Mastering the Art of Irrational Fears

I just finished reading Julie and Julia, a book about Julie Powell, a secretary in NYC who decides to shake up her life by cooking all 524 recipes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child in one year. I'm sure you've seen the movie by now, it was released in 2009 starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. It was a good movie, and as always, the book is so much better.

We were at a book sale this summer when my husband came across volumes 1 & 2 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. He really wanted to buy them and other than cool looking old books (our favorite), I really didn't see a point. First of all, I've never really eaten french food; secondly, anything made by Julia Child intimidates the crap out of me. Don't get me wrong, I can cook and I love following new recipes but all I could think of was the part in the movie where Julie has to de-bone a duck and kill a live lobster and that was NOT for me. As fate would have it, at the same book sale, I saw a copy of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously and thought "now that's a coincidence" and grabbed a copy.  I'm so glad I did. Not only is Julie Powell a hilarious writer but she also inspired me to break out MAoFC and face one of my major cooking fears.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an irrational fear of raw meat. I hate it. HATE. I've actually gone through various years of my life being a vegetarian simply because I'll eat chewy piece of beef fat, bite into a hard part in a hamburger, or see a vein-y piece of chicken. (gag) On top of that, when I see the meat in unflattering phases before its cooked, I'll have trouble eating it. My poor husband always has to do the meat part of meals because I just simply can't touch a piece of meat when its raw or I won't eat it.

I know its all in my head and makes no sense and can't even really be explained...which is why I decided to dive right into a meal that seems so simple but to me was a mountain to climb...roasted chicken. I mean, roasting a chicken. I put on my pearls (ala Julia) and made a martini (ala Julie) and washed the chicken, took out the giblets, and stuffed that thing's cavity with bread crumbs! Chopped up the heart, lungs, and whatever else and cooked them to make a stuffing. I tied its little wings and legs together like a hostage and checked on it every 10 mins to sear it with hot basting juices for almost 2 hours. Julia is not messing around when she roasts a chicken. Here's her recipe:

Poulet Roti [ Roast Chicken]

You can always judge the quality of a cook or a restaurant by roast chicken. While it does not require years of training to produce a juicy, brown, buttery, crisp-skinned, heavenly bird, it does entail such a greed for perfection that one is under compulsion to hover over the bird, listen to it, above all see that it is continually basted, and that it is done just to the proper turn. 

Wine Suggestion: Bordeaux-Medoc or Rose

3 lb, ready to cook roasting or frying chicken

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tb soften butter

A shallow roasting pan just large enough to hold the chicken easily

To flavor the sauce: a small sliced carrot and onion

For basting: a small sauce pan containing 2 Tb melted butter, 1 Tb good cooking oil; a basting brush (I just used a spoon)

1/2 Tb minced shallot

1 Cup brown chicken stock, broth, or bouillon

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Sprinkle the inside of the chicken with salt, and smear in half the butter. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the stuffing (optional). Truss the chicken (meaning tie the legs and wings to the body). Place chicken breast up in the roasting pan. Strew the vegetables around it, and set it on a rack in the middle of the preheated oven.  Allow the chicken to brown lightly for 15 minutes, turning it on the left side after 5 mins, on the right side for the last 5 mins and basting it in butter and oil after each turn. Baste rapidly so oven does not cool off. 

Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Leave the chicken on its side and baste every 8 to 10 mins, using the fat in the roasting pan when the butter and oil are exhausted. Regulate oven heat so chicken is making cooking noised but fat is not burning. 

Halfway through estimated roasting time, salt the chicken and turn on its side. Continue basting.

Fifteen minutes before end of estimated roasting time, salt again and turn the chicken breast up. 

Indications that the chicken is almost done are: a sudden rain splutters in the oven, a swelling of the breast and slight puff of the skin. 

When chicken is done, discard trussing strings and set the chicken on a platter. Let it sit a room temperature for 5 to 10 mins before carving.
Bring the juices from the chicken to a rapid boil and add in the chicken stock until it thickens. If you need help making it thick, add in 1 Tb of flour. This is your gravy.

For Stuffing: 

3/4 lb. finely chopped mushrooms

1 Tb butter

1 Tb oil

1 1/2 Tb minced shallots

Chicken gizzard, chopped

chicken liver, chopped

1/4 cup red wine

1/4 cup of dry white crumbs

3 Tb cream cheese

1/2 tsp of dried tarragon

1/4 tsp of salt

Big pinch of pepper. 

Saute mushrooms in hot butter and oil with shallots for 5 to 8 mins, until pieces begin to separate from each other. Place them in mixing bowl. Saute gizzard for 2 mins in hot butter. Add the liver and saute 2 mins more. Add to mixing bowl. 

Pour wine into the mushroom cooking skillet and boil it down rapidly until it has reduced to a spoonful. Scrape into the mixing bowl. 

Blend the rest of the ingredients into the mixing bowl and season carefully to taste. Let the stuffing cool. Pack it loosely into the chicken. 

I was so freaking beside myself after chopping up the organs and you know, touching a baby chicken, that I completely forgot two key ingredients in the stuffing, the red wine and the mushrooms! When I remembered, it was too late, the stuffing was already inside this little baby and it was tied up to be
cooked. I really thought the basting every 10 mins seemed a little unnecessary and maybe it was, but I was trying to follow exactly as Julia instructed and in the end I came out with a perfectly cooked chicken and even made up my own gravy from the juices and some chicken stock. And when I say it was perfect, I mean perfect. It was golden on the outside and nice and juicy on the inside, just like you want in a bird. My husband and I were so hungry after smelling it cooking for 2 hours that we just dove right into everything and it was like a mini Thanksgiving dinner.

I found it very satisfying to cook a meal where everything was made from scratch which I can't say that I always do. It definitely wasn't the healthiest of meals, what with the constant butter slathering, but it was comfort food at its greatest. I was satisfied and proud of myself but thoroughly exhausted. I don't like cooking like that, to me the beauty of roasting something is that you sprinkle it with olive oil and salt and forget about it for 25 mins. Not obsessively opening the oven to make sure the juices are clear and the butter is getting everywhere. I now know what its like to be a helicopter parent. "How's it doing?" "Are you okay in there?" "It needs more butter! Get it more butter!"

I don't know how Julie Powell did a recipe a night for an entire year and all I did was roast a chicken! I can't imagine an entire duck or Beef Bourguignon that has a freaking laundry list of ingredients. If you read the book and try a recipe, you'll understand why she has consistent emotional breakdowns. (Full book review to come)

So all in all, great book, great recipe...and I'll never eat chicken again.

xoxo.