spring session: saffron braised chicken with fennel and carrots and a spring couscous salad with asparagus and peas

Spring colors are the theme for this week's braised dish.  Saffron Braised Chicken, with fennel and carrots.

Saute the sliced onions and fennel in saffron and butter...

The stunning apron lady, aka Tracy, adds carrots to the saute...

After searing the cumin, coriander and paprika crusted chicken thighs, you add diced tomatoes, chicken stock, sherry and sherry vinegar.  The stew is then braised in the oven for 1 1/2 hours or in the crock pot for 4.

Chicken With Saffron, Fennel and Cilantro by The Family Table

Making the most of the spring produce coming to market, we made an Israeli Couscous Salad with fresh peas, asparagus and snap peas.  The salad is dressed with a lemon vinaigrette and tossed with chives and freshly grated parmesan.  This can be made ahead and served room temperature with the chicken or would be nice eaten warm as well.

spring session: barbecued beef brisket, kale salad and biscuits

The Family Table Spring session has started.  I am going back to simple, easy to prepare, good tasting family dinners, inspired by Michael Pollan and his new book "Cooked".  I particularly liked the editorial that Mark Bittman wrote on this book in the New York Times.  He wants to start a home cooking movement.  As Michael Pollan says: "Cooking is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your diet. What matters most is not any particular nutrient, or even any particular food: it’s the act of cooking itself. People who cook eat a healthier diet without giving it a thought.”

I am going to post whole family dinner menus in this spring session of the Family Table.  I hope that you will grab a friend, shop and chop with them, laugh and share while your family dinner simmers away!

Wednesday, we made Barbecued Beef Brisket in the crock pot (or dutch oven, both work great).  The advance prep time is very short (see the lovely Tracy pricking the meat before she slathers the marinade on), then into the crock pot for 9-11 hours.

Slice the meat, drizzle on the sauce, and you are good to go.

To complete this meal, I would add a kale salad, roasted sweet potatoes and either home made biscuits (these are very easy and lighter than normal biscuits) or store bought parker house rolls. You can print out the recipes below. 

Barbecued Beef Brisket by The Family Table

Kale Salad by The Family Table

Sweet Potato Wedges by The Family Table

winter soup session: tunisian soup with swiss chard, chickpeas and harissa

Swiss Chard is a beautiful, and nutritional plant.  It grows at the garden from May until November.  I like to describe it as somewhere between spinach and kale.  It wilts quickly in a soup like spinach, but you need to take the stems off as they take longer to cook.  Some mistakenly throw away the stems, but I just dice them and then throw them in when you saute the aromatics (carrots, onions and celery).  Swiss Chard is in the chenopod family along with beets, spinach and quinoa.  It is high in vitamins C, E and K.  Swiss Chard has anti inflammatory and anti oxident properties and contains lots of manganese, beta carotene and calcium. 

I adapted this recipe from Gourmet and cook it regularly.  The harissa gives it a richness, the chickpeas add protein, and the swiss chard adds color and vitamins.  Make the harissa first.  I took this harissa recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks "Sunday Suppers at Lucques".  It is possible to buy harissa in upscale grocery stores, but this is so easy and it makes enough so you can keep what you don't use in a canning jar or tupperware in the fridge.  It lasts for a while.  I swirl it into soups or toss on roasted vegetables.

Harissa by The Family Table

If you have some leftover beef brisket, shredded chicken, pork carnitas on hand, throw it in the soup pot.  I like using egg noodles, or farro, or barley, or israeli couscous...whatever is in your cupboard.

Tunisian Soup With Chard by The Family Table

winter soup session: sunchoke soup with apples and lentils

Jerusalem artichokes (aka Sunchokes) are the tubers of a sunflower.  They are interesting looking, they store well, they can be eaten raw, steamed, sauteed, pureed, they are a good source of calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B, fiber, folate and magnesium.  BUT....and it is a big but, they are hard to digest and thus have gained the name "fartichokes".  In 1621, an english botanist, John Goodyer wrote this about them: "they...cause a fithy loathsome stinking wind within the body...and are a meat more fit for swine than men".  Some cookbooks attach most of the gas to eating them raw (you can ask my cooking partner Amy about this).  So, if you dare, this recipe produces a deliciously creamy soup, especially with the garnish of black lentils, apple and chives (or tarragon).

This picture is of the soup pre-puree form, both are good.

Sunchoke Soup With Apples and Lentils by The Family Table

winter soup session: coconut curry carrot soup

There are so many recipes for carrot soup, ask around, everyone has a go-to version.  This one is simple, rich and coconut-ty with the warming flavor of curry.

Who would think a bunch of carrots...

Could turn into this:

Coconut Curry Carrot Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: italian wedding soup with herbed chicken meatballs

I like to look up the history of my soups.  For the Italian Wedding Soup, I imagined there was going to be a romantic story of true love wrapped around an elaborate feast.  I was very surprised when I learned that the cited wedding is the really the marriage of green vegetables and meat, to each other.

Similarly to beef borscht, this soup is made with many different combinations, basically whatever you have on hand, as long as the sacred marriage is respected.  For the meat, I have seen it as chicken, brisket and meatballs.   The chicken meatballs in the recipe below are delicious baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 and eaten straight off the cookie sheet.  The taste of parmesan comes through and the chicken flavor is a nice change from heavier beef meatballs.

As yummy as the baked meatballs are, for this soup, they are best when poached in the actual soup broth as they are light and easy to eat while slurping down the soup (I would like to thank Kim for this brilliant suggestion).  For the vegetable, I have seen it including cabbage, spinach, kale and escarole.  Having made this with both spinach and escarole, I prefer the escarole as it holds up better and imparts a nice flavor.  That being said, if you have spinach, throw that in.  Most people don't have bags of escarole hanging about.

Italian Wedding Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: spicy grain and roasted root vegetable soup

I have long been an admirer of First Slice.  Mary Ellen Diaz, their founder,  left the restaurant world to start First Slice, a non profit organization who's goal is to ensure that needy and homeless people get "the first slice" of a pie, not the crumbs.  She funds her dream by selling subscriptions to family dinners.  For 10 weeks, at $78 a week, families come pick up 3 freshly prepared, then frozen meals for the week.  Included in the price is money to provide the same quality meal for homeless people at various shelters and soup kitchens in the Chicago area.  Her program is so inspiring.

I found this delicious, vegetarian and protein rich soup while researching grains.  Mary Ellen shared it with Food and Wine, saying that it is one of the more popular soups at the shelters.  I tinkered with it slightly, roasting the vegetables before adding them to the chile broth.  One of my soup session friends, Heather, planned to add shredded roast chicken to it.  Topped with crumbled tortilla chips, it would resemble a tortilla soup closely.

Spicy Grain and Roasted Root Vegetable Soup by The Family Table

winter soup session: beef borscht

It did not escape my observation that "beef borscht" was the hardest class to fill in my soup series this winter.  I guess I get it:  beets are not loved by everyone nor does the name really grab you.  Just say "borscht", it does not immediately inspire appetite.  Regardless, I was so excited to start sampling recipes and finding the perfect combination: beets, braised meat, vinegar, red cabbage and orange zest!

After mixing many recipes, I have come up with a nice blend.  When I first made the recipe, I seared and then cooked the short ribs in a stock pot with carrots, celery, fennel, onion, making a little stock that I then used as the broth for the soup.   Today at Family Table cooking, we shredded beef brisket that I had made in my crock pot the night before, and then used the cooking liquid for the soup broth as well.  Borscht is a great vehicle for leftover meat.

Borscht by The Family Table