blue artichoke

Finally, I had a night where I wasn't too busy to cook, and we could enjoy the tastes of Scotland (no haggis!) that I had planned for last Sunday. I chose Scotland because I recently spoke with Magenta Green Goddess, a friend since elementary school. Though we have moved apart ideologically and geographically, we still keep in touch and see each other whenever we can. She's the kind of friend who will call up after several months of silence and invite you to go to Poland with her, on a whim. And I'm the kind of friend who says, "Poland? Bring it on!" So, why a Scottish meal instead of a Polish meal? Magenta Green Goddess studied in Scotland for a while, and the two were a good fit for each other. I think she feels the same way about Scotland as I do about eastern and southern Africa. Just give me a reason to go...

Anyway, I associate her with Scotland, so after a long catch-up phone call, I thought I'd try out some Scottish food. The entree was cockaleekie, a traditional Scottish stew made with a tough old foul that needs hours of cooking to tenderize. Some say that this stew was the fate of the losing bird in a cockfight, thrown into a pot with leeks for flavoring and served to the spectators. Hmmm... I kind of like that imagery, brutal as it is. I'm now going to think of a chicken processing plant as one big cockfighting ring, where the losers are scooped up, plucked, dismembered, packaged and sent into my awaiting arms. The winner wears a crown of flowers and struts around the plant. It seems more humane somehow; the chickens at least stand a chance against each other.

You don't need to go to the seedy back alley cockfights or find a tough old fowl for this dish. Using fresh, young, boneless, skinless chicken breasts makes this a quick-cooking and low-fat dish. Prunes are a traditional ingredient. You can omit them if you want, the dish will be good either way. I doubled the amount of prunes, and thought it was excellent.

Cockaleekie

2 whole skinned, boneless chicken breasts
2 T. veggie oil
4 leeks, white part only
2 c. water [I used 1 c. of water and 1 c. of chicken stock]
½ c. pearly barley, rinsed and drained
1 bay leaf
½ t. salt
¼ t. each dried thyme and white pepper
8 whole pitted prunes
2 T. minced fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400. Cut each chicken breast into 4 pieces lengthwise. In a Dutch oven, brown the chicken pieces, a few at a time, in the oil. Remove the chicken.

Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and wash well; chop. Sauté the leeks in the Dutch oven until they are limp and lightly browned. Return the chicken to the pan and add the remaining ingredients, except the prunes and parsley.

Bring to a boil, cover and place in oven. Bake 30m. Add the prunes. Bake 15m, or until the barley is tender but still al dente. The chicken should be cooked through. [When adding the prunes, I roughly cut the chicken into smaller, bite-size pieces by using a fork to pull it into chunks. The big pieces just seem unwieldy.]

The stew can be prepared ahead and reheated in a microwave in a glass casserole for a few minutes or in a conventional oven for ~30m at 350.

Remove the bay leaf, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Serves 4.

Superfoods: 300 Recipes for Foods that Heal Body and Mind, by Dolores Riccio

This was a pretty plain and straightforward chicken stew. I thought it would be kind of bland or boring, but I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of flavor. I'll definitely make this dish again.

The dessert, however, was just so-so, and I definitely will not make it again. I made a peach and raspberry cranachan, which is a traditional Scottish dessert. Nowadays it is usually made from a mixture of whipped cream, whisky, honey, and fresh raspberries topped with toasted oatmeal. Earlier recipes for cranachan or cream-crowdie are more austere, omitting the whisky and treating the fruit as an optional extra, leaving just the cream, honey and oatmeal. This version is made with low-fat pastry cream instead of whipped cream, but in true Scot fashion, I used Scotch whisky for the pastry cream flavoring. A little splash will do! I made the pastry cream two days in advance of serving, which meant that the Scotch flavor had 48-hours to develop. Not a Scotch drinker, I thought it was a bit too boozy for me.

Peach and Raspberry Cranachan

1 c. uncooked “old-fashioned” oats
2 T. brown sugar
¼ t. cinnamon
1# can cling peach slices packed w/o water, or 3 large fresh peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
1 ¼ c. pastry cream* flavored with 1 T. rum or, if you want to be really authentic, Scotch whisky
1 c. frozen raspberries, packed w/o sugar, unthawed but separated

Layer the oats in a baking pan and toast in a 350F oven until golden, 8-10m. Watch carefully that they don’t become brown. Put them in a bowl and stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon. Blend the mixture by rubbing it between your fingers.

Drain the peaches well.

Make the pastry cream. Put a heaping tablespoon of the pudding in each of 4 dessert bowls. Divide the drained peaches among the bowls. Top with the remaining pudding. Sprinkle with the frozen raspberries (which will thaw before serving). Press them down lightly. Chill until set, ~1h.

Just before serving, sprinkle the desserts with the toasted oat mixture.

Serves 4.

Pastry Cream

2 T. cornstarch
1 c. milk
2 egg yolks or ½ c. egg substitute
¼ c. honey, slightly warmed
1/8 t. salt
Flavoring

In a med-size saucepan, stir the cornstarch into the milk until there are no lumps. Whisk in eggs, honey and salt. Cook over med direct heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Lower the heat and cook 1m. Remove from heat and stir in the flavoring.

Let cool before using it as a filling, then chill it in the fridge until set.

Makes ~ 1-¼ c.

NB: The basic flavoring is 1 t. of vanilla and ½ t. of natural almond extract. Substitutions depend on the recipe in which the pastry cream is to be used. Instead of vanilla and almond, you may want to use on e of the following flavors: 1 T. liqueur or dark rum, 2 T. of a sweet wine such as Marsala, or 1 T. lemon juice with ½ t. grated lemon zest.

NB: To make 1 ½ x the recipe, use the following measurements:
3 T. cornstarch
1-½ c. milk
3 egg yolks or ½ c. egg substitute
1/3 c. honey
scant ¼ t. salt

Superfoods: 300 Recipes for Foods that Heal Body and Mind, by Dolores Riccio