Aji de Gallina

Aji de Gallina a Turquia

Adapted from The Art of Peruvian Cuisine, by Tony Custer

(a beautiful gift from the Lemleys)

This is one of Kelani’s favorite dishes. I was not sure if I could pull it off without all of the Peruvian spices available. It worked. Not certain how a Peruvian would have felt about the substitutions, but other than being more red than yellow in color, the results reminded of us our time in Peru.

• 1 chicken (about 2 kg, 4 pounds or 3 complete breasts)
• 1 medium chopped white onion
• 1 clove (3 really), crushed (I chopped instead)
• 7 tablespoons aji marisol paste (recipe below)
• ½ loaf sliced bread without the crust (I took a loaf of fresh bread, sliced it, and toasted it in the oven, then put it in the food processor), about 1 ½ cups of crumbs, I think
• 2 cups plus chicken stock (I made this as you have to boil the chicken and peel the meat off the bone, so I kept the chicken water, added the bones, salt, and cooked some more)
• 1 ½ cups evaporated milk- we do not have this, so I used whole milk, about 2 cups (I do not like the after taste of evaporated milk either)
• 100 grams chopped walnuts
• 125 grams grated parmesan cheese
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 dozen black olives
• 6 – 8 yellow potatoes (I used rice instead)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 6 hard boiled eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Start making the aji marisol paste if you do not already have it.

In a pan of water boil the chicken gently. Cool. Shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. Return the bones and skin if you want to the pan, add salt and boil gently to make your chicken stock.

Add milk to bread crumbs.

In a large heavy based pan, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil. Sauté the onion until golden, add the garlic and aji marisol paste and fry them well.

Add the soaked bread mixture. Cook for another 10 minutes and then begin to add ladles of the hot chicken stock, stirring constantly. Each time the sauce thickens add the chicken stock. While stirring continually add the olive oil.

Finally, add the shredded chicken, parmesan cheese and nuts. If it is too thick add some more stock while stirring gently so as not to mash the chicken. Simmer gently until the oil comes to the surface.

Serve hot (accompanied by rice) and yellow potatoes. Garnish with olives and hard boiled eggs. (I do not serve rice and potatoes, also baked french fries are a good substitute).

Pasa de Aji Mirasol

Pasta de Aji Mirasol

Adapted from The Art of Peruvian Cuisine, by Tony Custer

I did not have the proper peppers. Aji Mirasol is a yellow or orange colored pepper.

I used my dried peppers from Mexico, California and New Mexico. Not certain what they were just various sizes of dark and light red chilies.

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 lb (500 grams) dried aji marisol (I used about 1.5 handfuls of ? dried chilies, 2 big ones about 10 little ones)
• Water

Stem and seed the ajies. Toast them in a dry skillet over high heat for a few minutes (careful- the odor can be painful on the breathing and eyes), then put them in boiling water for a few minutes. If you are worried that the chilies will be too spicy, change the water and blanch the chilies again (a third time if necessary, but I found twice was just right). In a blender or food processor with steel blade, process the ajis with just enough vegetable oil and water to make a thick paste. Push the mixture through a sieve and discard remaining skins.

Tomato Sauce and Meatballs

Meatballs and Tomato Sauce


I have adjusted the recipe from a January 2009 Gourmet. It calls for canned tomatoes which are too heavy to carry home from the store, plus there are usually plenty of tomatoes year round here in Turkey.

For tomato sauce:

2.5 kilos or 5.5 pounds tomatoes
2 medium onions, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Boil water; add enough tomatoes so that you can still see them all. Boil until the skin starts to split, take those out and continue with the remaining. Peel tomatoes and cut out the top part. Now you can crush them with your hands, or put them in the food processor so they are not so lumpy (Kelani’s preference).

Make sauce: Cook onions in oil in pot over medium heat, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Simmer sauce uncovered stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, 45 minutes to an hour.



For meatballs:

1 medium onion finely chopped

¼ cup olive oil, maybe less

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1.5 cups torn day-old Italian bread

1.5 cups milk

3 large eggs
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (cheese)
¼ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
¼ cup finely chopped oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried crumbled
½ tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 ¼ pounds or 1 kilo ground meat- I use lamb and beef, the recipe calls for veal, pork and not lean beef
1 cup olive or vegetable oil

We do not usually have day-old Italian bread lying around, so we take a nice loaf and slice it, then put it in a 180 C or 350 F oven for about 8-10 minutes to toast it. Then put it in the food processor to turn them into crumbs.

Cook onions in oil in skillet over medium heat until soft, about ten minutes. Add garlic and cook about 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

Soak bread in milk in another bowl until soft, about 5 minutes. Squeeze bread to remove milk and discard milk.

Stir together cooled onion mixture, bread, eggs, parmesan, parsley, oregano, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Add meats to bread mixture gently mixing with your hands until just combined.

Form meat mixture into meat balls and arrange on cookie sheets.

Heat 1 cup olive or vegetable oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking, then brown meatballs in batches (without crowding), turning frequently, about 5 minutes per batch. Return to cookie sheets.

Add meatballs to sauce and gently simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes.

Lemon Squares

Today Kelani made Lemon Squares. She did not want the butter crust, so she substituted sweet crackers (biscuits?) put in the food processor and one half cup melted butter. Pressed all into the pan (9 by 13 as we doubled the recipe), and baked about 7 minutes.

I prefer the crust in the recipe as the sweet cracker crust absorbed most of the liquid.

Lemon Squares
From: Portfolio: Culinary Art; Denver Art Museum, 1974. Pg. 36
I usually double the recipe and put it in a 9 by 13 inch pan.

180 C or 350 F oven

Crust:
1 cup flour
½ cup butter
¼ cup powdered sugar

Cut butter into flour and sugar until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pat firmly into 9 inch square pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at . Do not brown.

2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons lemon juice (Peruvian or Hawaiian limes are great)
Grated rind of one lemon (or lime)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder

Stir lemon juice into eggs. Add grated lemon rind, sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder all at once and mix only until well blended. Pour over the baked srust and return to oven. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at . Watch closely so top doesn’t brown. Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar immediately after removing from oven. Cool and cut into squares after several hours.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I do not know where this recipe came from; it is in my binder of recipes. My mom makes something similar (but richer and rumy).

Cake

12 ounces (350 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 large eggs, separated
12 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Glaze

½ cup whipping cream (125 ml)
½ cup dark corn syrup (125 ml), if you cannot find corn syrup it will work without, just double cream
9 ounces (250 grams) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

The cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Butter 9-inch-diameter (22.5 cm?) springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper, butter paper. Wrap outside of with foil.

Stir chocolate and butter in saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm stirring often.

Beat egg yolks and 6 tablespoons of sugar in large bowl until very thick and pale (about 3 minute with electric mixer). Fold in the chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar, beating until medium form peaks are formed. Fold the whites into the chocolate mixture in three additions. Pour batter into the pan.

Bake the cake until the top is puffed, cracked and the toothpick inserted into the center comes out with some moist crumbs, about 50 minutes. Cool cake on rack- the cake will fall.

Gently press down the crust top to make the cake evenly thick. Cut around the pan sides to loosen the cake, remove pan sides. Invert cake onto plate, and peel off the parchment paper.

The glaze:

Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth.

Pour glaze over cake and chill until form. Serve at room temperature.

Baked French Fries

The "tortilla" soup I made today was a little too spicy. So I figured some french fries might sooth some of the spice. They are so easy and quick and tasty without deep frying them in oil. I also like to leave the skin on the potatoes (more vitamin something).

For two people:

scrub three nice sized potatoes.

slice up the potoatoes put them in a bowl

add about 1/3 cup of olive oil to coat them well

add a generous amount of garlic salt (and/or Lowreys seasoning salt would be good too if we had it)

pepper too if your other part of the meal isn't too spicy
bake in the oven at 180 C or 350 F, stirring every 20 minutes until crispy - about 45 to 50 minutes total.

Eggs Benedict

Kelani has been asking to have this for breakfast since eating it at The Epicurean in Steamboat Springs. Ours is the Turkish version as we did not make crab cakes nor did we have English muffins. We did enjoy though.

We took rye bread, spread it with dijon mustard, put on a couple of slices of a beef salami (no bacon here), then some slices of sweet onion, on top we put a mixture of hard cheese (like parmesan) and a sheep or goat feta. We then heated it up in the oven.

I poached the eggs (I need to work on that), placed on on top of the bread combo and added the Hollandaise sauce.

 Sauce Hollandaise- from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

  

So that the egg yolks will thicken into a smooth cream, they must be heated slowly and gradually. Overcooking scrambles them. You may beat them over hot water or over low heat; it makes no difference as long as the process is slow and gentle.

For 1 to 1 ½ cups hollandaise- serving 4 – 6 people

• 6 to 8 ounces of butter ( to 1 cup or 1 ½ to 2 sticks)
• A small saucepan 

Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in the saucepan over moderate heat. Then set it aside.

• A 4 to 6 cup, medium weight, enameled or stainless steel saucepan
• A wire whisk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Big pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cold butter
• 1 tablespoon cold butter (one for the beginning one for the end)
• Salt and white pepper

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute in the saucepan, or until they become thick and sticky.
Add the water, lemon juice, and salt, and beat for half a minute or more.
Add the tablespoon of cold butter, but do not beat it in. Then place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whisk until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water, beating the yolks to cool them. Then continue beating over heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whisk.

 Immediately remove from heat and beat in the cold butter, which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking.

 Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whisk, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoonfuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.

 Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.