Cuisine Approximate: Asian BBQ Chicken

June 4

Arriving home tired and ravenous, I mix half a cup of hoisin sauce with a tablespoon each of Vietnamese chilli sauce, grated ginger, light soy sauce and lime juice, plus a teaspoon of five-spice powder and a crushed clove of garlic. I toss four chicken thighs in it, then tip the lot into a roasting tin and bake for half an hour. What emerges is 'cuisine approximate'--a rough copy of something I remember eating long ago, sticky and dark, not quite Chinese, not quite Vietnamese, but nevertheless utterly delicious. I haven't the energy to cook rice, so I wipe my plate with bread.

Nigel Slater, Kitchen Diaries II

Versatile, simple, easy, quick.

Utterly fantastic!

This hit my taste buds where they live and I have made it several times.

Sometimes I had fresh ginger. Sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I had garlic. Once, to my eternal shame, I didn't. (I know. A house without garlic is an abomination before the Lord. Let us never speak of this again.)

And honestly I somehow completely missed his mention of five-spice powder until I was typing this out.

This recipe also highlighted just how different various brands of hoisin sauce can be. I maintain there is no such thing as a bad hoisin sauce. However, there are some that are definitely more to my taste than others. Part of the interest has been experimenting to see which I like best.

I'll be honest though. Most of the interest has been in the eating.

Cable Car Cocktail

Again from our trusty Old Mr. Boston book. I first tasted this at my daughter's home and then had to go buy some spiced rum so I could make it for myself.

Cable Car

2 ounces spiced rum
3/4 ounce triple sec (I use Cointreau)
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup

Combine all in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake. Pour into a cocktail glass.

(You are supposed to run a lemon wedge round the rim of your glass and dip it in cinnamon sugar before pouring the cocktail in ... but that's not how I roll ... too sweet.)

100 Grilling Recipes You Can't Live Without by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

100 Grilling Recipes You Can't Live Without: A Lifelong Companion by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I have several of the Jamison's cookbooks and have always enjoyed using them. This one, however, is disappointing in several ways.

Many of the recipes are repeated from other cookbooks. Although I suppose the fine print in the book description says "best of" somehow that isn't what I expected.

However, let's say it is fair for a "lifelong companion" to have the Jamison's favorite recipes in it. What makes this a "lifelong companion?" Who knows? Because their own commentary is extremely brief. Extremely. Brief.

My other main problem is that there are a lot of very exotic recipes for being a basic "100 you can't live without" or "a lifelong companion." Somehow Elk Backstrap Medallions with Purple Onions and Plum Sauce seems an odd choice to make the cut, as do Grilled Duck Breasts with Armagnac and Lavender Honey Glaze or Blue Corn and Green Chile Pizza.

Skip this and get one of their more complete cookbooks instead such as Born to Grill, Smoke & Spice or The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining.

Note: This was received from the Amazon Vine program.

No More Brown Cut Fruit!

I read about this in Cook's Illustrated a while ago. If you don't want cut fruit to brown, toss the pieces into honey water. It works better than acidulated water (water with lemon juice in it).

They used 2 tablespoons of honey to one cup of water, dunked the fruit for 30 seconds, and it didn't brown for 8 hours.

I have been using a more casual approach since I'm not a cooking magazine.

I just squeeze some honey into a bowlful of water (no measuring) and toss in the apples while I'm cutting. I drained them later and put the extra slices into a plastic bag in the fridge. They were perfectly good for lunch the next day.

I also used this on potatoes I was cutting up for a gratin.

And I never noticed any extra sweetness, probably because there is relatively little honey to water with my method.

Creamy Italian Dressing

I've never cared one way or the other about Italian Dressing which probably only goes to show that we didn't have it when I was growing up. My husband, however, did and when I tried out this Cook's Country recipe he was delighted. I, too, was delighted despite lack of previous experience. It is a delicious salad dressing.

I pass it along to you in case you are similarly delighted.

Note: I didn't care about a smooth texture and did care about not having to wash my food processor (have I mentioned lately how long it's been since my dishwasher has worked?). So I skipped that part and just whisked instead. Whatever you choose will be just fine.

Also, don't worry if you've let the dressing sit more than 4 days. Magazines have to put those warnings. Be realistic. Take a sniff, stir it up ... if it looks ok, it most probably is.

Creamy Italian Dressing

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Whisk vinegar, Parmesan, shallot, garlic, oregano and pepper flakes in small bowl. Microwave until cheese is melted (vinegar will look cloudy) and mixture is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Let cool.

Process mayo, sour cream, basil, and vinegar mixture in food processor until smooth. With motor running, slowly add oil until incorporated, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. (Dressing can be refrigerated in airtight container for 4 days.)

Now That's Tasty ...

A quick heads-up for two products that we've been enjoying a lot.

Blue Plate Mayonnaise
I never heard of Blue Plate before until Cook's Illustrated did a tasting that placed Hellman's, our household standard, in third place. Frankly, I'd been unhappy lately about the change in Hellman's texture which has become less like real homemade mayonnaise (yes, I used to make it all myself, folks) and more goopy.

I'd seen their #2 pick, Duke's, praised and tried it out some time ago but was unimpressed. There was some odd aftertaste, or was it an odor, that bothered me.

I kept an eye out for Blue Plate and was both surprised and gratified to find it at Krogers of all places.

I was also very gratified to find it was more like the homemade mayonnaise I'd always loved, with a faint tang of lemon underlying the main flavor.

HEB Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream
Like Matt, I feel like a mega-jerk for reviewing an ice cream that is not available everywhere, but I just had to tell you about HEB's limited edition Mexican Chocolate. We don't have an HEB around here, more's the pity, but we do have their high end grocery, Central Market.

I love their HEB brand ice cream and have always wished they carried more than four or five flavors. Saturday I noticed a few Limited Edition brands and tried the Mexican Chocolate. It is a creamy milk chocolate with a swirl of thick cinnamon syrup (that is the consistency of a frozen chocolate syrup swirl). It packs a cinnamony punch that blends perfectly with the mild, sweet chocolate. If you can get your hands on this, try it out.

Religion & Food: Lenten Food

Simple vegetarian soups are traditional throughout Lent, and each nationality has developed its own Lenten specialty. Consider slurping any -- or all -- of the following for the next forty days:

• Eastern Europe: Vegetable-based split soups.
• France: Onion soup, of course! Call it Zuppa Magna di Cipolle and you can claim its Italian.
• Greece: Tomato soup.
• Italy: Brodo Magro di Digiuno is made with leeks, onions, carrots, cabbage, and lentils; flavored with sage and bay left. Strained, it's a rich broth for other soups or to use with rice or pasta. Pureed, it's a hearty soup.
• Russia: Borscht (beet soup) with mushrooms or barley. Sauerkraut and mushroom soup. Cabbage, potato, carrot, and barley soup.

Eastern Orthodox Church adherents still observe strict fasting -- relative to what most Roman Rite Catholics do -- during Lent. In fact, they are required to fast twice a week most of the year anyway. Check out this site to see what rigorous fasting looks like. If you decide to go the complete vegetarian route for the next forty days, check out Mollie Katzen's The Moosewood Cookbook. Published over two decades ago, it's still one of the best resources for vegetarian recipes and especially wonderful soups.

Strange but true: The pretzel is the oldest, traditional, authentically Christian Lenten bread. Some food historians trace its origin back to Roman Christians of the fifth century. Others insist that monks in southern France, or maybe it was northern Italy, cooked this egg- and butter-free snack up in A.D. 610. The former called them bracellae, Latin for "little arms"; the latter called them pretiola, latin for "little reward.

In either account, the dough configuration represents arms folded in prayer and the three holes represent the Trinity. thus you may eat these with impunity, but not gluttony, throughout Lent ...

So where does "pretzel" come from? Germans, who called these breads bretzel ("little bread") ... Palatine Germans, who would become known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, imported pretzels to the United States in 1710.

The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould

Linguine with Broccoli

I originally posted this in 2010. However, it deserves another look, especially for those looking for meat-free meals during Lent.

This originally came from one of Craig Claiborne's series of cookbooks which were compilations of his NY Times columns. It was Ed Giobbi's creation. Somehow I misplaced the recipe and was pleased to find it again in the library's copy of Eat Right, Eat Well, The Italian Way. The recipe is brilliantly and simply conceived. In brief, one cooks the pasta and the broccoli at the same time ... without having to use a big pot of water.

Linguine with Broccoli
STEP 1   
1    bunch fresh broccoli

Cut off flowerets and peel stems. Cut flowerets into 2-inch lengths, slicing large ones in halves or quarters. Wash and set aside.

STEP 2
4    tablespoons olive oil
2    tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
      Hot pepper flakes to taste (optional)

Put oils, garlic, and hot pepper in a large pot. Turn up heat and add broccoli.

STEP 3
2-1/2    cups water (approximately. I sometimes use almost twice as much, depending on the pasta)
1/2    pound linguine or spaghettini, broken into 2” lengths
        Salt and pepper to taste

When oil is hot, 1 cup of water and pasta. Stir thoroughly. If pasta is not well mixed at the beginning, it will stick together.

Add salt and pepper, stir, and cover. Cook over medium heat, stirring very often, taking care that pasta doesn’t stick together or to pan. Add water gradually as needed.

Cook pasta to al dente. Takes about 10 minutes.

Lent and Fasting from Meat on Fridays

From American Catholic:

Abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, milk products or condiments made of animal fat.

Abstinence does not include meat juices and liquid foods made from meat. Thus, such foods as chicken broth, consomme, soups cooked or flavored with meat, meat gravies or sauces, as well as seasonings or condiments made from animal fat are not forbidden. So it is permissible to use margarine and lard. Even bacon drippings which contain little bits of meat may be poured over lettuce as seasoning.

I was looking for this for another reason, actually, but it applied to the question our retreat group was asking about providing a Friday lunch including Tomato Basil Soup made with chicken broth.

I think the main reason, though I now have lost the place I originally read this, is that the original intent of fasting from meat is that we are fasting from ... flesh.

It is because Christ put on flesh to become man that we fast from it in penance for what He went through on our behalf.

A lovely connection isn't it?

At least it is to me.

And to have to dig into each ingredient turns it into an exercise in scrupulosity for me. I like that they make it easy for us that way.

I've always cooked with those sorts of guidelines for Friday fast days (heck, every Friday is a fast from meat at our house). So it's nice to see it spelled out ... no need for any vestiges of guilt when I put a bit of lard in our refried beans for those nachos!

The Julianne

Here's how it works, guys. Your wife has gotten creative, combining a few standard cocktail ingredients in a new way ... and she asks you what would be a good name for her creation.

Name it after her.

It's hard to go wrong after that.

And now you know how our Sunday afternoon worked out. Just fine, thank you.

I present my creation, which is not that original but is surely delicious.

The Julianne

2 ounces brandy
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce Cointreau (or other orange liqueur)
1/4 ounce Orgeat Syrup (use simple syrup if you don't have any)

Combine all in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake. Pour into a cocktail glass.

Cafe Maria Theresia

This was in Saveur's January/February edition. When the girls were home for Christmas and we were having regular afternoon coffee ... one day I tried this. It truly deserves the praise they gave it.

I must admit that I didn't go to the trouble of whipping cream, especially since I already felt that the drink was rather lavish for an afternoon cuppa joe (though I did show you how it should look, although my Thinkstock photo has no zest). Half-and-half smoothed it out nicely anyway, believe me.

Cafe Maria Theresia
3 tbsp. orange liqueur (I used Cointreau)
1 tbsp. sugar
8 oz. brewed coffee
Whipped cream, for serving
Grated orange zest, for garnish

Fill a coffee cup with boiling water. Set aside for 3 minutes; pour out water. Pour liqueur and sugar into cup; stir to dissolve sugar. Stir in the coffee. Top with whipped cream, and garnish with zest.

Oven "Fried" Catfish

This is a stock photo (so handy working in advertising!),
but it is close enough to showing the succulence
of Oven Fried Catfish.

Rose, living in L.A. since last January, called and wistfully said, "I know what I want for Christmas."

I waited expectantly and was surprised when she said, "Catfish."

"Oh, I mean what I want for meals when I come home." she said. "Catfish fried in the oven."

"Mmmm, sounds good. Potato salad or mashed potatoes with that?"

"Ooooo." Her voice got more excited. "Potato salad! And maybe, well, is cabbage a cold weather vegetable?"

"Why do you think the Germans and Russians have so many cabbage dishes?" I asked. "Cold weather is what cabbage is all about."

"Then coleslaw too! And potato rolls?"

"I have extra in the freezer from Thanksgiving that I'm saving until you come home. So we're on our way!"

Sounds good, doesn't it? I just realized that I never put the recipe here. If you're not making some variation of this then you need to give this a try because it is simple, quick, and delicious. As we can tell from the fact that kids coming home ask for it.

I got it from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. He calls it Oven "Fried" Fish but I never make it with anything but catfish.

Oven "Fried" Catfish

1-1/2 pounds catfish filets
1-1/2 cups milk, buttermilk or yogurt (I use milk)
Bread crumbs for dredging (dried, fresh, whichever you wish)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (I'll often use other seasoning)
3 tablespoons melted butter or virgin olive oil (I use olive oil)

Soak the filets in the milk while you preheat the oven to 450°.  Put the bread crumbs on a plate and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

When the oven is ready, pull the fish from the milk and let it drain a bit. Dredge wet fish in breadcrumbs, patting to make sure the crumbs adhere if needed. Drizzle a little of the butter or oil over a 9x13 baking pan or rimmed baking sheet, then lay the filets in the pan. Drizzle with remaining butter or oil.

Bake near the top of the oven for 8 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. The fish will be crisp on the outside and tender and opaque when done. Serve immediately with lemon or other condiments as desired.

Turkey Bone Gumbo

Here's what I'm making this weekend. I've got the stock made and the turkey reserved. Now I've just got to get the time to put the whole thing together which should happen this weekend. For those who've forgotten or never tried Turkey Bone Gumbo I thought I'd repost it since our family loves it so.

-------------

After I reviewed Gumbo Tales, Sara Roahen very graciously emailed me some recipes. The Turkey Bone Gumbo had caught my eye and I made it after Thanksgiving. Oooo, now that was some good gumbo! So savory, so rich.

However, I didn't want to go spreading her recipes around. Then I recently finished Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. An excellent look at the basic cooking of New Orleans, it also had a recipe for Turkey Bone Gumbo that is very similar to Sara Roahen's. I now felt ok about putting the recipe out there. What follows is a combination of her recipe and of the one from Cooking Up a Storm.

The difference is that both recipes recommend saving any turkey meat from the carcass used for making broth and then to include it in the gumbo. I tried this, against my better judgment, which I am sorry to say was confirmed. After simmering for so long, the only thing that the salvaged turkey meat resembles is wood chips. Just save regular turkey meat (forgo a sandwich or two) and don't worry about recovering those bits of turkey from the cooked carcass. They will make the broth all the richer and you can toss them out without worry.

Roux making is not nearly as scary as you might think from reading recipes for it. Also, more important than anything else is keeping an eye on the color and keeping it from burning. My stove must cook hotter than either Roahen's or the recipe contributor from Cooking Up a Storm. I had roux ready in 10-15 minutes.

This is definitely a good reason to cook a turkey. I might have to do that this weekend ... my mouth is watering thinking of this gumbo.

For the stock
Step 1
1 turkey carcass
2 yellow onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2-4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 gallon water, or enough to cover carcass

Combine all ingredients in a big pot, bring to a boil and then lower heat, simmering uncovered for about two hours. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface. Drain the stock, reserving all liquid. Discard all solids.

For the gumbo

Step 1
1 cup vegetable oil
1-1/4 cups flour

In a large cast-iron pot or enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour and continue to stir constantly—either with a whisk or a wooden spoon. Cook for 20-25 minutes to make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate. If you sense that your roux is in danger of burning, reduce the heat immediately and continue to stir.

Step 2
1-1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 pound andouille or smoked sausage, cut into ¼-inch cubes

Then stir in onion, bell pepper, and celery, salt, cayenne and continue to stir for about 5 minutes, until vegetables begin to wilt. Be prepared: when cold vegetables hit hot roux, they emit a cloud of steam and a loud hissing. Add sausage, and continue to cook for about 5 minutes.

Step 3
3-4 bay leaves
6 cups turkey stock
2-3 cups chopped leftover turkey meat
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Add bay leaves and stock to the pot, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface. Add all reserved turkey meat and continue to simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours.

Step 4
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped green onion tops
1/2 tablespoon filé powder
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Add black pepper and taste; adjust seasoning. Thin out with more stock or water if necessary. Just before serving, add parsley, green onions, and lemon juice. In order to properly incorporate filé powder, mix it first with a few tablespoons of stock; stir to a smooth consistency and then add to the gumbo. Serve with white rice, and potato salad if desired. Serves 8-10.

Review: An Everlasting Feast by Tamar Adler

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I noticed this book popping up in various spots and have been waiting for the library to cycle through others who requested it before me. One thing I noticed that I thought was fantastic was that the readers actually were feeling bolder in the kitchen, more willing to experiment and throw together a meal from inexpensive ingredients on hand ... and coming up pleased and increasingly confident thanks to the meals they produced.

I like any cookbook which does that.

Having finally gotten a copy I can say that Adler has a very practical viewpoint, which she herself mentions time and again. She talks about various ingredients and cooking approaches in a pleasant, discursive manner with very few actual recipes. It is this quality that emboldens her readers and a very good quality it is to have.

Adler says that she was inspired by M.F.K. Fisher's "To Eat a Wolf" which was a 1942 book written to encourage good cooking with minimal ingredients. As a long standing fan of Fisher's I can vouch for Adler being a descendent of that thinking, albeit a very practical one. Also as a longstanding fan of Fisher's, however, I would like to mention that, despite blurbs on the cover, Adler's style is nowhere near that of Fisher's.

M.F.K. Fisher wrote some of the most beautiful prose imaginable about cooking or about anything else you can imagine. Just to be sure I picked up my copy of The Art of Eating and flipped through it. I do not say this to take away from Adler, who does a very nice, practical job in her book ... which is a nice read in itself. I say this to encourage anyone who has read Adler's book to pick up a copy of any of M.F.K. Fisher's books for some of the most enjoyable food writing ever penned. My particular favorites are An Alphabet for Gourmets and Serve It Forth, but she made an entire book about oysters into something that I read again and again.

With all that said, An Everlasting Feast is not a book I'd actually recommend to someone who doesn't come across it on their own. The advice is crammed together in what I can only think of as one "sound byte" paragraph after another. She also likes to present her particular taste as being something everyone would love ... and I'm gonna say it now - a cold cooked greens sandwich just ain't ever gonna make me light up with joy, no matter how often she says it or how charming the venue in which she tasted her first sample. Etcetera.

I understand what she's getting at and, as I mentioned, I have seen testimony that Adler's book has helped a couple of friends to think of cooking as something more than recipes. Hence, the three stars instead of something lower.

I would advise instead though, to those inquiring:

• Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book
• Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking, James Beard's Beard on Food
• Julia Child's The Way to Cook
• Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (the first edition, not the newest edition)
• M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf.

As I say, Adler does a good enough job and I think this book is the one for our times when we are all hurried and harried. And I appreciate the gift she has given me in prompting me to pick up M.F.K. Fisher's books again. It has been much too long since I've reread any of them.



View all my reviews

The Good Cook Series

Soups by Time-Life Books

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Every cook should have a set of The Gook Cook series which was published by Time Life between 1979 and 1983. They are organized by cooking subject (Fish, Soup, Cookies & Crackers, etc.). They were edited by the brilliant Richard Olney and written by many food writers who went on to become well known.

Each has a brief but comprehensive history of the topic followed by 80 pages of detailed techniques accompanied by detailed photos. The last 80 pages contain around 200 recipes from around the world, spanning 300 years, many of which were translated for the first time for these books.

It is hard to imagine any dish or technique that this series does not cover.

Want to make your own food dye? This is your series.

Want to make a basic broth? This is your series.

Want to make a birthday cake? This is your series.

There are 28 volumes (see the list at Wikipedia), all of which I picked up at used book stores fairly cheaply. They are beautifully produced and include two ribbon markers so you can mark both the technique photos and the recipe in the back of the book.

These books are wonderful whether or not you cook from them. I'm rereading my Soup cookbook as inspiration for the many inexpensive, imaginative, and delicious soups that can be made using simple techniques that have worked around the world and over the ages.

It is also a pleasure to see acknowledged the many classic techniques which come to us from a long history of cooking, unlike many magazines or cookbooks these days which act as if they invented them. I try to be charitable and attribute this to ignorance, but that is still not very complimentary to the many writers who should know better.

I cannot recommend these highly enough, whether for the beginning or serious cook.

Review of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was captivated by the book's beginning in which Kathleen Flinn tells about becoming interested in a woman and daughter grocery shopping. Fascinated by the prepackaged and "mix" foods in her cart, she began stalking them and eventually wound up helping them replace all the highly processed meals with the ingredients for homemade. Key to this was scribbling recipes and simple instructions.

This encounter led to Flinn's epiphany that there is a generation of women (and people in general, actually) who don't have the first idea of how to cook. Never taught to cook by their parents, they are equally ignorant of nutrition. Flinn selected 10 worthy candidates and began her Kitchen Counter Cooking School to educate not only them as cooks but also herself in the ways of how to communicate simple kitchen knowledge.

I would find the beginning hokey except that I know one young woman who is in exactly these straits, never having been taught to cook and now having a family to feed. After getting over my own surprise, I have begun showing her a few techniques and recipes. This book is for those who have no one to do the same for them.

I didn't really care about the chapters where Flinn broke away from the school to tell about a stint cooking for a cruise or putting on a series of dinners to raise money for the school. They distracted from the point of the book for me. I'm glad that she has a good marriage and I suppose it is nice that her husband finds it sexy that she bounces up and down in her chair when the black truffle risotto is served. I don't care. These chapters seemed as if they belonged in a different book. However, they are easy to skim and others, perhaps, may have enjoyed them much more than I did. They cost the book a star through.

Overall, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is well written and enjoyable, as well as carrying strands of information about food processing and eating habits in the U.S. today. It is also thought provoking, no matter your level of ability in the kitchen. None of us is above reproach. The author herself is prompted to do self-examination of her own habits and realizes that she wastes a lot of food. Likewise, I was reminded of the same thing (we know and then we forget, such is the pattern of life, non?). I will be examining my cupboards for aged supplies and my refrigerator for items that can be used before I wind up following my pattern of tossing them out in a week, withered and soft.

Definitely recommended.

Tandoori Pizza

This is also from James McNair's New Pizza. It is a delicious adaptation of Indian flavors to pizza and we really like it a lot.

Tandoori Pizza

Use Garlic-Glazed Chicken Pizza recipe as your guide, incorporating the changes below.

Step 1:

1 c. yogurt

2 T lime juice

2 T grated ginger

2 T minced garlic

1 T paprika

2 t garam masala

1 t salt

1 t cayenne

1-1/2 lb boned and skinned chicken breast halves or thighs

Combine yogurt through cayenne to make a marinade. Marinate chicken for a minimum of 4 hours up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 500°. Place chicken on a rack set over a shallow roasting pan and roast 10 minutes for breasts or 20 minutes for thights. Let cool. Chop into small bite-sized pieces. You can refrigerate chicken at this point. Just bring it to room temperature before making the pizza.

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Step 2:

1 recipe of California-Style pizza dough (use sesame oil instead of olive oil; use no cheese in the crust, substitute an equal amount of flour)

=========

Step 3:

Mango chutney

3 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated

Chicken from step 1

1/2 cup sliced green onion

On the shaped pizza dough, spread a thin layer of chutney on dough, top with cheese, leaving a 1/2" border around the edges. Distribute the chicken over the cheese and sprinkle with green onions. 

Transfer pizza to the preheated oven and bake until crust is golden, about 10 minutes.

Review: Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods by Jennifer Reese
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jennifer Reese lost her job and began experimenting in the kitchen to see what was better when made at home and whether it was worth the time and labor involved to do so. The result is this cookbook which I like very much.

Reese's calm common-sense comes shining through in the introductions to each recipe. Her sensibilities are very much like mine and, just in case they aren't, she clearly describes her likes and dislikes about each project. Thus I know that I probably don't want to make my own cream cheese (at least from her recipe) because I don't want something noticeably tangier (or as her family says "sour") than Philly Cream Cheese. Would I mind my homemade peanut butter being "nubbier" than commercial brands if the peanut flavor sings forth? Maybe not.

Each recipe is prefaced by three bullet points:

• Should you make it or buy it?
• How much hassle is it?
• What's the cost compared to store-bought?

Then, no matter her own conclusion, the recipe follows so that you may proceed with your own experimentation if you choose.

Reese doesn't base her conclusions solely on the answers to those three questions. For example, homemade Danish are an unbelievable hassle and cost compared to store bought but the results are so superior that everyone should make them once to see if they find the result worth the trouble.

Part of the attraction for me is that sometimes Reese blithely accepts that store-bought brings the results she wants. I suppose it helps my acceptance of her judgments that I too have continually tried homemade hamburger bun recipes only to find the results far stiffer and denser than I desired (and I have tried over a dozen recipes).

I also approve of someone who finds, after a year's experimentation, that keeping chickens for the eggs is insanely expensive, but keeps the chickens anyway. After a year, she and her family have been transformed into chicken fanciers so it is worth the trouble. Such is a side effect of experimentation, as most people know who have tried it ... sometimes the experiment changes you beyond the measurable results in ways you can't foresee.

Reese's charm and sensibility shine through to the point where I see that many reviewers love the book for the way she tells personal experiences, despite never making a single recipe. Obviously I concur since I  have just reviewed the book after reading only a third of it. I may come back and revise this as I get further along, but for now, this is a solidly entertaining read with a lot of useful information.

Neapolitan -Style Pizza Dough ... Something to Build On

Since we've been talking about pizza, I can't believe I never gave you some of the most basic recipes that are used to "build" pizza around our house.

From my favorite cookbook on the subject, Pizza: Anyway You Slice It by Charles and Michele Scicolone,  comes one of the favorite pizza doughs of our household. I used it when we had a party and had a couple of people particularly comment upon how much they like it.

It has what may seem like an unusual ingredient, cake flour. This is included because Italian flour is lower in gluten than American flour and cake flour helps turn the crust into a tender, easily stretched dough which is easy to shape.

I'll confess that I often cheat and use 2-1/2 teaspoons yeast, a more traditional amount (at least for someone who is used to bread baking), to get the dough to rise in an hour or less.

Neapolitan-Style Pizza Dough

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups warm water
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil for the bowl

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let stand for 1 minute, or until the yeast is creamy. Stir until the yeast dissolves.

In a large bowl, combine the cake flour, 2-1/2 cups of the all purpose flour, and the salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Lightly coat another large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to oil the top. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft free place and let rise until doubled in bulk; about 1-1/2 hours.

Flatten the dough with your fist. Cut the dough into 2 to 4 pieces and shape the pieces into balls. Dust the tops with flour. Place the balls on a floured surface and cover each with plastic wrap, allowing room for the dough to expand. Let rise 60 to 90 minutes, or until doubled.

Thirty to sixty minutes before baking the pizzas, place a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles on a rack in the lowest level of the oven. Turn on the oven to the maximum temperature, 500 to 550 degrees.

Shape and bake pizzas in desired fashion.

Ginger Chicken

I no longer remember where this recipe came from. I know that it was one of my sister's absolute favorite dishes and I think I got it from her.

I have made this without browning the chicken, with only fresh ginger, with a combo of both kinds of ginger, and on the stove instead of in the oven.

What can I say? Every single time we love it. It may be slightly different because of those changes but never enough to really matter.

There's plenty of juice which you may thicken or not as you see fit. I tend to serve it with rice for that reason.

Enjoy!

Ginger Chicken

STEP 1:
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 chicken, in serving pieces
4 tablespoons oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine flour, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour. Brown the chicken on all sides. Transfer chicken to a baking dish with cover.

STEP 2:
1/2 cup dry sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup minced preserved ginger OR 3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

Meanwhile, combine all, bring to a boil and pour over the chicken. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Turn all pieces. Bake 30 minutes longer.