Expatriate Chicken with Diva

Wine:
Domaine du Mas Blanc Banyul’s Blanc 2005
2 Wiv\ves Sauvignon blanc 2007

We just purchased a new cookbook: Moro East. It is from one of our favorite restaurants in London. This is their 3rd cookbook. Since Tomatoes are in season we made an unusual Tomato Salad with Cumin. The Salad is topped with Roasted Cumin that we crushed in mortal and pestle. We also crushed fresh black pepper and sprinkled it on the on the salad. The recipe calls for the onion slices to be soaked in milk with ice cubes to make the onions both crisper and less strong. After about 30 minutes they are drained, patted dry and added to the salad. We add crumbled feta to the salad.

We had Bea over for one of our favorite Chicken recipes:
Expatriate Roast Chicken with Lemon and Olives from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert. This is a very easy chicken to cook and the Moroccan flavors are exceptional. You need Preserved Lemons which you can either buy or preserve yourself.

With the chicken we made Cous-Cous, the traditional side for this dish. It absorbs all of the great sauce that the Chicken recipe creates.

Once again, dessert was Ginger Cookies from The Cheese Store of Silverlake.



Expatriate Roast Chicken with Lemon and Olives
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This super-moist Moroccan roast chicken is first stuffed with a lavish amount of preserved lemon and a bit of hot pepper, scented with ginger and black pepper, and flavored with garlic and good extra virgin olive oil. The bird is then roasted over onion and spices. These subtle and elementary flavors remind me of Morocco—in other words, it is an expatriate's delight.
SERVES 4 TO 6
One 4-pound chicken, preferably free-range or kosher
Salt
Pinch of saffron threads
1 preserved lemon, rinsed and quartered, pulp and skin reserved
1 cinnamon stick, 2 inches long
1 small onion, grated
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon sugar
Pinch or cayenne
1cup green olives (about 5 ounces), such as picholine, rinsed
Freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1. Early in the day, rinse the chicken inside and out; thoroughly pat dry. In a bowl, combine the pulp of the preserved lemon with the ginger, cayenne, ¼ teaspoon of the black pepper, the garlic, and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place this mixture in the cavity of the bird. Tuck the wings under the chicken and tie the legs together. Cover with paper towels and refrigerate until 3 hours before serving. Let the chicken return to room temperature before roasting.

2. About 2 hours before serving, bring 4 cups water to a boil. Rub the chicken with salt and black pepper. Lightly oil a shallow roasting pan, set an oiled V-shaped rack in it, and put the chicken on the rack, breast side up. Set the pan in a cold oven and pour the 4 cups boiling water into the pan under the chicken. Add the saffron, cinnamon stick, onion, and sugar to the hot water. Turn
the oven temperature to 55O°F and roast until the breast of the chicken is golden brown, about 45 minutes.

3. Reduce the oven temperature to 275°F. Turn the chicken on one of its sides, brush with olive oil, and roast for 2O minutes. Turn the bird onto its other side, baste again with olive oil, and continue to roast for another 20 minutes. Finally, turn the chicken upside down to brown the back; roast for about 10 minutes. Test for doneness: an instant-read .thermometer inserted in ie thigh should register 160° to 165°.

4. Leaving the oven on, remove the chicken on its rack to a carving board, cover with foil, and rest for 20 minutes. (The internal temperature will rise to 170°F.) Meanwhile, skim the fat off the pan juices. Add the olives and half the cilantro; mix and return the pan to the oven to reduce for 2O minutes.

5. Carve the chicken and arrange in a heatproof serving dish. Spoon the olives around the chicken. Season the pan juices with additional salt and pepper and pour over the meat. Arrange preserved lemon peels on top. Garnish with the remaining chopped cilantro.