Pakistani Chicken and Rice

As Savita Nooreen from Gilgit, Pakistan, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine.

Makes: 4-6 Servings
Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 + 1/2 tsp salt (preferably Himalayan!)
• 14 oz. chopped tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 cups rice
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp green cardamom powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1" ginger root, peeled and chopped, then mashed in a mortar and pestle
• 1/4 + 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, rough chopped
• raita
• 6 pieces flatbread or homemade roti (optional)

Equipment

• cuttingboard
• chef knife
• small pot with lid
• large, deep sauté pan
• measuring spoons (or just eyeball it)
• can opener if using canned tomatoes
• mortar and pestle
• medium mixing bowl

Instructions

1. In  large, deep saute pan on medium heat, fry onions and garlic in 2 Tbsp oil until soft. Mix in chicken, chili powder, turmeric, and 1/2 tsp salt. When chicken is cooked on the outside, add chopped tomatoes and 1 Tbsp water and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

2. While that is cooking, cook rice in another pot. (Bring rice and 4 cups water to a boil. Add 1 tsp salt. Once boiling, turn heat to simmer and cover. Turn off heat after 20 minutes.)

3. After chicken has cooked for 15 minutes, remove lid. Let juices evaporate for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Mix in butter, cardamom, cumin, ginger and 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

4. Add remaining 1/4 cup cilantro. Serve rice and chicken with raita and flatbread if you like. Garnish plates with cilantro.
 

Indian Whole Wheat Flatbread

Roti

As Shweta Galway from Umreth, Gujarat State, India, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine.

Note: Atta flour is available at Indian markets. Click here to find Indian markets in your area. In Maine, I go to Masala Mahal, 798 Main St., South Portland, ME, 207-699-5555. 
Makes: 6 servings
Cooking time: 30-60 minutes depending on experience

Ingredients

• 3 cups atta flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Mix flour, 1 Tbsp olive oil, and 3/4 cup water with hands and knead for 3-5 minutes until a smooth dough forms, mixing in water slowly to bring the dough together. When dough is smooth and the sides of the bowl are completely clean, then form a ball and cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

2. Heat a dry iron skillet or frying pan on high heat on the stovetop. Pull off a piece of the dough and form into a ball about the diameter of a quarter. Press the ball between the palms of your hands repeatedly so the dough turns into the shape of a smooth, round river stone.

(To get the hand position Shweta did, put the four fingers of one hand in between the thumb and pointer finger of the other hand and the dough in between your palms. Wrap fingers around the backs of the hands. Squeeze hands together tightly. Rotate dough in hands and squeeze again, repeating three or four times to get the smoothest, roundest shape possible. (The more circular the shape is that you start with, the better odds you have of rolling it out into a perfect circle).

3. Roll dough into as perfect a circle shape as you can (it takes practice, but no matter what the shape, it always tastes good!), about 1/8th inch thick.

4. Put roti on hot pan 1 minute on each side until the color gets lighter. Then use tongs to hold it directly over high gas flame (if you have gas, if not, just keep it on the pan). If you're lucky the roti will puff up like a pufferfish. Before it burns, turn to other side. Stack roti on serving platter. Continue making more roti until you've finished all the dough. Cover with a towel to keep warm or keep warm in a rice cooker until serving. 

Indian Creamy Spinach with Cheese Cubes

Palak Paneer

As Shweta Galway from Umreth, Gujarat State, India, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine.

Notes: Palak paneer is a spinach dish cooked with paneer cheese and spices. She served it with a kind of flatbread called roti. This is her quick weeknight recipe. For a more involved recipe, I enjoyed this one: www.vegrecipesofindia.com/palak-paneer. 

Click here to find Indian markets in your area. In Maine, I go to Masala Mahal, 798 Main St., South Portland, ME, 207-699-5555. 

Makes: 6 servings
Cooking time: 30 minutes (it's helpful to thaw the frozen spinach the night before) 

Ingredients

• 8-10 oz. store bought or homemade paneer
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, medium dice
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 boxes frozen creamed spinach, thawed
• 2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder (optional)
• 2 pounds frozen chopped spinach
• 1 tomato (optional)
• 1 inch ginger (optional), peeled
• 1/2 tsp salt
• flatbread (for gluten-free meal, serve with rice)

Instructions

1. Cut paneer cheese into 1/2-inch cubes. Fry paneer pieces in 1 Tbsp oil on medium heat in a saute pan. Turn cubes every so often. You want them to turn golden brown on many sides of the cubes. Dry the fried cheese on paper towels.

2. Add another Tbsp oil to pan and fry onions and garlic until soft. Mix in creamed spinach and chopped spinach. Mix in garam masala, chili powder, and salt. If you like you can blend a tomato and the ginger in a blender and mix that into the spinach. Mix in the fried paneer pieces to the spinach and simmer for 10-20 minutes. 

3. Eat palak paneer by breaking off a piece of flatbread and scooping up a bite of spinach and cheese with it. Repeat.

Indian Paneer Cheese

Serves: 4 (makes 12 oz.)
Cooking time: 90 minutes total, 30 minutes active
Note:  Paneer cheese is a mild fresh cheese that tastes similar to ricotta but is drier, more dense, and and pressed into a block. It is the glorifying ingredient of palak paneer. Paneer freezes well, so if you want to buy many blocks, you can have them on hand in your freezer. It's also surprisingly easy and fun to make from scratch. Check it out.

Ingredients

• 8 cups whole milk
• juice of 1 lemon

Equipment

• cheese cloth
• strainer
• 2 large pots
• mixing spoon
• spatula

Instructions

1. Bring 8 cups of milk to a boil. Mix in lemon juice until curds and whey separate. The curds look like cottage cheese, and the whey looks like limeade. Put a strainer inside a pot and line strainer with 2 layers of cheese cloth, overlapping all sides of the strainer with the cheese cloth.

2. Pour the curds and whey into the middle of the cheese cloth. Gather the edges of cheese cloth together around the curds so that now you have a sac of curds. Twist the sac round with some tongs (it'll be too hot to touch) forcing liquid out of the cheese cloth. Keep twisting until the curds get squeezed tighter and tighter and no more liquid comes out. Leave the sac sitting in the strainer for fifteen minutes to let it fully drain. 

3.  Put the cheese sac between two plates and press down, flattening the cheese ball slightly. Put weights, such as canned goods, on top of the plate to encourage the cheese to flatten and become more dense as it sits. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes. When cool, store in a Ziplock bag in the fridge and use within 3 days.  

Vietnamese Noodle Soup

Pho

As Hieu Nguyen from Dalat, Vietnam, taught Lindsay Sterling, in Falmouth, ME July 2013

Note: Hieu gets the fresh herbs, bean sprouts, fresh ginger, fish sauce, spices, chilis, limes, rice noodles, packets of pre-mixed pho seasonings, and even Pho serving dishes (super large bowls) at Veranda Asian Market in Portland, Maine, 695 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME, 207-874-8001, (open daily 9am-9pm). Look for an Asian market near you and go - it's a great experience. 

Makes: 8 servings
Cooking Time: 3-4 hours, with a lot of inactive time

Ingredients

 For the marinade:

• 3 cloves garlic
• 2" ginger
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce (he prefers Viet Huong brand)

For the broth:

• 1 whole chicken
• 2" ginger (okay to leave skin on)
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• 2-4 Tbsp fish sauce (he prefers Viet Huong brand)
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 cinnamon sticks (3" inches each)
• 10 whole cardamon pods
• 20 whole cloves
• 6 whole star anise
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/3rds
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled
• 16 oz. chicken broth

For the soup:

• 24 oz. rice noodles (1/4" wide)
• 1 bag (about 4 cups) fresh mung bean sprouts*
• 1 bunch Thai basil
• 1 bunch culantro
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 6-12 red Thai chilis
• 1 lime
• 4 scallions
• Hoisin sauce (if you are gluten free, please check the label or avoid)
• Sriracha sauce

Equipment:

• stainless steal spice ball (for infusing herbs in broth) or cheese cloth and string*
• sharp boning knife
• large cutting board
• 2 medium bowls
• 1 large soup pot or stock pot
• small handheld mesh strainer and small bowl
• large colander for noodles
• 8 larger-than-normal, pho-style bowls with base plates*
• 8 large, flat-bottomed spoons*
• 8 pairs chopsticks*

Instructions

1. Marinate the meat.

Rough chop garlic and 2" of the ginger. Put in a medium bowl. Take skin off whole chicken using a boning knife. Carve meat off the bones (breasts, legs, thighs and back muscles), trimming all fat off as you see it, and place meat in the bowl with the ginger and garlic, and the bones in a stock pot. Mix 1/2 Tbsp sugar, 1/4 Tbsp salt, and 1 Tbsp fish sauce into chicken meat with hands. Wash hands. Discard all chicken fat and skin. Wash cutting board and anything that touched the raw chicken. Cover chicken and let marinate.

2. Make the stock.

Place bones in a large soup pot or stock pot.  Cover chicken bones with cold water by 2-3 inches and turn on medium. Add 16 oz. chicken stock, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 Tbsp salt, and 4 Tbsp fish sauce. Enclose black pepper, cumin, clove, cardamom, star anise and cinnamon in a cheese cloth or a stainless steel spice ball. Roast whole onion and ginger over bare stove flame until ginger skin is black and onion is steaming and put both broth. Once broth begins to steam, turn heat to low. Don't let the broth boil or simmer at all. Once the broth has been steaming for about 20 minutes, swipe a handheld mesh strainer through the top three inches of broth, removing particulate matter and any oil. Discard the contents of the strainer and run it upside down under water as necessary to clean. The goal in the end is to have a clear broth, which is achieved by getting rid of floating particles and oil, and never boiling the broth. Repeat this process about every ten minutes over the course of an hour and a half to achieve clear broth. If you have oil on the top, skim off with large flat spoon.

3. Prep the fresh toppings.

Wash the bean sprouts, all the fresh herbs, lime and chilis. Dry with paper towels and place each on separate plates. Slice the lime into 8 wedges and then slice the wedges across into half wedges so you have 16 pieces.

4. Cook the chicken.

After the stock has been cooking for about an hour and a half, remove the ginger, onion, carrot, spices and bones. Slowly submerge the marinating chicken into the hot broth. Cook for 13 minutes, remove chicken and place in a clean bowl to drain and cool. Send the hand held strainer through the broth 4 or 5 times to get the ginger and garlic chunks out. Slice the chicken into 1/4 inch slices and put on serving plate(s).

5. Make the noodles. 

Bring a full large pot of water to a boil (for cooking rice noodles). Add rice noodles to boiling water and cook for 8 minutes. Strain and run cold water over them so they don't stick together as much when they're cool.

6. Assemble the bowls. First put rice noodles in the bowl, then 4-5 pieces of chicken, sprinkle on sliced scallions. Ladle on broth so the noodles and chicken are surrounded. Pick leaves off Thai basil and cilantro leaves from stems. Add about 4 of each to each bowl. Break culantro leaf into 1 inch long pieces, and add to soup. Add a mountain of bean sprouts on top. Squeeze lime over top. Serve with fresh whole Thai chili on the side.

7. Finish each bowl at the table. Diners squirt generous squiggles of Sriracha and Hoisin sauces on top of his or her bowl of pho. Before eating, toss the contents of the bowl with the chopsticks in one hand and flat-bottomed spoon in the other as you would a salad. Use chopsticks to help load up the flat-bottomed spoon, and go ahead and slurp the contents of the spoon and juice into your mouth. Take a nibble of the Thai chili (one of the hotter chilis in the world). When all you have is broth left, it's okay to lift your bowl to your mouth to sip the rest.

Congolese Mini Waffles

Gaufres

As Ariane Kambu Mbenza from Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, taught Lindsay Sterling in Yarmouth, ME, in May 2013.

Makes: 146 pieces, serving 10-35 people depending on appetite!

Ingredients

• 5 cups flour
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• spray butter (aka nonstick spray) or oil

Instructions

1. Put flour in bowl of a stand mixer. Cut 1/2 stick of butter into 1/4 inch cubes and melt the rest. Mix cold butter into flour, then mix in warm butter, sugar, and 3 eggs. Mix until incorporated.

2. Add enough milk so the consistency is thick but doesn't completely hold it's shape. Mix until smooth.

3. Heat up waffle iron. Spray the center of each quadrant with spray butter or oil so the waffle doesn't stick to the waffle iron. (You could also brush both sides of the waffle iron with oil).

4. Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of batter into the center of each quadrant. Spray the top of each mound of batter with spray butter. Close the waffle iron.

5. When waffles are done, pluck them out of the press with a fork and put on a serving tray to cool. Serve straight up or with whipped cream, honey, ice cream, or peanut butter.

Congolese Fried Tilapia

With Yellow Rice and Red Sauce

As Ariane Kambu Mbenza from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, taught Lindsay Sterling in Yarmouth, ME, in May 2013.

Makes: 8 servings
Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 min + 6 hours marinating
 

Ingredients

• 2.5 pounds whole Tilapia with the skin on
• 1 Tbsp + 2 tsp + 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 2 + 2 + 2 Maggi cubes (for no msg, use 1 tsp Better than Bouillon per Maggi cube)
• 2 Tbsp + 1/2 cup + 2 cups vegetable oil or red African palm oil
• 2 pounds carrots, peas, and green beans cut into bite size pieces (she used a frozen medley)
• 4 cups basmati rice
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp super hot dried chili powder (optional)
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 10 cloves or 2 Tbsp chopped garlic 
• 16 oz. tomato puree

Instructions

Day Ahead:

1. Marinate the fish. Cut heads off 2.5 pounds tilapia and slice across fish into individual portions. Rub fish with oil, 1 Tbsp parsley, and 2 crumbled Maggi cubes. Let marinate for 6 hours or over night.

Day of:

2. Shallow-fry the fish. Fill a fry pan 1/4 inch deep with oil. Bring oil up to medium-low heat. Gently place fish pieces in oil with plenty of space around each (if the pan is crowded, the skins won't get crispy). Let fish cook slowly (about 20 minutes) so you don't burn the outside while the inside is still raw. I would say she had her heat on medium low and her fish cooked for 10 minutes a side. The skins were golden all around and crispy. Delicious!

3. Saute rice and veggies with seasonings. Cover the bottom of a deep, large saute pan or soup pot (with lid) or rice cooker with oil. Add 2 pounds frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans) and saute until thawed, or add fresh vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes. Put 4 cups basmati rice in a bowl, cover with water, and drain. Cover with water again and drain. Add rice to the vegetables and stir in 2 tsp parsley, 2 crumbled Maggi cubes or 2 tsp Better than Bouillon, 1 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp turmeric, and 3 Tbsp butter. Stir and let cook on medium-low for 30 minutes, stirring every so often.

4. Boil the rice. Separately heat up about 7 cups of water water (for adding to the rice later). I think cooking the rice without the water allows the grains to soak up the oil, flavored with all the things you put in it. I also suspect that it helps the grains stay separate, and not get all mushed together. After 30 minutes, add enough hot water to cover the rice by 1/4 inch (this is less than you would for plain rice because those veggies don't suck up water, quite the opposite - they provide moisture!) Cover and let cook on low for 15 minutes.

5. Make the tomato sauce. Pour enough oil in a small saute pan to be about 1/4 inch deep and add sliced onion. Saute on medium-low for 20-30 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp chopped garlic. Continue cooking. You don't want to brown the onions, just get them softer and softer, so adjust your heat accordingly. Add 16 oz. tomato puree, 1 Tbsp parsley flakes, 1/2 tsp dried piri piri or birds-eye chili powder (lighter in color and much hotter than the chili powder at your American supermarket). As the onions continue to cook they will disintegrate into the tomato puree. Disappearing onions is the secret to the sauce! Add 2 crumbled Maggi cubes or 2 tsp Better than Bouillon. Sauce is done when onions have disappeared and the sauce is smooth. (FYI, this sauce is great with rice, fried, chicken, potato, seafood, anything!)

6. Serve a big pile of rice on half the plate. Next to that, a nice piece of fish, and a pile of the red sauce on the last third of the plate.

Burundian Beans, Greens, and Goat

Sombe and Bugali

As Alain Bitariho and Mia Ntahobari from Bujumbura, Burundi, taught Lindsay Sterling.

Note: Sombe (pronounced sahm BAY) are the greens, and bugali (pronounced boo GAH lee) is the white starch that's similar to polenta. The greens, chopped cassava leaves, can be toxic if not boiled for a minimum of 1.5 hours. 

Serves: 12-16
Cooking Time: 3 hours (plus 8 hours soaking beans the day before) 

Ingredients

From an African market such as Ebenezer, 654 Congress Street, Portland, ME:

• 1 lb. frozen chopped cassava leaves
• 2 lb. bone-in goat meat, cut into 2” chunks*
• 1 bag pre-cooked corn flour such as GOYA Masarepa (or 3 cups white rice)
• 1 pound canary beans (substitute any kind of mid-sized dried bean)
• 1/2 tsp Goya Sazonador Total
• bottle Akabanka oil

From the regular grocery store:

• 1 green pepper, large dice
• 1 eggplant, cubed
• 1 + 1/4 onion, large dice
• 2 leeks, quartered lengthwise and sliced across
• 2 + 2 bouillon cubes
• 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 + 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 2 bay leaves
• 16 oz. tomato paste
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

Instructions

1. The night before, cover beans with water by 2 inches and soak over night. Drain and cover again with fresh water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about an hour or as long as it takes for the beans to become tender.

2. Put cassava leaves in large pot on high with 4 cups of water, two chunks of goat meat, and two bouillon cubes. Simmer covered for 3 hours. 

3. Put the rest of the goat meat in a medium pot (with lid). Add enough water to not quite cover the meat all the way and 2 bouillon cubes, and cook on high with the lid on. Cook until the meat is brown.

4. When cassava leaves become fragrant, add cubed eggplant, green pepper, onion and leeks, and enough hot water so that it comes just under the vegetable tops. Add bay leaves, Sazonador Total, black pepper, garlic, and cook covered on medium high heat.

5. When goat meat is brown, strain the broth into a container for later use, and add 1/3 cup oil so that the oil is half way up the meat pieces. Add 1/4 onion, minced, black pepper, 1/2 tsp basil, bay leaf and curry powder.

6. After cassava cooks for fifteen minutes, add 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Continue cooking covered on medium high for another 2 1/2 hours, adding cups of water periodically to keep it somewhere between a soup and a solid. In the end, you don’t want it watery, but very moist.

7. When goat is getting darker brown and fried and 16 oz. tomato paste to goat and let cook for ten minutes, stirring to create a thick, red, pasty sauce. Stir in 1-2 cups of the reserved goat broth to loosen the paste into a bright red sauce. Turn off heat.

8. When the cassava has cooked for 2:45, then reheat the goat and pour most of the sauce into the cassava, keeping the goat pieces from falling into the cassava pot. Stir peanut butter to the cassava leaves. Cook for fifteen minutes more. Add more broth if you have it to extend the sauce in the goat pot.

9. You can make white rice or a thick style polenta called bugali to go with this dish (also called foufou in other African languages.) To make thebugali, bring water in a medium nonstick pot to a boil. Split water into two pots. Pour enough corn flour into the 1st pot (still on the heat) to reach the surface of the water. Stir with a wooden spoon, mashing the corn flour against the sides of the pot continuously.  Add water from the 2nd pot only if the corn flour remains dry and uncooked. When the corn mixture becomes bouncy and pulls away from the pot in a single mass, it’s ready. Press the bugali evenly into the bottom of the pot, then overturn the pot so the bugali falls onto a plate. Sprinkle water on another dinner plate and use the wet plate to press the sides of the polenta into a smooth mound.

10. Serve a 1-inch thick slice of bugali on each plate (or a serving spoon of white rice) with along with piles of cassava leaves (called sombe), goat meat with sauce, and boiled beans. Top with 2-3 drops of super spicy Akabanga oil.

Dominican Rice and Beans

As Angel Ferreras from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine.

Note: Along with meat and fried green plantains, these rice and beans make up the classic Dominican lunch called La bandera (the flag). It's named after the flag, Angel explained, because the meal is as Dominican as the flag and it's served everywhere in the country. These rice and beans are so easy to make and delicious, my family has this dish probably every other week. 

Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients

For the beans:

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 tsp Adobo seasoning (main ingredients: salt, turmeric, garlic powder)
• 1/4 green pepper, cut into 1/2" chunks
• 1/8 red onion, sliced into small segments
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 can Roman beans, drained and rinsed (pinto, kidney, red, or black would work as well) 
• 4 oz. tomato sauce
• 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves

For the rice:

• 2 cups white rice (Goya Canilla brand long grain enriched white rice recommended)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil 
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 cups water

Instructions

1. Put all the ingredients for the beans in a medium sauce pot. Bring up to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

2. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil with 2 Tbsp vegetable oil and 2 tsp salt in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with lid.

3. Add rice to the boiling water, stirring with a wooden spoon. After five minutes or so, when spoon stays standing up in the cooking rice, or no water is standing above the rice, turn heat to low, and cover the pot with a lid.

4. After ten minutes, turn the rice so that the rice that was on top is on the bottom. Recover. Cook another ten minutes. When rice is cooked, increase the heat to medium-high for two minutes so that the rice on the bottom fries and gets crunchy/toasted but doesn't burn. 

5. Spoon the fluffy rice into one serving bowl and the concon - the crispy rice at the bottom of the pot - onto a separate serving plate. (If you run cold water on the bottom of the rice pot, it makes the rice release much more easily. Also, you can slice through the concon in the pot to make chunks that are easier to pry/lift out of the pan with a spatula. 

6. Serve beans, rice, and concon in separate bowls family style on the table. Serve with Dominican tostones and meat for the popular lunch: la bandera. 

Dominican Stewed Beef

Note: In the Dominican Republic, a lunch plate of meat, rice and beans, and fried green plantains, is a classic called La bandera. In Spanish, "la bandera" means "the flag," which is to say that the dish is as Dominican as the flag itself. The kind of meat served varies. This is one of my favorites.

Makes: 10 servings
Cooking time: 30 min in pressure cooker; 80 minutes in regular pot + 1-12 hours marinating

Ingredients

For the marinade (called sazon or sofrito):

• 1/2 head garlic
• 1 onions
• 1 bell pepper
• 1/4 cup rough chopped cilantro
• 1/2 chicken bouillon cub
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1/2 Tbsp achiote powder
• 1/2 Tbsp green olives
• 1/2 Tbsp capers
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp vinegar
• 1/4 cup water only if needed

For the beef:

• 2 1/2 pounds stew beef
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce (if you're gluten-free, please be sure to use gluten-free soy sauce)
• 2 Tbsp sazon or sofrito marinade
• 1 tsp pepper  
• 4 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste
• pinch cinnamon
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 3-4 cups hot water
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Make the marinade. Peel the garlic cloves, peel the onion, and cut the onion and green pepper into quarters. Place all of the marinade ingredients in the blender with just enough water to get the blender going. Blend until smooth.

2. Reserve 2 Tbsp of the marinade for making the beef, and freeze the rest in 2-Tbsp portions in an ice tray or in piles on a sheet pan/cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Once frozen, transfer the marinade nuggets into a sealed Ziplock. Use these later when making this beef dish again, rice, or soups. 

3. In a large bowl mix soy sauce, 2 Tbsp of the marinade, pepper, garlic, and cinnamon. Coat meat evenly with this mixture by massaging with hands. Cover and let marinate in fridge for 1-12 hours.

4. Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed large pot (with lid) or pressure cooker pot. Once oil is hot, add meat. Once the meat is brown on the surface, add cilantro and enough water to come up "shoulder high" on the meat. Cook the meat until tender. If you're using a pressure cooker, this will be about 15 minutes. If you're using a regular pot, this could be more like an hour - you'll need to add more water to keep it saucy. When the meat is tender, add tomato paste, and cook for five minutes more. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Azerbaijani Fresh Vegetable Platter

As Zemfira and Tarlan Ahmadov from Baku, Azerbaijan, showed Lindsay Sterling in Portland, Maine. 

Serves: 6-10
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Note: The bright colors, raw flavors, and crispy textures of this fresh vegetable platter provided a beautiful contrast to the complex and slow-cooked flavors on the table. This is an easy addition to any meal really -- and so healthy! I loved watching Zemfira's nine-year-old munching happily on whole cilantro stems. Raw green onions are spicy/hot but fun.
Perfect with: any meal but particularly fitting with Azerbaijani lamb soup, beef with chestnuts, yellow rice, and pickled vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 cucumber, or many smaller Persian cukes
• 1 bunch radishes
• handful cilantro
• 1 bunch green onions
• 2-3 medium tomatoes or 1 pint cherry tomatoes

Instructions

Slice cucumbers the long way into quarters so you have spears. Wash and trim radishes and green onions of all roots, leaving the rest whole. Wash bunch of cilantro. Cut tomatoes into generous bite size pieces. Arrange this assortment of vegetables on a platter and serve family style on the table along with any other dishes. Guests much on fresh vegetables to cleans the palate of other richer components of the meal.

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Azerbaijani Beef With Chestnuts and Sour Plums

These are the sour plums, also called Persian golden prunes.

Saute onions in oil and turmeric.

The Ahmadovs make their own ghee and keep it in this crock on the counter for up to a month. This is much more economical than store-bought if you use a lot of it.

Once the onions are half their original size, add the boiled beef.

Sautee the boiled chestnuts in a little ghee.

Add them to the pot of beef and onions.

Saute the drained dried fruit in a little ghee.

Continue cooking on low heat covered for about 45 minutes to let the flavors meld. Add spoonfuls of the broth that was created when you boiled the beef to keep the mixture moist.

Turshu Kourma

As Zemfira and Tarlan Ahmadov from Baku, Azerbaijan, showed Lindsay Sterling in Portland, Maine. Photos by Tiffany Converse.

Cooking Time: 2 hours
Serves: 4-6
Note: Persian dried golden prunes, also known as sour plums, are can be found at Middle Eastern markets. They do have pits so warn your guests. Great substitutes that are pit-free and taste great are dried apricots sliced in half, dried cherries, or dried cranberries. The cherries are my favorite because their flavor is both sweet and sour like the original golden prunes.

Note: She served this with yellow rice, a fresh vegetable platter, and pickled vegetables. 

Ingredients

• 1 pound cubed beef (stew meat)
• 2 onions, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp ghee 
• 1 cup Persian sour plums (substitute dried cherries, apricots, or cranberries)
• about 40 fresh chestnuts from produce department 
• or 20 prepared (peeled and cooked) chestnuts from a jar or Cryovac-ed

Equipment

• large pot
• knife
• cutting board
• 2 large saute pans, at least one with lid 
• medium saute pan
• mixing spoon
• medium bowl
• large bowl
• spoon
• strainer and pot or slotted spoon
• 1 tsp (or eyeball it)

Instructions

1. If using prepared chestnuts you can skip this step. If using fresh chestnuts, make an "x" with a knife in the base of each chestnut, and then boil for five-seven minutes. Preferably sit with a loved one as you two then peel off the hard shells and dark skins together.

2. Cook beef cubes covered in salted water for an hour and a half or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.

3. Soak dried fruit in a dish of water (wash any salt off sour prunes if there is any). 

4. Remove beef from broth with a slotted spoon or strain beef, reserving the both.

5. In large saute pan (with lid) on medium heat, saute onions nearly covered in oil and sprinkled generously with turmeric, until they cook down to half their original size.

6. In another large saute pan, saute meat on high heat in a small amount of oil for about ten minutes to brown the sides. Remove meat and put the meat in with the onions on medium-low.

7. Strain the dried fruit. In the large saute pan you used to saute the meat, saute the dried fruit in a teaspoon of ghee for five minutes on medium, and then add the fruit to the with the meat and onions.

8. In the same pan you used to saute the dried fruit, add another teaspoon of ghee and sautee the chestnuts until they're golden. Add the chestnuts to the onions and beef.

9. Now continue to cook all the ingredients together on medium-low for about 45 minutes mostly with lid on, occasionally turning the contents gently, and adding spoonfulls of beef broth here and there to keep everything moist and together but not saucy.

Serve beef and chestnuts with Azerbaijani yellow rice, fresh vegetable platter, and pickled vegetables if you wish. 

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Azerbaijani Cornish Hen

As Zemfira Ahmadov, from Baku Azerbaijan, taught Lindsay Sterling in Portland, Maine. Photos by Matt Boutet.

Serves: 10 with many other dishes present, 6 as a main dish
Cooking Time: 1 hr
Note:
Perfect with: Azerbaijani yellow rice, fresh vegetable platter, pickled vegetable platter

Ingredients

• 1 cornish hen
• 2 onions
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
• 1/2 cup ghee
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tomato
• 8 eggs
• pinch citric acid (optional)

Instructions

1. Remove any parts from the cavity of the cornish hen. Cut hen into bone-in pieces: wings, legs, breasts, thigh. Trim off any excess fat and the very wing tips and discard. Slice each breast piece across twice so you have three smaller pieces, about the size of a leg or wing. Place in a large soup pot on high with about 1/4 cup water.

2. Slice the onions into 1/4" thick moons, and add to pot with 1/2 cup ghee, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp turmeric, and 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper. Lower heat to 8 out of 10, and cover with lid.

3. Let cook, stirring once in a while, until onions are almost disintegrated. Turn down heat or add a little water if contents threaten to burn. Cut off tomato skin with paring knife, cut out and discard stem, dice flesh and add to pot. Let cook ten minutes more.

4. Scramble 8 eggs in separate bowl. Stir in a pinch of citric acid if you wish (it's super sour, literally a pinch will do), and then pour eggs into the pot with the chicken. Stir and let cook just until egg solidifies. Spoon hen and egg mixture into a serving dish and serve with platter of yellow rice. You may warn guests that there are bones in the cornish hen dish.

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Albanian/Greek Chicken Pie

Let it cool for 10-20 minutes, and then slice and serve. 

This is Bill's special pan for making a giant kotopita pie. You can buy one in the Immigrant Kitchens store [link to product page], or simply make more than one pie in smaller baking dishes that you already have. Use butter or olive oil to butter the pan before adding those first sheets of phyllo.

You find phyllo dough (also called filo or fillo dough) in the freezer section. Thaw it and bring it to room temperature right in the sealed bags (inside the box) so the phyllo doesn't dry out while it's thawing.

Bill didn't get fussy about brushing butter over the phyllo dough. He just drizzled butter on, then added another layer of phyllo sheets.

You make five layers of phyllo (butter in between each) before adding half the filling. Then you add two more layers of phyllo. Then the other half of the filling. And then you add five more layers to finish the top of the pie.

Bill Dilios, of Politsani, Albania, (formerly part of Greece) with his favorite food, a chicken and rice pie in phyllo dough.

Kotopita is like chicken pot pie in a delightfully flakey crust. 

It's great with Greek salad.

Bill Dilios (left) shares his favorite food from his childhood in Politsani, Albania, with chef Lindsay Sterling (right).

Kotopita

As Bill Dilios, from Politsani, Albania (formerly part of Greece), taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, ME.

Serves: 10 for dinner, 20 as an appetizer or side
Cooking Time: 2 hours plus thawing overnight

Ingredients

• 1 box phyllo dough
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 large yellow or sweet onions, medium dice
• 1 stick butter, cut into 1/2" chunks + 1 stick butter
• 4 chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubs
• 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 boullion cube, 1 tsp boullion paste, or 1 tsp salt
• 3 eggs

Equipment

• cutting board
• chef knife
• mixing spoon
• large soup pot 
• large mixing bowl
• medium bowl
• pastry brush
• Bill's special kotopita pan [link to store]:
• or 3 pie plates
• or 2 9x12, 2-inch deep baking dishes 

Instructions

1. Thaw phyllo dough. The day before you want to make kotopita, transfer the phyllo dough box from the freezer to the fridge to thaw it. Then an hour before you want to start cooking, take the phyllo box out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature on the counter. If you forget to take the phyllo out of the freezer the night before, you can thaw it on the counter in 2-3 hours. 

2. Make the filling. Saute onions with 2 Tbsp oil and 1 stick butter (cut into chunks) until onions are soft, 5-10 minutes. Cut the chicken pieces into 1/2 inch cubes and add to the onions. Wash all surfaces that raw chicken touched.  When chicken is half-cooked (opaque on the outside but still translucent in the center), add rice and saute for 2 minutes without browning anything. Add chicken stock so that the rice is just floating in liquid, about 3 cups. Add crushed bouillon cube, bouillon paste, or salt as desired and incorporate. Saute, stirring frequently, until the liquid disappears and you have a thick mass of chicken and rice with no runny liquid. Remove from stove and let cool. Mix in three eggs.

3. Preheat oven to 395. 

4. Assemble the pie. See how he did it in this video. You melt a stick of butter in cereal bowl and get a pastry brush out. Bill made one awesome, giant pie in a what looked like an extra-large, deep-dish pizza pan. Alternatively you can use three pie dishes or 2 9x12 baking dishes. Brush the bottom and sides of the baking dish with olive oil. Layer whole phyllo sheets over the bottom of baking dish, overlapping the edges of the pan by roughly 2 inches. (No folding, cutting or fussing!). 

Now be like Jackson Pollock with the butter brush dripping melted butter on the phyllo. You don't need to brush the butter around - just drip enough butter so that it looks like it's starting to rain on a sidewalk. Make another layer of phyllo overlapping the edges again. Drizzle butter again. Layer phyllo again. Drizzle butter again. When you have about five layers of phyllo, make a layer of chicken filling about 1/2" inch deep. Cover with two more layers of phyllo/butter drips. Add another layer of filling about 1/2" deep. Do five more layers of phyllo. Fold all the draped edges of phyllo on top of the pie. Brush butter over the dry edges of phyllo, folding them down onto the pie. 

If you are using multiple pies, when you complete one pie, just follow the same process and make another one in another dish. 

5. Bake for about 40 minutes, turning the temp down to 385 after ten minutes. When the entire pie is golden brown, remove from oven and let the pie cool for 10-20 minutes. 

6. Serve. A cool trick for cutting the pie: place a large cutting board (one that is bigger than the pie itself) over the top of the pie. Holding the pan and the cutting board together, flip them over so that the pan ends up upside down on top of the cutting board. Now just lift the pan off the pie. Use a serrated bread knife to pie into squares or wedges, depending on what look you want.

Once pie is cool, store leftover pie in tinfoil in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in a 350 degree oven or toaster oven.

 

Dominican Fried Green Plantains

Tostones

As Angel Ferreras from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, taught Lindsay Sterling in Freeport, Maine.

Note: Fried green plantains (tostones) taste similar to French fries. "Green" refers to the color of the skin when the plantains are unripe -- just like an unripe banana. The flesh is light colored like a banana. In the Dominican Republic, a lunch plate of meat, rice and beans, and fried green plantains, is a classic meal called La bandera. In Spanish, "la bandera" means "the flag," which is to say that the meal is ubiquitous and as Dominican as the flag itself.

Makes: 4 servings as a side
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients

• 3 green plantains
• about 2 cups vegetable oil
• salt

Instructions

1. Peel the skins off the plantains and cut the fruit into 1-inch segments (see video above). 

2. In a large saute pan, add enough vegetable oil so that it's 1/2 inch deep, and turn heat on medium. Line a large plate or tray with a layer of paper towel.

3. When the oil is hot, fry batches of the plantains on the flat sides for about 5 minutes until the pale yellow color turns darker yellow, but not brown. (You should see little bubbles coming up around the plantains. If you don't, your oil isn't hot enough. If the oil is smoking, it's too hot) Flip the plantains over and fry the other sides until they turn a darker shade of yellow. Put them on the plate or tray lined with a layer of paper towel. Then smash each piece (flat side down) with the bottom of a glass or a little press called a tostonera so the plantains are flattened into discs.

4. Fry the discs until bubbles slow down, and then flip them over. When they’re golden brown, remove from oil and place on the paper-towel-lined tray to dry. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Bosnian-Serb Meat Pie

Burek

As Sanja Bukarac, from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, taught Lindsay Sterling in Portland, Maine. Illustration by Margaret Owen. Photos by Matt Boutet.

Serves: 9
Cooking Time: 1:15

Ingredients

• 1 package phyllo dough
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 pounds ground meat (she used beef, veal and pork)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 bunches scallions, sliced into rounds
• salt
• pepper
• bottle of plain kefir
• sour cream (optional)

Instructions

1. One day before cooking transfer phyllo from the freezer to the fridge. One hour before cooking, transfer phyllo box to the counter. Leave it all wrapped up; you don't want the filo to dry out.

2. In a large saute pan with a little oil, saute ground meat with scallions until the meat loses all raw pink spots and is evenly brown. I didn't see her drain the meat of liquified fat, but I had a lot so I drained it off. Season with salt and pepper. In a separate container whisk together the eggs and yogurt. Grease a rectangular baking dish with spray cooking oil. Preheat oven to 385.

3. On a large cutting board or tray, lay out 2 sheets of filo on top of one another with the long side of the rectangle facing you. Spoon ground beef onto the phyllo dough in the shape of a line about an inch thick parallel to the long edge closest to you, leaving an inch of phyllo on each end meatless. Use about 1/2 cup ground beef mixture to make the line. Drizzle yogurt mixture over the top. Roll the phyllo over the meat and keep rolling so you have a long cylander of meat rolled in phyllo. Be quick and confident when working with phyllo, and use as few touches as possible to do what you need to do. For example, just leave the roll you just did where it finished rolling as opposed to moving it somewhere. The more you touch phyllo, the more it falls apart. Cover it with a clean kitchen towel if you need to step away for a minute - otherwise it dries and breaks easily. Make 2 more of meat-in-phyllo rolls.

4. Now put another two sheets of phyllo down, this time off-setting them by 3 inches vertically to give you a little more surface area to roll the three meat rolls you just made inside these sheets of phyllo. Before you roll them up, spoon yogurt mixture in a zig zag pattern across all three rolls. Once they're bundled in the phyllo, transfer this "roll of rolls" into the baking dish, seam side down. Repeat this step two more times, fitting rolls flush against each other in the baking dish.

5. Spray the top of the meat pie with cooking oil and bake until golden and crispy, about 45 minutes. Cover with a clean kitchen towel for ten minutes to help the interior be soft.

Slice cross sections and serve with forks, and glasses of plain kefir with spoons. Instruct your guests to alternate bites of meat pie and spoonfuls of kefir. Also, some like a little sour cream with their meat pie.

Azerbaijani Caramel

Halva

As Afet Nadirova from Baku, Azerbaijan, taught Lindsay Sterling in South Portland, Maine.

Serves: about 30

Cooking Time: about 1 hr 

Ingredients

• 3 sticks butter
• 2-3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups water
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric

Accompaniments:

• fresh grapes
• fresh strawberries
• fresh blackberries  
• Earl Gray tea
• cardamon
• 1 lemon, sliced

Instructions

1. In a 6 quart soup pot, mix sugar and water and heat until the sugar dissolves and you have simple syrup. Remove from heat.

2. In a large saute pan with at least 2-inch high sides, melt the butter. Turn to low heat (setting 3 out of 10). Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and flour mixture is a thick dough that looks like maple sugar candy, roux, or peanut butter cookie dough.

3. Continue to mash the mixture with the back of the spoon, and stir around for about 50 minutes.

4. When the mixture turns from a dry dough to a thick paste with a wet shimmer to it, add a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric, and keep stirring.

5. Put a pot of water on for tea. 

6. When the color of the mixture has darkened to a deep caramel, remove from stove and put the pan on a trivet on the counter. (This should be just shy of an hour after starting)

7. Steep earl gray tea with cardamom pods. 

8. Pour the simple syrup into the butter and flour mixture, stirring as vigorously as you can with the spoon without splashing. Use enough of the simple syrup to make a thick paste that's between a liquid and a solid.

9. Fill salad plates with large spoonfuls that spread out to the edges of the plate. Decorate the top of the halva by imprinting the tip of the spoon repeatedly, making a decoration of three columns of indents. 

10. Serve plates of halva to guests along with an assortment of other chocolates and pastries, fresh fruit, and Earl Grey tea steeped with cardamom.

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Azerbaijani Yellow Rice

Pilaf

As Zemfira Ahmadov, from Baku, Azerbaijan, taught Lindsay Sterling in Portland, ME.

Serves: 10
Cooking Time: 1/2 hour active, 2 hours total
Note: The rice has a wonderful scent, flavor, and texture - individualized and firm - not soft or mushy. 
Perfect with: meat dishes such as Azerbaijani cornish hen, or Azerbaijani beef.

Ingredients

• 3 c. basmati rice
• large tortilla or potato sliced into 1/4 inch planks
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/3 c. ghee (a little less than a stick of butter's worth)
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Equipment

• large pot with tightly fitting lid
• clean cloth towel
• strainer
• small plate
• large serving platter

Instruction

1. Cover rice generously with water in a large bowl and massage rice to aid rinsing off white powder. Strain. Boil rice as you would pasta, for 8 minutes, and strain. It should be slightly uncooked and not yet fragrant or flavorful. Strain and let dry for 5-10 min.

2. Melt ghee in microwave or stovetop. Oil the bottom of a large pot and fit large tortilla in the bottom of the pot. With a small bowl or dessert plate take some of the rice out of the strainer and sprinkle it into the tortilla. Repeat, making a mountain of fluffed rice in the tortilla with the mountain peak in the middle of the pot.

3. Once you have a mountain of fluffed rice in the pot, sprinkle turmeric all over the top like the mountain is dusted with yellow snow.

4. Pour melted ghee in a small stream over the surface area of the rice mountain with a small drizzle as possible.

5. Cover the opening of the pot with two layers of paper towels or a clean cloth towel. Seal the lid over the towel, which keeps condensation from dripping back down into the rice. Fold edges of towel on top of lid so they don't dangle by any fire. Cook on low, setting 4 out of 10, for 1 1/2 hours.

6. Use a small dessert or salad plate to lift the rice out of the pot and toss the rice lightly onto a platter. The goal is for the rice to be fluffed onto the platter. 

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Thai Red Curry Chicken

As Rattana Sherman from Bangkok, Thailand, taught Lindsay Sterling in Durham, Maine.

Makes: 4 servings
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients

• 1 c. white rice
• 1 can coconut milk (Chaokoh brand preferred)
• 1-2 Tbsp Thai red curry base (Maesri brand preferred)
• 6 fresh kaffir lime leaves, sliced as thinly as possible 
• ¾ small-medium eggplant, skin on, cut into 1/2” thick triangles
• 1 can Asian cultivated sliced bamboo shoots
• 1 lb. bite-sized raw chicken pieces
• 2 Tbsp palm sugar
• 15 basil leaves
• 2-3 Tbsp fish sauce (Squid brand preferred)
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Cook rice as you would normally (in saucepan or rice cooker).

2. Put coconut milk into a medium saucepan on medium heat.

3. Add curry paste and stir until incorporated.

4. Add kaffir lime leaves.

5. When simmering, add chicken pieces, eggplant, bamboo shoots, palm sugar, fish sauce, 1 Tbsp water (if desired for thinning).

6. Once chicken and eggplant are cooked, add 15 whole basil leaves, making sure to push each under the coconut milk.

7. Add salt and more fish sauce to taste. Serve chicken in bowl with lots of sauce over white rice.

Iraqi Chicken and Rice

When you shallow-fry the chicken that has been boiled in spicy broth, the chicken turns this awesome golden color.

Here's the beginning - just throwing onions and a whole bunch of spices in the pot.

One of the spice mixtures that goes in the chicken.

Cook the chicken with lots of spices, including dried Persian lime (the black ball in the center) and turmeric.

This is Omar, my ten-year-old translator. He was very proud of his mother's cooking.

You saute the rice with a spice-mixture called bar timon. It's made of cardamon, black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon.

When you boiled the chicken in water with spices, this really flavorful broth results. You use some of it to flavor the rice. 

For a garnish on top of the rice, you saute onions with rehydrated raisons, cinnamon and turmeric.

As Mona Galee, from Iraq taught Lindsay Sterling, in Westbrook, Maine, July 2011

Serves: 6-8

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Note: Mona served the chicken and rice as part of a full feast, including dolmas, fresh salad, watermelon cubes, tomato-chili flake soup and lemon-mint savory yogurt drink. I'll add links to those recipes once I post them. I have tended to make just the chicken and rice part often. I find myself using country-style bone-in pieces of chicken instead of a whole chicken to make serving easier.

Ingredients

For the chicken:

• 1 whole chicken, washed and split down the breast bone
• 3 cloves garlic, rough chopped
• 1/4 onion, medium dice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp Madras curry powder
• generous sprinkle turmeric
• 1 dried Persian lime, also called  loomi* 
• 1 4-inch cinnamon stick
• 1 Tbsp lemon pepper
• 1-2 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 1-2 cups water

For the rice:

• 2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup Short Vermicelli egg noodles (omit for gluten-free version)
• 2 cups basmati rice
• 1/2 tsp of the bar timon spice mixture**
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 cup reserved seasoned chicken broth
• 3 cups water

*loomis, also known as noomi basra and limoo amani, are small persian limes that have been soaked in salt water and then baked in the sun. They are hard, light in weight (like a whiffle ball) and range from tan to black in color. You use one whole in this recipe. It also comes ground into flakes. It imparts a tangy, lime flavor. Tasted alone, dried lime is similar to the sourness of a Sourpatch Kid candy but without the sugar coating. In Portland, ME, you can get these at Al Sindabad Market, 710 Forest Avenue. 

For the bar timon pice mixture:

• 2 1/4 tsp whole cloves
• 1 full handfuls green cardamom pods
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1/2 Tbsp black pepper

For the Raisin and onion topping:

• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 onion, medium dice
• 3 shakes cinnamon
• 1 shake turmeric
• 2 shakes salt

Equipment

• chef knife
• cutting board
• 2 soup pots with lids
• large frying pan
• strainer and pan for underneath it or a cooling rack nextled in a pan that can catch liquid
• small frying pan
• large platter or cookie sheet 
• large serving platter for rice and chicken
• tongs
• cereal bowl

Instructions

1. Get the chicken started. Split whole chicken down the breast bone to open up the cavity. Rinse splayed chicken with cold water. Put the whole bird in a large soup pot with lid on medium high (she used a special pot she called a gidduh, but my soup pot worked fine). Add to the pot, 1/4 cup oil, and onto the chicken: 1/4 chopped yellow onion, 1 tsp madras curry powder, generous sprinkle of turmeric, 1 toasted lime, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 Tbsp lemon pepper, 2 Tbsp Kosher salt, and 6 green cardamom pods. Let chicken cook with oil in spices with lid on for ten minutes, then add water until it’s 1 inch below the top of the chicken. Cook covered until chicken is cooked through (about 40 minutes).

2. Do some prep work while chicken is cooking, make the spice mixture for the rice, called bar timon. Blend in spice grinder: 1/4 cup cardamom pods, 2 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon, 1 Tbsp cumin, and 1/2 Tbsp black pepper. Cover rice with water and strain three times so the water stops turning cloudy. Let it drip dry in the strainer for 20 minutes. In a small dish, cover the golden raisins with water to plump.

3. Get the rice started. Once the chicken has cooked through in the broth, remove the chicken from the broth and put it on rack nestled in a shallow pan to drip dry. Put 2 Tbsp vegetable oil back in the bottom of the emptied pot on medium high. Once hot, add vermicelli noodles if using and toast until they turn reddish brown. Add the rice, 1/2 tsp of the bar timon spice mixture (store what’s left for when you make this again), 1/2 tsp turmeric, and 1 tsp salt, stir and let the rice soak in the oils for a couple minutes, stirring. Then add 1 cup of the reserved seasoned chicken broth and enough water (about 3 cups) so that the rice is covered by 1/2 inch of liquid. Cook on high. Once the water has disappeared from the rice (ten minutes), then put the lid on tightly (she put a plastic bag over the opening to seal in moisture but I don't like cooking with plastic so I left this off). Turn to low heat for another ten minutes.

4. Shallow-fry the chicken. When the rest of the meal is almost finished, shallow-fry the chicken which has drained and drip-dried. She used a wok with oil 1/4 inch deep on medium-high heat. I've used a large iron skillet with oil 1/4 inch deep. Wear long sleeves because any drips from the chicken will pop and splatter in the hot oil. Make sure the oil is hot but not smoking before you put the chicken in. When the chicken turns golden on one side, flip it so that both sides become nicely colored. The combination of soft, boiled chicken with fried exterior pieces is divine.

5. Final touches. Make the onion and raisin topping. Drain water out of raisins. In a the smallest sauté pan you have, saute 1/4 onion (medium dice) in a little oil. Once soft, add raisins, three shakes of cinnamon, one shake turmeric, and two shakes salt. When all this soft and hot and the turmeric has colored the oil yellow, turn the heat off. Make a plateau of rice on a serving platter. Put the whole fried chicken (or chicken pieces, if they’ve fallen apart) on the top in the center of rice. Sprinkle raisins and onions in a ring around the chicken.

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