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| Roast hen with fruit stuffing, a festive dish for a vacation meal. |
Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New 12 months, begins at sunset on Monday, September 22—coincidentally the primary day of autumn. These of you who observe the vacation have most likely lengthy since deliberate a particular menu and, possible, have even begun the cooking. That is the primary of fall/winter holidays, from Rosh Hashana to All Saints/All Souls (Halloween), Thanksgiving to Christmas, Hanukkah to New 12 months’s, with many events to collect family and friends for festive eating.
That can assist you plan vacation meals, take a look at my new cookbook, Flavors of al-Andalus, The Culinary Legacy of Spain. A piece of Menu Options in the back of the ebook reveals you find out how to use the recipes in your life.
Listed here are the menu concepts for an Autumn/Winter Vacation Meal–appetizers, starters, mains, desserts, cookies, and confections. Recipes for all the dishes listed might be present in Flavors of al-Andalus. (The recipe for Roast Rooster with Fruit Stuffing follows.)
Rooster and Liver Pâté (Morteruelo) accompanied with toasts
Savory Almond Soup (Sopa de Almendras)
Hake in Saffron Sauce (Merluza al Azafrán)
Roast Rooster with Fruit Stuffing (Pollo Relleno con Frutas)
Cauliflower (or cardoons) in Almond Sauce (Coliflor en Salsa de Almendras)
Pumpkin Pudding (Arnadí)
Crumbly Olive Oil Cookies (Mantecados de Aceite)
Fig Pâté (Pan de Higos)
Honey-Almond Logs (Alfajores)
The roast hen is a beautiful dish for any vacation, however it’s particularly applicable for Rosh Hashana as a result of its roots are in Spain’s Sephardic Jewish cooking.
Fairly a couple of of the recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus have come right down to us from the neighborhood of Sephardic Jews. Sepharad was the identify that the Jews gave to the Iberian peninsula, the place, for greater than 13 centuries, Jews lived alongside Romans, Visigoths, Muslims and Christians in communities all through the nation. The Jews had been expelled from Spain in 1492 by the identical Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, who, having defeated the final of the Moors within the kingdom of Granada, funded Columbus’s scheme to sail west to search for the Spice Islands.
(Notice: The recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus with their roots in Islamic Spain are usually not kosher nor halal. Nevertheless, they’re simply tailored to respect these dietary legal guidelines. As an illustration, Jews can substitute hen in recipes for rabbit; Muslims can substitute fruit juice for wine. Not one of the recipes requires pork, ham or chorizo.)
Roast Rooster with Fruit Stuffing
Pollo Relleno con Frutas
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| Rooster stuffing is a combination of dried fruits, apples, and breadcrumbs with Sherry. |
(Excerpted from Flavors of al-Andalus, The Culinary Legacy of Spain)
A recipe for “a Jewish dish of hen with stuffing” seems in an nameless Arabic manuscript from the thirteenth century. It requires the hen liver and gizzard to be floor up with almonds, pine nuts, fennel, cilantro, spices and overwhelmed eggs. As soon as the hen is finished and the stuffing set, the recipe instructs the cook dinner to “ladle it out and put the stuffing round it, garnish with reduce rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and current it, God keen.”
Quick-forward to the twenty first century, and we discover a recipe from Catalonia (the jap Mediterranean area the place Barcelona is situated) for roast, stuffed hen or turkey that’s ready for the Christmas feast. It’s full of pork sausage meat, nuts and dried fruits. The origin of the recipe could be medieval Jewish, when it could have been made with a forcemeat of minced hen or veal as an alternative of pork. It’s a very festive dish.
A medium-dry Sherry corresponding to amontillado or oloroso seco flavors the stuffing and the pan juices. If not out there, use any white wine. Use any mixture of dried fruits. Truffles are an non-obligatory, luxurious, addition to the stuffing combination. Small onions, carrots, and turnips might be added to the roasting pan, if desired.
The stuffing will also be used for small birds corresponding to squab, Cornish recreation hens or for turkey (though turkey will not be included in recipes in Flavors of al-Andalus as a result of it’s a fowl from the New World, unknown in Moorish Spain).
Serves 8.
1 roasting hen or capon (5 to six kilos)
1 teaspoon salt + extra for sprinkling
Freshly floor black pepper
1 tablespoon + ½ cup medium-dry Sherry
1 cup chopped dried fruits (raisins, apricots, prunes, figs)
¼ cup scorching water
8 ounces floor hen or veal
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup pine nuts
½ cup chopped onions
1 cup recent breadcrumbs
1 cup diced apple
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of cloves
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Pinch dried thyme
Truffles, diced (non-obligatory)
1 tablespoon capers
Small onions, carrots, turnips (non-obligatory)
½ to 1 cup hen inventory
Sprinkle the hen inside and outside with salt and pepper. Rub the cavity with 1 tablespoon of the Sherry. Enable the hen to return to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
Soak the dried fruits in scorching water for 10 minutes to melt them.
Mix the bottom hen in a big bowl with the dried fruits and their soaking water. Warmth 2 tablespoons oil in a small skillet and toast the pine nuts till golden. Skim them out and add to the bowl with the bottom hen. Add the onion to the skillet and sauté till softened, 3 minutes. Add the onion to the bowl together with the breadcrumbs, apple, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, parsley, thyme, truffles if utilizing, capers, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Mix nicely.
Stuff the hen with the combination. Skewer the neck and physique openings closed and truss the hen with kitchen twine. Place in a heavy roasting pan or in a big ovenproof skillet. Drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. (Add greens to the roasting pan, if desired.)
Place the pan within the oven and switch the oven temperature right down to 350ºF. Roast the hen for half-hour. Add the remaining ½ cup Sherry and ½ cup inventory to the pan. Spoon among the juices over the hen. Roast for half-hour extra, basting often. Add as much as ½ cup further inventory if the pan seems dry. Roast 1 hour extra or till inside temperature of the stuffing reaches 160ºF when examined with an instant-read thermometer.
Switch the hen to a slicing board and permit to relaxation 20 minutes. Carve the hen and scoop the stuffing right into a serving bowl. Skim the fats from the remaining pan juices. Spoon among the juices over the hen and serve the remainder in a bowl.
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Extra recipes for Rosh Hashana:
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***Anyada buena, dulce i alegre.*** Feliz año nuevo.***Glad New 12 months.***
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FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS
The Culinary Legacy of Spain
has menus and recipes for Tapas Social gathering, Brunch, Summer time Barbecue, Household Dinners (one vegetarian), Sunday Lunch, Dinner Social gathering, Spring Vacation Meal, and Autumn/Winter Vacation Meal. Out of your favourite bookseller or click on beneath to order.
This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic tradition has left on fashionable Spanish cooking.
Writer and Spanish cooking professional Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish affect on Spanish cooking by way of 120 recipes and pictures for modern-day dishes, from salads and greens to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that hint their heritage to meals served in medieval occasions. Dishes from this period embody unique spices corresponding to saffron, using fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus reside on in fashionable Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s delicacies distinctive from the remainder of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)
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