Covid Cooking: Back to the Bookshelf
Covid Cooking. Week 286. Just kidding.
Hi to all you bright and eager cooks!
I salute you! I am a little/a lot less eager a cook than I was all the way through Week 122. My happy energy for new first-ever Louisa projects, using real recipes from real books began to wane about the time my basil seeds refused to sprout. (The package said shoots in six days, edible leaves in 8 weeks and I am still waiting.) But I am soldiering on. Ever hopeful. And always hungry.
I’m keeping a new sort of food diary. Not what I ate, (though that would be interesting to correlate it to my new love handles), but what I made each day of each week. And I’m printing out the recipes so that I can keep myself honest. Please, (if you can), do not remind me that I shouldn’t be wasting paper. I’m already recovering from having lost my favorite cheesecake recipe for 20 years.
I am cooking up a storm even if my zeal had faded. Still, I’m testing one or two new recipes a day. A word about the recipes. They aren’t complex. None of them take more than 45 minutes hands-on to make. If there is a single descriptor of our menu, it is: simple but smart.
With limited shopping excursions, my pantry selection is a little thin. There’s a good supply of random hot sauces and jams, and quite a few bottles of Asian sauces. All gluten free. Rice, Lentils, tomato paste… Well, lots of tomato products when I did the inventory. Plus at least six varieties of rice.
On the plus side, I’m actually following recipes and consulting my huge stack of cookbooks. I am a cookbook collector. I often plan to purge my collection, but there’s always one recipe in each book that stays my hand. Now, is the time to dig in.
This week was a strong Mediterranean week. I’d scored two bags of lemons.
My standout First Time ever recipes for this week were from Claudia Rodden’s New Book of Middle Eastern Food. I’ve had the book for ages but not sure I’d even cracked its spine. I made Preserved Lemons and Avgolemono Soup (Egg Lemon Soup). Both were huge hits chez moi. Both super easy. The preserved lemons will take a while to mature, but my they do dress up my refrigerator!
Rodden’s book is out of print but still available via Amazon’s network of used booksellers. The link to order it is below.
I also found myself in a rocking chair reading her very detailed introduction which is the culinary history of Middle Eastern cooking through the sequence of Persian Empires, the conquest of Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the heyday of the Sultans and the entry of French technique. Fascinating reading!
I would have made Rodden’s chicken with lemon dish, but my good friend food authority Nancy Harmon Jenkins had a better idea. She often does. She’s a terrific resource. (www.nancyharmonjenkins.com)
Here’s her recipe for a swoon-y, super easy lemon-y baked chicken.
Whole Lemon Chicken a la Nancy Harmon Jenkins
· 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs — and/or bone-in chicken breasts
· 4 whole lemons, cut in half
· I tb Kosher salt
· Fresh ground pepper
· ¼ cup of olive oil
· 6 unpeeled garlic cloves
· Generous Sprig of fresh rosemary (if you have it) or 2 Bay leaves
· Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350
· Let the top brown, especially the lemon halves
· Taste the pan sauce for salt and pepper.
· Make sure everyone gets a braised lemon to squeeze over their dish.
That’s it. Serve it with a buttery rice and some exciting deep green vegetable. We chose Swiss chard.
Here’s the link to the cookbook: