col klink

There's a great French restaurant in Seattle that serves up an amazing roast chicken with some of the best skin I've ever had in my life. I've cooked/smoked a lot of poultry and I'm trying to best their chickens, but so far the skin has elluded me. You can read about the discussion on the Pac NW board: Click me I tried the method of putting the bird in a 500 degree F oven for 15 minutes, but because (I think) I put the top on my Le Cruset afterward, in a 250 degree oven, I believe I steamed the bird for the rest of the cooking cycle. Do I need to just leave the top off? or do the browning at the end? By the way, we were talking about whole roasting birds, not pieces.

Welcome foodchick2002! Thanks for posting and I'm looking forward to hearing more about now-defunct restaurants. I've lived in Seattle off and on for almost a decade but didn't really start diving into the restaurant scene until two years ago and I find this thread fascinating.

Recently, in Minnesota, I was discussing the Seattle scene with some locals and their friends. The host mentioned going to Singapore and being absolutely dazzled by the restaurants. I mentioned that though Seattle has some fantastic places, it doesn't hold a candle to say, Vancouver and other larger cities. At which point one person said: "Fuck you. I live in bumfuck North Dakota. We don't have shit for restaurants." Touche. I can't imagine living in the sticks, unless I'm raising goats, pigs, sheep and lamb for bbq. I can easily see myself raising livestock if I can eats 'em!

Today I tried the first celebrity tomato from my garden and sweet merciful Lord was it good. I was only going to use half of it for my omlet this morning but after trying it, I had to throw the whole thing in. This was one of the best tomatos I've ever had. I sauteed some garlic, fresh basil and tomato chunks and added a stinky goat cheese that I picked up at PFI this weekend. Damn it was good. For the other tomato, I'm going to Fred Meyer's and picking up their spectacular deli bacon (the best in the city imo) and I'm making BLT's. Oops, it's hard to type when there's drool all over the keyboard.

The only time I pick up ground beef is when I need a hamburger fix and then I mix in ground pork in a 3 to 1 ratio of beef to pork. And I usually add mustard and hot sauce and onions and whatever I feel like.

I'm with trillium here, rarely buying whole chickens is no excuse. Why I roasted a chicken last night just for myself and saved the bones for stock. They're taking up a regular sandwhich ziplock bag, awaiting cooler weather. As a matter of fact, I also have some lamb bones and probably a duck somewhere in my freezer, also awaiting to be turned into stock. By the way you can practice roasting chickens to see what Le Pichet does!

Last night I did the first of at least a couple of experiments trying to better the Le Pichet roast chicken as I had stated earlier. Well I came close, the meat was easily better than Le Pichet's and I even cooked it up to 172 degrees F, like they would have to do. Unfortunately the skin did not crisp as I would have liked, though it was still pretty good. First I brined it over night with the usual brine of apple cider vinegar, salt, brown sugar and hot sauce. I let it dry for 45 minutes, dusted the skin with cayenne and then salted the skin with Kosher salt. I threw it in a 500 degrees F oven for 15 minutes and then brought the temp down to 250. After an hour it was finished though I was hoping more for about 2 hours. I intended to use my Le Cruset dutch oven and since I wanted good, all over crisping, I choose a low rising baking pan to get maximum exposure. This allowed me to work on the rest of the dish in the Le Cruset. I picked some fresh mint and spicey basil from the garden (two sprigs each, and each with small leaves so there wasn't much). I fried three pieces of bacon and eventually added an minced onion and five cubed red potatoes, herbs, 8 cloves of garlic (whole), some salt, about 20 peppercorns, a good pinch of red pepper flakes, five or six spicey pickled peppers (not sure of the variety), a tbsp of olive oil and finally about a cup and a half of dry vermouth. The chicken was placed on top of everything and the lid was placed on top. I believe that was my biggest mistake. By having the top on, the chicken was then steamed for an hour, thus softening up the skin. Next time I won't place the lid on and I will try crisping the skin at the end instead of the beginning. Ordinarily that would be a pain in the tokhes, but with the new thermocouple temp sensors that you leave in the meat, it'll be no problem. Just set the temp alarm to 150 (maybe 155) and then finish the bird at 450-500. All in all it was a fine meal, the taters and onions went well and the vermouth made for a nice sauce. Both the legs and the breasts were evenly cooked tasted great. The leg skin was not as bronzed as the breasts (duh) so next time I'll probably carve up the legs and give them a separate stint at 500 F.

Have you tried growing your own? In my garden they're the only thing growing like gangbusters. They're not as good as the one my parents grow in Upper Michigan where the iron content is through the roof, but they're better than Hot House and easy to grow. No garden say ye? Throw dirt in a bucket or a planter and they'll do fine.

That was my feeling as well. They didn't roast your chicken with the sauce did they?

Easy! I crack open my emergency olives and go straight for the gin.

Batgrrrl and I went Le Pichet on Saturday night (finally) and ordered the roast chicken. It was absolutely fantastic and at the time, I told the group next to us that it's difficult to describe without using expletives. I have no problems saying that their chicken is the best chicken I ever ordered. Mamster, after trying it, I believe I could do even better and I can't wait to try. It's not that often that somebody excites you about chicken. First about the dish, it was served in a soup bowl with a half-spicy basque style sweet pepper red sauce with onions, sweet peppers, sliced ham, fennel and 3 or 4 of the most delightful small black olives. They did an excellent job of slicing out the breasts and placed them on top of the legs on top of the sauce. Of course the skin was the best part. The chicken was never cooked with the sauce. I believe the cooking process went a little something like this: Rub butter and A LOT of salt (the smaller the grain the better) on the skin and roast at a high temperature, when the breasts are done, carve them out and hold for the legs to finish cooking. Other than that, they probably used an expensive free range hippy chicken. If they would brine the chicken first, Le Pichet would have a line around the block and other diners ready to start looting. We started off with two appetizers, the terrine of beef shank on a bed of blanched string beans and radishes with a horseradish vinaigrette and an escargot dish with some nuts, prosciutto and white beans served in a cast-iron pan. We thought the terrine was better, yum, beef jello. We shared a demi-pichet of a Spanish wine that started with a g. Batgrrrl, do you still have the list of wines we had? We had another demi-pichet of a spicier wine that wasn't on the menu with the chicken. Both wines were dynamite and beautifully paired with the food. All in all I can't remember the last time that I've felt justified in spending that much at a restaurant that isn't serving sushi nor being so inspired to start cooking myself.

Brisket is quite tough to find in Seattle and I've never seen it lower than $4/lb unless it's right after St. Patty's day and it's in a bag of plastic and cheap spices. Occasionally I've seen it at the grocery stores. I've had some luck talking to the butchers at the Northgate QFC (before they turned evil) and if they had it in the back, they would've given me untrimmed brisket, whole. It's one of those things where if you just ask ahead of time, they could help you. When I get the shakes for brisket, I head to A & J's meats in Queen Anne. They almost always have slabs that are at least 6 pounds for around $4 to $5 a pound, but it's always really good, really damn good. During the summers they smoke brisket for lunch on the weekends. Call 'em up before hand to make sure. Here's the important facts: A & J Meats & Seafood 2401 Queen Anne Ave N Seattle WA (206)284-3885 You might also try Central Market in Shoreline, they have a magnificent meat department and I beat it goes on sale every onece in a while: Shoreline Central Market 15505 Westminster Way N Seattle WA (206) 363-9226 But if you're looking for $2/lb or less, check out the asian grocery stores in the ID. I once saw beef short ribs for less than $2/lb but the meat was ungraded. Oh yeah, then report back here.

Mint Julep. Whiskey (preferably bourbon), mint and sugar. That's why I have a mint plant next to my basil and tomatos.

GC, I haven't tried Hole in the Wall so I don't know it compares. Look's like there some homework ahead.

Wow, who knew that floaties in tea is a good thing? Next time I'm in Canada (hopefully very soon), I'll try and find some.

Thanks again Rochelle and good luck tomorrow morning!

Skie, have you tried a chiminey starter before? You can get coals that are fully ready to use in 15 minutes and it only takes a couple of minutes for the grill to warm up after you throw the coals on. The chimney has completely turned around how I use a weber, I grill far more often than I would without.

Am I the first to get a German hello? I feel all warm inside, but that might be from the scotch.

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl. Worse thing that can happen is I lose a liver right? edit: loose? aaachem!

Yup, I have to get back in a league, that was a helluvalot of fun. What I love about bowling is that I can get better with a couple of drinks, whereas my golf game goes down the pipes. There used to be a time where I'd bring my Cuban cigars down to the bowling alley, drink my tail off and bowl for over 4 hours. The first time I did this, the next morning went a little something like this: (I squat down to pick something up and ) Me: Damn! my ass is sore! Wait a second, how come only half of my ass is sore? (a few moments later) Me: Oh yeah, I did one-legged squats for four hours last night.

We have completely different tastes. When I lived in Austin, the only joint I didn't like was the County Line. The sauce they serve tastes like watered down ketchup, horribly unappealing. But they are the only place I can think of that serves up beef ribs and I did like their sausage. And I do like the Salt Lick, primarily because of their sauce, the habenero sauce is even better. But of course bbq shouldn't be about sauce, it should be about the meat! That's why Kreuz's is my favorite. Mark, I agree with you about 400 being too hot. I'd like not to believe it, but this is the second source to state such an high temp. In "Legends of Texas BBQ" a Houston Chronicle reporter writes the very same. I can see the searing at first as in the Times article, but wrapping it in tin foil and sauce? I think you're taking away from the meat, but then again I'm a proponent of Kreuz's style; the less sauce the better. Damn, I'm getting the shakes for brisket again.

Whatever the special is at the bowling alley.

Once at a wine and cheese party, I brought a bottle of scotch for my buddy and myself. We weren't the wine drinkers then that we are now. Anywho, when one of the partygoers smelled my scotch, he replied: "you drink that petrol?" When I first started drinking scotch, it was blended, and it was a scotch and soda. Then I quickly moved to scotch (again blended) on the rocks. Shortly after that, single malts served neat. And I just love warming them up in my hand. When I first read this thread back in February or early March, I took note of the addition of a little water. I very much like adding a couple of drops, I'm not sure why I like it better, but I do. Scotch can be a very expensive habit. Most of the time I drink Black Velvet on the rocks or Jim Beam on the rocks for a change. Both relatively inexpensive liver thumpers that can go down pretty quickly if one isn't paying attention.

Those sound like Rainier cherries that, like BH mentioned, are very popular here in the NW. Thanks for the memories Richie, it reminded me that I'd like to go to the locks myself, yesterday the Times ran a picture of the current salmon runs through the locks and not only were they numerous, but large as well. Mamster, I was just in Canada too! Batgrrrl and I visited her aunt in Lake Okanagan. I'm currently working on a write-up for the Canadian board. Neither Batgrrrl nor myself wanted to leave. It was four days of drinking wine, sitting in the sun at the beach and forgetting the world around us. I started trying to think of ways to change my career so I could live up there.

I too would like back the sentiment of Senior Fat Guy. After a while, I start feeling a little goofy gushing about how great your posts always are.