Sandy's tea from China
Sandy brought back this flowering tea from China and we drank some the other day. Beautiful flavor as well. Last night, at my sister-in-law's place she served some also from
Numi. It's been an excellent week for drinking pretty tea.
I also felt compelled to share this recipe for
Braised Ligurian Chicken, a recipe from
Jamie Oliver (loving his new campaign-click link only if you're a meat eater please) which was adapted by the NY Times and then adapted by me. It's become one of our favorites for a cold winter night.
I like this recipe better with some adjustments:
I like to add a
bay leaf (if you can find someone at a farmers market who has dried fresh bay leaves-yesyesyes) and sometimes either a
sprig of thyme and a
few sage leaves or a pinch of
Herbes de Provence. Any of those alone or in combination kind of round out the flavors. I use
sea salt and
organic chicken.
White pepper is my new favorite ingredient in everything and also very nice for a change from black pepper. And never omit the
anchovies---what's the point? They amp up the flavors by a thousand! I can't eat anything with wheat flour so instead used
chickpea flour which is really nice as well. Lastly, in this batch I used big juicy
Sicilian green olives instead of Calamata and
grape tomatoes instead of quartered plums because they are closest in taste to real tomatoes than anything else I can get this time of year in NY.
My Braised Ligurian Chicken
BRAISED LIGURIAN CHICKEN Adapted from Jamie Oliver Time: 40 minutes 2 heaping tablespoons flour Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 4 to 5 fresh rosemary sprigs 6 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced 1 1/2 cups white wine 4 anchovy fillets (optional) 1/2 cup calamata olives (with pits) 3 ripe plum tomatoes, halved, seeded and coarsely chopped. 1. In a large bowl, combine flour with salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken pieces and toss until evenly coated.
2. Place a large flameproof casserole dish over medium-high heat, and heat olive oil. Add chicken pieces, and fry until golden underneath, about 5 minutes. Turn chicken, and add rosemary and garlic. Continue to fry until garlic is softened but not colored, about 3 minutes. Add wine. When it comes to a boil, add anchovies, olives and tomatoes.
3. Partly cover pan, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer until chicken is cooked and tender, and broth is reduced to a rich sauce, 15 to 20 minutes. To serve, discard rosemary sprigs, and season well with salt and pepper to taste. Place a piece or two of chicken on each plate, and top with a spoonful of sauce.
Yield: 4 servings.
Reprinted from the NY Times
Took some pictures around the kitchen tonight while we waited (2 hours) for a fat little chicken to roast. These are the quinces I bought at the green market this week but couldn't bring myself to cook them yet. Too pretty on the table. And the cats were pretty tonight with them.
