Roasted Ratatouille with Crispy Chives
- 2-3 medium tomatoes
- 1 large eggplant
- 3-4 small zucchini or yellow squash (2 if they’re larger)
- 1 large red onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- A generous handful of fresh chives
- Olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper
- Preheat your oven to 400°. Slice the tomatoes into quarters and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with about a tablespoon of good olive oil, sprinkle with a bit of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Place pan in hot oven and roast, watching carefully, until the tomatoes begin to soften and the skins wrinkle. You want them to retain much of their shape, but release some of their luscious juices. Remove the pan and allow them to cool, then slip the skins off.
- Dice the zucchini and eggplant, slice the onion and crush the garlic, placing all of these on two baking sheets. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, add salt and pepper and roast until the vegetables begin to soften, about 15 minutes. Stir carefully, then return pan to oven for about 10 more minutes. Scatter chives over the top of the vegetables, then roast about 10 minutes more, or until the chives are crisp and toasty, but not black and charred. Remove pans and allow vegetables to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine tomato (with any juice from the roasting pan), eggplant, zucchini, onion, garlic and about a third of the crispy chives, reserving the rest for garnish. Gently mix together, taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired. The ratatouille can be eaten as is, warm or at room temp. For deeper flavor, chill the mixture overnight, and allow to warm to room temp the next day before serving.
Chicken Pot Pie with Cream Cheese and Chive Biscuits
For the biscuits:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper (depending on how spicy you like your biscuits)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 4 ounces (half of a brick) cream cheese, cold
- 3/4 cup buttermilk, cold
For the Filling:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 4 ounces (half of a brick) cream cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
- 3 cups shredded chicken meat
- 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1 1/2 cup thinly diced carrots
- 1 cup diced zucchini (optional)
- 1 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
- Start by making the biscuits. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, black pepper, and chopped chives.
- Add butter and cream cheese to the dry ingredients. Use your fingers to quickly incorporate the fat into the flour. Break up the butter and cream cheese with your fingers until some of the fat is the size of oat flakes and some of the fat is the size of small pebbles.
- Make a small well in the center of the fat and flour mixture. Add the buttermilk. Using a fork, combine the wet and dry ingredients. Try to moisten all of the flour bits with the liquid. Dump the shaggy biscuit dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead together until dough forms a disk about 1 1/2 inches thick.
- Use a round, 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter to cut biscuits. Gather the dough scraps, knead for a few turns, and cut out more biscuits until no dough remains. Place biscuits on a small cookie sheet and place in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Next, make the filling. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Dice onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, and thaw the frozen peas. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in the flour. Mixture will be very thick. Heat for 1 minute. Turn flame to low and add the chicken stock. Whisk until no flour bits remain. Whisk in the milk and add the cream cheese. Heat over medium low heat, stirring often, untilcream cheese has melted and the mixture is the consistency of warm, thick pudding. Add chicken, lemon, and nutmeg. Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove mixture from heat and set aside.
- In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt butter (or olive oil, if using). Add onions and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add minced garlic and saute for one minute more. Add carrots, zucchini, and peas. Cook for about 3 minutes. The vegetables will not be entirely cooked through. Remove from heat and add vegetable mixture to the creamy chicken mixture. Stir to combine.
- Spoon filling into a 9×13-inch pan. Remove the biscuits from the fridge and place them on top of the filling. Brush the tops of the biscuits with heavy cream, buttermilk, or egg wash.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until biscuits are puffed and golden, and the sides of the pot pie are bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.
- To reheat, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Cover dish with foil and bake until warmed through, about 15 minutes. Serve.
Don’t underestimate the value of ice, ice, baby…
More photos showing the process of cutting out blocks of ice. Ice is an important component to making cocktails. Sadly, bars at fine dining restaurants and high end hotels in Charlotte completely miss the mark on ice. Why is ice so important? Larger, hard, dense ice will be less brittle and dilutes far slower then smaller, soft, less dense, ice. Imagine the brittle ice hitting the shaker’s inner wall and breaking into smaller pieces. Smaller pieces of ice have more surface area exposed to the liquid resulting in a faster rate of ice melting. Faster rate of ice melting equals more dilution. Therefore, hard dense blocks of ice will result in less dilution in cocktails when shaken or stirred. Renowned Japanese bartenders have various methods of shaking a shaker for different cocktails to ensure the libation is properly diluted. One type of shake may prevent the big block of ice from breaking into a million pieces as it hits the inner wall of the shaker. Another type of shake may be a hard vigorous shake so the ice will break into more smaller places upon impact with the shaker’s inner wall. The hard dense blocks of ice can also be crushed to make mojitos or mint juleps. Crushed ice will melt to quickly if the ice block is brittle and soft.
As said before, large ice has less surface area exposed to the liquid. As a result, large ice melts slower. So it makes sense to have several large cubes of ice in a highball glass to prevent the drink from becoming overly diluted as the last remaining sips are taken. The idea is to have the cocktail to taste just as good from beginning to end; resulting in a more pleasurable experience. The same concept can be applied to nonalcoholic drinks. Who enjoys sipping on watered down Coke or Pepsi?
