Chicken Bouillabaisse

I haven’t posted in a while and am feeling a little rusty, but I didn’t want tonight’s dinner to go undocumented because it was absolutely gorgeous, healthy and fantastic. Every Sunday morning over coffee, Ben and I plan all of the meals for the upcoming week. I use a standing grocery list for breakfast and snacking staples, then we plot out every lunch and dinner, Sunday afternoon through Saturday afternoon. Some people think this seems like a lot of (high-maintenance) work, but a) I am not a particularly good pantry cook and b) we definitely eat better and try a lot more new things because we put this work in up front.

We peruse the calendar and, cookbooks in hand, plan around days when one of us won’t be here to help with dinner preparation (usually saving leftovers for those dinners). I’m also a big believer in hot, homemade lunch, so we have to plan for Sunday “secret cooking” for that, too. (Usually this entails making an extra pot of soup on Sunday afternoon for half of the week’s lunches).

Ben will be the first to tell you that he... intensely dislikes the weekly menu planning portion of our life (that one’s for you, Mom!). He knows it’s a crucial part of what makes this whole operation run smoothly, it’s just that he feels that he’s not much help in the process. So, he was thrilled that tonight’s new recipe was not only his choice but was also scrumptious.

Ben is not a shellfish lover (ha... the first two times I read through this I read it as “selfish lover”... ha!), so I’ve never attempted homemade bouillabaisse. But this was surprisingly easy and delicious, even without all of the traditional tasty fish and shellfish. Plus, when I looked this up after dinner, the recipe’s remarkably similar to Julia Child’s seafood bouillabaisse in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

To make this dish, I just created a simple broth of sautéed onion, thyme, saffron (a wee bit pricey, but worth it), long strips of orange peel, diced tomatoes, broth and white wine, then threw in some bone-in, skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks. I stuck it in the oven, covered, for an hour and wow! The whole house was filled with a tantalizing aroma, the chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender and the broth had a remarkably dynamic flavor for so few ingredients.

I served this with baguette slices I’d brushed with olive oil, broiled and then rubbed with halved garlic cloves—Joseph absolutely devoured his toast, and Sophia loved hers so much she cried real tears when I told her she couldn’t have any more! I also roasted organic fingerling potatoes (also great dipped in the broth) and tossed together a salad of organic baby arugula with tomatoes, cucumber and hearts of palm and a red wine and balsamic vinaigrette.

The only reason this is a four-star recipe is that it wants a bit of fennel bulb or a splash of Pernod next time (both recommended in the “Reviews” section of this recipe on epicurious).

This all sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn’t. The recipe calls for you to bake the bouillabaisse for 45 minutes; because I was also putting potatoes in the oven, I baked it for an hour and threw the potatoes (tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper) in the oven at the 30 minute mark. It all came out perfectly cooked!

By the way, the whole time I’ve been working on this, I’ve had Gene Autry’s “Back in the Saddle Again” in my head. Hope that’s true... I’ve missed this!

Almond-Peach Crisp

Summer vacation is rapidly drawing to a close. This has been the most wonderful summer of my life, including the summer Becky Selzer’s parents went on vacation and let us stay at their house, so that’s really saying something! I’m feeling a little blue about it coming to an end and find myself drawn to homey comfort foods.

However, despite my autumnal cravings, the warm summer-y weather persists, so I’ve been searching high and low for nourishing comfort foods that feature summer produce. Thus the magnificent almond-peach crisp.

I found this recipe in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Jenn, gave me: The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook (which, incidentally, came with a one-year Bon Appétit subscription, which I’m also loving despite the radical rebranding since I last subscribed... why does everyone in the photojournalistic, party-at-home pics have a tattoo?). Everything I’ve read about in this book has seemed like a quick and healthy twist on an old favorite. My only complaint, frankly, is that it’s a hefty tome and is almost too much to slog through. Oh, and there’s a dearth of inspiring photography. Regardless, this crisp recipe was everything I was looking for.

In many ways it’s a traditional crisp—fresh fruit topped with a blend of butter, oats, brown sugar and flour. However, this crisp is subtly yet vastly improved with the addition of a hint of almond extract with the fruit and chopped toasted almonds in the topping. Delightful. Another thing I loved about this recipe is that it only calls for one pound of fruit (just two or three peaches), making two servings, but is easily scalable. I tripled the recipe and baked it in an eight-inch square Pyrex dish and it was perfect.

Unfortunately, crisp just doesn't keep very well. It’s best right out of the oven... subsequent servings found the crisp, well, not-so-crispy. Next time I’ll either scale back the number of servings or, better yet, invite more people!