After weeks of eating and drinking far too much and too often, Charles and I decided that a little austerity would be a good thing for a change.  Since January 2, we’ve been eating very simply.   Poule au Pot might sound elegant, but it’s just the French way of saying Chicken in the Pot, a recipe in The French Slow Cooker.   I decided to make it the other night when the sudden cold snap had us craving something comforting.

Basically, Chicken in the Pot is a one-dish dinner with chicken and vegetables steaming in a bit of broth.  I bought a nice fat chicken and put it in my slow cooker on a bed of leeks, carrots, celery and rosemary, added some chicken broth and turned on the heat.  That’s about it.
It bubbled away all afternoon and made the house feel warm.  The aromas were mouth-watering.  If we weren’t being so restrained, I would have served it with some cornichon pickles and aioli, garlic mayonnaise, as they do in France, but it was very fine just as it was.  You can make it soupier if you like by adding an additional cup or 2 of broth or water and serving it with noodles.  Since the skin on slow cooked chicken is not very appealing, it’s a simple matter to just push it aside as you eat it, sparing yourself the extra fat and calories.

Wishing you all a very Happy 2012!  The recipe follows:

Chicken in the Pot

Serves 4

6 garlic cloves, peeled

2 large carrots, quartered

2 celery ribs, quartered

2 small leeks, trimmed and halved lengthwise

4 baby turnips, trimmed

1 small onion, chopped

1 3-inch sprig rosemary

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 4 pound chicken

1 cup chicken broth

            Scatter the vegetables and rosemary in a large slow cooker.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Remove the giblets and neck from the chicken cavity and reserve them for another use.    Trim away excess fat.  Sprinkle the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper to taste.  Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.

Cover and cook on low 6 hours or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.  Cut the chicken into serving pieces and  serve it in shallow bowls with the vegetables and cooking liquid.  Pass the Aioli Sauce and cornichons.

Copyright 2012 THE FRENCH SLOW COOKER by Michele Scicolone

A slow cooker (also known as a Crock Pot, though that is a proprietary name belonging to the Rival Company) is ideal for simmering, stewing, and braising.  If you start by using good fresh ingredients, you are sure to have delicious results.   Since a slow cooker cooks with gentle heat over a long period of time, it gives all of the flavors a chance to blend together.  For my slow cooker cassoulet, I put the beans, broth, meats, and flavorings into the pot, skipping the traditional marinating step since everything would be cooking together for hours.  I put the cover on and set the timer.  There was nothing else to do, so I went out for the day.

When I got home, I closed my eyes and inhaled.  Enticing aromas filled the air.  I felt as if I had arrived at the farmhouse kitchen of the French grand-mere I never had!  The meat was fall off the bone tender.  The beans were creamy-soft and had soaked up all the flavors of the meats, garlic and herbs.  Best of all, it was just as good as the classic version.  We had a great meal and since cassoulet is so simple to put together in the slow cooker, I don’t have to wait for a special occasion to make it again.

French food has a bad reputation for being fancy and difficult and that may be true for some restaurant fare.  But in my new book The French Slow Cooker, you will find recipes for simple, rustic food, the kind of things that French home cooks make every day.   No special equipment or tricky techniques, and all of the ingredients are available in a well stocked supermarket. Add a little French flair to chicken soup and try my Chicken Bouillabaisse.  Or how about Short Ribs braised with dark beer and shallots.  The Meatballs Bayonnaise simmered in a spicy sauce make a great sandwich on cold afternoon, maybe even Super Bowl Sunday.   For a party, impress your guests with a country-style paté — which is no more difficult than making a meatloaf, or rillettes, French style potted pork to spread on a crisp baguette.  And don’t miss out on the delicious desserts, like Raspberry Bread Pudding or Lemon Creams.

I’ll be posting some of the recipes over the next few weeks and I hope you will give them a try and let me know what you think!

As soon as I could, I called my mom to ask her if she had a recipe.  She’d forgotten all about them, and she might have had a recipe at one time, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Disappointed, I mentioned the incident to my sister, who thought she had once had it, but couldn’t find the recipe either.  One day, she was visiting our Aunt Millie and mentioned that she was looking for the recipe.  Aunt Millie remembered them too, looked in her recipe book and there was the recipe, carefully handwritten by my mother on pink notepaper more than 30 years ago.   When I finally got the recipe I knew how lucky I was since I hear stories all the time about family recipes that are lost because no one took the time to write down.

Vecchiarelle or Red Wine Struffoli

So here’s the recipe for Vecchiarelle, Little Old Ladies, or Red Wine Struffoli.  Copy it, put it in a safe place, and I hope it inspires you to write down your family’s treasured recipes for future generations to enjoy and think of you.

 LITTLE OLD LADIES

Vecchiarelle

 Serves 8 – 10

4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3/4 cup robust red wine

1/4 cup olive oil plus more for frying

1 cup honey

Colored candy confetti

1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, wine and 1/4 cup oil until blended.  Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.  Stir until the flour is moistened.  Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead until smooth.
3. Cut the dough into 8 pieces.  Roll each piece into 3/4 inch thick ropes.  Cut the ropes into 1/2 inch lengths.
4. Holding a cheese grater in one hand, use the thumb of your other hand to press and roll  each piece of dough over the medium holes to roughen the surface on one side and form an indentation on the other side.
5. Heat about 2 inches of oil in a deep, heavy pot until the temperature reaches 370° F. on a deep frying thermometer or use an electric deep fryer.
6. Carefully lower just enough of the pieces into the pot so that they form a single layer and are not crowded.  Cool, stirring occasionally, until they brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Remove the pieces with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels.  Repeat with the remaining dough.
8. Heat the honey in a large pot just until it warms and thins out.  Remove from the heat.  Add the fried pieces and stir well until the honey is cooled and the struffoli are coated.  When completely cold, scrape the struffoli into a cookie tin and seal tightly.  Sprinkle with the candy confetti just before serving.

Every year about this time, I hear from cooks with questions about struffoli.  These little honey covered nuggets of fried dough are made in many places in Italy, but are most popular in Naples and the South.  To many Italian Americans and Italians, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them.  Making struffoli is a great tradition to pass on to the next generation.  I have given the recipe before, and it is in several of my cookbooks, but  if you don’t have it, here is a link.  This is a recipe from my book 1,000 Italian Recipes.   http://michelescicolone.com/struffoli-christmas/

Now that you have the recipe, I thought I would pass along a couple of tips.

This year, my cousin Jo-Ann wrote and shared a great idea.  She always makes several batches of struffoli and gives them as gifts during the holidays.  But the struffoli made in advance have a tendency to soften up and lose their fresh-made texture.  So last year she decided to make some and freeze them before coating them with honey.  Then, when she was ready to use them, she heated the honey, added the thawed struffoli, and decorated them as usual.  I haven’t tried this method, but it seems like a great idea.  Jo-Ann and her mom, who was skeptical of the idea, both agreed that they were just like freshly made.

One question I often hear from struffoli makers is “How can I get the honey to stick and not pool underneath them on the plate”?  My suggestion is to heat the honey just to a simmer.  When it is hot and bubbling, remove it from the heat.  Don’t let it cook.  Stir in the fried and drained struffoli and continue stirring it occasionally until the struffoli are well coated and the honey has cooled.  As the honey cools it will thicken up again and coat the struffoli.  Then pour the struffoli out onto the serving plate.

It is best to keep struffoli at room temperature so that the honey does not harden.  Cover them with an overturned bowl that will protect them without sticking to the honey.

Colored candy sprinkles are always the finishing touch to struffoli at my house, but some people like to decorate them with toasted nuts or candied fruits.   Add the sprinkles at the last minute if possible so that the honey doesn’t melt them.

Wishing you a very struffoli Christmas!

It might be something as simple as an Asian Chicken Salad with peanuts and crunchy vegetables, or as complex as a perfect Grand Marnier Souffle (note the Grand Marnier being drizzled into the center) with Creme Anglaise.  Note to self:  must make this at home soon–it’s been too long and this is one great dessert!

Or a perfect Soup de Poisson, a smooth fish soup accented with saffron and served with Rouille, a roasted pepper and garlic sauce.  This soup was my favorite, but others, such as the Borscht, Wild Mushroom Cappuccino, and Consomme were all well prepared.  The ship even has its own branch of the Nobu chain of restaurants known as Silk Road where we were able to have sushi and other Asian inspired food.

Every day brought something new and different.  When we were in port, we had some great meals, too, like the lunch of meze, flavorful salads, spreads, pickles and dips, that we had in Jerusalem.  There were beet salads topped with herb dressing, roasted fennel in a creamy dill sauce, eggplant and tomato salad, yogurt and cucumber salad, and roasted sweet potatoes with pesto.  The hummus was the best I have ever eaten — light, fluffy, creamy and really irresistible.

You will find versions of meze served all over the Mediterranean. In Greece we had a similar lunch which featured something I have never eaten before:  pickled caper vines, the actual branches that capers grow on.  Proceed with caution here — they were thorny and rather tough — but I had to try them.  The next photo is a meze plate we were served in Turkey.  There was an egg salad with herbs and shredded carrots, a spicy onion and tomato spread, stuffed vine leaves, eggplant salad, boiled greens and pickled vegetables.

Also in Turkey, I was fascinated by the food carts.  Here’s one selling fresh squeezed juices.  Charles had to stop and get himself a glass of pomegranate juice.  Sweet and tart, it was very refreshing.

As we approached Topkapi Palace for some sightseeing, we came across a man selling fresh mussels which he opened and served with just a squeeze of lemon.

Nearby was the kebab maker, grilling meats to serve with tomatoes and peppers on fresh pide bread.  A wise idea to get fortified before confronting the mind-boggling splendors of the palace, like the amazing Topkapi diamond.  The size of a large egg, it’s origins are mysterious, though one story has it found by a poor man on a rubbish pile!

I was especially glad to see Turkish kids (and adults, too) enjoying healthy snacks like roasted corn on the cob and roasted chestnuts.  Just the thing for a chilly day.

We also stopped at Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Ephesus and Cyprus.  It was a great itinerary and there were so many things to taste and see, so many warm and friendly people to meet, it was truly an unforgettable experience.  I’d like to write more and show you some more pictures, but right now it’s time to get to work and write down some of those delicious recipes I tasted so that I can share them with you soon.

I will be on the panel called “Cookbooks and the American Immigrant Experience.”  Hope to see you there!

For more information or to sign up, visit the website at  www.cookbookconf.com.

Don’t be surprised if you have never heard of ciambotta (sometimes spelled giambotta or cianfotta).  You won’t find it on many restaurant menus, but you can find versions of it in just about any home kitchen in Southern Italy.  It is a vegetable stew made from whatever vegetables are in season.  Though you could eat it hot, it really tastes best when it is just warm. Like a lot of stews, the flavor improves the next day.   I can make a whole meal of ciambotta, but it’s good as a side dish, too, with sausages or chops or chicken.  Eat it plain, sprinkled with basil, extra virgin, or grated cheese, or mixed with scrambled eggs.  Stuff it in a crisp hunk of Italian bread for a great sandwich or toss it with some cooked pasta.  It’s all good.

Ciambotta (pronounced something like giam-boat) isn’t fancy or fussy and it is easy to make.  In fact, in the Italian dialect of the region my family was from, to say that something is a “big giamboat” is to say that it is a big mixed up mess.

Trim  all of the vegetables and cut them into bite size pieces.  You can salt the eggplant if you are concerned that it may be bitter and want to drain off the juices, but I don’t often do that anymore.  Saute the onion in some olive oil, and add garlic if you like.  When the onion is tender, you stir in the remaining vegetables.  Quantities or varieties are not really important and one more or less pepper, onion or potato won’t be a problem.  Sometimes I add zucchini, or green beans.  Some cooks add a hot chili to the mix.  You can put in parsley or oregano if you like, but I think fresh basil, added at the end of the cooking time to protect its delicate flavor, is best.  Fortunately, my garden still has some small basil leaves.

If you are one of those people who likes your vegetables crunchy, this is not the dish for you.  By the end of the cooking, the eggplant and tomatoes will pretty much melt into a sauce and the potatoes will absorb the flavors of the other ingredients.  Ciambotta is nothing if not comforting and rustic — I’m always amazed at how good it turns out.

This recipe is one that appeared in my book, 1,000 Italian Recipes, (John Wiley & Sons).

CIAMBOTTA

Serves 4 to 6

1 medium onion

1/4 cup olive oil

4 plum tomatoes

2 potatoes, peeled

1 medium eggplant

1 medium red pepper

1 medium yellow pepper

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup torn fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil or freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or   pecorino romano

Trim the vegetables and cut them into bite size pieces.  In a large skillet, cook the onion in the oil over medium low heat until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant,  and peppers.   Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are tender and most of the liquid is evaporated, about 40 minutes.   If the mixture becomes too dry, add a couple of tablespoons of water.   If there is too much liquid, uncover and cook 5 minutes more.

Serve warm or at room temperature plain, or drizzled with olive oil, or sprinkled with basil or cheese.

Variation:  Ciambotta with Eggs:  When the vegetables are ready, beat 4 to 6 eggs with salt until blended.  Pour the eggs over the vegetables.  Do not stir.  Cover the pan.  Cook until the eggs are set, about 3 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

We began with a passed fritto misto of coccoli, fried bread dumplings, zucchini flowers, and sage leaves accompanied by the Sada family’s fresh and citrussy Vermentino Toscana IGT 2010.  The fritti were perfectly fried and charmingly presented in cones of brown paper, so they were easy to enjoy as we stood around and sipped our wine.

In the dining room, Davide Sada told us about how he founded the winery in 1998 in the beautiful coastal region of Tuscany known as the Maremma.  He spoke with pride about the food of the region and introduced the first course, pappa al pomodoro, a thick soup made with stale bread, ripe tomatoes, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.  He explained that in Tuscany, stale bread was either fed to the chickens, or used to make pappa.  The beautifully orangey-red soup was delicately spicy and also matched well with the Vermentino.

Farro della Garfagnana, spelt cooked with pancetta and leeks, was molded into a disk and served on a sweet bell pepper cream and topped with frizzled leeks.  The smoky bacon flavor complemented the sweetness of the peppers and crisp leeks.  With it we drank the Integolo Toscana IGT 2009, a blend of 60% cabernet sauvignon and 40% Montepulciano, which Mr. Sada said he had developed as an everyday drinking wine.  At under $15 per bottle, I could see enjoying this wine with a wide variety of foods.

Tuscans are great soup eaters, so our next course was another classic of the region.  According to Signor Sada, Caterina di Medici brought the recipe for Florentine onion soup with her to France and taught the cooks at the French court to make this classic dish.  I think I’ve heard that one before!  The slow cooked red onions were sweet and tangy.  The crowning touch was an egg yolk in its shell to add or not, as you preferred.  It brought a creamy richness to the  luscious soup.  With that we drank the Baldoro Toscana IGT, a robust wine meant for aging.

The filet of pork in an an herb and walnut crust was the next course.  Pork filet is not the tastiest cut, but the flavorful crust enhanced it and the meat was cooked to rosy perfection.  It went beautifully with the Carpoli Toscana IGT 2006.  This was Mr. Sada’s Super Tuscan wine, and it had big ripe red fruit flavors.

Dessert was a masterpiece of simplicity:  a luscious cream of mascarpone, blended with crumbled cantucci, the classic Tuscan almond dipping cookie and a few berries.  The finishing touch was a glass of espresso to pour over the dessert as you wished.  I loved the combination with the sweet and concentrated Vermentino Toscana IGT 2008, a late harvest dessert wine.  What could be simpler, or more elegant?

Signor Sada told us that this is the kind of food they eat and wine they drink in Tuscany every day.  He added that he firmly believed that if you work in quality, you will be happy.  After a dinner as good as this one, I think that he must be very happy indeed.