Chicken with Lemon and Capers

This is another one pot dish.  I happen to enjoy this style of cooking as it is quick and easy but invariably tasty. The recipe does not include salt but clearly if you can't do without it you can add some.  I try to avoid salt in my food as I have high blood pressure and it has been forbidden to me, not that I ever over salted anything in the first place.  I think I may be the only person who has never liked salt on chips - not that I eat these often either!  Lemon imparts a salty taste as do bay leaves and once you are accustomed to leaving salt out it's surprising how the real taste of food emerges.  Anyway, less chatter more recipe.

I used a fresh lemon but if you have preserved lemons (preserved in salt!!!) this would work well.  If you don't have capers, substitute green olives (also salty!!)  If you are not using Saffron, you could add a little turmeric, for colour.

4 Pieces Organic Chicken, thighs and drumsticks or thighs
1 tbsp Rape Seed Oil
2 Large Onions Sliced
6 Peeled Whole Garlic Cloves
1 Unwaxed lemon (or a few slices of preserved lemon)
1 tbsp Capers in Vinegar
3 Bay Leaves
4 Whole Cloves
1 Small Stick Cinnamon
Ground Black Pepper
Pinch of Saffron Strands (optional)

In a non-stick casserole dish heat oil and brown the chicken pieces starting skin side down and turning once nicely browned. 
Add sliced onions and when starting to colour slightly add the whole garlic cloves. 
Add ground pepper, cloves, bay leaves, Cinnamon and a pinch of Saffron strands (if using) and  allow to cook gently for a few minutes.
Then add quartered lemon (removing all pips) and the capers.

After about 20 minutes I added a cup of Basmatti rice and coated the grains with the juices in the pan for about 5 minutes and then added two cups of water.  I covered the pan with a tightly fitting lid and allowed it to simmer until the rice had absorbed most of the water and was cooked through and the chicken was tender. 

Sometimes, if the lid does not fit too well, more water may be required.  Please check this otherwise it will not be pleasant eating raw rice.  I will also place vegetables on top and let them steam  at the same time.  Last night I used cauliflower but French beans or canned chickpeas could work well with this dish too.

The lemon can be used as a garnish, cut up into tiny pieces and eaten with the chicken.  The garlic will be beautifully soft and creamy and should not taint the breath when eaten.  If cooking the rice together with the chicken and lemon this will be delicious, but the dish would work equally well with couscous or potatoes.

Chopped Liver Attack

Someone asked me to give them my recipe for chopped liver so I will write it down here.  It is all too easy to make and these quantities are for "industrial quantities" as I never make it unless there are lots of us to feed.  My mother-in-law had perfected a microwave method and also had a recipe for vegetarian schmaltz.  Unfortunately no one got the recipe and she is no longer with us to ask.  I have my own family recipe; my Dad used to say that it was as good as his grandma used to make.  This was praise indeed,  I may have tasted it but I would have been too young to remember. My current version is the "light" one which replaces chicken fat "schmaltz" with vegetable oil.  I now use rape seed oil but any vegetable oil will do.  I used to use 12 eggs but have reduced this to 8 for this quantity of liver.  Some people use ox liver, but I no longer eat any mammalian meat and in any case the flavour of ox liver is too strong.  Chicken livers are the thing to use - always.

Ingredients are few for this and are as follows for a very large quantity; certainly enough for 15 to 20 people with a large appetite; after all this is only supposed to be a starter.  This is a typical Jewish recipe and many adaptations are possible.  A large food processor is best to process the chopped liver.  The livers maybe chopped by hand using knives in the traditional way; this results in a coarser textured pate which is sometimes preferred.  Traditionally the chicken livers would need to be koshered.  Please do this if you are kosher and have not purchased pre-koshered livers.

2lb fresh chicken livers
3 largish onions chopped
8 hard boiled eggs or more (if you like)
2 to 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
Salt and pepper to taste


Heat oil in large frying pan and fry onions till golden and well cooked
Season with salt and pepper whilst frying the onions
Add the chicken livers to the pan and fry until cooked through and most but not all of the liquid has bubbled off.  
Allow to cool (if time allows)
Add all but two of the eggs and process the livers eggs and onions in the food processor until an even texture is obtained.
Correct the seasoning to taste
Chop the remaining two eggs either by hand or in a mini processor
Place chopped liver on the serving dish and sprinkle the chopped egg over the surface for decoration Cover and refrigerate until set and serve chilled.
Finely chopped parsley to garnish if liked or chop some spring onion with the egg.  This is egg and onion and can be served instead of the liver as a veggie alternative.

At this time of year (Passover) this is eaten with Matzot but at other times it is eaten with bread, usually challah.  If you don't have to feed the whole block then make a small amount.  When we used to get livers in the chicken we would make it with one liver!!!.  For this quantity use one egg and half a small onion.  My nanny would squeeze the juice from a raw onion and not fry the onion at all.  She would add this to the cooked chopped liver with the chopped egg and just make a small plate of liver pate.  It was delicious too.

Sorry no photo as it's all been eaten!!!!

One pot Chicken with Mushrooms, Green Beans and Taragon

Just thought I'd share this recipe with those of you who might come across this blog.  I made this last night for supper and Michael really loved it.  Unfortunately I didn't take a picture but it was good eating rather than good looking.  Not bad looking you understand but this is a one pot dish.  These quantities are sufficient for two very generous portions.

Ingredients:

4 Organic Chicken Thighs
2 tbsp Rape Seed Oil
2 Chopped Onions
3 Chopped Garlic Cloves
1 tbsp Dried Tarragon
1 tin Mushrooms (drained)
500gm Fine Green Beans (trimmed)
4 tbsp  White Wine Vinegar
250 ml Water
1/2 tsp Salt and quite a lot of freshly ground black pepper
Large frying pan with lid

Heat oil in frying pan (I use a large Tefal non stick frying pan with a lid). 
Brown chicken pieces skin side down and turn over once skins have taken on some colour.
Add chopped onions and cook gently until softened slightly and then add chopped garlic and cook for a little longer.
Add dried tarragon salt and pepper and stir well with wooden spoon until all chicken has a coating of the herbs and seasoning.
Add the mushrooms and cook on moderate heat until mushrooms start to brown slightly.
Add the vinegar and simmer for a few minutes and then add half of the water.
Add the green beans and cover the pan with a lid.
Simmer gently for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the chicken and the beans are tender.  Add more water if necessary and adjust the seasoning to taste.  (The beans will not be al dente but a la francaise i.e well cooked and tender.  Once you have eaten them this way forget al dente)!
Serve with rice or potatoes. 

Obviously you can use fresh mushrooms if you have them and fresh tarragon but make sure that it is French tarragon and not Russian, which has no flavour at all!!!!

We ate this with some lovely baked Desiree potatoes but it would be just as good with mashed potatoes.  For a change recently I used red and white quinoa with Bulgar wheat, which was excellent with another one pot chicken dish with a rich tomato sauce that I had I made.  This too would work well.

I was a little worried that the vinegar would be too strong but, on the contrary, this worked very well.  White wine would work well too but I think this was equaly good but different.  I urge you to try it if you haven't already done so.

Cheese Cake With With Sour Cream Topping

Sorry I  haven't taken a photo of this cake so this blog looks a bit spare but I am posting this cheese cake recipe as so many people have asked me for it that I thought it would be easier write it on my blog and then it would be up there for all to see.
My Auntie Jenny used to make this cake and we all loved it.  It is also very easy to make.
This is quite an expensive cake to make and the quantities given here make a very large cheesecake and is suitable for a large party (say 20).  It makes a wonderful desert for a summer party especially if covered with lovely seasonal red berries.  The quantities can be halved for  a smaller cake.

Method
Pre-heat the oven at gas mark 4 (350 F, 180 C)
Line the base and sides of a 29 cm spring form cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment.  Don't forget to oil the tin otherwise the parchment doesn't stay in place!

Ingredients

Cake base
400 g digestive biscuits (you can substitute any biscuits, ginger nuts are particularly good)
125 g butter (I always use unsalted)

Whizz the digestives in a food processor  (I do it in two batches) until they are fine crumbs.  If you do not have a processor put the biscuits in a large polythene food bag and bash them with a rolling pin.
Melt the butter and add them to the biscuit crumbs and stir until evenly coated.
Press into the lined spring form cake tin making sure it is firmly pressed in and slightly thicker towards the edges.
Bake for 10 minutes

Cheese mixture
1kg cream cheese (full fat is best but low fat can also be used if you really feel you have to)
200 g golden caster sugar
2 tbsps potato flour (ordinary flour can also be used but potato flour is traditional)
4 eggs
300ml sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract (other flavours could be used but I like it simple)
Some people add raisins but I prefer it without

Mix all ingredients together until smooth
Pour over the baked biscuit base carefully
Bake for approx 90 mins it should still be slightly wobbly
(Smaller cake approx 45 mins)

Topping
300ml sour cream

Spread the sour cream carefully over the hot cake and replace in the oven for 10 minutes

Allow the cake to cool in the tin and refrigerate until you wish to serve it.
Run a knife between the paper and the cake to loosen and remove the cake from the tin

Fresh berries are delicious strewn over the top of the cake and dusted with icing sugar just before serving.

Warning!!!!  This cake is extremely rich and should be cut into thin slices.

Enjoy!

What To Do With All the Crops

As I have said previously in my Blog Gordon Road Allotment, this year has been a bumper year for all sorts of vegetables so what to do with them and how to use up the glut other than giving them away.  So maybe this is a good time to think of some interesting and exciting recipes.  I am very lucky to have been born into a family of foodies, in addition to which I have a Mediterranean background.  I was brought up on courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines and peppers.  These are all now readily available in British supermarkets and it may seem strange to say this in 2009 but I was born at the end of the 1940s and in the 1950s these vegetables were not readily available in the shops.  When my grandmother came to visit us from her home in North Africa she would fill the suitcase with vegetables not clothes, so that my mother would be able to have a taste of her home.  I am sure you would not be allowed to do this these days; however, the rules were laxer then.

Most recipes from this part of the Mediterranean involve onions and/or garlic.  My grandmother would only cook with one or the other in a dish; she would always say it was not correct to use both in the same dish.  The following are very simple but tasty recipes that use onion rather than garlic:

Green Beans and Tomatoes

·         1kg Runner beans or wide French beans

·         2 large onions

·         1 tin chopped tomatoes or 500g fresh tomatoes skinned chopped and deseeded

·         2 – 3 tbsp sunflower oil

·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         2 -3 bay leaves

String the beans and cut into 5 cm lengths

Peel and chop onions coarsely

Add oil to medium saucepan

Place beans, onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper and bay leaves into the pan

Bring to the boil and then simmer slowly until very well cooked – approximately 30minutes

Serve as an accompanying vegetable to meat or fish or eat on its own with a slice of good bread; it may also be used as a pasta sauce.

Courgettes and Chickpeas

·         1kg courgettes

·         2 large onions

·         1 tin chickpeas washed and drained

·         2 sachets of powdered saffron or a large pinch of saffron stamens

·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         2-3 bay leaves

·         2 – 3 tbsp sunflower oil

Cut courgettes into even sized pieces about 1 ½ cm

Peel and chop onions coarsely

Add oil to medium saucepan

Place courgettes, onion, chickpeas, saffron, salt, pepper and bay leaves into saucepan and simmer gently for 20 – 30 minutes until cooked

This is good hot with couscous or bread, or to accompany meat or chicken.

In North Africa the meal always commences with kemias or hors d’oeuvres, these may be as simple as olives and cornichon, but often consist of more elaborate prepared dishes.  I describe here a couple of my favourites that will be useful in using up gluts of tomatoes and peppers.  The following are always served as hors d’oeuvres and use garlic alone:

Grilled Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Salad

·         Two red bell peppers

·         250gm red tomatoes

·         1large clove garlic

·         3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

·         1 tbsp Red wine  vinegar

·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grill bell peppers to blacken and remove the skin

Cut in half lengthways and remove the seeds and the pith then cut into approx 1 ½ cm square pieces

Scald tomatoes in boiling water to remove the skin, quarter the tomatoes and deseed and cut quarters into 1 ½ cm pieces

Combine the prepared peppers and tomatoes in a salad bowl

Peel and finely chop garlic.  This is important; the garlic should not be crushed

Combine oil vinegar salt pepper and garlic and pour over the prepared peppers and tomatoes

Leave to macerate for 30 minutes at room temperature

Serve as a starter with bread

Choukchoukah

·         1kg red bell peppers (or other colours if red are not available)

·         1 chilli pepper (optional)

·         1kg ripe tomatoes or 2 tins chopped tomatoes

·         3-4 fat cloves garlic

·         3-4 tbsp sunflower oil

·         Salt and freshly ground pepper

Grill all peppers to cook and blacken and remove the skin

Deseed and chop the grilled peppers

If using fresh tomatoes, scald in boiling water to remove the skin and deseed

Peel and slice garlic finely

Heat oil in a medium saucepan

Gently fry garlic until rosy but not burnt

Add chopped tomatoes salt and pepper and cook gently until reduced by one third

Add the chopped peppers and continue to cook gently until reduced by half

Stir frequently during the cooking process; take care not to burn the choukchoukah

The mixture should resemble a thick jam

Adjust the seasoning to taste

Allow to cool before serving with slices of thick bread

I hope you enjoy my family recipes.

Wedding Cake

Last Christmas I made three Christmas cakes using variations on Nigella's chocolate and prune cake. I am not that fond of coffee liqueur, so I substituted Cointreau, which had the added advantage of not having to go out and buy it as I have a very large bottle at home. It also goes well with the other ingredients as oranges are used in the recipe. This was a huge success with all the family who declared it the best Christmas cake ever. My cousin and her boyfriend were round during the Festive season and were offered some. When they tried it they asked me to make them their Wedding cake; as this was to take place in August I wasn't sure that they were serious about it. Anyway about a month ago my cousin reminded me that they still wanted me to make their cake and was I still willing to do it. I said that that would be my Wedding present to them.


The cakes I 'd made for Christmas were round and decorated with orange and lemon jellies and chocolate buttons. I thought that a square cake would be more suitable for a Wedding. As my Christmas cakes were not conventionally iced, as I am not particularly fond of traditional icing, I said that did not want to make an iced Wedding cake. My cousin said that was exactly her choice too and that this would be perfectly fine. I glazed them with apricot jam, another diversion from the Nigella recipe, giving them a very attractive gloss, as you can see below in the half decorated cake.

I racked my brains and scoured all the shops in London to find a way of decorating this cake. I went up to Selfridges, which always used to have everything you needed. The Food Hall was famous for having the most wonderful selection. No more! It is a sad shadow of its former glory. I was looking for high quality sugared almonds in white and silver; these were always available in the past. It now appears that they are not.

I did find dragees and bought a variety of different types and eventually used chocolate marbled almonds. I found some yoghurt coated strawberry sweets in Cranberry; a chain of stalls at the mainline stations in London, selling sweets, dried fruits and nuts. The white chocolate hearts were from John Lewis, Oxford Street, and the chocolate tiles that surround the cake were made from chocolate that I 'd bought in France on holiday this year. I melted the chocolate and spread it out thinly on baking parchment allowing it to cool and set completely before cutting it up into suitable pieces to stick round the sides of the cake using icing as "glue" to anchor the chocolate in place.

I made two cakes as my cousin said it was for 30 people and I wasn't sure how far one cake would go. In the event the pieces of cake served were very small and I doubt if one cake was used at the Wedding party itself.

The cakes are displayed side by side as I'd intended.

The prunes were from Agen in France and my cousin is from Agen so there was a considerable amount of symbolic importance to this. Everyone was very complimentary about the cake and I felt very happy that this had been such a success.

New Reciepe Blog

Cooking is my passion and I have wanted to create a recipe book for years. I have started a million times in my head and have reams of stuff on my hard drive as well as sheaves of paper with handwritten recipes from my grandmother and here sisters as well as my mother and aunts and indeed my uncles. It is so much easier I have found to compile short blogs and then once written it will be easy or at least should be easier to compile a book if I choose to. Also if my relatives decide they want to contribute some recipes or anecdotes they will be able to do so too. The dilemma is also whether to write this in French. A bit of a challenge for me but it would be easier for the rest of the crew. Here are the problems and some of the questions remain to be answered. I can add pictures of the recipes too and any other elements I choose to upload onto the blog.

This was a desert that a friend served at a recent Sunday lunch.

It was delicious as well as beautiful.

I will be making the most of my wonderful and abundant vegetable crop from my allotment and will be posting some recipes very soon.