David Ross

Welcome to the latest eGullet Cook-off, Chicken and Dumplings, Number 51 in our Cook-Off Series. You’ll find the complete Cook-off Index here. The eGullet Cook-off Series has covered such far-ranging and delicious topics as Cold Soups to Ossobuco and Enchiladas. Our last Cook-Off captivated us with the earthy aromas of a slow-braised Lamb Stew wafting through the kitchen, (and down the halls of an apartment building). As the cold, windy drafts of January blow us into a new decade, there are still plenty of winter days ahead and that's the perfect weather to savor a favorite comfort dish, Chicken and Dumplings. (For more discussion on this classic dish, you can read through our Chicken and Dumplings Topic here). While I consider myself somewhat of an accomplished cook when it comes to another classic comfort dish, Chicken Pie with Biscuits, I’m a novice Chicken and Dumplings cook. As I began to contemplate the task of cooking Chicken and Dumplings, I soon discovered that while both dishes share some common cooking techniques, they also have a number of subtle yet quite distinctive differences. I also uncovered a number of subtleties within the hundreds of recipes one finds in the Chicken and Dumplings library. The 1913 edition of the Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Merritt Farmer doesn’t include a specific recipe for Chicken and Dumplings. Like other cookbooks of the day, it does have a recipe for a “Chicken Fricassee,” described in part as “a fowl, cleaned and cut-up” and then sautéed in pork fat and stewed in either water or stock and served with a white or brown sauce. Dumplings were prepared separately from the chicken, then steamed and served with gravy on the side. According to the 1945 edition of the “American Women’s Cookbook,” (Consolidated Book Publishers of Chicago), the opening instructions called for “cleaning and singeing the feathers of the bird.” Most cooks were apparently still raising chickens in their backyards in the 1940’s, (or at least buying freshly killed birds at the market). The cook was instructed to simmer the bird “in plain water for a very long time-an old fowl will require at least 3 or 4 hours slow cooking.” Folks must have liked their food plain back then as the instructions continued with these gentle words-“if desired, an onion and a stalk of celery may be cooked with the chicken before the dumplings are added.” The chicken was removed from the pot and the stewing liquid was thickened into a gravy with flour and milk. The dumplings were cooked in the gravy, which was then spooned over the chicken before the platter was brought to the table. I typically use 4 ½ lb. roasting chickens to make chicken stock and for the base of stews. Should I be using large roasting hens or capons instead? I’ve used frozen capons in the past for braised chicken dishes, and while they are advertised as having “fuller” flavor, I’ve found them bland and the meat stringy. I assume that’s due in part to the freezer burn they acquire by sitting for years in the back cases of supermarket freezers. I’m wondering what others have experienced with larger chickens. I’ve always been under the impression that for stewed chicken dishes one uses the chicken to make a stock enriched with vegetables and aromatics and then the meat of the chicken is put back in the finished stock. Is a true Chicken and Dumpling dish made by poaching a chicken in plain water with no seasonings? Is the flavoring of the liquid a matter of regional or family heritage? Now following on that thought, can the “stew” for Chicken and Dumplings be thickened with a roux? Does it have to stay “nude” as it were? If we use a roux, can the roux be further thickened with cream or half and half? What about those dreaded little peas and carrots that go into a Chicken Pie? Are they banned in Chicken and Dumplings? What about pearl onions, sliced mushrooms, diced potatoes, or maybe some chopped celery added to our Chicken and Dumplings? And what about these little puffs of flour and shortening that we call Dumplings? Is it a pre-requisite that dumplings be made with all-purpose white flour? What about using whole wheat flour, or semolina, or cornmeal, or even blue cornmeal? Should we add some fresh herbs or some nice Oregon Rogue River Bleu cheese to our dumplings? Is it an afront to tradition to even suggest putting an artisanal cheese in your dumplings? And does the size of the dumpling matter? Should they be the size of the end of your thumb, or the size of a big softball? At this point I seem to have more questions than answers. I know I can adapt my Chicken and Biscuit recipe by substituting beautiful little Dumplings for the Biscuits and I know my rendition will be delicious. But will I be true in creating an authentic Chicken and Dumplings dish?

I'm liking it very much. It seems as though Bourdain has passed through his "Reefer Madness" phase where every other sentence used to be a reference to either drugs or an Iron Butterfly album. There seems to be more focus on the food this season and that's the way I like it. So far.

Grilled Pork Chop with Green Olive Sauce- The sauce was something I just came up with while I was wandering through the grocery store. I wanted a piquant flavor in the sauce to cut through the richness of the pork so that's why I settled on the flavors of green olives. I decided on green olives stuffed with pimentos and minced them in a blender with some olive oil and a bit of the brining juice from the olives. I added some black pepper, dried marjoram, cumin seed and celery seed. I served the pork with cornbread that I mixed with salsa, braised leeks and a coleslaw that I tossed with a bottled poppyseed dressing. Enjoy.

What I call "frizzled onions"--sweet onions, sliced very thin, soaked in milk, then coated in flour and "frizzled" or deep-fried in hot oil until golden brown. Takes only about 2 minutes, then you season them with Old Bay and paprika-yes, a bit of an odd seasoning mix but it works with the flavor of the sweet onion.

I used to stuff my chickens with both lemons and a head of garlic but as mentioned above, I came to the realization that it didn't do anything other than result in wasting a good fresh lemon and head of garlic. The lemon barely got warmed and basically soaked up the juices of the chicken yet hardly released any lemon oil or lemon scent into the chicken--at least none that one could taste. I moved on to placing lemon halves and cut-up garlic heads in the bottom of the roasting pan with the thought that the juices from the roasting chicken would marry with the lemon and garlic and give me a delicious lemon-garlic sauce to baste the chicken. Well, sort of. Putting the lemon and garlic in a dry roasting pan basically resulted in a burned lemon and little juices to baste the chicken. What little juice there was was burned and acrid. The end result is that now I just season the inside of the chicken cavity with salt and butter and rub the outside with either olive oil or butter. I'll place the lemons and a cut head of garlic in the bottom of the roasting pan under the chicken and then I'll baste the chicken with a combination of fat and chicken stock-usually butter and stock but sometimes olive oil and stock. The result is a lemon-garlic flavored basting sauce without the burnt/acrid taste. This was one of those cases where the basic recipe, (roast chicken stuffed with lemon), sounded good but in practice really didn't work for me.

Well, the darn little frozen buggars are only available at the local Walmart Supercenter during the late Fall and into the Winter months here in Spokane. While I find them convenient, I also don't like the fact that frozen pearl onions take on little ice particles while frozen which means when they thaw/cook they tend to get watered down and in my opinion have a watered down taste. I resign myself to just use fresh ones and suffer through having to blanch them for 20-30 seconds in hot water and then peel off the outer skin. Since I only do that once a year when I make my Mother's creamed onions for Christmas dinner I guess it's o.k.

This is my version of Chicken and Dumplings. I've posted this dish before, but for the benefit of our new Members here it is again. This is not a first of the year diet dish as it employs good things like cream and butter and cheese in generous amounts. The actual recipe is called "Chicken Pie with Biscuits" and is based on a series of recipes that ran in an old issue of Saveur magazine in a story on Church Suppers that featured the dish. It's basically a three-day process that starts on day one with making your own chicken stock-you stew a whole chicken in a pot with water, (and a few other ingredients). The meat is taken off the bones and kept for the casserole while the bones are returned to the pot to flavor the stock. On day two you boil the stock down to concentrate the flavor and then on day three you use the stock to make the chicken pie. The pie is a combination of cream, flour, butter, the chicken meat, carrots, celery and peas. I use a biscuit recipe that includes cream of tartar and this time I added some cheddar cheese to the biscuits. Enjoy.

Great reports. Thank you!

Chicken with Calvados and Roasted Fennel: This is a very French, very rustic, very wintry dish that is simple to make during this busy week of pre-Christmas activities. Now my technique may vary from traditional recipes you've read, but it works--and good. Simply cut-up a large whole chicken. Melt about 6 tablespoons of salted butter in a heavy Le Creuset roasting pan, (if you have Le Creuset it's the best). Add the chicken pieces, skin side down. Salt and pepper the chicken and scatter in some peeled garlic cloves. Roast the chicken in a 375 oven about 30 minutes. Now add some sliced fresh fennel, a Granny Smith apple, unpeeled but cored, and a few torn leaves of fresh sage. Turn the chicken over, skin side up, and roast the chicken another 30 minutes or so. Now slog in about a cup of heavy cream and let the chicken roast another 20 minutes until it is the above golden brown color. Remove the chicken from the oven. Take the chicken out of the roasting pan and place it on a large serving platter but leave all the vegetables and apples in the roasting pan with the cream and juices. Heat up some Calvados, use the authentic stuff--not the American stuff called "Applejack Brandy." Light it with a match and carefully pour it into the roasting pan. The flaming Calvados will mingle with that cream, butter and chicken roasting juice and give you a delicious sauce. Pour the sauce and fennel around the chicken pieces and garnish with more fresh sage.

I didn't realize I had the makings for a delicious cocktail until I looked on the shelf and saw that the run I had made to the liquor store to stock up for the holidays provided me with: Blood Orange Soda Crater Lake (Oregon) Vodka I'm sure blood orange juice and vodka isn't original, (someone can provide a name I am sure), but over ice and with a slice of lemon it was refreshing and delicious and even had the color of the season.

Here, here. Was it really necessary to reward Robyn with a trip to the Napa Valley and tempt us with the pleasure of seeing her Sous for one of the finalists? Thankfully we were spared the indignity. Robyn will live on in next Wednesday's "reunion" show and no doubt will reign as the "bitch" of the 2009 season. What a legacy.

Just finished watching Finale "2" and saw Michael win. While our discussion will definately go deeper in the coming days, my short version of what I viewed--Kevin made some uncharacteristic mistakes in terms of technique and couldn't bring it up enough to win; Bryan was more technically correct but his flavors were somewhat average, (pretty on the plate just nothing memorable): Michael the rebel with a cause who reached out further and won, (although he clearly allowed the cake in his dessert course to be over-baked). Personally I was disappointed in all three of the Chefs and their final dishes. I expected more. After what I would say was the most talented field of Chefs so far, the efforts in the final, final show seemed flat overall.

That looks yummy. Where one might find the recipe? It's really an easy recipe. You can find it here. Just follow the instructions and be delicate with rolling the cake. You'll roll it twice, once when it is warm to "shape" it into the roll--then you'll roll it again after spreading in the filling. Just be careful and go slow so the cake doesn't break. And it's rich, a small slice is really all you need to be satisfied, although I had to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make it more rich!

For my tastes, all three are quite different tasting. Now assuming we are talking about wild animals, (as farm raised venison and elk taste much different than their wild cousins), I prefer elk as I personally think it is more tender in texture and a bit milder in flavor than venison. I'm lucky to have an employee who brings me a yearly supply of elk steaks and tenderloins--the choicest cuts in my opinion. He usually hunts the Rocky Mountain species out of the high mountain ranges of Eastern Oregon. Elk tenderloin with a wild huckleberry sauce is divine. I've only had moose a few times and it was terrible-stringy, tough and tasted "off." As I recall it was a roast. It may have been the animal, may have been the way the hunter harvested it or may have been a bad cook. In any case, it left me with a bad memory and one I don't care to revisit! I'd rate moose at the bottom of the scale next to the bear meat I've eaten.

Thank you so much for the recipe. I long for the lost days of tasting my Grandmother's Mince Pies-only made with venison that came from the mule deer that my Grandfather procured in the ranges of Central Oregon. All this modern stuff out of a jar, and only containing fruit, really isn't true mince "meat."

This is the first of many Holiday sweets to come. While the Pumpkin Roll is typically associated with Thanksgiving, I think it's a totally appropriate dessert to serve throughout the holiday season and it would be welcome at our Christmas dinner table. I was pretty nervous about making a jelly roll type cake as this was my first attempt, and the directions didn't ease my anxiety. The recipe-from Libby's-called to start rolling the cake hot out of the oven. I was sure it would fall apart on me, but it worked just fine. Once you roll the cake "warm," you then let it cool, add the cream cheese filling/frosting, then roll again. I'm thinking I'll use this basic technique for a "Buche de Noel," a perfect Christmas cake. Pumpkin Roll-

Sorry for the late reply but I hope I'm not too late to chime in on a recommendation among the three you've listed. All are of course quite different, steak, French/American and Seafood. All are in the same expensive price range. The service is good at all three, albeit a bit less refined at Bartolotta and Carnevino than the grand setting and service at Alex. My choice would be Alex.

As a cook, I actually like the example of "Lamb with Apples." It's just the sort of reference to a dish that intrigues me and would lure me to consider looking at the recipe. I can easily see lambs grazing in an apple orchard in the late fall. (But I suppose by that time of year they really wouldn't be "lambs.") Once I delved into the recipe I would then decide if it's a dish I'd care to take on. And knowing that a recipe like "Lamb with Apples" came from a respected cook like Paula Wolfert would substantiate in my mind that it's a quality, tested recipe. I regularly go to Andre Soltner's "Lutece" cookbook for traditional French recipes. A dish may sound as simple as "Frog's Legs," but I know that I can trust Chef Soltner to guide me through a classic preparation. Silly titles from a less-trusted source may not produce the same delicious end results. But "Lamb with Apples" is about as far as I care to take creative liscense when it comes to recipe names. I'm quite bored with "Confit of Mountain Strawberries served on a Flaxseed Biscuit with Preserved Tayberry Coulis and Black Pepper." Fewer words are much more seductive.

I avoid buying OXO "good grips" products. I got a spatula as a gift about five years ago and have despised it ever since. Why I keep it in the kitchen tool canister I do not know. I hate the large handle and the feel in the hand, which seems to be overly cumbersome. Odd isn't it, that a product that is advertised as having a "good grip" is anything but in my opinion.

I leave fresh thyme out on the kitchen counter for about 3 days and then simply press my fingers down on the stem and pull "down" against the grain (direction) the leaves grow. It's a sort of starting to dry out method for fresh thyme leaves--you have the benefit of semi-dried leaves pulling off easy yet with the fragrance and taste of still fresh herbs. Seems to work just fine.

I would set your sights on something at CityCenter, which is scheduled to officially open on December 14. Michael Mina, Julian Serrano and the Maccioni family are all scheduled to open restaurants at City Center, but I would go for the top if I was you and make a reservation at Pierre Gagnaire restaurant.

Sorry, I know I should be lauding the efforts of the Chefs this week and providing some encouragement for next week in Napa, but one of the primary thoughts that has stuck with me since last night is the gift the judges finally gave us last week. I can't stop thinking how thankful I am that the judges spared us the horror of having to sit through watching Robin present a Bocuse D'Or quality platter last night to Thomas Keller, Alex Stratta and Daniel Boulud among others.

Rice Krispies are an excellent coating for fried shrimp and even lobster. I haven't tried it myself, but I've tasted the results and it was delicious. It's really no different than coating seafood with rice flakes and deep-frying, but the novelty of using actual Rice Krispies adds to the fun of the whole thing. ' I tasted this preparation with chunks of fresh lobster. The Chef dipped the lobster meat in a basic mix of cornstarch and water to act as the "glue," then he dipped the lobster in coarsely ground rice krispies and deep-fried the lobster for just a few minutes. Don't remember the sauce he served it with, but I'm sure that was delicious too!

I start by roasting the squash in a 400 oven for about 30 minutes or until it's tender. Then just seed the roasted squash and scoop out the flesh. I wrap the squash "meat" in cheesecloth and squeeze out as much moisture as I can. That leaves me with more of a pure squash taste in the filling. I keep the filling pretty basic--the squash, butter, some nutmeg, salt, pepper, a bit of fresh chopped sage and maybe some chopped toasted hazelnuts or some roasted garlic. I usually make my life easy and use store-bought wonton wrappers for the ravioli pasta. Last week I made a delicious pumpkin vinaigrette that would go really well with butternut squash ravioli. It's got a nice tang and varies off the path of the traditional brown butter sauce. The recipe is based on a recipe from Chef Larry Forgione in his American Place cookbook. His pumpkin vinaigrette uses pepitas, (green pumpkin seeds), and calls for pureeing some of the nuts into the vinaigrette using a blender. I don't like the final texture of the vinaigrette when it's pureed, so I just whisked the nuts into the vinaigrette. I like the sweet taste of hazelnuts and they are native to the Northwest so are a natural accompaniment to ravioli made with our local butternut squash. Pumpkin Vinaigrette with Toasted Hazelnuts: 1/2 cup fresh hazelnuts, toasted, husks rubbed off and chopped 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree 1 clove minced garlic (or use roasted garlic) 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar 1 tsp. sugar 1/2 cup walnut or hazelnut oil Salt, pepper and fresh grated nutmeg Whisk the pumpkin puree with the cider vinegar, sugar and oil. Add about 1/4 cup of the toasted hazelnuts and the garlic and continue to whisk. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. All you would need to do is simply blanch the ravioli until done, drain, then toss with some of the vinaigrette and garnish with more of the toasted hazelnuts, some fresh chopped sage and freshly grated parmesan. Delicious.

Another really low-brow decision on the part of the Producers. Really, do they think we don't have anything better to do on a Wednesday night other than watching Marcel. Again. And Again.