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Spicy, tangy, and satisfying, this is a great do-ahead (almost) one pot meal. You can make the sauce a few days in advance and add the chicken on the day of service, or even do the whole thing ahead. Use any cut of chicken on the bone. I prefer skinless thighs.

Serve with steamed rice and a green salad.

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil or schmaltz
1 medium onion, sliced into half moons, about 1 cup
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes, with juice
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon true Ceylon cinnamon, or 1/2 teaspoon U.S. cinnamon
1/4 to 1/3 teaspoon ground cloves
1 to 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 to 2 teaspoons ground black pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon toasted ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, crumbled
1/2 cup dried apricots, sliced
3/4 cup pitted dried prunes, whole
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks, with juice
1/2 cup dry sherry or red wine
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 or 2 chipotle chiles, chopped

6 pounds of chicken on the bone, (thighs, split breasts etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Lay out chicken parts on sheet pans and season with salt and pepper.
3. Roast until brown.
4. When  chicken is done, reduce oven to 350º
5. While chicken cooks, heat the oil in a large heavy dutch oven or rondo over medium high heat.
6. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up with your hand.
8. Add the bay leaves, ½ teaspoon of the black pepper, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the cloves, cinnamon, cumin and oregano.
9. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 10 to 12 minutes. Puree the sauce with an immersion blender or pureé in a blender/food processor. Return to pot.
10. Bring the pureéd sauce to a boil over high heat, add the dried fruits, pineapple with its juices, sherry or red wine and vinegar.
11. Let simmer a minute, then add the chipotles.
12. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce, uncovered, about 20 minutes.
13. Add the cooked chicken to the sauce and finish in oven, 35 – 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

adapted from Zarela Martinez’s Food from My Heart

This cocktail is an adaptation of a recipe I found online called Baja Panties. Not only is is an awful name but the cocktail needed a bit of an adjustment too. We are bringing ingredients for this cocktail to Daniel’s for MLK weekend 2010.

here are the nominations for names:

• spiced manzana cocktail
• mexican apple pie
• ginger – apple margarita
• the charo (says melinda)

What do you think?

Ingredients

3 oz. Apple Cider
1 ½ oz. White Tequila
1 ½ oz. Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
½ oz. Cinnamon Schnapps
juice of ½ Lime
pinch Cinnamon
pinch Salt

Method

Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into cocktail glass, and serve.

healthy and happy cuzza lard

yield: makes about 10 large or 20 small tamales

This masa dough is the moistest, airiest I’ve ever tasted. The secret is the creaming of the fats and the addition of fresh corn. I used to use all butter, substituting for the lard traditional recipes call for. But lately, I’ve been using half lard/half butter. Recently there’s been a lard resurgence, due to some good press and lower price compared to butter. It turns out that lard is lower in saturated fat (the bad stuff) than butter (roughly 40 percent vs. approximately 60 percent) and contains more monounsaturated fat (the good stuff) than butter (45 percent vs. 23 percent). If this makes you squeamish – go with all butter, or if you consider yourself amongst the converted, (pro-lard as Sim says) – by all means – use all lard!

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Yield: 1 gallon

My first experience with making clam chowder was in the mid-80s at the Coonemessett Inn. The Cooney serves true Yankee cuisine with few twists. This was my third or fourth cooking job and I learned a ton in this production kitchen.  Chef Carl Johnson’s chowder was quaqhogs, onions, potaotes and salt pork and that’s about all. While Carl’s was thickened in the traditional manner, by adding flour to the onions and rendered salt pork, another chef I met at the time, Steven Telford updates the classic by pureéing some of the potatoes to thicken. Both are briny, rich and no nonsense chowders. Years later, when I lived in Provincetown, I’d go clamming with my pal Zöe Lewis.  Zöe sometimes brings me a few pounds when she visits … except that one time when she left them on the bus!

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Nothing like a spicy, fragrant soup to warm you up on a cold winter’s day. This is an adaptation from the New York Times, 1.4.06. If you use the chicken instead of the lamb it is only 3 weight watchers points per cup!!

Ingredients

1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cups chopped onions
1 lb boneless lamb shoulder or dark chicken meat, finely chopped
8 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 can tomato paste
4 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon saffron threads
salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 cups water
3 cups chicken broth (low sodium canned is fine)
1 cup fine pearl barley
2 cups cooked chickpeas, drained (canned are fine)
1 tablespoon dried mint
2 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro leaves
2 tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

1. Pre-heat a small frying pan over a medium heat, then add the coriander and cumin seeds and dry-roast them for about 2-3 minutes, moving them around the pan until they change colour and begin to dance.
2. Crush them quite finely with a mortar and pestle, or spice grinder. Set aside
3. Heat oil in a four-quart casserole or saucepan. Add onion and lamb or chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, cayenne, saffron, toasted spices and salt and pepper.
5. Stir, then add water, stock and barley. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.
6. Add chickpeas and dried mint, and cook 15 minutes
7. Add cilantro and parsley.
8. Taste and adjust salt and cayenne.