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Chicken and Dumplings

Description: Looking for a way to cook your home-butchered chicken? Look no more. These chicken 'n' dumplin's are as nearly perfect a comfort food as we've ever had! Try them and let us know if you agree.

Stock
1 rooster/hen, cut into 4-8 pieces
2 medium onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, cut up
2 carrots, cut up
3 sprigs thyme leaves
1 sprig sage leaves, cut up
1 sprig rosemary leaves, cut up
1 sprig parsley, cut up
Salt (coarse if you have it) to taste
Pepper (freshly ground if you have it) to taste
5 T cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2C cold water

Directions: Cover chicken with water. Bring to a boil, skimming off foam. Reduce heat and simmer 2-plus hours. Strain to remove chicken parts and bones. Pull meat from bones and tear into bite-size pieces. Add chicken pieces back to stock. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Stir cornstarch dilution into stock as thickener.

Dumplings
2 C white flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
3 T butter
1 C milk

Directions: Mix dry ingredients. Heat milk and butter until butter is melted. Add to dry ingredients, stirring with fork just until dry ingredients are moist. Gently lay dumpling mixture, a heaping tablespoon at a time, on chicken and stock. Cover pot and simmer 3-5 minutes.


Kale and Sweet Potato Soup With Cumin and Lemon

Description: Simplified from "The Splendid Table" Website on NPR. Originally from Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes From the Author of the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas (Norton, 2009).

Prep time: 20 min.
Cook time: 45 min.
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: 6 generous servings
 
Ingredients:
2+ T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Sea or kosher salt
2 large leeks, white and light green only, washed thoroughly, trimmed, and chopped coarsely
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 small white potato, diced
2-2 1/2 C vegetable or chicken broth
2 C water
12 oz. (2 large bowls) kale or other greens, cut in 1-inch strips or chopped coarsely
4 green onions, sliced (if you have them)
2/3 C fresh cilantro, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
1 T cumin seed or several shakes of powdered cumin
2 T lemon juice
Pinch or a few shakes of hot pepper
Garnish: olive oil
Optional garnish: crumbled feta or grated other cheese

Directions:
Heat olive oil and start sauteing onions, with a sprinkle of salt. When they are translucent and soft, add leeks. Cook, stirring often, until all vegetables are golden, about 20 minutes.

Combine sweet potatoes and greens in a pot with broth and water and salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add leeks, onions, green onions, cilantro, and lots of black pepper. Simmer about 10 more minutes.

Add cumin and lemon juice, and taste. Add more salt, black pepper, or lemon juice as needed. Finish with hot pepper.

Ladle into bowls, garnishing with olive oil and cheese.


Crookneck Squash Casserole

Description: This is one of our favorites every summer. The ingredients vary slightly, depending on what we have on hand. What follows is Brian's favorite version, based on Ronnie Lundy's recipe out of her essential Southern cookbook, Butter Beans to Blackberries: Recipes from the Southern garden. (Zucchini is not an acceptable alternative—too much water.)
 
Ingredients:
4 C sliced fresh yellow summer squash
1-2 C shredded country ham (If you have to ask if you can use a sugar ham or, God forbid, canned ham, you are forbidden to attempt this recipe. Bacon, however, is an acceptable alternative. If using bacon, sprinkle on top of the dish instead of mixing it into the casserole.)
4 T sugar
1/4 C minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
Plenty of fresh ground pepper
 
Directions:
Turn oven on 350.
Steam squash for about 10 minutes.
Sauté onions in bacon grease or lard until soft.
Add garlic for a minute or two.
Pour grease, onions, garlic, sugar and ham into squash.
Thoroughly mix and add pepper.
 
There should be a modest amount of liquid, more like a stew than a soup.
 
Pour into buttered casserole and bake for 30-40 minutes. Top should be brown. You may have to pour off excess water. And you might want to toss some shredded mozzarella on top for the last few minutes.
 
Like all good casseroles, nothing else is needed. But cornbread helps.


Speckled Sussex rooster


Coq au Vin

Preparation time: 8-24 months (The bird needs time to develop some muscle and texture)

Description: When you tell someone that you recommend using a rooster for cooking, eyes roll. A tough old bird is just that, they say. We couldn't disagree more. Whether you are preparing gumbo, chicken and dumplings, or coq au vin, a seasoned rooster has more texture and taste than your standard 9-week-old plumped-up mutation from the store. So give a rooster a try. We think you'll come away more than satisfied.

Ingredients:
1 rooster, cut into 4-8 pieces (Save the backbone and wing tips for making stock)
2 onions, chopped roughly
A handful of shallots, peeled and chopped
3-4 carrots, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 handfuls of dried mushrooms
Fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, bay leaf)
Peppercorns
A bottle of red wine (a decent French wine with a little acidity, not one of those fruit bombs)
1/4 C lard or olive oil
2-4 T flour
Fatback
Egg noodles

Directions:
Put rooster, veggies, herbs, and wine into large bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Take rooster out of wine and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper. Heat lard/oil in heavy pan and brown meat in batches. Remove and stir in flour, scraping up all the burnt bits. Add marinade (with veggies and herbs) and continue to scrape while bringing to a boil. Add chicken and simmer, partially covered, for at least two hours.

Remove rooster from pot. Turn up heat to medium, and reduce sauce by half. Pull meat off bones and return to pot. (Save bones and skin, and add to back and wing tips for future stock.)

Brown strips of fatback or pork belly, add dried mushrooms, and stir for 5-10 minutes in a sauce pan. Add to pot. Simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes. Taste and season.

Serve over egg noodles. Homemade bread to sop up the sauce is highly recommended.