An Evening with Thomas Keller

A few years ago, for my birthday, Blair bought me The French Laundry cookbook. I was enthralled and longed for the day I would be crazy enough to make something out of it. This year, for Christmas, Glenn bought me the Bouchon cookbook. Same super-chef, a little more do-able. I was so inspired by reading all of Thomas Keller's secrets to making simple food taste the best it possibly can I decided to host a small dinner party where everything we ate would be from the Bouchon cookbook.

The day started with garlic infused olive oil, which I would use for the mussels later in the meal. You cook the garlic in olive oil over extremely low heat, until the garlic is so soft it will spread with a butter knife, and the olive oil is perfectly garlicky.

At this point I had also made a brine for the chickens I would be roasting. Typically when I have brined meats I have done a very simple mix of salt, water, and a few seasonings. This brine was much more complex and included a lot of garlic, onion and spices, which I brought to a boil and then allowed to cool to room temperature. Of course I didn't realize it needed to cool to room temperature until I was already behind, so I surrounded the pot of warm liquid with ice (in the sink) and that helped cool it off nicely. I placed the chickens in the brine, and let it all hang out in the refrigerator for about 5 hours.

While the garlic and chicken in brine were resting, I prepared the almond cake (topped with strawberry compote, which I also prepared at this time). Once the cake was finished baking, I immediately placed sliced toasted almonds on top of it so they would stick. As the cake cooled, I dusted it (quite heavily) with powdered sugar and let it and the compote hang out until it was time for dessert.

Our 1st course was a lovely hericot verts salad with fresh tomato and a perfectly boiled egg. We all devoured our salads so quickly I was not able to snap a photograph!

We moved from salad course into a first course of mussels with saffron and white wine - a classic Bistro dish. This was my friend Kelly's first time eating mussels. I had her help me pull off the beards and she was really going for it, until she realized the mussels were still alive at that point, and she screamed and threw the mussel she was holding back in the sink. All mussels died peacefully in a perfect steam of butter, white wine, and fresh herbs, and Kelly was able to eat them with plenty of crusty bread.

I firmly believe the key to this chicken being so flavorful is all in the preparation. The chickens were removed from the brine and then I trussed them. I have been intimidated by trussing, as well as anything else involving tying or cutting up a whole bird/animal, so I just had to convince myself this was something I was capable of and would learn to do well. Thomas Keller explains trussing quite well, and after only 2 failed attempts, here are my trussed chickens.

Pretty good for my first trussing! The only seasoning the chickens require is a liberal sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. They are placed on the stove (in an oven-proof pan) over high heat with about a tablespoon of olive oil, then immediately placed into a 450 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes. All Keller tells you to do once the chickens are finished cooking is baste them with the pan juices once or twice and then sprinkle with fresh thyme. Here is a great picture of half of one of the chickens once it had been plated a top a medley of sauteed mushrooms.

This picture is super blurry, sorry about that, but you can see a few more details of the chicken. I also topped it with a bit of fresh flat leaf parsley, on Keller's recommendation.

After all of these courses (and of course a couple of glasses of unoaked chardonnay to accompany this lovely meal!) we sat back and prepared for a little slice of Bouchon heaven - almond cake with strawberry compote, topped with sweetened, whipped, creme fraiche. I don't think any words are necessary once you see this picture, but I will tell you it was absolutely the most fantastic ending to my Very Thomas Keller evening.