Roasted Cider Chicken

I’m in an apples and honey frame of mind these days because the Jewish High Holidays are coming. So next Wednesday night, when Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown, my family will be snacking on slices of apples dipped in honey. Just like my family did when I was a kid. Just like other Jewish families do and have been doing for generations.

It wouldn’t be Rosh Hashanah without that. 

But besides the usual apples and honey snack, I like to make food that has apples and honey in it. Like this Roasted Cider Chicken, which I will probably make for dinner the first night of the holiday. 

Roasted Cider Chickenwith Apples and Honey

• 2 cups apple cider
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 6 whole cloves
• 6 thin slices fresh ginger
• 1 roasting chicken, 5-7 pounds
• 2 tablespoons softened margarine or vegetable oil 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 2 tart apples, peeled, cored and quartered

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the cider, honey, cloves and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the liquid has reduced to one cup. Discard the cloves and ginger. Set the liquid aside. Rinse and dry the chicken. Place it on a rack in a roasting pan. Rub the chicken with the margarine or vegetable oil (or butter if you are not kosher) and sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme. Place the chicken breast side down on the rack. Scatter the onion in the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the pan in the oven. Immediately reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. Roast for 30 minutes. Pour the reduced cider over the chicken. Roast for another 30 minutes, basting the chicken once or twice, then turn it breast side up. Place the apples in the pan. Roast for another hour or so, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast reads 160 degrees F. Baste several times during the roasting period. Remove the chicken to a carving board. Strain the pan fluids, remove the fat and pour the fluids into a small saucepan. Let the chicken rest at least 15 minutes before carving. While carving, cook the pan fluids to reduce them to a syrupy consistency. Serve the chicken and fluids separately.

Makes 6-8 servings

Braised Chicken with Dates

When I think about comfort foods I’m no different than most people. I’ll go for Macaroni and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes and Chocolate Pudding just like the next guy.

But my list also includes Chicken Fricassee. My mother made Chicken Fricassee with chicken wings, gizzards and necks. She included potatoes and little meatballs, lots of onions and sometimes mushrooms. She loaded it up with paprika, covered it and cooked it slowly for hours until there was a rich, russet gravy and chicken soft-as-you-know-what. 

That was good.

When my mother was much older and not well, I would make some for her and bring it to her house in a kind of comforting culinary role reversal. She loved Chicken Fricassee too.

This dish was such a regular when I was a child that when I became a Mom and my kids were young, I made it too. 

They hated it. Made fun of it. Wouldn’t eat it.

I still don’t get it.

But, it wasn’t something I made because what’s the point? If your family doesn’t like something you don’t cook it for dinner.

I did however, continue to make braised chicken. Which is actually, for most purposes except the strictest definition, the same as fricassee. My daughters did eat many of the newer versions. And one day Gillian actually called me out on it and said she knew it was fricassee only with different spices and no meatballs.

This is one of the recipes that proved to be a big winner. Call it Braised Chicken with Dates if the word fricassee is not a word you want to use in your house.

Braised Chicken with Dates

• 1 cut up broiler-fryer chicken

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 large onion, sliced

• 1 large clove garlic, chopped

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 1 cup chicken broth

• 12 whole dates, preferably medjool

Rinse and dry the chicken and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Cook the chicken a few pieces at a time until they are lightly browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the chicken to a dish and set aside. Add the onion to the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger an cook briefly. Return the chicken to the pan and spoon the onions on top. Sprinkle with the cumin, cayenne and nutmeg. Pour in the chicken broth. Stir the liquid, cover the pan and turn the heat to low-medium. Cook for 15 minutes. Add the dates and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4 servings

Simple Baked Apples

If you want to sell your house make Baked Apples. There are few foods as compellingly homey and delicious as this one and the sweet-smelling wisps of caramelized fruit that filter through the rooms almost say “you will love this place because this is a great kitchen and a wonderful home with delicious things to eat and everyone is happy here.”

When we sold our old house several years ago I remember the broker telling us to have stuff baking that smelled good and would make potential buyers feel at home. She suggested packaged dough to be baked into bread (you can buy frozen dough, challah, and such). But, me being me, I decided on baked apple things like pie, cake and plain old baked apple. 

I’m not guaranteeing anything here folks. Just sayin’. If the house smells good, it can’t hurt. And Baked Apples also have the added benefit of tasting absolutely wonderful. So everyone will eat them and you’ll have to make more and your house will always smell as good.

Fortunately Baked Apples are easy to make if you don’t get all fancy about them. And are especially good at this time of year when you can get fresh, new crop apples and also different, better-for-baking varieties (Rome Beauty, Cortland, York Imperial are best) than you can buy at other times of the year.

Here’s one of my simplest recipes. 

Baked Apples

• 4 large baking apples
• half a lemon
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts
• 4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
• 1 cup orange juice, apple juice or cider
• cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into 4 pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the apples, then remove the core and seeds, leaving about 1/2-inch on the bottom. Peel the apples 1/2 of the way down from the stem end on top, then rub the cut surfaces with the cut side of the lemon. Put the apples in a baking dish. In a small bowl, mix the raisins, nuts, one tablespoon of the honey or maple syrup and 3-4 tablespoons of the juice. Stuff this mixture into the apple hollows. Pour the remaining honey and the remaining juice over the apples. Sprinkle the apples lightly with cinnamon. Dot the tops with butter. Bake the apples for about 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices, or until the apples are tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 4 

Baked Bluefish

 Yesterday afternoon it was hot. And yet I was reminded that summer was nearly at an end when I got to the fish market to pick up something for dinner. One ice-packed bin was filled with fillets of bluefish. I always think of bluefish with end-of-summer because it’s the one time during the year when my Dad would go fishing and, depending on where he went, he would come back with mackerel or bluefish.

I know exactly three people in the world who like bluefish, including me.

C’mon everyone, give it a try. If the last time you tasted it was dozens of years ago, it’s worth another chance. Bluefish is meaty and flavorful. True, it isn’t without any taste, like lemon sole (sometimes I wonder if people who only eat lemon sole actually don’t like fish but eat it only because they think they are supposed to eat fish??).

But people who say they hate bluefish describe it as “fishy.” Which I find interesting because bluefish is …. fish.

I make bluefish the way I saw my grandmother made it many years ago. Sometimes I slather some Dijon mustard on the flesh, other times I just use a dab of olive oil and some lemon juice. Then I cover it with lots of tomatoes, celery and dill and bake it. For the last minute or so I put it under the broiler to crisp the surface (although recently I have been baking it in a convection oven and there’s no need for the broiler).

Bluefish also has the benefit of being relatively cheap ($7.95/pound). Salmon was $19.95/pound yesterday. Tuna was even more. Halibut was more. I got myself bluefish and made this recipe, which is delicious:

Baked Bluefish

4 bluefish fillets

2 tablespoons olive oil or 1 tablespoon olive oil plus 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

juice of one large lemon

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 stalks celery, sliced thin

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the fillets on a large baking dish or jelly roll pan. Brush the olive oil on the flesh, then sprinkle the fish with lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes and celery on top of the fish, then sprinkle the dill on top. Finally, scatter the bread crumbs evenly over the fish. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through. If the surface needs browning, place the pan under the broiler for a minute or two. Makes 4 servings

Pie Streusel and how do you approach bulk cooking?

When you make an apple pie, do you peel all the apples first? Then core them, then slice them, then mix them with the other ingredients? Or are you the kind of cook who peels, cores and slices one apple, then does the same with the second, third, and so on?

That question has come up in my family. My nephew Mitchell said he would do all the prep one apple at a time. His wife, my niece Rachel, said she would do all the peeling, then the coring, etc., etc. 

My daughters Meredith and Gillian and husband Ed were more on the Rachel wave length, though Ed did say he probably would never bake an apple pie.

Then they asked me. But here’s the deal with me. I make 3 or 4 pies at a time. I absolutely would tear the hair out of my head if I had to do it Mitchell style. To me that would be like the kind of punishment teachers gave in the old days when you did something bad and they made you write “I’ll never do THAT again” 100 times. (Even then, some people wrote the entire sentence 100 times. Some wrote the first word 100 times, then the second, and so on).

But the thought of peeling all those apples before I could core and then cut them also sounded really awful, like having to watch an entire season of one TV program before I could watch something else.

I peel a few, then core a few, throw out the scraps, then slice the prepped apples into a huge bowl, then start again with the next batch to peel, then core, then slice.

We all tried to figure out what it all meant. My sister-in-law Eileen, a psychologist, thought maybe I had an attention disorder. 

But it’s just that I make so many pies at a time, the repetition of one task is just too boring. It would make the pie baking process a thankless job rather than something pleasurable, which it actually is because they taste so wonderful and looks so homey and comforting. The house smells pretty good too.

I thought about this today as I began my yearly pie baking. You can see the result of my afternoon’s labor in the photos. I’ve already finished 7 pies and they’re already in the freezer. Notice the photo at the bottom. This pie is a little different because it has a streusel crust. Ed doesn’t like regular pie, only streusel topped pie, so I make a few of these every year too.

I’ve given you my recipe for Apple Pie. Here’s the recipe for the Streusel. Everything else is just the same: bottom crust, apple filling — place the streusel on top and bake just as you would bake the standard kind of pie.

Pie Streusel

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

• 6 tablespoons butter

Combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon, if used, in a food processor (or bowl). Cut the butter into small chunks and pulse the ingredients for a few seconds until the mixture looks like crumbs (or work the butter in with your fingers).

Makes enough for one 9 or 10-inch pie

Aunt Beck's Apple Cake; Sibling Rivalry, part 2

Sibling Rivalry Part 2

Yesterday I mentioned the apple-baking rivalry between my Mom and her sister, my Aunt Beck. It was a really fascinating thing for them to be competitive about because although my mother loved to cook and was really good at it, Aunt Beck wasn’t much of a food person and never thought of herself as much of a cook. In fact, my grandma lived with that family and she did most of the cooking.

Somehow the sisters got themselves into this apple thing though. Aunt Beck figured that her little sister could star in the kitchen but, well, with this one exception.

Aunt Beck’s family, the Cohens, raved about the apple cake.

My family, the Vails, raved about the apple pie.

To tell you the truth, both were really delicious. I make both and am in competition with no one.

So, Aunt Beck, you may not have thought of yourself as a stellar cook, but you did let me and Leslie play with all your snazzy clothes and open toe high heels and you did actually make a fabulous apple cake.

So, here’s to you. I miss you.

Your recipe:

Aunt Beck’s Famous Two-Crust Apple CakeCrust:

Crust:

• 2 large eggs

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup orange juice

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon grated fresh orange peel, optional

Filling:

• 3 pounds tart apples, peeled and sliced

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon if desired

• 2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into tiny pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the crust, beat the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and orange juice together in a mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until well mixed. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and orange peel, if used, and mix until a smooth, soft, uniform dough has formed, about 2-3 minutes. Cut the dough into two pieces, one piece twice as large as the other. Press the larger piece into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a 13”x9” pan (or roll the dough and fit it inside the pan). Mix the apples, sugar, cinnamon if used, and flour together in a bowl (the amount of flour depending on juiciness of the apples) and place the mixture over the dough. Dot the surface with butter. Roll the smaller piece of dough and place it on top. Press the edges to seal them. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until well browned.

Makes 12 servings

Lily Vail's Apple Pie; Sibling Rivalry, part 1

Sibling Rivalry, Part I

I timed last year’s apple pies perfectly. Every September I call Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, Connecticut and order a bushel of Rhode Island Greening apples. They are one of the only orchards that I know who still grows this stupendously wonderful apple variety that is the absolutely best apple for pie no matter what anyone else, even the most expert of experts in the food business, says.

I make 12 apple pies every year and then, as the months go by, eat them down when company or my eldest grand child (who eats almost nothing but likes my apple pie) comes.

So now I have one pie left, which we will have this week because I just called Blue Jay and put in my order for this year.

When I called them last week they weren’t sure they would have the apples this year because of all the rain and hurricanes, especially Hurricane Irene. Ohmyohmyohmy, that sounded like terrible news at the time and I actually began to think about other apples I could bake into a pie.

But they told me to call back in a day or so and sure enough, when I did they told me that they have some! So I am in luck.

I never did decide on what apples I would have used.

Anyway, my Mom made apple pie every year too. Her sister, my Aunt Beck, made apple cake. And, you know, sisters will be sisters. They loved each other lots but they had this kind of apple-baking rivalry come September, when the new apples came out. They each not-so-secretly let everyone in the family know that the pie or cake was much better than the cake or pie.

And so it went. I liked both, but, being daughter to the pie baker, I learned to bake the pie.

My mother was the one who clued me into the Rhode Island Greening apples. And she showed me how to make the dough and how to cut the butter and shortening into the flour so the crust would be crumbly and how not to add too much liquid because that makes the dough rubbery. She also taught me how to roll the dough gently, so it would be tender. “Don’t murder the dough!,” she used to caution.

Her apple pies were the best of the best and I use her recipe, so, well, I don’t want to brag but —- everyone says mine are the best of the best.

Here’s the recipe., You might not be able to find Rhode Island Greening apples. So you’re on your own here. If you use a sweeter apple, cut back on the sugar.

Apple Pie

crust:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel, optional

• 1/2 cup cold butter

• 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening

• 4-6 tablespoons cold milk, juice, water or melted ice cream

• apple filling

• 1 tablespoon butter

To make the crust: Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon peel, if used, in a large bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into chunks and add the chunks to the flour mixture. Work the fat into the flour mixture until the ingredients resemble crumbs (use your hands, a pastry blender or the pulse feature of a food processor). Add the liquid, using only enough to gather pastry into a soft ball of dough (start with 4 tablespoons). Cut the dough in half and flatten each half to make a disk shape. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it stand at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a pastry board or clean work surface. With a rolling pin, roll one half of the dough on the floured surface into a circle about 1/8-inch thick, making sure the circle is larger than the pie pan by about 1 inch. Place the dough in a 9” or 10” pie pan. Pour the apple filling into the pastry-lined pan. Cut the butter into small pieces and place on top of the filling. Roll out the remaining dough and place it over the filling. Gently press the bottom and top crusts together along the flared edge of the pie pan. For a fluted rim, press your thumb and index finger against the outside of the rim, or crimp it with the tines of a fork or the blunt side of a knife. Cut steam vents in the top crust with the tip of a sharp knife or the tines of a fork. Bake the pie for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Apple Filling:

• 3 pounds pie apples (Rhode Island Greenings, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Idared, Stayman, Winesap, Baldwin, Jonagold, Braeburn

• 1/2 cup sugar, approximately

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Peel and core the apples then cut them into slices. Place the slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and flour and toss the ingredients to coat the apple slices evenly.

More tomatoes? Make Panzanella!

I’m down to the last of the end-of-summer tomatoes. Not my own of course. The deer population wiped me out too many years in a row, so I never plant vegetables anymore. I rely on the local farmer’s market and friends who are either more persistent or don’t live in the same neighborhood as the deer do.

With my last precious few tomatoes (unless I can get some this week) I’m making Panzanella, a homemade tomato soup. It’s actually bread with tomato soup, and is very thick, almost salad-like. Also filling.

There’s a cheese-free version of this recipe in my book, Hip Kosher, but sometimes I serve it chock full of freshly grated Parmesan cheese along with some fresh basil, also from the garden. It’s hearty and filling. Great before a grilled fish or vegetarian dinner.

Bread and Tomato Soup with Cheese

10 ounce ciabatta, Tuscan or other crusty day-old bread

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

6 large beefsteak tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil

6 cups vegetable stock

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Toast the bread lightly or bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 4-6 minutes or until firm and lightly crispy. Cut the bread into pieces and set aside. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the bread and toss the pieces around the pan. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes, tossing the ingredients frequently. Add the basil and stock. Bring the soup to a simmer. Cook for about 25-30 minutes or until the bread has absorbed most of the liquid. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top, stir and serve topped with more Parmesan cheese if desired. Makes 4-6 servings

The Connecticut Farmland Trust

September 11th is a sad day in America, but we can celebrate too, to show our continued strength, resolve, commitment and energy. In Connecticut there is one terrific way to do just that. It’s the Connecticut Farmland Trust’s annual feast (Celebration of Connecticut Farms). It’s this Sunday, September 11th.

If you love the idea of saving farmland while at the same time eating local, fresh food cooked by well-known chefs, drinking local wine and meeting famous people, drive up to the Jones Family Farm in Shelton, CT on Sunday (September 11th) to celebrate from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.. 

Connecticut Magazine calls this award-winning event “the hottest food event in the state.” You should come if you’re anywhere in reasonable driving distance.

You’ll get to meet Jacques Pepin, world-famous chef and cookbook author (at right in photo), Faith Middleton (center), a Peabody Award winner who hosts her own show on Connecticut Public Radio (jncluding the delightful Food Shmooze) and Tony-award winning actress Christine Baranski (Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife and who did some terrific nasty in “Reversal of Fortune” and “The Birdcage”). The second photo shows Terry Jones and his grandson at the family farm where the event will take place (it’s at a different farm each year).

You’ll get to eat well with dishes made from Connecticut products — meat, seafood, dairy, vegetables, fruit and wine. Yes, we in Connecticut produce all of these. Feast on organic pizza or goat cheese and lots of other goodies. Sip wine or some craft-brewed beer. 

You’ll get to hear some entertainment (by Bone Dry) and participate in a silent auction and farm tour.

Best of all you’ll be supporting the Connecticut Farmland Trust, a non-profit organization that helps preserve and protect Connecticut farmland. Tickets cost $150. Here’s where you can learn more and also buy tickets.