Editor’s note: It’s no secret Pen & Fork’s book reviewer Linda Avery loves Moroccan food, so she was thrilled to get her hands on Paula Wolfert’s new 528 page cookbook, The Food of Morocco. Take a look and see what she thought, then try the delicious chicken dish with fragrant spices and tomato “magic.”

The Food of Morocco

by Paula Wolfert
photos by Quentin Bacon
drawings by Mark Marthaler

Facts: Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins, 528 pages, $45.00 (or Amazon at $22.50)
Photos: More than the number of recipes (and that’s saying a lot!)
Recipes: 192
Give To: friends who belong to a cookbook club, anyone wanting to explore Moroccan cuisine

Decades ago I did a brief touch-and-go in Tangier. I’ve wanted to return to Morocco but never so much as now, after reading The Food of Morocco. Although a few have complained that this book has many recipes found in Paula Wolfert’s Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco (originally published in 1973 and inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame in 2008), I find this is yet another cookbook with a travelogue dimension.

Within the book’s introduction lies a fascinating map of Morocco listing notable dishes and ingredients indigenous to various areas e.g. Marrakech: rabbit tagine; Casablanca: camel meat; Tangier: Kalinté, a chickpea flan; Fes: the famous preserved lemons, etc.  Paula Wolfert has no doubt personally experienced each and every dish noted.

Wolfert then lays a foundation for the recipes by explaining the curious eathenware tagine, the Moroccan larder, the most used spices and secondary spices, and how to make basics like preserved lemons. The recipes in the ten following chapters would paint bright mental images even if there weren’t fabulous photos. Colorful salads with oranges, dates and raisins; green and red peppers complement fish, poultry, meats and vegetables. Fruits are plentiful in this diet, including dessert couscous with pomegranates and poached pears with prunes.

There is no doubt that in addition to a love of complex and unique flavors, Moroccan people don’t mind spending time achieving those results. The recipes in this book require a commitment whether in terms of time, learning or both. This is particularly true if you decide to tackle bastila (AKA pastila, bisteeya, or bestela) making your own warqa, their pastry akin to phyllo dough. It would take me most of the day and I’d only have a first course completed!

This would be a fun book for a supper club whether the club cooks all dishes together or divvies up recipes among your membership and comes together for the dinner. BTW, if you have a recipe calling for a tagine and are without one, Wolfert says a deep straight-sided large skillet with a tight fitting cover and a sheet of parchment paper placed directly on the food will give you good results. And SHE is indisputably the queen of Mediterranean food.

Chicken Smothered with Tomato Jam

photo © by Quentin Bacon

Recently I asked my daughter, Leila, to test this recipe, since she remembered it from her girlhood in Tangier. She was thrilled with the results, telling me that two of her friends liked it so much “they actually licked the bottom of the tagine pot.”

Please remember to transfer a hot tagine to a wooden surface or a folded kitchen towel on a serving tray to prevent cracking.

Serves 6

Ingredients
For the Tomato Magic
(Makes about 1 1/2 cups)
One 6- to 8-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
One 28-ounce can organic tomatoes, preferably Muir Glen fire-toasted tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken
6 large fat chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), preferably organic and air-chilled
2 large garlic cloves
Coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons saffron water (see note)
1/3 cup grated red onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon ground Ceylon cinnamon
2 1/2 pounds red-ripe tomatoes, peeled, halved, seeded, and chopped
1 tablespoon Tomato Magic or tomato paste
2 tablespoons thyme or floral honey
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Method
Make the tomato jam
1. Combine the sun-dried tomatoes, with their packing oil from the jar; the canned tomatoes, with their juices: the salt; and 2 tablespoons water in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.

2. Scrape the puree into a wide heavy-bottomed saucepan, set over medium-low heat, and cook, stirring often, until reduced to a thick jam, about 30 minutes.

3. Scrape some of the tomato paste into a clean, dry jar for more immediate use. Cover with 1/4 inch of olive oil, close the jar, and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. For longer storage time, divide the remaining paste into 1- or 2-tablespoon balls and place them side by side on a flat tray. Set in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes, until firm, then place in a freezer bag and store in the freezer.

Make the chicken
1. The day before: Rinse the chicken thighs and pat dry; trim away excess fat. Slide your fingers under the skin to loosen it from the flesh. Crush the garlic and 2 teaspoons salt to a paste in a mortar. Mix with the pepper, ginger, olive oil, and saffron water, and rub under and over the skin of the chicken. Let stand, covered, in the refrigerator overnight.

2. The next day: Place the chicken with its marinade, in an 11- to 12-inch tagine set on a heat diffuser. Add the grated onion, cilantro, 3/4 teaspoon of the ground cinnamon, and 1/2 cup water and mix thoroughly with the chicken pieces. Cook, covered, over low heat, stirring once, for 20 minutes. Then begin to slowly raise the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes and the Tomato Magic or tomato paste to the tagine and continue to cook over medium heat, uncovered, turning the chicken pieces often in the sauce, until very tender, about 20 more minutes. Take the chicken out and wrap in foil to keep warm and moist. Allow the tomatoes to cook down until all the moisture evaporates, stirring occasionally to avoid scorching, about 1 hour. The tomatoes will begin to fry and the sauce will thicken considerably.

4. Add the honey and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon to the tomatoes and cook for several minutes to bring out their flavors. Reheat the chicken parts in the sauce, rolling them around to coat evenly.

5. Remove the cover, scatter the sesame seeds on top, and serve hot or warm.

Note: To prepare a small jar of saffron water, dry 1/2 teaspoon crumbled saffron strands in a warm (not hot) skillet. Crush again, then soak in 1 cup hot water and store in a small jar in the refrigerator. This will keep for up to a week.

Tags: chicken, cookbook review, Linda Avery, Paula Wolfert, The Food of Morroco, tomato jam
Posted in Book & Product Reviews, Chicken & Turkey, Recipes | 1 Comment »

From Around My French Kitchen: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan

Photo by © Alan Richardson

Chicken in a Pot: The Garlic and Lemon Version

I can’t remember when I first made a chicken cooked in a casserole that was sealed tighter than the ancient pyramids, but I do remember that it was called Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic and that the recipe came from Richard Olney’s deservedly classic cookbook Simple French Food. In his version of this traditional dish, the chicken is cut up and tucked into a casserole with four heads of garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled; dried herbs; a bouquet garni; and some olive oil. Everything is turned around until it’s all mixed up, the casserole is sealed tight with a flour-and-water dough, and the whole is slid into the oven to bake until the chicken is done and the garlic is cooked through, sweet and soft enough to spread on bread. It’s a masterpiece of simplicity, and when the seal is cracked at the table, the pouf of fragrant steam is mildly theatrical and completely intoxicating.
Olney’s recipe was the first of I-can’t-even-count-how-many chickens in a pot I’ve made. I’ve cooked chickens whole and in pieces, with a garden’s worth of vegetables and with only garlic, with hot spices and with fragrant herbs, with (and without wine, and with and without the dough seal (with is better). I’ve cooked the chicken in a heavy Dutch oven (my favorite), a speckled enamel roaster (not the best), and a clay cooker (my second favorite; if you use a clay cooker, though, omit the dough seal — the clay is too fragile). And I’ve cooked it in every season — it’s just as good in the summer as in winter.
This, my garlic and lemon rendition, was inspired by a dish made by Antoine Westermann, a chef with a Michelin three-star restaurant in Alsace and a bistro in Paris. That there’s nothing Alsatian about his use of Moroccan preserved lemons and nothing particularly French about the addition of sweet potatoes makes the dish even more fun.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1/2 preserved lemon, rinsed well
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and each cut into 8 same-sized pieces (you can use white potatoes, if you prefer)
16 small white onions, yellow onions, or shallots
8 carrots, trimmed, peeled, and quartered
4 celery stalks, trimmed, peeled, and quartered
4 garlic heads, cloves separated but not peeled
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 thyme sprigs
3 parsley sprigs
2 rosemary sprigs
1 chicken, about 4 pounds, preferably organic, whole or cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
1 cup chicken broth
2 1/2 cup dry white wine
About 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
About 3/4 cup hot water

Method
1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F.

2. Using a paring knife, slice the peel from the preserved lemon and cut it into all squares; discard the pulp. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, drop in the peel, and cook for 1 minute; drain and set aside.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the vegetables and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until the vegetables brown on all sides. (If necessary, do this in 2 batches.) Spoon the vegetables into a 4 1/2- to 5-quart Dutch oven or other pot with a lid and stir in the herbs and the preserved lemon.

4. Return the skillet to the heat, add another tablespoon of oil, and brown the chicken on all sides, seasoning it with salt and pepper as it cooks. Tuck the chicken into the casserole, surrounding it with the vegetables. Mix together the broth, wine, and the remaining olive oil and pour over the chicken and vegetables.

5. Put 1 1/2 cups flour in a medium bowl and add enough hot water to make a malleable dough. Dust a work surface with a little flour, turn out the dough, and, working with your hands, roll the dough into a sausage. Place the dough on the rim of the pot — if it breaks, just piece it together — and press the lid onto the dough to seal the pot. Slide the pot into the oven and bake for 5 55 minutes.

6. Now you have a choice — you can break the seal in the kitchen or do it at the table, where it’s bound to make a mess, but where everyone will have the pleasure of sharing that first fragrant whiff as you lift the lid with a nourish. Whether at the table or in the kitchen, the best tool to break the seal is the least attractive — a screwdriver. Use the point of the screwdriver as a lever to separate the lid from the dough. Depending on whether your chicken was whole or cut up, you might have to do some in-the-kitchen carving, but in the end, you want to make sure that the vegetables and the delicious broth are on the table with the chicken.

Bonne Idée
You can save yourself a little time and some clean up by using store-bought pizza dough to seal the pot. If you use pizza dough, it will rise around the pot.

Serving
If the chicken is cut up, you can just serve it and the vegetables from the pot, if the chicken is whole, you can quarter it and return the pieces to the pot or arrange the chicken and vegetables on a serving platter. Either way, you don’t need to serve anything else but some country bread, which is good for two things: spreading with the sweet garlic; popped from the skins and dunking into the cooking broth. One of the reasons i like to bring the pot to the table is because it makes for easy dipping,

Storing
If you have any leftover chicken, vegetables, and broth (what we call “goop” in our house), they can be reheated gently in the top of a double boiler or in a microwave oven.

Recipe © Around My French Kitchen: More Than 300 Recipes From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Tags: Around My French Kitchen, chicken, chicken in a pot, Dorie Greenspan, recipe
Posted in Chicken & Turkey, Recipes | 2 Comments »

The best roast chickens I’ve ever eaten have a couple of things in common.

a). The chicken was first brined in a salt solution, resulting in a juicy, flavorful bird, and

b.) The chicken was roasted at a high temperature, producing a very crispy skin

A basic salt brine consists of salt (1 cup) and water (1 gallon). From there, you can add whatever flavorings you fancy. I add a little sugar (I like to think it helps brown the skin) and other herbs and spices depending upon what else I’m serving with the chicken.

My favorite chicken brine is a citrus brine:

2 limes
1 lemon
1 orange
1 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
10 cilantro stems (with leaves), roughly chopped
half a head of garlic cloves, unpeeled and smashed
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, crushed
1 gallon of water

Zest the citrus and place the zest in a stockpot. Cut the citrus in half and squeeze the juice into the pot. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring just to a boil, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature and then chill the brine in the refrigerator. Do this a day or two ahead of when you plan to roast the chicken.

The technique for this recipe is built upon Thomas Keller’s roast chicken recipe in his cookbook Bouchon. He goes into elaborate detail (no surprise there) about the brining, trussing and eventual roasting of the chicken.

I’ve simplified the steps here, and having eaten the chicken at Bouchon in Las Vegas, I can say that this home cooked bird stacks up very well against the restaurant’s version.

The biggest difference? You will have to do your own dishes.

Citrus Brined Roasted Chicken

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 (3 to 3-1/2 pounds) whole chicken
1 citrus brine recipe (above)
Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon canola oil
2 tablespoons thyme leaves

Method
1. Rinse the chicken under cold water and pat dry. Place the chicken in the chilled citrus brine, cover and place in the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.

2. Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse under cold water and pat dry. Tuck the wings underneath the bird (don’t worry too much if they don’t stay tucked – you tried). Tie the front legs loosely together with kitchen string. Lightly salt and heavily pepper the outside of the bird.

3. Heat the oven to 475º F, while the bird is shaking off the chill from the fridge. When the oven is really hot, about 20 minutes later, add the oil to a skillet large enough to fit the bird with room to spare, and place over high heat. Swirl around to distribute the oil while the skillet gets really hot, about 3 minutes.

4. Place the trussed bird, breast-side up, in the skillet (a hot skillet prevents the chicken from sticking to the pan) and place in the preheated oven. Roast for 40-45 minutes (the bird will get very brown, so tent loosely with a piece of foil if you think it’s getting too brown).

5. Remove from the oven and check the the temperature with a meat thermometer stuck in the thickest part of the thigh, making sure it doesn’t touch a bone. The temperature should be 155º – 160º F when it is finished in the oven, so if it is below that, return the chicken to the oven. Check the temperature every 5 minutes. When the bird is 155º – 160º F, remove it from the oven. As it rests, it will continue to cook.

6. Add the thyme to the pan drippings and then with a spoon, baste the bird with the thyme-infused drippings for a minute. Remove the bird to a cutting board to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Tags: brine, chicken, citrus, roasted chicken
Posted in Chicken & Turkey, How To..., Recipes, Tips & Tutorials | 5 Comments »

I merely suggested to my brother that we do some turkey burgers in addition to the beef burgers he was planning to grill for our family lunch.

Judging by the horrified look on his face, you would have thought I asked him to put mayonnaise instead of cream in his coffee. Despite what he thinks, ground turkey is not artificial.

He really had nothing to worry about. I jazz up turkey burgers with enough goodies that make them no less unhealthy than an all-beef patty.

Part of my arsenal is ground turkey made from white and dark meat that has more fat than the skinless breast ground turkey. Why? Fat = flavor.

No matter what I throw into the mix, turkey burgers are not going to taste like beef burgers. Because, um, they’re NOT beef burgers – they’re turkey burgers.

I happen to love the taste of turkey, so to me, turkey burgers – if juicy and moist – are fantastic. I think that’s where the T-burgers have gotten a bad rap. If you don’t treat the turkey burger with TLC, the result is a dry, tasteless hunk of protein.

One last thing: if you’re switching to turkey burgers for health reasons, do not follow this recipe. On the other hand, if you are looking for an alternative to beef burgers, then this recipe is for you.

Jalapeno Cheddar Turkey Burgers with Guacamole

Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey meat (not lean)
2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Guacamole (recipe here)

Method
1. Heat the grill to medium high (375-400°F).

2. Mix all the ingredients together until the jalapeno and cheddar are well distributed throughout the meat. Divide the mixture into four equal portions, about 7 ounces each. Form into patties about 1/2  to 3/4 inch thick. (The patties will be very soft, and a little hard to handle.)

3. Oil the grill with vegetable oil. Place the patties on grill and close the lid. Cook until grill marks are very visible and the edges begin to dry, about 6 minutes. Loosen the burgers with a wide spatula and flip and turn the heat to medium. Cook until just done (see note below), about 6 to 8 more minutes. Remove from grill and rest for 5 minutes before serving.

4. Spread guacamole on bun, and garnish with any other accouterments you like. We added green leaf lettuce, ripe tomatoes and grilled onions, and served the burger on a wheat bun.)

(NOTE: The USDA states turkey should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F for food safety. I’m not one to argue – in public – with the feds. Food poisoning is no laughing matter, so it is wise to err on the more done than less done side.)

Tags: guacamole, turkey burger
Posted in Chicken & Turkey, Recipes | 4 Comments »

I love, love, love Mexican food. I had some left over grilled chicken and started thumbing through my cookbooks (the ones I wrote…I use them all the time to make dinner, don’t you?) I stopped on page 99 in Par Fork!, at the Tomatillo Salsa recipe from Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson. They serve this tangy sauce on Huevos Rancheros, but I thought it would be perfect for grilled chicken.

I’ll be honest, I’m not good at rolling corn tortillas for traditional enchiladas, so I decided to make them in the New Mexican style — just stacked on top of each other with layers of chicken, cheese and sauce in between.

I wanted this to be a little more healthy than traditional enchiladas, so I didn’t use any oil on the tortillas and used the cheese sparingly.

The sauce calls for roasting the jalapeno, so I decided to just roast, or in this case, grill everything else, too — the tomatillos, the onions and the zucchini. Why not, since my left over chicken was already grilled? If you’re going to fire up the grill, you might as well multitask.

You can prep all of this (the grilling, making the sauce) a day ahead of time, so when it comes time to assemble and heat, you can have dinner in less than 30 minutes.

Stacked Chicken Enchiladas
with Roasted Tomatillo & Jalapeno Sauce

4 servings

Ingredients
For the Roasted Tomatillo Sauce
1 1/4 pounds tomatillos
1 jalapeno
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of 1/2 lime
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

For the Enchiladas
12 corn tortillas
1 pound grilled chicken, diced
2 medium grilled zucchini, diced
1 large grilled or sautéed onion
2 cups shredded cheddar (or Mexican blend) cheese
Mexican crema or sour cream (optional)
1/2 cup chopped seeded tomatoes

Method
Make the sauce
1. Grill the tomatillos and jalapeno over medium heat (either outdoors on the grill or on a pepper roaster set over your stovetop burner) until the tomatillos skins are mostly black and the pepper is black all over. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. Remove the skin from the pepper, and roughly chop the pepper and tomatillos and place in a food processor.

3. Cut the avocado in half and remove the seed. Scoop out the flesh and add to the food processor. Top with the cilantro and lime juice.

4. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and pulse until the mixture is mostly pureed but some visible chunks of tomatillo remain. Taste and season if necessary.

Make the enchiladas
1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.

2. Place 4 tortillas on the baking sheet.

3. Spread about 2 tablespoons of sauce on each tortilla all the way to the edge.

4. Top each tortilla with a small handful of chicken, zucchini and onions. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of cheese (and Mexican crema or sour cream if using).

5. Place another tortilla on top of each of the four tortillas and repeat steps 3 & 4 — the sauce, the chicken, zucchini and onions, then the cheese and crema.

6. Top with another corn tortilla and any left over ingredients. Do a final sprinkle of cheese and then place in the oven until heated through, about 10 to 15 minutes.

7. Garnish with crema (or sour cream) and chopped fresh tomatoes.

Tags: chicken, enchiladas, tomatillo sauce
Posted in Chicken & Turkey, Recipes | No Comments »

What do do with leftover turkey?

Try this sweet and spicy turkey salad on a sliced croissant or wrapped in a tortilla, along with some green leaf lettuce.

Sweet & Sour Turkey Salad

Serves 8

Ingredients
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons each sweet orange marmalade and cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mild hot-pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups finely chopped roasted turkey meat
1 cup halved orange sections
2 finely chopped celery ribs
1/4 of a finely chopped small red onion

Method
1. Mix the mayonnaise through black pepper together in a small bowl.

2. Stir in the remaining ingredients and toss to mix.

Tags: recipe for leftover turkey, salad, turkey
Posted in Chicken & Turkey, Recipes | No Comments »

The Great Ranch Cookbook

Spirited Recipes & Rhetoric from America's Best Guest Ranches

Par Fork! The Golf Resort Cookbook

Culinary Expedition Through World Class Golf Resort Kitchens

The Cool Mountain Cookbook

A Gourmet Guide to Winter Retreats