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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Chicken with Pomegranate

I recently acquired a new item for the kitchen—a lovely enameled cast-iron cocotte from Staub.

Of course, a new pot requires a new recipe, so I decided to break open a tome that has been sitting on my shelves for years and getting no use.

The Silver Spoon is supposedly the Italian bible of cooking, and it contains a huge number of recipes, but the layout and instructions are not inviting. The instructions are written in one long paragraph, which is a pain to follow when you're half way through and need to check something. Worse yet, instructions can be incomplete, unclear, and quantities imprecise. Even for someone who doesn't always follow instructions and quantities to the letter, this can be frustrating.

But it does seem such a waste to have it sitting there, not getting spattered by water, wine, and sauces. So I decided to make Gallina alla Melagrana. Well, actually, I adapted it. The recipe calls for roasting the chicken whole, but I decided to cut it into pieces and braise it in the oven. I also add the soaking water from the soaking the porcini mushrooms, which the recipe does not call for.

The pomegranate was an interesting feature. The seeds are both tart and sweet, and the resulting dish reminded me of having cranberry sauce as an integral part of the chicken. I liked it.


Chicken with Pomegranate

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 chicken, cut into pieces
2 small onions
20 grams dried porcini mushrooms
4 pomegranates
1 cup cream
4 leaves of sage (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
salt and pepper


  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Heat half the butter and oil in a casserole, Dutch oven or other dish that can go from stove-top to oven.
  3. Fry the chicken pieces, turning them from time to time until browned.
  4. Add one onion, whole, to the chicken, sprinkle a little bit of water on it, and roast in the oven for 50 minutes.
  5. Put the dried porcini in a bowl and pour on boiling water to cover. Let it stand and soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, cut the pomegranates into 6-8 segments and scrape the seeds into a pot or large bowl, using your fingers. 
  7. Reserve some seeds for garnish and crush the rest with a potato ricer to extract the juice. (Since I don't have this, and my potato masher didn't do a great job, I ended by just squeezing the seeds with my hands and pressing them through a sieve. The seeds still retain a fair amount of flesh so they still look good when added to the dish at the end.)
  8. After about 45 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and add the pomegranate juice, pouring it through a sieve, and reserving the seeds. Return the chicken to the oven.
  9. Chop the remaining onion, and sauté it in the remaining oil and butter for about 5 minutes.
  10. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid, and add them to the frying onions. Cook for another 10 minutes and then add them to the casserole.
  11. After 50-60 minutes in the oven, the chicken should be tender, at which point you can remove it to a plate along with the whole onion. (I like chicken to be very well done and the leg meat to almost slip of the bone.)
  12. Chop the onion, and return it to the casserole.
  13. Put the casserole on medium heat on the stove, add the reserved mushroom soaking water, and reduce the liquid by about half.
  14. Add the cream and sage and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. 
  15. Pour the sauce over the chicken and garnish with reserved pomegranate seeds. 



Saturday, November 13, 2010

Greek Onion-Leek Pie

Last  week I saw a recipe in my daily paper for a onion, leek and feta pie. It sounded really appealing, and it did turn out to be very tasty. The original recipe called for phyllo pastry, but my local Turkish greengrocer didn't have it so I used something similar that they did have. The pastry leaves are less thin and fine but also don't dry out as quickly. You also don't need to use as many layers (2 on the bottom, 2 on the top.)


I think I didn't put quite enough dill in the filling. It really can stand a lot. I also think that this recipe could  do well with one or two eggs added. I reduced the recipe by about one third, but it still ended up being enough for 4-6 servings.


Update: I've now made this recipe a number of times. I've used oval, square, and round dishes, I've made self-contained packets, I've used phyllo dough instead of yufka dejblade (as it's called). I've adopted Kaye's tip of sprinkling sesame seeds between the dough layers. It always works. 





Greek Onion-Leek Pie

10 leaves phyllo pastry
olive oil
2 large onions
2 large leeks
4 green onions
salt and pepper
200 grams of feta cheese
6-8 tablespoons of fresh dill, chopped
3-4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons sesame seed
  1. Cut the onions in half and slice them thinly. Slice the leeks in rings, including as much of the green as is tender. Slice the green onions in rings. Sauté the onions in the olive oil at medium heat until translucent.
  2. Add the leeks, green onions, and salt and cook until tender. Turn the heat down to medium low and add a bit of water if the vegetables threaten to turn brown. Let them drain in a colander.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
  4. Crumble the feta cheese, and mix in a bowl with the vegetables, chopped dill, and breadcrumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of pepper!)
  5. Grease a square or oval casserole or baking pan with olive oil. 
  6. Working with 1 leaf of phyllo dough at a time, use a pastry brush to lightly oil each leaf with olive oil. Lay 5 oiled leaves in the bottom of the casserole, with the leaves overhanging the sides. 
  7. Spoon in the onion-leek-feta filling, smoothing it out. Fold the overhanging phyllo leaves over the filling, and lay the remaining phyllo leaves over top. Tuck the overhanging edges under, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  8. Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Squash Mushroom Risotto

"I'm late, I'm late", as the white rabbit cried. I have to catch up on some recent recipe experiments, and since we're deep into fall, I'll start with some warming comfort food.

This is another story of leftovers. I had a container of squash, some homemade chicken stock that got defrosted by mistake, and some mushrooms that had seen better days and needed to be used up NOW. I've seen recipes for both squash risotto and mushroom risotto, so that was my inspiration. Risotto is such an adaptable base for all kinds leftover variations. I can imagine it for leftover pumpkin from Halloween (maybe reduce the stock, since pumpkin has a higher moisture content than squash, and use fresh sage as a flavouring).

These days I don't actually follow a recipe for risotto, just a technique, but I provide some standard measurements in this 'recipe'. I'm afraid the measurements are approximate.

Squash Mushroom Risotto

3 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
3/4 cup risotto rice
1/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups squash
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 1/2 cups cooked squash
1/2 cup grated sharp cheese (I used aged Gouda)
salt and pepper to taste
  1. Heat the chicken stock and keep it simmering as you cook the risotto.
  2. Cut the onion in half lengthwise, and chop one half finely and the other half in thin half rings.
  3. In a cast iron or non-stick skillet, heat the butter, add the rosemary spring, then the mushrooms.
  4. Fry the mushrooms until they start releasing their moisture, then add the onion half rings. Continue to fry until the mushrooms and onions begin to brown. Then set aside.
  5. In a heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil and sauté the chopped onions until glassy.
  6. Add the rice, stir and cook for a minute.
  7. Add the wine, stirring constantly.
  8. When it is absorbed, add a ladle of stock, and continue to stir as it is absorbed.
  9. Repeat until the rice is almost soft, with just a little bite at the core. It will probably take about 20 minutes and use all the stock to get to this point.
  10. Add the cooked squash to the rice, mix thoroughly  and heat through.
  11. Fold in the grated cheese until it melts.
  12. Remove the rosemary spring from the mushrooms and onions.
  13. Serve the risotto topped by the mushrooms and onions.