Djaj Bil Assal - Chicken with Caramelized Baby Onions and Honey

I got a terrific cookbook for Christmas from my boyfriend's family - Arabesque, a Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon by Claudia Roden. Besides having fantastic-sounding recipes and beautiful photos, the cover is lovely and I like the way it's laid out, with different sections on each country's culinary traditions. Last week, I tried it out for the first time, with very good results. I made the Chicken with Caramelized Baby Onions and Honey from the Moroccan section. It turned out very well, and I will definitely make it again, though with just a little less oil next time. The flavors compliment and contrast each other so well, and, though the author warns about making sure to add enough pepper so it is not too sweet, we didn't have any problem of the sort. If you are scared about cutting up your own chicken, just ask the butcher to do it or get pre-cut pieces. I served the dish over couscous, with some steamed green beans on the side. Here is the recipe as written:

Djaj Bil Assal
Chicken with Caramelized Baby Onions and Honey

1 lb shallots of baby onions
1 onion, chopped
4 tbsp sunflower oil
good pinch saffron threads
1 tspn ground ginger
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1 chicken, cut up in 6 or 8 pieces
salt and pepper
1 to 1 1/2 tbsp clear honey
To garnish: 1/2 cup blanched almonds or a handful of sesame seeds (optional)

To peel the shallots or baby onions, blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain, and when cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and trim the root ends.

Saute the chopped onion until softened in the oil over a medium heat in a pan or casserole large enough to hold the chicken pieces in one layer. Stir in the saffron, ginger, and cinnamon, then put in the chicken pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and turn to brown them lightly all over.

Add about 1 cup water and cook, covered, over a low heat, turning the pieces over, for 15 minutes, or until the chicken breasts are done. Lift out the breasts and put them to one side. Add the shallots or baby onions and continue to cook, covered, for about 25 minutes, or until the remaining chicken pieces are very tender. During the cooking, turn the chicken pieces and stir the onions occasionally; add a little water, if necessary.

Lift out the chicken pieces and set to one side. Stir the honey into the pan. Check the seasoning. You need quite a bit of pepper to mitigate the sweetness. Cook, uncovered, until all the water has evaporated, and the onions are brown, caramelized, and so soft that you could crush them, as they say in Morocco, "with your tongue."

Return the chicken pieces to the pan, spoon the onions on top of them, and heat through. A few minutes should be enough. Serve, if you wish, sprinkled either with blanched almonds fried in a drop of oil until they are lightly golden, or with toasted sesame seeds.

Serves 4.

Antipasto Salad

Some friends had us over for pizza the other night, and just said only to bring something that didn't require a trip to the grocery. So, I cleaned out the fridge for a layered antipasto salad. Below is what I used, and the order I layered it (from bottom up) but just use whatever you have in the fridge that you think tastes good together. This went especially well with pizza.

2 large tomatoes thinly sliced
1 half cucumber, thinly sliced
5 radishes, thinly sliced
1 half bell pepper, cut in strips
1/3 cup Boursin, crumbled
1/4 cup of pepperoni, cut into toothpicks
1/4 cup of calamata tapenade, dolloped around (I was out of olives)
balsamic vinaigrette

The End of the Lamb

So, I finally finished off the lamb from the leg I cooked, making a slow-simmered lamb ragu served over rigatoni. It was rich, filling and the lamb melted in your mouth. This is a perfect dinner for a cold night - just needs a nice green salad with a tart vinaigrette. Here's the recipe, based on a Bon Appetit recipe, but altered since my lamb was already cooked:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 lb white mushrooms, quartered
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tspn fresh rosemary
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1 lb cooked lamb, cut into large bite-sized pieces
3/4 white wine
3 cups beef stock
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 lb rigatoni
grated parmesan cheese

Saute onion, mushroom, garlic, rosemary and basil until vegetables are soft. Add lamb, wine, stock and tomatoes. Stir, cover and cook over medium low heat for 1 hour. While sauce is cooking, cook rigatoni until al dente. Spoon sauce over pasta, and pass cheese.

Serves 6.

Lamb Pitas

Still working on some lamb leftovers. So, we stuffed some pitas with our choice of cooked lamb, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, crumbled feta, hot sauce, calamata tapenade, chopped red onion and a quick garlicky yogurt sauce: 1 cup low-fat yogurt mixed with two minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon chopped dill, squeeze of one lemon, salt and pepper. Also, to heat the lamb a little without drying it out I cubed it and sauteed it for just a minute or two in some hot olive oil, so it got a little crunchy.

White Bean, Ham and Kale Soup

I'm dealing with a lot of leftover ham from our Christmas ham, so last night I made an easy and tasty soup from the bone and some chopped up pieces of meat. It was simple and most of that time I was laying on the couch while it simmered away. Uh, rather I was, um, doing my taxes. I served it with corn muffins.

White Bean, Ham and Kale Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium to small yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 ham bone plus 1.5 cup diced ham (about 3/4-inch pieces)
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce can great northern beans
3 cups chicken stock
2 cup fresh kale, cut into strips

Heat oil over medium heat. Saute onions and celery about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add ham and bone, stirring for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, beans and chicken stock, stir and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for 35-45 minutes. Stir in kale. Cook for 5 minutes. Serves 4.

New Year's Lamb

I wanted to try something new and exciting for New Year's Eve, so I made my first Leg of Lamb, the Roast Leg of Lamb with Fennel Butter recipe from the Epicurious website. It was fabulous! The only change I made was to use a semi-boneless rather than boneless leg (because that's what I could get at the last minute). I cooked it until it was 130F, and it was a beautiful medium rare. The sauce was extremely tasty and easy to make.

I served it with a slightly boring broccoli cauliflower gratin from Epicurious - it was good, but nothing special. However, with a lot of tasty additions - more salt, cheese, etc, it might make a nice veggie main course.

Also, we started out with some Crab Canapes from the same website, which were good with champagne.

Happy New Year!