"Beer Can" Chicken on the Big Green Egg

Sadly our egg got a crack in the fire box, but luckily the Big Green Egg has a lifetime warranty, so they replaced the parts free of charge. This warranted a trip to BBQ Outfitters, where we picked up the new parts and their ceramic "Sittin' Chicken" stand, which emulates beer can chicken without the bad paint chemicals leaching into my organic, happily raised, free-roaming chook. This was hands down the VERY BEST chicken we have EVER EATEN. EVER!!!!!

Glorious. Thank you sweet little chook.

Here's how it went down...

Brine the chicken in 1/4 cup fine grain sea salt, 2 quarts water, a sliced lemon, 4 bay leaves, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbs onion powder, fresh thyme for 8 hours. Rinse. Pat dry and let it air chill in the fridge for an hour. Crack some fresh pepper all over the chicken plus some garlic and onion powder. We stuffed some sinful truffle butter under the skin of the breast for good measure.

Meanwhile, light the grill and bring it to 400 degrees.

Pour a bottle of beer in the stand (As an homage to my Belgian heritage we used a delicious Belgian beer called Blanche de Bruxelles). We added fresh rosemary, another bay leaf, a celery stick and a few sprigs fresh thyme to the beer. Stuck the stand in the chook's bum and roasted it about an hour until the skin was crisp and the chicken was cooked through. We let it rest under a tent of foil for 20 minutes before carving and reduced the remainder of the beer/chicken juice over low heat in a pot with a dash of sherry vinegar until reduced by half.

Drizzled the sauce over the chook and garnished with fresh tarragon and a fresh tomato salad. THIS is what summer is all about. 

Pugs reflecting on the perfect summer dinner and dreaming of chicken bites.

 

Tiropita - Greek Cheese Phyllo Triangles

Another fabulous Christmas in Austin, Texas!!  My mother in law is a fantastic cook and kindly shared with us her family recipe for tiropites, which are buttery, chesse filled filo triangles. You may have heard of the more popular Spanakopita, which is basically the same thing, but with chopped spinach added. But we prefer plain old cheese filling and have jazzed it up before with ground greek meatballs, lump crab meat, leeks. It's now become an annual holiday tradition for us to roll up the sleeves and make dozens of these terrific little treats. they freeze great for up to 4 months and make super holiday gifts.

Happy New Year!!

Let's start with the ingredients...
We typically prefer using only organic ingredients except for the phyllo dough. The organic dough is dry and not flaky enough. We prefer Fillo Factory brand phyllo dough or Athens brand. And always buy a few extra packs as sometimes they are dry and crackly and a nightmare to work with. Thaw them in the fridge for 24 hours before assembly.

6 eggs
1 large white onion
1 bunch green onions, ends of bulbs snipped off
1 bunch of Italian parsley (about 1.5 cups)
12 oz Cottage Cheese
12 oz crumbled Feta
8 oz whipped cream cheese (My husband Michael added this - makes it super creamy and rich)
4 sticks of clarified melted salted butter in a double boiler
4 packs phyllo dough, thawed.
pepper to taste

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the cheeses and blend until finely minced.

Then in a large bowl combine cheeses and crack some fresh pepper...

 

 Add the onion and egg mixture...

Since we're dealing with highly perishable ingredients here, be sure to place the filling bowl in another bowl filled with ice. And if you need to take a break or want to go to bed and continue the next day, be sure to cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

On a clean work surface, cut phyllo dough into 3 inch strips. Keep a slightly damp towel on the remainder of the phyllo pack to keep it from drying out.

Place a strip of dough on the surface and with a pastry brush dipped in butter, paint the strip. Cover it with another strip of dough and paint that with butter too.

Then place a tablespoon of filling at the bottom of the strip...

Fold the bottom corner over the filling...

 Then fold it over again, just like a flag! Man, Michael sure has some nice looking hands! He should have been a hand model like George Costanza!

And because butter is so fabulous (and makes great hand cream), butter the rolled triangle to seal the edges...

We "cure" the tiropites in a large tupperware in a single file, with layers of wax paper in between. Then once they are frozen we place them in sous vide ziploc freezer bags for later use and to keep them fresh.

To cook them, preheat an oven to 350 degrees, place the tiropites in a single layer and bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown. your house is going to smell AMAZING!!!!  These will be smoking hot, so be sure to let them have a little rest for about 10 minutes before devouring.

flaky, buttery goodness!!

We enjoyed them for Christmas dinner with some fresh Wagyu beef filet from Morgan Ranch and veal demi glace we made from our Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook. This awesome blogger shows how it's done HERE. Oh and we made sinfully delicious butter poached Australian lobster tails as an hommage to my birthplace. And then promptly passed out from gluttony (and champagne) by the fire...

The pugs also enjoyed the beef bones we roasted for them for their Christmas present :-)

Here's to a Fabulous 2012!! Happy Cooking!!