February 18, 2007

he delicious dinner we had last night was :

Ashkenazic Chicken With Figs (Huhn Mit Feigen)

1 chicken; cut into pieces
12 canned, dried or fresh figs
1 cup dry white wine or water
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoons salt or to taste
1/4 teaspoons pepper
1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 375F. Place chicken and figs in a single layer in a large roasting pan. Combine wine, honey, cinnamon, coriander, salt and pepper and bay leaf, pour over chicken. Roast turning occasionally, until chicken is tender and brown, about 1 hour.

Note: This dish typifies the Eastern European love of meats cooked with sweeteners and
spices.

Another Note: Forget buying your spices in the little jars. Go to the ethnic section of your grocery store or go find a true ethnic store and buy your spices there. I only buy mine in the East Indian section now as I pay 1/3 of the price for about 20 times the amount.

received another book to review in the mail yesterday, which I read alot of last night. This book is Samuel Thayer's "The Forager's Harvest". It rocks! This is one of the most marvelous wild edible foods books I have ever read. And at one point I have read over 150 of them when I was teaching classes to Search and Rescue groups and local Boy & Girl Scouts. If you are looking for an excellent book for your personal library on wild edible foods, this one is it!! Move over Mr. Gibbons....

"The Forager's Harvest" is awesome for the beginner as well as a someone who is a many season forager of wild foods. Sam's got me hooked on looking for wild rice this year now *L* I know Canada is famous for its wild rice (which really is not a true rice), but I am not sure it is common in my part of western Canada.

Samuel has wonderful clear pictures in this book. And I do have to laugh.. in his opening remarks in the book, I noted that a friend of his lent him a camera to get this book accomplished. I was laughing as I wonder how many of us starting out scamming on someone else's camera? Thank you Colleen for the gift of yours when I was starting out.

But really.. if you cannot afford to have this book for your personal library at home, ask your local librarian to bring it in for you. You won't regret it.