Oregano Chicken and Potatoes

I finally purchased Vefa's Kitchen. I am so excited about this book. It is the bible of Greek cooking, and Vefa is the Julia Childs of Greece. Yay!
Take a look in all its loveliness:

It even looks Greek! All I need to do now is spray some Windex on it.

I decided to try two simple recipes for my first (of many!) out of this book. The Chicken With Fresh Oregano and Potatoes Roasted With Lemon. Simple, classic Greek flavors. Nothin' fancy. I changed the recipes slightly, my adaptations are listed below.

Potatoes:
4 lb yellow potatoes, cut into wedges
5 T lemon juice
pinch of dry oregano
1 garlic clove, chopped
salt and pepper
5 T olive oil
5 T butter

Place potatoes, lemon juice, oregano, garlic in 9x13 pan. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Drizzle potatoes with oil, dot with butter. Cover with foil, roast 1 hour. Uncover, roast and additional 1/2 hour until tender and slightly browned. This says it serves 6, but it made a boat-load of potatoes!

Chicken with Fresh Oregano:
2 boneless chicken breasts (Vefa calls for a whole chicken, cut up)
1 lemon, cut into wedges
salt and pepper
5 T olive oil
1 cup white wine
3 T chopped fresh oregano
2 T lemon juice

Rub chicken with lemon wedge, season with salt and pepper. I cut the chicken breasts into large chunks. Heat oil in pan. Add chicken and cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, turning a few times until lightly browned. Pour wine over chicken, cook for a few minutes to evaporate alcohol. Add oregano and lemon juice, cover, simmer about 40 minutes. Chicken will be tender.

Veggies:
I served this with roasted carrots and zucchini. Drizzle veggies with olive oil and lemon pepper, roast in 350 oven for 30 minutes.

The final meal

Yum! Next to try: Phoenician Honey Cookies!

Cilantro-Jalapeno Latkes

This week we had breakfast-for-dinner for American Idol night. Post on chicken and waffles to follow. I have had 3 recipes for potato latkes ripped out of magazines that I have been saving for months now. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try one!

I opted for the Cooking Light Cilantro-Jalapeno Latkes with Chipotle Sour Cream.

6 tablespoons light sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce
3/4 teaspoon grated lime rind
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
6 cups shredded peeled baking potato (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 cup grated fresh onion
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil, divided

Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring well. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
The sour cream and the grated (another shameless plug) lime:

Now with the lime juice and chipotle pepper:



Combine potato and onion in a colander. Drain 30 minutes, pressing occasionally with the back of a spoon until barely moist.

Potato grating:

Now, onion grating is a challenge for me. Some people just brave the eye-watering and go for it. Not me. Nope.

Check this out:

Not cute. At. All. But, these amazing onion goggles work great! I got them as a gift, and I really thought they were stupid and I would never use them. But use them I do. It sometimes crosses my mind when donning them to chop onions that it would be a lot cuter to use this chopper instead. but however you want to grate the onions is your business.

I would recommend actually squeezing the grated potato/onion mixture dry by hand after 30 minutes. They were still pretty wet in the colander, and the drier they are, the better they will fry!

Combine potato mixture, flour, and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; toss well. I would recommend mixing by hand.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil to pan; swirl to coat. Spoon 1/4 cup potato mixture loosely into a dry measuring cup. Pour mixture into pan; flatten slightly. Sauté 3 1/2 minutes on each side or until golden brown and thoroughly cooked.

Remove latkes from pan; keep warm. Repeat procedure with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and potato mixture to yield 12 latkes total. Serve with sour cream mixture.

Yum! These were really, really good. Some bites definitely had a kick from the jalapeno, but I thought they were delish!!

Also, please note the casualty of the evening, seen in the above picture as well: