I came across chef Matthew Kammerer’s recipe in Food & Wine Magazine for Kombu Roast Chicken with Kaboucha Squash and Daikon… I knew I had some kombu that I needed to use up and I had about the right amount of daikon in my refrigerator (but decided to use radishes instead). I was sort of worried about his recipe because of the method….Anyways the flavors are wonderful….I only changed a few things. I doubled the amount of pepper because a 1/2 teaspoon is just not enough for a whole chicken. I also used coconut oil instead of butter because I thought coconut oil would be good with kombu. It turned out that I did have some difficulty with the method……Maybe you won’t have the same trouble?. ……He said roast until the middle of the breast as at 155 F (about an hour). I cooked mine an hour. At one hour the middle of the breast was 165 F by my thermometer so I took it out to rest…….

Here’s how it came out.

The breast is sous vide perfect and juicy……..but the legs and wing joints are raw. So I cut off all the breast that I could and put it back into the oven.

So it needed 40 more minutes at 400 F in my oven.

Like I said maybe you won’t have the same trouble??????? That is why I usually do white meat and dark separate. The few times when I do a whole bird I do most or all of the time breast down so the dark meat cooks and the white meat doesn’t dry up…That method always works but the down side is that it doesn’t look at pretty and the skin usually is too moist to eat.

You do what you want.

ingredients

1 acorn squash – cut in half, remove seeds and membranes – cut into 8 wedges

one bunch radishes – trimmed or use a daikon in one inch slices

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons sea salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon black pepper ( or to taste – some on the squash and most for the chicken)

1/8 oz ground dry kombu (I added a small amount of crumbled nori to it about a Tablespoon)

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 Tablespoon garlic – ground to paste

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 – 3-4 lb whole chicken

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F.

Lay out the squash and radishes in the roasting pan and sprinkle them with the olive oil and salt and pepper.

In a small mixing bowl mix together the coconut oil, kombu (and nori if you choose to add that), garlic, lemon zest, 1+ 3/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper.

This mixture goes mostly under the skin of the chicken. When I was done my hand were a mess but I thought those flavors would be good on the skin so I rubbed what was left on my hands all over the chicken. Then the chicken gets placed over the vegetables.

After an hour on my mine the breast was perfect (mine read 165 F degrees)

I removed the breast when mine cooled down.

Then I turned it over so the bottom could cook more. I check mine at 20 minutes and it still wasn’t done so I added another 20 minutes. Then it was done.

The squash, radishes, and chicken really are all delicious. It’s up to you how you want to cook the chicken. If I was doing this same one again I’d just turn it breast down till done at 350 degrees F.

ENJOY!!!!

A Special THANKS!!! To Chef Matthew Kammerer and Food & Wine Magazine so I could do what you see here!

I recently did a variation of chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry Aguachile and now just did a variation of her recipe for Citrus and Beet Aguachile. I made a lot of changes………… I thought the Beet Aguachile recipe might has way too much oil in it (3/4 cup). I think it must be a typo so I had to change that. Another thing that I had to change is that I thought this recipe contains far more cilantro than I can tolerate and I cut the amount in half and it’s still plenty. Instead of salt roasting the beets…I thought I had a more practical idea to roast the beets with water. I don’t think it is necessary to buy beet juice to add to the recipe. I just cooked up an extra beet while I cooked all the beets in water. I used the beet water and blended in my extra beet and used that as beet juice. I also added some extra blended beet water to adjust the soup to my taste. Those were the main changes. It’s no longer aguachile and more of a cold soup this way but does taste really great! This recipe makes around 4 servings.

Ingredients

1 lb beets (a mix of orange and red – scrubbed clean)

sea salt to taste (I used my home made smoked pecan sea salt)

3/4 cup water + more water to cook beets

2 medium limes – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 oz cilantro – leaves and tender stems – chopped + a little extra for finishing

1 shallot – chopped (around 2oz)

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 orange – zest and juice

1 serrano chile – chopped

3 garlic cloves – chopped

4 dried chitepin or pequin chiles crushed

3 black garlic cloves – chopped

2-3 radishes – thin sliced

2 Persian cucumbers – sliced

1/2 medium red onion – thin sliced

8 toastada shells

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

It’s important to know that you shouldn’t cook orange beets with anything aluminum because the aluminum reacts with orange beets.

If you have regular sized beets then you probably want to cut them in halves. In one baking dish I put the reds and in another baking dish I put the orange beets. Lightly sprinkle them with sea salt. Add water to the pans You want to almost cover the beets with water. Cover the pans and leave them in the oven till fork tender. The timing will differ. My beets were very large so mine took around 75 minutes. Pull out of oven with done. Remove from water so they cool faster. When cool you rub them with your hands and the skin will come off. Put to the side.

Make some blended beet water. Use the water from your red beets. Add either one small beet or part of a beet and blend it into the water till as smooth as you can get. Keep this to the side.

Combine the 3/4 cups of water, lime juice, cilantro, shallot, vinegar, orange juice and zest, serrano chile, garlic, chilepin chile, and black garlic. Add at least a half a cup of you blended beet water that you just made. Give it a taste test and decide if you want to add more blended beet water. Also decide if you need to add more sea salt and adjust to your liking. At this time you can strain it and throw out the solids…….or if you like it this way keep it this way.

Serve it up.

Dish out the soup and add the beets, cucumbers, onions, radishes, cilantro, and serve with toastada shells.

A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for this recipe so I could make what I got here.

I think one of the most delicious ways to serve acorn squash is with mostarda and taleggio cheese. (I did this before to top a pizza I made) I got the idea when I read about mostarda from www.LaCucinaItaliana.com when I was trying to learn about taleggio pairings. In www.LaCucinaItaliana.com they said Italians most often pair taleggio cheese with mostarda. Incase you didn’t know…… mostarda is a spicy and sweet, mustardy North Italian Condiment. It is usually but NOT ALWAYS made with candied fruit and mustard syrup……BUT…..one of the 6 varieties of mostarda is made with squash. So what I did here might be considered a deconstructed squash mostarda because I made mustard syrup and squash.

ANYWAYS….This squash taste really great with this mostarda syrup and taleggio cheese. Serving size is difficult to judge because all acorn squash are different in size. Usually a person eats about half an acorn squash so I figure 4 servings because I am using two smaller-medium sized acorn squash.

Ingredients for around 4 servings.

2 acorn squash – washed

2 medium red onions sliced extra thin

non stick spray

sea salt – to taste

ground black pepper – to taste

2 Tablespoons olive oil – (That is a guesstimate. I didn’t measure I lightly sprayed the tops of the squash and onions with it)

1 cup sugar

1 large juicy lemon – the fresh juice and all the zest

2 Tablespoons mustard powder

1 Tablespoon dijon – or to taste….. Every mustard is different

2 Tablespoons old style whole grain mustard – or to taste…every mustard is different

1 small Calabrian chili – crumbled

8 oz taleggio cheese – (or maybe a bit more if you like lots of cheese) cut in slices (thin side..)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

The squash go in to get softened so you can cut them. They go in on sheet pans for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes take the squash out and let them cool. While they are cooling make the mostarda.

In a small mixing bowl combine the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, dry mustard, mustards, Calabrian chili.

When the squash are cool enough for you to handle slice them up in rings around 1- 1+1/2 inch thick and scrap out membranes and seeds. You might end up cutting off a little end so the squash can lay flat.

Spray the sheet pans with non stick spray. Arrange the acorn squash rings. Stuff them with the sliced onions. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour the mostarda over the stuffed, seasoned squash slices. (keep in mind that the sauce will caramelize and what you spill on the pan will burn)

Place in oven around 30 minutes or until slightly browned and fork tender.

Dress what you are serving now with sliced cheese and this goes back in the oven for around 9 minutes.

Second time I served without the squash skin and added toasted nuts and it was extra delicious this way.

It’s really easy and comes out FORKING DELICIOUS!

ENJOY!