olives

For the Love of Cooking- Chicken Naanwich with Saffron, Capers and Raisins

05 Sep 2011
Chicken Naanwich with Saffron, Capers and Raisins

I have a quick and easy idea for you. Chicken Naanwich with Saffron, Capers & Raisins. Get it? It’s a sandwich made with naan and it’s the perfect solution for “one of those days”.

I think you know what kind of day I'm talking about. The kind of day when you wake up in the morning and rather than bound out of bed you lay there a bit longer than you know you should. After all, there's a dog to walk and he’s already clicking around on the hardwood making his needs known– besides there is bread to “win” and bacon to “bring home”. Why does a big city life require so much bread and bacon?

So you drag yourself out of bed, aware of a building mantra in the back of your head. It starts out as a whisper. But you can hear it “I don’t wanna cook today.” You try to ignore it as you pop a bagel in the toaster, but the voice gets louder and more persistent “I don’t wanna cook today!”

You push the voice back and quickly decide against packing a lunch. Even the idea of chopping carrots and celery for a quickie bag lunch starts to feel a lot like cooking. “How about lunch out today?”

“Lunch on the run” (you convince yourself) means you’ll have a lot more time for those errands that don’t run themselves. See how smart you are?

Sippity Sup Continues »
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Chicken Naanwich with Saffron, Capers & Raisins

Chicken naanwich
By jgreghenry Published September 5, 2011
Prep time: 20
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 6 celery
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 clv garlic, peeled & smashed but whole
  • 0.25 c pine nuts, roughly broken
  • 1 c raisins or dried currants, soaked in 1/2 cup white wine
  • 4 c roast chicken, shredded
  • 0.25 c capers, plus 2 t of their brine
  • 10 large green pitted oilives, cut into 1/4-inch dice (i use lindsay)
  • 1 lemon, zest only
  • 1 pn saffron, mixed with 1t hot water
  • 0 salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 pieces naan bread (about 9x7 inches each)
  • 0 grated parmesan cheese, optional

Directions

Trim any leaves from the celery (save them for later) and cut the stalks into 1/4-inch dice. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan set over medium-high heat, add the smashed garlic and cook until fragrant. Remove garlic and add the diced celery and pine nuts. Cook, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes until the nuts begin to brown. Pour in the raisins with their wine, cook a moment more, letting the liquid bubble; stir in the chicken, capers with its brine, the olives, lemon zest and saffron with its water, mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Heat a large dry skillet over medium-high heat. Working one at a time warm each naan until soft and pliable but not yet toasted. Lay the 4 naan bread pieces out on 4 separate serving plates. Sprinkle a generous amount of celery leaves onto each one. Top each with some of the chicken mixture. Give each a good grinding of black pepper and finish with a little Parmesan cheese, if you like. Fold the naan over "sandwich style". Cut in half. Serve warm.

Braised Chicken Thighs: Cheap Chic!

04 Nov 2010
Braised Chicken Thighs with Olives and Raisins
The weather calls for braising.

Braising is a cooking technique we should all master. It's not difficult and the results will make you look like an accomplished chef (not that you aren't...). This simple process has just a few foolproof steps. The end result is rich and flavorful.

The concept behind braising is this: the main ingredient is seared, or browned in fat. It is then simmered in liquid on low-heat in a covered pot for a very long time. I like my Staub cast iron for this job because it has these litttle nubblies on the lid that allows the steam to rain back down into the pan in an even fashion. This is unlike the smooth lids of some other brands, which tend to accumulate the droplets then send them sliding down the edges of the pot. That is a very uneven distribution method in my opinion.

You can choose to braise in the oven or on the top of the stove. Either way you will be proud of the food you bring to the table. This method of cooking is often used as a way to cook less expensive, tough cuts of meat.

Sippity Sup Continues »
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Braised Chicken Thighs with Pearl Onions, Green Olives, Golden Raisins & Preserved Lemon

Braised Chicken Thighs with Pearl Onions, Green Olives, Golden Raisins & Preserv
By jgreghenry Published November 3, 2010
Prep time: 90
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 16 oz fresh pearl onions
  • 8 bone-in chicken thighs, with skin (about 2 ½ pounds)
  • 1 c all-purpose flour, for dredging
  • 1 t kosher salt (plus more as needed for seasoning and boiling)
  • 2 T plus 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
  • 1 c dry white wine
  • 1 c chicken stock
  • 0.5 c castelvetrano olives (or other green olive)
  • 0.5 c golden raisins
  • 0.5 c preserved lemon, lightly packed
  • 1 bn flat leaf italian parsley, leaves only, roughly chopped
  • 6 clv garlic, peeled & minced
  • 2 c orzo or other small pasta
  • 1 t whole coriander seeds
  • 0 salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add the pearl onions and blanch just until the skins have loosened, about 1 minute. Drain. When cool enough to handle, cut off the root tip and pop the onions from their skins. Reserve. Rinse the chicken thighs under cool water and pat dry. Mix together the flour, salt, and pepper. Spread the flour mixture across a shallow dish. Lightly dredge the chicken thighs in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess. Warm the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed or cast iron Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add four of the chicken thighs, and sear until a golden crust develops, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn and sear until a golden crust forms on second side, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove thighs to a plate and repeat with remaining chicken thighs. De-glaze the pan with the wine, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce the wine by half, about about 4 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil over high heat. If the olives have pits, smash them with your palm and remove the pit. Then tear the meat into 2 or 3 pieces. Adding them and the reserved pearl onions and the raisins to the pot. Bring it back to a simmer and add all the chicken thighs in as close to a single layer as possible, skin side up. Cover with the lid and slowly simmer until the meat is falling away from bones, about 1 hour. While the chicken is cooking. Coarsely chop the preserved lemon and place it, along with parsley in a small bowl. Warm a small skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, and stir continuously in the dry skillet until you see some of the garlic’s oil released on the bottom of the pan and the garlic has a touch of golden color, 2 to 3 minutes. Do not allow the garlic to brown. Immediately spoon the garlic into lemon and parsley. Stir well to combine. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil to the garlic mixture to bind the ingredients together. The mixture should be moist but not wet. Add another teaspoon of olive oil, if needed. Reserve at room temperature until needed. For the orzo: In a large saucepan bring about 8 cups of water to a boil. Salt the water generously and add the orzo, and cook until al dente about 7 minutes. Drain well. Place the orzo in a bowl and add 1/4 cup olive oil and the coriander seeds. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in all but about 8 teaspoons of the preserved lemon garlic mixture. Saving the rest for garnish. Place the orzo onto a large serving platter, or divide between 4 plates. Place chicken thighs on top of the orzo and spoon on the sauce with the olives and raisins all over. Garnish with reserved lemon garlic and serve warm.

Notes:

serves 4. You may substitute the preserved lemon with 6 tablespoons lemon zest. Source: Adapted from Almir DaFonseca- CIA Greystone

Dirty Martini- Is Two Too Many?

29 Sep 2010
Dirty Sue Dirty Martini

James Thurber said: "One martini is all right. Two are too many, and three are not enough." And wasn't it W.C. Fields who said: "Buy me a drink and I'll sing like a canary"? Only these days– with all this new technology, I think the more apt quote might be: "Buy me a drink and I'll tweet like a canary"

Which is a very funny line and one I have been using for a years, but nobody ever laughed at it before, let alone took me up on it. That is until the geniuses at Dirty Sue, got a slightly inebriated tweet from me several weeks ago. How many times have I said Twitter is not for happy hour, because those tweets can only lead to twouble?

Well maybe not always trouble, because it turns out I am going to live to eat those words, or rather I should say drink those words. Because my tweets led to the offer of a Sippity Sup sample of Dirty Sue Olive Juice, which in turn led to the lovely libation you see right here on this page, The Dirty Martini. Which further leads me to offer you a simple recipe for a classic cocktail that is having a resurgence right now. And I can't help but wonder if this product from Dirty Sue might have something to do with this cocktail's reintroduction to the hottest clubs and swankiest parties in Los Angeles.

Dirty Sue is The Original Premium Olive Juice. Like all great stories involving some sort of comeback kid this one came about rather innocuously. It seems that on an otherwise regular shift at the hip and happen' Los Angeles restaurant, Jones Hollywood. Bartender Eric Tecosky reached for the gallon jar of olives and realized it was full of olives but void of olive juice. He looked at his long time friend and co-worker Terry Faded and asked, "How come no one bottles olive juice?"

Sippity Sup Continues »
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