I love my cookbooks and culinary magazines. I collect them for the recipes and photography and try to keep them from getting splattered in the kitchen or tattered in a tote bag on my commute. Inevitably though, the most loved recipes are on pages dotted with red sauce, gritty with flour or warped from getting wet in the midst of my cooking whirlwind.
These unsightly stains are sweet reminders of past kitchen endeavors and I wouldn't trade them in for pristine copies if I could. Except maybe this April 2004 issue of
Cook's Illustrated that I accidentally caught on fire while making béchamel recently. Oops.
The béchamel comes from a great recipe for Spinach Lasagna. I wasn't making lasagna though. I was creating a pasta, chicken and spinach casserole for the 5th Annual Brooklyn
Casserole Crazy party, hosted by the lovely and talented Emily Farris. Emily is the author Casserole Crazy, Hot Stuff for Your Oven, which you should run out and
buy right now. Tis the season of the hot dish, after all.
I had already made the CI Spinach Lasagna a few times and it was a crowd pleaser. I wanted it's lovely creaminess for my casserole - after all, dry is the mortal enemy of the casserole, and I didn't want to resort to the can o' soup technique. I traded the no-boil lasagna noodles for cavatappi, a spiraling tube-shaped pasta. I also decided to add chicken - smoked right on the stove top in about 20 minutes.
It was during the smoking process that I made the mistake of setting down the magazine on the front burner so I could read it while I whisked flour into melted butter for the sauce. The top of the magazine snuck under the wok with the chicken and quickly caught fire. Luckily, I noticed right away and was able to put out the fire without much harm done. My guests seemed more amused than frightened and an hour later were happily scarfing down the finished casserole. Based on that test and their feedback, here's the recipe I came up with:
Strong to the Finish Spinach and Smoked Chicken Casserole
Chicken:
You will need a wok or other large pan with a lid, and a flat round rack that will fit in the wok a few inches above the bottom. I used a metal trivet that I randomly found at Pearl River, right when I needed it.
8 tablespoons white rice
8 tablespoons light brown sugar
8 tablespoons green tea leaves
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt & pepper
Pasta, Spinach & Cheeses:
1 lb. cavatappi
2 8-ounce bags frozen organic chopped spinach, thawed
8 ounces cottage cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 oz.)
8 oz. whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
Béchamel:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 tablespoon for the baking dish
1 medium yellow onion, diced
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 1/2 cups milk
2 bay leaves
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 oz.)
Breadcrumbs:
2-3 thick slices of good quality white bread
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Put a large pot of well-salted water on to boil for the pasta.
Line the bottom of your wok with aluminum foil. In a medium bowl, mix together the rice, brown sugar and tea leaves. Put this mixture into the wok, then the trivet or rack on top. It should sit a few inches above the mixture. Pound out the chicken breasts to an even thickness of about 1/2" and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken onto the rack and cover with the lid. Heat over medium high for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but leave the wok unopened for another 5 minutes. Check for doneness. If the chicken isn't completely cooked through, put it back over medium high with the lid on for another 5 minutes. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into bite-sized pieces with your fingers or two forks. Set aside.
Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until not quite al dente. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, drain well, and toss with a small amount of olive oil in the cooking pot. Set aside.
Remove as much liquid from the thawed spinach as possible. You can use cheesecloth or a clean dishtowel. Just wrap it up and squeeze like hell over the sink.
In a blender combine the cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Process until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Put an oven rack in the middle position and preheat to 425 degrees.
Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add the onion and garlic and cook until beginning to soften, about 6 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 1/2 minutes; do not brown. Whisk milk in slowly. Increase heat to medium high, bring to a boil. Add bay leaves, nutmeg, cayenne, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaves, stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan.
Add the spinach to the béchamel and stir well to combine, breaking up the lumps. Add to the pot with the noodles, along with the shredded chicken and stir.
Tear bread slices up into a food processor, pulse until pieces are about the size of a pea. You should have about a cup of breadcrumbs. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add breadcrumbs, garlic powder and salt and cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Grease a 9 x 13" baking pan with remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Add 1/3 of the pasta mixture, top with Parmesan. Add another 1/3 of the pasta mixture and top with half of the mozzarella. Add the remaining pasta mixture and pour the blended cottage cheese over it, spreading it out with a spatula. Top with the rest of the mozzarella. Scatter evenly with breadcrumbs. Cover with a sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes then remove foil and continue baking until cheese & breadcrumbs are lightly browned, about 10 more minutes. Use the broiler if not browned to your liking. Remove from oven and cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve.
While I didn't win, I was one of guest judge and local butcher Tom Mylan's top three pics from his group of casseroles to try. The verdict? Not enough salt. Which was my gut feeling, too. I had increased the salt level from the test batch and have increased it again for this recipe. As Tom pointed out, it's important to create layers of seasoning, so be sure to salt your pasta water, season the chicken before you smoke it, and add salt to the béchamel. The water you cook your pasta in should taste like the ocean - that's more salt than most people use, if they add it at all.
My casserole is the 2nd one, right after Karol Lu's
yummy and inventive Corndog casserole!
Other words & pics about the Casserole Party here:
