On Sunday my friend Tori & I got together to cook dinner, but the eternal question was difficult to answer…. what to make? A Sunday roast? Popovers? Something else entirely? We decided to take a jaunt to the West Seattle farmer’s market and see what struck our fancy.
We wandered around nearly the whole thing, uninspired, until we laid eyes upon Sno-Isle mushrooms, and Tori suggested we make mushroom risotto – and everything sprung up from that.
Menu:
White Wine & Peanut Butter Chard
Mushroom Risotto
Roasted Za’atar Chicken with Garlic Paste
Difficulty: Intermediate with a buddy, difficult by yourself
Time: 2 hours
Serves 3.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
Butter
Herbs : Paprika, marjoram, Za’atar*, garlic, garlic, more garlic
1 Small russet potato
Olive oil
2 lemons
1 bundle of chard
Natural peanut butter
Beef bouillon
Dry white wine
Mushrooms (~1 pint)
1 Shallot, minced finely
Arborio rice – Regular rice is fine too though, arborio is just the traditional & “recommended” rice for risotto.
Parsley, basil
Secret ingredients**
S&P to taste.
*You might be able to find Za’atar in the store, but if you can’t, you can make your own, because it really just is a spice blend. This recipe is from Mina Holland’s World on a Plate – you don’t have to be exact on these but this is the suggested ratio, and what I used here. I found sumac really difficult to locate and eventually found it at the Asian grocery store – wherever you usually have luck with cheap and obscure spices, you’ll probably find it there.
Za’atar Seasoning:
4 t sumac
2 t sesame seeds
2 t thyme
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t oregano
1 t marjoram
Mix it all up! You certainly won’t use all of it but now you can save it for later!
Start with your chicken – this will take way longer than everything else.
Heat the oven to 450F. In the meantime, make an herb & butter rub – a little less than 1/4 c of salted butter mixed with paprika and marjoram, and rub it under the skin of the chicken. Then rub the za’atar all over the outside of the chicken. Put it in a roasting pan uncovered and put in the oven for 20 minutes at 450 without looking at it. You can look through the window only.
Turn the heat down to 350 and cook for at least another 90 minutes but we honestly forgot about it until we were done with everything else and it was fine! You now have time to go do something else for a bit before you start the sides. If you’re like us, crack open some more wine and relax.
If you’re smart, and definitely if you’re working alone, make the garlic paste. Chop up and boil your lone potato with 13 cloves of garlic. Once this is done, whip it up using the whisk attachment (paddle will serve just fine too) of a stand mixer if you have one, or your arms if you’re ripped. Add to this a tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of two lemons. Whip it up until it’s all homogenous and creamy. We topped ours with a little more za’atar. It’ll look something like this.
The risotto will take about 45 minutes, so get on that about 30-40 minutes after you turn the heat down on the chicken.
Prep your vegetables – mince up that shallot and 4 cloves of garlic, and set it in a bowl. Also roughly chop the mushrooms however you like them.
Saute the shallot & garlic over medium heat with a pinch of salt until they start to look a little translucent. **We added the tiniest splash of vinegar and of spiced rum now too… this is totally optional but I feel like it gave it a little special something. Then put the mushrooms in, give them a stir, and add 1.5c arborio rice. Stir everything up to get a bit of a toast on the rice and wilt the mushrooms a bit. Then, slowly stir in small amounts of white wine at a time, stirring frequently, until the rice is cooked and the texture is good. Season a little as you go with s&p.
This will probably take you close to 30 minutes. While this is happening, you should be able to get going on the chard – or hopefully, recruit a minion to help you.
Roughly cut the chard up how you like it.
You’re basically just going to throw it in a pan and simmer it with a tiny bit of olive oil, 1 T natural peanut butter (Adams for example – not Jif or anything with sugar in it!), 1 small beef bouillon cube, 1/3c of water and 1/4c dry white wine, whatever you used for the risotto! This all told should take less than 20 minutes.
Once the risotto is just about done, add some finely chopped basil and parsley. In the end, it should be looking something like this:
Hopefully your chard is done now too! Make sure that chicken is cooked, take it out of the oven, and impress your friends with a cheap and pretty straightforward 3-course meal. The garlic paste is delicious spread onto the chicken, or mixed into all of this. And it keeps well, so save it for a rainy day after the meal is over!
Photo credits to Tori Quayle.
Cecily Kay Cooks 
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