Gluttony at the Weekend

I was a pig this past weekend. There is no two ways about it, an absolute oinker. All weekend I had this feeling like I was swimming upstream, in a river of chocolate and sugar and butter. As soon as one meal ended, another one came, and then the eating commenced. It was a weekend of celebrations, so it's not like I had any choice in the matter, LOL.

Friday: It was my mom's birthday, plus we were celebrating my dad's birthday from the day before. We went to a Chinese buffet restaurant. That's our thing. I don't know what it is about my family, but I think living in Communist Russia for a few years has affected the way they see abundance. The concent of all-you-can-eat is my father's dream come true. I don't think there is anything else on Earth that makes him happier.

I proceeded to fill my plate with anything shrimp-like or deep fried and battered, or all of the above. A real oinker, I said. (Did I also mention that on Thursday night, our family ordered in Chinese too? I had Shrimp Chow Fun and more fried chicken wings than I would care to admit.)

I didn't have dessert at the buffet restaurant, though, because we were all heading back to my place for dessert. We had my cousins from Long Island over plus my aunt and uncle, who are visiting from Israel, so there was a huge spread. My mom made a chocolate cake from one of her food forums. The culinary equivalent of a drag queen. Russian cakes are just gaudy; I have no other words to describe it. I think this one was called 'Drunken Cherries'. Everything but the kitchen sink goes into Russian cakes. I think that is the reason why I have rebelled so much against my Russian heritage, especially New York Russian heritage. Everything is more, more, more. More cream, more meringue, more furs, more makeup. I am a simple gal. And actually so is my family, but when it comes to my mom and cakes, well she likes to pile it on. On a simpler note, I made Nigella's fabulous chocolate rugelach. The verdict is in: these ARE the most fabulous cookies in the world. We also had chocolate covered strawberries, various chocolates, and about three batches of the infamous Purim cookies, 'ozney haman'. They were, as they always are, fantastic!!

Saturday: What started out as a non-gluttonous day quickly turned out to be anything but. I should have known when I started finishing off the last of the rugelach. Then, we had some things to take care of near our old apartment, and dinner was approaching, so we decided to sit at our old pizzeria, Trio, and get a pie all to ourselves. Our great-pizza-pie search has not been successful since moving into our new digs. We've sampled a few pies, and I have to admit, they were pretty much crap! So we just took the easy way out and went back to a place we knew we loved. When we came home, I made ice cream -- Tessa Kiros' maple syrup ice cream, but this time I added uncooked chocolate hazelnut cookie dough.

Sunday: Breakfast was heavenly. We are hardly ever home together on weekend mornings, so I made pancakes! I used Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites because I never used it before, and besides, it is a book I don't use as much as I should.

As you can see from the picture, I put out a myriad of toppings -- cloudberry and lingonberry jams, maple syrup, Nutella. The pancakes are so unbelievably light; fantastic!!! First I had a few with lingonberry jam. Then, I smeared lots of Nutella on three of them and rolled them like a cigar - mmmmmmmmmmm.

A couple of hours later -- lunch!!! I made my friend's recipe for 'spicy wings'. They are unbelievable! I just need to post the recipe here!


Coby's Spicy Wings

2 kg chicken wings
80ml hoisin sauce
40ml peanut oil
40ml honey
40 ml chilli sauce (sweet OR hot)
20ml dark soy sauce
1 TBSP grated ginger
2 TSP heaped Dijon mustard

Cut wing tips from wings and discard (save for stock if you like). Cut remaining wing into two at joint. Whisk together remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add wings to bowl and toss well to coat in sauce mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use. (I marinated them for just over 24 hours). These do work well without any marination. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C. Place wings in a tray or trays in a single layer. Cook in oven, centre shelf, for about 25 minutes. Turn wings over and cook for another 15 - 20 minutes or until they are well caramelised. Leave to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

I served this with unbelievably good sweet potato 'fries'. They were actually baked alongside the chicken -- so for about 40 minutes, and were first coated in olive oil and smoked paprka. The spinach is Nigella's, her Warm Spinach with Lemon from How to Eat. YUMMY!

In between all of this cooking and eating I was making a birthday cake. Another birthday, you ask? Why, yes, this time my nephew Liam's... he turned two on Sunday. Sweet cherub! Here is his Lala Cake. It's Tessa Kiros' Vanilla Cake from Apples for Jam. I only frosted the top, and put on orange sugar crystals and orange sprinkles. Orange, aka 'lala', is Liam's favorite color. It comes from a Russian song my mom sings to him.. Something about orange skies, orange trees, orange flowers.. and then she sings 'La La La'. Liam follows along, and since he was very little, he has associated orange with lala. So there! The cake itself has about 1/2 pound of butter and about 1/2 pound of sugar. I was a bit scared, but I figured, it's a kid's birthday cake. If his aunt can't pump him full of sugar two hours before his bedtime, then who can??

For the birthday meal itself, I made a 'healthy' arugula salad. Arugula soused in a lemon vinaigrette, sliced beets, shaved parmesan, toasted walnuts. Was very nice indeed!!

Of course all this healthy eating didn't stop me from stuffing myself with fried chicken wings (again!), my mom's vareniki (potato dumplings), bread with copious amounts of butter and caviar, and of course, the primo saccharino cake! It was SWEET! But I'd eat my fingers if they were covered in buttercream icing, so I had two slices, naturally. Liam had a little piece too. I think he was temporarily mesmerized by the orange cake to realize he was actually eating cake -- he, like his papa, is more of a fruit lover.

Then, I came home, and remembered my mom had given me a huge gift bag of sweet treats, as is customary for Purim. I quickly succumbed to my sugar coma and bid the weekend goodbye.

I rock!

There are times, though they are rare, when I realize that I'm not too bad at this cooking thing, and then I wonder why I get so stressed out when it's really as simple as my instincts.

I was knackered coming home today. I made a detour at the new place, cleaning the kitchen a bit, and putting some stuff away. I didn't really feel like making dinner, but I was hungry, and I had defrosted chicken in the fridge.

So I came up with the above: Garlic chicken in a white wine reduction over spinach and parmesan risotto.

Sound fancy? Well it sure tasted fancy even though it was so simple to make, and the best part is I used up more of my ingredients.

The garlic chicken was just fried in some olive oil with garlic slivers until golden on both sides. I took out the chicken and put it to the side. I then 'deglazed' the pan with white wine and some butter. It turned into a fabulous sauce, to which I returned the cooked chicken and warmed it through.

The risotto was done in the usual way. I used up the champagne stock I had on hand with some added vegetable stock. The spinach was the frozen kind -- as I needed to get rid of my freezer ingredients too. The parmesan was the last tiny block left. It was all delicious and blended in beautifully.

I really liked the chicken on top too, because since the spinach kind of mellowed out the risotto, the punchy chicken brought it all back. A perfect match! :)

I'll definitely be making this again.

Working through the pile...

The Internet at work is a dangerous thing. I find myself with chunks of time and often going into foodie websites. My favorites include the Dining section in the New York Times and also Simply Recipes. Before I know it, I have a pile of recipes I have printed off (with my office color printer, natch) and no idea what to do with them.

There really aren't enough hours in the day for a foodie. The Internet, expansive as it is, is only one avenue in which to go down if one were to find recipes. And let's face it, everything looks good! You'd think that with all the recipes out there, all the combinations of ingredients would have been taken care of by now, but after the variations of the variations, we end up with new recipes and no time to do them. It is a bit overwhelming, I admit. I guess that is why I have never been a cookbook hoarder. Apart from the obvious reasons, like I have no money and no space, having too many cookbooks would make me even more mental than I already am. With too much choice, I end up making nothing.

So I limit myself with these choices:

Delicious Australia
Delicious UK
NY Times Dining section
Simply Recipes
Cupboard Love (erm, sometimes)
Apples for Jam

This weekend, I am proud to say, I have managed to dig into my pile of printouts and make a recipe I have been curious about since last Summer.

I've never had Persian food, at least I don't think so, so I wasn't sure what to except. But looking at the list of ingredients, these were all things I like already -- especially the fried chicken bit.

June 21, 2006
Recipe: Persian Fried Chicken
Adapted from "Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean" by Ana Sortun (Regan Books)
Time: 45 minutes, plus 3 hours' marinating

½ teaspoon saffron
2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons paprika
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 tablespoon salt, more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon black pepper
Oil for frying
1 cup walnut pieces
1 lemon, cut into wedges.

1. In a small bowl, combine saffron with 1 tablespoon water and let soak 10 minutes. Place in food processor with yogurt and garlic and purée until smooth and yellow. Place chicken in glass or ceramic bowl; pour yogurt mixture on top, turn to coat; cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, paprika, mint, salt and pepper. Heat a generous half-inch oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Drop in a bit of bread to test temperature; oil should bubble vigorously. Working in batches to avoid crowding, dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture, then fry until golden brown on both sides, about 7 minutes a side. Remove and drain on paper towels.
3. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately, topped with walnuts and lemon wedges.

Yield: 8 servings.

I used the recipe as a guide. It seems that the last several months I have been bold and gone my own direction with recipes. It feels good to make it my own.

Instead of blitzing the ingredients for the marinade, I just mixed it all together in a ceramic bowl. The marinade was a gorgeous yellowy color -- and it smelled fabulous too. Since I quite like schnitzel, I used boneless, skinless chicken breast.


The flour mixture was also done my way -- by eye. I really didn't feel like dirtying spoons and such, so just measured out by what I thought would be the right amount.

The result was spectacular. The flour almost turned into a shell, encasing the moist chicken underneath. Even though this was skinless meat, it felt as if there was a second skin to it -- a lovely and crunchy one at that! The flavors of the marinade - the tanginess of the yogurt and the musky warmth of saffron came through as well. So is this Persian, I don't know. But it ain't half bad!

Rafa really enjoyed this too. He called it 'excellent', and in true foodie fashion, I wrote down his remark so that when I return to this recipe I'll remember that we both gave it a 10 out of 10.