Croque Monsieur at tartine
Feb
20
2010
Feb
07
2010
Swedish Toast Skagen
A few summers ago, I had the pleasure of spending a few weeks in Sweden. I spent my days and nights getting to know Stockholm, Nynasham and Gotland. Needless to say, I loved everything about the place. From the cleanliness of the city to the bucolic beauty of the countryside.
But what I remember most vividly are the tasty toast skagen sandwiches that were the staple of every cafe and restaurant we went to. The dish is quite simple. Sweet seasoned shrimp + baltic toast + red caviar = toast skagen. Add in a tasty lager and it’s a great way to while away the afternoon.
Back here at home in New York, we’re currently in the middle of Maine’s sweet shrimp season. They’re tiny and sweet and can be eaten raw. They’re delicious and are the equivalent of candy in the crustacean world. And they’re, more or less, exactly like the shrimp used in Swedish toast skagen.
I took the 4 train to Grand Central and went to Wild Edibles in the market there. Wild Edibles is one of the few vendors here in the city who sell these sweet buggers in season.
Today, they only had the peeled variety which was fine by me. Less work. Read the fine print in the photo above - “Just half a minute in boiling water.”
Folks, that’s IT. They don’t need a second more of cooktime.
I boiled a pot of heavily salted water. In there, I threw in a few bay leaves and peppercorns. And then I plunged the shrimp in for a quick 30 second bath.
After the bath, I put the shrimp on ice in my fridge to cool them quickly.
While they cooled, I diced half a red onion and finely chopped about a teaspoon or so of fresh dill.
After about fifteen minutes in the fridge, I took the shrimp out and, in a mixing bowl, combined them with the dill, red onion, about a tablespoon of mayonnaise, juice of half a lemon and some salt and pepper.
A few minutes later, I was enjoying an incredible home-made toast skagen. 
I used a sunflower rye for one and a challah for the other piece of toast. I know traditionalists may scoff at my use of non-white bread. But this is what I had handy and it didn’t disappoint. I also didn’t have any caviar but to me, that’s a secondary ingredient. The shrimp was the star of this show.
I ate happily while memories of the Baltic coast flooded my palate.
Jan
05
2010
Martha Roasts a Bird
Tonight, I roasted a chicken. And it was one of the easiest and simplest dishes I’ve ever made.
I used a 3 1/2 lb. organic bird sourced from my local Whole Foods. The greenmarket vendor who I used to buy my birds from (Knoll Crest Farms) no longer sells whole birds. They only offer eggs and fresh pastas. Excellent yes. But I needed a whole bird. Oh well.
Once I had my chicken in hand, I washed and dried it, then put it in a pyrex dish where I proceeded to liberally coat it with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. The entire back, front, bottom, top and even the cavity were dosed with the salt and I even put a few sprigs of fresh rosemary between the legs/thighs and body.
I let the bird sit in this pyrex, loosely covered with some foil, in my fridge for 2 1/2 days. It was placed in the fridge on noon on Sunday. Tuesday evening it was taken out.
I preheated my oven to 475F degrees and put the roasting pan in the oven to warm it up.
Then I patted the chicken dry. Really dry. Bone freaking dry. Outside and in.
Once the oven hit 475F, I placed the bird, breast side up, on the HOT roasting pan and gently placed some cubed yukon gold potatoes around. Skin sizzled. The crackle of fat nipped within my kitchen.
At the 20 minute mark, I upped the temperature to 500F as the skin wasn’t browning fast enough for me.
At the 30 minute mark, I flipped the bird to let the underside crispen evenly.
Another 20 minutes and I flipped the chicken back to it’s original breast side up position.
And finally, after a final 10 minutes of allowing the skin to re-crispen, I pulled the birdy out and let it cool, covered under some tin foil for about 10 minutes.
During this cooling, I removed the potatoes from the roasting pan and began scraping the grizzle around. I added some water to this and scraped some more. I poured this mixture into a little sauce pan and brought it to a quick boil. Oh goodness, even I was overwhelmed by how good this jus was.
And finally, we have a plated dish:
To call this bird soft would not do it proper justice. To call it juicy would be a crime against humanity. It was almost a chicken confit. In fact, it was better than any chicken confit I’ve ever had.
The meat fell off the bone. The white meat, which I usually shun, was soft, not chewy and perfectly salted through and through. And the chicken fat roasted potatoes? Well how do you think they were? Jeez!
A huge thanks goes out to my friend Mojo, who had I not bumped into walking home in Union Square Park a few days ago, none of this would have happened. Thanks MOJO!!!!!
Dec
24
2009
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