Roast chicken with pomegranate and za'atar

This is so easy that it almost does not qualify as a recipe.  I must have eaten or seen this somewhere before, but I am not sure where.  It takes about 10 minutes to prepare, 45 to roast.  The pomegranate seeds at the end are optional, but add a nice texture and a burst of flavor.  You can leave it to sit before you cook it but don't have to.  It is good enough for company or a Shabbat dinner and easy enough for a weeknight.  All you need is a well-stocked pantry:

Roast chicken with pomegranate and za'atar

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, 3.5-4 pounds, cut into 4-8 serving pieces
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 2 tablespoons za'atar (I used Galil brand)
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• 1-2 teaspoons Turkish red pepper (Aleppo, Maras or Kirmiz)
• 1-3 tablespoons olive oil (more will taste better, but I used a scant tablespoon)
• 1 large onion, quartered and sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

Method

1. Crush the garlic with the salt to form a paste.
2. Mix in the next 4 ingredients.
3. Drizzle in the oil to form a more or less uniform paste.
4. Spread lightly all over the chicken pieces.
5. Put the onion in a baking pan large enough to hold the chicken with a little room around it.  (It the  chicken is packed to close it will take longer to cook, may not brown well, and will produce too much juice.
6. You may bake the chicken immediately, or leave it up to two hours outside of the fridge or overnight inside.  
7. Roast in a preheated 425 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour until done to your taste.  (The precise time will depend on many variables, including the temperature of the chicken, the size of the pieces, the real as opposed to the presumed temperature of your oven, and the size of the pan.)
8. After removing from the oven, scatter pomegranate seeds over the top.
9. Serves 4 along with rice or bulgur (see below) for the onions and juice from the pan.

Bulgur:  Since bulgur is precooked and dried wheat, it cooks incredibly quickly.  There are many more elaborate recipes for bulgur pilaf, and many are good, but you don't need to bother since it really doesn't need cooking, just soaking and heating.  It is very healthy and easy and I am really surprised that people don't make it more often.  To serve 4, put one cup coarse bulgur in a heat proof bowl.  Sprinkle the top with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Pour one cup boiling water over it, cover the dish, and leave it sit for about 20 minutes.  Heat it by covering the dish with foil and putting it in the oven for the last 20 minutes of cooking, or covering it with paper towel and zapping in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Comfort food: a quick, inauthentic asopao de pollo

Asopao is a Puerto Rican dish of soupy rice that is, eaten all over the  Spanish Caribbean.  It is sometimes translated as gumbo, but this is misleading, since okra and roux are the defining features of gumbo and this has neither.  Whatever it is, it is straightforward and comforting on a chilly night and it reminds me of Maurice Sendak's early book, Chicken Soup with Rice, which was one of our kids' favorites.

It is also a super-quick dinner.  While I generally go for hyper-authenticity rather than speed, sometimes one has to rise to the occasion and use what is on hand.  So, rather than achiote oil, which I don't have and don't care for, I used a pinch of turmeric which may or may not have a myriad of health benefits, but which we have in the house for Indian and Middle Eastern cooking.  Also,  though traditionally made with a whole chicken, skinless, boneless chicken thighs are easier and less fatty than whole chicken and juicier and tastier than breasts.   Finally, I made it with pareve soup powder, which is probably not an authentic Puerto Rican ingredient.

This takes about 45 minutes from beginning to end -- how I define quick and easy, if not everyone does.

Asopao de pollo -- Soupy chicken rice 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 rib celery, trimmed and finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• large pinch turmeric
• 1/4 cup cilantro or parsley, chopped
• 1 pound raw skinless, boneless chicken thighs, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 14 ounce can of chopped or diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted (with green chile or garlic is even better)
• 1 green pepper, cored, seeded and cut into half inch dice
• 1 red pepper, cored, seeded and cut into half inch dice
• Salt and pepper to taste.  If using canned broth or soup powder, hold off on the salt until the end.
• 6 cups chicken broth (ideally homemade, but in the real world, boxed, canned or even soup powder is acceptable, and tonight I used a large spoon of Osem's pareve chicken soup powder with boiling water)
• 1/2 cup short grain rice, like Spanish rice, Arborio or Canaroli
• 1/2 cup green peas (presumably frozen -- if you have wonderful fresh peas, use them in something else)
• 1-2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 10-20 pimento stuffed green olives, rinsed and sliced
• 4 scallions, while and some of the green, sliced

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a 4-quart pot on medium heat.
2. Add onions, carrot and celery to the pot and stir until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic, cook about a minute, until soft but not borwned.
4. Add turmeric, stir a few times, add half of the chopped herb, and then the chicken.  
5. Cook on medium-high until the chicken looses its raw color.
6. Add the tomato, bring to the simmer, add the chopped peppers, turn heat down, and cook on low for 10 minutes.
7. Add the broth, bring to the boil, and turn heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes.  
8. Add the rice and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add the peas, capers, and olives and simmer 5 minute more.  Taste the rice to make sure that it is cooked through, and if not, simmer for a few minutes more.
10. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and set aside to settle and cool for 5 minutes before serving.
11. Garnish with scallions and remaining herb.
12. Serves 4 for dinner with a salad.

Pulled barbecue, farkashert, simplified and just as good

A while ago I blogged about a version of pulled barbecue made with turkey thighs.   The recipe calls for marinating the thighs in a chili and vinegar paste with whole garlic under the skin, roasting the thighs, removing the skin and mashing the garlic to a paste with the drippings to make a sauce, adding some vegetables, and sauteing it all together.  Delicious, but quite a patschke (Yiddish for a big deal).

I had my family over for dinner this evening, and wanted to try this, but didn't want something quite as involved.  I love chicken thighs, which are tastier and stay moister than the breast, even when boneless and skinless.  I had been meaning to try the method published in the Kitchn for baking boneless thighs so I tried it with the pulled barbecue.  It was so easy that it could be made for a weeknight dinner, and I actually think it is just as good, or better, than the more laborious method.  This is probably going to be my last recipe for 2012 -- try it!

Pulled chicken  barbecue,  the easy way

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs
• 4 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 teaspoon chitpotle powder
• 2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
• 1 tablespoon  mustard
• 1/4  cup cider vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup of smoky barbecue sauce, or a bit more to taste (if the sauce tastes good, it is good, just don't overdo it)

Method

• Whirl the garlic, chili powders and paprika, mustard, cider vinegar, oil and salt in a mini-chopper  or blender to puree garlic and combine ingredients and make a marinade paste.
• Marinate the thighs in the paste for 1 hour to overnight (in the fridge), but if possible bring to room temperature before cooking.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Remove the thighs from the marinade and place them, with the marinade that still clings, in a baking dish large enough to contain them in one layer, with the smooth side where the skin was down.  Bake 10 minutes.  Turn them and bake another 10 minutes.
• Mix the drippings with the barbecue sauce and spread it over the thighs.  Broil on High for 5 minutes.  Cut into  the thickest piece to see if they are done.  You can also check with a meat thermometer to make sure the temperature is 165 degrees.  If not, return to the oven and cook on 350 for another five minutes and check again.
• Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Remove the thighs from the dish to a cutting board and shred with the grain.  You could pull it apart with two large forks for superior texture, but this is much easier and still real good.
• Pour the juices in the pan over the chicken and mix well.  If not serving immediately, this can keep for a while in a very low oven, well covered.
• This is great served on rolls or french bread with a vinegary cole slaw.  Beer goes without saying.  

Singapore chili chicken on toast

Exoskeletons do not fit comfortably into an observant Jewish diet.  With the exception of a few species of locusts, which some Yemenites eat, Jews who observe the dietary laws refrained from eating Arthropoda which includes crustaceans  ( shrimp, lobster, crab, prawn  etc) as well as insects and spiders.   While few miss the grasshoppers ( chapulines in Mexico, served w tortillas and guacamole as well as in many other preparations) many consider forgoing shrimp, lobster and crab and act of true self-denial.  For me, the taste of the flesh is almost beside the point.  What I miss is the joy, experienced in its purest form in an Asian, especially Malaysian restaurant, or in a Maryland crab house, of sucking spices off shells.  If you are like me, this dish is for you.  Even if you aren't, and eat lobster and crab all the time,  it is very good, and cooking chicken is a whole lot easier than cooking crab or lobster.

This dish is inspired by the Chili Crab with Toast of the Fatty Crab and Sam Sifton's Fathers' Day interpretation with lobster from the New York Times, neither of which I have had, both of which I occasionally dream about.  Chicken, especially the backs, substitute very nicely for the crustaceans and give lots of spice-sucking pleasure.  To mellow out the sauce, rather than the obscene (in a good sense) amount of butter that is called for, I use light coconut milk, which avoids the meat-dairy prohibition (not to discuss here the issue of why chicken is considered meat like a milk-producing mammal).  The total experience is different (I assume) but still more than satisfying. It is a mess in the best sense of the word.  Lobster bibs would not be amiss, and use lots of napkins.

The dish looks harder than it is and takes about an hour, beginning to end.  the chicken is browned in the broiler or on the grill after simmering (what I call Filipino Adobo-style) which makes it a lot easier, and gives you nice crisp and tasty skin at the end. We experimented with several different garnish combinations, and thought that the mint and salty roasted peanuts were the best.  We also tried a variety of breads and did not come to a consensus, so I discuss this at the end.  The recipe below serves 8.  You can halve it and just use the chicken, but you may want to throw in some wings or backs if you have any around for the chewing pleasure.

To drink, beer is the logical choice, but some reds could stand up to it, like a good Aussie Shiraz or a Monje Tinto Tradicional from Tenerife on the Canary Islands -- we are talking serous terroir here.  A truly beautiful pairing is Cassis, not the black currant liqueur but the white wine from Provence. This would go particularly well with  Vietnamese red cabbage salad, though the pecans are optional and the grilled chicken or tofu unnecessary.

Singapore Chili Chicken with Toast

Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 inch piece ginger, finely chopped
• 2-3 stalks of lemon grass, outer leaves removed and cut into two inch pieces
• 30-50 fresh curry leaves (optional but highly desirable)
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 15 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 chicken, about 3 pounds, cut into eighths
• 3-4 pounds chicken backs and wings
• 12 ounces tomato paste (one large or two small cans)
• 2 cups white wine or vermouth (you can substitute water, just add more lime at the end)
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce; if not available substitute 3 tablespoons brown sugar and an additional tablespoon of soy)
• 4-6 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
• 2 cans  light coconut milk (you can use regular)
• juice of two limes
• bread:   8-12 large slices peasant bread, lightly toasted and rubbed on both sides with garlic (see below)
• 1/2-1 cup roasted, salted peanuts chopped
• 1/2-1 cup chopped fresh mint

Method

1. Heat the oil is a very large pot on medium heat and add the ginger, lemon grass and curry leaves.  Saute for two minutes until fragrant.
2. Add the onions and saute on high for 5 minutes until soft and just beginning to brown around the edges.
3. Add the garlic, turn heat down to medium and saute another minute.
4. Add tomato paste and saute with the aromatics until glossy.
5. Add the vermouth or water and stir until you have a saucy consistency.
6. Add the chicken and the parts, and stir well to combine.  Simmer for about 10 minutes on medium covered.  It is not necessary to brown the chicken.
7. Add the soy, kecap manis, coconut milk and  4 tablespoons of Sriracha.  The chicken should be just about covered, if not add more water.
8. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  The chicken will be done when the meat and skin starts to pull away from the bones.
9. While the chicken is cooking, prepare the toast and garnishes.
10. Remove the chicken to a large baking or broiling pan (lined with foil if you want to make clean up easier)  with skin side down to start.  Broil about 6 inches from the heat until well browned, between 5 and 10 minutes. Turn the chicken over and broil on the skin side until well browned.  Turn off the oven if the sauce is not finished.  If you have a gas grill, through the chicken on that on high heat and grill until well browned on all sides.
11. Meanwhile, boil until the sauce is very thick , about 10-15 minutes.
12. Add the lime juice.  Taste the sauce and add more Sriracha if you want.  You may find that the coconut milk has blunted some of its edge.
13. To serve, take one or two very large, deep platters and put half of the toasted bread on the bottom.  Arrange the chicken on top of the bread and pour the sauce on top.  Arrange the remaining toast around the edges so that it remains crisp.  Sprinkle with chopped mint, then the peanuts.  (I like the larger amounts of garnish, esp. the mint.)
14. Serves 8 generously.

The bread:  My son and I thought that this was best with a plain white peasant bread.  We were fortunate to have a loaf from the Terranova Bakery, which is in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood of the Bronx.  They also make nice pepper frissell, which are hard biscuits, which is what my wife preferred.  No need to toast these. A toasted sourdough would also be good.  I would avoid any bread that is too sweet, or a whole-grain bread.
 

Thai chicken tofu burgers

As I have remarked in other posts, I am not a fan of ground poultry dishes, though I make and eat them for economy and health.  But I really like these burgers.   The tofu has the effect of both lightening the ground chicken and keeping it moist, and the Thai seasoning,  a traditional combination of white pepper, garlic, and coriander roots (Thai cuisine is one of the few that use the roots of this plant) lends the dish a deep savory flavor.  I make it with a pound and a half of ground chicken because that seems to be the size of all the packages in the market.  This makes about 10 patties.  You can adjust the recipe proportionately to make more or less. This is based on a Japanese dish, and I will suggest some substitutions to make this at the end.  But if you can find coriander roots, do try it this way:

Thai chicken tofu burgers

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground chicken breast
• 1 pound superfirm tofu (Nasoya markets this) or 1 1/2 pounds pressed extrafirm tofu (see below)
• 1 cup panko crumbs
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon whole white peppercorns (you can substitute black but they will darken the dish)
• 8-12 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 tablespoons coriander roots (see below)
• 1-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon Bragg's Aminos or light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon  salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions

Method

1. If you do not have superfirm tofu, take extrafirm or firm tofu, wrap it in paper towels, put it in a dish with a rim. Weight it down for about a half hour.  I use a pot filled with water or a heavy Thai mortar.  Pour away the considerable water that exudes.
2. Grate the tofu using the largest whole of a box food grater.  This will go fairly quickly and I don't think that it pays to dirty a food processor for this.
3. Mix the chicken, tofu and panko crumbs in a large mixing bowl.  This is best done by hand (remove all rings, etc.) but us a large mixing spoon if you must.
4. Roast the peppercorns in a hot skillet until they are aromatic and a few shades darker.  Put them in a mortar along with the smashed peeled garlic cloves.
5. Prepare the coriander roots: cut them off the stems, and scrape off the hairlike small roots with your fingernails. You should be left with just the main white roots.  Chop these coarsely and measure them.  You should have between one and two tablespoons, which would be the yield of a large bunch of fresh coriander. (Don't get bent out of shape if you can't get enough roots, but this recipe should be incentive to start accumulating them whenever you have coriander.  Clean and freeze them until ready to use, and defrosted, they will be easier to pound in the mortar.) Add these to the mortar.
6. Pound the peppercorns, garlic and coriander root to a paste.  Adding a teaspoon or so of coarse salt can help the process along.  You can also use a minichopper, but it has to be able to handle small amounts efficiently.
7. Heat 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small skillet. Add the paste and cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until the aroma changes, about 3 minutes.  Set the paste aside on a plate to cool for a few minutes, then add to the beaten egg and mix into the chicken. 
8. Mix in the Bragg's or soy, the fresh coriander, the scallion, and more salt if you wish.
9. Form into 10 patties about 1 inch thick.
10. Spray a nonstick skillet with oil spray and heat on high.  Add 1 teaspoon to one tablespoon of oil.  After about 30 seconds, when the oil is very hot, add 4-5 patties.
11. Cook the patties on one side for three minutes, the turn and cook on the other side on high for three minutes.
12. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan, and cook the patties for an additional 5 minutes on each side. If you don't have a cover that fits the skillet, just drape it with aluminum foil.
13. Repeat with the remaining patties.
14. These can be served hot or cold, on buns or rolls or without.  I happen to like them on a toasted roll smeared on one side with a mixture of dark miso, mayo and Sriracha, and on the other side with ketchup and a few slices of avocado.

Japanese style: omit the paste of coriander root, garlic and peppercorn, as well as the coriander leaves.  Grate a 2-inch piece of ginger and squeese the juice out in your hand directly into the chicken mixture.  Add about 1/2 teaspoon of Togarishi or other Japanese hot-pepper based spice mix if you would like.\

Chicken cacciatore with a whiff of Asia

"Do you want the chicken Italian or Indonesian tonight?"
"Italian."
So, I tried to do both. I was going to make an Indonesian-Chinese chicken stew with a garlic and yellow bean sauce. I eliminated out the other Asian flavors, but kept the bean sauce, which disappeared into the background but added some umami depth to the dish. I would also have put in some porcini mushrooms but we had none So I used dried shitakes. My only mistake was that I should have used more.
"This doesn't taste Asian at all.  Not one bit."
Here is the dish. Try it and decide for yourself. Leave out the bean sauce if you must, but you will be missing something.

Chicken cacciatore with a whiff of Asia

Ingredients

• 8-16 dried shitake mushrooms
• 2 medium onions, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons yellow bean sauce (tauco, see below)
• 8 chicken thighs, skinned
• 1/2 pound fresh cremini mushrooms  washed and sliced(or omit and use more shitakes)
• 2-3 chopped canned tomatoes (about 1/2 cup)
• large pinch ground rosemary
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon soy sauce or Bragg's aminos (depending on saltiness of tauco)

Method

1. Soak the shitakes in boiling water to cover for about 1/2 hour while you proceed with the rest of the recipe. (You can also zap them for a minute in a covered dish in the microwave, but I find they soften more evenly using conventional soaking.)
2. Saute the onion in olive oil on high in a large nonstick skillet until just starting to brown.
3. Meanwhile, pound the tauco and garlic to a paste. This is most easily done in a mortar and pestle.  However, they can also be smashed together with the side of a knife.
4. Add the paste to the skillet and saute for a few minutes until the garlic no longer smells raw.
5. Add the chicken thighs, and stir fry them until they have browned a bit.
6. Add remaining ingredients except mushrooms and their liquid.
7. Drain mushrooms reserving the liquid, rinse, remove the hard woody stem, slice and add to the stew.
8. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with a coffee filter or paper towel, and add to the stew.
9. Partly cover, bring to a simmer, can cook on low for 1/2 hour to 40 minutes until done, turning once.
10. For a thicker sauce, remove the chicken to a serving dish and boil down the liquid until thick, and pour over the chicken.
11. Serve with rice, pasta or best of all, polenta (see below).

Why thighs?  They are the best cut for stew.  The meat to bone ration is relatively high and the shape is compact, so they take up less valuable pan real estate.  The skin adds nothing other than fat and is rather unappetizing when stewed.  It is easy to slip off and you can sometimes buy them already skinned.  Thighs are also very forgiving.  Something about the musculature makes them very difficult to overcook. Use a whole chicken if you must.

Tauco?  This is a whole yellow (actually light brown) bean sauce popular in Southeast Asia.  I used Yeo's.  It is generally pounded to a miso-like paste, but also good with the beans left whole.

What about the polenta?  Here you have two choices.  You can use firm polenta cut into slices and browned in a skillet or under the broiler.  The precooked logs from the supermarket are actually fine here.  I often like like softer polenta, and have recently discovered an ultra easy method.  It takes an hour or a little more, so put this up before you do anything else and it should be ready when the rest of dinner is. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take 1 cup of medium or coarse yellow corn meal and mix it with 4 cups of water and a about  teaspoon of salt in a 2 quart or larger ovenproof casserole. Put it in the oven and leave it for an hour, stirring after 45 minutes.  If it is still too soft, cook 10 minutes longer.  This keeps well for a while in a turned off oven.

Chicken meatloaf with Thai curry and cabbage

Those who occasionally read this blog or dine at our table know that this is not the way I usually cook.  It is inspired by my cousin Ronnie (who may even go by "Ron" now though it doesn't sound right) who has had the most successful sustained weight loss of almost anyone I know.  The last time I saw him he told me about this chicken meatloaf that he made with Thai curry, thai basil, and cabbage, but said that from one time to the next he couldn't remember how he made it, so he asked me to work out a recipe and blog about it.  So, here it is:

Chicken Meatloaf with Thai curry and cabbage

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
• 1 pound green cabbage, shredded fine (about a quart)
• salt
• 1 cup shredded carrots (optional -- I had them in the fridge)
• 1-2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste  (I use Thai Kitchen, which is vegan and has a nice lemongrass/lime aroma;  other brands may have shrimp paste); 1 tablespoon will give just the hint of a curry flavor, 2 will be much stronger
• 1 3/4 pounds (i.e. 28 ounces) ground white meat chicken
• 5 - 10 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of a broad knife and crushed to a puree with a little salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten.
• 1 teaspoon Bragg's aminos or soy sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander (Ronnie used Thai basil since he lives in Florida and says that it grows like a weed in his yard.  There have to be some advantages in living in Florida.)
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions

Method

• Saute the onion in the canola oil in a large nonstick skillet until golden.  Add cabbage, salt lightly, and saute on high, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is brown.  (The browner the better, but you can stop when you want.)  It will lose lots of volume.  Toward the end, add the shredded carrots.  Depending on your patience, the process will take between 10 and 30 minutes. Be careful not to burn the vegetables.
• Turn the heat down to low and add the tablespoon of curry paste.  Stir to incorporate it well and  cook for a few minutes until it no longer smells raw.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.  Add the sauteed vegetables and incorporate well into the mixture.  
• Turn into a loaf pan that will hold all the contents, sprayed with oil spray so that it will not stick.
• Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 
• Serves 6-8.  This is great served with Sriracha sauce, or a combo of Sriracha and ketchup.

Burning questions:

What's with the ground chicken?  Basically, it's the calories.  Usually I have limited tolerance for ground up bird, and find it dry and uninteresting.  However, this dish is only 5 WeighWatchers PointsPlus (even with the canola oil to saute the veggies) which is almost nothing, and is low in calories and high in protein.  The chicken has a pleasant and delicate flavor.  By itself, it can be as dry as sawdust, but with the sauteed vegetables and eggs, it is very moist.


Do I need to saute the vegetables?  Not really, but it will be much tastier if you do.  The onions and the cabbage caramelize and add a lot of flavor to the loaf.  Also, the canola oil adds relatively few calories to the final dish, and is a very healthy oil.  The chicken is so lean that a bit of fat helps to make it juicy.  It is a common misconception that the sensation of juiciness is a result of the amount of water in the food.  Rather, it is a result of salivation, which moistens the mouth when you eat, and which is a reaction to fat, and to a lesser extent salt in the food.  (See Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking.)

Jambalaya, farkashert

Kosher jambalaya?   Not impossible, but since pork is pervasive in Cajun food, and in just about all cooking from the  American South, you have to be a little flexible.  I worked out this variation with chicken and some kosher sausages that I like (OK, I am addicted to them). Over the next couple of months I also hope to post some other farkasherte Southern dishes like a pulled barbeque made with chicken thighs.  

This method combines Cajun seasoning with Spanish technique, so that the rice is not mushy and you are left with soccarat, the wonderful crust that you sometimes get at the bottom of a pan of cooked paella.  Most recipes for jambalaya that I have seen use long grain rice and cook it covered in liquid for 45 minutes.  This adapts a paella-method, which cooks the rice stove-top or unconvererd in the oven (or on an open fire), or, as I do here, a bit of both.  I thought the results were quite good.  I hope that you do too, and don't miss the pork. 

Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 1-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 12 ounces spicy sausage, cut into half inch pieces (see below)
• 3 tablespoons spice mix
• 1 chicken cut into 8-12 pieces or 8-12 thighs
• 2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, white and some green, trimmed and sliced
• 4 stalks of celery, trimmed, strined and chopped
• 4 green frying peppers or 2 large green bell peppers, seeded, deribbed and chopped
• 1 jalapeno chili, chopped (optional)
• 8 - 12 cloves sliced garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 1/2 cups medium grain Spanish rice (I use Montisia, from near Tarragona, since it is the cheapest of the Spanish rices at the local market)
• 15 ounce can chopped our diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen fire roasted with green chili here)
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth (I used Manishewitz out of a box, you could use homemade)
• salt to taste

Method

1. You will need a dish that you can cook on the stove and that will withstand very high oven temperatures. It shouldn't be too deep, since evaporation is key to this method of cooking rice.  A classic paella pan works well, but is difficult to negotiate on the stove.  I used a large, oval enameled cast iron casserole, about 2 inches deep. The pan should be large and deep enough so that it won't boil over, which may set off your  A large  5-6 quart flameproof casserole would probably work as well, but you run a greater risk of mushy rice.
2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Remove the racks or adjust them so that they are on the highest shelves, since the pan will rest on the bottom of the oven. (If you have an electric over, put one rack on the lowest shelf.
3. Put a little oil in the cooking dish, and brown the sausage pieces well on all sideson medium-high heat for about 10 minutes.  Watch the fat so that it doesn't smoke, and adjust the flame accordingly. Remove to a bowl when done.
4. Meanwhile, dredge the chicken pieces in the spice mix. If you are calorie counting, take off the skin first, but after making this both ways we agreed that the skin adds more than just grease and it is worth accounting for the extra calories.  (See below)
5. Add as many pieces of chicken as will fit comfortably to the pan, and brown well on all sides. Remove pieces to dish as they brown, and add the remaining pieces.
6. Add all of the vegetables except the chili and garlic to the fat in the pan, and cook on high heat until they begin to caramelize.   
7. Add the chili and garlic and cook for a minute or two.  Add the bay leaf, thyme, and paprika and mix well.
8. Add the rice and mix in until it is well coated with the fat, and then saute another minute or two.
9. Add the tomatoes and cook on high for a few minutes until most of it is absorbed.
10. Add the broth, along with the accumulated chicken juices (euphemism for fat). Stir the sausage into the rice, arrange the chicken pieces on top, bring to a boil, and cook uncovered over high heat for 5 minutes.
11. Transfer the pan to the bottom of the oven, and cook for 25 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.  If you would like, you can move it to a higher shelf at the end broil for a few minutes to crisp the chicken skin.
12. Cover the pan very loosely with foil, and leave in the oven at least 5 minutes.
13. Serves eight.

Sausage:  This and the tasso ham are the challenges, since there are no real kosher equivalents.  I just leave out the tasso.  One could try pastrami, but the flavors of coriander and mustard seed would be outof place.  I use Lower East Side  brand Spicy Beef and Red Pepper Sausage, made of course in Newark.  It is like a spicy frank, but with coarser meat, and I find it quite tasty.  You could substitute any of the spicy kosher sausages, precooked or otherwise, though I would avoid ones with North African flavors.  Neshama makes a kosher andouille which would probably be very nice, though I am hooked on the LES spicy beef. A semi-dry turkey cubano would also work.

To skin or not to skin? This is really acceptable if you skin the chicken, particularly if you use thighs which are more difficult to overcook.  However, leaving the skin on adds a lot.  Many flavors are fat-soluble, and the extra dose of chicken fat carries the spice very nicely.  The skin, especially if crisped at the end is delectable.  And, finally, much of what we mistake for moisture in food is actually salivation, our own physiological reaction to fat.  Every week I have eaten this dish, I have lost weight, even making it with the skin on.  Your call. 
  

Spice mix:  Using a clean coffee grinder reserved for spices, grind fine 3 dried red chili peppers, 1 tablespoon dried thyme,  2 teaspoons each black peppercorns, dried oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon each of sea salt and smoked Spanish paprika.  You will use 2-3 tablespoons for this recipe, and save the rest for other uses.  You could also use a prepared cajun spice mix.

Timing, pans ovens and racks:  The precise timing and method that I have given has worked for a very large skillet a bit deeper than a paella pan, and  rectangular enameled cast iron dish.  It is impossible to be precise here.  Sometimes you just have to go with your good sense and wing it.  The pan should uncovered and be relatively wide relative to its depth. If you like your rice crusty, the bottom of a gas oven works best.  If you don't, or have an electric oven, put it down close near the heat source.

Vietnamese red cabbage salad

Other than the recipe for spiced pecans that I posted earlier , I have been very negligent about keeping up my blog this summer. We have had a busy June and July sort of running a graduate dormitory, so I am trying to get back into the swing of things. A lot came together for us Memorial day weekend.  First, we went to San Francisco for our cousin Mina's bat mitzvah.  I won't go into all the liturgical and other details of the trip, but the dinner was amazing.  I am not sure if the Slanted Door, one of the leading high-end Vietnamese restaurants in the city, usually does catering, but they did on this occasion since the bat mitzvah has been friends with the daughter of the owners since they were in nursery school.   Since the reception was at the JCC, it was farkashert, or at least there was no high treyf, which suited me just fine.  There were cold salad rolls, dumplings stuffed with mung bean puree, vegetarian radish cake, tofu and mushroom curry, mackerel with caramel, sauteed bok choy, and red cabbage slaw with grapefruit and spiced pecans.  The slaw tasted like it had a soy-based dressing, rather than one based on fish sauce, so it was strictly vegetarian.  Fish sauce represents particular kashrut problems and is virtually impossible to get prepared under supervision.

Harry and Seth

We came home from San Francisco on Memorial Day, and Harry returned from nine months in Israel the following morning at 5:30.  We went to pick him up at JFK, and one of his friends, Seth Engelbourg (see picture) who had been with Harry on Kibbutz Keturah and shared an apartment with him in Jerusalem, stayed with us that night.  They hung around in the city that day, came home for dinner, and then went out to see the Spiderman show which they said was so bad that it was actually funny.  For dinner, we had Semur Daging, sauteed bok choy, and rice.  I was also going to make a gado gado to go with it but it turned out that Seth is allergic to peanuts.  So I tried to improvise the Vietnamese cabbage slaw from the bat mitzvah.  Instead of a fish sauce based dressing, I devised a vegetarian nuoc cham  based on Bragg's aminos which tasted very similar to what the Slanted Door had made.  The dinner was in general a success (and they consumed an incredible amount of food) but the salad played to somewhat mixed reviews, at least for the returnees. Seth said "The salad is pretty good,  but the dressing is too focused on the chili; there is nothing else going on there. Maybe it also could have used some crunchy noodle for contrast, or maybe some crisp fruit."  Everyone is a Top Chef judge nowadays.  Anyway, I worked on it a bit, tweaked the dressing and the salad, and added grapefruit and spiced pecans which it was made with originally and which I had not used on the first occasion I made it.  You could also add toasted ramen.  I think the improved version struck the right notes and  I hope that Seth would like it.

Vietnamese red cabbage salad, in the style of the Slanted Door:

I still need to get the hang of food photography -- excuse the sponge, peeler, and Osem's package.

Ingredients

• Small red cabbage (1-1.5 pounds)
• 1/4 small white cabbage (optional)
• 1 grapefruit , 1 mango (ideally slightly underripe) or 2 oranges
• 4 scallions, all of the white and some green, chopped
• Cilantro, about 1 cup chopped
• 1/2 cup candied pecans (optional, see my recipe for spiced candied pecans use about 1/6 to 1/4-- you can substitute toatsed ramen if you want)
• Vegetarian nuoc cham  ( use most of my recipe for vegetarian nuoc cham )

Method

1. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbages, shred the cabbages very fine and put in a large bowl.  Ideally, use a mandoline on its finest setting. (Belinda and Alex, parents of one of our summer residents, got me one as a present, so it is my new toy.) 
2. Prepare the grapefruit or oranges.  Slice off the top and bottom with a very sharp knife so that it sits flat on the cutting board.  Slice off the peel and pit to expose the flesh.  When you are done, you should be left with the fruit with little or none of the white pith.  Take the fruit in your hand, and use a very sharp knife to remove the fruit segments, leaving the membranes behind.  Remove the seeds and put them in a bowl.  Be real careful doing this.  When you are done, take the grapefruit carcass and squeeze the juice onto the cabbage.  If you use a mango, just peel it and shred the flesh.
3. Toss the cabbage with the nuoc cham, about 1 cup, and set aside until read to serve.  IF the cabbage was very fine they will be soft.  Otherwise, the are better if they sit a bit in the dressing.
4. Top with the cilantro and scallions.   Scatter the pecans and fruit on top. 
5. Serve as is, or topped with grilled chicken or tofu.

Broiled chicken cutlets

I bet you thought that you would never see this here.  Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.  We eat as many plain chicken cutlets as the next family, but generally we pan broil them on the stove top using either a cast-iron or a nonstick skillet.  Why?  Because we ate a lot of broiled chicken and London broil when I was growing up, and it was always as dry as sawdust, so I assumed that broiling in a home oven was the best way to kill food, for a second time.  (My mother used to say "I'm no Betty Cocker" and this is before she went back to work full-time.) I generally use the broiler for vegetables and to brown things when they are nearly done cooking.  We occasionally moan that living in an apartment doesn't allow us to have a real grill. 

Tonight's dinner proved me wrong.  Amy got home before I did and marinated 2 large chicken cutlets (about a half pound each) for about 30 minutes in a mixture of Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, a smashed garlic clove, a bit of honey, and a pinch of thyme and oregano.  Then, rather than pan broil them as we generally would, I  preheated the broiler to high for a few minutes, put them on a baking sheet lined with foil sprayed with oil, sprayed the top of the cutlets, and put them under the broiler.  I broiled them for about 7 minutes on each side, 5 inches from the flame until they were browned lightly.  I then let them bake in the oven for another 7 minutes on 415 degrees.  They came out far juicier than any pan-broiled cutlets we have ever had.  It is difficult to be too exact about the cooking time, which varies with the size and shape of the cutlets, their temperature when you start to cook, the kind of pan you are using and the real, as opposed to the declared, heat of your oven.  So test them with your finger (run it in cold water first to protect it against the heat of the chicken):  if it is fairly firm with just a little springiness, it is done.  Let it rest a few minutes before slicing on the bias and serving.  We had it with an onion confit with Port and raisins from the Isle D'Orleans in Quebec.

The results were amazing, and this method beats cleaning the pan, whatever type you use, and there are no worries about chemicals leaching out from a nonstick surface at high heat.  I would not say that this testing was done with Cooks' Illustrated level rigor, but I am a convert.

Yemenite Chicken Soup

This is the Yemenite version of chicken-in-a-pot, which is the Ashkenazi comfort food of bland boiled chicken in rich broth with complementary carbohydrates:  kasha, noodles, matzo balls, and sometimes potatoes.  Instead of the multiple carbs, the Yemenite variant adds flavor.  I first had this at my cousin Susan's house, when her friend Tamar brought over this soup (and a basket of homemade laffa, a kind of Yemenite naan, which was a soft as a baby's bottom, but that is another matter) after her mother, the legendary and incomparable Aunt Birdie,  died a few years ago.  Tamar explained how to make it, and I played around with the recipe a bit, and here is how we do it:

Yemenite chicken soup


Ingredients

• 1 chicken, about 3 pounds, cut up into 4-10 pieces and skinned
• 2 quarts boiling water
• 1 bunch cilantro, washed well
• 6 cloves garlic, paper removed but unpeeled
• 1 tablespoon Osem pareve chicken soup powder (this is for the authentic flavor;  if you must, you can use chicken stock or just water)
• 2 tablespoon Pereg spices for soup (hawaji)
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks, more if you want
• 1 large russet potato, scrubbed well and cut into eights (you can peel it if you want but I find that the peel adds flavor to the broth and helps to keep the potato from falling apart
• 1 - 2 cups winter squash, like butternut, peeled and cut into 1 inch dice (optional, and you can use zucchini instead, just add it with the green beans)
• 8 ounces to 1 pound green beans, trimmed 

Method

1. Put the chicken in a 4-5 quart pot and pour the boiling water over it. (A 4 quart pot will be tight but will add some drama to cooking and serving;  5 quarts will give you plenty of room.)
2. Bring to the boil, turn heat down to a simmer, and skim off the scum that rises to the surface. (This will take about 10-15 minutes).
3. Add garlic cloves, soup powder, and spices.  Tuck the cilantro into a corner of the pot. (You can tie it with some kitchen string to make it easier to remove, but I don't. )
4. Simmer for 10 minutes and add the onion.
5. Simmer for another 10 minutes and add the potato and carrot.
6. Simmer chicken for another 20 minutes, and add the squash.
7. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the green beans and simmer until they are tender, for another 5-10 minutes.  Total cooking time is about 50 minutes to an hour.  Taste the broth for salt if you didn't use the soup powder, otherwise it will be plenty salty. Fish out the bunch of cilantro if you can.
8. We usually serve the soup as a first course, and the chicken and vegetables on a plate next, along with harissa or zchug. You can serve it all together in big bowls if you want.  In either case, serve it with middle eastern bread, preferably laffa, which is now available commercially, or thick Israeli-style pita.
9. Serves 4. 

Hawaji:  This is a Yemenite spice powder used for soup. It is much easier,  if you can find it,  to use bought Yemenite spices for soup.  Pereg is the brand I use.  Otherwise, mix together 1 tablespoon each  of finely ground black pepper and cumin, 2 teaspoons ground coriander, one teaspoon each ground cardamom and turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves.  You can play with this as you like, especially the proportions of  cardamom and cloves, and you can leave out the coriander if you want.  This amount will make enough for 2 pots of soup.


Soup powder:  Usually I only use pareve soup powder to keep a recipe vegetarian or dairy.  But Tamar swore by using a bit of Osem, which is a pareve soup powder that contains all sorts of horrible ingredients. Israelis use it all the time,  and it gives this soup an "authentic" taste, and if you don't overdo it, it is quite good.  I had a long discussion today about  Osem with Ruby, an Israeli of Persian extraction, who said that Osem powder is a good way of adding umami to all kinds of dishes. He even suggested that I use it in the lamb shank ragu that I described to him.  Maybe next time.  Umami is the "fifth flavor,"  associated with deep savory protein flavors from things like meat broth, parmesan cheese, mushrooms, anchovies and soy sauce.  A posting about lamb shanks and umami will follow shortly.

Matzo balls:  Though rarely served this way, matzo balls are a great addition to this soup.  Serve them separately with the broth first.  They soak up the spice flavoring beautifully.

Chicken with pasta, inspired by Greece and Syria

On of the under-reported joys of parenthood is being able to eat your kids' leftovers.  It may be as simple as picking at the food that adheres to their clothing when they are done eating (only try this with very young children) or nabbing half a hot dog (if people still feed their children hot dogs) that is left on their plate.  My favorite juvenile leftover, however, is pasta.  When they were young, my kids were VERY picky eaters-- no longer, fortunately.  More than one friend has commented that this at least partially proved the existence of a just God with a sense of humor.  They ate a lot of pasta, seasoned at times with nothing more than air.  Salt and butter came later, and tomato sauce much later. Cheese is a relatively recent addition to the pasta plate, that Maya started eating in her teen years and Harry not at all with the occasional exception of mozzarella..  We call Maya the Cheeze Wizard and a substantial amount of our family's food budget when she is home goes to buying good cheese, especially parmesan.  We can go through two pounds of Parmiggiano-Reggiano a week.  We have tried to slip in some Grana Padano, but it apparently won't do.  But I digress.  To me, the best thing about my kids' pasta habit was that we would get to zap the leftover in the microwave for a few minutes, covered loosely with paper towel.  Throw in some Parmesan, mozzarella or other cheese if you kids' pasta was cheese-less. What comes out was a combination of somewhat overcooked pasta in the center, surrounded by amazing crusty pasta.  If you are the kind of person who likes picking the hard bits from the edges of a pasta casserole, and who doesn't, try this some day.  If you are this kind of person, this recipe is also for you.

Both Syrian Jews and Greeks make chicken with macaroni pasta.  I have been toying with this recipe for years, combining seasonings and methods.  There was a time when I would rub the chicken with spices, leave overnight, roast it, cook the tomato sauce in the pan juices, add the semi cooked pasta, and then toss it altogether and cook some more.  I decided that life is to short and have come up with a version that I like and that I find pretty easy to prepare.  It uses the Filipino method of stewing the chicken without browning and then broiling it after to crisp the skin.  This dish will be done minimal harm if is sits for a while in a warm oven before serving it, which makes it great for company or a Friday night dinner.

Chicken with pasta

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, and a bit more for oiling the baking dish
• 2 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 medium-large onion, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 5 or more cloves garlic, sliced or chopped
• 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juice (I like Muir Glen fire roasted)
• 1 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1-2 teaspoons Alleppo pepper
• 4 pounds chicken parts (I used a chicken  cut into eights plus a few thighs, a little more or less won't hurt)
• 1 pound tubular pasta

Method

• Bring several quarts of water to the boil in a large pot to cook the pasta.  Salt it well.  Meanwhile, do the rest of the recipe.
• Heat olive oil on medium in a large 5 -6 quart pot.
• Add cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick, Stir around for a few seconds and add the onion, a little salt, and cook until soft but not brown.
• Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two.
• Add the tomatoes and their juice, the allspice, and the Alleppo pepper.  Cook on high for about 5 minutes.
• Add the chicken, some salt and pepper, bring the boil, turn heat down to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes until chicken is barely done, or slightly underdone.  Remove chicken to an oven dish.
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling water for no more than 2-3 minutes.  Drain, run under cold water to stop the cooking, and drain well.
• Broil the chicken, skin-side up, until the skin is crisp but not too brown, because it will cook more later. 
• Set oven temperature to 425.
• While the chicken is broiling, add pasta to the sauce in the pot, and cook on high heat for about 5 minutes.  The past should still be very al dente.  
• Spray or lightly oil a large, fairly shallow bake and serve dish. A shallower dish will give you crustier pasta.  Pour in the pasta and bake in the oven about 20 minutes.
• Put the chicken on top, skin side up, and bake another 10-20 minutes until cooked through.  If you want, brown the chicken a bit more at the end to crisp and get the pasta crusty.

Cooking the pasta:  If I really had the courage of my convictions, I would skip the preliminary boiling of the pasta and just cook it in the tomato sauce before baking it.  There should be enough liquid since the chicken, onions and tomatoes give off a lot of juice.  This would make it easier to keep the pasta al dente.  However, there is nothing wrong with a casserole where the pasta is slightly soft in the center and crusty around the edges.  If you do try this without pre-boiling the pasta before I do, post a comment to let everyone know how it turns out.

Leftovers:  One one level, this is what the dish is all about. To make it easier to reheat, remove the chicken meat from the skin and bones and shred coarsely, ideally with your hands.  Oil or spray a baking dish, and add half the remaining pasta.  What sauce there is will have mostly been absorbed and the rest will be solid from the amount of gelatin. Top with the chicken, and top with the remaining pasta and spray with some oil spray.  I find that I don't care for chicken reheated in the microwave, so I would bake it about 45 minutes in a 400 degree oven, until the top is crusty.  You could also zap it if you want, but be sure not to cover it with plastic wrap or a regular cover or the pasta will get soggy.  Use paper towel or wax paper. 

Boiling water:  This should probably be the first thing that you do when you start to prepare any meal whether or not you will actually need it later..  Boiling water takes time, and you don't want to have to wait for it.

Chicken cutlets with peppers and capers

I am not really a photo person, and frequent readers of this blog (there are at least three of you I think) will know this from the paucity of photos of food that I post, in contrast to most other food blogs. Trying to photograph food makes me realize why food photography is a profession unto itself, and often involves doing things to the food that make it inedible, but pretty under the camera. The photo at left of today's dish I think provides ample evidence as to why I do this so infrequently. Amy said "It looks like lobster," which may have its merits, but isn't what I cooked.

Basically, I am a textual rather than visual person. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I would rather read the words, and it doesn't take all that long. To say that there is little visual record of my second child is an understatement, but my understanding is that this is a fate common to many second children. More out of the ordinary is that we have relatively few pictures of our first child. (She will say we actually have more of her brother but she is wrong.) So, readers will have to be satisfied with recipes, like this one, a Spanish style chicken scallopine. I made it with ground almonds left over from Pesach (which did not yet have a freezer smell) to accommodate Amy's low carb diet (I complain about it, but she looks fabulous). Here it is:

Chicken cutlets with peppers and capers

Ingredients

• 1 pound thin sliced chicken cutlets
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• salt
• 1 tablespoon smoked Spanish paprika
• oil spray
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
• handful of finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup chicken broth, white wine, or dry sherry (I prefer the broth; I used boxed Tabatchnick's which is acceptable in small quantities especially since it is overwhelmed by the other flavors)
• 1/2 cup shredded or diced roasted peppers (I used jarred piquillo peppers from Spain, rinsed very well)
• 1 tablespoon capers, small or large, rinsed

Method

1. Mix ground almonds, 1 teaspoon of salt, and paprika and put on a plate. Dredge chicken cutlets in the mixture as if you were breading or flouring them. (You could also defy the low-carb rule and use flour, but the almonds really taste good in this dish.)
2. Spray a large nonstick skillet, heat on high, and add one tablespoon of olive oil.
3. Add chicken cutlets and cook on high until browned on both sides. If not quite done, cook a bit more. (This will take between 6 and as much as 15 minutes, depending on the actually thickness of the cutlets, how cold they are, your heat sources, the conductivity of your pan, and how crowded the pan is, etc., etc., etc.)
4. Remove chicken cutlets to a large serving platter when done.
5. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan and heat on high.
6. Add shallots, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and saute for 2 minutes.
7. Add garlic, stir a few times, and add half the chopped parsley. Deglaze pan with the sherry vinegar and the stock or wine. Cook down until reduced a bit.
8. Add peppers and capers and continue to reduce until there is relatively little liquid.
9. Return cutlets to pan to warm through, and transfer back to the serving platter and top with peppers, capers, sauce and remaining parsley.
10. Serves 4. We had it with pan roasted red kuri squash, but it would go better with a nice, crusty baguette.
    

Adobo fried rice

"What smells so good? " are Andrew's first words upon waking up at what for him is the relatively early hour (on days when he does not work in the mornings) of 1 pm.

"Fried rice, and I finished it" was my honest response.

"Oh , that did smell really good though, what I woke up to." (Andrew usually speaks in complete sentences when he is fully conscious.)

It was my lunch, a fried rice made with what was left of the chicken adobo from last Friday's dinner. I can't decide if I prefer the torta (Mexican style sandwich in my last entry) or the fried rice to use up the leftover chicken. The rice certainly works better if there are only scraps left. Here is the recipe:

Chicken adobo fried rice, to serve one

Ingredients

• 1-2 tablespoons chicken fat from the top of the leftovers (it will solidify and come off nicely)
• 1 handful sliced scallions, all the white and some of the green
• 4-5 cloves of garlic from the adobo, mashed
• A few scraps of chicken, off the bone, diced to give about 1/2 cup
• 1-2 cups leftover white rice, at least a day old
• 3-4 tablespoons adobo gravy
• 1 egg

Method

1. Heat the chicken fat is a nonstick skillet on medium heat until melted. (You may also use an impecabbly seasonsed wok or cast-iron skillet, but I never seem to get my utensils to such a level.)
2. Add the scallions and saute until soft, and brown lightly if you wish.
3. Meanwhile, warm the gravy and chicken in a microwave for about a minute just to liquify and make it easier to work with.
4. Remove the cloves of garlic, mash, add to the scallions and saute for a minute or so.
5. Add chopped up chicken and saute to warm and brown lightly if you wish.
6. Add rice, turn heat up to high, and stir fry until hot.
7. Add the adobo gravy and cook until absorbed by the rice.
8. Beat the egg with a pinch of salt.
9. Move the rice to the side, making a hole in the center. If it seems dry, add a bit more fat or some oil.
10. Add the egg and saute until almost firm., then stir into the rice,
11. Enjoy.

Note: This recipe can be multiplied, but not too many times. There has to be room in the skillet to saute it properly.

Chicken Adobo and the 59th Street Bridge Song

We had our friends Chris, Melissa and their eight-year old son Gabe over to Friday dinner last week, and served Chicken Adobo, a Filipino chicken dish which will be familiar to frequent readers of this blog since I have adopted some of the method to other cuisines. (Stew the chicken without browning, and then broil at the end. You get crisp skin and less mess.)

Both of my kids have been sleepaway counselors for eight-year olds, and there is a particular endearing goofiness to that demographic. My daughter's campers would wake up in the morning and ask "Is it time for dinner yet?" We lit candles and Gabe asked "Is it Hanukah?" When we uncovered the challah, he wanted to know "Where's the matzah?" Perhaps a better analogy than my daughter's campers would be our Russian cousins, who immigrated to the US a few days before Pesach in 1993 and wanted to bring a challah to our seder. (Not that I should talk. We discussed, and avoided discussing, lighting Shabbat candles for 12 years before actually doing it.) Anyway, we spare our guests and never sing on Shabbat, other than kiddush, not zemirot (after dinner songs), not even Shalom Aleichem before dinner. But Gabe treated us to a rousing performance of Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge song ("Feeling groovy") after dinner, which actually struck me as the sweetest of all possible zemirot, and perfectly descriptive of the purpose of the day.

Chris wanted me to post the recipe for the Chicken Adobo. I had a few qualms about copyright infringement, since I didn't consider my recipe sufficiently original, but I really shouldn't since if you change an ingredient or the method it does qualify as a new recipe. This is also a good opportunity to plug the two cookbooks from which I derive the recipe: Reynaldo Alejandro's The Philippine Cookbook, and Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan's luminous Memories of Philippine Kitchens, which is travelogue, memoir and anthropology as well as a cookbook. Amy and Romy are also the owners of the late lamented Cendrillon which used to be our favorite restaurant, and current owners of Purple Yam, which might be if it were not in yenem velt (Ditmas Park). Beside, other than Chicken w Sumac (see my earlier blog entry) Chicken Adobo is one of the dishes with the highest satisfaction relative to cost and effort. Here is how I make it:

Chicken Adobo

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, cut into 10-12 pieces (the breasts of poor chickens are so overgrown nowadays that they take so long to cook so I cut them in half)
• 12-30 cloves of garlic (ideally fresh smashed and peeled, but pre-peeled are fine and that is what I used last week -- smash them a bit if it makes you feel better; I usually use about 25 for one chicken, depending on size of garlic and chicken)
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
• 2-4 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoons rosemary, crumbled a bit between your fingers
• 1 or two whole dried red chili peppers (omit if you are serving small children)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (see below)
• 3/4 cup vinegar (see below)
• 1 can coconut milk (optional but nice; it smooths out some of the harsh edges of the vinegar. I used "lite" -- use full fat or make your own if you are up for it.)

Method

1. Put the chicken in a pot.
2. Add the seasonings.
3. Pour the liquids over the top. You can marinate it for a few hours or overnight but it really isn't necessary.
4. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.
5. Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes until the chicken in barely done.
6. Remove the chicken to an oven-safe serving dish, skin side up.
7. Broil 6 inches from the heat until the skin is crisp. (If you have time, you can broil skin side down, which will crisp the bones a bit, and then turn skin side up to finish. Be careful not to overcook.)
8. Meanwhile, boil the liquid down over high heat until reduced at least by half, and more if you have time.
9. Skim some fat off the gravy (I usually don't bother, pour it over the chicken and serve.
10. Ideally, serve at once, but it can keep for a while covered in a warm oven and reheats well too.
11. That's it. Serve with rice.

Soy Sauce: The better the soy sauce, the better the dish. (The same goes for the chicken.) A good aged soy would be wonderful, but frankly, I generally use Kikkoman. It is nice to substitute a tablespoon or two of Bragg's aminos' a soy-sauce like product with wonderful umami flavors for some of the soy sauce. IF you like the dish a bit sweet, substitute a tablespoon or so of kecap manis, Indonesian sweet soy sauce, or just add a spoon or two of brown sugar.

Vinegar: Some recipes call for plain white vinegar, which I think is boring. I have seem others which ask for balsamic, which is too much, and lots of balsamic doesn't taste all that good, and the good stuff might be overwhelmed in this dish. I tend to use apple cider vinegar, especially a fruity kind rather than supermarket standard. Again, Bragg's makes a wonderful cider vinegar. Sherry vinegar is also good in this, but expensive, so I used 1/2 cup of cider vinegar and 1/4 cup of sherry vinegar.

A nice treat with leftovers: This dish is great reheated and served with rice, and it will be very easy to remove the extra fat which will have hardened on top. For a real treat though, make a Filipino version of a torta, a Mexican sandwich. Since Mexicans also make their own chicken adobo, this seems like a nice thing to do. Take a crusty long roll or a section of French bread and toast it lightly. Meanwhile, warm some chicken and garlic cloves in a microwave for a minute or two. Mash the garlic cloves and spread on the bread. Put the chicken on top, add sliced avocado, red onion, and some cilantro if you want, and enjoy.

Rental house cooking: pasta salad with spinach and feta, and chicken schawarma (not at the same meal)

This is our sunset view for the week, provided that the weather holds out. We rent a house on the Craigville River in Centerville on Cape Cod, about a block from the beach and only a little bit longer from Four Seas Ice Cream. Unlike other New Yorkers, we tend not to rent in Wellfleet, where a walk on the beach is like a ride down Broadway on the #1 train. You can't avoid other Upper West Siders. We usually rent in the Hyannis area, where you rarely run into anyone from NY on the beach, and where you have the joy of hearing the skin of pale Red Socks fans sizzling in the sun.

We have been renting this house for three years, and it has lots going for it, especially view, location, and the people we rent with. (This means lots of surplus labor for kitchen tasks and clean up, amongst other things.) But there are some disadvantages, especially terrible mattresses and a poorly equipped kitchen. I usually bring a skillet or two and some knives, and lots of spices. Still, we manage to put together some good meals. So far I have made the salad nicoise tunisienne, (salad nicoise with preserved lemons and harissa) which I blogged about a few months ago; a pasta salad with spinach and feta; and chicken schawarma style.

I am currently working two part times and I've been working very hard and haven't had time to post yet this month. I swore that I wouldn't bring a computer on vacation, but I had some work I had to to, and will try to retrain myself. However, it is also giving me the chance to blog, so here are are recipes for the pasta salad and the chicken:

Pasta salad with spinach and feta

Ingredients

• 1 pound farfalle pasta
• olive oil
• 8-12 cloves of garlic (sliced very thin: if you have seen the prison scene in Goodfellas you know what I mean -- this is another advantage of the surplus labor in a house share. Carl, our friend's soon to be 23 year old, did this without complaint.)
• 1 to 1.5 pounds spinach (prewashed is acceptable here)
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 pound feta cheese, cut into 1/2 to 1/4 inch cubes (substitute ricotta salata if you want)
• 1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
• large handful of fresh basil leaves, washed well and cut into shreds
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (I spent a fortune on these and forgot to put them in, but the salad would have been better with them)
• 1/4 pound parmesan cheese, scraped into curls with a vegetable peeler

Method

1. Cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until very al dente, drain, and toss with some olive oil in a large serving bowl.
2. Heat 1-3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet, preferably nonstick, on medium heat, and add the garlic.
3. Cook gently for a few minutes until soft but not brown.
4. Add the spinach salt lightly, and stir fry until wilted but not overcooked. Add to the pasta in the bowl.
5. Mix in feta, tomatoes and basil.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste, and move olive oil to lubricate it well. (No vinegar is needed-- the tomatoes and cheese supply enough sharpness here.)
7. Top with parmesan and pine nuts, and serve at room temperature (though it is fine cold as well).

Chicken Schawarma

This isn't really schawarma, either Israeli or Lebanese style, but it is good. This isn't really a recipe either. Puree an onion, some fresh garlic, lemon juice and olive oil in a processor or blender. Add lots of Pereg Spice Mixture for Schawarma (I told you rental houses involve compromise, but this mix is good enough that we use it at home too), and some salt and pepper, and mix well. Marinate chicken thighs 8 hours over night, and remove from the fridge at least one hour before cooking. Grill (or broil if you are home in an apartment) until browned and tender. Depending on the efficiency of your grill, the temperature of your chicken, the outside temperature, the quantity of chicken, your mood, and the alignment of Venus and Mars, this will take between 30 minutes and an hour. Serve with schug (Yemenite hot sauce) or harissa, tahini (see below), hummus, chopped salad, and grilled vegetables (we has squash, onions, eggplant and mushrooms, but the eggplant and onions were most popular). This is especially good in laffa bread, which you can do at home now that PappaLaffa is available in some stores like Fairway.

To make tahini sauce: Smash a clove of garlic on a cutting board with a broad knife or cleaver. Remove peel, salt, and work with the side of the knife until it is pureed. Scrape into a bowl, and add a few tablespoons of tahini. Add the juice of 1/2 lemon. Stir. Dribble in a little water, and stir. You will notice that it will get very stiff and grainy, and then start to relax. Add the water slowly. When it becomes the texture of a yoghurt or sour cream, you can dribble in olive oil instead of water. Otherwise, add more water. Salt to taste.

Chicken tagine with prunes

A tagine is a slow-cooked Moroccan stew, and also the name of the dish in which it is traditionally prepared , a sort of a flat earthenware casserole with a conical top -- very poetic, but not very practical if you are cooking for more than two adults. I make no claims as to the authenticity of the recipe for this tagine, which I have cobbled together from a variety of sources, but it works. It is like a spicy chicken tzimmes. We made it for Seder (and served it with potato kugel), but it is a good year round dish and easy enough to make on weeknights. The key is that you don't brown the chicken before stewing it, but rather glaze it after while you are thickening the sauce, which regular readers of this blog will recognize as a favorite method of mine.

Chicken tagine with prunes

Ingredients

• 1 three pound chicken, cut into eights, or 3 pounds chicken thighs (I think chicken thighs work best here, but some people like their white meat)
• 1 large grated Spanish onion
• 3-4 large sprigs of fresh coriander, washed well but left whole
• 2 cloves mashed garlic (I left these out on Pesach because my mother hates garlic)
• 1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (Moroccans use the dried spice, rather than fresh)\
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks (optional -- nice, but it depends on how the other dishes are spiced)
• large pinch of saffron, toasted in a skillet briefly and then soaked in 1/4 cup water for a few minutes
• pinch of turmeric
• salt
• 12 oz. dried pitted prunes
• 1 cup black raisins (optional)
• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-2 inch pieces

Method

1. Soak prunes and raisins in warm water about 30 minutes.
2. If you want a lighter dish, you can remove the skin from the chicken, in which case you should skip step #6, broiling the chicken.
3. Put chicken in a pot with onion, coriander, garlic, spices (including saffron water) and salt. Bring to a simmer and stew about 20 minutes.
4. Drain the raisins and prunes and add to the chicken, along with the carrots, and cook about 20-25 more minutes until chicken is done.
5. Remove chicken from the pot and place skin side up in an oven and broiler safe serving dish.
6. Broil chicken until the skin in brown. Be careful that you don't burn it.
7. Meanwhile, remove the coriander sprigs and taste the sauce, especially for the balance of heat, sweet and salt. Adjust seasonings if necessary, and boil down until the sauce is thick.
8. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve. It also keeps nicely if you hold it in a low oven, and reheats well, especially if you use the thighs. Serve with couscous, mashed potatoes, rice, kugel on Pesach, or thick Israeli-style pita.
9. Serves 4 generously.

Couscous: I use Claudia Roden's method. Combine equal amounts of couscous and salted boiling water (1 to 1.5 cups should be more than enough for 4), in an oven safe dish, covered, for about 20 minutes. Oil your hands lightly and massage the couscous to separate the grains. This makes it fluffy and is actually kind of fun. Dot with a little pareve margarine (butter if you are not fussy about these things) and heat covered in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The temperature is flexible, and it can also sit in the oven. While I used to only prepare couscous in a couscousierre, a tall cylindrical pot with a steamer on top for the couscous and massage it twice, following Paula Wolfert's directions. It was a pain in the neck and frankly doesn't come out appreciably better than Roden's way. In her recent cookbook, Mediterranean Grains and Greens, Wolfert really goes over the top and tells people to roll their own couscous from semolina. (For a great review/appreciation/sendup of this book, see Nicholas Lemann's review "The Diva" from Slate.) However, I do agree with Wolfert that instant couscous is an abomination.

Spices on Pesach:   Due to changes in the ways that spices are processed, some ground spices may contain hametz.  If this is of concern and you cannot find Kosher for Passover spices, you can leave out the turmeric and substitute a 1 tablespoon grated ginger for the dried.  The saffron should not present a problem, and black pepper is widely available K for P or may be ground fresh.  Pereg, an Israeli brand, produces many K for P spices.  Also, Penzeys spices are pure, high-quality, and prepared without any addititives that might contain hametz, such as anti-caking agents.  People far stricter than I am use them with confidence.

Indian-style chicken scallopine

Usually fusion is not my style, but this is a great way to get an Indian-flavored dish in a fraction of the time it takes to cook an authentic Indian chicken stew. Amy came up with this one, which is a slight variation of one that I made on Pesach. Soon I hope to post more on some post-Seder Pesach dishes that are good for year round, but meanwhile, hear is Amy's

Chicken scallopine with cumin and mint

Ingredients

• 1-3 tablespoons oil (vegetable oil like canola)
• 1 tablespoon whole cumin seed
• 4 chopped shallots
• 1 pound think sliced chicken cutlets (enough for the 3 carnivores in our family when served with sides)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup chopped tomatoes (we used 1/2 can of del Valle chopped cherry tomatoes)
• 1-2 tablespoons tamarind puree/pulp (not concentrate)
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala(optional)
• Handful of chopped fresh mint

Method

• Heat oil on high in a large non-stick skillet.
• Add cumin and cook about a minute until it sizzles, smells fragrant, and darkens a bit -- do not burn.
• Add shallots and cook about 5 minutes on medium, stirring occasionally.
• Add cutlets and season with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides on high heat. Depending on thickness, they should cook through in 3-5 minutes.
• Remove cutlets, and add tomatoes, cook on high another 5 minutes. Stir in tamarind.
• Return cutlets to the skillet and warm through (or finish cooking through if necessary.
• Serve on a platter sprinkle with garam masala and mint.
• That's it!

Variations:

You can vary the seasonings. Add some or all of chopped ginger, green chili or garlic when the shallots are almost done. Add 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric at the same time. Use fresh coriander instead of the mint (though I think the tamarind/mint combo is really nice here). Skip the tamarind and cook the tomatoes with some dry white wine, though you may need a few more minutes to cook it down. You could also substitute brown mustard seeds for the cumin, but this changes the regional character of the flavors drastically (from Northern to Southern India) so it deserves a separate recipe post.

Chicken with sumac : one of the world's best chicken dishes

Penny for penny, minute of effort for minute of effort, chicken with sumac is probably the best dish in the world. It takes almost no time to prepare, bakes in less than an hour, and uses simple, easy to find ingredients (provided you have a source for sumac).

For some, sumac is a stumbling block. Even hearing the name of the dish gives some people a rash in their throat, but be assured that the spice sumac is a completely different species from poison sumac. It is an essential spice in the Middle east, at least from the Levant through Iran, and adds a rich lemony acidity but is not quite as sour. The color is also beautiful. There is also a traditional American use. American non-poisonous sumac I think is related. Have you ever had pink lemonade? Why would anyone dye lemonade pink? The reason is that in previous centuries, when lemons were scarce to unobtainable, a sweet and sour drink was made with red sumac berries and a sweetener, either sugar or honey: sumac lemonade. My guess is that people were in the habit of drinking a pink lemonade-like concoction, and when real lemons were more readily available, were in the habit of coloring the drink pink. Don't pick your own sumac berries for this dish, though.

The recipe I offer is very slightly adapated from Mary Laird Hamady's luminous Lebanese Mountain Cookery, one of the great books devoted to a micro-cuisine, rural, Druze cooking from Lebanon, and its transmutations in Michigan. It is out-of-print, but still around and worth looking for. You know that you are dealing with the real thing when there is a chapter lovingly devoted to dehen (rendered lamb tail fat), along with adaptations for the American kitchen. This fat is specifically forbidden in Leviticus as an act of asceticism. Remember, our ancestors come from a part of the world where much erotic poetry revolves around the image of the fat tailed sheep and giving it up must have been quite a sacrifice. (Sabbetai Zevi shocked many of his contemporaries by consuming lamb kidney fat, also forbidden, and suggested by Hamady as a substitute for the tail.)

Many of the recipes in the book are worth making (appetizers, pastries, fish, stews, meatballs), but this is our favorite. You will note it is much shorter than most of my recipes, since there is not way to make it longer. I made up for it with excessive commentary:

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 4-6 loaves pita bread, stale ok, white or whole wheat ok
• 1 large spanish onion, peeled, halved, and cut into thin slices
• 4-5 tablespoons ground sumac
• 3 1/2 pound chicken, cut into 10 pieces (halve the breasts which tend to be very large)
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Lightly oil a large baking dish that is 1 or two inches deep.
3. Split the pitas, rip into large pieces, and place in the baking dish. Top with the onions.
4. Season with salt, fresh pepper, and 2-3 tablespoons of sumac. Mix lightly if you are not lazy, but this is not absolutely necessary.
5. Top with the chicken, which ideally should cover all the bread.
6. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and 2 more tablespoons of sumac. It looks nicer if the sumac is spread evenly, so you may sprinkle it on through a sieve.
7. If the chicken looks like is doesn't have enough skin and fat, drizzle with a little olive oil (or actually as much as you feel like).
8. Bake 50 minutes to one hour. That's it. Serves 4 - 6 people.

Finding sumac: It is actually not that hard. Any store that stocks middle eastern groceries should have it. Fairway even carries it now. It is also available mail order from Penzey's spices. You can even follow Paula Wolfert's suggestion and call a local Lebanese or Syrian church and ask the priest where the women in his congregation do their shopping. Don't make excuses, you will regret it. It keeps nearly forever in your freezer. Don't keep it, or any other spices, on a rack near your stove. Sumac is also very nice in a chopped salad or fattoush, and can also be rubbed on a plain roasted or broiled chicken.

The key to success: is the right balance between chicken and bread. Be sure the chicken covers the bread, and add olive oil if necessary. Some people think that in this dish the chicken is beside the point and it is all about the bread, onions and sumac. They are right, but don't be tempted to just put in more bread, since there won't be enough chicken fat to moisten it. The best solution if you want more bread is to get a package of chicken backs and increase the seasonings. They will add plenty of fat, and to my taste, more of the best meat on the chicken. Another key to success is salt, and kosher chickens are really good at keeping the sodium levels up. We have friends who live in a low-sodium household (not that any of them have particularly high blood pressure). We on the other hand eat more salt than we do rice, especially since Amy is on her current low-carb regime. Whenever we make this dish for these friends they remark on how much better our version is than their's. It's because we use salt, and aren't shy about it.

How long does it cook? How many does it serve? These are the eternal questions for which there is really no answer, only, in the Jewish style, questions. How hot is your oven? How tightly is the chicken placed? Was the chicken cold or at room temperature when you put it in? How big is the chicken? How big are the pieces (I find that breasts can run so large that they take longer to cook now than the nearly vestigial legs and thighs of our poor chickens, so I then to cut the breasts up)? How hungry is everyone? What else are you serving? Just bake it for an hour and don't worry about it. There will be plenty for at least 4 people.

Chicken with sumac and mussakhan: There is a similar, more elaborate, and more difficult Palestinian dish called mussakhan. To my taste, it's not worth the time and effort -- you get more bang for your precious time with this version of chicken with sumac, which has all the flavor elements and is easy enough to be a weeknight dinner.

Copyright and recipes: One day, as I have long promised, I will write about intellectual property and recipes. My version makes some slight changes from Hamady's (she puts bread on top which just burns) , but I really justify my publicizing her recipe as a way of making her wonderful cookbook better known. Look for it and buy it if you can.

A very Italian Hanukah

As the smell of oil and onions begins to clear from our apartment, and because I haven't blogged in a while, I think this is a good point to reflect on some of the better meals that we had during Hanukah, two of which were based on Marcella Hazan's Italian recipes. We skipped some of our usual favorites, especially homemade sufganiot (jelly doughnuts). The night we had planned on making them, we had a hoard of teens and twenty-somethings descend on our house, devour almost 100 latkes, and I didn't feel like making a double recipe. I hope we get to do them next year though. I generally don't cook many pastries, but these are lots of fun to make, and the dough is a soft as a baby's bottom. The recipe that we use is from Faye Levy's International Jewish Cookbook, which is one of those great cookbooks that doesn't seem to contain a single bad recipe (but which annoyingly includes the author's name in the title).

What we did have that night, which proved to be very popular, were ricotta fritters, which sort of come from Marcella Hazan's second cookbook, More Classic Italian Cooking. I say "sort of" because I couldn't find the book and didn't feel like following some of her rather strict directions anyway (she can come off a bit like an Italian Margaret Thatcher). It will come as no surprise to the readers of this blog that one of the reasons I don't cook many pastries and cakes is that I don't like having to follow precise directions. We winged it and it came out great. An approximation of my version is below, but don't get too hung up on doing it exactly as I say.

The funny thing was that our other very successful dinner was Hazan's chicken with red cabbage, with a little Filipino touch at the end. That night only Amy, Harry and I were home, and we enjoyed it with latkes, which are actually fun to make when you are only cooking for three. The combination of red cabbage with the latkes was more Middle European than Italian. Maybe this is what they eat in Tyrol. Again, my adaptation is below. It was surprisingly good, and Harry, a real meat and potatoes man, had seconds on the cabbage. There was quite a bit of cabbage with rich chicken juices left over, and one day I will turn it into a soup with chicken sausage and white beans. I'll let you know how it comes out. But meanwhile, the recipes:

Ricotta Fritters:

1. Take one pound of ricotta cheese and smush it around with a fork to smooth it a bit. I used fresh ricotta.
2. Beat in 2 large eggs.
3. Season with a pinch of salt, about a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon or two of rum, and a good amount of freshly grated nutmeg. Add a teaspoon of vanilla if you feel like it. (The original recipe calls for grated lemon rind, and I didn't want to bother so I used the other seasonings. The funny thing is that everyone raved about how lemony the fritters taste anyway. So, why bother?)
4. Mix in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour. Don't overmix because the gluten will develop and it may get tough. (Think pancakes and muffins here.) Add a bit more if it looks too moist. The exact quantity will depend on the moisture level of the ricotta.
5. You may either deep fry or pan fry these. The method is basically the same, but deep frying uses vastly more oil, and as a consequence produces less greasy results.  To deep fry, heat a minumum of 2 inches of oil in a fryer or Dutch oven to 375 degrees.  To pan fry, use a skillet and about 3/4 inch of oil. Bubbles will form around a piece of bread when you dip it in.
6. Take tablespoons of batter and push them gently into the oil with another spoon. (Don't drop it from a height.)
7. Turn over when the underside browns with a spatula and a fork, and fry another minute or two. Regulate heat so that they cook quickly but don't burn.
8. Remove with a slotted spoon, seive, or tongs. Drain on crumpled paper towels.
9. Transfer to a serving platter and drizzle with Middle Eastern date honey (also known as date syrup) or a flavorful bee honey. Serve as soon as possible.
10. Serves 6-8.

If you are super lowcarb, you could also substitute ground almonds for the flour.

Chicken with Red Cabbage:

1. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pot or skillet large enough to accommodate all ingredients later, and add a medium onion, quartered, sliced and salted lightly and saute for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. When the onion is soft, add about 4 cloves of garlic, sliced, and saute a few more minute.
3. Add about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of red cabbage, quartered, cored and shredded finely. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.
4. Cover and cook about 10 minutes until the cabbage begins to wilt.
5. Add a smallish chicken (3 pounds or less), cut into 8 pieces. Mix into the cabbage, and pour 1/2 to 1 cup of red wine over it call.
6. Bring to the boil, turn the heat down to medium low, and simmer about 45 minutes until the chicken is just done.
7. Remove the chicken to a plate, and boil down the cabbage to reduce the juices as much as you want.
8. Put the cabbage in a bake and serve dish, top with the chicken, skin side up, and broil in the middle of the oven until the chicken is well browned and the skin is crisp. (This is the Filipino touch, from Chicken Adobo, and it makes all the difference, especially if you hate flabby stewed chicken skin.)
9. Serves 4, maybe with a little left over for lunch. Great with latkes. If not, serve roasted potatoes or a good baguette.

Note: You can easily double this recipe is you have a large enough pot. The ideal proportion is no more than 1/2 pound of red cabbage to pound of chicken. Don't be tempted to increase the cabbage or it won't be flavorful enough. If you want more cabbage, throw in some extra chicken backs or necks, or add some chicken stock and reduce it more.