Smoke and Mirrors Issue 1 - John's Diner!
Chicken with Lemon
by Maxine Urso
- Chicken fryer parts, skinned or not, your choice
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (fresh or reconstituted)
- 1/2 cup water
- pinch of pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic juice or powder
- 1 tbsp veg oil
- 1 tbsp oregano
(If you really like to dunk you may want to increase ingredients.)
Mix all ingredients in a large cup or bowl and set aside.
Put chicken, bone side up in 350 degree oven and bake 15 minutes.
Pour 1/2 mixture over chicken and bake another 30 minutes.
Add rest of mixture and finish baking (15-30 minutes)
Baste often...the more often you baste the browner the juice.
Dunk Italian bread into it and enjoy!
Dave's FOCCACIA (Italian Flatbread)
by David Winer
DRY
5 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 pkgs dry yeast
1 T salt
LIQUID
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup olive oil
DRESSINGS
coarse salt
olive oil
rosemary
Mix dry ingredients in a Kitchen Aid bowl while heating the liquid ingredients to 130¯ F. Switch to the dough hook and, with the machine running at medium slow speed (about setting 4), pour the liquid slowly into the dry. Knead at setting 4 for 7 minutes.
Place dough in a buttered bowl, turn to coat, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 450¯ F while doing the next steps.
Punch down the dough.
Oil (olive) a 10 1/2" by 15 1/2" jelly roll pan.
Shape the dough into a rectangle and roll out to fit the pan.
Using the knuckles of the index and middle fingers, dimple the dough deeply in a uniform array, 10 rows long by 7 rows wide.
Brush the dough with olive oil. A pastry brush works well.
Bake for 8 minutes. (Get ready with more olive oil, brush, rosemary, potholders, and a place for the hot pan.)
Quickly remove from oven, brush with olive oil a 2nd time, and sprinkle with about a tablespoon of finger-crushed rosemary.
Bake for 12 more minutes. (The bread should be browned.)
Remove from pan and place on a cooling rack.
Brush with olive oil a 3rd time and sprinkle with about a tablespoon of coarse salt.
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This method eliminates proofing yeast and hand kneading. The liquid temperature should be between 125¯ F and 130¯ F to activate the yeast... use a thermometer or even more convenient, a temperature-controlled microwave oven.
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Italian cold cut sandwich: Slice a sandwich size piece of the foccacia into halves. Dress each half lightly with olive oil, or use Italian crushed peppers in oil. I recommend a combination of mortadella, prosciuttini, and soppressata. Provolone and Lorraine Swiss are good cheeses. Watercress, though not traditional, is especially good here. Hors d'oeuvres: Make the whole foccacia into one big sandwich. Keep halving until you reach 32 pieces.
Stick a frilled cellophane toothpick in each piece.
... Dave Winer
