Friday, June 29, 2018

Chicken with Cardamom Rice and Blistered Purple Beans


This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you'll find plenty of summer produce from Camas Swale Farm as well as pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm.


Fog Hollow offers chicken parts, which is convenient if you don't have the time to break down a whole bird. I was happy to pick up a pack of legs to try out a chicken and rice dish that I've long been eyeing from the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I had always stalled at the second ingredient of barberries, however, which seemed unattainable until I happened to run across them at Sunrise Market. The dish was well worth the wait, especially with Fog Hollow's fresh chicken legs. The rice is enhanced with plenty of caramelized onions, similar to a family favorite, mujaddara, and the barberries add tart bursts of flavor.


To accompany the chicken and rice, I'd picked up some beautiful purple beans. Because I wanted to preserve some of their deep color, with fades with cooking, I decided to blister them quickly in a hot griddle pan. And because I think beans go well with mustard, and mustard reminded me of other brassica family members, and I had a bunch of turnips with fresh leaves, I made a bright green garnish of blanched and chopped turnip greens in a mustard vinaigrette. It was another Farmers Market summer feast. 



Chicken with Caramelized Onion and Cardamom Rice
from Jerusalem A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

3  tablespoons sugar (40 grams)
2 ½  tablespoons barberries, or use currants (25 grams)
4  tablespoons olive oil
2  medium onions, thinly sliced (2 cups, or 250 grams)
2 ¼  pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (1 kilogram), or 1 whole chicken, quartered
 Salt and freshly ground black pepper
10  cardamom pods
 Rounded 1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
2  long cinnamon sticks, broken in two
1 ⅔  cups basmati rice (300 grams)
2 ¼  cups boiling water (550 milliliters)
1 ½  tablespoons flat-leaf parsley leaves (5 grams), chopped
½  cup dill leaves (5 grams), chopped
¼  cup cilantro leaves (5 grams), chopped

⅓  cup Greek yogurt (100 grams), mixed with 2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

1. Put the sugar and scant 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat, add the barberries, and set aside to soak. If using currants, you do not need to soak them in this way.

2. Meanwhile, heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and wipe the pan clean.

3. Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1½ teaspoons each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and use your hands to mix everything together well. Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan (this is important as it part-cooks the chicken). The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken. Remove most of the remaining oil as well, leaving just a thin film at the bottom. Add the rice, caramelized onion, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Drain the barberries and add them as well. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, pushing it into the rice.

4. Pour the boiling water over the rice and chicken, cover the pan, and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.

Blistered Purple Beans with Mustardy Turnip Greens
blistered purple beans
4 handfuls of purple beans
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt

Wash and trim the beans. Toss the beans in a bowl with olive oil and a generous pinch of salt. Heat a grill pan or skillet over high heat. When the pan is very hot, put on the beans. Allow them to blister, flipping occasionally, for about 4 minutes until they start to lose some of their purple color but are still quite crunch. Remove to a serving plate.

turnip greens with mustard vinaigrette
1 bunch turnip greens
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp honey
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar

Set a medium pot of well salted water to boil. Wash the turnip greens and trim off the bare stems. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mustard, honey, and sherry vinegar. When the water is boiling, throw in the turnip greens and blanch for 45 seconds. Drain and run under cold water to stop them from cooking. Squeeze out the water and chop the leaves into 1/2 inch slices. Toss in the vinaigrette. Taste and add more salt, honey, or vinegar as needed.  Serve along side the blistered beans.

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