How Grownups Play With Their Food....Sauteed Baby Octopus and THE BEST ROAST CHICKEN

Every now and then I think it's imperative to spoil yourself. For me, that means spending far to much on fancy ingredients and making a luscious meal. (Really, who wasn't expecting that.) I experimented with two different ingredients I've never used before: baby octopi, and sunchokes.  

I was wandering through the Union Square Farmer's market (in search of some perfect bone-in and skin-on chicken breasts) and found over three stands selling sunchokes. Which got me curious: what the hell are sunchokes??? I mean, I've heard of them, but I had no idea what they taste like. And the problem with farmer's markets and I are that, I just can't resist. Local dairy farms selling unbelievable heavy cream (trust me)? Why not? A pound of winesap apples? Yes please. Cider doughnuts? Well, ok I say no to those, because they are always disappointing. But really expensive lamb bacon I don't need? Well, you get the picture.

So, in case I haven't mentioned this to you guys before, roast chicken with root vegetables has apparently become my absolute favorite meal. I've roasted two whole chickens in the last month, and while I loved both of them, something was lacking. But I still craved roast chicken. So finally, on a night with a great horror movie on my Netflix queue ("The Thing", awesome) and several pages of my script waiting to be written, I decided to make my own version of roast chicken with root vegetables, with essentially just half the bird.

I bought these chicken breasts from a local farmer at, of course, the farmer's market. At first I was mentally kicking myself for spending almost 10 bucks on two chicken breasts (they were large, in my defense), but after taking one bite, all my suspicions were gone. This chicken was frigging AMAZING. The crispness of the skin, the juiciness of the meat...it took all my strength to not just eat as much as I could hovering over the roasting pan.

The crispiness of the skin was through a trick I learned from America's Test Kitchen. Strange as it may sound: baking powder. Mixing it with the salt and pepper used to season the meat it helps brown and dry the skin. Also, make sure to loosen the skin from the meat, which stops moisture from being trapped between the meat and skin and making things soggy. I should apologize right now for all my readers in the nyc area, for the life of me I can't remember the name of the farmer I got my chicken from. But don't worry, I'll be scouring Union Square till I find him. Oh, and by the way, the sunchokes were fantastic! Roasted them with carrots, yukon gold potatoes, and red onions. The sunchokes reminded me of yucca, which I love. Another fantastic veggie to add to this mix is fennel. Now on to the octopus...



Not sure if anyone remembers the glorious day of warmth we had on Monday, but I just couldn't stay inside, no matter how much work I had. Wandered around, stopped by the Housing Works bookstore (a lovely place to peruse, by the way, I became a member and everything), and finally couldn't stop myself from walking into Dean & Deluca about a block away from the bookstore. At $10 a pound these baby octopi looked amazing. The very cute fishmonger mentioned they came in just that day. I was pretty much sold at this point, and because of the fish guy's cute smile.  =)

I marinated the octopus first with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper for half an hour. Meanwhile, I set about sauteeing sliced garlic and chopped red onion. When the aromatics are soft and cooked through you should take them out of the pan, as the octopus needs to be cooked on high heat, which will burn the garlic and onions. I, of course in my lazy state, decided to skip this step. Big mistake.

I decided to keep it simple with my cooking strategy. The essential flavoring elements are garlic, onion, lemon and parsley. Even with my several stupid (and obvious) mistakes with this recipe, these little eight legged creatures were still delicious. Which is a shame, as that means I'll just be shopping at Dean & Deluca more, a hobby I simply cannot afford.

If these octopi looks funny, it's because they are covered in flour, which I thought would be nice, and make them crispy while being sauteed. No, do not do this. Only batter and flour octopus if you are going to deep fry them, otherwise your flour becomes a mushy mess in the pan, and you get something that very vaguely resembles a strange, seafood-esque oatmeal. Luckily, when I pushed the breading aside, there was glorious, perfectly cooked octopus underneath. Victory! So those are my two wonderfully indulgent, fairly simple recipes you can whip out whenever you feel like doing something special on a Tuesday or any old weekday night. And please invite me over if you're making roast chicken.

Roasted Chicken w/ Root Vegetables

Note: I’m one of those rare fans of white meat over dark, hence why I use only chicken breasts here. However, you’re more than welcome to try this out with chicken legs and thighs. While the breast is done at 160 degrees, thighs and legs should register at 175 degrees.

Another Note: This is quite the decadent meal with the generous use of butter. I really loved serving this over some raw bitter greens which cut through the richness of the chicken and veggies. Perfect “cold night in” kind of food.

Oh Yeah, One Last Thing: The kind of chicken you use is very important. I generally buy only from my local farmer’s market, which has sustainable free range chicken. Not necessary to get the best of the best, but I’d really recommend staying away from Perdu-esque poultry.

2 large bone-in skin on chicken breasts

1 ½ tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 ½ tbsp. dried tarragon

1 tbsp kosher salt

3 tsp pepper

½ tsp baking powder

6-8 tbsp clarified butter, melted

2-3 carrots, peeled and cubed

3 medium yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 medium red onions, cubed

1 large fennel bulb, cubed

4-5 small sunchokes, peeled and cubed

7-8 cloves garlic, peeled

1 lemon, cut into eighths

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place all vegetables and lemon wedges into roasting pan. Sprinkly 2 tsp of salt and pepper on top, along with 1 tbsp of thyme and dried tarragon. Drizzle about 2-3 tbsp butter on top. Toss with hands to make sure all veggies are coated evenly.

Bring chicken to room temperature. Thoroughly dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, mix the rest of the salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon and baking soda. Loosen skin from meat with fingers.  Sprinkle seasoning mixture all over chicken and under skin. Drizzle butter onto chicken and rub over breasts (don’t giggle) and under skin. Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables and roast in oven for about 30-35 minutes, until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees at center of breast. Remove chicken from pan and let sit for 10 minutes under foil. Let vegetables continue roasting.

Serve atop raw dark greens (kale, collard, turnip, etc.).

Sauteed Baby Octopus w/ Garlic, Onion and Tomato         

Note: I had my fishmonger take care of any prep work for the octopi, so I didn’t need to remove any skin/beaks. I’d recommend if you’re able to get the people at your fish market to do the same, do so. Unless you like butchering octopi, then have at it.

½ lb baby octopi (about 4-5 whole), rinsed

2 tsp garlic chopped, 4 cloves sliced

1/3 cup red onion, chopped

¼ cup and 3 tbsp olive oil

1/3 cup dry white wine

½ cup chopped tomatoes

half a lemon

handful of chopped parsley leaves

salt and pepper

Place the octopi in a shallow bowl. Add ¼ cup olive oil, chopped garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss octopi a few times and let marinate for half an hour.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp oil in sauté pan and gently cook onions till soft. Add garlic and cook till fragrant and soft. About 5 to 7 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. When garlic and onions are properly softened and starting to caramelize, transfer to a plate.

Add remaining tbsp of oil and get to high heat. When pan is good and hot, add octopi, cooking quickly. When the legs are starting to curl up around the body add white wine. Bring heat down just a bit and add back the garlic and onions.

As soon as the legs have curled up tightly turn off the heat. Add chopped tomatoes, juice and all, and stir. Take that half a lemon and squeeze it all over the top. Then add  the parsley. Taste, and add more seasoning if necessary.

Serve atop pea shoots or any other greens.

Crab Salad from Heaven

So, my mom is a pescetarian, which means she has banished all other forms of meat from her life, except for seafood, which she adores. Fish, shellfish, she loves it all. And my family is grateful for that, because she can do wonders with our friendly creatures of the sea. Particularly, her crab salad, which my sister and I beg for whenever we come home. (Another version of this is in her crab bisque, which is also amazing, but that'll come later.)

Really, the greatest part of this dip is that it's awfully simple. Just a few choice ingredients that compliment each other really well. I'd recommend specifically using red onion over most others; the sweetness compliments the crab (shallots or a Vidalia onion would work too). 

Something interesting about this recipe it that my mother sautes the vegetables before adding them to the crab. You just want to give the vegetables a little color, and bring out some of those natural sugars. 

Something awesome that all foodies should know about is ground mustard seeds. It's something used frequently in North Indian cuisine, but hasn't really made it into many recipes on the other side of the pond. Dijon mustard is also used, along with the usual suspects of hot sauce and mayo. The point is to use in moderation, more as binding agents rather than flavoring agents.

The real important part of this salad is since there are few ingredients, you need make sure they are good ingredients. Which is why we use lump crab meat, not claw or leg. My family lives in the Midwest, so of course we are followers of the religion Costco. They have these great big cans of lump crabmeat which is just enough to keep us happy for about two days. And here is where we appreciate mom's insane sense of anal precision: she will go through every bit of crab and take out all traces of shell. While this isn't absolutely necessary, it's nice to never have to worry about biting down hard on a bit of crab exoskeleton. 

When it's finally done, I'd recommend taking a bit of some really good bread (my go-to is an asiago baguette), rip off a hunk and scoop up a big bite of this stuff. And then rip off another hunk and repeat. And if you can stop after two, please tell me what your secret is because I have yet to muster up the will power.

Dr. Sethi's Famous Crab Salad

2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large red onion, chopped
2 cups jumbo lump crabmeat
1/3 cup mayo
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Couple shakes of hot sauce
3 tsp ground mustard
2 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
Your favorite bread (optional)

Drop the olive oil into a large saute pan and turn onto medium high heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and saute till soft and beginning to caramelize. Transfer veggies to a large glass bowl. Add mayo, hot sauce, mustard, ground mustard, salt and pepper and mix till just barely combined. Add crabmeat and cilantro and again mix till just barely combined (mixing too much at this stage will break up the crabmeat into invisible little pieces). Enjoy on its own or with a good hunk of that bread.