high temperatures, small woes ... first world problems

take a look at the header - all those people cooking and not one oven!

But for the obviously well-trained staff, this could be my house. Why? Because I too have no oven!

The oven in our stove at Flintstone Manor is on strike, for no reason other than sheer cussedness, as best I can tell. I use it a lot during the summer, it's exceptionally large and well-insulated and doesn't heat up the rest of the house. I've always found washing and drying lettuces, washing, peeling and trimming and cutting up other veg, poaching, peeling and chilling shrimp, scrubbing clams, etc etc, to be a LOT more tedious and a lot more work than sticking a roast or some chicken in the oven, putting some potatoes and onions around the meat/bird, closing the oven and sitting down with a drink. Shortcut: I buy very good meat or chicken and watch the cooking time carefully, so I don't feel a need to brine or marinate. Oh, sure, we could grill, but it's been very hot, or very rainy, or both. And allow me to point out that most things that need to simmer, including stews and soups and tomato sauce, do astoundingly better on the lowest rack of a low oven than on a stove-top burner or in an outdoor jury-rigged Webster kettle.

So what happened to my oven? The door won't open! Why not? It's not a self-cleaning oven, so there's no locked-timer-problem, so what could it be?

Well, Trusty Mr Google tells me that since 2010 or so, this has been happening all too often (meaning once, if it happens to be your stove) to stoves of this brand. On some models, only the hinge assembly needs replacing. On older models - like mine - the whole door has to be replaced, and the company has to build you a new door, because these stoves are built one at a time. When we were looking for a stove for Flintstone Manor, we kept reminding ourselves of all the people we knew who had to wait months for parts or repairs of kitchen equipment made in England or France or Germany or Italy... So we insisted - just in case, not looking for trouble - that the way to go was to find something that was manufactured right here in the USA. We chose BlueStar, its factory is or then was in Pennsylvania. They began by making only restaurant or commercial equipment, then added a residential line. I liked them because I need to have a gas stove. Unfortunately, the local gas company has not extended the gas lines to our street. This means bottle gas, which can't achieve the BTUs (heat) that you get from natural gas. And this in turn affects cooking. The reason has nothing to do with the quality of the gas; rather, most gas stoves are made for natural gas and to cook with bottled gas the stove has to have an adaptor fitted, which is essentially a flow restrictor. Less gas, less heat. BUT - enter BlueStar. Because each of their stoves is made individually, the stove can be made for bottled gas from the get-go. And for some reason, this allows a heavier flow. More gas, more heat. So - worth waiting for, worth fixing. But oh, what a test of patience.

Guess what?  It is not comforting to tell oneself that instead of a 3-4 week wait, we could be looking at months or years.  I knew someone who would stand outside the Smallbone UK storefront on Lexington Avenue (New York City) every night when he was coming home from work, and curse.

view of East 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, NYC
(cursing Renovator Guy is not in this picture)

This was a white guy who went to and from work in a suit, and he would be dropped off by his driver, who would wait while Angry Kitchen Renovating Guy stood on the sidewalk and ranted, escalating his blasphemous rhetoric from the screws and nails made to UK specs and unavailable in the US, to the entire royal family. His repertory lent new meaning to the name of the offending manufacturer.

When I said I knew him, I didn't mean know him socially or in business. I know him the way one knows the 30-ish guy on the pad of old newspapers at the subway entrance who claims to have served in Vietnam before he was born - after a while you recognize the guy but you don't want a conversation.

On the other hand, having lived through (barely) 4 kitchen renos, 9 bathroom renos, and - wait for it - the 3-attempt over 3 months misdelivery of a washer and dryer from BestBuy (ultimately cancelled, by me, and no doubt to the benefit of some lady in Manhattan Kansas who must have really really clean clothes at BestBuy's expense but not mine dammit), that experience was followed by a washer & dryer delivery-installation from Home Depot where the electrics were plugged into an indoor-outdoor extension cord "just as a test, lady" and then when the machines were wedged into their tiny niche, the test extension cord was still attached oops so the machines only worked when connected  by extension to the plugs across the room - and there then ensued a bitter and lasting triangular war among me, Home Depot and their independent delivery-install people who claimed I was only entitled to one installation no matter how botched, the same being further complicated by the 3-way absence of a common language. Angry Kitchen Renovating Guy may be saner than I. Well, probably most people are. Was this paragraph garbled? you bet. So is my life when I have to deal with projects that involve major appliances.

So now I await a call from the BlueStar Authorized Service Person about the arrival of my oven door, and when it's actually delivered, the BlueStar Authorized Service Person and I will plan to meet. I tremble, and meanwhile Panera is getting a lot of business from us.
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Speaking of oven recipes, here is a recipe I've been making for a long time, except of course not this summer. Versions of the recipe crop up on food-ish sites regularly. If you happen to have an oven you might want to try it.

You need enough chicken pieces and potatoes to serve your group.  I use skin-on breasts and thighs, and I bone out the ribs from the breast pieces. Lately I've been using Yukon gold potatoes, but I like Idaho russets for this as well. Peel the potatoes and cut into thick half-slices or into wedges - long thick french-fries. Then, in a large bowl, mix a scant 1/4 cup olive oil with a heavy teaspoon of hot sauce and some paprika. I use Crystal Hot Sauce, I've seen recipes of this dish that call for Harissa, which is quite ok. As is Srichacha.  A little smoked paprika is nice, not essential.  Add salt and pepper.  Put the chicken and potatoes into the bowl and toss to combine. Cover and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes while you get the rest organized.

Making sure the oven is empty, turn it on to 425º. Find a large flat pan with low sides, or the broiler pan that came with the oven.

Next ingredient - two medium leeks, washed and sliced very thin. Use all of the white and some of the green. Toss the leek slices with 2 tablespoons of olive oil mixed with a teaspoon of lemon juice and a little salt. 

Assembly - put the chicken pieces and the potatoes on the pan. I start with the chicken skin-side down. Also, you'll have to turn the potatoes over in a few minutes, so you'll want them all toward the edges of the pan. Then - into the oven. In about 15 minutes or so, take the pan out, turn over the chicken, turn the potatoes, if things look unappetizingly pale, lightly sprinkle whatever with paprika. Scatter the sliced leeks over everything. Back it goes into the oven, for another 25 minutes or so.

And while that's cooking, add a few tablespoons of finely chopped fresh dill and some finely chopped or grated garlic to a cup of plain yogurt and stir well.

Also hunt up a few cups of baby arugula.

When the chicken's done, remove the pan from the oven. I put the pan right on the table, well, not right on it, I use quilted pads, but, you know. If you're uncomfortable with putting the pan on the table, move everything to a platter but don't dawdle. OK, so chicken's out of the oven, use a metal spatula to make sure everything can be separated from the pan, scatter the arugula over the food, drizzle with the yogurt sauce. You might consider sprinkling on a little lemon juice.

That's it.


Oh, if you've followed the blog for a while, you may have noticed that I change the header from time to time, so in case it's no longer in the header, this is the pic of oven-less cooking that I was talking about above.

Look! staff.