November 3

Soup and a Side of Roast Chicken

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• Spicy Cauliflower Soup [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 large bell pepper
  • .5 tablespoon oil
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • salt & pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • .5 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 small chile pepper
  • 4 small potatoes
  • 3 cups stock (divided)
  • cilantro (cleaned and chopped)
  • lemon

  Instructions

  Before beginning, we have already begun <a day="03" label="chicken">roasting a chicken</a> in the oven. We also have a medium pot on the stove with the backbone and innards (excluding the liver), covered with water, and simmering gently.

  We start by peeling, and then chopping, our onion to yield 1 cup. Half of our yellow pepper we chop, yielding about a third of a cup, to be cooked with the onions. The rest we slice and roast in the oven at 450 degrees until tender (tonight we roast it with the chicken).

  In our dutch oven, we add the oil and heat over medium heat. We add the onions and begin softening them, lowering the heat to medium-low. While the onions are cooking, we rinse our cauliflower and chop the florets. We have 2¼ cups of coarsely chopped florets and ¾ cup of smaller pieces of florets that we reserve for the garnish.

  Now that the onions have cooked for 10 minutes, we add the chopped yellow pepper to the onions and stir. We continue to cook for five minutes. Then, we add salt and pepper and the coarsely chopped cauliflower, cooking for a few more minutes while we prep the rest of the ingredients.

  We peel and mince the garlic with some salt and split the serrano carefully trying not to touch too much of it. We add the garlic, cumin, and serrano to the pot and stir in. We lower the heat to low.

  We rinse and then peel the potatoes with our paring knife and coarsely chop, yielding about ½ cup. We strain some of our simmering chicken stock into a 2-cup measuring cup and remove the fat that settles to the top with a spoon. We continue to cook the rest of the cooking stock on the stove. We add the potatoes to the dutch oven, and 2 cups of the hot, strained stock to cover the vegetables. We simmer for another 25 minutes, partly covered, until all the vegetables are very tender.

  We remove the serrano and save for garnish. We blend the stock in our blender, in batches, so the hot soup does not "explode". We add the blended soup back to the dutch oven and add another cup of strained stock to make it the consistency we want.

  We microwave the reserved florets for 2 minutes and chop the roasted pepper strips for the garnish for the soup. We add a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper to the soup, and serve with the florets, roasted pepper, serrano and cilantro.

• Simple Flattened Chicken [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 4.5 pounds chicken
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • salt &amp; pepper

  Instructions

  We begin by preheating the oven to 450 degrees.

  We have a sheet pan ready (a cookie sheet with sides), and a medium pot nearby to make a quick stock. We have paper towels at the ready and we spread wax paper and foil on our cutting board for ease in cleaning up (although the cutting board is still sterilized).

  We use our kitchen scissors to open the bag of chicken in the sink and rinse it. We pat it dry with paper towels and place on the wax-papered cutting board. We put the rinsed innards (excluding the liver, which we discard) into the pot to make a quick stock. We use our scissors to remove the backbone and add to the pot. We flatten the chicken, removing some of the excess fat for the stock pot. We put the chicken on the sheet pan, skin-side up, and wash our hands thoroughly.

  We cover the stock pot with water and start heating on the stove. When it comes to a boil, we lower it to a bare simmer and skim the bubbles and foam to a plate with our "skimmer" while the chicken roasts.

  Meanwhile, with clean hands, we pour the oil onto the chicken and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Then we rub it in, turning the chicken over and making sure that some of the oil and seasonings reaches the other side. We turn it back so it is skin-side up. We wash up again.

  We roast the chicken for 50 minutes, rotating the pan in the oven halfway through the cooking time. We remove the nicely browned chicken from the oven, take the temperatures of the white and dark meat (170° F for breast, 180° F for leg-thigh joint), and let rest.

  We carve the chicken on a clean cutting board and serve.

• Jalapeño Cheddar Bread