Cooking with Bricks and Blackbirds

 

I skipped a blog entry in May as it was a very busy month for me, getting my little boat ready to launch.  It is sitting at the dock now, and I am waiting for some nice, sunny weather! It has been so cold and rainy for the month of June here in Maine!  It rained for the first nine days of the month and most of this week too!  It is a bit like living on the coast of Scotland where it rains so much that there are six different Scottish words for rain, and they are very descriptive!

Spitter – small driving bits of snow and rain
Smizzle – soft, gentle rain
Bowder – a heavy rainstorm
Plype- a sudden dash of rain (that is an example of onomatopeia for sure!)
Blashy – rain blowing every which way
Dreep – a slow, steady downpour 

 So I still am making meals that use the oven to warm the kitchen rather than turn the heat on, being a frugal Yankee!  Although I try to provide recipes for the current season, this time you’ll need the oven.  You can always wait until cooler weather to try them, or your next rainy day!

The two cooking aids I am featuring are a pie bird and a brick! The the pie bird is a great invention, a small ceramic figure of a bird that is hollow and which acts like a chimney to vent your pie and prevent the pie filling from bubbling through the crust.  Usually we cut slits in the top pie crust before baking for that purpose but a pie bird works better and makes for a whimsical pie to present to guests!  You can order a pie bird on Amazon or find one in a cooking store. I can’t help but think of the nursery rhyme “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie”! 

 The recipe for “Chicken under a Brick” comes from Tuscany, and is very rustic!  You’ll need a real brick! 

Speaking of bricks,  my “slice of life” advice is to stop trying to be “a brick”!  As in, “she is holding up so well, she is really a brick!”  Little do people know that internally, I am NOT holding up well!  I might have cried last night, or feel lonely or overwhelmed.  But I put on a good façade!  It is better to occasionally break down and say you’ve had a bad day, or need help with something or just some companionship! Sometimes I let myself go and actually tell someone how sad I am really feeling.  However, sometimes this kind of response is uncomfortable for the other person and they don’t know what to say.  Because they don’t know what to say, they may say something that does not comfort me at all.  I recall having people say things like, “Just be thankful for the good memories”.  But in reality, the more I think of the good memories, the more reasons I have to miss my husband. 

On to cooking with bricks and blackbirds!

Chicken Under a Brick

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Ingredients:

 A spachcocked chicken or a broiler/fryer chicken cut in half

(A spachocked chicken is one that is butterflied with the backbone removed so that it lies flat.   Many markets sell them or the butcher can prepare one for you)

Fresh thyme, parsley and sage

Aleppo pepper or black pepper

Coarse salt

Olive oil for sauteing the chicken

Equipment:

Cast iron skillet or other oven proof frying pan

One brick, wrapped in foil for each half chicken 

Take the half chicken and flip it upside down.  Using kitchen shears remove the ribs and breast bone from the chicken.  Leave the leg bones in place.

Place all of the chopped herbs, salt and pepper in a plate, spreading them out to cover the plate.

Press the chicken, skin side down into the herb mixture.

Heat olive oil in the skillet.

Place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down, and put the foil-wrapped brick on top of the chicken to keep it flat while cooking.  The brick will flatten the chicken to ensure that it makes good contact with the pan and crisp up the skin.  Saute’ for 15 minutes, until skin is browned.

Remove the brick from the chicken and turn the chicken skin side up.  Place the skillet in the oven.  Do not cover.  Roast for 30 minutes. Add a quartered red potato at this point too, if you wish.  During the last 15 minutes of cooking time you can add a few stems of broccolini  to the pan for a one dish meal!

Plate with the broccolini  and roast potato and serve hot! 

Pie ideas

About pie crust – It is perfectly fine to use the premade pie crusts from the market, or any pie crust recipe you have always used.  My Nana, from Eastport, made excellent pies and back then lard was used for the fat component of pie dough.  Today’s cardiologists would not approve!  Butter does work well and let’s face it, pie is not a diet food, so just run with it!

The food network cook, Carla Hall, has a great recipe and video on how to make pie crust which you can find on You Tube just by entering “Carla Hall pie crust” or try this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFJU-pmL3Ms

Most important tips about pie crust:

All pie crust ingredients should be cold at the start.  Slice the sticks of butter into small cubes and chill until cold.  Use cold water too.  The video shows using a mixer for the dough but you can hand mix the dough just as well.

So what to put in your pie crust?  Well for starters, the pie bird goes right in the center after the bottom crust is in your pie plate.  My favorite pies are chicken, beef or turkey pot pie, using whatever stew you have recently made.  I have found that the pie bird is especially helpful for those extra juicy fruit pies.  Another trick to cope with the juice in a fruit pie is to use tapioca to thicken the pie filling.  You’ll see this in my recipes.  I suggest that you NOT omit the tapioca if you want to be able to cut a nice slice of pie!

Right now rhubarb is in season here in Maine and who can resist a strawberry rhubarb pie?

The filling for a strawberry rhubarb pie is: 

2 ½ cups of chopped rhubarb

2 ½ cups of strawberries (de-stemmed and cut in half)

1 cup sugar or 1 tablespoon of stevia if you prefer sugar substitutes

2 tablespoons of minute tapioca

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 tablespoons of butter cut into small cubes.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 and cook for 45 minutes until crust is golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool before slicing.

Blueberry Pie Filling:

I only use the small, wild Maine blueberries for this pie!  Years ago I used to pick my own wild blueberries out on the island of Vinal Haven.  In blueberry season many vendors sell blueberries along the roadside or at the farm stand. 

4 cups Maine blueberries

1 tablesp. lemon juice

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 tablesp. tapioca

3 tablespoons of butter cut into small cubes

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/ 8 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and pour into prepared bottom pie crust, cover with top crust and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and 375 degrees for 30-40 additional minutes until crust is golden brown.