Nuts in the Kitchen (15 page)
Duck Breast with Almonds, Garlic, and Cumin
Makes 4 servings
Duck breast is one of the finest meats of all, and the accompaniment of toasted almonds with garlic and cumin makes for a unique combination. The almonds are chopped, then sifted before being cooked to a golden turn in the duck fat, then they are added to softened onions, spiked with a bit of cumin salt, and set off with a drizzle of reduced orange juice. The result is a dish that looks as if you spent all day making it—but you won’t.
I drink a deep, rich Fronton from Château la Colombière with this.
1 cup (250 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
¼ teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Two 13-ounce (370-g) duck breasts (magrets)
Fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup (120 g) raw almonds, coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, diced
2 large or 4 small garlic cloves, cut crosswise into paper-thin slices
Mounded ¼ teaspoon Cumin Salt (Chapter The Basics), or to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, chilled
Fresh herbs for garnish
1.
Place the orange juice in a medium, heavy pan over medium heat. Bring to a lively simmer and simmer until the juice is thickened to a syrup and has reduced by about two-thirds, about 10 minutes. Check the juice frequently to be sure it isn’t reducing too quickly. Remove from the heat, whisk in the vinegar, and reserve.
2.
Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat. When it is hot but not smoking, add the duck breasts, skin side down. Cover and cook until the skin is deep golden, about 8 minutes. Turn and cook for 30 seconds, then remove them from the pan. Drain off most of the fat, reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons, and return the duck breasts to the pan, skin side down. Continue cooking them, covered,
just until the meat is done on the outside but is still very rare inside, 5 to 6 minutes more. Remove the duck breasts from the pan and place them on a cutting board with a trough to catch any juices that run from them. Season the duck breasts with fleur de sel and pepper and let them rest for about 5 minutes.
3.
Place the chopped almonds in a sieve over a bowl and shake the sieve so any tiny almond particles fall through.
4.
Place 2 tablespoons of the reserved duck fat in a heavy skillet over medium heat, add the onions, and sauté until they are softened, about 8 minutes. Add the almonds and cook until they are toasty and golden, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin salt and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the garlic is golden and the cumin is fragrant, 4 to 5 minutes. Don’t let the almonds burn—move the skillet off the heat if it is getting too hot. Remove from the heat, season lightly with fleur de sel, and transfer to a bowl. Reserve.
5.
Using the same saucepan, place the reduced orange juice over medium heat, and when it is simmering, whisk in the butter, moving the pan on and off the heat so that the butter emulsifies into the orange juice and makes it glisten.
6.
Slice the duck breasts crosswise on the bias into thin
slices and keep them warm. Place about 1 tablespoon of the almond and garlic mixture in the center of each plate, then top with three or four slices of the duck breasts, overlapping them. Drizzle the slices with orange sauce. Garnish with herbs and serve immediately.
Chicken with Walnuts and Pomegranate Molasses
Makes 6 servings
There are so many layers of flavor here, ranging from the tangy pomegranate molasses to buttery walnuts, which thicken the sauce and give it texture, to the inherent goodness of a farm-raised chicken. This dish was inspired by the Middle East, where walnuts grow in company with pistachios and grapevines and where pomegranate trees grow wild, their fruit available for the picking.
Serve a lovely Château Turcaud with this.
FOR THE CHICKEN:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One 3-pound (1.5-kg) chicken, cut into 6 serving pieces
Fine sea salt
4 small (about 4 ounces/110g each) onions, each cut into 10 wedges
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthwise
3 tablespoons (45 ml) pomegranate molasses
2 cups (8 ounces/200 g) walnuts, ground
FOR THE HERBS:
1 cup (10 g) mint leaves, loosely packed
½ cup (5 g) parsley leaves, loosely packed
1 cup (7 g) cilantro leaves, loosely packed
Generous handful of herb sprigs for garnish
Note:
When grinding walnuts in a food processor, pay careful attention so they don’t become an oily mess. To avoid this, add a pinch of sea salt right at the start and keep careful watch.
If you cannot find pomegranate molasses, available at Middle Eastern markets and some supermarkets, substitute 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon pomegranate juice.
While this recipe is intended for chicken, it is marvelous with guinea fowl as well.
1.
Place the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the chicken and brown it well on both sides, seasoning each side with salt, about 10 minutes total. Remove the chicken from the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add the onions. Stir and cook until they are softened and golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, stir, and continue cooking until the garlic is nearly cooked and beginning to turn golden at the edges, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup (250 ml) water, scraping up any caramelized pieces that may have
stuck to the bottom of the pan, then add the chicken pieces, nestling them down among the onions. Bring the water to a lively simmer, cover, and cook the chicken until it is nearly cooked through, about 25 minutes, turning it twice as it cooks. Stir in the pomegranate molasses, add another cup (250 ml) of water, stir in the ground walnuts, and continue cooking, turning the chicken twice more, until the meat is beginning to fall from the bone and the sauce is thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.
2.
About 10 minutes before the chicken is cooked, mince the herbs and stir them into the chicken dish. Continue cooking until the flavors of the herbs have melded with the other ingredients, about 10 minutes.
3.
To serve the chicken, place one piece of chicken on each of six plates. Top with a generous serving of sauce. Garnish with the herb sprigs and serve.
Makes 4 servings
Cherifa, a friend of mine who is of Algerian origin, owns La Casbah, an Algerian restaurant in a town near mine called Acquigny. The chefs at La Casbah are Algerian women, clad in traditional garb, who make only the most traditional of Algerian dishes from Cherifa’s recipes, including this tagine. What makes this tagine better than most is the balance of almonds and spices, as well as the apples, which are included because they are the fruit of Normandy, Cherifa’s adopted home.
Tagine
refers to a two-piece clay oven with a peaked lid that is pierced with a tiny hole, as well as to the stew cooked inside. The ingredients are first browned in the bottom part of the oven, which is like a large, shallow dish, over the coals. Then the top is set in place, and the mixture braises and mellows. Tagines were traditionally made with what was easily available, and in the Maghreb, as northern Africa is called, that means almonds and sesame seeds, abundant dried fruits, and poultry. Chicken is typical, but here guinea fowl is used to dress up the dish, take it uptown. However, if guinea fowl is hard to get, buy a good farm-raised chicken or a leg or shoulder of lamb.
Try a lovely Beaujolais, such as one from Moulin Blanc.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as canola
One 3-pound (1.5-kg) guinea hen or chicken, cut into 6 serving pieces
Fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
4 onions, diced
Two 4-inch (10-cm) cinnamon sticks
½ teaspoon saffron threads
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 thick coin fresh ginger, peeled and minced (about 1 teaspoon)
1 bunch of cilantro, tied together with kitchen string
3 tablespoons (45 g) unsalted butter
¼ cup (60 ml) honey
5 good-size apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
½ cup (70 g) raw almonds
3 tablespoons orange flower water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted
Note:
Don’t forget the sesame seeds atop the dish; they add not only their toasty flavor but a healthy touch of iron too.
1.
Heat the oil in the bottom of a tagine or in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the guinea hen, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook until the pieces are golden on each side, a total of about 8 minutes. Remove the guinea hen and add the onions to the pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are golden, about 8 minutes. Add 1 cup (250 ml) water to the pan and stir, then add the cinnamon sticks, the saffron, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, the ground and fresh
ginger, and the cilantro and stir to thoroughly combine. Nestle the guinea hen pieces down among the onions and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat so the water is simmering, and cook the guinea hen, turning it at least three times so that it is impregnated with the spices, until it is tender, about 30 minutes.
2.
While the guinea hen is cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey, apples, and almonds and cook, stirring often, until the apples are just tender and beginning to caramelize on all sides and the nuts are golden, about 10 minutes. Watch the apples carefully to be sure they don’t burn, and reduce the heat if necessary.
3.
When the apples are cooked, fold them into the pan with the guinea hen, along with the almonds and their cooking juices. Stir in the orange flower water. Cover and cook just until all the flavors meld and the apples begin to melt, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
4.
Remove the cinnamon sticks and the bouquet of cilantro. Adjust the seasoning, sprinkle the sesame seeds over all, and serve immediately.
Argan Oil
I first tasted argan oil at Arpège, Alain Passard’s nearly vegetarian three-star restaurant in Paris, about ten years ago. The oil had been much in the news at that time, vaunted as the latest culinary wonder, imported directly from Morocco. Dark golden and slightly gamy tasting, it didn’t make me swoon, but I have become and remain a devotee because
of the people behind its production, the women of the Sousse plain in southwestern Morocco.
Fruit from the argan tree (
Argania spinosa
) has long been harvested by Berbers living on the Sousse plain, the only place the twisted, thorny tree thrives. Traditionally, goats were the handmaidens of its production, for they scramble up the trees and perch on its limbs to eat the soft fleshy fruit, expelling the pit that contains the cherished nut. Today, however, while goats still do the work on remote farms, argan fruit destined for commercial production is harvested from the tree by human workers.
The production of argan oil, which has traditionally been used in Morocco as both a condiment and a cosmetic, has always been women’s work, and thus it remains. Women collect the fruit and let it dry in the sun. Once dry, the nut is separated from the fruit and cracked open using a small oval stone. Inside is the oil-rich kernel. These are roasted, then ground.
Thanks to Zoubida Charrouf, a professor in the science department at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, who has made the production of argan oil a personal mission because she realized that it sustained an important rural population, and to the government of King Mohammed VI, argan oil cooperatives have been established. With the multiple goals of creating sustainable argan forests and improving women’s rights, these cooperatives allow women to work in good conditions, get decent pay, and have time to take care of their children. Other countries like Monaco contribute funds to the argan project, and UNESCO has weighed in by designating the 10,000-mile argan region as a biosphere, acknowledging the conservation and sustainable development of the argan oil industry.
If, like me, you don’t love the taste of argan oil, you may like the way its considerable vitamin E and essential fatty acids soften your skin and can give it what the French call
éclat,
or “luminosity.” If its nutty flavor appeals to you, then do as the Berbers do and drizzle it on raw vegetables or couscous before steaming or mix it with honey and almonds to make
amlou,
a tahinilike paste. Whatever its use, argan oil sustains on every level.
Sicilian Sweet and Sour Rabbit
Makes 6 servings
Many dishes in Sicily are like this one, with the poetry of the Middle East wafting through their flavors, an influence from the Saracens, who came to Sicily and left behind them everything from sweet and sour sauces and apricot trees to fancifully beautiful architecture. As in many Sicilian dishes, this sauce is thickened with almonds, which along with the currants balance the tart lemon juice.
3 tablespoons almonds, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons currants
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One 3-pound (1.5-kg) rabbit, cut into 6 serving pieces
Fine sea salt
4 medium (4 ounces/120g each) red onions, thinly sliced
6 fresh bay leaves from the
Laurus nobilis
or dried imported bay leaves
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup (125 ml) fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
Fresh herbs such as flat-leaf parsley, basil, sage, or fennel for garnish
Note:
Chicken is a worthy substitute in this dish. Both will cook quickly as they braise in the flavorful juices, about 30 minutes from start to finish. The many bay leaves impart a sweetness to the rabbit.
1.
Place the chopped almonds and currants in a mortar or in a food processor and crush or process them to form a chunky paste. Reserve.
2.
Place the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. When it is hot but not smoking, add the rabbit pieces, season with salt, and brown them on each side, about 8 minutes total, salting the other side when you turn the rabbit.
3.
Remove the rabbit from the pan and add the onions, stir until they are coated with the oil, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften, about 8 minutes. Return the rabbit to the pan and nestle it among the onions. Add the crushed currants and almonds, bay leaves, and 1 cup (250 ml) hot water. Stir, season lightly with salt and pepper, and cook, uncovered, turning the rabbit regularly and adding up to another cup (250 ml)
water so that there is always a scant inch in the pan, until the rabbit is two-thirds cooked, about 20 minutes.
4.
In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and sugar. Add to the rabbit in the pan, stir well, cover, and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Uncover the pan and continue to cook until the rabbit is cooked all the way through and the juices have reduced somewhat, an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste.
5.
To serve, remove and discard the bay leaves from the sauce. Place a piece of rabbit in the center of each of six warmed plates and spoon an equal amount of the cooking juices, onions, currants, and almonds over each piece. Garnish each with a sprig of herbs. Serve immediately.
