Roast Chicken on a Bed of Leeks

Featured Cookbook

Semit
Roast Chicken on a Bed of Leeks
Mahashi Kronb (Stuffed Cabbage)

Book Description

"Matthew's presence transports me back to the Cairo kitchen, where I am tasting the ful that Ahmet, the cook, prepared and helping Grandmaman Marguerite mix dough while she sings songs to me in Arabic. Her family pride was profoundly linked to the kitchen, so when I attempted to make sambousek once for my friends and did not follow her recipe for this cheese-filled golden dough faithfully, she was outraged. "This recipe is at least hundreds of years old. You do not change it!" she shouted. I see her standing at the stove, a diminutive woman usually dressed in black. Her thick, curly, henna-dyed hair was pulled upward in a large chignon; there was always a lock of hair escaping that she would try, again and again and without success, to push back into her chignon. My daughter Marianne, who looks like her, has the same gesture of trying to push a lock of curly dark hair behind her ear. I smile as I watch the curl fall down in front of her eyes."

... (more)

Memories of a Lost Egypt : A Memoir with Recipes

Authors: COLETTE ROSSANT

Date: March 1999

ISBN: 0609601504

Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Hardcover

ORDER/INFO

Roast Chicken on a Bed of Leeks
Recipe from: Memories of a Lost Egypt
by COLETTE ROSSANT
Cookbook Heaven at Recipelink.com

This dish is delicious with French lentils and a salad, and is enough for 4 to 6.

Wipe a 5-pound chicken dry with paper towels. Mix 2 tablespoons olive oil with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, and salt and pepper. Rub the chicken inside and out with this mixture.
Remove the outer leaves from 2 pounds of leeks and wash well. Finely chop 2 of the leeks and carefully slide under the skin of the chicken. Cut the remaining leeks into 1-inch pieces, place in a roasting pan, season with salt and pepper, and dot with 2 tablespoons butter.
Place the chicken on top of the leeks, add 3 cups chicken broth, and roast in a preheated 375-degree oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Check from time to time and add water if the leeks are drying out.
Carve the chicken into serving pieces and place on a platter. Stir the leeks (being sure to scrap the bottom of the pan) and add up to 1/2 cup chicken stock to make a sauce. Taste for salt and pepper and spoon over the chicken.

More From This Book: