Le hide, Paris

Le hide, Table d'étoile, Koba's Bistro

Frangelico and I were in Paris a few weeks ago, and it was a great opportunity to meet up with a friend from my school days. I've known Ratatouille since I was seven years old, and we were at the same school until we were 16. That's a mighty long time, and many years of birthday parties! 

One of the best memories from my childhood is of the birthday parties each of us would have every year. These were the highlights of our school years - fabulous gatherings of school friends just running around in the garden, playing home-made games planned and run by my sisters (Pass the Parcel, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Newspaper Dance, Musical Chairs). And there was, of course, the food. All home-made, except for the cake. My mother's special pizza was always in demand, and my friends still reminisce about them. (Amma's pizzas and her later dosai diplomacy are still paying dividends to this day.)

The Best Lunch Ever!

It has been very cold in North Carolina. It's been between 18F and 35F since Thanksgiving and us warm blooded folks are not used to it. It is meant to get this cold for a couple of weeks in February! Not so soon! As a consequence, we have all been inflicted with one form of respiratory illness or another, and this past Sunday required a heart-warming chicken stew of some sort. Moroccan Chicken Tajine was my answer.

I was very excited to use my lovely new green tajine I had recently purchased at Marshalls. It was made in Italy and a piece of art. Really worth the $20! I found a good recipe on the FoodNetwork, my favorite resource for recipes. These chefs who end up on TV kinda know what they're doing, and the reviews often supplement ingredients and methods well. I found a great recipe by Rachel Ray. To be honest, I find her slightly annoying (don't know why, maybe the scratchy voice?), but she really has some of the best recipes which are also pretty easy.

Here is her recipe which I have copied/pasted from the FoodNetwork directly. All credit goes to them:

"Chicken Tajine

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan

4 cloves garlic, smashed beneath the flat of your knife with the heel of your hand, discard skins

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large bite-size pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons grill seasoning blend (recommended: Montreal Seasoning by McCormick) or coarse salt and coarse pepper

2 medium or 1 large yellow skinned onion, quartered and sliced

10 pitted prunes, coarsely chopped

1-ounce box or 1/4 cup golden raisins

2 cups good quality, low sodium chicken stock, available in paper containers on soup aisle

Spice blend:

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika, eyeball it

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, eyeball it

1/2 teaspoon tumeric, eyeball it

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, a couple pinches

Couscous:

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups couscous

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it

2 scallions, finely chopped

Condiments:

Chopped cilantro leaves or flat-leaf parsley

Finely chopped scallions

Mango chutney, any variety and brand -- available on the condiment or International food aisles

Directions:

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, in a slow stream, and add smashed garlic. Season the chicken with seasoning blend. Scatter chicken around the pan in an even layer. Cook chicken pieces 2 minutes on each side to brown, then add the onions, prunes, raisins and stock. Mix spices in a small dish and scatter over the pot. Cover and reduce to moderate heat. Cook 7 or 8 minutes, remove the lid and stir.

To prepare the couscous, bring chicken stock to a boil. Add couscous, extra-virgin olive oil and scallions and remove the couscous from the stove immediately. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff the couscous with a fork.

Uncover chicken and cook another 2 to 3 minutes to thicken slightly. Adjust the seasoning, to taste, and serve chicken on a bed of couscous. Garnish with chopped cilantro and scallions. Serve with chutney."

Now, I didn't have all the ingredients. Instead of prunes, I used a couple of tablespoons of Morello Cherry jam. I threw in half a jar of green olives that were hanging out in the refrigerator. What's Moroccan food without olives?I also used a basic poultry seasoning that I had which worked really well. It is important to dry the chicken with a paper towel before putting the seasoning on it. It browns better that way. I ignored the paragraph on condiments (didn't have any of those ingredients) and cooked it for 25 minutes on low heat and not the 8 minutes as suggested.

I thought 2 cups of chicken stock was too much as it was too liquidy. Thankfully, I had a big bottle of Wondra Quick-Mixing Flour that we had purchased for the Thanksgiving gravy. My brother-in-law, Dr. Thanksgiving, super-chef extraordinaire (oncologist by day) swears by it, and now I will too. I shook a tablespoon worth over the pot and all that liquid magically turned into a luxurious and creamy stew. Thank you, Dr. Thanksgiving!

Here are the comments from my family:

5-year old Chocolate: This looks gross but it tastes very good! This is the best lunch ever!

8-year old Vanilla: This is the best lunch YOU ever made! (I nodded and smiled knowingly, not wanting to press the issue. He read my recent post on Dorothy and is still reeling from the fact that I wrote that she was not a very good cook).

Prince Charming: Oh my god! This is amazing! Cinnamon, how did you do it? This really is fantastic!

I think I should get over that scratchy voice and watch more Rachel Ray shows on the FoodNetwork. Right?

Best,

Cinnamon

The Perfect Roast

I mentioned in my last post that Cinnamon had inspired me to try my hand at some Thanksgiving dinner classics. Having never so much as roasted a chicken before, and since there are only two of us at home, I wasn’t about to go the whole hog (or, to be precise, the whole turkey).

And so, thanks to a suggestion from Cinnamon, we made a small roast chicken on Sunday night. I also made gravy and stuffing to go with it, these being my favourite parts of a roast meal. To this we added some French pommes rissolées (courtesy of my husband) and steamed mange tout. The pumpkin pie I’d dreamed about didn’t make the cut in the end, because I figured that three new things I’d never cooked before were enough. An English treacle tart was purchased as a substitute.

Your eyes do not deceive you – I did admit above that I’d never roasted a simple chicken before. Roast anything had always sounded so complicated to me, having grown up with a cuisine that doesn’t use ovens. And I thought that my humble kitchen was way too small to attempt anything as ambitious as a festive dinner – all of that would be for when I had my dream kitchen.

But one of England’s heroes, Jamie Oliver, has made it so easy for restaurant-dependents like me. (Yes, Jamie’s stock is down in the market, but I still think he seems a great guy - he’s so positive and real.) Again on Cinnamon’s suggestion, I looked up his perfect roast chicken recipe and, putting aside all my excuses and fears of never-seen-it-done-before and kitchen-too-small, followed it. I was amazed at the result: the chicken was moist and flavoured perfectly with the bundle of herbs (sage, rosemary, bay and thyme) it had been stuffed with, and the gravy was bursting with the essence of the carrots, celery, onions and garlic from the roasting tin. With relatively few ingredients that you can pick up in any supermarket, I really did get a great roast chicken.

There’s a streak in me that often wants to have everything lined up before I can embark on something – I feel like x, y and z have to be in place before I can do a, b or c. But when is it ever enough? I couldn’t get a photo of the roast chicken to share with you, but here’s a photo of the humble kitchen with its 2 1/2 feet of prep space.

Maybe everything doesn’t have to be perfect before you can create something beautiful. That's what I learned from making a simple roast chicken.

Just in case you feel like attempting this before Christmas, you can find Jamie Oliver’s perfect roast chicken recipe (that's really what he calls it) here and the gravy recipe here. Here is the cranberry and chestnut stuffing recipe (although I’d recommend going easy on the cranberries; and pork and bramley sausages worked as a great substitute for the turkey sausage).

And experienced chicken roasters, please share with us your one best tip (like how to get the skin nice and crispy!).

Love

Truffle

Serving Leftovers with Flair

When the weekends arrive, we are usually left with a few leftovers. Rather than re-heating the same and serving them up, I try to be creative, or should I say recreative. Last week, we had a fridge that included spiced, sauteed chicken filling for tacos, cherry tomatoes, rice, pasta and a pantry full of the usual suspects. Wanting to make some form of Mexican rice, the internet seemed to suggest that onion, cumin, garlic and beans were the integral ingredients. So, I sauteed some onions, added cumin, threw in the chicken, sprinkled garlic powder, a can of black-eyed peas, cherry tomatoes, chilli powder and finally the rice. As a side dish, opened up a can of refried beans and heated it up. I grabbed a handful of cilantro (coriander) from the backyard, chopped it up and threw it on the rice before turning it off. Note on cilantro, do not overcook, and do not cover the dish after adding it. This is my mother's advice when cooking Indian food. 'Cause if you do, it turns bitter.

A family favorite is a re-hash of leftover pancake batter. The one-cup flour recipe I detailed last week shouldn't leave a family of four with leftovers, but doubling the recipe might... So, my solution is to make my version of Okonomiyaki - a type of Japanese pancake with vegetables and a tasty dipping sauce. Please see link for an authentic recipe: http://japanesefood.about.com/od/holidaytraditionalfood/r/okonomiyaki.htm

Okonomi literally means "as you like it" - quite Shakespearean... Yaki means fried. It usually comes with a thick dark sauce and some mayo and is covered with fluffy bonito flakes - flakes of dried tuna. My version lacks all the above, except for the Shakespearean title. It originates in Osaka, which is where I had my first Okonomiyaki.

Here is my recipe for leftover pancake batter:

1. Make pancake batter from "Lemony Pancakes"

2. Saute one of the following veg combos-
*sliced cabbage and carrots
*leeks and ham
*onions and spinach
with garlic powder, soy sauce,salt, and pepper

3. Prepare sauce of soy, sesame oil, and Chiu Chow Chilli oil (or any Chinese chilli oil).

4. Add sauteed vegetables to batter and mix well. Make small pancakes and serve with sauce.

It's a great way to get kids to eat vegetables! I hope you enjoy it.

Cinnamon

Food and the Outdoors

What is it about eating outside that improves the gastronomic experience? It is springtime in North Carolina and the wisteria is blooming. My family and friends know about my obsession with gardening and probably surprised that I am blogging about food instead of the backyard. So, this evening, as the weekend was winding down, we had dinner on the steps of our deck, next to our wisteria vine.

Dinner was boiled edamame, grilled Teriyaki chicken legs, and another variety of Simply Asia noodles - roasted peanut - not that great. The food, to be honest, was not exceptional, though I was quite pleased with the result of having added Mirin to the pre-made Teriyaki marinade - the sugar of the Mirin really enhanced the glaze on the chicken.

I decided to split the meal up into three courses, much to the merriment of my children. The first course was edamame sprinkled with coarse sea salt (husband's input) served in plastic bowls, the second was the plate of chicken legs served caveman style and the last were the noodles served in blue ceramic and chopsticks. We had a nice bottle of prosecco (Prosecco Veneto, attractively priced at Lowes Foods) and the children had apple juice. Entertainment included an edamame-throwing contest and shrub-pruning critique-ing.

I was told many years ago that we enjoy food outdoors more because of the additional oxygen incorporated in our mouths as we bite and chew. Oxygen might have something to do with it, but I personally think it has more to do with the beauty of nature and the relaxation that it brings that adds to our enjoyment of our meal.

Cinnamon