Green Chermoula Chicken with Yogurt and Radishes excerpted from Sunlight & Breadcrumbs: Making Food with Creativity & Curiosity by Renee Erickson and Sara Dickerman. Photography by Renee Erickson.
James Beard Award-winning chef Renee Erickson explores the surprising wonder and satisfaction you can find in making everyday food, inspiring us all to cook creatively
After more than 25 years running award-winning restaurants, acclaimed chef Renee Erickson realised that she had started to lose touch with her creative side, which she had nurtured in art school and had always considered as key to her approach to cooking. She decided to reconnect with her creativity by painting, taking photographs, making ceramics, and, of course, cooking.
Sunlight and Breadcrumbs highlights the beauty and creativity in making everyday food at home. To accomplish this, recipes are the jumping-off point―and there are more than 100 of Renee’s best here. But there are also essays that connect the dots between creative practices and the food she cooks. “Work in Progress” sidebars zoom in on the creative decisions made when cooking―the seasonal ingredients, textures, shapes, and colours that help make each meal a more thoughtful expression of life at that moment.
As this book shows, cooking can provide an outlet for meaningful personal expression, even when making decidedly straightforward preparations. Renee highlights the little, easy things that take a simple dish from nice to memorable―like the rich crunch of olive oil–toasted breadcrumbs on top of a hearty escarole salad―and persuades us to seek out and celebrate these details.
While offering a joyful look at creative expression, at its heart this is an approachable cookbook, filled with ideas for weeknight dinners, as well as more leisurely weekend meals. There are also celebratory snacks, including dips and go-to crostini toppings, and easy desserts.
For anyone who has felt bored by the grind of weeknight cooking, is looking for simple-but-exciting food to make for friends and family, or wants to encourage more creativity in their day to day, this book provides an inspiring reset, full of prompts to continue exploring our kitchens and lives with curiosity, an eye for detail, and joy.
Sunlight and Breadcrumbs features delicious recipes like:
- Melted Anchovy Toast
- Oven-Dried Tomatoes with Whipped Feta, Mint, and Basil
- White Beans with Pork Sausage, Lemon Peel, and Green Herbs
- Raspberry and Pecan Crumble Cake
- and many more!
Includes Colour Photographs and Illustrations
Sunlight & Breadcrumbs: Making Food with Creativity & Curiosity by Renee Erickson and Sara Dickerman is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Indigo.ca.
Green Chermoula Chicken with Yogurt and Radishes
Serves 6 to 8
My Moroccan friend Mehdi first introduced me to chermoula as a marinade for seafood, but I love it on chicken too. It wraps the meat with the soft distinct flavor of cooked cilantro and the gentle warmth of sweet paprika. This is a great picnicky recipe to double up for a summertime crowd, since chicken thighs (or hindquarters) are very forgiving for the busy home cook. I like to use my wood-burning pizza oven outdoors, but an indoor oven works just fine.
2 bunches cilantro leaves (about 2 cups/120 g)
1 bunch parsley leaves (about 1½ cups/90 g)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, toasted and ground
Juice of 1 large lemon (about ¼ cup/60 ml)
1½ cups (360 ml) olive oil, plus more to drizzle
4 chicken hindquarters or 8 thighs (about 2 pounds/910 g)
½ cup (120 ml) plain whole milk (not Greek) yogurt, to finish
Baby radishes or shaved radishes, to garnish
Preheat the oven (indoor or outdoor!) to 450°F (230ºC).
Finely chop the cilantro, parsley, and garlic and put them in a bowl. Add the salt, paprika, cayenne, cumin, and coriander. Add the lemon juice and give it a stir, then add the olive oil.
Using half of the chermoula, rub each piece of chicken with it (on both sides) and set aside. When ready to cook, place skin-side up on a sheet pan, put it in the oven, and roast 25 to 30 minutes, with the hindquarters taking a bit longer. You can use an instant-read thermometer to double-check their doneness (165ºF/74ºC) before pulling from the oven. Pile the chicken on a serving platter and drizzle with yogurt and olive oil and garnish with radishes.
The remaining chermoula can be stored in the fridge for a day or two and tossed with warm cooked potatoes or spooned into a bowl of steamed mussels or clams.
Recipe published with permission from Abrams Books.