Autumn Carvings: Juicy, Savory and Roasted

Spectacular autumn foliage, colorful mums, pumpkins and apples are all symbols of fall to which we look forward each year.  Also reminiscent of fall are the aromas of cinnamon, baking pies, simmering pots of chili and seasoned roasts, all beckoning us in from the dropping temperatures and the darkness that creeps in earlier with each passing day.  Pumpkins are not the only objects getting carved this season.  Hearty roasts are the staple of fall and winter’s dinners.

Herb Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

A large specimen of roasted goodness can star chicken, pork, beef, lamb, duck, turkey and other meat or fowl.  For a timesaving bonus, many roasts can be surrounded with vegetables and potatoes in the same pan, drinking in the tasty juices from the meat as they roast.  My herb roasted chicken roasts along with fennel bulbs, baby carrots, baby red potatoes and onions.  The interior of the chicken get seasoned with a full head of garlic cloves, which also roast, lemon wedges and sprigs of the earthy herb that says autumn every time, sage.  The exterior of the bird is seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper and minced rosemary, and the entire roasting pan’s contents get basted with white wine and chicken stock.  When it’s time to pop the roasting pan into the oven, it is heavy!  Packed with flavor, that roasting pan serves up almost the entire meal.  All one needs with that is a salad.

Herb and Orange Roasted Duck

Most people opt out of the roast turkey, knowing full well that it will be enjoyed later in the season on the Thanksgiving holiday and for several days that follow.  Chicken and duck are the preferred feathery victims destined for the oven.  Duck is often brushed with fruity glazes, such as orange or cherry.  The fatty drippings from the duck perform blissful magic when potatoes are roasted in the pan with the duck.  For those who need dinner on the table quicker, try opting for my roast duck breasts with fennel.  Seasoned with rosemary and served over mashed potatoes, this dish makes an elegant presentation when plated.  For the freshest duck and chicken, Long Islanders can find them at Miloski’s Poultry Farm in Calverton and at Iacono Farm on the south fork in East Hampton.

Pork Loin Stuffed with Fennel

Pork is perhaps the most popular choice of meats for roasting, followed by leg of lamb.  Two pork tenderloin recipes that I have previously posted include pork tenderloin with apples and fennel and pork tenderloin with ancho espresso rub and guacamole.  When visiting my parents, I was treated to a succulent, golden-brown roast pork loin that my mother stuffed with olives, parsley, garlic and anchovies.  The kitchen smelled wonderful.  The dish was so amazing that I simply had to have the recipe.  Luckily, Mom shares.  I proceeded to make the dish back at home in my kitchen.  The flavor wasn’t what I remembered, however.  It was too salty!  When my mother queried whether I had prepared the roast, I shamefully admitted that I had and that it was not as good as hers.  When I voiced my specific complaint, she shared with me the reason for the saltiness.  I would hedge my bets that my readers are by now issuing shouting admonishments at the screen that go something like, ‘It was the anchovies, you idiot!’ Wrong.  I had rinsed the anchovies, as her recipe directed.  What her recipe had not specified was the type of olive used.  I recalled the stuffing in her pork displaying a blackish-brown tint.  I deduced that they were probably kalamatas.   On that point, yes, I was wrong.

As it turns out, my mother had used canned black olives.  What?! I exclaimed, canned?  I buy canned beans, canned tomatoes, canned chipotle and green chilies, but never canned olives.  It made sense, however, that those water-packed canned olives which lack the saltiness that comes with that brining or curing that most olive bar examples display are not going to infuse that saltiness into the roast.

So, I cooked the roast once again, using the canned variation of olives this time.  It was a vast improvement.  This time, the roast tasted just like Mom’s.  What I also love about this roast is the fact that it retains its moisture.  The roast does not cook in a pan filled with potatoes or vegetables, but I put together a side dish in ten minutes that paired exceptionally well with the pork.  In addition, I prepared a typical fall salad of greens, apple, dried cranberries, walnuts and goat cheese, uncorked a pinot noir and dinner was sublime.

I will now share two recipes.  First up is the one for my mother’s roast pork, and then I have included the one for my side dish that I accompanied the roast with.

Roast Pork Stuffed with Olives

Ingredients:

3-4 pound boned pork loin

1 cup fresh parsley

8 garlic cloves

1 15-ounce can black olives

8 anchovy filets, rinsed

½ cup (plus more) white wine

Sea salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 450-degrees.

Cover work surface with aluminum foil.  Place four 2-foot lengths of kitchen string horizontally on the foil, each string 1-2 inches apart.  Lay the pork loin down vertically on top of the strings.  Butterfly the loin by taking a sharp knife and cutting across from the right side of the loin to the left, one third of the way down.  Cut almost all the way across to the left, but do not cut all the way through.  Gently fold that cut piece over toward the left.  Next, halfway down from the remaining thickness, cut from left to right in the same manner and fold that section over toward the right.  When you have completed this process, the piece of meat should resemble an unfolded letter.  Sprinkle the entire surface of the loin with salt and pepper.

Process the parsley and garlic together in a food processor until it is chopped and combined.  Spread this mixture over the surface of the pork loin.  Process the olives in the processor until chopped, and then spread the chopped olives over the parsley mixture.  Lay the anchovy filets, evenly spaced over the olive mixture.  Roll the loin (like refolding the letter).  Grasp the first string from each side and firmly tie it around the loin to secure the roll.  Repeat with the remaining strings and then snip off the excess ends of the string.  Lightly sprinkle the roast with salt and transfer to a roasting pan.  At this point, the finished package should resemble the picture at the right.

Pour ½ cup wine over the roast and place the pan into the oven for ten minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 325-degrees and roast for another 60-75 minutes, basting frequently with the wine and drippings, adding more wine to the pan if necessary.

Transfer the roast to a carving board and allow the meat to rest for ten minutes.  Snip the string and slice the roast into 1/3-inch thick slices.  Drizzle the pan drippings over the slices and serve.

Cannellini Beans with Garlic, Sage and Grape Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6 large cloves garlic, minced

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage or 1 ½ tablespoons finely minced fresh sage

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the garlic and sauté for two minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the salt and sage.  Add the beans and toss to the coat with the garlic mixture.  Stir in the tomatoes until incorporated with the beans.  Transfer to a serving dish.  Serves four.

This bean dish would also be ideal with a Provencal roasted leg of lamb.

Polenta would be another perfect alternative to serve with the pork roast.

Enjoy those cool weather roasts whose aromas spark appetites and let the oven warm up your kitchen.  If you happen to be a vegetarian, well, I’m sure you won’t have too much difficulty achieving the same heartwarming and mouthwatering affects from an autumn pie or crisp in the oven.

Thanksgiving is just weeks away, when we all look forward with anticipation to a Normal Rockwell-worthy presentation of the roasted turkey with all the trimmings.

A Bird In the Oven

One of the easiest ways to produce a winter meal is to simply have the oven do all of the work.  With just twenty minutes of prep time and then relaxing with a glass of wine as you catch up on Facebook commentary and emails, or watch an episode of your favorite show that you recorded, dinner is ready to be served an hour or two later.  The star of such a meal is the humble chicken, succulently juicy with a golden-brown skin that rivals that of summer sun-worshippers on the beach.  Roasted chicken is old-fashioned comfort food, reminiscent for some of Sunday dinners at Grandma’s house in days of yore, conjuring up Norman Rockwell’s family dinner images.

Admittedly, basic roast chicken can get boring very quickly.  When some people hear roast chicken, they envision a bland-looking bird seasoned with salt and pepper and perhaps basted with stock and melted butter.  This equates to a blank canvas highlighted with a couple of dabs of white paint as it sits on an artist’s easel.  That canvas is screaming for more; more colors, more strokes, more depth, more creativity.  Similarly, tasters of the aforementioned bird are clamoring for more flavors, textures and even colors.

The interior cavity of the chicken is a perfect little steam pot when the fowl is roasting away in a 450-degree oven.  When preparing the bird for its date with the oven, stuff it with flavor-boosting ingredients such as a quartered lemon or orange, a handful of peeled whole garlic cloves and bundles of fresh herbs such as sage, thyme, rosemary or a combination.  As the juices of the chicken begin to release during the cooking process, these ingredients will steam and self-baste the interior of the bird with their flavors.  Once stuffed, tie the ends of the drumsticks tightly together to narrow the opening, thus holding that steam action inside the bird.

At the top of the breasts, one can carefully slip a finger or two under the skin of each breast, loosening it to create a pocket in between the skin and the meat.  Once the two pockets have been formed over the entire top of the chicken, you can now stuff more flavor enhancers underneath the skin.  Fresh sage leaves, basil leaves or rosemary sprigs are commonly used.  Another nice trick is to enlist the help of a pastry bag and pipe pesto into those pockets, gently pressing down on the bulge to evenly distribute the pesto throughout the pockets.

The surface needs some flavor now as well.  Rub the entire surface with a little extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle the bird generously with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.  Sprigs of rosemary or thyme can be tucked under each wing, finely chopped herbs and/or finely grated lemon zest or orange zest may be sprinkled over the chicken.  Lastly, a splash of white wine and some chicken stock poured into the pan will be helpful for basting the chicken occasionally during the roasting process. 

One must-have in the kitchen when creating a roast chicken dinner is an extra large roasting pan.  The pan doesn’t need a rack or any other fancy accessories; just a basic stainless steel roasting pan from a reputable brand to ensure durability will do.  The extra-large size of the pan is to accommodate the rest of the meal; I did say let the oven do most of the work, didn’t I?

Once the chicken has been set in the center of the pan and sufficiently stuffed, rubbed and sprinkled, fill in the pan around the chicken with some vegetables.  Root vegetables are ideal because they can take the heat to roast in roughly the same amount of time as the chicken.  Carrots, parsnips, beets, fennel, turnips and rutabagas all work.  Butternut squash can also work when cut into larger chunks, or if added to the pan halfway through the chicken’s roasting time.  Add potatoes to the pan in addition to the vegetables, and then drizzle it all with extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  The entire pan is then covered with foil and relegated into a 450-degree oven.  Halfway through cooking time, remove the foil, stir the vegetables and continue to roast uncovered.

A three to four pound chicken will be cooked in roughly an hour to 90 minutes.  Larger specimens will take longer.  The other must-have for roasting any large bird or meat is a meat thermometer.  There are several styles available, and after going through three or four digital ones, my favorite is now a basic variation with a non-electronic dial.  When the thermometer probe is pierced into the thickest, meatiest part of the thigh, the temperature should read 180 for chicken when it is ready to eat.

All you will need to accompany this meal is perhaps a basic salad and some crusty bread.  I will often prepare a dinner like this in the morning, so that when the afternoon rolls around I need only to preheat the oven and slip the foil-covered pan from the refrigerator into the oven; dinner never feels so effortless on other nights.  Seasoning combinations and vegetable and starch selections are boundless.  Use up any odds and ends you find in your pantry and refrigerator.  One of my favorite recipes comes from an old Williams-Sonoma cookbook, for rosemary seasoned chicken that roasts with cubes potatoes.  Another hit is a recipe from Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), in which the chicken roasts with large homemade fresh bread croutons.  The bread toasts and also soaks up the flavorful juices.  I’ve come up with a perfect recipe for a one-pan roast chicken dinner to share with you below.

Herb Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

1 7-pound chicken

1 lemon, quartered lengthwise

2 sprigs plus 8 leaves fresh sage

2 sprigs fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped

1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled

Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

2 fennel bulbs, each cut into eighths

1 bag baby-cut carrots

1 container baby Yukon gold or red-skinned potatoes, quartered

2 large onions, peeled, cut into eighths lengthwise

1 cup chicken stock

½ cup white wine

Preheat oven to 450-degrees.  Remove the bag of giblets and neck from the inside of the chicken and either discard or set aside for use in making stock.  Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and set in a large roasting pan.  Place the lemon quarters, garlic cloves and sage sprigs inside the chicken cavity.   Loosen the skin on top of the chicken and slip 4 sage leaves under the skin on each breast.  Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt, pepper and rosemary.  Mix and arrange the fennel, carrots, potatoes and onions around the chicken, filling the roasting pan.  Add the wine and stock, pouring evenly around the pan.  Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.  Cover with foil and roast for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil, gently stir the vegetables and return to the oven for another 45 minutes.  Begin checking the bird’s temperature every few minutes until the thigh reads 180-degrees; then remove from the oven and allow the chicken to sit for fifteen minutes before carving.

The best part about a whole roasted chicken can be the magic that you create with leftover meat.  Cut up any remaining chicken after dinner and use it in Chicken Corn Chowder, chicken pot pie, chicken tacos, chicken salad sandwiches and more.