The Shabbat Table is the latest CJN column from noted chef and food blogger Norene Gilletz. Click here for last week’s recipes.
Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom! It can be quite challenging to create a delicious Shabbat meal that doesn’t take a lot of energy to prepare, especially when you’d rather have fun in the sun rather than spending a lot of time in the kitchen. But each Shabbat, despite the heat, the ‘eat’ goes on!
On Fridays, the members in my Facebook group, Norene’s Kitchen! (link) wish each other Shabbat Shalom, and many members proudly share what will be on their Shabbos menu. Although I’ve written a dozen cookbooks and have a personal collection of nearly 2,500 cookbooks in almost every room in my home, I always find it inspiring to see ‘what’s cooking’ in over 6,000 Jewish kitchens around the world! Seeing what other people are cooking can be quite inspirational. It’s almost like we’re connected by a culinary umbilical cord that circles the globe!
One of the members in my group, Roslyn Shoshana Schachter Kushner, of Bellmore, N.Y., recently decided to take on a “Different-Chicken-Every-Friday-for-a-Year” project. Each week, Shoshana has been posting the recipe she’s chosen, along with any modifications she’s made. And each week, the interest in her Shabbat chicken project continues to grow!
When Shoshana posted that a version of Coq au Vin was #15 on her Shabbat menu project, I felt like her chicken project had become a kosher version of one of my all-time favourite movies, Julie and Julia!
When I spoke with Shoshana on the phone a few days ago, I asked her what had motivated her to undertake this unusual culinary project. She explained that her husband, Rabbi Paul Kushner, is in serious need of a kidney transplant and is on dialysis three times a week. She wanted to make his Shabbos extra-special, so she decided to undertake this inspiring project. Here are some of the highlights:
A few weeks ago, Shoshana made Chicken Yum Yum: and it was a big hit.
On another post, Shoshana wrote: “Here we are at week #4 of my Shabbat-chicken-different-recipe-each-week project. For tomorrow night, I will be making what is for me a new recipe, Lemon Chicken. Scrumptious!”
WEEK #4 LEMON CHICKEN
4 chicken cutlets
Flour for dredging
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for sautéing
1/2 cup white wine
1 lemon, divided use
Dredge the chicken cutlets in the flour, salt and pepper mixture. Sauté in olive oil until browned on both sides. Remove chicken from pan.
Add white wine and the juice of half the lemon to pan, and then place chicken cutlets back into the sauce. Cook until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Slice the other half of the lemon and place on top of each cutlet. Add a little bit of flour at the end of cooking to thicken the sauce, if needed.
Makes 4 servings.
“Hard to believe that another week has flown by! It’s time for week #11 of my “different-chicken-recipe-every-Friday-for-a-year” project. This week, I will be using a recipe that I received in the mail in 1997 on a recipe card from ‘Easy Everyday Cooking.’ I don’t see any copyright on the card, so I will include the ingredients and the directions.”
WEEK #11 HONEY-MUSTARD CHICKEN
Adapted from Easy Everyday Cooking
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill or 1 Tbsp dried dill
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange peel
1 (2 1/2 pound) chicken, quartered
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine mustard and honey in a small bowl. Stir in dill and orange peel.
2. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place chicken, skin-side down on prepared pan. Brush sauce on top of chicken; coat well.
3. Turn chicken over. Gently pull back skin and brush meat with sauce. Gently pull skiing back over sauce.
4. Brush chicken skin with remaining sauce. Bake until juices run clear when thickest portion of meat is pierce with a knife, about 30 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.
A few weeks ago, Shoshana posted: “Here I am at week #14 of my “different-chicken-recipe-every-Friday-for-a-year” project. Today, my sister and brother-in-law are coming in from Chicago for a visit. Since I want to spend as much time with them as possible, I decided to take advantage of my slow cooker for tomorrow’s recipe. Easy and delicious!”
WEEK #14 HONEY-GARLIC SLOW COOKER CHICKEN THIGHS
Adapted from the All Recipes website.
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup honey
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
Lay the chicken thighs on the bottom of the slow cooker. Whisk the other ingredients together and pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 6 hours.
Makes 4 servings.
Last week, Shoshana shared: “Just a few years after our wedding in 1960, my husband gave me a copy of Molly Lyons Bar-David’s The Israeli Cook Book. For this, my 15th week of “a-different-chicken-recipe-every-Friday-night-for-a-year” project, I am going to make a version of her “Le Coq Au Vin” recipe. The ingredients (and my changes) are as follows:
WEEK #15 COQ AU VIN
Adapted from The Israeli Cook Book by Molly Lyons Bar-David
2 2-pound frying chickens (I am using chicken leg quarters)
Flour
Margarine (I am using olive oil)
1/2 pound mushrooms
parsley and celery tied together
4 small onions (I will quarter medium to large onions)
2 cups dry wine, white or red (I am using white)
Salt and pepper
I will dredge the chicken pieces in flour and sauté them in the olive oil; and then add the mushrooms, herbs, and onions to simmer in a covered pan for about 20 minutes. At that point I will remove the parsley and celery, add the wine, and then cook, covered until done, about 15 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Makes 4 servings.
***
Shoshana wrote: “We recently learned that my husband’s health is good enough for him to be eligible for a kidney transplant. Based on Paul’s age and medical condition, the transplant team wants him to have a live donor. If anyone knows of somebody who is willing to donate a kidney, please contact me privately for the particulars, at 516-783-6448 or by email: [email protected]. Please share this message on your FB page and with friends and family, too. Thank you!”
I truly hope that many of my readers will decide to participate in some way in Roslyn Shoshana Schachter Kushner’s “Different-Chicken-Every-Friday-for-a-Year” project. Please remember that you are not just making chicken for Shabbat, you are making an extra-special chicken dish that Shoshana selected because of the joy it will bring to her husband, Rabbi Paul Kushner, for Shabbos. I hope that it will bring much joy and eating pleasure to your Shabbat table as well. I wonder what kind of chicken she’s making next? Good Shabbos to all!
Norene Gilletz is the leading author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. She is the author of eleven cookbooks and divides her time between work as a food writer, food manufacturer, consultant, spokesperson, cooking instructor, lecturer, and cookbook editor.
Norene lives in Toronto, Canada and her motto is “Food that’s good for you should taste good!” For more information, visit her website or email her at [email protected].
