What to eat in the New Year

One of my gifts for Christmas this year was a cookbook, The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters. So far I’ve made exactly one meal using the cookbook, but I’m going to say, GREAT gift. Really, I think if one buys the right cookbooks, one needs very few, but they need to do certain things. They need to give you good, basic information about how to cook good food. That’s it. This book does that, including tips on putting together a great home kitchen (what knives you really need, what pots and pans, that kind of thing), and tips on how to make really good food, rather than just recipes. For example, tonight we had a roast chicken. I’m 42 years old, and have been roasting chickens since I was about 14 years old, and I’ve been cursed this whole time with a problem….bloody uncooked chicken near the thigh and leg bones, perhaps overcooked chicken in the breast. Blech. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I usually pull the chicken from the oven too soon, let it sit a bit (Not long enough, by the way) and then carve it. Then I put the legs and thighs back in the oven for a few minutes while I carve the breast. Not ideal, huh? Well, Ms. Waters tells me how to deal with this problem. Her recipe for roast chicken is the simplest I have ever seen.

1. Buy really good quality chicken. Yes, it costs more. But if you can afford it, buy organic. Not only will the chickens be treated in such a way as to not make you want to vomit when you learn about it, they taste a whole lot better. (What did it for me? I read that they cut the beaks off of most chickens while they’re still alive, and feed them without. Um, TMI. WAY TMI.)

2. Salt and pepper your chicken 1 to 2 days before you are going to cook it. If you buy it the same day, salt and pepper it right when you get home. The seasoning soaks into the chicken, making it much more succulent and tasty. If you’re going to put herbs or garlic in the cavity or under the skin, this is the time to do that. OK, done.

3. At least an hour before you roast your chicken, take it from the fridge. Put it in an oiled baking dish that is just big enough to hold your chicken. Put it in a big roasting dish, and the chicken dries out, while the juices in the dish burn. Blech. Allowing the chicken to come much closer to room temperature before cooking it helps to avoid my problem, the raw inside and cooked outside. So, pull it from the fridge, and let it sit for at least an hour.

4. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put your chicken in, breast side up, for 20 minutes. Then flip it over, giving the legs and thighs a chance to get close to the heat, for 20 minutes. Then flip it over again, breast side up, until it is ready. I used a thermometer, getting it to about 160 degrees, before pulling it out to let it rest and come to the fully cooked temperature, closer to 170 or 180 degrees F.

5. That’s it. Unless you want some gravy (we did), in which case, take the pan you roasted the chicken in, and strain the fat off of the top. If the chicken has been resting for 10 – 15 minutes, the fat will have separated, making this pretty easy. Put the pan over medium heat, and whisk in about a tblsp of flour. When the lumps are gone, and you have incorporated the yummy browned bits from the bottom of the pan, add a bit of water or milk to thin the gravy to the desired consistency. Serve over chicken. Yummy. Truly.

In addition to the yummy chicken, I made some carrots, green beans, and mashed potatoes, following her advice for the carrots (don’t buy the ones in the bag, use the ones that look fresh, with the tops still on them…though you don’t need the tops*, they just indicate freshness) and green beans (cook in salted water with a tblsp of butter, and then pull when crisp but cooked. Mmmmm).

Yesterday, we spent a bit of time at Barnes and Noble, where Ted was looking at the new book by Michael Pollan, the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma“. This book is titled “In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto“, and is basically telling us the same thing that Ms. Waters would tell us. Look for real food. Eat it. Enjoy it. Today, while driving to the store to get my organic chicken and some fresh veggies, I heard him talking on the radio. The show was “Talk of the Nation“, and Mr. Pollan said a few things that I found interesting. First, he said that the best advice he could give could be summed up thusly: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” (There’s more good advice regarding your great-grandmother, if you click the link, which takes you to a summary of the episode of the show, and includes an excerpt from the book.)

He said something else, (link to Mr. Pollan’s website, which has more in-depth comments on the whole thing) though, which I found interesting. He said that in America, we put too much importance on the health benefits of our food, and we ignore the other benefits. What? Isn’t this the guy who goes around talking about how we should walk the perimeter of the grocery store, where the produce, grains, dairy, meat, and fish are, ignoring most of the inner aisles (I assume he allows for dish soap and paper towels, and perhaps the occasional frozen or canned tomato)? What he said was that traditional countries, which have far lower rates of cancer, obesity, heart disease, and other problems associated with an unhealthy diet, don’t really look at food as a solution to their health issues. They don’t eat blueberries because they are full of antioxidants. They eat them because they are in season, cheap, and delicious. They eat fish and vegetables and such for the same reason. They steep their food in culture and tradition and give it meaning, they take time to prepare it, and prepare it well. They don’t worry as much about whether it is ‘healthy’ for them, because they still trust their bodies to tell them when they are full, and they don’t overeat. And wherever in the world our western diet, full of weird, food-like substances, has taken hold, our health problems flourish.

Is it more expensive to eat well? Sadly, yes. The chicken I bought today was $3.19 a lb, while the cheaper version is $1.39 a lb. That’s a big difference. Could the answer be to eat less meat, and fill in your diet with more veggies, saving money that way? I think so. Though sadly, organic veggies cost more as well. And eating healthfully, ignoring trends such as low carb or low fat in favor of just eating healthfully, takes more time and effort. You have to read labels, to know what you are getting into with a box of cereal or some crackers. But it seems that the benefits, once you get there, are worth it.

My own 2 cents, though, is to not feel guilty about ANYTHING that you eat. You like candy? Good. Chips? Enjoy. Even Cheetos. Mmm…Cheetos. If you enjoy a food, whether it is good for you or not, I think it’s best to eat it and enjoy it, and then move on, and not dwell on whether it lifts your triglycerides level, or makes you gain a pound, or lose one. No such thing as ‘virtuous food’ or ‘guilty food’. Just food. Try for real food, rather than processed, whenever you can. But if you truly want something else sometimes? Eat it, and enjoy it, and don’t let the guilt weigh you down.

Since we are in the early days of January, when so many people are thinking of ways to eat and be healthy, I thought this was an appropriate time to bring up these thoughts. And, truly, a yummy recipe for a roast chicken. I put a whole lemon, pierced with a fork, in the cavity of mine before I roasted it. Mmmm.

*When I bought the carrots today, the checker asked me if I wanted the tops. I’ve never been asked that before, but since I didn’t, I said so. She cleaned the tops off for me. I thought she was giving me great service, and was impressed. The bagger told me that in fact, another employee has a 400 lb (that’s right, 400 lb) tortoise at home, and they all save whatever they can to feed it. Wow.

15 Comments

  • Cherry

    What an excellent post!
    I’m thrilled that you are enjoying your new cookbook and have solved your raw in the middle roasted chicken dilemma. A tasty, juicy, well cooked roast chicken is perfect on a day like today (stormy, cold and wet).

    Bon Appetit!

  • amuirin

    My brother got ‘The Art of Simple Food’ for Christmas! It looked really interesting. ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ has been on my list for some time now.

    I love your book posts.

  • Maya's Granny

    Alice Waters started out as a Montessori teacher and when she opened her restaurant, she fed her customers like she had fed the children. I read once that she said that her work was based on Montessori principles. So cool

    I really like the part about the grocery clerks saving the carrot tops for the tortoise!

  • Jimmy

    J
    Thanks for the chicken cookin’ tips. I’ll have to remember to come here if I ever cook any for me!
    I cook 2 whole chickens a month in the crock pot for my doggies. I just leave em in there for about 5 hours and they’re done.
    Then I de-bone it (practically falls off the bone) and put it in individual containers in the freezer to thaw out on a weekly basis.
    I mix it in with their dry food, and they don’t waste any time eatin!

    Oh,…and what you said about “quality chicken” ….reminds me of eating chicken at grandmas back in the 60’s,70’s & 80’s! They raised their own chickens, and that’s hard to beat along with granny’s superb southern cooking skills of course!

  • lalunas

    You really have to be well off $$$ to eat organic foods. Nice recipe for chicken. One day I will sneak over when you do this recipe and try some….

  • Karen MEG

    I loved this post J! I don’t roast chickens very often…we tried Jamie Oliver’s recipe a few years back and smoked the whole house up for about 3 days, and since then have been reluctant to go there again. It’s a lot less effort just to pick up from the supermarket, all roasted and ready to cut.
    But that sounds like a great cookbook, and this recipe, something I could actually do. And I agree, organic is so ridiculously expensive, but it does make a difference, I find especially with produce.
    I am with you on the food philosophy. My hips and butt will love that too!
    I got such a chuckle out of the tortoise story… too funny!

  • C

    J, you’ve got such a wonderful perspective on things. Of course, I’m talking specifically about the not feeling guilty for eating what we feel like and just moving on from there.

    Love the tortoise story! My dad’s family in Trinidad had a few tortoises at home and we used to feed them all the fruit and veggie scraps too. Now, if I don’t put my scraps in the compost, they go to my SIL’s chickens (they eat everything) or to Hubby’s cattle.

    P.S. Karen, a bunch of ladies at the school I worked at in TO got hold of Jamie Oliver’s cookbook online (I think the book somehow got out online and everyone was printing off copies). One of the teachers sent me the file, but I didn’t open it because: A) it was HUGE and I didn’t feel like waiting for it to download and B)I felt badly about trying to get a free copy even though I know he’s probably made a mint from others who have bought it. Guilty conscience? I think so! LOL!

  • ML

    Yum – roast chicken 🙂 My Mom taught me how to roast a chicken and I haven’t messed up yet. Sounds like a great cookbook! Enjoy.

  • Starshine

    Love the pierced lemon idea!

    Thanks for that informative post. I like what Pollan says about “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Simple and true!

  • Beenzzz

    Organic chickens actually taste better to me. Derrick usually preps it and places it on a rotisserie on the grill. It’s very delicious! I refuse to touch raw chickens and I am always on the verge of going vegetarian.

  • kookiejar

    You have a great attitude about food. I need to follow that advice more often (I always beat myself up about eating Cheetos..even though I don’t do it that often).

    Also, the flipping the chicken trick also works beautifully with turkeys…it’s harder because they are very heavy, but I’ve never dried out a turkey breast. 🙂

  • Angie

    Hey! I just ordered both of these books for our farming conference coming up in February. Glad to hear you liked them both.

    I’ll have to be sure and buy a couple copies for myself!

    P.S. There is nothing like real, organic, fresh chicken. Once you taste it, you will never be able to go back to the crappy stuff, as you know.

  • Joan

    I complain about grocery costs and my husband will remind me that we buy quality items which are more expensive. Face it – junk food is cheap. A lot of times I use less meat than called for especially in pasta dishes and spaghetti. That’s my preference more than a cost saving measure.

  • josey

    OHMYGOSH! i am in heaven. this post is brilliant. really! i have a hard time communicating how i feel about food (even tho i’m somewhat obsessed with it. LOL.). i buy all my meat and veggies local, too. its just amazing to head over to the farmer’s house and pick up my roasting chickens and eggs. sounds weerd, huh? well, i love the sense of community and magical-ooey-connectedness-with-nature it gives me. all last summer i grew ALL my own veggies at my house or got them from the biodynamic gardens where i volunteered. it made me think and FEEL so much differently about food.

    in addition, i’ve been roasting my chickens and then using the whole carcass and bones leftover to make chicken/bone stock. it makes amazing soup and an extremely healthful drink as well! (i use recipes for roasting and stock from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.)

    btw, as far as food costs–you’re so right! however, i’ve noticed in the last several months, our grocery bills have actually been DOWN. my explanation? when you’re eating healthily, you’re well-nourished and you just naturally eat less. suddenly snarfing down junk at an expensive restaurant doesn’t sound so pleasant, either. so…stick with a good diet (except have those cheetos once in a while. YUM! hehe!) and paying the extra for organic really isnt paying extra in the end 😀

    oh and another good book to read: Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. awesome read!!