Research, Adapt, Cook

Developing a meal from scratch

I said I’d write down my notes on last night’s meal, so I’d remember. Because I do plan to try it again, with suggestions made as we ate it, as it was really good even if I didn’t come close to following the recipes!

To start off, I was looking for a recipe to use about 13 pounds of frozen chicken legs and quarters. Also, as I’d been starting the deep-clean of the pantry and unearthed lentils, I wanted to use those up. A hearty lentil stew seemed to be indicated. On a whim, I pulled a stack of cookbooks down and settled in to do some research. I had a specific flavor profile in mind that should work well with those two proteins, so I visited the southern and eastern coastlines of the Mediterranean. I found some recipes that were promising, but one in Paula Wolfert’s beautiful Food of Morocco¹ really spoke to me, and looking at the lentil dishes gave me ideas there as well.

I knew immediately I was not going to play the Bastila of Fes straight up. Some of the supper group are very familiar with and enjoy the sweet-and-savory dishes. More of them are not, so the cinnamon and sugar coating on the chicken pie was a no-go. Due to nut allergies, the almonds were omitted, but that’s just my family, yours likely would enjoy them.

The other thing I did was adjust up the recipe into a fully doubled size, as I generally plan to feed 15 at Saturday Supper, and in fact did feed 11 with some going off to one who couldn’t join us. We wound up with a moderate amount of leftovers, so I’d say I hit their appetites about right. Cooking for a big group is a little more of a challenge than cooking for just say, four people, but it’s really not that much more work once you hit your stride. You always want to be cleaning up behind yourself as you go, though.

Bastila of Fes, Family Style

• 6-7 lbs chicken leg quarters²

• 2 c water

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 tsp ground black pepper

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

• 1-2 tsp salt

• 2 cinnamon sticks

Mix the spices up in the water and pour them over the chicken in the slow cooker. Shove the cinnamon sticks down in there nice and deep.

I cooked the chicken in a slow cooker for about six hours on med-low, and then allowed it to cool enough to handle. Once I could, I removed all the skin and pulled the meat off the bones, shredding it as I went. Reserve the cooking liquid.

• 1/2 large onion, grated

• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1/4 c lemon juice³

In a saucepan, reduce the cooking liquid from the chicken until you have about 1 1/2 cups remaining. In a deep skillet, fry off the liquid from the grated onion, adding in the garlic. Add in the reduced cooking liquid and lemon juice and bring to a rolling boil. Whisk until frothy:

• 9 eggs

Pour the eggs into the boiling liquid, whisking the entire time. They will cook and thicken. I then added:

• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

to a small amount of the hot liquid, forming a slurry, before stirring this back into the egg mixture. Remove from heat. Preheat oven to 425F

Into your pulled chicken mix:

• 1/2 c chopped parsley or lemon balm⁴

• 1 tsp Aleppo pepper⁵

If you are adding chopped preserved lemon and olives, this is where you’d mix them in.

• 1 pkg (16 oz) Filo Dough

In a very large cast iron skillet or pizza pan (I was using both as, you’ll recall, I doubled the recipe) lay down the filo sheets with the center overlapping and lay them out at angles to one another like the petals of a flower. Brush lightly with olive oil⁶ as you go. Once you have the bottom of the pan covered with at least two layers of filo, and lots overhanging the edges to wrap up and around the filling, put handfuls of your chicken mixture in around the edges, working towards the middle, as this will hold the filo crust in place as you work. Once the filling is in, and leveled out, pour your hot liquidy egg mixture over the top of it. Now, start folding up and over the filling the the sheets of filo, brushing with more olive oil as needed. Finish the top with 3-4 layers of filo, tucking in corners and edges around the pie filling like sheets on a bed.

Bake for around 20-30 minutes, until the tops are nicely browned and the filling is firmed up. Serve while quite hot and the filo is crisp.

The lentil soup of course, was also me using up pantry staples so I could rotate stock, and a pie pumpkin I’d picked up, and oh yes, the tomatoes are still giving bounteously.

So!

Keeping in mind again that I did double the recipe, and the lentils sucked up moisture like there was a drought on, so I kept adding more liquid to get it to the consistency I wanted, because that’s what you do…

Lentil Stew

• 1 1/2 c brown lentils

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

• 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika

• 1 tsp Aleppo Pepper

• 1 tsp Angelica (Golpar), ground

• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

• Ground black pepper

• Salt

• 2 c cubed and roasted⁷ pumpkin or squash

• 4 c stock

• Handful of parsley, roughly chopped

• Handful of greens from the garden⁸

• 2 c tomatoes, either cubed or in the case of a cherry tomato, sliced in half

Cover the lentils with water and bring to a boil, boil for about five minutes. Drain, if there’s anything to drain.

Sauté the chopped onion and garlic until translucent. Add in the spices and fry until fragrant. Add in the stock, the par-cooked lentils, and bring up to the boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for about twenty or thirty minutes until the lentils are tender⁹. Add in the roasted pumpkin and tomatoes: these should not cook for too long or they will fall apart. Simmer for another five minutes or so, then add in the chopped herbs and greens, simmer for perhaps another five minutes, then either reduce to keep warm for holding until serving, or bring to table. Taste and season to taste.

Note that if you have to keep adding water as I did, you’ll want to toss in a couple of spoonfuls of bouillon to keep the flavor and salt level satisfactory.

This could really be a meal of it’s own with the pita breads I made for sopping.

The stew just before I added the greens. I wanted lots of broth, so wound up adding about three cups of water during cooking. You could absolutely let it get really thick.

I had compliments on the meal, and a very enthusiastic commentary from The Bugscuffle Gazette that helped me with ideas on what to add next time for even more authentic Moroccan flavor, as he’s been there and eaten that before. He pointed out there’s no wrong way, as every household makes their own version of both of these dishes.

One thing I’ve learned, over the last forty years of cooking, is that recipes are more of a diving board into the deep end of exploration of flavor, not something which needs - or should - be followed precisely in most cases. Of course there are exceptions. Let me tell you, pouring that soupy egg concoction over the chicken filling in this pie gave me a serious moment of questioning my choices!

I finished off the meal with an apple pie (using up the gala apples bought on sale which must have been last year’s crop), and a banana pudding. For starters I’d unearthed some baklava from the freezer, and put that out with little bowls of olives, cherry tomatoes, dates, a ginger-pickled green tomato I’d experimented with, a block of smoked gruyere, and crackers for the meze.

A completely non-traditonal three-course meal. There are times I am not up to fuss and bother, but I love a challenge meal like this, where I can cook something new, learn, and play in the kitchen. This is a very happy place for me, getting to watch my friends and family eat their fill.

Don’t be afraid to improvise, adapt a recipe to what you have on hand, and overcome the obstacles of cooking for a large group, or with limited space or resources. There are always ways to make it happen.

1. Links are affiliate links, thank you for helping support the blog!

2. I can buy these in a 10lb package locally for less than a dollar a pound, and will get and freeze twenty or so pounds at a go when they are down around sixty cents a pound. So versatile and affordable!

3. This is, Ian tells me, an Americanization. Instead, you should use a preserved lemon (rinsed well) chopped and mixed into the chicken. Also, mild green olives, pitted and chopped, are common in this pie.

4. I used lemon balm, to add more lemony flavor, and because I’m always looking for a way to use up this herb which grows prolifically in my garden.

5. Any of these spices you can read as ‘heaping measures’ and I will add more Aleppo Pepper next time, by double.

6. Or butter if you aren’t accommodating a dairy allergy.

7. To prepare the pumpkin I cut off the top, scooped out the seeds and stringy bits, then peeled it before cutting it into roughly 1” cubes so it was spoon-sized. I tossed these with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of Ras-al-Hanout before roasting them at 400F for 20 min, just barely fork-tender. They finished cooking in the stew.

8. The original recipe called for swiss chard, I used dandelions (which I do grow, but weeds are cool too), but anything green would work here including kale.

9. The older the lentils, the longer they will need to cook.