A few weeks ago I attended a cooking class of Julia Child’s recipes. Everything was very tasty. And all fairly labor intensive too. In the course of conversation the instructor mentioned that she’d heard Ina Garten’s recipe (from her book ‘>Back to Basics) was also very good, and perhaps less time consuming. So I decided to try it out. I bought chicken thighs only, both bone-in and boneless; that way I’d get some of the good flavor from the bone. I didn’t have any of the tiny boiling onions, but I did have some regular onions that were very small, so I ended up quartering them (through both ends so they’d just maybe hold together during the cooking – they didn’t). I had carrots, red wine, and a pound of mushrooms. And thyme. And cognac, pancetta and chicken broth. So I was able to put this together – not exactly in a flash – but certainly more quickly than with Julia’s recipe.

In the book, Ina Garten explains in the preface to the recipe that she worked for a long, long time finding a coq au vin that would suit her, tasted right, and was easier than the more extensive French method. Her goal was to get it to taste as good as beef is in the bourguignon style dish. Finally someone suggested she take the bourguignon recipe and just adapt it to chicken. That she did, and this is the resulting recipe.

First the pancetta is sautéed in a bit of olive oil. It’s removed, then the chicken pieces are dried, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and browned in the oil. Then they’re removed too. Carrots, onions are added, until they caramelize a little bit, then garlic is added in, finally the cognac is added and ignited. All the chicken and pancetta are returned to the pan, then red wine is poured in, with some chicken broth (I use Penzey’s concentrate for all my chicken broth needs anymore – takes up a small space in the refrigerator), and some fresh thyme. I used my Le Crueset pot, so it was lidded and the pot went into a 250 oven (yes, really 250) for about 30-40 minutes, just until the chicken is no longer pink inside.

There’s the pot just out of the oven. The chicken is succulently soft and the veggies are still holding together at that point. I removed the bone-in chicken thighs to a bowl to cool slightly (and eventually I removed the bones and skin, just because it’s easier to eat). That chicken went back into the pot.

I made a roux (softened butter and flour mixed together between your fingers) and dropped those pieces into the stew, which was back on a very low heat on the stovetop. It took just a couple of minutes for the sauce to thicken up just some.

Then I heated up a large nonstick skillet, added some butter and sautéed the mushrooms (smaller ones were left whole – larger ones thickly sliced) until they were just barely tender. If they’re done over a fairly high heat they don’t ever get mushy from fluid. They were poured into the stew pot and just stirred in. I tasted the broth/sauce. For me it needed nary a grain of salt or pepper. I have reduced the amount of salt called for in the recipe because I think it would have been overkill. It was sublimely perfect as is.

The chicken was absolutely marvelous. Divine. Perfectly tender. Not dry. And the sauce? Oh my. I wish I had a bowl full of it. There was nothing else to do but sprinkle on some finely minced parsley (not in the recipe). And eat. And eat.
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A year ago: Yellow squash & zucchini “linguine” (a side vegetable)
Two years ago: Pink Sangria

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For those of you who live in Trader Joe’s country, the Thanksgiving turkeys have arrived. Including the kosher ones ($2.29 lb) that I prefer. They’re advertised as arriving on Friday, Nov. 13th, but today when we stopped in there, aha, the meat department was overflowing with turkeys. According to the store folks, buying them this early is okay – they’ll still be fresh and good by Turkey Day. Trader Joe’s also carries their own brand of brined turkey, which was under $2.00 per pound. I’m just stuck on the great flavor of the kosher type (which is also brined), so am willing to pay the extra. I found one that was just short of 16 pounds. So I won’t have to buy two. Yippee.

Photo from the Food Network

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It was only after I made this dish that I discovered Butter Chicken, Indian Style, is a very popular Indian dish, and can be as varied as spaghetti sauce. It depends on the cook. It depends on the spices used. It depends on what part of India you’re from. It depends on the technique used. My only Indian cookbook didn’t have a recipe for this dish, so I turned to the internet. Right out of the box I found a video about it, which is very interesting. The origin of the dish, per wickedhowtos.com is historic:

• “Butter chicken (aka “Murgh makhani”) is an extraordinarily popular Indian dish that can be found at the top of menus in restaurants around the world. Butter chicken originated in Delhi, during the reign of the Mughal Empire. According to a documentary by the Discovery Channel, the murgh makhani curry was invented by a person employed amongst the kitchen staff of a famous Indian restaurant called Moti Mahal located in Daryaganj, the central region of Delhi. Even though its general recipe is widely known, the actual flavor can vary from restaurant to restaurant. . .”

You can watch the video of this dish, the full butter type, made by a chef at the Tamarind Restaurant (it’s a lot more complicated).

THIS recipe below came from Christie’s Corner, Charmian Christie’s blog, and I was intrigued because it said NO butter chicken. We like Indian food, and I have my fair share of Indian spices. We have several small markets nearby that carry more, much of it imported and not always translatable (by me, anyway). But this recipe used just turmeric and garam masala, both spices I keep in my spice cupboard. And the garam masala you can make yourself. I’ll include a recipe for that below, although I have a bottle of it from the grocery store.

In the true Butter Chicken method, there are a number of different steps. The sauce is made separately, the chicken marinated, grilled, then chopped. Well, I didn’t have time to do all that (we’d decided to go to a 7:30 movie and I didn’t start dinner until about 6 pm), so this easy recipe was right down my alley. But I’d also decided I was going to use chicken pieces. Certainly not authentic, but again, I didn’t have time to debone the chicken. So I improvised and made it all in one pot, using all the additions. I didn’t add the brown sugar, but the onions add plenty of sweetness in my book. I had Greek yogurt and used more water than Charmian did, to keep the sauce from burning.

This dish was not only easy, but delicious. I served it on millet (most Indians serve this with naan and possibly over rice too). Interestingly, millet is a common Indian staple, so even though it’s not authentic for this dish, it could be. If you happen to use chicken pieces, I recommend you remove the skin, as it isn’t very appetizing to eat once this is cooked. You could also remove the meat from the chicken after the chicken is fully cooked. I just didn’t have time for that, either. Don’t be tempted to use sour cream in this (it separates when simmered). That’s why using yogurt is such a good “cream” for sauced dishes. And if you use the Greek style, it’s already very thick. But, however you make it, you should try this.
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And here’s the recipe for the Garam Masala:

A year ago: Mocha Pecan Roll

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If you’re looking for an easy, relatively quick AND low calorie dinner entree, read on. Sometimes when I fix a dinner, my DH (dear husband) isn’t as enamored with it as I am. And in this case, he liked this better than I did. In fact, he raved about it. It’s really very easy – the only time constraint is marinating the chicken. The recipe, from Cooking Light, back in 2005, recommends 2 hours of marinating time, which I did. But it took very little time to whip up the marinade and pop those legs into a Ziploc bag. I turned it over in the refrigerator a couple of times before draining them (save the marinade) and Dave grilled them. I think he overcooked them just a little. The recipe didn’t give a temp, so he used his own judgment, which I think was a hotter fire than I’d have chosen.

The chicken is grilled for about 30 minutes, and you brush more marinade over the legs as they cook. The recipe had you cook the marinade  after the legs had marinated (to cook any bacteria, I suppose) then you brush it on the grilling chicken. I didn’t think that was necessary – but I told Dave to stop brushing 5-10 minutes before taking them off, so any microscopic bugs in the marinade would be totally cooked.

The ONLY thing I changed is a substitution of pineapple juice rather than orange juice. I don’t keep OJ on hand, but I always have small cans of pineapple juice on the pantry shelf. Overall, the flavors are mild – everything from the soy sauce, to garlic, to balsamic, dark sesame oil and sherry. And the pineapple juice and lemon juice too. Nothing stands out particularly, but it certainly gives the chicken some nice citrusy flavors. So give it a try and let me know what you think.
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Really, these reality shows aren’t my cup of tea. None of them have “done” much for me. With the exception of the “Next Food Network Star.” In case you haven’t seen it, or heard about it, each year the Food Network narrows down thousands of contestants who want to have a regular half-hour show on the network. They start with about 12 people, I think, at the beginning of the TV competition. For a series of weeks (probably 2-3 weeks altogether in real time) the Food Network gives these people some tough challenges. This isn’t like Iron Chef (which I don’t watch). Nothing is beyond reach, but some challenges are harder than others. They move them to different venues, they give them difficult foods, tight timeframes, they make them work in teams (which doesn’t always turn out well), and each week they eliminate one person.

From the first show this season, I was rooting for Melissa d’Arabian. She’s charming. She’s cute. She’s informative. And she’s a home cook with no formal culinary training. Plus she’s the mother of 3 very young children. And she won. I’m just so excited for her. I thought she did a stellar job all the way through the weeks of competitions. She held her cool, she learned well, and she offered a lot of good ideas. She did her first 30-minute program the same week she won, and already she’s started a series of Saturday noontime programs. The very first recipe sounded great (it was) and it looked very easy (yes, it was that too). With chicken breasts at hand, I made this entree in about 30 minutes from start to finish. With a small caprese salad on the side, that was dinner.

She sliced chicken breasts in half, horizontally. I just cut them in half and pounded each piece to make thinner ones. After sprinkling them with salt and pepper with some dried thyme, you coat the pieces with plain flour, then pan fry them in olive oil. Once they’re cooked through (probably takes about 5 minutes total) you remove the chicken, then sauté the onion (I only had a sweet onion, not the red onion Melissa suggested) and more thyme, then you add chicken broth, a little white wine and the juice of 3 lemons. Meanwhile, you cook up some spinach (fresh, or frozen if you’re in a bind for fresh). The broth and onion mixture cooks down some, you add a little bit of butter to it off heat then serve: first you make a “bed” of spinach, place the chicken on top, then the onions, and drizzle the sauce on top. Garnish with some fresh thyme if you have it. REALLY easy. It’s the lemon juice that makes this dish (you add some to the spinach too). Do make this – it’s good. A quick, easy and tasty meal. Meanwhile,  I’m tivo’ing all of Melissa’s shows and collecting recipes like crazy.
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A year ago: Leg of Lamb with Lemon
Two years ago: New Wave Garlic Bread (a half-Asian kind of rustic garlic bread – really good – really, REALLY good)

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You’ve heard it here before. Brown food is hard to photograph. Hard to determine what’s IN there, isn’t it? I strategically placed the dried fruit so it would at least give the photo some color. It’s called Fesenjen – an Afghan dish – a braised chicken dish with a load of walnuts and pomegranate. Not much else except a bay leaf and some sugar. It’s also a popular celebration dish in both the Iranian and Persian cuisines, where it’s spelled fesenjan. Apparently some versions don’t add the sugar, so it can be anything from tart to sweet. But, in any case, it’s to be served with yellow or white rice in all of the cultures.

Cooking is sometimes serendipitous. You cook what you have. This is certainly an example of that kind of cooking. I had a chicken in the refrigerator that HAD to be used or I’d be throwing it out in the trash. The day I cooked this I had a very busy day, with little or no time to spend in the kitchen. Enter the next step of serendipity. The day prior my friend Cherrie gave me a birthday present (actually two) but one was a new cookbook fav or hers, Secrets of Slow Cooking, by Liana Kassoff.

Quickly perusing the index, yes, there was chicken. Several. But this one it had to be because I had all the ingredients. Well, most of them. I didn’t have all chicken thighs. I didn’t have a fresh pomegranate, nor did I have barberries (dried). So, more of the “necessity is the mother of invention.” I made this with a whole chicken and I made it with dried cranberries. The best part of the recipe was how easy it was. Very little prep time required. You don’t even have to brown the chicken. You DO have to toast the walnuts and grind them up in the food processor. See the photo below – toasted walnuts left, sort of fine ground nuts on the right. But the rest of the prep takes about 5 minutes or less.

So, exactly what’s involved? Place the raw, skinned chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker. Toast the walnuts and whiz them in the food processor to a fine grind. Toss in the slow cooker. Add a bay leaf and some water (or chicken broth). Slow cook on low for 3-4 hours. Remove chicken, cool slightly, remove meat from the bones.

Now, my slow cooker insert can be removed and used on the stovetop, so that’s what I did to finish the sauce. But if you don’t have that kind, you could pour it out into a saucepan (probably a better option). Or, just turn the slow cooker to high (put the lid back on) and get that juice to boil. Add the sugar (if using) and the pomegranate molasses. You want to boil down the broth. A lot harder to do in a slow cooker. If you leave the lid off it may never boil. If you leave it on, the boiling liquid inside can’t escape (most returns to the broth via steam). So, leave it on until it reaches a boil, then tilt the lid slightly so the steam can escape. You need the broth to reduce down and get a little thicker.

At the end you return the chicken to the pot just to reheat it all. Serve it over rice. This has a very different taste – it’s about the walnuts. For one chicken, 3 cups of walnuts is a LOT of nuts. I think next time I might use a bit less. But you don’t really KNOW they’re walnuts. They don’t turn to mush. But they’re not firm, either. Not soft like onions, but not in the least bit crisp. Nothing else has the texture quite like a cooked walnut. I saw one version on the internet (when I was researched the culinary history of this dish) that included a chopped onion. I think I’d add that next time. And although I did boil down the sauce on the stove, as instructed, I ended up with not enough liquid. I wanted a bit more for the rice.

Note that there is no salt added. Or pepper. I did when it was served, but it only needed a tiny amount. So this is good if you’re on a salt-restricted diet. I use a low sodium chicken broth too. And, although I had to use a whole chicken, chicken thighs are best for this. The chicken breast meat was overcooked. Only dark meat can withstand that kind of long cooking and still retain some moisture. I used a LOT less sugar also (only a couple of tablespoons). If you or your family like sweet meat, then by all means add in all the sugar. The calorie count on this one is high because of the nuts. But they’re the good kind of fat, remember. The nuts make the dish. And the pomegranate molasses adds an elusive flavor to it. I’d make this again. I’d just add onion, and retain more of the liquid. And, I’d follow the recipe exactly, using chicken thighs. This whole dish could easily be made on the stovetop too. Probably cooked for about an hour only.
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A year ago: About the bugs that arrived in my pantry who ate a whole lot of chocolate, and a year later, they’re still there, although in far fewer numbers. Requires me to put nearly everything in heavy-duty plastic bags or sealed boxes, particularly grains and flours.
Two years ago: Calabacitas con Crema (oh yum, luv this stuff – it’s a mixed vegetable with corn and chiles and a touch of cream). I posted a second recipe that day (why?) called Crostini with Apples, Blue Cheese and a drizzle of honey. Has become one of my favorite appetizers.

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If you leave out the chicken, this could easily be a side dish too.

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, then you know right off the bat that after reading the title, this must be a recipe from Phillis Carey. She doesn’t want you to miss anything about the dish, and perhaps pass it by, so she tempts you with the major ingredients. To make sure.

And indeed, I might have passed on this recipe (I don’t make couscous very often since there isn’t much of anything healthy about couscous – it’s just tiny pasta). I don’t dislike couscous, but know that’s it’s just a high glycemic carb and has next to no nutrition in it. But after tasting it, well, yup, I’ll be making it. In my book the clincher was the lemony flavor (there’s a LOT in the dressing). Oh, and the dried cranberries were also mighty tasty too. You don’t expect dried cranberries in a couscous salad, but they add a lovely sweet zing to it. The garbanzos add some healthy protein and fiber, and you could probably add more veggies to this if you’d like. Phillis told us that when she makes this and she thoroughly enjoys the leftovers for days after, since it keeps well in the refrigerator. The thing about couscous is that no matter how much dressing you put on it, it’ll absorb more and more. So that’s why you don’t want to add the lemon curry dressing until just before serving. That way some of it will still be moistening the salad and not soaked into the pasta. Yet.
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A year ago: Sarah’s Ginger Scones

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A vote was taken a couple of mornings ago on what the crew wanted for dinner. The consensus was chicken. I just had to find a new recipe, that was all. The first book I turned to, Hot Barbecue by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison, had just the thing. A marinated chicken in Caribbean-type spices and influences. We had chicken breasts and thighs in the freezer. The marinade was not difficult at all – just some different things in it than you might think for a chicken brew. Orange zest, orange juice, olive oil, Grand Marnier (yum), brown sugar, soy, a bit of Asian chile sauce to give it a tiny hint of heat, fresh mint, fresh ginger, then freshly grated nutmeg, some allspice and cinnamon.

I had a fresh pineapple sitting out, and it was the PERFECT accompaniment to this chicken, grilled along side the chicken pieces. I also made a green salad (with veggies) and since I’d made more of the Caesar dressing than the recipe indicated from the Caesar the other day (I had a hunch we’d use it), we ate the last of it with the salad accompanying this meal. I made some home-made croutons with some leftover baguette we also had, tossed with the garlic and Parmesan butter we had also. The bread cubes, once tossed with the melted garlic butter I baked in the oven (convection-bake) for 4 minutes at 400. They were perfect – slightly crunchy on the outside and still slightly soft on the inside of each crouton. Once the chicken was grilled, along with the pineapple slices, I garnished the chicken with cilantro and mint (chopped). The little bit of sugar (brown, plus from the juice and Grand Marnier) made the outside of the chicken slightly crispy. I liked that. I’ll be making this again.

It’s now 2 days later and my DH and I have been enjoying the leftovers of this. The marinade permeates the entire chicken – it’s even more prominent in the cold chicken than it was hot off the grill. The breasts were a little on the dry side, so the grilled pineapple was a great side for the chicken too.

A year ago: Chocolate Ribbon Dessert
Two years ago: Tex-Mex Jicama Salad

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At the Phillis Carey class the other night, she made entree salads. That’s what it was all about. Great for summer, for eating outdoors, for cooking early so you don’t have to heat up the oven or the kitchen. But satisfying salads, nevertheless. Chinese Chicken Salad is a favorite in my book, but other Asian-style noodle salads I might not seek out, usually (too many carbs, for one thing). BUT, this salad was just wonderful. What makes it unusual is the orange-scented dressing. And it’s lemony. And slightly sweet (from honey). If you want more vegetable ratio here, just ramp up the amounts of sugar snaps, red bells, celery, for instance.

The salad dressing was ever so tasty. I might make the dressing for something else, although with sesame oil in it, it wouldn’t go with just any salad. Since I’m a bit on hiatus buying shrimp because of all the health scares about it, I might make this salad, though, with scallops perhaps. Or even chicken.
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This snapshot is just part of a wedge - for the class we didn't get an entire one.

Every time I go to a Phillis Careycooking class I learn something new. That alone keeps me going back to her classes. But heading the list of good things about Phillis’ classes is the taste of the food. She is just a wizard with a spatula, a pounder, a stovetop grill and chicken! As I’ve mentioned here before, she has several cookbooks to her name (I own them all) and she’s working on another one, about entertaining.

Grilling Romaine lettuce isn’t exactly new. I’ve ordered it twice – out at a restaurant – but had never seen it done before. It’s easy. I may make this salad later this week because our daughter Dana positively loves-loves Caesar anything. So do the grandkids. And I thought this dressing was simply fab – and easy. I mean – it’s nothing more than mayonnaise with Caesar-type ingredients added to it. How easy is that? Phillis used capers (she doesn’t like anchovies), which was delicious in this rendition of salad.

The Romaine heads – use smaller ones if you can find them – or remove the outer leaves of a bigger one and use those leaves for something else – are cut in quarters (including the root end – which holds the salad together while it grills. Some of the dressing gets slathered on the two cut halves of the lettuce and it’s put on an grill for just a minute – all you want to do is get some grill marks if you can – on the cut sides, so you grill for just a minute on each of the two cut sides. If you happen to have really small Romaine heads, you can serve each person a half of one, in which case the lettuce might only need a minute on the grill. Any more than that and you might get lettuce mush.

Once off the grill you add some more dressing, then top it with the already grilled chicken, tomatoes, croutons and big wide Parmesan shards, shaved off of a block of good cheese. Simply delicious.
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