"Gingerbread" Poached Pears

Fruit cooked with just a little sweetener makes an excellent dessert, and we really enjoyed these. Having said that, they would be even better with custard, whipped cream, pudding, or ice cream. 

 

There isn't as much sugar in the poaching liquid as is usual in recipes for poached fruit, so although I boiled it down to thicken it a bit, it did not get particularly syrupy. I can see these sliced over sponge cake to sop up the juices, and topped with cream and custard as a kind of trifle. We just slurped them up though, and were perfectly happy.

 

4 servings

40 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

 

 

 

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon molasses

2" stick of cinnamon OR 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

4 whole cloves OR 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves  

a pinch of salt

4 quarter-sized slices of fresh ginger

1 1/3 cups water OR apple cider or juice

4 large ripe but firm Bosc or Bartlett pears

2 tablespoons rum OR sherry, OPTIONAL

Measure the honey and molasses into a pot which will hold the pears snugly, but which can be covered firmly as they cook. Mix in the spices and salt. Wash and slice the ginger, and add it, and slowly stir in the water or juice until the honey and molasses are mostly dissolved. Put a rack or something to keep the pears off the bottom of the pan into it; I used a trio of canning jar rims which worked fine. 

 

Peel the pears, and core them as much as possible from the bottom, leaving them whole. 

Bring the poaching liquid to a boil. Arrange the prepared pears onto the rack, which is there to keep them from sticking to the bottom and scorching. Cover the pot and cook the pears - they will not be covered by the liquid and will mostly steam - for 12 to 20 minutes, until just tender. Exact time will depend on the size and the ripeness of the pears. 

When the pears are done, remove them to a serving dish or storage container. Strain the cooking liquid, pressing to extract all the liquid, and discard the solids, including the rack (into the sink for washing, presumably). Return the liquid to the pot and boil it until reduced by one-third. Pour it over the pears and chill them until serving time. 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Brussels Sprouts Hash.

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Polish Seasoning Blend

I've posted this before, but as part of another recipe. However, I find myself reaching for it frequently, and so it merits its own post. It's based on a commercial mix I found in a Polish grocery store, and it is extremely useful: good in beef and pork dishes, and it really shines with poultry and fish. It's just very versatile, and I recommend it highly. I usually make a double recipe. You can also expect me to post more recipes calling for it. 

 

10 minutes prep time 

1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon coriander seed
4 teaspoons caraway seed
4 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tablespoon rubbed thyme OR savory
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo or similar not-too-hot chile/paprika

Grind the mustard, coriander, and caraway seeds. Sift them and regrind anything that didn't go through. When all is ground finely, mix with the remaining spices. Keep sealed in a jar in a cool, dark spot until needed.

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Quinoa Salad with Hazelnuts, Red Cabbage & Parsley

A little fruit; a few nuts; it's a typical salad around here. This is the last of the parsley I'm sure; it's good right up until snow comes, but, uh, yeah. This is already not that local. Still, this was very good, and the leftovers kept quite well. If you think you are going to have leftovers, apply some nuts to the portion you expect to eat and keep the rest dry and crunchy for the next meal, if it's possible. You don't always know, though.  

 

6 to 8 servings

30 minutes prep time

NOT including cooking the quinoa

 

Make the Dressing:

finely grated zest of 1/2 a large orange

juice of 1/2 a large orange

1 tablespoon apple butter

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup hazelnut OR almond oil

Mix or shake all together in a small bowl or jam jar and set aside.

Make the Salad:

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

1 cup (1 medium) grated carrot

1 cup grated red cabbage

1 cup finely chopped parsley

1/2 of a large orange

1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts

Cook 1 cup of raw quinoa in the rice cooker with 1 2/3 cups water and 1/4 teaspoon salt; use HALF of it for this salad and save half for another purpose. This should be done at least a couple of hours to a day ahead. 

Peel and grate the carrot. Grate the red cabbage. Wash, dry, and mince the parsley. Since you now have half of a large orange left over from the dressing, you might as well peel it, section it, and cut the sections in small pieces. Mix all these in a salad bowl. 

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet over medium-high heat. As soon as they are toasted, tip them out onto a clean tea towel. Rub them to remove most of the skin. Crush or chop the hazelnuts and mix them into the salad. Toss with the dressing, and serve.

Last year at this time I made Spiced Roasted Apple & Acorn Squash Soup.

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Acorn Squash Soup

This is as simple a little soup as can be made; but serving it in the squash shell makes it look much fancier. I am ridiculously attracted to twee little presentation tricks, but have long since realized that while most of them look good in a photograph, they tend to interfere annoyingly with the actual eating. I'm happy to report that this is an exception. They must be handled carefully while being put in individual bowls, but even if the bowl does not fit the squash super snugly, they don't move around as I was afraid they might while they are eaten. Still, if you have a fairly snug fitting bowl, it will be better. When you are slicing the squash, be sure you are doing it at an angle which will allow the pieces to sit well and be stable.

 

It is important to use a good quality, home-made stock for this soup, given how simple it is, and there is no reason not to add more seasoning than I did. My home-made stock had enough good flavours in it that I didn't want to add more, but you must assess your situation. In spite of the smallish quantities involved you will likely have a little more soup than will fit in the squash shells; but leftover soup is not exactly bad news. 

 

2 servings

1 hour 30 minutes - 20 minutes prep time

 

 

1 450 gram (1 pound; medium) acorn squash

1 small stalk celery

1 small carrot

1 shallot

1 clove garlic

1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil

2 cups chicken OR other stock

 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out and discard the seeds and loose pulp. Rub the cut edges with a little oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until tender but not mushy. 

Meanwhile, wash, trim, and finely chop the celery and carrot. Peel and chop the shallot. Peel and mince the garlic. 

When the squash has about 30 minutes left to cook, heat the oil in  heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Cook the celery, carrot, and shallot for 5 to 10 minutes in it, stirring regularly, until softened and reduced in volume but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then add the stock. Simmer gently until the squash is cooked. 

Scoop out the flesh from the cooked squash, leaving about 1/4" left on the shells, and being careful to keep the shells whole. Dice the flesh and add it to the soup. Let is simmer for just a minute or two, then ladle the soup into the shells and serve. If not serving the soup right away, return the squash shell to the oven to keep warm.

Last year at this time I made Braised Pork Ribs & Squash.

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Duck Pasties

If you thought cabbage rolls stretched a little bit of duck pretty far, how about these pasties? Again, if you are shy on the amount of duck meat needed, you can fry up a few slices of bacon with the onion. However, you should also be sure not to make too much filling - don't go over the quantities listed - as this amount will make 6 very stuffed pasties. Each one is a meal with just a bit of salad to keep it company. We ate some of the leftovers cold and re-heated some in a hot oven; they were delicious both ways. Just don't microwave them, as the pastry will go soggy, as it always does.

This is a real left-over busting meal. Or to put it another way, you need to cook your potatoes and rutabaga in advance. It's all in the perspective, I suppose. If you have a little good thick gravy left over a spoonful will help keep them moist, but it's not traditional to add it, as far as I know, and if you have any holes in the finished pasties, it will leak out. 

I actually used the buttermilk instead of cream to thin my egg yolk, since it was already out. It seemed to work just fine. We thought these were delightful, and I will likely make them again with leftover turkey, because I can see that working really well too. Or the traditional roast or braised beef, for that matter.

In the end, that one 6 pound duck fed the 3 of us as a roast dinner, followed by 2 meals of cabbage rolls for 2 of us, the 3 of for lunch, and it looks like Mr. Ferdzy and I will have one more round of pasties. I did throw in about a quarter pound of bacon to make it stretch, but still, FIVE* meals (12 servings), plus there is still a fair bit of duck stock in the fridge. I'd say we squeezed our money's worth out of that bird.

6 pasties

1 hour 15 minutes - 40 minutes prep time 

NOT including time to cool

 

 

 

Make the Pastry:

2 1/4 cups whole spelt flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil

1/4 cup buttermilk

the white of 1 large egg

 

Measure the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and mix. Grate in the butter, turning it to coat it in the flour. Add the oil, buttermilk, and egg white, and mix everything well, cutting it together with a pastry cutter or the side of a spoon. Once it is well blended but still with lumps of butter, pull it together to form a ball (by hand). Let rest for 20 minutes while you make the filling. 

Make the Filling & Finish:

1 small onion

1 teaspoon duck fat or other oil

1 1/2 cups diced cooked duck meat

3/4 cup diced cooked potato

3/4 cup diced cooked rutabaga

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

extra whole spelt flour for rolling

up to 6 tablespoons leftover duck gravy OPTIONAL

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons light cream

Peel and dice the onion, and cook it in the fat or oil over medium heat until softened and translucent. Put it into a mixing bowl with the diced cooked duck, potato, and rutabaga. Season carefully with salt and generously with pepper. 

Preheat the oven to 400°F. 

Divide the dough evenly into 6 pieces. Dust a sheet of parchment paper with a little flour, and roll the first piece of dough out into a circle. Be sure that it is large enough to hold the filling. Put 1/6th of the filling on it, along with up to a tablespoon of leftover gravy, if you have it, and fold it over to close. Press sealed along the edges, then roll the edge up and press again to be sure to have a good seal. Lift the pasty onto a baking tray lined with another piece of parchment paper, leaving space for the rest.

Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough and filling. 

Bake the pasties for 15 minutes. Whisk the egg yolk and cream together. Brush the pasties with this mixture, then return them to the oven for a further 15 minutes of baking. Serve warm or at room temperature. If kept in the refrigerator, bring them out 20 minutes before serving to take the chill off them. They will also reheat well in the oven. 

*The mathematically astute will conclude, correctly, that Mr. Ferdzy and I were piggies with the pasties.

Last year at this time I made the tasty but perplexing Turkish Lentil & Potato Salad.

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Duck Red Cabbage Rolls

 Cabbage rolls are excellent for stretching a little meat a long way. I had a large cabbage, and so made 4 large cabbage rolls, but red cabbages are often fairly small and you may need to make more but smaller rolls. 

 

It's a bit tricky removing the leaves from a raw cabbage, but I prefer to do that if it's possible, as it leaves (ha ha) the remaining cabbage in the best condition for using in other dishes. If you are desperate, though, you can put the head of cabbage into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes, then lift it out, rinse it in cold water, remove a leaf or two, and repeat as necessary. This will also take the place of the par-boiling; you just need to shave down the stem and you are ready to go. 

Everything should be quite finely chopped in order to make a cohesive mixture. I think next time I might actually do the chopping and mixing in a food processor, to make it a little smoother. They were delicious in any case, and the creamy mustard sauce added just the right finishing touch. Wild rice cooked 3 cups of salted water to 1 cup of  wild rice - in the rice cooker, of course - made the ideal accompaniment. It really needs a little bit of greenery by way of a parsley garnish to look really finished. 

If you are just a shade short of the required amount of duck, it could be stretched with a few slices of bacon, chopped and fried with the vegetables.

 

4 servings

1 hour 20 minutes - 40 minutes prep time

 

 

Make the Cabbage Rolls:

4 to 8 outer red cabbage leaves

2 shallots

1 small stalk of celery

1 small carrot

1 tablespoon duck fat

2 cups diced cooked duck meat

2-3 slices (90g or 3 oz) dark rye bread

1 large egg

2 tablespoons rye flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon Polish seasoning

1/4 cup duck stock

1/2 cup duck stock 

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Carefully remove the leaves from the cabbage, being sure not to tear them (much). It may help to slice each one at the base to remove it from the cabbage as you work. Shave the thick stems down to a similar thickness to the rest of the leaf. Drop the cabbage leaves into the boiling water and boil for 4 minutes until softened. Rinse in cold water and drain well. 

 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly oil a shallow baking pan that will hold the finished cabbage rolls snugly - probably 1.5 to 2 quarts. 

 

Peel the shallots and chop them very finely. Wash, trim and chop the celery finely.  Peel and grate the carrot. Heat the duck fat in a small skillet over medium heat and cook the vegetables until softened and reduced in volume; about 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, chop the duck meat very finely. You can use some of the skin; up to about 10%. Put it in a mixing bowl with the rye bread, also chopped or crumbled finely. Break in the egg. Add the flour and seasoning, and mix in. Mix in 1/4 cup duck stock.

When the vegetables are ready, let them cool for a few minutes then mix them into the filling. It should be thoroughly combined, malleable and cohesive. 

Lay out each cabbage leaf and put an even portion of the filling in the lower centre. Fold up the bottom of the leaf to cover, then fold in the sides and roll up. Put each finished cabbage roll into the prepared pan. When they are all in, pour the remaining 1/2 cup stock over them. Cover the pan with foil (if it doesn't have its own lid) and bake for 40 minutes.

Make the Sauce:

1 tablespoon duck fat

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup duck stock

1/4 cup light cream

parsley to garnish

 

When the cabbage rolls have about 10 minutes left to bake, start the sauce. Heat the duck fat and flour in a small skillet over medium heat. When they are sizzling, mix in the mustard and add salt and pepper to taste. Be mindful that there is a certain amount of salt in mustard, and the stock and duck fat may also be somewhat salty. Mix in the duck stock a little at a time to make a smooth sauce, then stir in the cream. When the mixture is thickened, and steaming hot, it can be served over the baked cabbage rolls. Don't forget the parsley!

Last year at this time I made Leeks Stuffed with Ham, Cheese, & Mushrooms.

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Slow Roasted Duck with Gravy

It seems that once a year or so, it's duck week. Here we are! As usual, I am going to try to make a 6 pound duck last for three meals, with my Mom joining us for some of them. I definitely want to get every bit of goodness out of a duck. On that note, I'm putting a reminder at the end of the recipe to be sure to use the carcass to make stock, because that's definitely part of the deal. I'm going to use some of the stock for the next recipe, but at some point we'll also just have duck soup with noodles - not even counted as one of our three duck meals. 

I'm being vague about the seasonings, but I've been using the Polish seasoning found at the beginning of this recipe a lot, and that's what I used here. You can season it however you like, though. I kept it pretty simple because I mostly wanted to see how duck did cooked low and slow like pulled pork. I have to say, it stayed firmer than I expected, but it worked well enough. Also, people always seem to want to put all kinds of sticky sauces on duck, when it is perfectly lovely served quite plain.

 

6 servings

8 hours, yes I said 8 hours - 20 minutes prep time

NOT including time to thaw out duck 

 

a 2.75 kg (6 pound) duck

salt, pepper, other seasonings

2 cups chicken stock 

2 tablespoons soft unbleached flour

1 cup chicken stock

If your duck is frozen, you must allow 2 full days in the refrigerator to thaw it out. 

Remove the duck from the packaging and pat it dry. Remove anything in the cavity (likely just the neck) and save it for making broth later. Sprinkle the duck with salt and rub it in, then let it sit for about 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 225°F. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting pan. Season it with pepper and any other seasonings you like - I used a Polish seasoning. Pour in the chicken stock, without getting the duck wet. 

Put the duck in the oven and roast for about 6 hours, until it is well done and the leg wiggles a bit. If the skin is not as dark and crispy as you would like, turn the heat up to 400°F and roast for a further 15 to 20 minutes until it is coloured and crisped to your liking. Remove it from the oven, transfer to a platter, and cover it loosely for 10 minutes. Carve and serve. 

 

Meanwhile, make the gravy. Scrape the contents of the pan into a gravy separator, and drain the juices back into a saucepan over medium heat. Keep the fat! It is a culinary treasure. Whisk the flour into 1 cup of cold chicken stock until smooth, and slowly whisk it into the saucepan, to get as smooth a gravy as possible. When it thickens and bubbles around the edges, transfer it to a gravy boat.  

Once the meal is done, pull all the remaining meat from the bones. Keep the meat for other dishes and make broth with the bones. Break them up and put them in a pot - I prefer making broth in the Instant Pot these days, but a good heavy-bottomed soup pot is still as good as ever. Add some onion, celery and carrot scraps if you have them, and a bay leaf or two. Go light with the bay leaf if using an Instant Pot; I find it a little too efficient at extracting all the flavour from it, including bitterness. I threw in a few juniper berries and a dozen black peppercorns. Add 2 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Don't forget to add the neck, if you have it. I gave it 2 hours in the Instant Pot, then leave it for natural release/ If you decide to simmer it on the stove-top it will take about the same amount of time (which is to say about three hours) ; you will just need to check it from time to time, and maybe add a little more liquid.

 

Strain the stock and chill it overnight. Remove any fat from the top and add it to your stash. 

 

 

 

 

Last year at this time I made Brussels Sprouts with Buttered Mushrooms. 

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Year End Garden Report

 

This photo is from Wednesday, which looked like the last nice day to stroll around with a camera. The garden looks neat and ready for winter, which it mostly is. I'm sure we could find another 2 weeks worth of work, supposing the snow holds off that long.  Still have the annual cleaning of the garage to do too ughhhhh. We agree we are very ready to finish gardening for the season.

This was last week, just before we took down the last of the bean trellises. The Lima beans really didn't want to finish, but too bad; we were done with them. They are shelled and finishing drying in the food dryer as I type. We did get quite a good crop of them this year; much better than last year when we barely got enough for seed.

 

 

Mr. Ferdzy has worked on taking down the trellises as I pulled beets, rutabaga, and winter radishes.

Portions of the trellises plus two sheets of the 6 mil vapour barrier that we use as hoop-house covers got re-used to cover the spinach and lettuce that we hope will overwinter and get us started with some greens in early spring. 

You can see the new asparagus bed in the background, still turning colour. It's interesting; the old asparagus bed was a good week behind the new one in emerging, and it turned yellow at least a week before the new ones. Micro-climate differences clearly demonstrated; moving the asparagus was a very good idea. 

Our Brussels sprouts look much better than they are, but they are not too bad. We're going to have some (have already had some, in fact).

Three different varieties of beets, with significantly different foliage.

Our rutabagas are nowhere near as good as the foliage suggests; still we also have some that are big enough to eat and are already eating them, as well as having a sack of them stashed in the vegetable fridge. (Some people have a beer fridge - we have a vegetable fridge).

 

 

That's a fairly typical one - long and skinny compared to the ones you can buy... how do they do it, I wonder? Lots of fertilizer no doubt, and better soil generally. 

Carrots remain to be pulled for storage. We don't do that until the last possible moment before the ground freezes; until then we pick them more or less as we need them. It looks like a better year than most for them, partly because they liked the weather, and partly because we do get better at growing them.

We have a few cabbages picked and in the fridge, but this particular kind is a cross between January King and Chieftain savoy. It will stand in the garden and can be picked even if frozen. We assumed this was normal, and left another variety out after first frost last year, only to discover they couldn't stand it, and rotted. Oops! 

Some of our cabbage looks pretty good, but we can see the effects of the swede midge which is now infesting our brassicas, and some of it looks pretty terrible. Our cross did fairly well, which is nice. 

And finally,we had a visit from this bird last week. I spotted it while washing the dishes after dinner, and it stayed there long enough for us to call Mom over and all watch it for several minutes before it flew away. I've been seeing a red-tailed hawk in the birch tree quite often this summer; I suppose this is the same one. Perhaps we have them nesting nearby. That's kind of fun! I don't think the resident crows particularly approve. Hawks will steal their eggs and babies. It's hard to feel too sorry for them, though, since they are not above nest-robbing themselves.

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Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, & Parmesan

It isn't often that I make somebody else's recipe almost exactly as written, but I couldn't resist this one when I saw it at Bon Appetit. As I was making it I realized it's actually my favourite salad formula: fruit, nuts, cheese, and oh yeah, something green to hold it all together. This is a particularly nice iteration. I cut it in half since there were just the two of us, and had a slightly heavy heavy hand with the dates and the lemon juice. We thought this was delicious, even Mr. Ferdzy who does not particularly love dates. Had been hoping to steal a few back from him, but no such luck. 

They are a bit dismissive about celery at the Bon Appetit recipe. It's true that celery has ended up as an inevitable hanger-abouter in people's vegetable drawers, but it doesn't get a lot of love or respect, it seems. Too bad. Like cauliflower, it was once a very high-status vegetable in part because it was both seasonal and hard to grow, but modern agriculture has rendered it ubiquitous and familiarity seems to have bred contempt. As this salad shows, it can still really shine.

 

2 to 3 servings

20 minutes prep time

 

1/4 cup almonds

3 to 4 stalks of celery, with leaves

4 large medjool dates

salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (to taste)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons walnut OR hazelnut oil

30 grams (1 ounce) shaved Parmesan cheese

Chop the almonds coarsely, and toast them in a skillet over medium heat. Turn them out onto a plate to cool when lightly browned and fragrant. 

Wash, trim, and slice the celery thinly. Use the leaves. Put them in your salad bowl, then pit the dates, chop them, and add them along with the almonds. Season the salad with salt, pepper, and Aleppo pepper, and toss with the lemon juice and oil. 

Shave the Parmesan, and fold it gently into the salad. Serve at once.

Last year at this time I made Kohlrabi Soup.

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Mincemeat Pudding with Custard

Is this Christmas pudding? Why, yes; it is. It is Christmas pudding.

I know it's the end of October, but if you want to make this particular recipe you will need to start by making mincemeat, and the time to make mincemeat is now.

As you may suppose, this pudding was actually made last year at Christmas time, and it was one of my earliest attempts at a very low-sugar dessert. The mincemeat was sweetened in a fairly typical way, as I had already made it before I got the news that I was pre-diabetic, and pre-diabetic or not, I am too cheap frugal to throw away perfectly good food, especially something like mincemeat that I had put a fair bit of work into. So I made it into pudding, and the only other sweetness came from the cooked carrots and a little in the custard sauce. The results were actually very good, I thought. If you want to do this yourself though, I suggest you taste the batter and add a little more sugar to taste once it is mixed.

I have to say, looking at this recipe makes it very clear that summer is well over (yes, brrrr), and we are rapidly hurtling into a new season...

6 to 9 servings
1 hour 15 minutes - 45 minutes prep time
NOT including the custard - 15 minutes prep time for that

Prepare the Wet Ingredients:
1 cup boiled, mashed carrot
500 ml (2 cups) mincemeat
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs (OR 1 large egg and 2 large egg whites)
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil

Peel and slice 2 medium carrots and boil them in a little water until quite tender. Drain them, mash very thoroughly, and measure them into a mixing bowl. Mix in the mincemeat and the spices. Beat in the eggs and vegetable oil.

Mix in the Dry Ingredients & Finish:
1 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 cup finely ground almond meal (flour)
1/4 cup finely ground flax seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
rum to taste (about 1/4 cup)

In a smaller bowl, measure and mix the dry ingredients.

Grease 3 or 4 500ml wide-mouth canning jars or a 2-quart pudding mold. Set up a steamer so that the jars or mold will be held above the boiling water, and start it boiling.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gently but thoroughly. Divide the batter evenly between the jars (3 jars will make 3 puddings of 2 or 3 servings each, 4 jars will make 4 jars of 2 servings each) or scrape it into the mold. Cover the tops of the jars or the pudding mold with a layer of parchment paper then a layer of aluminum foil, and keep it in place with string or elastic bands. Put the pudding(s) into the steamer and steam until firm; about 25 to 30 minutes for the jars or 1 hour for the large pudding.

I made 3 jars of pudding and I found they rose beyond the top of the jars. As soon as they were removed, though, they began to cool and shrink back down at once. I removed and discarded the paper and foil, and poured a little rum over each, then capped them with sterilized lids. I put them back in the steamer for another 10 minutes. They all sealed very well, and we ate the final pudding 3 months later. I did keep it in the fridge for that time, although the cold cellar would have been fine too, I'm sure.

Make the Custard:
1 tablespoon arrowroot
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs (OR 1 large egg and 2 large egg yolks)
1 1/2 cups whole milk or light cream
1 tablespoon rum

Mix the starch, sugar, and salt in the top of a double boiler and whisk in the eggs. Slowly whisk in the eggs until everything is smoothly combined.

Heat the double boiler to a simmer and cook, whisking regularly, until the custard thickens. Remove it from the heat and whisk in the rum. Allow to cool and serve, warm or cooled, on the pudding. 




Last year at this time I made Roasted Chile-Garlic Tofu & Broccoli.

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Lemon-Mayonnaise Broiled Trout

When I cook fish I almost always broil it. Most fish is thin enough to be broiled - trout fillets certainly are - and done properly it will leave your fish moist and flaky. It's also done in 10 minutes or less, which I have to admit is almost always the actual deciding factor in my decision to cook this way.

This easy sauce is tasty enough to enhance lovely fresh trout and delicate enough to do it without trying to steal the limelight, and it doesn't add a lot of time to proceedings. You'll also have about half a lemon left over once it's done, so cut it in wedges and pass it with the trout.

2 to 4 servings
20 minutes prep time

Make the Sauce:
1 clove of garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
the finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 to 1 teaspoon rubbed thyme OR savory
1 tablespoon potato starch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup mayonnaise

Peel and mince/mash the garlic with the salt and pepper. Put it in a small bowl with the lemon zest, herb, and potato starch. Mix, then mix in the lemon juice and then the mayonnaise. 

Cook the Fish:
2 250 gram (1/2 pound) trout fillets
about 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
    OR melted butter

Preheat the broiler.

Use a standard double-layered broiler pan. Put about 1/4" of water in the lower pan. Brush the upper perforated piece with oil or melted butter, using a pastry brush. Lay the trout fillets, skin side down, on the pan so as to get them best centred under the grill. Pat them dry with paper towel then brush them with a little oil or melted butter.

Spread the sauce evenly over them. Put the pan directly under the broiler and broil for 6 to 8 minutes, until done. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

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Table Queen (& Gill's Golden Pippin) Acorn Squashes

 

In the photo above, there are 2 Table Queen and 2 Gill's Golden Pippin acorn squashes, the Table Queen being dark green and the Golden Pippin being, uh, golden. Acorn squash are distinctive, generally vaguely acorn shaped (if you use your imagination) but with distinctive fluting. They are fairly small, running from just one or two servings each, up to about 4 servings per squash. In general, the Table Queen run larger than the Gill's Golden Pippin; the one at the top is an unusually big example. I've written about Golden Pippin before.

Acorn squash are members of the cucurbita pepo group, meaning that they are related to most of the zucchini and summer squashes, and will cross with them. In my experience the resulting crosses are rarely good; they get tough and seedy too fast as summer squash, and lack good flavour and keeping qualities as winter squash. Acorn squash are about the only form of cucurbita pepo that are eaten as storage squash, and they are not particularly long lasting. They will be good from now through the end of the year, but by January they really should be gone or rapidly disappearing, as they are noticeably not as good as they were. 

Table Queen was apparently introduced to widespread commerce in 1913 by the Iowa Seed Company (according to Baker Creek) and became immensely popular. All through my youth and really, up to today, this was the basis for commercially produced acorn squash, if not in fact the exact variety. I confess that when I started gardening I regarded Table Queen with some disdain as a common and not very interesting acorn squash, but it really isn't true, and a good home-grown one is delicious.

There is a Table King, in both bush and vine varieties, which I presume are the result of breeding and selection for more productivity, disease resistance and compactness, but my impression is that they are not hugely different. A Golden Table Queen won the All American Selection in 1939, but it seems to have disappeared. There is also a bush version of Table Queen, but mine was the classic vining version. Vines can get to 20 feet long under ideal conditions, and they are pretty amenable to being piled up on themselves, but trellising is really a good idea. Squash that have been kept off the ground develop better shapes and are less likely to develop mould problems ore be attacked by insects or other pests. I am finding that this year the Table Queen have a very tough skin, and are harder to cut than the Golden Pippin.

The Arikara first nation of North Dakota were skilled and productive gardeners, trading their excess produce over a wide area, and their vegetables have been a prolific source of genetic material for North American vegetables to this day, particularly for corn, squash, and beans. Table Queen was likely developed from one of their squash, and may not even be all that much changed from what they grew. It is certainly a very well adapted squash all over North America, from Texas to eastern Canada, from Florida to British Columbia. It has good resistance to vine-borers, squash bugs and cucumber beetles, the three plagues of squash. It ripens in 80 to 85 days from germination, which will give plenty of time from a late May to June 1st planting date. Under ideal conditions and with good soil (so not me) you can apparently get up to 8 squash per vine.

To some degree Table Queen has been replaced by similar but hybridized versions, but the original is still an excellent plant with great productivity and resiliency, and is fairly widely available.

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Costillas Guisadas con Patatas - Spanish Stewed Pork Ribs with Potatoes

It wasn't until I made Braised Pork Ribs with Squash that I discovered that ribs don't have to be slowly cooked in the oven all day. I mean, they are very delicious if that happens! But sometimes you want something faster, and stewing them works perfectly well and can be on the table in under an hour.

This is a very simple dish, with few ingredients, which is fairly typical of Spanish cooking. Half a kilo of ribs should be plenty enough, but that's what I used and I was a bit dismayed at just how very bony they were. As ever, the two of us ate it all, and it would have been better as part of the typical Spanish menu, with a "primero" of salad, and a "postre" of some sort. Maybe if you get better ribs it wouldn't be a problem, but this is what happens when you are not selecting your own groceries and just get what you are sent. Never mind! Very tasty and really, we are in no danger of starvation.

The peppers should be long Spanish or Italian type thick-walled fryers; bell peppers only if all else fails. I don't know why bell peppers persist in being so popular. They have a bitter aftertaste, and give plenty of people besides me indigestion. I used ham stock to make this, and so put in less salt than I am calling for - that amount assumes that you are using unsalted stock or water; adjust accordingly.

2 to 3 servings
50 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

500 to 750 grams (1 to 1/2 pounds) pork ribs
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 medium red pepper
1 medium green pepper
1 large onion
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet OR hot Spanish plain OR smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt (or less, depending on stock)
2 cups ham or chicken stock, or water
500 grams (4 medium) potatoes

Cut the ribs into individual pieces. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium heat, and brown the ribs on both sides.

While they brown wash, core, and cut the peppers into small dice. Peel and dice the onion.

When the ribs are browned on both sides, remove them to a plate. Put the peppers and onions into the pot and cook for 4 or 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and reduced in volume - don't let them brown.

While the pepper and onions cook, peel and chop the garlic. When the peppers and onions are ready, add the garlic, paprika, and salt - if needed - and mix in well. Add the stock or water and let the ribs simmer for about 10 minutes.

While the ribs simmer, scrub or peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized chunks. Add them to the ribs, being sure that they are covered by the liquid. Add a little more liquid if needed; the ribs can be on top sticking out and that's fine. Put the lid partially over the pot and simmer steadily for a further 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked and the liquid is reduced to a thick sauce. Watch it carefully towards the end; you don't want it to get so thick it scorches. Again, a little more liquid can be added if needed.




Last year at this time I made Rye Apple Brown Betty.

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Graham Muffins

I was trying for the flavour of graham crackers in a muffin, and I feel like I have succeeded, but I have to admit that without the texture of a graham cracker it reads pretty much as a bran muffin. With which there is nothing wrong! This is a very nice bran muffin, with a real fibre kick to it. It may seem like it calls for a lot of cinnamon but I find using ground flax really muffles the flavour of other things; I may try putting in even more next time. 

12 muffins
30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time

Mix the Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole spelt flour
1 1/4 cups wheat bran
1/2 cup ground flax seed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Measure the dry ingredients and mix them in a mixing bowl. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and put 9 muffin pan liners in a muffin pan. 

Mix the Wet Ingredients & Finish:
1/3 cup mild vegetable oil
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons molasses
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg

Measure the oil, and mix in the honey and molasses. It may help to heat it very slightly in the microwave to allow the sweeteners to dissolve, but don't overdo it.

Measure the buttermilk in a 2 cup measuring cup. Break in the egg, and stir it in.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until completely blended, but do not over-mix. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups, and bake for 20 minutes until set and firm. Let cool to at least warm before serving.

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Spinach & Feta Stuffed Leeks

Leeks are so good stuffed, and spinach and feta are so good together and stuffed into leeks. With cheese, of course. So, so good. This is, I suppose, a kind of Spanakopita without the pastry, which is always a good idea for me. In this case I wasn't even thinking about that; just about how much I like leeks and how good they are stuffed.

I go into some detail about how to prepare the leeks, but once you have it down, making stuffed leeks is about the same level of difficulty as making a lasagne, and the dishes take a similar amount of time to do. You could do this into the winter with frozen spinach, which would have to be thawed in advance but would probably cut almost 15 minutes from the prep time.

4 to 6 servings
2 hours - 1 hour prep time

Prepare the Leeks & Spinach:
4 large leeks
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
300 grams (10 ounces; 1 1/2 cups) cooked drained spinach

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Wash and trim the roots and green from the leeks, and cut the remainder into 2 equal long pieces. Save any pale green parts that are usable for some other dish.

Boil the leek pieces for 7 to 8 minutes, then plunge them into cold water to cool. Leave the pot of water on the stove as you will use it again. Cut the leek pieces to the middle, longwise, and remove the centres from them - remove the leaves that are too narrow to roll nicely and leave all that are wider. Flatten the sliced leeks out, and use them to create 12 similar rectangles to be rolled.

Wash and pick over the spinach. Reheat your pot of water to boiling and cook it for 1 or 2 minutes, then drain it well. Squeeze to remove as much water as possible, then chop the spinach.

Heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Chop the leek leaves removed from the centres of the leeks and cook them gently in it until the butter is absorbed, just a few minutes. Mix this with the chopped spinach in a mixing bowl. This could be done in advance.

Stuff & Bake the Leeks:
2 tablespoons minced fresh OR 2 teaspoons dry dill weed
2 tablespoons minced fresh OR 2 teaspoons dry mint
freshly ground nutmeg, a few scrapes
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 large eggs
225 grams (1/2 pound) feta cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
100 grams (3 ounces) grated Cheddar cheese

Add the minced or dry herbs, pepper, and nutmeg to the chopped leeks and spinach. Break in the eggs and mix them in. Crumble in the feta and mix.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Use the butter to grease a shallow baking pan into which the stuffed leeks will fit; about a 2 litre/quart dish. Divide the filling into 12 equal portions, and roll 1 portion up in each rectangle of blanched leek leaves. Arrange them in the baking tray in a single layer.

Bake the leeks for 15 minutes at 350°F. Meanwhile, grate the Cheddar. Sprinkle it evenly over the leeks then return them to the oven for another 30 to 40 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

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Melanzane alla Pizzaiolla

"Alla Pizzaiolla" means pizza-style, and that means tomato sauce and mozzarella. An awful lot of things are greatly improved by the addition of tomato sauce and mozzarella; eggplant is surely one of them. Throw in some basil, and some garlic... it has to be good. It's also pretty quick and simple to make. Some rice, quinoa, or even just some good bread and a salad will make this a complete meal. 

4 servings
1 hour prep time

500 grams (2 medium; 1 pound) eggplant
2 medium tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil OR oregano
180 grams (6 ounces) mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese

Wash, trim, and peel - if you like - the eggplant. Cut it into 1.5 cm thick diagonal slices, and sprinkle them with salt. Spread them out on a plate, and stack another plate on top, with a weight. Let them sit for 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, blanch and peel the tomatoes. Cut them into slices about 1 cm thick. Peel and mince the garlic.

Rinse off the eggplant and drain it well. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet that has a lid. Fry the eggplant on both sides until browned, then reduce the heat a little. Continue cooking and turning them, until quite soft and cooked through. Add a bit more oil if needed.

While those cook, wash and chop the basil or oregano, and slice and grate the cheeses. 

Add the garlic, and mix in well until sizzling and fragrant. Add the slices of tomatoes, shifting the eggplant around to allow them to make good contact with the pan. Simmer for another 5 or more minutes, until the tomatoes are quite soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the tomato sauce over the eggplant and tomatoes. Sprinkle the basil or oregano on, then add the slices of mozzarella evenly spaced around the pan. Sprinkle on the Parmesan. Cover the pan and let simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and hot. Serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Pasta with Sausage, Pepper, & Onion Rosé Sauce, and also updated Lentil Loaf with Carrots.

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Brined Roast Turkey or Chicken

I have tried various brining recipes for turkey over the years, and I haven't liked any of them. I haven't liked the seasonings added, and I really didn't like the sugar or fruit juices that seems to be in most of them, even before I was supposed to abjure sugar. It turns out you don't need any of that stuff, though. All you need is salt and water.

In my opinion brining should also be done with a fairly light hand, by which I mean: not for too long. I'm saying up to 16 hours, but really, I don't recommend soaking your turkey for much longer than 12 hours, and 6 or 8 will be enough. It is far too easy to end up with a very salty turkey through over-brining.

I also don't think brining is necessarily a great technique for industrially farmed birds, which are already a little limp and soggy. You should especially never brine a turkey which has been "basted" with "butter" or indicates on the packaging that it has been in a salt solution (aka brine) already. For natural, free-range turkeys, though, the extra moistness and tenderness it provides is excellent.

I recently did a chicken this way, too. I did not brine it as long as the turkey, it being a smaller bird (somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds) but it came from a local farm (same one as the turkey in the photo) and I was a bit concerned that it had gotten an awful lot of fresh air and exercise. Brining it made it tender and delicious. Half the recipe of brine was enough for that mid-sized chicken.

Check your pan juices before you use them to make gravy. Hopefully, if you have avoided over-brining your bird they will be plenty salty but fine to use, especially if you cut them a little with unsalted stock. It's a good idea to have a back-up plan, though.


10 to 16 pounds
5 to 16 hours to brine
15 minutes per pound to roast

Brine the Turkey:
1 cup pickling or kosher salt
8 litres water
a 10 to 16 pound turkey 

Put the pickling salt into the water and heat it gently until dissolved. Stir regularly. It should not be hot when you use it to brine the turkey.

This should cover a 10 to 16 pound turkey, in a snug fitting vessel that will get the brine over it completely, which is what you must do. Once the turkey is covered, put it in the refrigerator. That's probably the hardest part of this recipe, and you should be sure to clear some space and make sure your container will fit, in advance. One suggestion I've heard that sounds useful is to put the brine and turkey in a roaster bag, seal it well, then keep it in a picnic cooler with ice.

Of course you can make more or less brine to cover a smaller or larger turkey (or chicken); just use the same proportions of salt and water. Remember that if you are starting with a frozen bird it must be completely thawed first, and that will take at least 2 days for a smaller turkey and 3 days for a larger one. Chickens will generally be thawed in 2 days.

Cook the Turkey:
When you are ready to proceed, remove the turkey from the brine and drain it very well. Pat the skin as dry as you can get it with paper towel, and then let it sit out in the air to further dry for about half an hour to an hour before it goes into the oven - wet, soggy skin will not get crisp and brown.

I have not stuffed a brined turkey, and now that that kind of unrestrained carb-fest is no longer on the diet, I guess I won't. You can though; just don't add any salt to it, and as ever, have your dressing ingredients chopped and prepared the night before but don't cook and assemble them until just before they are to go into the turkey, and they are not to go into the turkey until just before it goes into the oven. 

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Roast the turkey for 15 minutes per pound; allow 20 minutes if the bird has been stuffed. Cover loosely with foil (or the roaster lid, if possible) and let the turkey rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving it.




Last year at this time I made Broccoli & Mushroom Pasties.

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Cauliflower Fritters

Ah, fritters. I've always loved them, and these ones have cauliflower and cheese. Can't go wrong with that!

I didn't feel like I was using a lot of materials to make this, but the final fritter count was fairly impressive - I got 21, and I think I should have made them even a bit smaller and gotten more. Next time for the 2 of us, I would make half a recipe. That's still a pretty substantial fritter feast. Given how rich they are, it's better to serve them as an appetizer to a good lot of people, I would think. Should you ever be able to assemble a good lot of people in one place again, of course, which is not looking like any time soon.

You could easily make these with leftover cooked cauliflower, or at any rate it could be cooked in advance. Once the cauliflower is ready, it takes minutes to make the batter and then you are frying. It takes attention, and there are a lot of them to do, but they cook quite quickly. I soon had a routine going.

A few years back I got a cast iron aebleskiver pan (also known as an appam pan; or close enough) and it is great for making little tidbits that seem - are, really - deep fried without using great gobs of oil. Anything frittery, or doughnut-like is terrific made in it. I keep meaning to use it more, so here's something to get me started.

4 to 12 servings (24 to 36 fritters)
20 minutes prep time to cook cauliflower
30 minutes prep time to cook fritters

3 cups finely chopped cauliflower
1/2 cup chick pea flour
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh chives. 
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or similar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt (less if cheese is salty)
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 medium eggs
+ milk to 2/3 cup
mild vegetable oil to fry

Wash and trim the cauliflower, and cut it into small florets. Cook in boiling water until tender; about 6 minutes. Drain very well, let cool enough to handle, then chop finely.

In a mixing bowl, put the flour, minced chives, grated cheese, salt, and pepper. Break the eggs into a measuring cup and stir them with a fork. Add enough milk to make the total volume of the two things 2/3 cup - it won't be very much milk.

Mix the milk and eggs into the flour to make a smooth batter. Mix in the finely chopped cauliflower.

Heat some oil, ideally in an aebleskiver pan; a teaspoon or so into each depression. Otherwise, use a fairly deep but not too big skillet and put a generous 1/4" on the bottom. When the oil is hot, drop the batter in by fairly small spoonfuls, to form little fritters. Cook them until well browned and firm, turning them to cook on the other side when half done. The heat should be medium; you want them to cook through to the middle which means they should not brown instantly, but you do want them to get brown.

Put them onto a rack (a perforated pizza pan is good) lined with paper towel as they are done, continuing to cook the remaining batter and adding a little more oil if needed. Keep them hot in a 200°F oven, but serve them as soon as possible.

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Peppers Hyderabadi Style - Mirchi Ka Salan

Our next dish in our Indian dinner gave me a lot more trouble than the chicken. I've both simplified it and am sure I did not get it quite right. It was so very tasty, though, that I'm posting it anyway, and hopefully you can avoid a few of my pitfalls. 

My first mistake was to use some nice sweet yellow peppers from the garden. They were delicious, but I'm pretty sure quite different from the usual ones used in this dish. Since they were also rather large I cut them up rather than leaving them whole. Then, I returned them to the sauce sooner than I should have. The end result was that they were hardly detectable as peppers, being pale, soft, and in bits, and the dish was more like a sauce. Served with some steamed brown rice (a rare treat for me now) it was so good that it was hard to complain. But if you used smaller peppers, left them whole, and put them into the sauce at the right time, you should get better results. 

The usual pepper is not one I've seen around here, and I suspect it's a bit hot for our tastes anyway, even slit and with the seeds removed. The sauce I ended up with is on the thick side of what seems typical; it shouldn't be thicker and could be a bit thinner. Also, all the recipes I saw called for whole peanuts and sesame seeds to be toasted, then ground - I just went straight to using peanut butter and tahini instead. I've broken the ingredients down into a lot of little mis en place dishes because that's the only way to keep myself organized and once you have them all ready the actual cooking goes reasonably quickly. 

4 servings
30 minutes to prepare the mixes
40 minutes to finish the dish

Mix #1:
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1" piece of cinnamon

Put the whole spices into a small bowl and set aside. 

Mix #2:
3 pods green cardamom
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon ground Cayenne (to taste)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Crush the cardamom enough to remove and discard the green papery husks, then grind them with the cumin, coriander, peppercorns, and salt. Mix them in a small bowl with the Cayenne (to taste), cloves, and nutmeg. Set aside.

Mix #3:
2 teaspoons peeled, grated fresh ginger
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon apple butter OR tamarind pulp

Peel and grate the ginger into a small bowl. Peel and grate the garlic in with it. Add the apple butter or tamarind pulp. Set aside. 

Mix #4:
3 tablespoons unsweetened dessicated coconut
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons tahini

Toast the coconut in a small skillet until golden and turn immediately into a small bowl. Mix in the peanut butter and tahini. Set aside. 

Finish the Dish:
500 grams (6 to 8) green or red frying peppers
2 large tomatoes
1 large onion
3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
2 cups water

Wash and de-seed the peppers. You can leave the peppers whole, and just remove the seeds through a slit in the side, or you can cut them up and de-seed them. I opted to do that because I was using considerably larger peppers than those that are traditionally used, but it did mean they got a bit soft and pulpy. Don't cut them too small - they should be larger than bite-sized.

Blanch and peel the tomatoes, and cut them into dice. Peel and chop the onion.

Heat the oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Cook the peppers or pepper pieces until slightly browned and fairly softened - this is a lot of the cooking that they are going to get so they should look close to cooked to you. Still, this should not take much more than 5 minutes cooking. Remove them from the pan and set aside.

Add the bowl of Mix #1 to the pan, and stir for a minute or two until sizzling and fragrant, with a few of the seeds starting to pop. Then add the onions and mix in well. Let them cook for a minute or two, then add the bowl of Mix #2, and stir it in well. Next comes Mix #3, and when it too is well incorporated, add the tomato. Finally, add Mix #4, combine well, and stir in the water.

Cover the pan and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir FREQUENTLY. I found the peanut butter and tahini really, really wanted to weld themselves to the pan. At the same time though, keep it covered when not stirring so as not to lose too much moisture. At any point during the cooking, if the sauce gets too thick, add a little more water.

Once the sauce has darkened a bit and seems to be fairly thick, with oil rising to the top, return the peppers to the pan and simmer them for another 5 minutes or so, until completely cooked.. Serve at once.

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Chicken 65

Time for another outbreak of me attempting to cook some Indian dishes. This one caught my eye because it looks a lot like chicken marinated in a similar way to tandoori chicken, but cooked quickly and simply in a skillet. The name is a bit obscure; the most convincing reason I've seen for the name is that it started off as an item on a numbered menu. At any rate, there are now quite a few versions of this out there. 

We thought this was really tasty. It does need some advance prep, since it is marinated, but I don't mind that -it's always nice to break up the work a bit. Normally this would contain fresh curry leaves, but I couldn't even round up any cilantro - it got sprinkled with parsley. I picked the lettuce as more of a garnish but we ate it with the chicken; it was a nice accompaniment.

4 servings
20 minutes to prepare marinade
2 hours to overnight to marinate
15 minutes to cook

Make the Marinade:
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red chile
3 tablespoon potato starch
3 to 4 clove of garlic
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
the juice of 1 lime OR 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup thick yogurt

Toast the fennel, cumin, peppercorns, and coriander lightly. Let them cool then grind well with the salt. Put them in a container that will hold the chicken and has a cover, and mix in the remaining spices and potato starch. Peel and grate the garlic and ginger into the container. Add the lime or lemon juice and yogurt and mix well.

Marinate & Cook the Chicken:
500 grams skinless, boneless chicken
1/2 medium red onion
lettuce leaves
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro OR parsley
lemon OR lime wedges

Cut the chicken into large bite-sized pieces. Mix them into the marinade, and marinate in the fridge, covered, for 2 hours to overnight.

It's a good idea to have the onion peeled and sliced and the lettuce washed and dried before you start cooking; especially if, like me, you prefer to sprinkle your onion pieces with salt and let them soften and become milder flavoured with about 15 minutes of resting. (Rinse them and dry them before using.)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, place the pieces of chicken into the pan individually, with the marinade clinging to them. Cook until brown and crispy on both sides, and cooked through to the middle.

While they cook, arrange the lettuce on a serving platter, chop the herb, and slice the lemon wedges. When the chicken is cooked, arrange it on the platter, sprinkle it with the cilantro or parsley and the onion slices, and pass it with the lemon or lime wedges.




Last year at this time I made "Stuffing" Dressed Cauliflower.

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