Archive for the 'Meat' Category

roast chicken with sumac, za'atar and lemon

And what on earth are sumac and za’atar, I hear you ask? Well…I didn’t know either, until I got my very first Ottolenghi cookery book for Christmas (called simply: Ottolenghi, the Cookbook. Not much imagination in the title, then) . I started leafing through it (while salivating profusely just looking at the pictures as all the dishes looked incredibly appealing) and quickly realized I had to invest some money in buying these two spices as they seemed to pop up time and time again in his recipes. So there you have the answer to my question: sumac and za’atar are spices used a lot in middle eastern dishes. To be precise: sumac is a spice made from the crushed berries of a small Mediterranean tree and za’atar is a blend of dried thyme, toasted sesame seeds and salt. I think I’ve mentioned before that Ottolenghi is an Israeli chef (with an Italian granddad, you will have guessed from his surname). I tried some of his recipes before and found them delicious. But I confess to be unfamiliar with some of the ingredients he uses, including these two spices. Unfortunately they are not commonly found in supermarkets. Certainly not in those in the north East of England where I live. Perhaps in London would be a different story. Anyway, fear not! If you live in the metaphorical culinary desert, like myself, you can simply buy them on line (which is what I did), together with other fancyful middle eastern ingredients (like orange blossom water, rose water, etc.).  Continue reading ‘Roast chicken with sumac,za’atar and lemon’

pollo ai peperoni

Once again I’m “cheating” by using the Italian name for the dish I made last night. It sounds much more chic and sophisticated in Italian (despite the photo which doesn’t really do it justice! The peppers look distinctly pink. Yuk! But I guarantee these are not the true colours. Honest! It must have been the artificial light) . Your attention, English people! Peperoni in Italian doesn’t mean “pepperoni” (which is a horrific spicey, hard sausage I haven’t had the courage to try yet!) but peppers! So the boring English translation of the title would be: chicken with peppers. Anyway, this is a simple, no  fuss, mediterranean dish which is ideal to make when you haven’t got the time to be  messing about in the kitchen (read: nearly always in my case. Busy lives, see? COME ON! Who has the time to be making home made pasta and the likes after a hard day in the office? Or teaching Italian to students, in my case?). It was my good friend Carmelita who suggested this recipe to me. Continue reading ‘Pollo ai peperoni’