With their sticky, spicy glaze, these hens are a diminutive riff on our holiday turkey. The birds can be served with Butter-Roasted Cornbread — a twist on traditional stuffing, made of cornbread with sausage, nuts, and cheese baked into it and then toasted into crispy croutons. That crunch makes them irresistible. Spoon them over the hens and serve with Roasted Grapes and Winter Vegetables and you have a dish worthy of a cover shot.
The fresh pasta can be made 24 hours ahead and air dried. The lasagne can be assembled a few hours ahead, but please don’t refrigerate it as it tends to dry out.
Ingredients
What to do with that pound of ground turkey on sale at the grocery store besides making the same turkey burgers or meat loaf? Why not make small meatballs to stuff with shredded lettuce into pitas spread with a minty cucumber dressing, the way the Greeks do?
The gravy broth can be done a week ahead and frozen; the garlic and turkey seasoning can be prepped a day in advance.
Place 2-3 chicken balls on a small skewer or toothpick, then sprinkle on the Japanese red pepper powder, if using, and serve.
I heard about this dish from many members of the Tangier "literary set," who told me the Moroccan writer Mohammed Mrabet had cooked it for them. Despite all the descriptions, I couldn't figure out the recipe. Finally Paul Bowles, who had discovered and translated Mrabet, recalled the measurements for me from memory.
There is a restaurant on the outskirts of Bangkok called Soi Polo. When I was there taping my TV show, I went to this restaurant three times for this dish. Fried garlic, fried shallots, and spice-infused chicken made it impossible to stay away! Seems others agree with me. The restaurant has become world famous for this chicken. Here's my version for you.
Vietnamese restaurants taught us to love the fresh roll-up—a cup of lettuce, some cunningly spiced meat, raw vegetables and leaves of basil and fresh coriander—what a way eat, especially now. You can stretch a little bit of this and that into a generous, lovely little feast of Asian-style finger food.
Ingredients