Mrs. Frings’ Irish Soda Bread. Let’s pretend the Pacific Ocean is the Irish Sea.
Know this. Sweet Paul, creative guru, lifestyle magazine editor and chef, is Norwegian. My people, on my Mother’s side, were Welch coalminers. Between us, we have not one drop of Irish blood. But last week Sweet Paul sent me a new recipe for Irish Soda Bread, something I make once a year. He’s in the game.
Sweet Paul
As for me, I’ve visited and driven across the Emerald Isle, coast to coast. One of my Life’s thrills was seeing the spectacular Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin. And I’ve read Thomas Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved Civilization” from cover to cover. I’m in the game also.
For this one day, March 17, everyone is Irish and that’s cause for blarney, hoopla, and Mrs. Frings’ Irish Soda Bread. A peasant bread, simply made with basic ingredients: flour, baking soda (used as a leavening agent instead of yeast), salt and soured milk to moisten and activate the soda, it represents Ireland’s soul. Bake it for dinner. Serve it warm. Wrap the remaining leftovers tightly and toast the next morning. Sublime.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY, EVERYONE
Restraint is a wonderful thing. We left very little for toast tomorrow.
Mrs. Frings’ Irish Soda Bread by Paul Vitale (adapted by Mary Hirsch)
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups Flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) of cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup Sugar
1 to 1 and 1/2 Cups of Golden Raisins (your discretion)
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 1/2 cup Buttermilk, shaken
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Mix butter into dry mixture by hand until clumps disappear.
4. Slowly add in buttermilk until you can form one big clump of dough.
5. Toss the raisins into the clump of dough and knead into the dough.
6. Place in 8 or 9 inch round or springform pan that is been coated with butter and flour OR form into freestanding round loaf which you put on parchment paper to bake.
7. Cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife.
8. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it should have a hollow sound.
9. Remove from oven and place on rack and drape with damp cloth until cool. Slice and enjoy with Irish butter!
In the spirit of full disclosure I’m admitting to List Addiction. My favorites are Self-improvement Lists like How To Strengthen Your Core: 8 Steps; Ten Tricks to Look 7 Years Younger or 9 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Retiring by 55. There are even audiobooks of Lists, 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life. I usually keep all that great advice to myself but this week I discovered a List that must be shared: Six Mini-habits That Can Drastically Change Your Life by blogger Rizwan Aseem.
I used beef instead of veal for this week’s French Friday’s recipe, Beef Marengo.
Before I drastically change lives, however, I am going to feed you. This week’s French Fridays recipe is Veal Marengo, a dish created in 1800 by Napoleon Bonaparte’s chef to honor his boss’ success at the Battle of Marengo. For those of you unfamiliar with that battle, the French beat the Austrians on Italian soil. That was a very big deal, deserving of a celebratory entrée and commemorated by Puccini’s three-act opera, Tosca
Unlike Napoleon, I don’t like veal. I substituted beef. If you prefer chicken, that works wonderfully also. Supposedly, Marengo, an upscaled version of stew, was created with food supplies available on the battlefield… meat, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and white wine. Someone found a few potatoes and a French classic which has endured for over 200 years was born.
The top-of-the-stove duties are completed and the stew is ready for the oven.
Veal (Beef, Chicken) Marengo, with a salad and crusty bread, is an ample and adaptable meal. I had freshly harvested leeks in my fridge so substituted them for onions. After refreshing a package of exotic mushrooms, I used them instead of ordinary ones. What makes this recipe so useful is its adaptability. Any vegetable you have in the fridge will work with your choice of meat, onions, tomatoes and wine. You will find the recipe, have fun with it, here.
Dorie suggests putting parchment paper between the pan and the lid to keep the liquids from evaporating. A new technique that worked.
Now back to drastically changing your life. The best thing about this List is you’re probably doing half of them already. To my thinking, that’s instant success. Your self-esteem is rising rapidly. You’re halfway home.
Habit #1:Make your bed shortly after you wake up in the morning.
You’ve finished a daily task immediately, leaving a neat, tidy bed to return to at night. When you return home in the evening, you’re weary. Maybe some efforts haven’t gone your way. The end of the day not only brings relief but also an inviting, comfortable bed.
Habit #2:Put things back where you’ve found them.
When you return things to their proper places you drastically clear clutter in your life. What is more important, when you need them again, they will be there.
Habit #3:Pick up clutter before you go to sleep at night.
Practice #2 so this habit will not swallow up your time. If you wake up to messy and cluttered, you wake up grumpy. You just do.
Last week-end was cold and blustery. It was perfect for my Beef Marengo menu but not so nice for the Great Egret.
Habit #4:Dress slightly better than the occasion calls for.
My daughter, Melissa, was once asked for the best advice her mother ever gave her. She had two answers. “The advice I now most appreciate from my mother,” Melissa said, “I hated while growing up. My mother insisted upon handwritten, timely thank-you notes. Her philosophy was: if someone did something nice for you, they needed to be thanked in writing, appreciating not only the gift, but the giver, and helping me realize how lucky I was to have both.”
The second piece of advice I gave her was when she left the house, wherever she was going, to look nice, to be presentable, showing respect. “My mother’s reasoning,” she said, “was if you’re dressed for the part, whatever it may be, you walk out the front door, confident, not having to think or worry about it.”
Habit #5: Be consistently enthusiastic and optimistic.
“You won’t even notice this,” Aseem writes, “but you’ll wake up happier, and with more energy and a skip in your step.”
Habit #6:Plan your day on a post-it note.
This is my favorite, unchartered territory for me. I’m giving it a month
Here’s how the post-it technique works. Whatever projects you have to do tomorrow, choose only the five that will make the most impact on your professional and personal life. Everything else goes on the back burner, in the drawer, forgotten for another day. Write them on a post-it. Then, post it. Check them off as you knock them off. At the end of the day, mission accomplished. Your mind, on most days, will no longer need to focus on the things you didn’t get done.
These shorebirds are hunkering down on a dark and gloomy Sunday.
My report card is #1, #4, #5, A-Plus. #2 and #3, C to C-. I’m not a slob but I plead guilty to messy. If I followed #2, I would not need 10 pair of glasses scattered around my house. If I followed #3, I would not need to devote three hours tomorrow morning to picking up my house. Right now, as I’m heating up Beef Marengo for tonight’s dinner, I’m thinking about tomorrow’s first post-it. And also wanting to remind you that French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table cookbook. You can visit the FFWD site here.
Pissaladière, my French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice this week.
Last Tuesday evening my Aspen friend, Luky, telephoned to check in and check up on me. As usual, we chitter-chattered, catching up on her news and mine. It was all good until she asked, “So, what did you do today?”
“I spent the afternoon at the cemetery,” I replied. “Birding.”
Silence. Thirty seconds of dead silence.
“You spent all afternoon alone at the cemetery?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Birding,” she stated emphatically.
I knew where she was headed with this, Readers, so I started to laugh. Luky did not.
“Mary,” she said, gravely.”This is not good. Not good at all. I’m serious. You are alone way too much.”
“I had fun, Luky,” I insisted. “Really I did.”
That remark just added fuel to the fire although she was somewhat amused. “You pack your bags right now,” she ordered, “and come home. You need to come home.”
The Community of Cambria, California’s cemetery, established in 1870.
Realizing she was on a mission – I’ve know this woman for almost thirty years – we worked out a compromise. Since I’d be leaving Cambria in 3 weeks anyway, I would stay only if we talked frequently. I suggested sending daily e-mails but that was a No Go. Luky and I cut a deal. Telephone calls and no more cemeteries.
This cemetery resident, a Northern Flicker, is hiding from me.
We’ll return to the subject of cemeteries later but that conversation put a big smile on my face yesterday when I was making Pissaladière, my French Fridays recipe choice this week. Pissaladière, with its filling of caramelized onions, anchovies, garlic and black niçoise olives, is the Côte d’Azur’s version of pizza. The difference is in its rectangular shape, salty, intense flavor, and thinness of crust. Pissaladière is a French classic and the quintessential street food in Nice.
Six onions, quite easily thinly sliced with an Oxo hand-held Mandoline.
I’m not unfamiliar with Pissaladière and have enjoyed it both here and in France. However, I’ve never made it myself. To my mind, it seemed complicated. I’m delighted, after following Dorie’s recipe in “Around My French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours,” to realize it is not. My first effort worked.
The caramelized onions look just about right.
Serve it hot, warm or at room temperature. For breakfast this morning, I tried the cold version. Still tasty. It’s perfect for lunch or dinner, with salad. A meal. My preference is to feature it as a stand-alone appetizer. Small squares. Hand food. Truthfully, I’ve always thought Pissaladière to be very la de da.
Oven-ready
The onion mixture can be caramelized a day ahead and refrigerated. For the crust, make the same favorite dough recipe you use for savory tarts or pizzas. Frazzled and short on time? Grab your sunglasses and slink into your favorite grocery store to buy ready-made fresh pizza dough. The secret is to stretch or roll the dough until it’s about 10 x 14 inches and very, very thin. You will find Dorie’s recipe for her delicious filling below.
Add the anchovies and olives for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.
Now let’s return to Luky and our cemetery discussion. Who even thinks about cemeteries until you’re forced into a situation where you must? But Tuesday night, before I fell asleep, I found myself making a mental list of some cemeteries I’ve visited. My List gave me pause.
Molière’s tomb at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
First and foremost, I’ve visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where Presidents John F. Kennedy and President William Howard Taft are buried. More than 400,000 others, so many recognizable notables, are buried there. We’ve been to Pearl Harbor where the USS Arizona is an active U.S. military cemetery. After going to Normandy one never forgets Cimetière américain de Normandie in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Singer Edith Piaf’s gravesite in the Pere Lachaise cemetery
Then, there’s the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, site of three WWI memorials and resting place of many French cultural icons. If you’ve visited New Orleans, you’ve undoubtedly seen the elaborate stone crypts and mausoleums that are built above ground. I’ve just recently visited the presidential libraries where Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Eisenhower and Truman are buried.
Kit Carson’s Tombstone in Taos
Closer to home, Michael and I once spent the day in Leadville, Colorado, celebrating the restoration of the Hebrew Cemetery established there in 1880. Last year, in Taos, I found the frontiersman Kit Carson’s tombstone. North of Taos are the deteriorating grave sites of the Pueblo de Taos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Doc Holiday, gambler, rogue and Wyatt Earp’s pal is buried at Pioneer Cemetery in nearby Glenwood Springs. Donna Chase and I both noticed his tombstone while, uh, on an Audubon birding field trip.
The Pueblo de Taos graveyard
I am fortunate to live one block from Ute Cemetery, Aspen’s oldest graveyard established around 1880. On the National List of Historic Places, it’s been completely restored in a remarkably wild and abandoned-looking manner. There are paths winding through the 5-acres that hold 200 marked and unmarked graves. Every so often, I grab my coffee cup and walk through the cemetery, enjoying its silence, wildflowers and imagining the lives these early settlers and Civil War veterans lived.
Doc Holiday’s tombstone in Glenwood Springs, Colorado
You have your own thoughts and experiences dealing with a subject not often discussed. Thank you for allowing me to share mine. Now let me share Dorie’s recipe for Pissaladière which, hopefully, you will want to share with your friends.
Remembering Civil War veterans at Ute Cemetery in Aspen
PISSALADIÈRE by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 6 servings
INGREDIENTS for ONION TOPPING
2 Tbs. olive oil
6 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced (I used a mandoline.)
1 thyme sprig
1 bay leaf
About 12 good-quality anchovies packed in oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
About 12 Niçoise olives, pitted or not
DIRECTIONS
1. Pour the olive oil into a large skillet and warm it over low heat. Toss in the onions, thyme, and bay leaf, stirring to coat everything with oil, then cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, soft, and golden, about 45 minutes to an hour, maybe more—this isn’t a job you should rush.
2. While the onions are cooking, chop 6 of the anchovies. When the onions are cooked, pull the pan from the heat, stir in the anchovies, which will dissolve into the onions. Season lightly with sea salt and generously with pepper.
3. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F.
4. Line a large baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
5. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is about 10 x 14 inches. The exact size of the rectangle isn’t really important—what you’re going for is thinness. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and top it with the onion mixture, leaving a scant inch of dough around the edges bare.
6. Bake the Pissaladière for about 20 minutes, or until the dough is golden. Pull the pan from the oven, decorate the top with the olives and remaining anchovies, and bake the Pissaladière for 5 minutes more, just to warm the new additions. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
Make Ahead Tips
The onions can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Once made, the Pissaladière can be kept at room temperature for a few hours.
French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table cookbook. You can visit the FFWD site here.
We call them burritos. The Brits say they’re foldovers. I just know this recipe, from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg cookbook, is delicious.
Let’s talk dirt? You know, that soil hugging a carrot just pulled from the garden. The stuff hiding in the crevices of leafy Red Romaine lettuce. And don’t forget the leek. Those babies pride themselves on clinging to the sandy soil they love. Not to mention, so I won’t, a radish bunch. For the past two weeks, that’s been my #1 dilemma. (The world should be so lucky, right?)
The solution: Oxo Good Grips Flexible Vegetable Brush. $4.99. Sold everywhere. Buy two.
My first bounty from Talley Farms’ Fresh Harvest produce box.
For several months I’ve been cooking with other bloggers from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “River Cottage Veg, 200 inspired vegetable recipes.” Hugh’s a Brit, an award-winning food writer who has garnered a huge following from his popular BBC River Cottage TV series/books. Touted as a ‘pioneering champion of sustainable foods,’ he’s my idea of a celebrity chef.
Fresh squeezed orange juice is a morning treat.
Recently Andrea, who created our group and blogs as The Kitchen Lioness, asked us to not only cook from Hugh’s book but also highlight our sources. “One of the express goals of the members of The Cottage Cooking Club,” she explains, “is to make an effort to use as much local, regional, organic and also seasonal produce as is reasonably possible. Do you know and make an effort to understand where some of the food that you buy comes from?”
Week #2’s motherlode.
My answer was, “Uh, no, Andrea, not really.”
My dinner’s foldover, topped with sour cream, red onions and avocados, gets ready for its fold. (Notice my new Tom’s shoes? Sorta wanted to show them to you.)
For me, another you-talk-the-talk now, walk-the-walk moment. That’s why I recently joined Talley Farm’s Fresh Harvest produce box program. TFs, founded in 1948 by Oliver Talley, is based in the Arroyo Grande Valley on California’s Central Coast. Every week a $26 box, containing anywhere from 9-12 different fruits and vegetables, is delivered for me to my Cambria pick-up site. (In March I will receive the $19 Singles Boxes with fewer products.)
After I sliced the steamed artichoke in two, I needed to scrape out the choke (the fuzzy center.)
TF’s also supports each box with an informational website telling me how to store, maintain and cook with each product. They send me a head-up list so I have advance notice of each box’s contents. That’s when I pull out my River Cottage Veg cookbook and do menu planning. No matter the veggie, Hugh’s book offers me simple options for its use. Besides being a nutritious and delicious adventure, it’s great fun.
I mixed together 2 sliced garlic cloves, 1 Tbs, lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper and 2 TBS olive oil. After brushing the entire artichoke halves with the mix, I grilled them for 6 minutes, 3 minutes for each side. No condiments needed for serving…so good.
This coming week I look forward to receiving more user-friendly local foodstuffs. My family was here when I picked up my first box so the fresh food was gobbled up. Using the black kale, Melissa, the mom, made kale chips. With the bags of oranges, Clara, 11, and I enjoyed freshly-squeezed orange juice each morning. We steamed the three artichokes and devoured two immediately. I grilled the leftover one for lunch this week. Unfortunately Emma, 13, didn’t share many blueberries. With the broccoli and leeks, I made soup. The spinach? Nothing beats Dorie Greenspan’s lemon steamed spinach. I claimed most of the carrots, radishes and cauliflower. With the lettuce, Melissa made salads, even for breakfast. Voila.
Last week I visited the Pacific Wildlife Center in Morro Bay, a site opened in 2007, all donor-financed and opened 365 days a year to all injured wildlife except grown bears. Last year they cared for 2014 reptiles, mammals and birds. Recovering here are a northern California brown pelican, Heermann’s Gull and a Royal Tern.
For this month’s recipe from River Cottage Veg I substituted leeks from TF’s for the onion. The recipe, Refried Beans Foldover, raises the bar on refried beans. I was put off by the refried beans moniker but charmed that the Brits call burritos, foldovers, so I soldiered on. Readers, this is an example of what an onion (I used leeks), a tomato and a can of cannellini beans, mixed together with the right seasonings, can create. Savory. Nutritious. Satisfying. Filling. Delicious. Company-worthy. And, pretty. Since the recipe is already blogosphere material, I may share it with you.
Refried Beans Foldover
REFRIED BEANS FOLDOVER by Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall, River Cottage Veg
Serves 3
INGREDIENTS
2 Tbs canola or olive oil
1 small onion or 2 leeks, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 fresh red chile, seeded and chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes
1 can (14-ounce) of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 to 1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika or cayenne pepper
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 to 3 Tbs Sour Cream or Yogurt (I added Penzey’s Chip & Dip Seasoning)
Soft flatbreads, Naan, flour tortillas or tortillas chips
OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
Grated cheddar or hard goat cheese
Sliced or Diced Avocado
Thinly Sliced Red Onion
Guacamole
DIRECTIONS
1. Sauté the sliced onion or leek in a frying pan with medium-heat for about 10 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, chile and oregano, if using it, for the last minute or two.
2. Halve the tomato(es), grate the flesh directly into the pan. Discard the skins. Let the mixture bubble and reduce for a few minutes before adding the beans.
3. Add the beans and cook gently while crushing them with a fork to make a coarse purée. Season well with salt and pepper. Add cayenne or paprika for more heat.
4. Lay a healthy tablespoonful of the mixture on the flatbread. Top with a generous dollop of sour cream or yogurt before adding any extras you (or, your guests) choose.
5. Fold and eat.
Note: After making this mixture and without any of the toppings, I stood at my stove, fork in hand, and ate lunch. I waited to make the foldover until dinnertime. I am not particularly proud of that, just sayin’.
Cottage Cooking Clubis an international group of bloggers which is cooking its way through “River Cottage Veg, 200 inspired vegetable recipes” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. If you’d like to join CCC or see what my colleagues cooked this month, go here.
Tag Cloud for Vanilla-Butter-Braised Lobster: Exquisite. Delicate. Aromatic. Heavenly.
How often do you serve lobster for dinner? My answer is not very. Geographically a born-and-bred Iowa girl, lobster was not a food choice in my youth. When I was a working girl, wife and mother, lobster was not a food choice in my budget. As I became more worldly and sophisticated (using the sarcasm font), lobster was a restaurant choice but always the priciest option. Since my Mother taught me to never order the most expensive item on the menu, lobster was not an option. Period.
I approached this week’s FFWD’s recipe choice, Vanilla-Butter-Braised Lobster, with trepidation. How the heck was I going to pull this off? That’s when Susan and John Lester, longtime French Fridays colleagues, threw a lifeline, inviting me to spend Valentine’s Day Weekend with them in southern California. Last Saturday evening, we enjoyed an elegant, delicious dinner: Vanilla-Butter-Braised Lobster served on a bed of Risotto alla Milanese (Risotto with Parmesan & Saffron), and lemon-steamed spinach. The wine, Chevalier de Bayard Blanc, a perfect choice. For dessert, See’s chocolate, a heart gift from John.
If you wish, freeze these in a plastic bag until you have enough seafood shells to make a flavorful broth.
Basically lobster tails are precooked for 3 to 4 minutes in well-salted, boiling water before being separated, meat from shell. Now, clarify 6 sticks of butter. Holy Cow, that’s not happening in my kitchen. (Cut that amount in half.) We short-circuited the clarifying technique by slowly melting the butter, straining it through dampened cheesecloth before returning to the sauce pan. Scrape the pulp and seeds from two vanilla pods Add that, including the pods, to the butter. Warm the mixture to infuse the flavors before adding the lobsters. Cook for about 4 minutes before serving.
Spice Envy: Susan and John’s Inventory.
Please link to Susan and John’s blog, Create Amazing Meals, for a more detailed version of this recipe.
CALIFORNIA’S GALAPAGOS
It was only last year I discovered California’s Galapagos. Never mind that in 1976 this unique environment became part of the UNESCO International Biosphere Preserve Program. Never mind that in 1980 Congress established the very precious Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary. Never mind that I maintain a continual pout because I haven’t yet visited Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands. Lesson learned, look in your own backyard.
I shared this news flash with Melissa, my Cali daughter. “Oh, yeah,” she said, “there’s great scuba diving in the Channel Islands. Stephen and I are going there next year for our 25th wedding anniversary.”
Then the Lester’s who live in Oxnard told me the boats to the Islands left from the Ventura harbor, a 10-minute drive from their home. “When you visit us, we’ll go,” they promised.
Keeping a promise made to me a year ago, Susan and I are ready to go aboard the Island Packers. John Lester Photo
Californians must be keeping the Channel Islands as their own well-kept secret because many of my friends were as clueless about these Islands as I. Right here and now, let’s put an end to that.
We watched hundreds of dolphins swimming in the Santa Barbara Channel. Susan Lester Photo
Because pictures speak volumes, let me be brief. Last Saturday morning, following a 30-minute boat ride across Santa Barbara Channel during which we watched countless pods of Common Dolphins frolic while California Brown Pelicans, Western Gulls and Double-Crested Cormorants basked in the sun, we landed at Santa Cruz Island.
Seeing this little guy, the Island Fox, was the highlight of my trip. Endangered, by 1999 their numbers had declined by 95%. They are slowly recovering. Each of the 5 islands has its own subspecies of the Island Fox. They are found nowhere else on earth.
Santa Cruz, about three times the size of Manhattan, is the largest of the five protected islands. On this particular island there are 600 plant species, 140 land birds, 11 mammal species, large colonies of nesting sea birds, breeding seals and sea lions, three amphibian and five reptile species. Due to millions of years of isolation some of these animals and plants are found only on this island as is true with each of the five landforms. Its cultural history is rich, having been home to the Chumash Indians for 10,000 years and European explorers for 150.
Wild mustard was in full bloom and gorgeously displayed on the island’s interior hills Susan Lester Photo.
These primitive and pristine islands seem wrapped in a cocoon of reverence. There’s an aura about these wild places. My fellow visitors, I sensed, were southern Californians. Young families. Kids, carrying enormous back packs, on weekend camping trips. The excursion is not for the faint of heart. After the boat landed, we had to scramble up a forbidding-looking iron ladder to reach the pier. There are no services on the islands which must explain the dearth of older tourists. However, the day was not long enough. I was sad to leave.
Hoping to return.
FRENCH FRIDAYS LUNCH
For the past four years I’ve virtually cooked-the-book with other French Fridays with Dorie colleagues. During those years, we’ve made an effort to also know each other personally. Thus, the Lester/Hirsch friendship. Susan invited the southern Cali “Doristas” for Sunday lunch. John made delicious pork carnitas tacos and served them with his very drinkable sangria. It was a 90-minute drive and effort for both Katie, a UCSB professor and Diane, a dietician/nutritionist, but a great time was had by all.
Susan, Katie, Diane and Mary , French Fridays with Dorie colleagues. John Lester Photo
French Fridays with Dorie is a international group cooking their way through Around My French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours, written by Dorie Greenspan. Find our Link here.
Chicken Couscous, the French Fridays recipe this week. Serve it with Naan, a Persian flatbread.
More times than you might guess, someone says to me, “I’d like to have people to dinner but I can’t ever decide what to serve.”
While that may seem absurd, with all the cookbooks and blogosphere recipes available to us, choosing a menu can be daunting. After just checking my computer’s slow cooker folder, I found ninety-three untried recipes. My cookbooks are weighed down with must-try Post-Its. Italian Chef Giana Ballesteros wore a knockout dress on last week’s show, enticing me to print out her recipe as a make-now choice. (There’s logic there. Think about it.)
Readers, let’s solve this dilemma.
Let me suggest you need a main course that is tasty, simple, do-ahead, a people-pleaser, caters to various food sensitivities, hits a price point that isn’t a budget buster and allows you to enjoy your party also. Although Michael and I entertained often, I never threw a dinner party together easily. Nervous wreck was the phrase. Once our guests arrived, however, it was party time. Promise you this, no one every enjoyed our gatherings more than Me.
This week’s French Fridays recipe choice, Chicken Couscous, hits all those buttons. Of the twelve chicken recipes Dorie included in “Around My French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours,” this is my favorite. “Couscous is the name of both a teensy grained semolina pasta and the fragrantly spiced North African stew that’s served with it,” she reminds us. “It’s a congenial dish.”
Three cheers for anything that is congenial these days.
While you’re making Chicken Couscous, you will enjoy the aroma from this mixture of spices and herbs.
First, let’s get this Chicken Couscous made. The recipe is printed below but we’ll walk the walk anyway. Mise en Place, Readers. That means to have all ingredients on your counter/in your fridge, prepared and ready to go before you begin. If you wish, the day earlier, mix together your spices: ginger, cumin, turmeric, saffron, cinnamon, garlic, salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven heated with butter, add the chicken pieces (skin on) to the pot and sprinkle the spice/herb mix over the chicken. Lightly, lightly brown the chicken.
After browing the chicken, add the brother and, then, most of the vegetables.
Pour chicken broth into the pot, bringing it to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer while adding the leeks, onions, celery, carrots and turnips and cook about 15 minutes. Here’s when, if making early, you can separate the broth from the chicken and vegetables and refrigerate. Next, transfer 3 cups of broth to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour in quick-cooking couscous, simmer gently for a minute, stir, turn off the heat and cover the pan for five minutes. To finish off the stew, drop in the zucchini (skins on) and chickpeas and cook about ten more minutes.
Buy Naan, a Persian flatbread, at your local grocery store. If not available look for another flatbread on the shelves.
Tip: If your guests include Vegetarians, roast some of the same veggies, make additional couscous in vegetable broth and serve in the same manner. Get your guests to the table. Into ONE large bowl or plate, spoon the couscous with chicken and vegetables. With a ladle, add the broth. Serve this Chicken Couscous piping hot. Scatter small bowls of raisins, apricots, sliced almonds and harissa (optional) on the table.To accompany the couscous, look for packages of Naan, a Persian oven-baked flatbread, available in your grocery frozen section. Bring out your favorite wines and beers. For dessert, run by your local bakery, buy something luscious and, while you’re out, get a manicure.
I’ve always thought inviting people into my home for a homemade meal is the highest compliment I can offer a friendship. When you get one successful, delicious dinner gathering under your toque, it only gets easier.
Horned Grebe – Grebes appeared in the fossil record in the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene Period, around 23–25 MYA and were probably here earlier. I see grebes here on the Central Coast and will most likely see even more on the Channel Islands. Moonstone Beach, Cambria
John and Susan Lester, French Fridays with Dorie colleagues, have extended that offer of friendship, inviting me into their home this upcoming weekend. It’s no secret I wholeheartedly embrace the Valentine’s Day holiday. Susan decided, since I live nearby, I might enjoy spending it with them. As you’re reading this Post, I am making the three-hour trip to Oxnard from Cambria.
Common Loon, another prehistoric bird. There is a reason Loons and Grebes are the first two Families mentioned in every bird book. These beautiful creatures date almost before time itself. Morro Bay National Estuary
The Lesters have put together an ambitious itinerary. Sleeping and relaxing are not included. Among the planned activities, on Saturday they’re taking me to the Channel Islands. To those of you unfamiliar with this national treasure, think Galapagos Islands. Thanks to environmental groups and the state and federal governments, we will experience coastal southern California in the magnificence it once was. Like the Galapagos, the isolation of these five remarkable islands has allowed evolution to continue autonomously with its 600 plant species; 140 land birds, 11 land mammal species; three amphibian and five reptile species and large colonies of nesting seabirds, breeding seals, and sea lions, among the largesse.
Elephant Seal, male – I’m thinking this fellow is so weary because he’s been around for such a long time! Piedras Blancas Rookery, San Simeon.
The Valentine’s Day of my dreams.
To see how my colleagues will celebrate Valentine’s Day, go here. French Fridays with Dorie is an international group of food bloggers who are cooking their way through Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours. Happy Heart Day, also, to all you loyal readers.
Chicken Couscous by Dorie Greenspan
INGREDIENTS
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger or 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 – 1/2 tsp saffron threads, pinched between your fingers
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper to Taste
3 Tbs unsalted butter
1 chicken, about 4 pounds, pieces or chicken thighs, patted dry, at room temp
6 cups chicken broth
2 leeks, white and light green parts, split lengthwise, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 small white onions
2 celery stalks, trimmed, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, trimmed, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium turnips or potatoes, trimmed, peeled and quartered
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking couscous
2 slender zucchini, trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces, SKIN ON
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
FOR SERVING
Golden raisins, Dried Apricots, sliced Almonds, Harissa (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix the spices together in a small bowl.
2. Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chicken pieces (working in batches, if necessary) and scatter spice mix over top. Cook, turning pieces so they pick up the seasoning mix, just until they loose their raw texture. They don’t have to be browned.
3. Pour the broth in to the pot, increase the heat and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer to add leeks, onions, celery, carrots and turnips or potatoes. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
4. Transfer 3 cups of broth to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour in the couscous and simmer for a minute. Turn off heat, cover and let stand for five minutes, or until the broth is fully absorbed.
5. Add the zucchini (with skin on) and chickpeas to the stew and cook until zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes.
6. Fluff the couscous with a fork and serve the stew over the couscous. Pour the extra broth into a pitcher to pass as the table. Serve the chicken couscous piping hot.
