Sunday Feast № 41 | Latin Braise Coc Co Co Coc, or Coconut Braised Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes

The flavor combination read as perfect. Perfect enough to drown the pages with dribbling saliva.    I might be exaggerating, but mussing up of the pages was involved, followed by quick run through the cupboards and the fridge, and a grab for pen and paper to write a shopping list, to make about a half of the original recipe. Then I spaced out on changing the cooking time when recipes are halved, first time around at least, then I learned fast.    Adapting a recipe from from Food & Wine magazine October 2016 issue to a smaller portion, I went ahead and let it braise in the oven for about an hour the original called for. Now being mindful of the fact that the cooking smells, no matter how divine, after lingering overnight are less so, I opened to kitchen backdoor, and thus effectively removed smell as a cue to check in on the chicken. An hour later, I came back to a broken sauce and a rim of burn where it used to be. However, the chicken and potatoes were fine, and there to prove that my initial impetus to make this dish was absolutely justified. Two days later, I remedied the situation. See below. This one is here to stay as an alternative finish-the-chicken-in-the-oven-"go-to" to Pablo's chicken with potatoes and aioli. And that says something.

Sunday Feast № 39 | Spicy Chicken Stir-fry

Keeping it very brief this time. It's been a long while since I made this one, and since I am burrowing through my recipe notes, it was time to make it. The spices give this dish a warmth that has nothing to do with heat but everything with aroma. With this amount of vegetables, you can skip sides like rice or noodles, unless you absolutely must have them for a trio on a plate. Serves 4.

Sunday Feast № 24 | Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad

Have mint. Crave a salad with more than vegetables and dressing. A salad that can stand on its own, yet feels light. I looked to the trusty "The Cook's Companion" by Stephanie Alexander for answers and found a super easy recipe to play with. Thai chilies may make more sense regionally, but Serrano chilies are a good substitute, if that is all you can get your hands, and in a pinch if you are in possession of sambal oelek, that ground chili paste goodness, you are good. Three teaspoon, about.    I like the way my small herb garden is pushing me around, first with Thai basil - a beef dish repeated many times since, also with substituting Thai chilies with sambal oelek - then with mint - mixed with radishes and pumpkin seeds. Thai basil shoots up and out vigorously, while mint - well, mint really just hangs around draping as it sees fit, gently twisting on itself, surprisingly laissez-faire for such a refreshing herb. Cocktails with it will be in order soon. Meanwhile, poach chicken breasts yourself with lemongrass, ginger, salt, initially covered with cool water by an inch or so. Bring to boil then simmer for 10-15 min. Skim the foam as you go along if you plan to hold on to the light broth. Might come in handy.

Sunday Feast № 21 | Roasted Cornish Hens with Lemon, Rosemary, Garlic, and Balsamic

Photo by Aurora Samar

Last time was Chinese. "We should do it again." "What should it be this time?" "Greek! We can do lots of salads. Stuffed peppers." "OK, what about a meat dish? Lamb?" That is roughly how it went. Fast forward. "We can do Greek, but maybe mix in Italian ..." "Mediterranean like? Well, close to." "Then I make tiramisu." "Love Tiramisu!" "Then I'll think if it is still lamb or something else." In the end, it was close to Italian. And sorry, but no, this is not tiramisu recipe blog. I have professionals for that. My mind drifted to chicken. And rosemary. The Gooey Shell    Having found a recipe for roasted chicken with rosemary in one of my trusty books, I went shopping for an approximately 3 lb/1.5 kg bird. Maybe it was laziness, but with little time to scour supermarkets within my immediate walking distance let alone any further a field, I settled for the closest and met with monster chickens. At around 6 lbs each! Whoa mama! Yes, each could feed a small army but roasting a BIG BIRD is a different game I might reserve for turkey. Luckily, the supermarket had lots of frozen Cornish hens, and those I was willing to deal with. Six of them. Yes, yes, also can feed a small army, but smaller birds mean quicker roast and greater likelihood of being cooked throughout without drying out. So I set to task finding required roasting temperature and time, as well as possible combinations of flavorings for the roast. One criteria for the latter: rosemary must be included.    The result was a lovely brood of hens for carnivores (one bird per person in one sitting) and lesser carnivores (half a bird per person in one sitting with the other half for next days). Very satiating. Mind you there were salads - "Mum" made sure, grilled octopus - we had two that not just love but LOVE octopuses (queue up Octopussy snickering and general nudge nudge wink wink behavior), there was bread, foccacia, polenta, bruschetta, tiramisu of course, and macarons with smoked salmon filling (not my recipe or mine to disclose, but a fine product, and like I said, I have professionals for that), and more. Macarons?! Well, France does boarder the Mediterranean Sea.

Sunday Feast № 11 | Rosemary Chicken and Beans

Once upon a time I cooked the old fashioned roasted chicken Provençal, a very good dish with herbes de Provence, lemon, garlic, dry vermouth, and garnished with fresh thyme sprigs, among the usual suspects including the said chicken - bone-in, skin-on thighs. Tasty as it was, dredging those thighs in flour before placing them in oiled roasting pan I could've done with out. Then I stumbled upon a riff on the very dish, sans flour dredging, at Petite Kitchen blog. Then I played with that.    In the recipe below, compared to the Petite Kitchen one, I halved the amount of chicken, and doubled the amount of beans and used two varieties of beans. Yes, I swapped white wine with sherry or vermouth, depending which I had on hand, and also tried the chicken with or without skin, all on separate occasions. And I eye-balled the garlic. The Petite Kitchen called for one bulb, but my bulbs seemed enormous enough that I opted for 8-10 cloves instead. This is a superbly easy, self contained, and forgiving dish you can make your own.

Sunday Feast № 7 | "Like you'd cook for Picasso in his seventies. Like it's a matter of love and death."

Oh my, it's that day tomorrow, the one that either wakes a crazy ravenous romantic or utterly world weary cynic in you. Either way, you gotta eat! Might as well make a multi-course feast of it, because it is good for your soul and your body. Puurrrfect!      And what better source than "The Cosmic Feast: Divine Inspiration For Earthly Pleasures" by David McKay, Anna Johnson and Kirsten McKay (a threesome of authors? well lookie here and how about that *snicker* ... I totally digress - blame tomorrow) - "a spell book for the modern chef" toying with the dictates of Western horoscopic astrology. Utterly silly secret pleasure? Well, why thank you!      Whether for tomorrow or any other Sunday when a three course feast is called for (no dessert yet, have to work up my way to that slowly, then again - here I digress once more), the chilled red pepper and tomato soup with fresh prawns can be made the day before and sit pretty in the fridge, the squid stuffed with rice will test your skill and patience during stuffing but it is totally worth the suggestively "naughty" fun and the taste once ready, while Pablo's chicken, although maybe not truly Picasso's dish (then again who knows, too busy entertaining to research), warms and grounds towards olé!      Now that sounds like delicious fun *wink*

Fun on the side and after Music Pandora Flamenco Channels Movie "Pulp Fiction" & "Under the Skin" Drink Hoegaarden with squid & Vinos de Arganza "Flavium" Premium Bierzo 2011 with chicken

Sunday Feast № 2 | Chicken Cacciatore

“Shhh. Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits.” Elmer J. Fudd might, me – not so much. Not that I have anything against eating one, but I am no cacciatore, that’s “hunter” in Italian, and my hunting, if one can even refer to it as such, is relegated to local supermarkets. So no coniglio alla cacciatora, rabbit hunter-style, here. But pollo alla cacciatora I can do!      As far as any hunter-style dishes go, there are regional variations and every household’s tastes different. There are typical ingredients that go into chicken cacciatore, chicken (of course), onion, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, wine, but I was fascinated how often the internet provides images of the dish that are red red red, more so than mine ever come out. Then I stumbled onto this in Wikipedia, not that stumbling onto anything in Wikipedia can be called stumbling: “In the United States, cacciatore dishes may be prepared with marinara sauce” according to Diane Phillips in her “Perfect Party Food” book. That explains the red look!      For now I will stick to how I do, and not forget the mushrooms – that always spells hunter-style to me.      The recipe is from “The Food of Italy: A Journey for Food Lovers” with alternatives I use based on what I have successfully “hunted” down.

Fun on the side and after Music Pandora Italian Cooking Channel Drink Alamos Malbec 2013