Lemon-garlic-basil chicken thighs

My favorite salad dressing is this lemon-garlic-basil dressing, from the Stacks cookbook. I think that was my first-ever cookbook. Anyway, I made the dressing (and it fit in that perfectly-sized olive oil bottle!), and decided to use it to marinate some chicken thighs. This worked out really well. I recommend it.

So, first, I slathered the dressing all over the chicken. Then, I stuck them in a pan, and roasted them for about 45min. Occasionally, I basted the skin with the juices. I maybe did that four times during the cooking stage. I tested them for doneness when the skin had crisped up and gotten brown.

Lemon-garlic-basil dressing:
Yielded: about 2/3 cup

3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon
1/2C fresh basil
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of cayenne
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine the garlic, salt, lemon zest, basil, mustard, lemon juice, cayenne, and pepper in a food processor and blend well. Slowly add the oil while the machine is running until the dressing is well blended and thickened. Can be made ahead and refrigerated.


Once the chicken was done, we served it on some green beans. Definitely won the Ed-seal of approval.

Gougères: two ways

Ali just returned from France, where she had gougères for the first time, and she wanted to make some. I was all for this plan, and since she happened to be in Boston, we got to work. Unsure of what recipe to use, we made two different recipes: one from epicurious, because it had ratings, and one from a random French site we'd googled using the french google. This created lots and lots of little cheese puffs, so we had ample opportunities to sample the two options. The end result: the French gougères were far superior. They just had a way better texture, flakier and moister and cheesier. They also used three times the amount of butter. Minor details.

First, the epicurious recipe:
Blue cheese gougères
Made two baking-sheets-worth
1/4C white wine
1/4C water
1/2 stick butter, cut into cubes
1/4tsp salt
2/3C flour
3 eggs, whisked
1/3C blue cheese, crumbled.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Melt the butter and the wine and water in a saucepan, add the salt, and then add all the flour. Stir vigorously for about a minute, until it's smooth and leaves a film on the bottom of the pan. We did this over the heat. Then remove from heat, let it cool a minute, and add the eggs in three installments, vigorously stirring between each. Add the cheese, and stir that in.

Grease a baking sheet. Drop little balls of dough on the sheet. You can brush the tops with egg wash, just to make them pretty, but I'm not sure that adds to the taste. Bake for 25-30 minutes, checking occasionally. I don't think you want to overbake, you don't want dry gougères.

Ali, mélangez vivement!

The other version, from the French website, was much tastier. I highly recommend making it. Totally passed the Ed-test!

Gougères au fromage
Makes lots and lots and lots, but they disappear quickly
1C water
1tsp salt
1.5 sticks unsalted butter
4 eggs
2/3C grated gruyere cheese
1.25C flour

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease some baking sheets. Melt the butter in the water with the salt, in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir vigorously. For about a minute. Remove from heat, and let it cool a bit. Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir vigorously between. Once the eggs are incorporated, add the cheese, and stir it in. Scoop little balls of dough onto the baking sheet, and bake for 25 minutes. Don't eat them all in one seating...

Scooping the dough onto the pan.