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Ajvar

May 5, 2018 by Carine Clary Leave a Comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAjvar. Rhymes with cavyar, which is caviar in English and havyar in Turkish but everyone in the eastern Mediterranean knows it as an appetizer starring red pepper and eggplant. The supporting cast includes garlic, lemon juice and hot peppers. I think the “caviar” attribution comes from its ability to be spread on toast or pita like caviar but without the expense of caviar, making it the poor man’s vegetarian version.

The fact that it’s healthy should not deter you from indulging because it tastes very good and is somewhat addictive which is why the recipe can easily be multiplied for groups larger than four. And how can you not like it? After all, it’s fire engine red and hot as that little car you saved up for back in high school, so enjoy!

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Roasting the Peppers

The only challenge presented by Avyar is getting the peppers cooked so that they’re easy to peel. Some people will just tell you to cut them in half, lie them face down, and put them under the broiler. However, I’ve found that they cook faster and better if they’re quartered. That way the inner part is mostly touching the cookie sheet and absorbing its heat. The other advantage is that with the skin side being flatter to the pan the peppers will char more evenly. Once they’re soft you need to put them in a bowl and cover them with a rag or plastic. Don’t skip this step. Steam coming off the cooling peppers will make them easy to peel.

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Prepping the Eggplant

The eggplant can be sliced in half lengthwise and broiled in the oven. I’ve found, however, that if you peel and slice it into chunks, then cover it with foil it will cook in the same amount of time it takes the peppers. The foil will trap the steam coming off the eggplant which will speed the cooking process.

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Processing your Ajvar

If you’re using the roasted garlic instead of the raw, just hold it by the papery outside and gently squeeze the cooked cloves into the eggplant before pureeing.

The rest is just a trip to Cuisinart land or some vigorous smashing with a potato ricer. If you do use the Cuisinart go easy on it. Two or three quick pulses should render a satisfyingly chunky texture. Think appetizer, not Gerber’s Strained Ajvar. You don’t want to experience what happened to me when I attempted to make this on vacation at a friend’s house. She didn’t have a Cuisinart so we decided to make it in her brand new Vitamix. The result was basically grey sludge. Interestingly, it didn’t even taste quite the same which illustrates the importance of texture.

So, when you’re done (however you did it) it’s great just eaten off your fingers, but best on toast or pita as shown above.

Ajvar
 
Print
Author: Carine Clary
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Croatian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs. red peppers
  • 1 lb. eggplant
  • 1 small head of garlic, top cut off & drizzled with oil
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • dash of red vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • red pepper flakes to taste
Instructions
  1. Cut peppers in quarters, remove seeds and white inner membrane.
  2. Turn the broiler to 500 degrees.
  3. Toss peppers in olive oil, coating all sides, then put on a cookie sheet cut side down, and run under the broiler till the skin starts to blacken and bubble. Watch them carefully. Ovens are variable in their heating capacity and you don't want them to burn.
  4. Peel the eggplant, toss in a little oil then place on a cookie sheet or grill pan and put in the oven with the peppers. Slice the top off the garlic head, drizzle with oil, and place on the pan with the eggplant. Cover with foil.
  5. When peppers are done remove them to a bowl, cover them with plastic, and let them cool, then remove the skin. Covering them creates steam and will make it easier to remove the skin.
  6. Put peeled red peppers in a food processor and puree. Remove and set aside.
  7. Put cooked eggplant and garlic in the food processor and pulse several times.
  8. Add seasonings to taste, garnish with parsley and serve with french bread or pita.
Notes
You can use a finely diced smoked jalapeno pepper in place of the red pepper flakes. Just add it carefully and taste along the way so there's not too much heat.

If you use raw garlic instead of roasted, reduce the amount to 2 small cloves which you should mince, and then smash with the side of the knife. You want to avoid biting down on a hard piece of it.

I usually double this recipe because it goes fast.
3.2.2708

 

Filed Under: Appetizers, Croatian, Turkish, Vegetables Tagged With: ajvar, red pepper appetizer, red pepper eggplant appetizer

Takko Chicken

October 19, 2017 by Carine Clary 2 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFirst question answered. Takko Chicken did not come to New Orleans on the slow boat from Tampico. Nothing at all to do with Mexico it’s completely Croatian. Croatians dominate the oyster business locally and own numerous  restaurants – many of them Italian since Croatia abuts the northeast corner of Italy and Croatians have mastered northeastern Italian cuisine. They’re famous for oyster recipes, the most famous being the New Orleans restaurant Drago’s charbroiled oysters which would be hands down my first choice for a death row meal. However, as I’m currently free I like to branch out and eat other things, this being one of them.

The recipe here has been adapted from the version used by the Kopanica family of New Orleans. It’s called Takko because Croatians in New Orleans are called Takkos. “Tak” in most Slavic languages means “so” and the greeting among the oldsters in the community was, “How ya doin’?” the response being “Tako Tako” (so so). They may have been doing “so so” but their chicken is doing much much better.

The concept here is a quick fry for color followed by a slow braise that infuses the chicken with the garlic and herbs and renders the meat fall off the bone tender. Prefrying the chicken to brown it and create flavor was a slam dunk for someone who once won a blue ribbon for fried chicken at a middle school cooking contest. For most people the usual difficulty in achieving perfect fried chicken is cooking the chicken to browness on the outside and doneness on the inside. That requires just the right temperature or you end up with crunchy crust over raw meat. Takko Chicken eliminates this problem because you are frying only for the crust. It’s a fry first, braise to the finish dish so your only concern is a brown flavorful crust which makes it easy.

You can get a whole chicken and cut it up or buy various chicken parts, just know the gut capacity of your diners and buy accordingly. Once you’ve done this dry the chicken parts off, salt and pepper them, roll in flour and let rest while the oil is heating, then place the chicken parts in the oil with space around each piece and remove when the pieces start to color up.

While this is happening you get a good handful of parsley (flat or curly) and mince it finely, same with the garlic – very fine for both. And this is where the recipe got a little strange for me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I read the instructions from Nike Kopanica Wood I’m thinking, “butter pats….one side smashed in garlic….one side smashed in parsley…one pat per piece,” what in the world?? It seems like a lot of work when you could just sprinkle the seasonings on top and have done with it. However, Nike is a great cook so I figured I’d do it her way…at least the first time. So I cut the chilled butter into pats about a 1/3 inch thick, pressed them down into the garlic, flipped them, then dredged the other side in parsley (kinda fun actually) then laid them on the pieces of chicken as directed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAYou can see below how interesting it looks and I thought, well it makes for a cool pic so not a total loss. I put a couple of tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan, covered it, and put it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour. I checked it from time to time because slow cooked meats will throw off differing amounts of liquid, some more, some less, hence the small amount of water to start. You want to create a little steam at the beginning before the chicken starts to render its juices. You also want to check the dish a time or two during cooking. If there isn’t enough liquid you can add another teaspoon of water.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAfter an hour I took the lid off. Then I got it. The whole butter pat routine. Because what happened was that some of the garlic and parsley flowed down to the bottom and mixed with the chicken juices and some stayed on top so that the meat was being flavored from both sides. The braising method mellowed the garlic and mixed perfectly with the parsley. My take away from this was nevermore to question the wisdom of Nike or the years of Croatian cooking that produced it! My contribution to the recipe consisted of dusting it with paprika and serving it on toast. Nike had suggested potatoes and I’d further suggest that if you’re missing either toast or potatoes just knock back a shot glass of the wonderful gravy.

And last but not least – this recipe is not improved by tweaking with more or different herbs etc… It’s supposed to be a dish of three distinct flavors. Chicken, garlic, and parsley. The last two are traditional in Croatian cooking and if they’re both fresh they’ll provide all the flavor you need.

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Takko Chicken
 
Print
Author: Carine Clary
Recipe type: Chicken
Cuisine: Croatian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 3 lbs. skin on chicken (or chicken parts)
  • Lard or vegetable oil for frying
  • Flour
  • 1 small clove Garlic per piece of chicken
  • Parsley (curly or flat, NOT dried)
  • 1 pat of Butter per piece of chicken
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Paprika
Instructions
  1. Dry off the chicken, salt and pepper it, and dredge the chicken parts in the flour. Shake off the excess flour and set aside.
  2. Heat to medium about ½ inch of lard or vegetable oil in a thick bottomed skillet. You can have the heat a little higher than you might for fried chicken because you are only looking to brown not to cook it all the way through. Turn the pieces to brown on both sides. The browning is to enhance the flavor of the finished dish so remove the pieces as soon as they get color. Depending on the size of the pan you may have two or more batches of chicken. Just be careful not to crowd the pan when you're frying. When all the parts are done set aside to cool and drain.
  3. Place the pieces in a shallow covered braising dish big enough so there is just one layer. Depending on the number of people you're cooking for you may need more than one dish.
  4. Now very finely mince enough garlic and parsley to dredge the butter pats in.
  5. Cut the chilled butter into pats about ⅓ inch thick. Press one side into the garlic and the other side into the parsley. Put the garlic side face down on the chicken - the parsley side facing up.
  6. Do this for each piece of chicken. Add two or three tablespoons of water to the bottom of the pan.
  7. Heat oven to 350 and bake for about an hour or until chicken is very tender.
  8. Dust with paprika and any left over parsley and serve over toasted french bread or with mashed potatoes.
Notes
Since this is a slow braised dish you want to add a little water at the start to create steam. The juices coming off the chicken and the butter will make your gravy for you.

Check the dish a couple of times during cooking. If the chicken isn't rendering as much broth as you like, add a couple more tablespoons of water. The objective is for the garlic and parsley to gently steam on and under the chicken. You don't want either to get brown or bitter.
3.2.1311

Filed Under: Chicken, Croatian, Entree Tagged With: braised chicken, chicken with parsley and garlic, croatian style chicken

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Hello, I'm Carine Clary and I'm the FrangloSaxon.

And is that a word? In a word - Yes! It reflects my French connections in the south part of the state and the Anglo Saxon ones on the Arkansas state line. I grew up eating & loving all the foods of Louisiana and the idea is to collect lots of them right here on this website.

What you'll find here is food that reflects everybody's cooking. Creole we know. Cajun we know. But how about Croatian or Vietnamese....or Italian or German....or the underestimated plain Southern food they do so well in the upstate parishes?

They're all part of who we are so pull up your chair and join me for some good eats!

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