The Gouda Life

Sundays are big around these parts. 

If we’re lucky enough to find a Sunday where we’re both home for dinner, I am typically up at the crack of dawn and elbow deep in cookbooks looking for something exciting to make. I carefully unfold the corners of my beloved books, that I’ve placed that way for the very purpose of Sundays, and run my hand down the page making mental notes of ingredients I have and don’t have. I nudge Mr GL every few minutes, eyes-wide with inspiration, begging his approval of whatever dish has struck my fancy in that minute. If he agrees that the chosen recipe is ‘Sunday-worthy’, I quickly pound back my coffee, grab whatever article of clothing might be on the floor, and set off on a journey to purchase ingredients and, no doubt, a bottle of wine to go with. 



This past Sunday, in particular, I woke up in search of a good chicken recipe. Not just any chicken recipe would do, though. Because I am a holy believer that there is no better chicken than Thomas Keller’s Simple Roast Chicken, it takes a lot for me to trust in another. It’s about as close to perfect as chicken can get. Moist, crispy skinned, and, for lack of a better descriptor, distinctively chickeny. 



As I ran my fingers down the pages of Jamie Oliver’s ‘Happy Days with the Naked Chef’, I made the brave decision that I was going to do the unthinkable, and try a new chicken recipe. A whole chicken cooked in a mixture of milk, lemon zest, cinnamon, garlic and sage. One that I’ve heard praise for time and time again. It can’t hurt, right? Trying new things is good… or so they say. 



It’s difficult for me to admit, but this chicken is really good. Like, really, really good. Probably on par, though entirely different in taste and texture, than Kellers roast chicken. It’s moist, fragrant and literally bursting with flavour from the savoury lemony sage sauce. There will always be room for both of these chickens on my plate. 

If, like me, you mean serious business when it comes to Sunday Suppers, I urge you to invite this chicken to the table with you and your family. It’s rustic and stunning in appearance, exquisitely delicious, and, like all perfect Sunday dishes, goes extremely well with a big bowl of creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. 



Milk Braised Chicken with Lemon Sage and Garlic
recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk

Even if the idea of lemon zest curdling the milk makes you squeamish, please please try it as written before making adjustments. The curdled bits of milk turn a caramel brown and are delightful beyond words. 

1 1.5-2kg whole chicken
salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup butter
Olive oil
1/2 stick cinnamon
Big handful of fresh sage leaves
Zest of 2 lemons
10 cloves of garlic, skin on
3 cups of milk 

Preheat oven to 375. 

Season your chicken all over with salt and pepper. Melt butter and a good splash of olive oil in a big pan over high heat and brown chicken on all sides until golden brown. Take care to brown it well as this will create beautiful flavour later on. Discard (or save!) the drippings. 



Once browned, add the chicken to a snug fitting pot (one with a lid). Add the rest of the ingredients. Cook in preheated oven, covered, for 1 hour basting with juices every so often. Remove lid from pot and cook for another 1/2 hour uncovered. 



When cooked through, pull the meat from bones and serve with pan juices on the side or poured over. We serve the chicken with skillet glazed carrots and, my ultimate Sunday comfort food, mashed potatoes. 

As summer comes to a close, if you’re anything at all like me, you’re trying to cram as many outdoor events as you can into the last hazy days.

I attended the most delicious barbeque I’ve been to in a long time last weekend. Pulled chicken that just melted in your mouth, slow cooked grilled pork tenderloin, coleslaw with fresh dill (that grows out of the cracks in host/hostess’ drive way! Imagine that!), a pasta salad that was passed on from a famous chef, homemade cornbread (in both egg and eggless verions), and a delicious fattouche salad.

When it came to what I was going to bring, my mind shot immediately to a recipe I saw in Food&Wine a few months back. Charro beans. Whole pinto beans slow simmered in a spicy broth. They just screamed barbeque right in my face when I saw them the first time. I just needed a get together where they would fit in. I didn’t want them to feel left out between a 3-bean salad and frozen hamburgers. Not that I have anything at all against those things… I just really wanted to showcase these brilliant smokey, rich beans with some other friends that would treat them right. And showcased, they were. Everything at this meal went so well together you’d have thought we planned the whole meal to the last grain of salt.

These beans are good. Really good. The bacon, the jalapenos and the garlic (16 cloves of it) just melt into the sauce and give the dish a lot of rich flavour. And, as goes with many things I post about, they are easy. Very easy. Barbeque easy!  



Charro Beans

1 1/2lbs dried pinto beans
1 quart good quality chicken broth/stock (low sodium if you can!)
3/4lbs thick-cut bacon, sliced into small chunks
16 cloves garlic (don’t panic - the flavour mellows in the broth)
3-4 jalapenos peppers, sliced in half and seeded
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped fine
1 tbsp adobo sauce
1tbsp dried thyme
1tbsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
Coarse salt
Fresh cracked pepper

Put the dried beans in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring them to a boil. Once boiling, remove the beans from heat, cover and let them sit in the water for 1 hour.

Drain the beans. Rinse them well and add them back to the pot. Add everything but the salt and pepper to the pot and let simmer over medium heat for 2 hours or until beans are very tender.



Serve these as a side dish or, if you’re a little gluttonous like me, by themselves in a giant bowl with some crusty bread.

Against all our better judgement, we returned home from Erinsville yesterday after a perfect long weekend of swimming, sunning, eating, and drinking. It’s odd how a relaxing weekend can be exausting to come back from. The simplest tasks are beyond me today. And yet somehow we still managed to get 6 loads of laundry done. Yes, 6. You read correct. But making dinner last night? Ha. I think not. Pizza, anyone? Making dinner tonight? Also not looking so great. Especially after a long hard look at the sad, lonely state of my fridge and cupboards. Oh, poo.

I did, much to my content, find a can of white Cannelini beans. A fairly plain pantry staple. Nothing to write home about, right? Well…

If there is anything important you should know about me, it’s that I will drop anything, fight tooth and nail, give my first born, for anything dip related. Can I dip something in it? Well then I’m there. Dipping anything I can find into anything that claims to be, or perhaps even related to, a dip.Something about dipping things just makes me so happy. Hummus, baba ganouj, raita, salsa, guacamole, nacho cheese from a jar… I will find something to dip into it and I will love it. Am I making my point yet? Are your ears starting to bleed? Well then, let me give you a recipe. Fellow dippaholics beware, this tastes just as good off a spoon as it does on anything else. Which can be dangerous.

Rosemary Lemon White Bean Dip

2 Cups cooked (or canned) Cannelini beans
1-2 cloves garlic, rough chopped*
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, diced as fine as you can (helps keep the dip smooth)
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 Cup Extra virgin olive oil + 1 tbsp**
salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes (optional)

*start with one clove of garlic and have a taste. If it’s still not pungent enough for you, add the extra clove or as many as you feel is necessary.
**it’s important the oil be of good quality as it does really help flavour the dip and you don’t want to flavour it with something cheap.

In the bowl of a food processor, add the beans, garlic, rosemary and lemon. Puree until smooth. Taste and add salt until you’re comfortable with the flavour.

With the processor still on, add the olive oil in a slow constant stream. This will emulsify the olive oil and really help give the dip a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

Spoon into a serving dish and finish with remaining tbsp of olive oil, fresh cracked pepper and a few pinches of red pepper flakes [not pictured] if you like a little zing in your dip.

Serve on crostinis, with raw or lightly cooked vegetables, with pita chips, with a spoon, or any other way your dippy hands desire.

I cleaned the dish with a finger. Luckily no one was around to see. It’s not a pretty picture. Enjoy!