I wanted to tell you about Spur so many times before ‘cause it’s one of my top 3 favorite restaurants in Seattle and you just *must* go there. That is, in case you like brilliantly-good food, amazing cocktails, the feel of a sophisticated downtown/neighborhood gastronomic pub, and fab music from the 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s (Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, Echo and The Bunnymen anyone???) Well, do you?

I sure do, and that’s why I couldn’t say no to an invitation from TexaSweet Citrus’s PR saying “Spur Gastropub tomorrow night… Bring your appetite for this special four-course, Texas grapefruit-inspired menu… Chefs Brian McCracken and Dana Tough will create a special multi-course menu highlighting the versatile, sweet flavor of Texas Rio Star Grapefruit.”

Grapefruit?

I was absolutely positive that Spur chefs will play and create exciting dishes with it.

There are many restaurants that I like in Seattle but so far only Spur succeeds in creating brainy food that tickles not only your intellect but also your tummy and soul. (I’ve been to some restaurants that get out of their way to make creative or molecular food but the end result is boring and not particularly appetizing.) The first time I had dinner there (with my husband) I declared that if I wasn’t married, I’d go and kiss the chef.

So… The meal started with carbonated grapefruit segments. It was like eating/drinking solid grapefruit-flavored soda—it was a bit confusing but an exciting, new experience with this fruit–

and lovely Gougères (French cheese puffs)

Followed by radicchio and grapefruit salad with candied pecans and blue cheese

Spot prawns with carrots mash, a foam of something on top—there was a lot going on in this dish—baby cilantro, and grapefruit. The grapefruit was warm which was a surprise—when was the last time you had warm grapefruit?

Sous vide duck, fennel, Brussels sprouts. That crunchy crust was so oo-la-la-delish

1 cocktail (The Empress, a signature cocktail at Spur that “will never leave the menu”, they promised. (The menu changes frequently/seasonally)) and 4 wines paired with each course to try…

And for dessert, passion fruit custard, grapefruit sorbet, fromage blanc ice cream, and streusel

I couldn’t decide which photo makes it look prettier—it was SO good. Have I said “brainy” enough times already? You can easily tell how much thought was put into each one of the dishes.

Thank you Spur Gastropub and TexaSweet Citrus Marketing for a mind-blowing dinner! I’ve got a “whole lotta love” for you.

“Finally” was the first word that came to my mind when I got an email from Norma announcing a “celebration in honor of Chef John Howie’s new cookbook:  Passion & Palate:  Recipes for a Generous Table.” Chef John Howie is the owner of Seastar restaurant and raw bar (as well as Sports and Steak) which has been, and still is, one of our favorite restaurants since we move to WA about 10 years ago. I’ve been waiting for this cookbook ever since.

So, yeah, finally. He wrote a cookbook.

The launch party was a lot of fun with some of my favorite dishes:

Raw, fresh oysters with shallots, grapefruit and pomegranate seeds

(The recipe is in the book.)

Scallop ceviche with mango-kiwi relish (It’s in the book!)

Sushi… I love their pickled ginger (That red pile in the front)—it’s the best!

(And what do you know? They are all included in the book!)

Chubby oysters in a creamy leek sauce and silky deviled eggs with Ahi tartare (It’s in the book!)

I believe this was a Mahi Mahi ceviche with pineapple relish. Yum yum.
(And if I’m right then… It’s in the book! Page 55)

Shots of porcini soup with truffles cream (You guessed it, it’s in the book.)

All this beautiful food spearheaded by Chef Howie

Superb wines were poured by the charming sommelier, Erik Liedholm (Fantastic suit, BTW) from champagne to sauvignon blanc to an esoteric wine/grape I never heard about before and can’t remember it’s name, to pinot noir, and moscato—Wow—I tried them all.

No, it’s not in the book (Or maybe it is?) It’s close to home, from Willamette Valley, OR

A tower of desserts: Lemon poppy seeds cookies, White chocolate Irish cream truffles (It was so soft, like a baby’s butt!), Chocolate hot chili truffles (I Love, love chili & chocolate together), and Ginger snap cookies.

Fun party,

and then we went home

They say that 350 people tested the recipes.

What should I make first?

Mussels Provencal or crab cakes?

Shauna James Ahern, a.k.a Gluten-free girl, inspires me.

When I read her blog posts (She is also on Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr), I get a feeling as if life is one big, ongoing, happy celebration. There’s beautiful food, and fun with friends, parties, and picnics, and potlucks, living on a dreamy island with her husband, Danny, and her little girl, Lucy… But most of all I can feel the love and appreciation for one another in her words, food, and photos. Sometimes it seem as if Shauna’s life is glossy-magazine-perfect.

But wait, there’s so much more.

Shauna is a stay-at-home mom to a 2 year-old toddler and works from home, full time! I asked her a while ago on Twitter how does she do it all. She replied that her house is a mess. Well, my house is already a mess (at least 66.38% of it)—I kind of gave up on the idea that it will be tidy one day–but I can’t do even a 1/4 of what this woman is capable of…

In her post from April 2010, she let her readers know more about what’s been on her plate in the past year. There are difficulties and challenges:

“It has not felt like the right place to talk about terrifying life decisions, watching a baby in pain, living on the ragged edge of desolate sleep deprivation, worrying about cancer, taking a pill that saddens our lives into something we never expected, and coping with it all in old, familiar ways.”

Her candor and openness about her life amazes me. In spite of it all, she projects happiness and satisfaction—life is a celebration. The woman has incredible levels of energy and strength–or does she have super powers? Instead of letting hard times bring her down (I think this is how I would have reacted), she grabs life with two strong hands and embraces and squeezes the joyful moments out of it. Surely something I still practice doing.

Following Shauna’s work energizes me to get off my butt, go out and celebrate life, food, and my family. It encourages me to get out there and fight for the things that matter to me the most. To try again even when it feels like I failed, and not give up.

I wanted to know more, so I asked Shauna if she can answer a few questions and she has agreed to do an interview.

You should know, Shauna and Danny co-authored a cookbook that is soon to be in the stores. I don’t have to eat gluten-free food to be healthy and alive like she does, but I can’t wait to put my hands on their cookbook, “Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef”, for the stories if not for the gorgeous food that is probably in there…

(All photos in this post are used with permission and grabbed from Shauna’s Flickr photostream.)

1. You and Danny cook and work together and you have a new cookbook, “Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef “, coming out in September 28th, 2010. Can you share some tips about how you, as a couple, collaborate in the kitchen in ways that strengthen your family?

Danny and I love being in the kitchen together. Shortly after we met, we started cooking together. At first, I worried that he would think my skills were woeful in comparison to his (they were) and want to direct or correct me. But that’s not Danny. Instead, he enjoyed the chance to collaborate, to smell the spices, to slow down and enjoy the process. And stop for kisses, too!

Danny may have spent over 20 years in restaurant kitchens, and thus can chop an onion neatly in the time it takes me to remove the peel, but he is not interested in being the one who knows everything. Instead, we learn from each other. The first time we cooked together, I taught him a trick I had picked up from Jamie Oliver, about putting a boiling-hot lemon into a chicken before you stick it in the oven. The juices release immediately and make the chicken juicier than any other I have roasted. He loved it. He taught me how to roast peppers under the broiler and add them to mashed potatoes. That first meal we cooked together was a revelation.

Since then, we have cooked many meals together, including all the dishes in our cookbook (many times over!). There are times that I’m too busy writing to help Danny or he’s too exhausted from a long day at the restaurant to help me, but almost every meal means the two of us in the kitchen, side by side, working together, talking about the day and laughing.

And now there are three of us in the kitchen. We want to give our daughter this space, and the joy in the process, as well.

2. Have you cooked in harmony from the beginning of your relationship or did you have any bumps along the road? If you have had any cooking-together-hiccups, how did you overcome them and what have you learned about each other along the way?

For the most part, Danny and I have cooperated and enjoyed each other’s company in the kitchen. We’re human, though. There are times we irritate the heck out of each other!

It irritates Danny when I go fast and forget to put a wet towel under the cutting board. (This cuts the risk of the knife and board slipping.) I think he wishes I could do the dishes at night more often, but we’re all so exhausted near midnight after a day with the toddler and writing full-time. He’s tired after a day at the restaurant. We tackle them together at lunch the next day, as often as we can.

When we first began our time together, I asked him to be my teacher. It was so clear that I didn’t know the techniques that are muscle memory to him. At my behest, he gave me lessons. I wrote everything down in a little black book, like I was his Girl Friday. He loved it. So did I.

After a couple of years, however, I had learned enormously. I’ll never be as good as him, but I was confident in the kitchen. But he kept up the lessons, stopping me in the middle of cooking to tell me how I could do it better. We had a couple of months there where I’d refrain from saying anything, then had to ask him to back away. We were both kind of annoyed with each other. We had to step back and realize we were in a different space. I just wanted to cook, not  have a lesson anymore.

Other than that, however, it has been easy. We really just love talking about food, planning meals, going to the grocery store, and cooking. Of course, the eating too. But it’s really the entire process that moves us.

Gluten-free pizza with barbequed duck breast, pine nuts, mozzarella, and cilantro

3. Your little girl, Lucy, who is only two years old, spends time with you and Danny in the kitchen. What do you do together? How can parents include their little kids in the kitchen action?

Lucy is the light of our lives. Every day, both Danny and I are amazed by something she says or does. She is delighted by life and reminds us to live to it too.

That is particularly clear in the kitchen. She stand on a chair at the counter with us as we cook. She has been doing this since she was just over one year old. She has great balance, so we never bought the tower that some families use (but they look great). By now, she uses the mortar and pestle to pound the spices we throw in there for her. She helps to stir fruit with a spatula when we are making pie. She loves to smell lemons and fresh-ground pepper and everything we are cooking. Because we spend so much time in the kitchen, she knows it’s an important place. She wants to be there.

She eats everything. I don’t think it’s entirely because we have her in the kitchen with us–some kids seem to just be born picky. But I think it has played a great part. When we were working on the cookbook, she was a tiny baby, sitting in a bouncy chair. But whatever we were cooking we would put under her nose to smell. I loved watching her eyes go wide.

(I’m working on a book about food and pregnancy and little ones right now. I learned that babies can smell what their mother smells as early as five months in the womb! You can give them a sensory joy before they are even born.)

We involve her in every step of the process, except for the part about working with sharp knives or burners on the stove. She loves food.

And we all eat every meal together, as we can. We three have breakfast together, and then lunch. She and I sit for her dinner before she goes to bed, and then I share some with Danny later too. As soon as she could sit in her high chair, we realized she would not eat unless we were sitting together. So we all take the time to turn off the computer and the thoughts of the day and sit together at the table.

I think this is the best thing we do.

4. Food-wise, what’s the toughest recipe or food project you have ever worked on?

Writing a cookbook was the hardest work I have ever done, aside from being a parent. (That’s in its own category.) I can make up a quick recipe for my website, throw it up there, and if there are holes or places that aren’t clear, I hear about it from people. And then I fix it.

But a cookbook is permanent. It needs to be filled with recipes that endure, that are clear, that inspire people to go into the kitchen and start cooking. Danny and I cooked and cooked, talked and talked, cooked some more, edited, and wrote down everything the best we could. And then we edited again.

Most of the recipes are ones that Danny had cooked as dishes in the various restaurants where he worked. It might have taken some pulling for him to put them into words, but it was a joy.

However, coming up with the gluten-free baked goods in the book? Those were a wonderful challenge.

We knew, no matter how much we talked about the foods that are naturally gluten-free, readers would feel the cookbook was a bit of a cheat if it didn’t have some bread and pasta. So, over the course of two years, we taught ourselves how to bake gluten-free. I thought I knew before. I was wrong. Everything became easier when I learned to bake by weight, instead of volume. (Everyone should buy a kitchen scale!)

I must have made the homemade pasta recipe about 58 times before we had it right. And then, after we had written it down and turned in the manuscript, we were working with our editor’s notes. I made the pasta again, exactly as written on the page. It was terrible! I flailed and despaired. Danny tried it. Still bad. I was apoplectic!

Then I read an anecdote in Heat by Bill Buford, where a visiting Italian chef is in despair because her homemade pasta didn’t work for a big banquet. Someone figured it out for her: grocery store eggs. Eggs that we buy in the store have more protein and weigh more. I had been doing all the original testing with eggs from our sister-in-law’s chickens! We realized that the recipe worked if you use 1 grocery store egg plus 2 egg yolks in place of a farm-fresh egg. Once I figured out that ratio, it worked every time.

Gluten-free homemade pasta

5. Where do you find your food inspiration?

I’m inspired by listening to my husband talk about his specials that night. By the latest vegetable to hit the farmers’ market. By a new spice we find and I try to pair up with everything we eat. By a book called The Flavor Bible, which tells you which foods complement other foods. By crazy ideas I get from reading about other people’s dinner on Twitter. By our daughter, who is new to everything and so excited that I remember just how beautiful blueberries are.

I’m very lucky. I’m inspired by food all the time.

***

Thank you, Shauna, for the Q & A.

And, if you haven’t already, go visit Gluten-free girl!

Remember the Naked Chef?

You know, the guy with the cool hair, very energetic, talks fast, cooks even faster, Jamie Oliver? About 10 years ago when he became famous, he was referred to as the Naked Chef. These days he is simply Jamie. I did not understand what the nakedness was all about back then. I tried out as I looked and cooked some of his recipes. They were all good but after a while I thought they were too simple, too minimalistic. Not worth spending my money on his cookbooks because in those days I believed that only cookbooks and recipes with a long list of ingredient that took a long time to make were worthy. After a while I stopped using Jamie’s recipes. Only years after, under the influence of Ina Garten and cooking as a personal chef for nearly 4 years in other peoples’ kitchens (The food had to be fresh, quick and easy to prepare), I finally learned that cooking good food doesn’t necessarily mean using long and elaborated recipes. It’s not about killing myself in the kitchen in order to make good food, to make other people happy.

As I changed my approach to cooking, I realized that I prefer to use good ingredients and only do little to them in the process of cooking. I understood that when I shopped for ingredients of lesser quality (sometimes, but not necessarily, cheaper) I needed to work harder to make them taste good. But still, it was not nearly as good as when I used higher quality products (sometimes, but not necessarily, cheaper/the same price/cost more) which did not require any messing around with. This is how I’ve been cooking in the past 7 years. Naked.

Well, not literally.

I invest more of my attention and time to read the labels on products at the grocery stores so I can make better choices when I buy food. I’m not saying I do a 100 % perfect job but I do my best to buy ingredients that are fresh, local, organic, sustainable, and seasonal. It’s good for me and it’s better for the environment. Another approach to the nakedness “thing” is when I read the labels, I look for those products with the shortest list of ingredients where I know what all/most of the words mean! Then, back in the kitchen, I don’t have to work so hard to make those products taste good because they are already beautiful and their flavor is as it should be.

About two weeks ago, friends invited us for dinner. The guy cooked some recipes from this cookbook,

I love cookbooks, so I had to take a peak.
The book was beautiful and had many recipes I immediately wanted to try out. The photos of the natural, unfussy food were amazing too.
The food our friend cooked was simply delicious.
So, of course, I had to buy the book.
And cook from it.

As for reading recipes… Jamie’s recipes are of the few that I actually enjoy reading. (Most recipes are written in such a boring and technical way…) It feels like he is really talking to me. I can feel myself getting energized just by the way he writes them, as if he is standing in my kitchen only a few feet away (I wish), and the photos only add that extra kick in the butt to make me jump off my seat and get cooking.

See?

Photo by © David Loftus as seen on Jamie’s web site

But these days, there are other ways in which I find Jamie Oliver inspiring. He is not only a very talented chef, business man, and fun to watch and read, but his passion about food exceeds way beyond his home and restaurants’ kitchens. He is passionate about teaching people about good food, how to raise it, and how to cook it.

You know that bad food is making people terribly sick.

Oliver is doing a very important job in schools and cafeterias in England, and wanting to do so in the US as well, teaching parents, children, schools, and the lunch ladies about real, healthy, good food. I don’t want to go into much detail because in this video below Oliver does a great job.

Also, make sure to read “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children” by Ann Cooper. The book has eye opening information about the food kids eat in the schools’ cafeterias and offers healthy recipes. Ann Cooper works with the legendary Alice Waters.

Now watch this:

For the original whole baked cauliflower with tomato and olive sauce, click here. I made a few changes, here’s my version:

Whole cauliflower in marinara sauce and olives

Adapted from “Cook with Jamie” cookbook

1/2 red onion, peeled and sliced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 large head of cauliflower, outer green leaves discarded
olive oil
a handful of black olives, pitted
1 anchovy fillet, sliced
a handful of fresh parsley
20 oz. tomato/marinara sauce, or canned chopped plum tomatoes
a splash of red wine vinegar
salt
ground black pepper

First, find a pot in which the whole cauliflower will fit, leaving an inch around.

To the pot, add the onion, garlic, and a drizzle of oil and slowly sauté for about 10 minutes over medium heat until softened. Add the olives, anchovy and parsley and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the tomato sauce and about 1/2 cup of water, and a splash of red wine vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Stir everything together and bring to the boil.
Gently add the cauliflower to the sauce. Half of the cauliflower should be in the sauce, half above it. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put the lid on and let it cook on low heat for about 30-40 minutes.

NOTE: I think an even easier and faster way to do this is to cut the cauliflower into florets and cooked it totally immersed in the tomato sauce.

Another winner recipe from Mario Batali and his pastry chef, Gina DePalma, from his Babbo cookbook which I highly recommend you add to your cookbook selections. Lots of terrific recipes! And easy ones too, even though they are recipes from a restaurant.

Modenese Crumbly Cake

By Gina DePalma, Pastry Chef
For 9 -inch springform pan

Ingredients:

For the Streusel:
½ cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the cake:
¾ cup pine nuts
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup semolina flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
3 eggs
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. To make the streusel: Combine the pine nuts, sugars, and flour and pulse to combine. Add the melted butter and pulse until the mixture is combined and forms pea-size crumbs. Set aside.

The recipe for Sweet Black Pepper Ricotta is here.

Have a wonderful and crumbly, ehhh… cozy weekend!
Nurit

UPDATE: My mother-in-law, Anka, baked the cake. Here is the photo they took. She says it smelled so good, they ate it right out of the oven.

It’s time to start posting recipes again. I know this is really what you are looking for, right?! I see on the polls’ results so far that most replies are from readers who like to cook and cook often. Please vote your voice on the right side column. There ->>

I saw this article “Kitchen superstar Wolfgang Puck shares his secrets for introducing new tastes to your kids” on Parent & Child magazine, and Wolfgang Puck is one of my favorite chefs, so if you’re interested, click here to read more.

A summary:

Encourage your kids to imitate you.
… Trying to force your children to eat a food typically results in bad feelings, making mealtime a chore and a battle. Instead, allow your kids to become curious about foods and develop their own interests. Let them wonder why you like something and then taste it to find out.

Make one dinner for everyone.
“One of the most important things you can do is avoid making separate meals for children and adults,” Puck advises. If you raise a child to think that there are special foods for kids (like macaroni and cheese or chicken fingers), they’ll believe that, and chances are they won’t be as willing to try anything else.

Offer variety, the spice of life.
From the very beginning, expose your little ones to as many flavors as you can, a little bit at a time.

Share the excitement of food.
Invite your children to help you cook—it’s an honor and a great learning experience. Eating out every once in a while, when your budget allows, can also be a wonderful way to get kids excited about new foods, if you do it right. Go on the early side before kids get tired and the restaurants get busy. Choose a family-friendly (I love that he uses this term and not “kid friendly” – N.) place … “It’s also important to eat together at home regularly before taking children out to restaurants,” Puck advises. “You can’t expect them to know how to behave at a table if they’ve never done it before.”

Teach children about what’s on their plate.
Take your kids to a grocery store, farm, cheese shop, bakery, or farmers’ market, so they can see where their food comes from and what it looks like before it lands on the table… Kids will love exploring the enchanting collection of shapes and colors. Teach them how to tell when a fruit is ripe or which bumps and bruises to avoid. When they feel like little experts, they’ll be more willing to eat what they helped you choose.

New recipes coming soon!

Nurit

Photo copied from Kim Ricketts Book Events web site

So last night, at a beautiful loft on Capitol Hill, at a books event, we saw and heard Jennifer McLagan. Jennifer is a chef/food writer and the author of the James Beard award winning book, Bones, who came to town to share with us her new book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes. This awesome event was a collaboration of Kim Ricketts Book Events, Michael Hebb from One Pot, and Caffe Vita. We had a lot of fun and I can’t wait until they do their next books event. I highly recommend that you participate in it too.

With all the wine we drank, the dim lights, and the background music I’m not sure I captured all the right details, so I do apologize in advance for any error I make. And do correct me if you were there in a more clear-headed condition and know better.

We sat next to Tess and Ryan and across from Nicky and Chad. Tess, as it turned out, reads my blog and even cooked some of the recipes. That was a very cool experience for me as this was the first time I met someone who reads my blog who, until yesterday, was a complete stranger (unlike relatives, friends, or parents from my kids schools who read my blog). We had a great time talking with them about food, wine, and all kinds of other good stuff.

For dinner, we had:
Duck Rillettes (juicy shreds of meat held together by fat)
Dandelion Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing
Roasted Marrow Bones
and, Cassoulet

Not need to say it was heavenly.

For dessert we had amazing, and I can’t stress the word “amazing” enough to describe the wonderful Chocolate Truffles from Theo chocolate, made by Chad. The flavors: ginger, burnt sugar, and figs and fennel. Divine. I can’t choose which one was my favorite. I liked them all. A lot.
To end the meal, we had freshly brewed coffee by Caffé Vita.

What can I say? You want to be there at their next event.
I do.

Hey, I just realized that this blog exists for almost 4 months and I still haven’t given you a single salmon recipe! How could that be?

Salmon are now “in season”. Meaning, they are swimming back to their home here at the local lakes, rivers, streams, and creeks. We went to see them during Issaquah Salmon Days Festival 2008. The salmon were dying while we were dining and having fun. What a life.

The first time I saw the salmon return from their exhausting journey at sea, to swim against the current, spawn in Issaquah Creek, and then die, was about 8 years ago. I thought that salmon have such a tragic life, and what a magnificent fish it is. I vowed to never ever eat salmon again. But they are just too good to say “No” to.

So anyway, it is time for a salmon recipe, and what better recipe to give you than by a local celebrity chef, who appeared on Iron Chef America and won against the legendary and almost invincible Iron Chef Japanese, Masaharu Morimoto? Do you know who I am talking about? Of course, it’s Tom Douglas.

This recipe is adapted from his cookbook Tom’s Big Dinners by Tom Douglas

Salmon with sweet fennel butter
Makes 4 servings

1 ½ – 2 lb. salmon fillets, cut to 4 portions
½ stick unsalted butter, softened/room temp.
1 teaspoon fresh fennel fronds (or dill), chopped
½ tablespoon orange juice
½ teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon honey
Salt and ground pepper

Reheat broiler and place the oven rack about 7 inches from the heat element (or broil in a toaster oven).
Season salmon with salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on both sides.
Mash all the other ingredients together in a bowl to make the flavored butter.
Cook salmon under the broiler about 7-10 minutes until nicely browned on top.
Serve each fillet with a tablespoon of flavored butter.

Side dishes: I’m considering zucchini pancakes, roasted potatoes with whole grain mustard, and/or roasted fennel. Will see how it goes…

Enjoy your salmon,
Nurit

Tuesday, 8 PM:
I ended up making the Zucchini Pancakes and mustard roasted potatoes for side dishes from the “Barefoot Contessa At Home Everyday Recipes You’Ll Make Over And Over Again” cookbook.

Very delicious!

Dinner tonight was inspired by a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks “Nightly Specials” by Michael Lomonaco. I cook from this book very often for the reason that it has many wonderful recipes like: Philly cheese steak; Roasted corn chowder with shrimp and tarragon; Beef and porter stew; Moroccan lamb stew; Alpine baked pasta; Coconut-scented basmati rice; Paella with chicken and sausage; Toasted barley and butternut squash; Pan-roasted halibut with asparagus, fava beans, and thyme broth; Floribbean-style tilefish pan-fried with limes, chiles, tomatoes, and avocado; Steamed bass with lemongrass and chile-coconut broth; Bitter greens and honey almonds… The list goes on and on, you got the picture.

There is a recipe in the book for “Braised chicken with butternut squash, walnuts and sage” that I wanted to make. But I made so many changes in it that I think I can call it my own by now. I decreased the amount of spices to give the chicken a milder flavor than the usual Thanksgiving-y robust cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg combination so typical to recipes for the holiday season. And of course, like always, I made a few shortcuts, and added more vegetables. The result was terrific.

Thanksgiving-y chicken
Makes 4-6 servings

1 onion, medium diced
4 carrots, peeled and cut to large pieces
½ butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced large
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced large
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole chicken legs, divided to thighs and drumsticks
2 tablespoon butter, cut to small pieces
Sage for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a big pan, toss the vegetables with salt, pepper, the spices, and olive oil.
Generously sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt, black pepper, and olive oil. Add to the pan with veggies and mix so chicken gets some of the spices on it. Arrange nicely in the pan, chicken skin side up. Spread butter on top.

Have a wonderful dinner.
Nurit