Duck with Udon Noodles…Agnello Rapido….Lentils with Cous Cous… Roast Chicken with Lime and Mint…. A menu from a new international restaurant? Some of my dream dishes? No – just a few of 250+ recipes in a just-published volume of gorgeous grub. Read on.
The British seem to be obsessed with reading about food. Go into any bookshop anywhere in the U.K. and there will be a whole section devoted to cook books and related works. Without resorting to running a restaurant, it is possible to make a very good living just by writing about cooking and eating.
Take Nigel Slater, for example. Born 57 years ago, he had a variegated, often tough. time of life for many years. About his 40th. Year his career got off the ground with “The Marie Claire Cook Book”. More than a dozen have followed, with frank autobiography interspersed with kitchen chronicles. Media coverage expanded as well. For ten years he has written on food for Britain’s Sunday “Observer” newspaper and he does magazines too.
It is said they had to cajole Mr Slater to appear on television, but he took to it well and his slightly prickly nature and quirky presentation rapidly endeared him to millions. His food was approachable, identifiable and do-able in your own kitchen. My daughter, who works for Nigel Slater’s publishers queued for an hour to buy an endorsed copy of his latest book “A Year of Good Eating” as a Christmas present and I am enjoying it.
It’s a sturdy hard-back of some 540 pages, packed with recipes but with plenty of Nigel’s diary to read. For instance, go to August 22 and find our hero at a low ebb, only to be revived by thoughts of in-season Victoria plums and what to do with them: a simple plum sauce, actually. One enjoys the writing throughout. The pictures, though, are dark and unappealing. This seems to be the food photo fashion these days. A reaction to those glossy, intensely sharp staged foodie pix of a few years ago perhaps, but not attractive just the same. The cover price (who pays it nowadays?) says Thirty Pounds Sterling. This is a bit steep. At less than a Tenner from Amazon, it’s a bargain.
“The joys of the table are superior to all other pleasures, notably those of personal adornment, of drinking and of love, and those procured by perfumes and by music”
From “Kitabe el-tabih” (“The Book of Dishes), by Chamseddine Mohamed el Hassan el Baghdadi, published in 1226. For many, especially those of us of “mature” years, this is a profoundly accurate observation.
I am a gifted fellow; meaning, I got some really good gifts at Christmas. As well as the Nigel Slater, I was presented with a splendid cooking device, pictured here. It is quite a large sauté pan, which I am using almost every day. It is 30 cms (12”) across, non-stick, with a glass lid, with a very thick base to diffuse the heat efficiently and is a super meal-for-two maker.
Photo (1) is a complete chewsome twosome, gently sizzling. Pork fillet, chopped onion, sliced button mushrooms and pre-boiled potatoes browning in a little oil. Photo (2) looks a bit of a mess, but what a flavourful one! Chicken thighs went in first to brown all over in a couple of table spoons of oil. Then: sliced onions, carrot and mushrooms. After 10-12 minutes I poured in about a litre of chicken stock and when this came to the boil about, poured in 250 grams of Uncle Bell rice. This cooked in about ten minutes, so there in less than half an hour was a splendid risotto. For a touch of greenery we had a splodge of spinach on the side and served it with Strangato yogurt.
Ten Years Ago…. I was in full flow – in my 15th. year of writing
about food and drink in Cyprus. In all that time I had barely written
about one of the great dishes of Greece/Cyprus.
.“KLEFTIKO” = STOLEN CHICKENS (published in 2006)
There is very little that’s new in cooking. Mostly it’s a question of looking at a recipe and adapting it to your needs – no recipe is set in concrete and very often it is sensible to vary ingredients according to your own taste. I draw inspiration from many sources. One of them is an amazing book called “The Complete Greek Cook Book” by Theresa Karas Yianilos, which really does take you on a cook’s tour of Greece. Published in the USA in 1970, it was updated in 2000 and you can still get copies through Amazon.com at very reasonable prices.
Now, even newcomers to Cyprus will have heard of the famous slow-baked lamb dish called Kleftiko, but did you know the origin of the dish and its name? Let Mrs Yanilos tell is in her own words…
“Throughout Greece you will be served succulent fowl, meat, or even fish baked with vegetables inside a paper wrapping. This recipe originated with a small band of Greeks who took to the hills to wage guerrilla warfare against the Turks in the 1500s. They lived in the mountains of Thessaly, harrying the Turks by night and hiding by day, forced to cook their food in earth pits to avoid being discovered. They became known as “Kleftai” – “The thieves”.
After fighting to liberate Greece in the revolution of 1834, some of them degenerated into brigands, stealing from their own countrymen and demanding tribute. The author’s grandfather was killed by these outlaws when he organized village resistance against them in 1900. They were finally routed in 1912 by the Greek army and all that remains of this terrorist group is a recipe for chicken”.
The Recipe
This is my adaptation of the recipe in the book.
Ingredients for 4 servings
1 small roasting chicken (1.5 kilos), or any kind of small fowl such as a partridge, sprinkled with salt to taste. You can also use half a kilo or more of sliced lamb leg, or fish.
One third tsp pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
Any of the following: peeled: tiny carrots, mushrooms, onions and potatoes
Feta cheese
1 teaspoon parsley
2 tablespoons butter
1 lemon, quartered
Method
1. Wash fowl (or meat or fish) under cold water.
2. Peel and cut vegetables into small pieces. Lay a generous piece of oiled parchment, or doubled oiled paper bag in a baking pan.
3. Rub fowl with seasonings and herbs.
4. Place butter, crumbled cheese and vegetables inside cavity and around fowl (or between slices of meat or fish)
5. Wrap doubled paper snugly around meat or fish folding top over.
6. Tie or seal with a paper clip. Bake at 170°C/325°F. for two hours or more, depending on the size of your roast and when the meat or fish is cooked through. Serve on a bed of Rice Pilaf
You can make individual parcels if you like by cutting the meat into portion sized chunks and it is enjoyable for each person to open his own parcel, in which case simply use a spatula to remove bags from pan.
March Issue…… Nigel Slater’s New Book….. One Pan Dinners…… and Stolen Chickens
BOOK REVIEW
“A Year of Good Eating”
Duck with Udon Noodles…Agnello Rapido….Lentils with Cous Cous… Roast Chicken with Lime and Mint…. A menu from a new international restaurant? Some of my dream dishes? No – just a few of 250+ recipes in a just-published volume of gorgeous grub. Read on.
The British seem to be obsessed with reading about food. Go into any bookshop anywhere in the U.K. and there will be a whole section devoted to cook books and related works. Without resorting to running a restaurant, it is possible to make a very good living just by writing about cooking and eating.
Take Nigel Slater, for example. Born 57 years ago, he had a variegated, often tough. time of life for many years. About his 40th. Year his career got off the ground with “The Marie Claire Cook Book”. More than a dozen have followed, with frank autobiography interspersed with kitchen chronicles. Media coverage expanded as well. For ten years he has written on food for Britain’s Sunday “Observer” newspaper and he does magazines too.
It is said they had to cajole Mr Slater to appear on television, but he took to it well and his slightly prickly nature and quirky presentation rapidly endeared him to millions. His food was approachable, identifiable and do-able in your own kitchen. My daughter, who works for Nigel Slater’s publishers queued for an hour to buy an endorsed copy of his latest book “A Year of Good Eating” as a Christmas present and I am enjoying it.
It’s a sturdy hard-back of some 540 pages, packed with recipes but with plenty of Nigel’s diary to read. For instance, go to August 22 and find our hero at a low ebb, only to be revived by thoughts of in-season Victoria plums and what to do with them: a simple plum sauce, actually. One enjoys the writing throughout. The pictures, though, are dark and unappealing. This seems to be the food photo fashion these days. A reaction to those glossy, intensely sharp staged foodie pix of a few years ago perhaps, but not attractive just the same. The cover price (who pays it nowadays?) says Thirty Pounds Sterling. This is a bit steep. At less than a Tenner from Amazon, it’s a bargain.
*****************************************************************************
Quote of the Week
“The joys of the table are superior to all other pleasures, notably those of personal adornment, of drinking and of love, and those procured by perfumes and by music”
From “Kitabe el-tabih” (“The Book of Dishes), by Chamseddine Mohamed el Hassan el Baghdadi, published in 1226. For many, especially those of us of “mature” years, this is a profoundly accurate observation.
*****************************************************************************
ONE PAN WONDERS – TWO EASY, TASY DISHES
(1)
(2)
I am a gifted fellow; meaning, I got some really good gifts at Christmas. As well as the Nigel Slater, I was presented with a splendid cooking device, pictured here. It is quite a large sauté pan, which I am using almost every day. It is 30 cms (12”) across, non-stick, with a glass lid, with a very thick base to diffuse the heat efficiently and is a super meal-for-two maker.
Photo (1) is a complete chewsome twosome, gently sizzling. Pork fillet, chopped onion, sliced button mushrooms and pre-boiled potatoes browning in a little oil. Photo (2) looks a bit of a mess, but what a flavourful one! Chicken thighs went in first to brown all over in a couple of table spoons of oil. Then: sliced onions, carrot and mushrooms. After 10-12 minutes I poured in about a litre of chicken stock and when this came to the boil about, poured in 250 grams of Uncle Bell rice. This cooked in about ten minutes, so there in less than half an hour was a splendid risotto. For a touch of greenery we had a splodge of spinach on the side and served it with Strangato yogurt.
Ten Years Ago…. I was in full flow – in my 15th. year of writing
about food and drink in Cyprus. In all that time I had barely written
about one of the great dishes of Greece/Cyprus.
.“KLEFTIKO” = STOLEN CHICKENS (published in 2006)
There is very little that’s new in cooking. Mostly it’s a question of looking at a recipe and adapting it to your needs – no recipe is set in concrete and very often it is sensible to vary ingredients according to your own taste. I draw inspiration from many sources. One of them is an amazing book called “The Complete Greek Cook Book” by Theresa Karas Yianilos, which really does take you on a cook’s tour of Greece. Published in the USA in 1970, it was updated in 2000 and you can still get copies through Amazon.com at very reasonable prices.
Now, even newcomers to Cyprus will have heard of the famous slow-baked lamb dish called Kleftiko, but did you know the origin of the dish and its name? Let Mrs Yanilos tell is in her own words…
“Throughout Greece you will be served succulent fowl, meat, or even fish baked with vegetables inside a paper wrapping. This recipe originated with a small band of Greeks who took to the hills to wage guerrilla warfare against the Turks in the 1500s. They lived in the mountains of Thessaly, harrying the Turks by night and hiding by day, forced to cook their food in earth pits to avoid being discovered. They became known as “Kleftai” – “The thieves”.
After fighting to liberate Greece in the revolution of 1834, some of them degenerated into brigands, stealing from their own countrymen and demanding tribute. The author’s grandfather was killed by these outlaws when he organized village resistance against them in 1900. They were finally routed in 1912 by the Greek army and all that remains of this terrorist group is a recipe for chicken”.
The Recipe
This is my adaptation of the recipe in the book.
Ingredients for 4 servings
1 small roasting chicken (1.5 kilos), or any kind of small fowl such as a partridge, sprinkled with salt to taste. You can also use half a kilo or more of sliced lamb leg, or fish.
One third tsp pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
Any of the following: peeled: tiny carrots, mushrooms, onions and potatoes
Feta cheese
1 teaspoon parsley
2 tablespoons butter
1 lemon, quartered
Method
1. Wash fowl (or meat or fish) under cold water.
2. Peel and cut vegetables into small pieces. Lay a generous piece of oiled parchment, or doubled oiled paper bag in a baking pan.
3. Rub fowl with seasonings and herbs.
4. Place butter, crumbled cheese and vegetables inside cavity and around fowl (or between slices of meat or fish)
5. Wrap doubled paper snugly around meat or fish folding top over.
6. Tie or seal with a paper clip. Bake at 170°C/325°F. for two hours or more, depending on the size of your roast and when the meat or fish is cooked through. Serve on a bed of Rice Pilaf
You can make individual parcels if you like by cutting the meat into portion sized chunks and it is enjoyable for each person to open his own parcel, in which case simply use a spatula to remove bags from pan.
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