Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Chicken with Preserved Lemon

June 5, 2013 by KTgreen

A while ago I posted preserved lemons and I said I’d be back to show you what to do with them. A logical choice for the sweet and salty version is to simply lay a couple of slices on some fish (salmon is nice). Wrap in a pouch of foil and bake for 20 min or so at 350deg. A little rice pilaf and a salad on the side – so very good.

This recipe I pulled from Williams Sonoma and changed a couple of things. It was really tasty, and good for you too.

Braised Chicken with Preserved Lemons

Step 1: gather up..

1 Preserved Lemon*

1-1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds

1-1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Chicken (about 4# whole or cut up)

1/2 tsp Ground Pepper

2 Tbl Olive Oil

1 Yellow Onion, chopped

2 Garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp Tagine spice*

1 can (28oz) Diced Tomatoes, drained

1 cup Chicken Broth

1 can (15oz) Chick Peas (garbanzo beans) drained

•Preserved Lemon; short cut. Slice a lemon very thin and layer in a dish with salt and let sit while the rest of the dish cooks. The lemon is added near the end.

•Tagine Spice; You can buy this at W & S, but that’s a hour away so I made my own of standard pantry spices. I guessed at the amounts using the list from the product description. My Tagine spice Mix: 2 tsp Paprika, 1 tsp Ground Ginger, 1 tsp Tumeric, 1/2 Ground Blk Pepper

Step 2: Take the coriander and cumin seeds, and toast them in a small pan. Careful, just until you can smell them a bit and the cumin seeds turn a darker green. This changes their favor slightly and is way better than the ground versions. Crush them in a mortar pestle or a coffee grinder (whatever you use to grind stuff).

Step 3: Make up your Tagine Mix. Combine with the other spices in a small bowl.

Step 4: Cut up the chicken and remove as much of the fat as you can and leave some of the skin. Heat the oil and brown the chicken in a dutch oven…a large pot, not a new kind of range… so if this is a French made pot, I guess it’s a French oven!? If you bought a whole chicken, cut it up and brown the back pieces as well. But then move them off to be cooked for stock – they don’t make for good eats at dinner. Set the chicken aside and sweat the onion and garlic. Then add the spices and sauté for just a few seconds. This ‘blooming’ step makes the spices come alive.

Step 5: Add in the tomatoes and broth. Scrape the browned bits from the pot and then add the chicken back to the pot. Simmer for about 40 min.

Meanwhile, decide what kind of rice to put on the side. Normally, I use standard yellow rice, but I thought I’d show you a new find. This wild rice combo is great all by itself. The package is pricey, but it goes a long way. This is really good along side grilled meat of most any kind.

Step 6: Cut up the preserved lemon into a fine dice. Oh – the smell! So lemony…summer in a jar. The rind is almost gelatin like, and the salt has removed the bitter edge to the taste. Like nothing I’ve ever had before.

Step 7: After the chicken has simmered, add the lemon and chick peas and cook another 5-10 min.

Finale: Plate it up and dig in. The chicken is healthy after the skin is pulled, and the meat just falls off the bone. This taste of Morocco is a nice diversion from the average weekday meal. And now you know what to do with that jar of preserved lemons you made.

Enjoy.

Michelle @ www.badzoot.com

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Cookbook Review

May 22, 2013 by KTgreen

I have a few cookbooks….no, I’ve got a bunch of cookbooks. New ones, old ones, really old ones (did Fanny Farmer really skin a squirrel?!). Mom was telling me about a new one that’s out that she was enthralled with, ‘It’s All Good’ by Gwyneth Paltrow. Yes, I know some people have just had enough of how perfectly sweet she seems. I rather like her. When Mom and I were at Sam’s Club a few weeks later, she pointed it out to me and noted over and over about how many there were and now there was only three left. I picked one up and while looking it over another lady snatched one up. …and then there were two… Ok, ok ! I bought it. She’s right – I love it!

I enjoy reading cookbooks like novels and always fall for gorgeous photos. This is a lovely book. Healthy recipes for people who maybe aren’t complete health food nuts. She lists and explains the odd items that she uses and where to look for them. Everything from what to do with quinoa and a healthy chocolate cake and candy bars! I even made pickles from this book, but that’s another blog post. (they’re soooo good!!) I had some bananas in the fridge that were begging to be in a baked good of some kind, or frozen for smoothies. These blackened versions were just slightly softer than their fresher counterparts.

This is one of the wonders of buying organic produce – it really is different. I had everything I needed and in a few minutes I had healthy muffins. Now, the note “everything I needed” means that even though she used ‘Cup 4 Cup’ gluten free flour, I used whole wheat white flour. Gluten isn’t a big problem in this house…hmm maybe it should be. Is that ‘glu’ the same glue that glues fat to my back-side???

I’d copy off the recipe, but as I’m typing, I’m not sure what the rules are for published recipes. Most everything I send your way is either mine, a severely manipulated version of a classic, or something that’s already posted to the Net somewhere.

So, look up this book – I’ve enjoyed it so far. Mainly because the things I’ve made actually taste good, and not ‘health foody’. You know what I mean. These muffins were so good, William The Teenager ate them after school and even had one with breakfast in the mornings, until they were gone. They were yummy with coffee too. That was another good thing about the recipe, it makes 12 so they’re gone before they’re stale. Not that they got a chance to be.

That’s my review – 5 stars on this one. Now, it’s back to the kitchen, there’s that candy bar recipe that I’ve just got to try!

Michelle at Badzoot.com

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Preserved Lemons

May 2, 2013 by KTgreen

Michelle is back with a guest post!

The wedding’s over and I’m back in the kitchen,… Earlier this week I’d made a chicken dish with lemon zest and capers. It was great. Then I’d thought this would be good with olives and preserved lemons… that is if I had preserved lemons! And, no, nobody that I know would actually have those in their pantry either.

Oh, look there’s a great big bag o’ lemons that I’d just bought at the warehouse club. (I’ve been going thru a lot of lemons lately) Hmmmm, come ‘ere I’ve got plans for you! Well, I HAD plans and now they’ve gone way off track. (oh, look a chicken….) But just how do you preserve a lemon? I know there’s salt involved, or was it sugar? Let ‘s go ask the Interweb!

There are a ton of sites showing how to do this, all of which were stunningly simple. But I also wanted to know if anybody does it with sugar. I kept searching, then I stumbled on a site for a restaurant that has a cooking school and curious little things on their website. At www.cafeclock.com they had 3 ways to do lemons, the standard preserved lemon, a spiced preserved lemon (and when I get some dried chiles I’ll be doing that one too), and lastly a candied lemon that they note “These lemons are Jewish in origin and aren’t generally something you see in the preserves stalls of the medina, although you might seem them in the Mellah.”,… What? Where is this restaurant?! Certainly not NewYork, with a comment like that. Oh, look a directions/Map page… MOROCCO!? Wow – this really is the world-wide-web (I forgot) So, these are really authentic recipes!!! I love the Web!

Grab your bag o’ lemons and lets have some fun. Best of all this isn’t an expensive experiment, so if you don’t like them toss ’em. But later I’ll show you how to use them.

First Clean those lemons. Oh, you haven’t been doing that – ewwwww! You don’t know where that zest has been! Get a veggie wash or just a brush and scrub them under some hot/warm water (melts the wax). Then they’ll be squeaky clean, literally.

Separate them by the recipe (4 for each), and prep. Also get some jars and lids into a boiling water bath to sterilize while you work with the fruit.

Café Clock Moroccan Preserved Lemons:

4 Lemons

Kosher or Sea Salt

Lemon juice if needed (fresh)

Step 1: Cut the top and bottom of the lemon flat. The cut in a quarter fashion, but not all the way thru. I squeeze some of the salt into the jar to make getting the salt in a bit easier. Then I pack salt inside them lemon and shove in the jar.

Step 2: Yes, I actually got 4 lemons in that seemingly tiny jar. Only after it sat a while (until I was done with the other recipes), did I top off with some extra lemon juice and lid the jar. The salt makes the lemons break down very quickly. Guess what – that’s it ! Preserved lemons – d o n e.

NEXT!

Keller Style Lemons:

OK, these are the preserved lemons that the Gastronomic God Thomas Keller (‘aaaaaahhh’) does. He uses them in recipes from his cookbook ‘AdHoc’ (which I don’t have – yet) Again, super simple. I changed it up a bit to make them pretty for the jar.

Step 1: Get together 1/2 cup kosher salt, and 1/2 cup sugar and mix. Now slice the lemons in 1/8″ slices, very thin – careful don’t cut yourself – there are lemons involved OUCH!

Step 2: Layer in the jar a sprinkle of salt/sugar mix, then slice of lemon, another sprinkle,…. And so on. I never had to add juice to this. As they piled up and sat the juices just oozed out. Mr. Keller layers them in a flat dish and they sit, but I just couldn’t resist stacking them like this. Although, that meant I had plenty of the salt/sugar mix left over. Now you know I can’t throw it away. Hmmmm, I’m thinking about a ‘scrub’…but that’s another Blog.

Both of these lemon recipes ask that they simply set out on the counter for a few days to a week to cure. (Madame Curie’s cabinet hard at work)

Last, but not least Café Clock ‘Candied Lemons’ ;

4 Lemons

3 1/2 cups sugar (yes – they’re c a n d i e d)

3 Cups Water

Step 1: Take the 4 lemons and get in some water and bring to a boil for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let them cool in that water. Go do something else,…like prep that chicken in the background for dinner (and yet another Blog post). OK, now they’re cool (make sure those jars are still good to go).

Step 2: Take 2 cups of the soaking water (you’ll see it’s lemony) and add in the sugar. Bring to a boil for 15 min. Careful, a low boil is good. Now go and cut the lemons into the same quartered fashion as the regular preserved lemons. I cut mine in a bowl because they were soft and juicy.

Step 3: After the sugar is ready, add the lemons and the juice from the bowl. Continue to boil for another 30 min, until the skin/peel is tender.

Step 4: Spoon the lemons out and place in a sterilized jar. Continue to boil the syrup for another 20 min on very low heat. Then add that syrup to the jars and lid. I had leftover syrup, so I jarred it too.

Then I tasted it – OMG! Lemon-Honeylike-Syrupy Magnificence!!! I want just that! I kept out a tiny bit that didn’t fit in the jar and it’s going over some vanilla frozen yogurt tonight. I don’t think it’ll be around long enough for a photo – sorry. I know my lemon drop martinis will never be the same! No, this is way better than the Lemon Lightning Marmalade I subjected my Christmas dinner guests to. In, it’s defense its good too, but only ON something like a biscuit. By itself on a spoon it’s for someone who lost a bet! (sorry Shirley).

So here they are – a bag o lemons some salt, sugar and time. How pretty. How delicious? I have to wait too, like a week! Ugh, the candied one’s I’m not to touch for 10 days. There’s always next week’s blog. You’ll just have to stay tuned.

Michelle

By the way, Michelle has her own blog now. Check it out at www.badzoot.com!