Lunch at Cafe Vienna

I found an open stool around the counter and ordered my lunch, a flauta d’iberico d.o. jabugo and a beer. It was essentially a ham sandwich on steroids. Here is the kicker though, there were only three ingredients: bread, tomato, and ham. The bread was essentially a short, thin, crispy baguette. It had been rubbed with a juicy tomato to give a little flavor and moisture (no tomato slices here). The last ingredient was some ham. That’s it.

Well, that’s not it. It wasn’t just any ham. It was jamón ibérico from the town of Jabugo (known for it’s high quality hams). The jamón ibéricos of Spain are the best cured hams in the world. If you can get your hands on any jamón ibérico de bellota (from Salamanca or Jabugo), get it. It is expensive, easily reaching over $100 a pound, but worth it. Eating it is like having a private party for your taste buds. If you get the “de bellota” (acorn) variety, you will even taste a mild nuttiness to the meat as it dissolves away. If you think prosciutto is delicious, jamón ibérico puts that to shame.

All this is simply to say that my lunch was amazing. Best sandwich ever? I still don’t know, but there was nothing I would change about it. Perfect in it’s simplicity.

Finished Chicken Stock

Once you make your own, you’ll realize that it is much better than any of the dozen or so of the brands offered at the supermarket. Sure, one or two may be serviceable, but making it yourself is truly stunning.

Interested in making the simplest chicken stock? Click through to find out how.

This recipe comes courtesy of Mark Bittmann’s How To Cook Everything. There are several variations on chicken stock and broths, and this is one of the easiest I have come accross. I do keep parts of cut up chickens in my freezer to roast and and make a rich stock, but this time I took the easy way out. Just boiling a whole chicken with some vegtables got the flavor I was looking for to help me feel better.

Just add water and boil to get stock!

Ingredients

1 whole (3-4 lb) chicken
1 quartered onion
2 chopped carrots
1 chopped celery rib
1 pinch thyme (or fresh rosmary)
3-5 springs of fresh parsley
1 teaspoon or less salt
about 14 cups of water (or enough to cover everything thoroughly)

Directions

1. Put the whole chicken and the vegtables into a large pot. Add the water.
2. Bring to a boil, cover partially, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 45-60 minutes.
3.  Strain the broth and press on the vegtables to extract as much liquid as possible.
4. Refridgerate, then skim off the fat that hardens on the surface.

The stock will keep for 4-5 days in the fridge. It will last longer if you boil it every couple of days. It can be frozen for much longer.

I should probably add a tip of what to do with that whole cooked chicken you now have. Lot’s of choices: sandwiches, salads, shred/dice it and put it in chicken soup with the broth, shred it and mix with barbeque sauce, put in a pasta dish, make chicken wraps, use to stuff vegtables…

This was something I have been wanting to try for a while: cooking pasta like a risotto. I’ve seen it on several blogs, in How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and at Cook’s Illustrated. Everybody knows that with pasta, you just have to boil it in a big pot of water until al dente. Generally, the more water you have, the better, because the starch has more opportunity to be released from the pasta. But if you cook it like risotto, then the starch stays in the dish. While it may sound counter-productive, that is exactly what you want here. The starch is what makes a risotto a risotto. Now, I have to admit, I have never made a risotto. I will try that soon. But I did have some Orzo left over from when I made some soups. I figured I could use orzo to make absorption pasta. I cribbed a bit from How to Cook Everything, Bittman has a slightly different method in his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (online recipe here, courtesy Google Book Search ), and the Cook’s Illustrated version.

Absorpotion Pasta
2 tbsps olive oil
1 large shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound orzo
3/4 cup vermouth (dry white wine works fine, I had no wine on hand, so I subbed vermouth)
4 cups chicken stock
1 Lemon (grate the zest and juice the lemon)
10 oz frozen peas (one 10 oz box. I actually added only about 3/4 of it.)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tbsps butter, unsalted

1. Heat the chicken stock in a small pot over medium high heat. If it begins to boil, reduce the heat. The purpose is just to keep the liquid hot for when it is added to the rest of the dish.
2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat. When hot, add the shallot, 3/4 tsp salt and cook about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cook about a minute more. Add the orzo and cook, stirring occasionally until “toasted”. At this point, most of the orzo should look lightly golden brown. This can take about 5 minutes.
3. Add the vermouth (3/4 cup), stir. Continue to stir using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and let the liquid absorb into the pasta.
4. Add the lemon juice and zest. Add the chicken stock about a 1/2 cup at a time. Stir each time you add more liquid. Do not add more liquid until the previous addition has nearly been completely absorbed. The orzo should never get “dry” nor should it look soupy.
5. After about 10 minutes, begin tasting the orzo. It will be finished when it is al dente–it should be tender, but still firm. This time it took about 17 minutes for it to reach that stage, but it can happen sooner. Do not worry if you do not use all of the stock.
6. Add the frozen peas and mix until everything has warmed through.
7. Reduce the heat to low, add the Parmesan and the butter.

The peas are optional. I find that they add a nice contrast in texture to the orzo in the dish.
The lemon is optional. I served this with the Pan-roast Chicken which had a lemon-herb pan sauce, so I figured keeping the lemon theme going couldn’t hurt.