Oven-Roasted Chicken

You wouldn't  believe how delicious and juicy a chicken could be until you try this method of oven roasting. Crisp on the outside and moist on the inside. Capable of holding a 8 lb. chicken with room for potatoes and veggies at the base to soak up the delicious juices. The chicken roaster will cook your chicken more efficiently as the stoneware will maintain heat and cook from the inside as well.

Ingredients:

• Whole Roasting Chicken (2-4lbs)
• 1/2 an onion
  
• 1 or 2 carrots
• 1 or 2 stalks of celery
  
• Several sprigs of rosemary
• Several sprigs of thyme 
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 T salt
• 1/2 T pepper
• 1 T paprika
• 1 T sage

Preparation:

Preheat oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Remove giblets from the cavity of the chicken and remove any fat from the area also. Trim any loose skin and remove tail is desired. Rub skin of chicken with a small amount of olive oil and then sprinkle on a mixture of paprika, sage, salt and pepper as rub.


Chop the onion, carrots and celery into 1 inch pieces and place in the bottom of the Chicken Roaster.  Stuff rosemary and thyme into the cavity of the chicken and place the chicken on the spire of the roaster.

Place in oven on second rack from bottom. Roast the chicken for about an hour.  If the chicken seems to be getting too brown, cover with foil and continue.


After 45 minutes or so, stick a meat thermometer in between the thigh and the body. If you have a reading of at least 160 degree Fahrenheit then your roasted chicken is done. If not roast for another 2 or 3 minutes for each degree below 160.  Retest every 10 minutes or so.

Once cooked remove chicken, cover with foil and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Remove vegetables from roaster dish and serve on the side. Gravy can be made with the remaining juices.

Carve the chicken and enjoy.
 

The Coolest Clay Pot Cookware

Beautiful Sun-Kissed Tuscany

 The first time I saw Tuscany, I went crazy for the great view and fresh greens everywhere. If I were given the chance to choose where to build another house, I'd say a villa on on one of the Tuscan hills would be great.

Another thing that made me crazy was the terracotta pots that many of the meals were served in. They are just fascinating and perfect for parties, and they are Italian by origin.

When we were on our way to the airport to fly back to the US, I have to pay more for my extra baggage. I couldn't imagine I bought terracotta bakeware pieces that are resistant to over 1500F. I carried a range of sizes and shapes, including ovals, lasagna pans, tall and low casseroles with lids in three sizes, and a large round roasting pan.

 
There are two colors with a tan interior and either a green or blue exterior and lid.The pieces were said to be made from clay quarried in Tuscany and are made specifically for wood-fired oven baking, and are heat resistant and high heat tempered. They are safe for cooking and are lead-free.What intrigued me so much was its ability to manage when used in a conventional oven, or a wood-fired oven. It's 100% food-safe made it a perfect modern cookware to match with my great grandfather's wood oven.

My Tuscan trip was among the best I can say.

Have Your Ever Tried to Recreate Dish

Have you ever tried to recreate a dish grandma made? Maybe you have tried making it but you just can't seem to get it just right or even make it taste exactly like grandma's? I don't know but everyone loves turning to the comfort food of home.

Comfort food comes from many places and in a lot different flavors from it's cultural orientation. In the Midwest, comfort food comes by in the essence of gravy, mashed potatoes, pork, or even a thick juicy steak hot off the grill smothered in mushrooms and onions. Down south by New Orleans it comes in the form of Creole shrimp, saffron rice, or even spicy jambalaya. What happens when you take two styles of comfort food and combine them? You get spicy Cajun pot roast!

Here's the recipe.

Spicy Cajun Pot roast

• 4lbs- boneless chuck roast
• 2- white onions (1/4 inch thick cut in 1/2 moon shapes)
• 2- green peppers (1/4 inch thick cut in 1/2 moon shapes)
• 2- jalapeños (minced)
• 3- cloves garlic (minced)
• 2- caribe peppers (minced)
• 16- baby red potatoes (cut into fourths)
• 2c- beef stock
• 2c- cajun or creole seasoning
• 1c- slurry (corn starch and water mixed together)

Pre heat oven to 300 degrees. Rub the chuck roast down with Cajun or Creole seasoning well, massaging it for about 5 minutes working in the meat. Then let stand for 1 minute. In an oven safe Dutch oven pot or a 4 to 5 quart sauce pot sear the roast well on all sides, making sure to lock in all the great cajun flavor. Add your peppers, onions, potatoes, and beef stock to deglaze the pan and release the flavors from the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot and slide into oven. Bake at 300 degrees for 3-5 hours or until the roast and vegetables are fork tender.
Remove from oven and place roast onto serving platter to rest for about 10 minutes. Strain out vegetables and place around roast while preserve liquid on stove top. Bring liquid up to a simmer. Once simmer whisk in your slurry to thicken the liquid. It should start to take on a gravy consistency. At this point you can add more Cajun or just salt and pepper to the gravy to spice it up. Just before service, ladle Cajun gravy over roast.

Enjoy!

The Delicious Italian Rice Dish Risotto

I'm sure we are all familiar of the rice dish risotto. It's Italian and carrying culinary Italian cuisine name means it is one of the most fabulous Italian dishes.

If you use a short grain variety like Arborio rice when making your risotto, then you making a perfect risotto. Arborio is the most popularly used short-grain rice variety that Italians love for their risottos. This rice has the capacity to absorb large amounts of liquid while keeping its shape. The starchy rice when combined with the stock during cooking creates a fantastic soupy sauce giving risotto its smooth, velvety and creamy appearance.

Risotto is made by sautéing rice in oil or butter, onion and garlic then adding ladles of hot stock at a time while constantly stirring, until the rice absorbs the stock. This process is called toasting the rice which is important so the rice can absorb liquid more quickly. It usually takes about 20 to 25 minutes to cook a risotto from all the constant adding of stock and stirring, without producing a mushy rice dish.

Traditional risotto has only around 6 basic ingredients. Along with its basic ingredients oil, onion starchy rice, hot stock and cheese, a risotto can be made using many kinds of vegetables and legumes, meat, poultry, seafood, fish and any type of wine and cheese. You can even include berries or any fruit of your taste.

Here is one of the most famous Italian Risotto recipe that you could try for dinner: It's called Milanese Risotto.

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

• 1 litre salt-reduced chicken stock
• Pinch saffron threads
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 1/2cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 20g butter, chopped
• Finely grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Procedure:

Place stock and saffron in a saucepan. Cover. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Simmer until needed. Heat oil in a large cast iron pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add rice. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add wine. Bring to the boil. Boil for 1 to 2 minutes or until wine is reduced by half.

Add 1/3 cup stock to rice mixture. Cook, stirring, until stock has absorbed. Repeat with remaining stock, adding 1/3 cup at a time, until all liquid has absorbed and rice is tender and creamy, adding peas to rice mixture with final 1/3 cup stock.

Cook for 5 minutes or until peas are heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with cheese.

Enjoy!

One Dish Dinners Made Easy

One dish dinners are the most ideal solution to weekday meals when time is at a premium. If you're a beginner, you will find these meals a boon, while those with simple dinner notions will appreciate the fact that not too many work is required by way of utensils and cookware.

Find these recipes that you can make from your fresh or frozen as well as storecupboard ingredients and leftovers. This is a made-in-minutes main course with vegetarians in view.


Pasta Twists with Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Ingredients

- 2 cups dried whole-wheat pasta spirals
- 2 tsps olive oil
- 4 tbsps corn oil
- 1 onion
- 21/2 cup mushrooms
- 4 large tomatoes
- 31/2 ounces process cheese slices
- 4 tbsps minced fresh parsley
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup heavy cream

Procedure

Grease a fairly deep casserole. Preheat oven to 400F.
Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and olive oil and cook for about 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain pasta. Set aside.

Chop onion. Wipe mushrooms and slice thinly.

Heat half the corn oil in a large skillet. Add onion and saute' for 5 minutes or until softened or pale gold. Stir in rest of corn oil. Add mushrooms and saute' for 3 minutes more.

Cut a small cross in each tomato. Put into a heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water.
Let stand for 1 minute. Rinse under cold water. When cool enough to handle, slip off skins. Slice tomatoes.

Layer prepared dish with pasta, sauteed onions and mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, half the cheese and half the parsley, sprinkling salt and pepper between the layers.

Trickle in the cream, top with remaining cheese slices and bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Garnish with rest of parsley and serve at once.

For non-vegetarian, serve with broiled bacon or sausages.

The Healthy Terracotta Cooking

Terra Cotta is a clay pot. Knowing that wet clay is a porous material, a slow evaporation of steam from within the pores of the clay happens when the pot is saturated with water and put into the oven. This allows the food to produce its most natural juices that cannot escape during the cooking process. As soon as the pot becomes dry, your food is cooked.

Because wet clay does not become as hot as metal once put into fire, it is important to cook at higher temperature (450F instead of the usual 350F). The manufacturers of clay pots recommend to always put the pot in a cold oven.

The benefits of Cooking with Clay Cookware are understood by many cultures from around the globe. But Italian made Piral terracotta cookware with its easy clean glass-like cooking surface is easily the most versatile and beautiful.

Clay Pot Cookware carry Elegance

Clay Pot Cookware Today Comes in Attractive Colors

Now, more than ever, a large section of society seems to be embroiled in the issues of healthy eating. While the fast food industry reels from a salvo of criticism, mainly from the health and medical professions, an old-fashioned cooking method is quietly but steadily gaining in popularity.

Big Holiday Promotional Prices for Chef's Knives at Your Smart Kitchen

I always put so much time watching out for big promotional sales for kitchen items just before the holidays of every year, and it makes me excited about finding the best picks for gifts we can give away.

One of my favorite online stores Your Smart Kitchen where I've actually bought some of my kitchen pieces hasn't came back to full operation yet, most probably the site is undergoing some improvements, but I was so keen about finding it's latest offers and thanks heavens I was among its newsletter subscriber, I found about their latest holiday surprise!

Profession Chef's Knife 6.3 inches
The retail price which was normally close to $100 offered at $85, now only $62.00

Perfection Chef's Knife 6.3 inches

Typical retail over $100 being offered at $88, now price is $65.00

They also offer a holiday Profession and Perfection Duos of two Fissler cutlery lines that you should take a look:

Profession Duo
Carving Knife 7.9 inch

Chef's Knife 7.9 inch

Retail $263 Promotional price $185.00


Perfection Duo
Carving Knife 7.9 inch
Santoku Knife 7.1 inch
Retail $282 Promotion price is $198.00

Since Your Smart Kitchen web site is not operation in the meantime, to order these products you can use one of two processes:

1. Order direct through Pay Pal with payment going to yogiwan@gmail.com State in the comments section which product you are ordering and your shipping address. Pay Pal will take all credit cards.
   
   Email your request to chef@yoursmartkitchen.com and include payment and shipping information.

I don't know if you have as much excitement as I have for these promotional offers, it's just that there's nothing like spending time and money in a store that's worth your click, and it's always best to share the things I feel like worth sharing. If you're like me, this could be your chance to enjoy them too!

So, happy shopping and Happy holidays from my family!