Julia's Kitchen Wisdom (13 page)

Fillets of Sole Meunière

For 4 fillets up to ½ inch thick and 5 to 6 ounces each. Just before sautéing, season the fish with salt and pepper and turn in flour, shaking off excess. Heat the butter and oil in the pan until the butter foam begins to subside, lay in the fillets, and sauté for about a minute on each side, just until the fish begins to take on a light springiness to the touch. Do not overcook—if the fish flakes, it is overdone. Remove to a hot platter, and sprinkle a tablespoon of minced fresh parsley over the fish. Rapidly wipe the pan clean with paper towels (so flour
residue will not speckle the butter to come—or use a fresh pan). Heat 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in the pan, swishing it about and letting it brown lightly. Remove the pan from heat, squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and, if you wish, toss in a spoonful of capers before spooning the hot butter over the fish.

Thick Pork Chops

When your meat is thicker than ½ inch, it takes longer to cook, which means you could be burning the outside before the inside is done. You have two choices. Either brown the meat on both sides and set it in its pan in a 375°F oven to finish cooking—which works very well for steaks, chops, and fish—or brown the meat over high heat, then cover-cook it to finish more slowly, as it simmers in its sauce.

For 4 pork chops about 1¼ inches thick. First give them a ½-hour dry marinade by rubbing in a little salt and pepper, allspice, and dried thyme. Dry them off and brown them on both sides. Then pour around them ¾ cup of dry white vermouth, ½ cup of chicken broth, and 2 tablespoons of minced shallots. Cover the pan and let simmer slowly, basting rapidly every 4 to 5 minutes, until the meat is done to the medium stage—faintly pink. The best way to test is to make a slit in one chop close to the bone. Remove the chops to hot plates, and spoon excess fat out of the pan. Reduce the liquid to a syrup and pour over the chops.

Thick Veal Chops

Cook them the same way as the pork chops, but omit the spice marinade. A bit of tarragon would go nicely in the simmering liquid, and it will want a swish of butter after it has reduced to its sauce consistency.

Sauté of Beef Tenderloin

Cut the meat into 2-inch chunks—you will probably want 3 chunks, or about 6 ounces, per serving. After drying them off, toss and brown them on all sides for several minutes in hot butter and oil, until beginning to take on springiness to the touch—they should remain rare. Remove to a side dish and season with salt and pepper. Deglaze the pan with ¼ cup of dry Madeira or port, and pour in ½ cup of heavy cream. Return the meat to the pan. Bring to the simmer for a very few minutes, basting meat with the sauce as it thickens lightly. Serve on hot plates and decorate with sprigs of fresh parsley.

Sauté of Pork Tenderloin

Use the same system for pork tenderloin, but give it the dry-spice marinade suggested for the thick pork chops above. You may wish to omit the cream finish, using chicken stock instead.

Chicken Sautéed in White Wine

For 2½ to 3 pounds of chicken parts, serving 4 people. Brown the chicken
pieces on all sides in hot butter and oil. Remove the wings and breasts, which need less cooking. Season legs and thighs, cover the pan, and continue to cook over moderate heat for another 10 minutes, turning once. Season the white meat and return it to the pan. Stir in 1 tablespoon minced shallots, ⅔ cup chicken broth, ½ cup dry white wine or vermouth, and ½ teaspoon dried tarragon or
Provençal herbs
(see box below). Cover the pan and cook at the slow simmer 5 to 6 minutes more, turn, and baste the chicken pieces with pan juices, then continue cooking until tender—about 25 minutes in all. Remove the chicken to a hot platter. Spoon off fat and boil down cooking liquid to reduce by half. Off heat, swirl in the enrichment butter, pour the sauce over the chicken, and serve.

WHEN IS THE CHICKEN DONE?
The flesh of the drumsticks and thighs is just tender when pressed. The juices run clear yellow when the meat is pricked deeply—if there’s no juice, you have overcooked it, but the chicken must be cooked through.

VARIATIONS

• A PROVENÇAL ADDITION.
  After returning the white meat to the pan, stir in 2 cups of fresh
  tomato pulp
  , and continue with the recipe. When you have removed the chicken, boil down the sauce until thick and fine, and carefully correct seasoning.
  

• CHICKEN PIPÉRADE.
  In a separate pan, sauté 1 cup of sliced onions in olive oil until tender then add 1 cup each of sliced red and green pepper and a large clove of garlic, minced. Sauté together for a moment. Add to the chicken when you return the white meat.
  

• BONNE FEMME—ONIONS, POTATOES, AND MUSHROOMS.
  After removing the white meat, add to the dark meat 3 or 4 medium Yukon-gold potatoes, quartered and blanched, and 8 to 12
  small white onions
  . Continue with the recipe. After returning the white meat, fold in 1½ cups of previously sautéed quartered fresh mushrooms, and finish the recipe.
  

PROVENÇAL HERBS—HERBES DE PROVENCE.—
A mixture of ground dried herbs, such as bay, thyme, rosemary, and oregano.

BROILING

Broiling, where the heat comes from above, is of course the opposite of barbecuing, where the heat source comes from below. Broiling, however, has the advantage that you are more easily in control. If your broiler is so equipped, you can raise or lower the heat, or in any case you can move the food nearer or farther from the broiler element. In some instances you simply broil on both sides until the food is completely cooked, and in others you may find that broiling just on one side is sufficient. In still other cases, especially when you have something large like a butterflied roasting chicken, you will want to broil and brown the two sides but finish by roasting—very convenient when your oven is both broiler and roaster. There are no rules, and it is quite up to you to decide. Here are some examples.

MASTER RECIPE

Broiled Butterflied Chicken
Serves 4

Rather than broiling a chicken in pieces, which is easy to do but not wildly exciting, and rather than roasting it whole, which takes an hour or more, butterfly your chicken. It cooks in half the time and makes a great presentation.

A 2½-to-3-pound broiler-fryer chicken, butterflied

2 Tbs melted butter blended with 2 tsp vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

½ tsp dried thyme or an herb mixture

For the Deglazing Sauce

1 Tbs minced shallot or scallion

½ cup chicken broth and/or dry white wine or vermouth

1 to 2 Tbs butter, for enrichment

TO BUTTERFLY A CHICKEN.
With heavy shears or a cleaver, cut down close to the backbone on each side, and remove the bone. Spread the chicken open, skin side up, and pound on the breast with your fist to flatten the chicken. Cut off and discard the little nubbins at the wing elbows, and fold the wings akimbo. To hold the legs in place, make ½-inch slits in the skin on each side of the lower breast and tuck the drumstick ends through the slits.

Preheat the broiler to high. Brush the chicken all over with butter and oil and arrange it skin side down in a shallow pan. Set it under the broiler so the chicken surface is about 6 inches from the heat source. Let broil for about 5 minutes, then baste rapidly with the butter and oil, and continue for another 5 minutes. The surface should be browning
nicely; if not, adjust the heat or the distance of chicken from broiler. Baste again, this time with the juices accumulated in the pan, and broil another 5 minutes. Then season with salt and pepper, turn the chicken skin side up, and season the surface. Continue broiling and basting with the pan juices every 5 minutes for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the
chicken is done
.

Remove the chicken to a carving board and let it rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, make the deglazing sauce by first spooning cooking fat off the juices in the pan. Then stir the shallot into the pan and simmer for a minute or so on top of the stove, until the juices are syrupy. Swirl in the enrichment butter, pour over the chicken, and serve.

VARIATIONS

• BROIL/ROASTED BUTTERFLIED ROASTING CHICKEN—AND TURKEY.
  Broil/roasting a big 6-to-7-pound butterflied roaster or capon or a 12-pound turkey takes, again, half the time you’d need if you roasted it whole. Use exactly the same system as for the preceding broiled chicken except that, when you have browned the underside, and given the skin side the beginning of a brown, you then switch from broiling to roasting. Just finish the cooking in the oven—I like to roast mine at 350°F. A 6-to-7-pound bird takes 1 to 1¼ hours; a 12-pound turkey, about 2 hours. See the broil/roast times box for more details.
  

  BROIL/ROAST CHICKEN AND TURKEY TIMES
  

  Always allow an additional 20 to 30 minutes, just to be safe.
  

  Butterflied Roasting Chickens
  

  4 to 5 pounds / 45 minutes to 1 hour
  

  5 to 6 pounds / 1 to 1¼ hours
  

  Butterflied Turkeys
  

  8 to 12 pounds / 1½ to 2 hours
  

  12 to 16 pounds / 2 to 2½ hours
  

  16 to 20 pounds / 2½ to 3 hours
  

• DEVILED GAME HENS OR POUSSINS.
  For 2 birds, serving 4 people. Butterfly the birds and broil as in the master recipe, but give them only 10 minutes per side. Meanwhile, whisk together, to make a mayonnaise-like sauce, ⅓ cup Dijon mustard, a large minced shallot, pinches of dried tarragon or rosemary, drops of Tabasco sauce, and 3 tablespoons of the pan juices. Paint this over the skin sides of the birds, then pat on a layer of fresh white bread crumbs. Baste with the remaining juices. Finish cooking under the broiler.
  

  FRESH BREAD CRUMBS.
  Whenever bread crumbs are called for, always make your own out of fresh homemade-type bread. Cut off the crusts, slice the bread into 1-inch chunks, and pulse not more than 2 cups at a time in a food processor, or 1 cup at a time in an electric blender. It’s useful to make a lot while you are at it and freeze what you don’t need.