Chicken Couscous

There is something about porch doors that stir up memories of summer.  They remind me of the bungalow colony in the Catskills where we stayed with the “mima” and my cousins,  of day trips to family and friends in cottage country outside of Toronto, and of the weekends we spent at my aunt’s house in New Jersey.  The center screen invites you to peek inside, like a window without a curtain, and offers you a chance to call out and see if anyone is home without having to knock.  Then there is that particular sound that a porch door makes as it slams shut, that hard clap that announces your arrival and your departure.  Best of all, you can smell what’s cooking as you pass by.

When we redid our kitchen several years ago, I went on a mission looking for a porch door in various architectural salvage yards, and when I finally found one, it needed to be restored.  We brought it home and after it was sanded down, painted, and re-screened, it was installed on the laundry closet inside my service porch, as a reminder.  When I’m home, you will find that I always keep my kitchen windows open (and curtain free) so you can still peek in, call out my name, and smell what’s cooking.  Come on in!

Chicken Couscous

3 lbs boneless chicken thighs. cut in half

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, diced

3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into thirds

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

any type of orange fleshed squash, peeled and thickly sliced

4  Mexican squash or zucchini, sliced in half, lengthwise

1 bunch cilantro

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 can tomato paste

1 tablespoon chili powder, or less depending on your taste

salt and pepper to taste

½ Tb paprika

½ Tb cinnamon

½ Tb cumin

1/2 cup golden raisins

Saute thighs and onions in olive oil till golden, meanwhile sprinkling with spices.  Allow to fry for several more minutes and add tomato paste, chickpeas and 1 cup of water.  Season with salt and pepper bring to a boil, then lower heat and cook for about 15 minutes.  Add about 4 cups of water to the pot along with the orange squash, sweet potatoes and carrots.  Cook for about 45 minutes.  Add zucchini, raisins and cilantro and cook on low flame til vegetables are tender.

Prepare couscous according to directions on the box. Before serving take a ladle of the broth and stir it into the couscous which will give it a beautiful color.  Mound couscous in the center of a large platter and surround with meat and vegetables.  Place broth is a small bowl to serve on the side.  Serves 6-8

Enjoy,

Irene

Stella’s Curry Sauce for Fish Cakes

In an earlier post I recalled that each year before Rosh Hashana my Mother would buy a carp which was kept alive in the bathtub, destined to be made into Gefilte Fish.  For several days I would come home after school anxious to check on the fish and would then spend hours watching it swim back and forth.  It was a funny sight, but not an unusual one in the building where we lived.  The day before Rosh Hashana my mother would drain the tub, carry the fish into the kitchen, and lay it down on her large wooden board.  She would stun the fish with her rolling-pin, and then chop its’ head off.  The fish was ground and mixed with eggs, matzoh meal, a little salt, and sugar, yes, lots of sugar.

The first time I went to Toronto, my mother-in-law, Lil, served Gefilte Fish for dinner.  I was shocked that the the fish was not in the least bit sweet, and in fact was quite peppery.   At Chanukah I discovered that the Saiger family put onions in their Latkes and served them with sour cream and apple sauce.  My family preferred them onion-free and generously sprinkled with sugar.

We learned to compromise.  I now make Latkes with just a small amount of onion, enough to satisfy Norm’s palate, but not clash with the sugar.  As for Gefilte Fish, I don’t think I have ever actually made it, but in recent years we found a version that we both prefer.  The recipe is not Russian or Polish, but South African.  Both sweet and savory.

To all the fathers who have adapted their tastes for the sake of compromise, Happy Father’s Day.  I hope the day turns out to be sweeter than you expect, but not without a hint of spice.

 

Fish Cakes

2  frozen Gefilte Fish loaves (sweet variety) thawed.  (Mom forgive me)

3/4  cup plain bread crumbs

1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil, add more as needed

Combine thawed fish with bread crumbs and form into small patties.  In a  large frying pan, heat olive oil and sauté fish cakes till golden brown.  Set aside.

Stella’s Curry Sauce for Fish Cakes     (This recipe belonged to Stella’s great-aunt, and was given to her by her Mom)

2 cups white vinegar

1/2 cup ketchup

1 lemon, juiced

1  large apple, coarsely grated

2 Tb Mrs. Ball’s Peach Chutney

2 Tb apricot jelly

3/4 cup sugar

2 Bay Leaves

Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 cup raisins

1 Tsp whole peppercorns

Salt to taste

Put all ingredients in a medium size saucepan and bring to a boil.  In the meantime take a small bowl and combine:

2 Tb Curry Powder

1 Tb Corn Starch

Add 1 cup cold water (a little at a time so that it doesn’t get lumpy) to starch mixture and stir till well blended.   Slowly pour into  sauce on the stove and lower heat to a simmer.   Let cook for about 15 minutes.  When sauce is cool, pour over fish and refrigerate.

Enjoy,

Irene

Blackberry Buckle

My mother never baked pies, cobblers, buckles, or crisps, and since I didn’t have the opportunity to meet my grandmothers, coming home or going to grandma’s house for a piece of freshly baked pie was just not part of my childhood.  It is only in the last few years that I have thought how nice it would be to have recipes that were handed down for more than one generation.

Thankfully my children grew up with all four of their grandparents.  My mother passed away many years ago but Bubbie is still cooking up a storm in Toronto.  Both grandmothers loved to cook and both had the pleasure of feeding their grandchildren.  If I asked my children which dishes they loved eating when they went to their grandmothers, I am not sure what they would say, but I would venture to guess it wasn’t dessert.  So back to my fantasy.  It could be any kind of fruit at all, baked with a crust, topped with dough, sprinkled with crumbs, or oozing in a buckle, and really who cares what it’s called.  My plan is to bake each of these desserts this summer, all made with different types of fruit and various toppings, until I find my favorite.  Maybe one day it will even be passed down.  I’ll keep you posted.

Blackberry Buckle

Cake:

1 cup flour

1½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 extra-large egg

5 Tb milk

1 Tb Creme de Cassis

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups fresh blackberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Over a large piece of wax paper, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg and beat till smooth.  In a small bowl, combine milk with vanilla and Creme de Cassis.  Alternately add milk and dry sifted ingredients to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition.  Pour batter into a greased and floured 1½ quart baking dish.  Spread blackberries over batter.

Crumble topping:

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

3 Tb cold butter

Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Add small bits of butter at a time, until mixture is crumbly and sprinkle over blackberries.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes.  Serves 4-6

Enjoy,

Irene

Swiss Chard Strudel

My girlfriend Elin who grew up in the South recently accused me of being “such a city girl.”  She is right, but like many city girls I often read magazines about country life.   I fantasize about how nice it would be to live Upstate (New York of course) and have a piece of land where we could have a large vegetable garden, a few chickens (Araucana chickens so I can have blue eggs) and maybe even a goat or two (now that I know that a local editor has goats in his backyard here in L.A.)  I think about Norm selling his homemade baked goods at local farmers markets along with my blueberry buns.

Creating something with your own two hands is really rewarding, especially if you have to work at it.  It doesn’t matter if it is gardening, cooking, blogging or even needlepoint.  Every time I walk out my back door and look at the vegetable garden I stand and stare in amazement.  I guess that’s because I truly am a city girl.

Not wanting anything to go to waste I must have picked the equivalent of three bunches of chard and made this dish.  Hope you enjoy it.  In the meantime,  here is what this city girl is reading about.  http://clericiranch.wordpress.com/artisanal-chickens-availability  

 

Swiss Chard Strudel

1 pkg puff pastry, rolled out into a large square

3 bunches Swiss chard, washed, rolled up and sliced into thin strips (stems and leaves)

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 Tb olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup raisins

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tb pomegranate molasses

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large pot, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil on a low flame for several minutes till golden.  Add chard, raisins, salt and pepper.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, making sure chard is tender and fully cooked.  Squeeze mixture gently after cooled to remove excess liquid.  Add pomegranate molasses and adjust seasoning to taste.   Spread chard mixture to cover entire surface of puff pastry.  Then roll up and tuck ends under strudel.  Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds.  Bake on a parchment covered cookie sheet till golden and crisp, about 25 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Serves 8 as a first course.

Enjoy,
Irene

 

 

 

 

 

Corn and Poblano Lasagne

My father had a standard response to a certain type of question, and that response was “only the best.”  That’s a tall order, and of course the idea of what’s best is very subjective.  The statement taught me not to settle for mediocrity.   At work I meet with families and often tell them to manage their expectations when it comes to their mentors, not because of the quality of the volunteers, but because I don’t want anyone disappointed.  Still even as I utter those words, I know I am not being true to myself or my father’s words.

When my father first arrived in NYC, he worked as a tailor for Davidow Suits. a women’s suit company whose ads I remember seeing in Vogue Magazine when I was a teen.  After coming home from a long day he would have dinner and head to night school to learn English.  Years later he decided to follow his passion and become a Stock Broker, not an easy thing for a man in his 40s who had to pass the grueling exam in English, by then his fourth language.  He studied night after night and when he passed away I found all the exams, almost perfect scores on each one.  It didn’t surprise me.

Shavuot is  holiday about relationships.  It is also the one holiday where dairy reigns.  One of my favorite cooking shows is called  “The Best Thing I Ever Made.”  The program features various chefs who talk about that one dish that they make at home for their loved ones and closest friends, the people who you want to serve your best.  Last week a female Mexican chef featured a lasagna that she makes with a Mexican twist.  The best of two great culinary worlds come together in perfect harmony.

May your relationships, your holiday, and your food come from the desire for it to be the best, even if it isn’t always achievable.  Chag Saneach.

 

 

 

Corn and Poblano Lasagna adapted from Marcela Valladolid

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 2 ears)

2 cups heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 Poblano chiles, charred, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch strips

2 large zucchini, thinly sliced lengthwise

Twelve no-boil lasagna sheets

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add two cloves of minced garlic and the corn and sauté for 5 minutes.  Stir in the cream.  Cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool, and purée until smooth.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining garlic clove along with the Poblano and zucchini and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Spread about one-quarter of the corn mixture over the bottom of an 9 x 12 inch baking dish. Cover with a layer of 3 lasagna sheets. Spread 1/4 of the vegetable mixture and 1/4 of the cheese over the pasta.  Repeat the layering three more times. Cover with foil.

Bake covered for about 50 minutes. Remove the foil and turn up the oven temperature to brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Serves 6-8

Enjoy,

Irene

Sticky BBQ Chicken

I’ve had the good fortune of living near an ocean all of my life, first the Atlantic and now the Pacific.  My parents loved the beach, and growing up in the Bronx we spent every weekend on hot crowded buses just to get to Orchard Beach, a beach populated by immigrants and locals.  Once we arrived, my parents always sat in the same grassy area with the same group of people.  My mother would bring certain foods along,  blueberry buns, tuna sandwiches made with generously sliced challah, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, and cold beer for my father.  While the adults played cards and discussed politics, we would go off and play by ourselves for hours.  We played in the ocean or on the sand and sometimes we would keep busy by collecting starfish that we dried in the sun.   Our parents didn’t worry because our older siblings would be nearby laying on their blankets listening to music on transistor radios while spending hours sunbathing.  Not only are the memories embedded but so are the foods associated with those memories, and to this day when I bite into a blueberry bun, it tastes like summer.

Yesterday my daughter, Norm and I went to the beach, something we don’t do often enough.  We didn’t bring food, just some cherries for a snack, we didn’t meet up with friends and we didn’t play cards or discuss politics.  We relaxed, read the paper, took naps on the warm blanket, and eventually packed up the car and came home.  By then we were hungry, raided the fridge and ate cold, leftover BBQ chicken.  Sitting at the kitchen table my daughter took a bite, turned to me and said, “it tastes like summer.”

Sticky BBQ Chicken

2 chickens cut in eighths

Sauce

4 cloves garlic

4 Tb ketchup

4 Tb red wine vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 cup honey

1 tsp red chili flakes

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill over medium heat till done.  This took about 45 minutes on a gas grill that was about 350 degrees.  Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Using a brush, thickly coat chicken pieces on the grill with sauce.  Cook for five minutes, turn over and baste again.  Remove and pour any remaining sauce on top of chicken and it is ready to serve.  You will need plenty of napkins.

Enjoy,

Irene

Spicy Grilled Corn

I have no memory of the first time I ever ate BBQ.  Clearly it wasn’t in The Bronx and it surprises me that what I now count among my favorite things to eat has a beginning steeped in mystery.  Chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn, it doesn’t really matter, nothing tastes as good as something hot off the grill.  That perfect combination of fat hitting flame is hard to duplicate in the kitchen.  When the days are longer I often come home from work and BBQ, trying my hardest to re-create what I imagine “real BBQ” might taste like when prepared by those “guys” who love to cook meat (my guy doesn’t even eat red meat.)  After all these years I am still a novice, mainly because we don’t really live in a BBQ culture.  For me BBQ conjures up certain images like large family gatherings, home-cooking, cold beer, and being outdoors, all so appealing.  So each year I try to learn a little more about grilling and once in a while I get it right.

BBQ corn is a staple at our farmers’ markets but because of the Latin influence you normally can have them plain or heavily seasoned, my personal preference.  I have tried marinating the corn in spices before grilling them but the flavor never really penetrated the surface. I have tried shaking on the spices just after I have removed the corn from the grill, but that didn’t work very well either.  Today I read an article that mayo is the “glue” of choice for grilled corn.  I went and bought two ears of corn, pulled back the husks, removed the silk, brushed the corn with a little olive oil and grilled them on high for about 10 minutes.  Then I brushed the grilled corn with a very thin layer of mayo, and rolled them in a combination of spices.  I am proud to say that this is not my mother’s corn.

 

Spicy Grilled Corn

Prepare corn and grill for about 10 minutes, till lightly charred.

In a bowl mix 1/2 tsp smoked paprika with 1/2 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp garlic powder.  Add a pinch of salt.

Brush grilled corn with mayonnaise and roll in spices.  Squeeze lime juice over the top.

Enjoy,

Irene