Not Derby Pie

Today was seriously busy — fortunately for me, D’s stepmom Terri came in a couple days early to help cook, finish up grocery shopping, and see to it that the house was clean. That last bit she takes more seriously than you can imagine; when D and I moved into our apt, in a 100-year old building, the stove was caked with some hard-core black stains that I assumed were there to stay. I tried a couple of times to get them out but made no headway whatsoever, so I just got used to them. Terri doesn’t give up so easily; she’s got a big back of tricks up her sleeve when it comes to cleaning things, and I could swear she also pulled some sort of voodoo hex thing while I wasn’t looking, because folks, my stove is crystal clean. If you only knew the sort of filth I’ve been cooking with — it’s the sort that builds up over many many years — I can’t believe it’s actually all gone. amazing!

Meanwhile, on the cooking front, today I made (among other things) a delicious chicken recipe that I’ve just gotta share with you all. It’s a braised chicken dish with Moroccan flair. It starts with lots of onion that’s been cooked to the point of soft, caramelized translucence; punchy green olives are then added along with preserved lemon, which is both uber-tart and floral from the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in which it’s preserved. I was on the phone while I was cooking this dish, and after sampling a bit of the sauce, I added a splash of apple cider on a whim to cut all the salt, which worked very nicely. It’s not in the recipe on which this is based, but it adds depth and balance so I’d recommend adding it. If you’re looking for a chicken dish, I can assure you — this is the one.

Meanwhile, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to post between now and the start of the holiday, so…

To all those celebrating Rosh Hashana, may you all have a sweet New Year, filled with joy, laughter, and wonderful eating. I feel lucky to have you all in my ‘life,’ and I hope that you’ll continue to read, enjoy, and cook from NDP!

Also, though it’s been a busy little month here, I don’t want to overlook the fact that this weekend marks my 2-YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! That’s right: exactly 2 years ago, I had the quirky little brainchild to hatch Not Derby Pie. I worried at the time that I’d be too bored to keep a blog, not talented enough to cook and photograph my way through it, and not lucky enough to draw readers; fortunately, I’ve made it thusfar! You’re the best readers (and commiserators!) I could ask for, and I feel exceptionally lucky to have you all hangin’ out around here. So cheers to all, happy birthday to NDP, and here’s to many more years together!

Moroccan Chicken with Olives

8 wedges or slices preserved lemon*, rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup apple cider
1 4 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed
1/2 cup green olives

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Add next 5 ingredients; stir 1 minute. Add broth; bring to boil. Sprinkle chicken with salt (if not kosher or brined) and pepper; add to skillet. Add preserved lemon and olives. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter. Add apple cider to skillet. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes. Season with pepper. Add chicken back into sauce, and serve together. I guarantee people will lick their plates clean.

It’s not even 9 am and I already have 6 loaves of challah rising on the counter. What’s wrong with this picture?

I got a headstart on cooking this morning thanks to a 6:30 workout session with Julia. I was back home at 7:40 and by 7:50, I was covered in flour. Awesome.

Also on the agenda for today: thawing and making one of two briskets. My largest pot only fits one at a time. I’ll be making the briskets with a Separdic-style sauce that has pomegranate molasses and tamarind puree, among other things. It’s a hybrid of the two recipes that were featured in this week’s Boston Jewish Advocate article (found here). It’s a little sweet and a lotta tart and really, really tasty.

If brisket and challah aren’t enough, I’ll also be making a filling for my spanikopita, consisting of spinach, ricotta, feta, dill, salt, pepper, and onions. Not too difficult, right? I’ll make the filling today and then layer the filling and filo dough into a pan on Friday. Step by step, people.

And lastly, just to get a head start on some of the other prep, I’ll be baking some eggplant for babaganoush (the easiest recipe on earth, below). Wish me luck!

Babaganoush

3 eggplants
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup yogurt
salt
pepper
lemon

Prick eggplants in several places. Make a slit in the bulbous end of each eggplant and slip a garlic clove inside. Wrap in tin foil and bake in a 350-degree oven for 60-75 minutes, until soft all the way through.

Let cool until you can handle the eggplants; using a spoon, scoop flesh off of skin into medium mixing bowl. Add yogurt; stir to combine. Add salt, pepper, and lemon to taste. For a more rustic style, simply mix with a fork. If you prefer a smoother texture, take an immersion blender to the baba until it’s as smooth as you like it.

Enjoy warm, cold, or room temperature.

The Jewish New Year is fast approaching, and here at NDP we might just be in over our heads; we’re having lots of D’s family for the holiday and very excited to host them all!

With so many people to feed and not much time to prep, I’ve drawn up menus to keep myself on track and to make grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking as streamlined as possible.

Now, I haven’t started yet — the big cook commences tomorrow — so no pictures so far, but right now, I’ll share my menus with you as promised.

Keep in mind: I’m only making two of the meals entirely from scratch. We’re being hosted elsewhere for one dinner (but I’m making the brisket), and we’re doing a potluck for another (so I’m making only challah and a side dish). But I’m still cooking brisket, chicken, and 2 full meals — one meat, one dairy. Hopefully this will provide you all with a head start — or a kick in the butt — for menu-planning. Enjoy and please share your menus in the comments!!

Also — can’t resist this one little shout-out: my friends at KOL Foods, the only purveyors of local, organic, grass-fed kosher beef and chicken, were published in the Boston Jewish Advocate this week — and the article includes quotes and recipes from yours truly! Be sure to check it out — you’ll find 2 really yummy brisket recipes there: https://www.kolfoods.com/pdf/BrisketArticle.pdf

And now, menus.

Meal 1: Rosh Hashanah Dinner

Challah
Minestrone soup
Mesclun salad with hearts of palm, persimmons, and pomegranates
Tagine-style chicken with preserved lemons and olives
Roasted chicken with dried fruit and wild rice
Simple sauteed green beans and peas with lemon and almonds
Saffron rice
baklava and fresh fruit

Meal 2: Rosh Hashana Lunch

Challah
Watermelon-feta salad with pickled red onions and kalamata olives
Spanikopita
Sauteed shelling beans with tomatoes, oregano, and garlic
Orzo salad with fennel, dill pesto, feta, and lemon
Greek honey-almond cake
Greek yogurt with honey and poached fruit

Recipes are, for the most part, taken from epicurious, gourmet.com, and a couple other places. A quick search on epi will reveal recipes for lots of these dishes, and though I haven’t hammered out the final recipes I plan to use, these sites are where I plan to start. I’ll likely pull a few recipes and pull together the elements of each that I like to make whatever I’m making. I’ll do my best to blog the process as I start cooking tomorrow, so stay tuned!

D and I had people over Friday night. As of Thursday, I not only had done no cooking, I hadn’t even figured out my menu. Now, I’m not one to plan these things all too far in advance — but 24 hours is not much time to plan, shop, and make food for a dinner party. Not impossible, but not ideal.

When I’m cutting it close to the wire, I tend to keep it as simple as possible. I picked up a bunch of salmon fillets and all the good-looking vegetables that TJs had to offer. Without much time to contemplate interesting recipes and a lingering fear of making the whole house smell like fish, I wrapped each piece of salmon individually in parchment paper and tucked a bit of herb butter inside. The herb butter infuses the salmon while it steams, and the end result is both healthy, flavorful, and much less potent. No fish smell whatsoever in the house as of Saturday morning.

I made a vinaigrette with the herb butter, some capers, and lots of lemon and lime, and served it alongside the fish. In retrospect, I should have just made the vinaigrette first and skipped the herb butter step entirely; that’s the recipe I provide below. It’s a simple presentation that almost always pleases.

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Ahh lovely readers, I’ve missed you! I’ve been posting sporadically at best for the past month, because work has been absolutely insane and I haven’t had time to even enter the kitchen, let alone write about it. That last post on zucchini soup was my lame attempt to give you reading material while I was at work, so as not to abandon you completely — but I unwittingly passed along a post from last year, just before my Alaska cruise, and let you all think I was headed on a fabulous vacation. Not so! I spent Labor Day…..well, laboring. At the office. Until very late. But now all that should be behind me because we signed off on our research yesterday, and all that’s left to do is write the accompanying speech. I’m hoping today is the beginning of my re-entry into my favorite room of the apartment. Cross your fingers for me, will you?

Busy times at the office need to end with something restorative. Sometimes it’s a big bowl of pho, with its etherial broth and slurp-tastic noodles. Other times it’s a piece of good toast with some homemade jam. This morning, the first in a month that I haven’t had to start a 15-hour day at 8:30 am, I made my own granola.

I once was in the habit of making granola every week. It’s a good thing to have around for breakfast in the morning, and it pairs great with that super-tart yogurt in the fridge. But lately there’s been no time for such simple pleasures, and breakfast has consisted mostly of whatever I grabbed the night before at Trader Joe’s. Needless to say, I was more than ready to put my own labor hours back into the food I eat.

My usual granola has almond butter, which I find creates clumps better than water or oil and whose flavor doubles down on the granola’s nutty flavor. This morning, though, I was out of almond butter, so I went with tahini (sesame butter), which has a similar texture, instead. To balance the flavor of tahini, which can be overwhelming if not used sparingly, I added a splash of walnut oil, as well as a bit of chopped crystallized ginger, which paired well with the sesame flavor and gave a little punch. A generous pinch of cinnamon and a whisper of cloves brought the granola squarely into fall’s territory, which I suppose is appropriate, given that the weather is dreary and it’s dark when I wake up these days.

I was still concerned that the tahini might overwhelm, but it totally doesn’t: because the granola cooks until golden, the other flavors in there — almonds, oats, ginger, cherries, raisins — get a chance to toast and intensify, bringing the sesame flavor into balance. I LOVE this batch and plan on making another one, some other not-super-early morning.

Hope you all had great weekends, and I look forward to seeing you around here more regularly!

Granola with Tahini

2 1/2 cups oats
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup tahini
1 Tbsp walnut oil, optional
2/3 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), either salted or unsalted, depending on preference
2/3 cup sliced almonds
2/3 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup raisins, cranberries, or other dried berry (I like half raisins, half cherries)
2 Tbsp chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves

Preheat oven to 325.

In a small bowl, mix syrup, tahini, oil if using, salt, and cinnamon until incorporated. In a large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until well-distributed. Drizzle the syrup-tahini mixture overtop, stirring with a fork until all dry bits are at least slightly wet and clumps have started to form.

Spread granola on a large rimmed baking sheet in a thin layer and bake at 325 for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven, stir with a fork to move pieces from edge to center and from top to bottom. Make sure pieces that have started to brown are in the center and well-surrounded. Return to oven and bake 10-12 more minutes, until golden brown throughout. Granola will not be crunchy when it leaves the oven; don’t worry — it’ll crisp up as it cools. Once cool, transfer to air-tight container; granola will keep this way for up to 1 month.

So sorry that posts have been so few and far between (and so short) lately. I’m doing my best to offer some great summer suggestions between work and work — bear with me; just two more weeks of this insanity, and I’ll be back on track.

Meanwhile, hopefully you’re taking advantage of the last of summer’s produce more than I am. If you find yourself swimming in corn, this smoky number is a great variation on the corn salad theme. It combines raw corn that’s charred in a smoking castiron pan, poblanos that are cooked over an open flame to remove the skins and intensify their flavor, a bit of red onion, and of course, some of those delightfully plump and round cherry tomatoes that are so good this time of year. The method is so simple it’s a joke: just char everything in the castiron pan all together, and add the tomatoes just before serving. It’s just the way to take advantage of summer’s abundance. Have a plate in my honor, and once I crawl out from under this rock, I’ll be back in the kitchen in no time.

Smoky Corn Salad

3 ears of corn, husks and fibers removed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 of a red onion, diced
2 poblano peppers
1/2 a jalapeno, diced, optional
1/4 tsp. smoked spanish paprika
olive oil
salt
pepper
1 lime

Roast poblanos over an open flame, turning to blister skin on all sides. When fully blistered, turn off heat and transfer peppers to a paper bag or roll inside tinfoil. let steam for 5 minutes, then run under water to remove skins. Chop roughly and set aside.

Heat castiron or heavy stainless steel pan over high heat. Remove corn from cob, and combine with chopped onions and jalapeno, if using. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to pan and immediately add corn mixture. Toss to coat, then let sit for a 30 seconds at a time just to develop a real char on the kernels. Add smoked paprika, and add salt to taste. Keep tossing and charring, tossing and charring, until there are enough brown spots to give some serious smoky flavor. Remove from heat, add tomatoes, and toss to combine. Transfer to a plate, and squeeze 1 fresh lime overtop. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Basil is aplenty at DC’s farmers’ markets. This week, my favorite farmer was selling massive bags of the stuff for just $3.99. I probably came home with a good 2 pounds of basil — hard to imagine considering how light it is. There was only one thing to do: make pesto.

The last time I blogged about pesto, I largely focused on the method. Heidi at 101 Cookbooks had written about making pesto like an Italian grandmother, and I was inspired enough by her post to give the old fashioned knife-on-board method a try. The result was wonderful — chunky and rustic, with plenty of the irregularity that’s the hallmark of handmade things. But given how busy I’ve been at work lately, standing in the kitchen slaving over chopped basil just wasn’t in the cards for today. Instead, I followed the sage advice of another Italian grandmother, Marcella Hazan. I pulled her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking off the shelf and set about to make pesto using her (apparently sanctioned) food processor method.

Before you roll your eyes and call me a fraud, it’s in her book: Pesto, food processor method. Apparently the Italian goddess is fine with it. Plus, if that’s not enough evidence for you, I once heard Lynn Rosetto Casper, the formidable chef and host of APM’s radio show The Splendid Table, say that if you go to the Liguria region of Italy, to Genoa, where pesto originated, and follow the tips from the locals to the actual neighborhood in Genoa where pesto was actually invented, the Italian grandmothers there use food processors! That was the last time I had a second thought about whizzing the stuff together.

I think Hazan’s recipe is the best one I’ve ever made. The balance between basil, pine nuts, raw, pungent garlic, and Parmigiano Reggiano and Romano cheeses is just teetering in equilibrium. I also used a truly olive-y olive oil that I got on a twitter rec (Aria, available at Whole Foods), which may have made the difference. In any event, it’s a recipe I wouldn’t hesitate to make again. So hurry out to your market while basil’s still available, and try this pesto. It’d even make Marcella proud.

Marcella Hazan’s Pesto
I doubled the recipe and got about a pint, so this makes about 1/2 a pint

2 cups tightly packed basil leaves
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine before being added to the processor
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
3 tablespoons butter, softened

Blend all ingredients except cheese and butter until relatively smooth. Fold in cheese by hand to give that chunky, rustic texture. Fold in softened butter, incorporating it evenly into the pesto.

If freezing, do not add cheese and butter; add to thawed pesto just before serving. Top with a thin layer of olive oil, which will help keep pesto green.