THE Dish: Seamus Mullen's Sunday Roast Chicken

(CBS News) NEW YORK -- Don't let chef Seamus Mullen's name fool you.

He grew up on an organic farm in Vermont, but a trip to Spain during his senior year in high school began a love affair with Spain that continues to this day.

Seamus has garnered critical acclaim for his take on modern Spanish cuisine.

In August, he opened Tertulia, and it's already one of New York's most popular Spanish restaurants.

Seamus is a winner of the "Time Out New York" Chef of the Year Award, and Tertulia was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for its Best New Restaurant honor.

Seamus recently released a cookbook, "Seamus Mullen's Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better, " and he was a finalist in the fall of 2009 on the Food Network's "Next Iron Chef."

On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Seamus dished about his love of Spain, his mother and grandmother.

And he shared recipes for his ultimate dish: Sunday Roast Chicken, as well as his Grandma Mutti's Blueberry Boy Bait dessert.

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Blog: "What's Cooking"
Special section: Food and Wine

RECIPES

All recipes below are from "Seamus Mullen's Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better"

Sunday Roast Chicken

There's nothing quite like a roast chicken to end the weekend and begin the week. Leftover leg meat, pulled apart and folded into some allioli, makes delicious chicken salad and the carcass can be turned into an easy, satisfying stock. The main problem with cooking birds is the classic cooking conundrum: The breasts and the legs require completely different cooking times. Otherwise, you wind up with perfectly cooked breast and raw legs, or succulent legs and leathery breast.

Fear not! Science prevails! Here's a terrifically simple way to ensure a juicy bird that's perfectly cooked on all four corners. By roasting it at two temperatures the legs cook slowly, breaking down all the connective tissue that makes the meat tougher, and the breast isn't overexposed to high heat. At the very end, you crank up the temperature for a nice golden, crispy skin. Serve the roast with a crispy and succulent bread salad.

Serves 4 or more

• 1 3-to-5-pound roasting chicken, brined overnight and air-dried in the refrigerator
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 lemons, cut into quarters
• 1 head garlic, 1 clove set aside and the rest peeled and lightly crushed
• Handful each fresh basil and tarragon
• 7 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 loaf country bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 shallot, sliced paper thin on a mandoline
• 1 quart mixed heirloom tomatoes, cut into rustic chunks
• Healthy shot sweet sherry vinegar such as Pedro Ximenez

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavity with the lemon quarters, lightly crushed garlic, and basil and tarragon, setting aside a few leaves of the herbs for the bread salad.

Place the chicken in a large roasting pan, breast side up with the wings tucked under its back, and tie the legs together to close the cavity. Roast at 300 degrees F for 1 hour, until both the thigh and the breast read 150 degrees F on a meat thermometer.

Thoroughly brush the chicken with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Return the chicken to the oven and roast until crispy and golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Set aside to rest while you prepare the bread salad.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the bread. Saute until crispy and golden. Once it's golden, grate the remaining clove of garlic and toss with the bread over the heat for 20 seconds more. Remove to a large bowl. Add the shallots and tomatoes to the bread in the bowl; drizzle with 4 tablespoons olive oil, the sherry vinegar, and torn leaves of the basil and tarragon; toss and set aside.

When you're ready to serve, arrange the bread salad around the chicken in the roasting pan or on a platter.

For more of Seamus's recipes, to go Page 2.

Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts must be the meatballs of the vegetable world because whenever I put them on the menu folks can't seem to get enough. People want their Brussels sprouts! A little chorizo and some lemon juice go a long way to perk up these little cabbages.

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon good olive oil
• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, preferably baby
• Brussels sprouts
• 1/2 pound dried chorizo, diced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook until gently browned, about 3 minutes depending on size. Shake the pan occasionally to brown them on all sides. Add the chorizo and cook for about 2 minutes; the sprouts will take on a nice rosy color from the sausage. Add the stock, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced and the sprouts are tender. Finish with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and serve.

Pea Tendrils a la Catalana

The classic catalan dish, Espinacas a la Catalana, with pine nuts and golden raisins, is a near-perfect balance of sweet and salty. The original dish uses spinach, but this version takes the idea one step further with pea shoots and creamy garbanzo beans. Dim sum in Chinatown is our Sunday morning ritual and one of my favorite things to have there is sauteed pea shoots. One day it occurred to me that fresh pea shoots would be brilliant a la Catalana; they are!

Serves 2

• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup cooked garbanzo beans
• 1/2 pound pea tendrils
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 1 lemon

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the pine nuts to the dry pan. As the pine nuts begin to toast and turn golden brown, shake the pan to make sure they don't burn. Once they're browned and giving off a nutty aroma, about 3 minutes, add the olive oil, garlic, and garbanzo beans and saute until the garlic starts to take on color. Toss the pea tendrils into the pan, add the raisins, and swiftly saute to just wilt the tendrils, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with lemon juice, and serve.

For the recipe for Seamus' Grandma Mutti's Blueberry Boy Bait, go to Page 3.

Mutti's Blueberry Boy Bait

This cake is a family classic that my grandmother has been making for me since I was a little guy, and I still love it. It's a very simple cake, and for me the very best way to end a meal. My grandmother remembers this recipe from a Fannie Farmer cookbook, but Blueberry Boy Bait actually turns out to be the creation of a 15-year-old girl competing in the junior division of a Pillsbury baking contest in the 1950s.

Serves 8

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar, plus a bit more for sprinkling
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1-1/2 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a round 9-inch springform pan, line with a round of parchment paper, and butter the paper.

In a standing mixer, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar. Add the egg yolks, vanilla, and salt and mix until creamy.

Sift the 1-1/2 cups flour and the baking powder together. Add the sifted flour and the milk to the butter mixture and gently combine.

In another large bowl, beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar until they make stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the batter. Coat the berries with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour and add to the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the top with sugar. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Serve with a whole lot of love, and maybe a dollop of whipped cream.