Arroz Con Pollo Verde

A Peruvian dish, this 'green rice with chicken' is a knock-out for flavour. My husband request this dish regularly and three of my four children love it; the youngest, is the exception, I caught her holding her nose as she ate it for dinner last night.
There is a synergy that comes when cumin and fresh cilantro (called coriander in Europe) are brought together. This dish makes great left-overs, too.

1 large bunch cilantro (2 packets fresh coriander in the UK/Europe), most stems removed
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1" chunks
2 cups long grain rice
4 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/4s
1 cup frozen (or fresh) green peas
Salt to taste

1) Whiz the fresh cilantro/coriander with the water in a food processor, to make a 'sauce'-- you should have 1/2 cup. Set aside.

2) Over medium-high heat, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in the olive oil, until soft. Add in the chicken and continue to cook for just a minute or two, then add in the rice, stir well, then pour in the chicken broth, stir, add the cumin, stir, then the potato, stir.

3) Cover the pot and bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and gently cook the arroz con pollo until the liquid is almost absorbed-- about 20 minutes-- then add in the green beans, frozen peas and cilantro/coriander sauce, stir and cover again. Cook for 15-25 minutes longer, over medium-low heat. When the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, the dish is ready. Taste and add salt (I also add cayenne pepper). Serve at once.

Serves 8

Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon and Egg Soup)

I first had this soup when I was 20, at Steve's Greek restaurant in Boston's Back Bay area. Ordering it because it was cheap, and I was a poor student, I wasn't expecting much more than sustenance. What I got was a culinary epiphany-- soup that tasted like summer. The slight sourness of lemons, the richness of egg yolks and the savoury belly-warming flavour of chicken stock. It was the best soup I had ever tasted.
If you've never had this soup, and you like sauce Hollandaise, try this-- you will love it.

8 cups (about 2 litres) chicken stock
1/2 cup (1/2 teacup) long grain rice
1/4 cup lemon juice (juice os 2 lemons)
Zest of 1 lemon, finely minced
1 tablespoon (1 soup spoon) corn starch/corn flour
4 egg yolks
Handful of chopped, fresh parsley (optional)

1) Bring the chicken stock to a strong simmer and add in the rice. Cook according to package directions. Pssst- you will not be draining the rice.

2) While the rice is cooking, whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, corn starch and egg yolks in a small bowl. Two minutes before the rice is done, snag a ladle of stock out of the pot and slowly whisk it into the bowl of lemon/egg yolk. Whisk continuously. Add in one more ladle, doing the same. Now remove the pot of stock/rice from heat and whisk the bowl of lemon/egg/stock into the chicken stock. Place back onto a low heat, just to heat up and thicken a bit but do not simmer from this point on, or the egg yolks in the soup could brake and end up looking sorta' like scrambled eggs. Stir in the parsley and serve at once.

Makes 8 cups yummy soup.

British Mexican Rice

Cook long grain white rice in beef stock. Use vegetable broth to make this vegan. Once the is just done, mix with tomato passata (American tomato puree, to colour and flavour, not to turn into soup) chopped parsley and chopped green olives. Season with ground cumin, paprika and/or chili powder if you like.

Kedgeree

I’d never heard of Kedgeree before, but found it in many of the British cookbooks that I have been collecting since moving here. It is a Scottish dish intended for breakfast, but I served for a nice supper last weekend. It was so delicious, and I made so much that we had it again for breakfast the next morning.
You will see that there are Indian influences in this dish. It is my understanding that this is so because the Scottish troops took the recipe with them to Indian during the British Raj; it was changed, enhanced and returned to the UK a better dish.
I took this version of Kedgeree from a Gordon Ramsay cookbook—changed just a little of it—it is lovely.


675 mls or 3 and ¾ cups chicken broth
Pinch of saffron threads
½ pound fresh salmon fillets
¼ pound smoked salmon fillet
¼ pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 knob (tablespoon) butter
1 large French shallot (or two round shallots) finely chopped
½ teaspoon mild curry powder
350 grams or 12 ounces basmati rice
4-6 fresh eggs (number of eggs depends on how many people you are serving)
Handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

1) Heat the chicken broth and saffron to a boil. Slip the salmon fillets in to the boiling stock and bring back just to a simmer. Cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove fish to a plate. Bring the stock back to a boil and add in the smoked salmon and shrimp, bring to a simmer and cook gently for just 2 minutes, until the shrimp are just pink and firm but still very tender. Remove to the same plate as the salmon.

2) Pour the stock into a bowl and wipe out the cooking pot. Add in the olive oil and butter and place over medium heat. When the butter is frothy, add in the chopped shallots and sauté until translucent—just a few minutes. Add in the curry powder and stir. Now tip in the rice and cook the rice until all of the grains are coated in butter/oil/curry powder. Now, pour in the stock, stir and bring to a gently simmer. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, making sure that it is just gently simmering, neither cooking too low or boiling. Try not to lift the lid, if possible. After 10 minutes, remove from the heat, do not lift the lid, and allow the rice to steam.

3) While the rice is steaming, flake the fish into large chunks; leave the shrimp whole unless they are quite large.

4) At the same time, bring a pot of water to a boil and gently lower as the eggs in their shells—you are poaching the eggs to serve on top of the rice, poach as many as you have eaters. Once the water comes back to a very strong simmer, set a timer and cook for 4 and ½ minutes exactly. This will yield cooked, but runny yolks. If you do not like runny yolks you must be crazy, you can hard boil the eggs and chop them up to add at the end.

5) Now, when the rice is done, fluff with a fork and stir in the parsley, then gently stir in the flaked fish and shrimp. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Mound onto individual plates. Very gently, peel the poached eggs, placing one on top of each dish of Kedgeree, salt each egg with flakes of seas salt. Serve immediately, letting the diners break open the poached eggs allowing the yolk to seep down into the rice

Serves 4-6 depending on hunger of guests.

Sasha Cakes

“You want one?”, my friend Sarah asked me. I followed her gaze down toward the paper plate she was holding; on it, lay two thick, sauteed brown rice cakes. We were standing in the middle of the chaotic playground, waiting for our kids, after school. “Yes!” I screeched, I almost never turn down food. “Where did you get them?” I asked. “Sasha [her 7 year old son] made them in cooking class today”, she told me.

Yes, the image of four, 7-year old budding chefs, sliding their drippy noses across their forearms and hands then getting on with forming the brown rice mixture into neat, little, snotty patties did pop into my head-- but I didn’t care, I was hungry.

Even cold, they were delicious!

So I wanted to make them at home for my four snotty, little kids. I figured out the recipe and served them for dinner last night-- all four girls liked them! They were so good, I had them for dinner and then cold for breakfast the next morning as well as warmed in the microwave for lunch, too.

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled
1 cup cooked red lentils, cooled
1 medium carrot shredded or ½ of a small sweet potato, peeled and shredded
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped chives
1 shallot, minced, or 4 small green onions, chopped or ¼ cup chopped yellow onion
A good couple of dashes of garlic powder
A good couple of dashes of dry dill weed
Black pepper
Salt to taste
½ cup small cubes of cheese (optional)
2 tablespoons flour (optional, will help the patties stick together better)
1 egg
Bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for sautéing

When you make the rice, at the end of cooking, layer the shredded carrots or sweet potato on top, cover, remove from the heat and allow the shredded veg to steam and soften just a bit. Allow the rice to cool completely. Combine everything, except the flour and the egg in a large bowl and mix well. Taste for seasoning, make sure there is enough salt and that it is tasty. When you get to the seasoning that you like, add the flour (if using) and the raw egg and mix well.

Cover and set the mixture in the refrigerator to get cold (at least one hour, but up to a day ahead).

Form into 12 patties, carefully dredge in bread crumbs and sauté over medium heat until nicely browned and crisp, turn and sauté other side. Serve hot, warm, or room temp.

Sasha likes his with the Japanese condiment, Tonkatsu sauce smeared over the top…

Peruvian Chicken

The first time I tasted this was at my cousin Beth’s house. Her husband is from Peru and his mother was visiting and said she would make her favorite dish for all the family gathered there (and there were a lot of us). The moment I tried it I fell in love with it. Simple, straight forward and easy to prepare, the fantastic flavor lies in combining fresh cilantro (koriander) with cumin~ the synergy that occurs is magical!

1 big bunch cilantro (koriander), or two small bunches, washed
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 cloves garlic
1 jalepeno pepper, or 1 small red Thai pepper-- more peppers equal more heat
¼ teaspoon salt
Olive oil
4 chicken thighs
4 chicken breasts, cut in half width-wise
1 green bell peppers, trimmed and diced
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1-2 cups peeled, diced potato (if you like potatoes use 2 cups, if not, use 1)
2 cups basmati rice
3 and 2/3 cup chicken stock or water with boullion cubes
2/3 cup frozen peas

1) Throw the cilantro (including stems if you like-- no problem), cumin, garlic, peppers, salt and a bit of olive oil into the bowl of a food processor. Begin to process the herbs and drizzle in more olive oil as it’s going-- this will work into a paste quickly-- you want it to be the consistency of pesto. Remove and set aside; this can be made up to a day ahead and held in the refrigerator.

2) Season the chicken with salt. In a very large pot, brown the chicken on both sides, (just to get color, not to cook) in a bit more olive oil. Remove chicken to a plate and toss in the green bell pepper and onion-- saute for about a minute until they begin to soften.

3) Add in the potato and then the rice, stock and cilantro sauce, previously made. Stir well. Submerge the chicken pieces (with all their collected juices), cover and simmer (do not boil) for about 35 minutes, then stir and add in the peas, replace cover, turn heat way down to the lowest and continue to very gently cook for 15 minutes more.

The dish is done when all the liquid is absorbed into the rice.

Serves 8

Bellagio Risotto

I never thought of using sherry in the stock to make risotto-- but I had this in Bellagio and it is dynamite! With the addition of shrimp, it tastes similar to a bisque.

7 cups chicken stock (the better stock you use, the better the end product)
1 and 1/2 cups sherry
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot, minced
2 cups Aborio or Vialone rice
1 pound raw shrimp, shelled, deveined and sut into 1/3s
3/4 cup freshly grated Paremsan cheese (using the best cheese possible)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh, parsley finely chopped

1) Pour the stock, sherry and tomato paste into a large pot and bring to a simmer.

2) In a separate pot, over medium heat, melt the butter and add in the minced shallot. Cook until the shallot pieces are translucent.

3) Add in the rice to the shallots. Stir and cook until the rice for about 2-3 minutes, then begin adding in the stock/sherry. Laddle in about a 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly until all the liquid is absorbed-- then add the next 3/4 cup.

4) When you add in the last cup, also add in the shrimp and stir until the liquid is absorbed.

5) Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese, cover and allow to sit for a few minutes while you call everyone to the table. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of parsley.

Serves 4 main course