Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [111]
2 stalks celery, chopped coarsely
2 large carrots, chopped coarsely, or 12 small baby carrots
2 cloves garlic, minced
8‑12 small, new red potatoes
Handful of small, thin green beans
½ pound sliced button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup canned tomatoes, drained
1 cup dry white wine
½ to 1 cup chicken stock; (start with ½ cup and add as needed)
¼ cup Wondra flour
Fresh minced parsley
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Sprinkle the inside of the chicken with half the herbs. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or metal casserole (such as Le Creuset) over medium heat until hot. Brown the chicken on all sides and transfer to a plate.
Add the bacon to the pot and cook until crisp. Add all of the vegetables and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally, over medium heat. Add the wine, the chicken, tomatoes, chicken stock, remaining herbs, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.
Cover the pot, put it in the oven, and cook for fifty minutes to one hour.
Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a large serving bowl or platter with high sides, and keep warm.
Skim the fat from the cooking liquid and reduce the liquid to about one to one and a half cups. Whisk in the Wondra flour gradually until the sauce thickens slightly. Let simmer over medium heat for about five minutes, while carving the chicken.
Spoon the sauce over the chicken and vegetables and garnish with the parsley. Serves four to six.
ZUCCHINI, EGGPLANT, TOMATO, PEPPER CASSEROLE
1 large zucchini, peeled or unpeeled, sliced into ¼-inch slices
1 large eggplant, peeled, sliced into ¼-inch slices
3‑4 fresh tomatoes, peeled, sliced into ½-inch slices
¼ green pepper, sliced lengthwise into ¼-inch slices
½ red pepper, sliced lengthwise into ¼-inch slices
1 medium white onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ cup fresh whole basil leaves
¼‑½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons shaved or grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle salt lightly over the zucchini and eggplant and let them sit in a colander for about twenty minutes. Rinse well and pat dry with a paper towel.
Spray a large, low (one and a half inches high) casserole dish with Pam. Place the zucchini slices down one side of the casserole and the eggplant slices next to them. Place tomato slices with one onion slice in between each one alongside the eggplant slices. Add another row of tomato and onion slices, or place another row on top of the first one. Scatter minced garlic over the vegetables. Place the slices of red and green pepper attractively between the rows. Scatter basil leaves over the entire, casserole, and drip the olive oil over all the vegetables. Lightly salt and pepper.
Place the casserole in the oven, covered with foil, for twenty minutes. Uncover, sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over all the casserole, reduce the heat to 350 degrees F, and cook another twenty minutes or until vegetables are done. Serves four to six.
CROISSANT
Besieged by the Turks in 1686, Budapest, legend has it, was saved from capture by the warning of bakers who, at work in the early hours, heard the sound of tunneling beneath them. The right to bake a special sweet pastry in the shape of the crescent on the Ottoman flag was their reward. Imitated in Paris, it became the croissant.
The actual history of croissants is almost as inexact. They seem to have appeared, or at least been first mentioned, in an 1853 French food book, and the first published recipe dates back to only 1906. Croissants contain a large amount of butter, at least those labeled croissant au buerre in Paris bakeries. Those labeled simply croissant contain less, or even margerine. Either way they are what makes a French breakfast.
TURKEY
In Europe, turkey was eaten as early as the 1540s, a full one hundred years before the Pilgrims tasted it in Plymouth. There was the mistaken notion that it was a delicacy of