Tag Archives: chicken

Dante – A tale of heaven and hell?

by Jamie Ginsberg on 28. Feb, 2010 in Jamie Ginsberg

I was fortunate to be invited to a fundraiser at Dante for ORT. I have been somewhat hesitant to try Dante after what could only be called a disaster at Lockkeepers. Still any new restaurant in town deserves to be given a fair shot, this was not that fair shot. Why? Prefix 3 course meal on a random Sunday evening with wine pairings. The good news is I have to go back and order off the menu.

Wine selections from the cash bar were ok. I have given up on finding decent $8 glasses of red wine in Cleveland. Every restaurant thinks it is acceptable to charge $13 a glass for wine that retails at $22 per bottle. Do I get therapy for my issues related to this? No, I just prefer to drink at home…Dante kicked off the evening with a demonstration on how to cut up a chicken. Best tips of the night? Use a medium to smaller blade and remove the wishbone to preserve some of the best meat. It was nice to see a chef working and Dante did a good job at breaking down the chicken while explaining his process.

The salad was served first. I am into the Beet salads around town these days and this one had a nice light dressing. I would have enjoyed some cracked pepper, but the staff was moving quickly and never came around with any. The Vegetarian option was a perfectly cooked thicker linguini style noodle with a light sauce and lots of veggies. My kind of meal. Loved it. I could eat this 5 nights a week. Hearty and delicious without loads of fat, maybe a hint of vinegar.

Dessert was a passion fruit creme brulee. I was bummed there was no chocolate, but strangely enough truly enjoyed braking thru the crispy shell to spoon out creamy deliciousness. This was a great ending to the meal, capped off by Dante’s candy cart loaded with Lemonheads, fireballs, bubble gum and jolly ranchers rolling out onto the main floor. Excellent way to end a great evening. What about the wine pairings? Who cares…just kidding. The highlight was the St.Suprey Moscato paired with dessert. Sweet and rich, this is the kind of wine that will leave you wondering why you decided to drive to Mexico at 2 am. The white to start and red for the main course was well whatever.

I tried to take pictures, but the light was so low all I could here was my friend Simone telling me that I should not post such poor quality pictures. What I will tell you is I wish I had gotten some nice shots of Dante cutting the chicken or my pasta dish. Overall, I am looking forward to a return visit to Dante to put their menu to the test, looks like he has found a great potential home here in Cleveland and I hope he focuses on creating great dishes with exceptional service.

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Simple, Simple Chicken Curry

by susannahm on 17. Jan, 2009 in Susannah Michaels

The first time I ate Indian food was at Shashank and Seema’s wedding at the Hindu temple in Aurora, Illinois. Two carloads of Shashank’s grad school friends drove down from Madison. We were among the very few people in attendance not wearing colorful saris and shalwar kameezes. The ceremony was beautiful and foreign to us. “They should have closed captioning for the Hindi-impaired,” one friend commented. Afterward, instead of a reception line, we all went upstairs to a peaceful, empty part of the temple, and Shashank and Seema made the rounds among their guests, with her sari and his shalwar kameez tied together at the edge. It was sweet. And a little strange. Although they had chosen each other, rather than accepting an arranged marriage, there was no long courtship. They had known each other for three months. A few months earlier, we had known Shashank as something of a rake, and now here he was, tied to his new wife. I’m happy to report that 14 years later, they have three adorable kids (who endearingly call us Uncle and Aunt, in the Indian tradition) and a strong marriage.

But what about the food?? After our wanderings in the lofty upstairs, we descended to the basement for lunch. We went down the buffet line of unknown dishes. The other wedding guests, who had been kind to us all along, explaining tidbits of the wedding ceremony, continued to be kind. They told us what we’d like and what dishes we’d find too spicy. I was in my mid-twenties and had somehow never had this food before. But I loved it! I love that it’s vegetarian, that it’s curry, that it’s drenched in sauce — these are all characteristics I enjoy.

I once bought an Indian cookbook and thought I’d cook some of this great food up myself. I quickly learned that it’s not that easy. I began to feel that technique and a deep understanding of exactly how to use spices were fundamentals I lacked. I donated the cookbook to my library. I didn’t want it in my house as a reminder of what was out of my reach.

Enter Patak’s mild curry sauce.

pataks

I found this sauce at my warehouse-like, no frills grocery store. I followed the chicken recipe on the side of the jar. And now I can make Indian food. No, it’s not veggie (I’ve tried it with veggies and it’s not as good), and it’s not the really great Indian food I enjoy at Shashank and Seema’s or at our burgeoning population of Indian restaurants in Madison. But it’s okay, it’s pretty good. And it’s easy, can serve a crowd, and makes Ben really, really happy. So why not?

You’ll need: 1 medium onion (diced), a few tablespoons of oil, 1 pound of chicken (diced into bite-sized pieces), a few tablespoons of Patak’s mild curry paste, and a quart of tomatoes and their juices (preferably home-canned). Yes, it’s that simple.

Start some brown rice cooking. Then, in a large pan, fry the onion in the oil for a few minutes. Add the chicken and stir until the pieces are white on the outside. Mix in a few tablespoons of curry paste. Add your tomatoes and simmer until the chicken is done. That’s probably as little as 10 minutes, but I do half an hour to be on the safe side. Serve your curry over your rice and enjoy.

curry

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Bubbi Chicken and Challah for XMAS Eve

by susannahm on 25. Dec, 2008 in Susannah Michaels

I invited some friends over for Christmas Eve dinner and decided to serve them my Bubbi’s stovetop chicken and potato recipe. I didn’t take any photos of it because let’s face it, a pot of chicken isn’t that photogenic. But it’s a simple recipe and here it is: put a half inch of water in a large soup pot. Add in a few shakes of soy sauce. Slice two large onions in rounds and throw those in the pot, get it all boiling, then turn it down and simmer. While the onion is stewing, take six to eight pieces of thigh and leg chicken, put them in a bowl and dust them generously on both sides with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Wash them with a cup of orange juice, letting all the juice collect in the bowl. Add the chicken and juice to your soup pot, bring back to a boil, then back to a simmer. While that’s simmering, peel four medium potatoes and cut them into long wedges. Once the chicken has gotten a half-hour head start, tuck your potatoes in around them and dust them too with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Consider a dash of cayenne. Walk away for a couple hours and simmer the hell out of it. When you’re ready to eat, the chicken will fall off the bone and the potatoes will mash if you so much as look at them with a fork in your hand. Douse your potatoes in the plentiful gravy that has resulted from this cooking.

If you’re making this for guests, make it earlier in the day, as Bubbi always did, and reheat it at dinnertime. That way, you are completely relaxed when your guests arrive, because you’ve had time for a nap. I’m not saying that Bubbi napped or was relaxed, but you and I can be.

The gravy is so profuse, you’ll need something to sop it up with. We always used to arrive at Bubbi’s on a Friday night, so there was always a loaf of challah. Since I was making Bubbi chicken on a festive occasion, albeit Christmas Eve, not Shabbes, I decided to make a challah.

My bread machine made the dough.

Dough

I kneaded it, cut it in thirds, rolled it out, braided it, let it rise, and coated it with egg and poppy seeds.

Rise

Then I baked it at 350 for about half an hour.

Challah

I’m not going to claim that this was the best challah in the world. But it was fine. It had that characteristic silky texture, it looked lovely, and it sopped up gravy just fine.

Now I have to write Bubbi a letter and tell her how successful the meal was. When she taught me this dish several years ago, she told me, “Stick with me, you’ll be a good cook some day.” I was in my late thirties and had been cooking successfully for years. But there’s truth to what she says – she, like my father and my cousin Jamie, is an intuitive cook. I just follow recipes. In this case, I followed hers.

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