chicken b'stilla

Okay....it's Friday and I am making chicken b'stilla from the "around my french table" by Dori Greenspan. I am totally unfamiliar with this dish and idea. From her introduction I understand there is Moroccan influence in this dish and there is also in some of the Spanish food I have more experience preparing.....great flavors and smells.



I am also using a new "dutch oven". I have been coveting the Le Creuset 5 qt but the least expensive price I've seen is still about $200.00. Searching at Bed Bath and Beyond I found a Frontenac by Staub for $99.00 and with my "never expiring" 20% off coupon I purchased this one for about $70.00. Not made in China....made in France. The pot seems as heavy as the Le Creuset, but the lid needs to be moved to make sure that it completely covers the pot.


Began by chopping onions, garlic, removing the skin from the chicken thighs, measuring spices.




Placed all ingredients in the pot with the onions and put in the refrigerator to marinate for a few hours while I ran errands.




In the meantime, I also made broth from backs and wings I'd been saving in the freezer.





Returned home....allowed the chicken to warm to room temperature, strained and added the chicken broth.









So far pot seems to be reacting the same as the Le Creuset. Nice, slow, even boil.







Ready to go into the oven...filo sheets are 9 x 14 and we were called to make a 10 - 11 inch circle of the filo to cap the b'stilla. Felt challenged....


Notes: was glad for the hint by another member (sorry for not identifying cannot remember) to put a cup of water into the pan before I added the broth to have an idea of the 1 cup reduction volume. Still adding the lemon, and then egg and honey (slowly, continuously whisking for 5 minutes) and waiting for the sauce to thicken so that I could see the trail of the whisk did not happen even after 8 minutes or more. Gave up and added the chicken. Perhaps I just don't know what a whisk trail should look like.



Just checked at the 20 minute mark....turned down the heat to 350 and needed to cover with foil. Browning quickly....











Tasted great. Thank you fo rthe suggestion!

Double Chocolate Mousse Cake

Decided in the interest of time to make the warm version. Easy to make. Someone else commented that it was unique to add the butter one tablespoon at a time off the heat after adding the coffee. I agree. I have made a similar cake from the Chocolate and Zucchini Website

(Melt in Your Mouth Chocolate Cake) that is wonderful.

This cake is lighter than I imagined it would be. Wonderfully chocolate.

Some in the "French Fridays with Dori" commented on the fact that it calls for an 8" bottomless tart pan but that she adjusted to a springform, suggesting in later posts to use the bottom. I have am 8" ring that I believe is a quiche ring and will check to see if there is a difference in tart and quiche "tools".

(Never used the ring...also have a 9"...that's another story. I am a compulsive buyer of kitchen tools that I think would be fun to use and are now in bins in the basement.)

Pictures of the cake don't show clever "plating"....it was late and I was tired.

michel rostang's double chocolate mousse cake

Chosen by the Fridays with Dori group that I just joined on....Saturday. So today, a day behind, I'll make this. Fortunately gluten free. I would like to be gluten free but the opportunities to cook really great food without flour are few. So not being celiac, I am careful but not obsessive about gluten....obsessive about so many other things that gluten will have to wait it's turn.

I have the ingredients although my bittersweet chocolate may not be of the best quality, it is certainly worth the effort of this first time venture.

More later.....

Roast chicken for les paresseux

Received the Dori Greenspan "Around my French Table" cookbook last week and wanted to make the cover recipe but did not have any preserved lemons....came late yesterday from Amazon....so I made the roast chicken for les paresseux on page 200. Added the vegetables that are optional. The chicken was amazing. Best of all, she suggests placing a piece of bread under the chicken before you roast it and also placing the liver (if you have it) in the cavity of the bird along with the herbs and garlic. Then, when you take the chicken out of the oven and remove it to carve, take the piece of bread...now crispy and full of the cooking juice....and smear it with the liver and eat while carving. That in itself was phenomenal! And I have half a chicken left in the oven for today!

Beginning and Why?

I recently joined Eat Your Books (eatyourbooks.com) and to my surprise found that I have 193 cookbooks listed....this does not include the ones I did not add or have loaned, or were too old to be even mentioned on the site. The thing that I found the most disturbing was this: whenever I look for a new recipe, I have adopted the habit of going on line and "Googling" for ideas. 193 cookbooks at what?....$20.00 each=$3,860! Cookbooks untouched. Some glanced through initially and then placed on shelves never to be looked at again (except for a rare and random dusting).

So my goal now is to actually use my books....cook through them not around them. Last week I found a great recipe in a book that was in the alternate shelf in the basement (books are in at least four places in my house) for grouper with tomato, basil and garlic. Page 287 Gourmet Cookbook, Ruth Reichel.