Butterflied Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon

As I mentioned back when I wrote the post about Rosemary Lemon Chicken Stroganoff, this is one of my favorite meals to make for guests.  This is also one of my favorite meals to make when it’s just us.  My original post didn’t include photos of the first recipe since the focus was what to do with the leftovers, so I thought I would document making the rosemary lemon chicken itself as I made it the other night.  Two chickens so we would have leftovers again!  You should do the same.

Ingredients  

2 whole chickens, cleaned and trimmed of extra fat

6 long sprigs fresh rosemary or more to taste. 

2 lemons

2 purple onions

Olive oil

Maldon or other flakey sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, cut along the backbone of each chicken.

Turn the chicken over and press down on the breast to spread it flat.

Put the chickens into a large freezer bag.

The 2 1/2 gallon Hefty bags work great. (The link says 2.5 Qt. mistakenly.
The jumbo bags are really 2.5 Gallon.  Get your act together, Hefty!) 

Pull the needles off of the sprigs of rosemary and throw them in the bag with the chicken.

Cut your lemons in quarters and pop them into the bag.  Squeeze them from outside so the rinds and juice stay in the bag. 

Cut your purple onions in quarters and add them to the bag.

Sprinkle in the sea salt and black pepper.  Pour in olive oil and then close up the Ziploc and give the whole bag a good mix around.

Try to distribute the lemons and onions farily around and then open the zipper just a little and squeeze out as much air as possible, before closing the zipper again.

Marinate chicken for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, or overnight—even a couple of days.  (Or freeze it.  Just make sure to thaw and bring the chicken to room temperature before roasting.)

Preheat oven to 425°F or 220°C.  Once the chicken is at room temperature, dump the whole bag out into a baking pan which has been drizzled with a little olive oil.

Redistribute the lemon and onions pieces around the chicken and put some of the rosemary on top.  Drizzle the chicken liberally with more olive oil.

Roast for 45 minutes.  Serve with bits of onion and even lemon, if your fellow eaters are willing.  My mother-in-law is the only person I know who will eat the roasted lemons but there are surely more people in the world who would and I just haven’t met them.  Anyhow, they look pretty on the plate. 

I serve this with couscous and use all the lovely lemony drippings off the chicken to further moisten the couscous on the plate. 

Enjoy!

N.B. This recipe was created by Nigella Lawson. The original can be found in this book and you should buy one because it is full of wonderful recipes, written by one of my food heroes. 

Cantaloupe with Salami and Feta

Have you ever seen a cantaloupe the size of an apple?  Neither had I until just a week or two ago.  They are in season here in Egypt, or at least, I assume they are in season because, suddenly, they are everywhere and cheap.  I pick them up in the stores and surreptitiously give their stem ends a sniff, because ripe cantaloupes smell of cantaloupe.  Unripe ones smell of nothing.  I finally found a good one and brought it home.  Much to my surprise, it was green inside.  But the flavor, like the smell, is unmistakably cantaloupe, just like the sign said.

The plan:  An appetizer for our anniversary meal because the tiny cantaloupe is perfect for two people.

Ingredients

1 small cantaloupe or 1/4 of a regular one - any color works!

1/4 small purple onion

6 slices Italian salami

3 oz or 85g Feta cheese

1-1 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Slice your onion very thinly and cover with the vinegar.  This takes the sharpness out of the onion, still leaving the lovely oniony flavor.

Cut your cantaloupe in half and then into wedges.  Scoop out the seeds and discard.  Using a sharp knife, cut the melon from the peel. 

Slice your salami diagonally and arrange about the salad plate. 

Cut your feta into small squares or crumble with a fork.   

Put the cantaloupe on the plates with the salami and scatter the feta over the salami and cantaloupe.

Add the olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt a couple of good grinds of fresh black pepper to the onion and mix well.   Drizzle this all over the cantaloupe, salami and cheese. 

Make sure you get a bit of everything in each bite you take: salami, cantaloupe, feta and onion.   The sweet melon is divinely offset by the rich salami and salty feta with the balsamic onion dressing.

Enjoy!

Update:  Maybe the season is short, because the pile in Carrefour today was much diminished.  They are still 5.95 Egyptian pounds per kilo (about US$1, so less than 50 cents a pound.)

What's left, nestled amongst the coconuts.

Soft White Loaf

When I first joined Facebook, it was because of peer pressure.  I resisted and resisted every overture and then, finally, I got an invitation from a friend who is creative, artistic, a super adaptable expat and mother-extraordinaire, but she is not what I would have called technologically adept.  Perfectly competent, but no whiz.  Well, unless that technology is her fancy all-knowing, embroidering, fancy-stitching computerized Bernina sewing machine!  She has that baby down pat.  Anyway, I figured if she could do it, I could too. 

In the 2009 format, Facebook had the ability to create discussion forums under Groups.  Almost immediately, I saw the potential of that and created a Recipe Exchange group and asked my few friends to join.  We posted favorite recipes or things we were making for dinner, divided into discussion topics like Soups, Sweet Things, Poultry and Vegetables.  It was great fun to see what friends were up to in their kitchens around the world and share ideas and recipes. 

One item under discussion was fresh yeast vs. dried yeast.  I had never tried fresh yeast, and this same friend was expounding its virtues.  (She is also a very good cook and baker!)  Ever since, I have looked for it at bakery supply shops and have even asked at bakeries (because I was told they will sometimes give you a piece if you ask.)  No luck.  Until yesterday.   Here in Providence, the day before I am flying back to Cairo, and should be packing.  Right at the local grocery store mere minutes from the place I am housesitting.  Well, I had to bake bread, didn’t I?  This was the lightest, most delicate crumb loaf I’ve ever made.  It disappeared in record time, served only sliced with a light spread of butter.  Now I will pine for fresh yeast because I know what I am missing.  Ah, to lose a new love so soon.  Tragic.

Ingredients

4 cups or 500g all purpose flour, plus extra flour for kneading and dusting

1 1/3 cups or 320ml warm water


.6 oz or 17g fresh yeast (or one sachet of dried yeast)

1 tablespoon sugar


1 teaspoon fine sea salt


Olive oil

Method

Put your flour in a large mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center and pop in your yeast cake, sugar and salt.  

Yay!  Little fresh yeast cake.  How long I have longed for you. 

Pour in half the water and mix with a fork by incorporating flour from the edges of the well little by little.  

When you have a very thick batter, add in the rest of the water and mix the whole lot.  

When you have one thick dough ball, knead it on a lightly floured surface until it is stretchy and supple.

  Put the tiniest amount of olive oil in the bottom of the bowl, spread it around a little, and put the dough ball in.  Sprinkle the top with flour, cover with a teacloth and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

After half an hour, punch the dough down and knead it a little bit more, for just a minute or two.  

After half an hour - the first rising.

Shape into the form you want to bake it and put it in a greased baking pan.  Here in my housesitting house, a round springform pan was the only one I could find.  Use whatever shape you like.

With a very sharp knife, cut three shallow slits in the top of the dough and sprinkle again with flour. 

Cover the pan with your teacloth and put it back in the warm place for 30 minutes to one hour for the final rising.  I set my timer for 30 minutes and then started preheating my oven to 400°F or 200°C, putting the bread in when the oven was hot, after 45 minutes rising time.

After 45 minutes of rising in a warm place - over the radiator vent.  

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf is golden on the outside and sounds hollow when tapped with a knife.  (Just open the oven door and give it a couple of gentle raps before removing it.)

Enjoy!

Hey, see that little green Facebook symbol up in the right hand column?  If you click on it and then hit LIKE when Facebook opens, you will never miss a post because they are automatically updated to my Facebook page.  I mean, just if you want to.