4 pound pork butt or shoulder roast
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar (or brown sugar substitute)
• 1 onion
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 2 cups green salsa
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• Corn tortillas
• Cabbage (optional)
• Avocado
• Cheddar or Cojita cheese

Directions

The night before you want to cook the pork, mix 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon regular paprika, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. These amounts are just guidelines, feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your tastes.

Rub the pork roast with the mixture and refrigerate overnight. 

Next, chop the onion. Put the meat in a large pot with the onion, 2 teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, the green salsa, chopped oregano and chicken stock. Boil the mixture on high and then reduce the heat to medium and cover.

Simmer until the pork is tender and registers at least 165 on a meat thermometer.

Remove the pork from the pan, turn the juices down to low, and preheat the oven to 400.

Using two forks, tear the pork into shreds. Spread the pork on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. You want some of the shredded pork to be crispy.

Turn the heat back up on the pot and boil the mixture in the pan for 8-10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat. Pull the pork out of the oven and add it back into the pot, mixing well. When we did this, it did not look like there was anywhere near enough sauce for all of that pork. Even after I mixed everything together, I was worried it was going to be dry. But never fear. This recipe did not disappoint.

To serve, heat up a corn tortilla and fill it with the pork mixture, add a little shredded cheese, some avocado, and some cabbage (we skipped the cabbage).

This was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Despite how dry the mixture looked, when I bit into the tortilla, it was tender, juicy, and rich.

This will soon become one of our staple recipes. I think it would work well in the crock pot as well. Just throw everything together in the morning (no pre-cooking required), simmer all day, and then shred and roast the pork when you get home at night. I can't wait to make this again.

It's Memorial Day Weekend and the weather is supposed to be decent, though not warm. The last of the parsnips are still available at the local farmers markets, so I present one last winter recipe.

This is another recipe that can be made with just about all local ingredients. I do recommend using salt and pepper, which I have yet to find produced locally. Originally, this recipe came from the Amateur Gourmet who took the recipe from Molly Stevens' All About Braising. I adapted it slightly.

Cider Braised Chicken with Hard Cider and Parsnips
(Adapted from Molly Stevens' All About Braising)
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons hazelnut or olive oil (optional)
• 4 thick slices of bacon (ours was from Skagit River Ranch)
• 3 pounds chicken breasts or thighs (from Rickman Gulch)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 large shallot
• 2 1/2 cups hard cider (from Rockridge Orchards)
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 1 pound parsnips

1. Prepare the ingredients by mincing the shallot, dicing the bacon, and chopping the rosemary. Peel the parsnips and cut them into sticks. Larger parsnips will have a woody core that should be discarded.
2. In a large, oven safe pan, saute the bacon until crispy. The original recipe calls for cooking the bacon in the oil, but I've found this is usually unnecessary.
3. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and transfer it to a paper towel lined plate. 
4. Preheat the oven to 325.
5. Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper and brown them on all sides in the same pan over medium-high heat. If you are using skin-on chicken pieces, brown the skin side first until crispy.
6. Transfer the browned chicken to a plate and set aside.
7. Add the shallot and saute, stirring often to prevent burning. Add 2 cups of the hard cider and deglaze the pan, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan.
8. Boil and reduce the cider to approximately 1/2 cup, about 10-15 minutes.
9. Add the rosemary and the last 1/2 cup of cider and reduce again until there is about 3/4 cup of liquid left in the pan.
10. Add the parsnips and some salt and pepper. Crumble the bacon over the parsnips and then add the chicken. If you're using skin-on chicken, the pieces should be skin side down.
11. Place a piece of parchment paper over the pan and cover with a lid. Bake for 25 minutes.
12. Turn the chicken pieces and make sure the liquid isn't boiling too rapidly. If it is at a rolling boil, turn the oven down 10-15 degrees.
13. Bake for another 20-25 minutes until the thickest chicken piece is done and the parsnips are fork tender.
14. Remove the chicken and transfer the pan back to the stove. Over medium-high heat, boil the sauce for another minute or two to thicken it slightly.
15. Plate the chicken and arrange the parsnips and sauce over it.