FOR AULD LANG SYNE—SIMPLE FOOD

 Old friends came visiting last week. Old friends and their younger offspring. What a joy to see them again and welcome them to my home. Being old myself, where once a dinner party for ten was a piece of cake, now I need to simplify the menu and spread the prep over a couple of days. 

Sunday lunch for eight. To start we have a (non-alcoholic) pomegranate punch for toasting; blue cheese dip with regañás crackers; home-cured olives (picked from the olive tree right outside the door), and my favorite winter salad of oranges, avocados and fennel with fresh lettuce and radishes from the garden. 

Chickens have been marinated with herbs then roasted with medium Sherry. Small chickens are done in one hour, ready to carve and serve.

The main course was my version of Chicken “Marbella.” As I have posted before, the “classic” recipe for Chicken Marbella, beloved for holiday meals (from The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins: Workman Publishing; 1979), is not really from Marbella. Just as the authors took liberties with Marbella, so have I with their recipe. I marinated four small chickens with caper brine, herbs, garlic and Sherry vinegar, then roasted them with home-cured olives, prunes and oloroso seco (medium-dry) Sherry. My son Ben carved the chickens and heaped it on a platter. The pan juices with jammy prunes and olives are ever-so-good spooned over quick-cook couscous. 

As a side dish I served a heaping platter of latkes, potato pancakes. These are a favorite food for the Hanukkah holiday and a wonderful side for any meal. One of my guests, from Cologne, Germany, declared the latkes were just like home, served with apple sauce and sour cream.

I fried three dozen latkes the day before the gathering and reheated them in a convection oven with fan. They crisped up nicely. I bet an air fryer would be perfect for reheating latkes. 

Dessert was Bread Pudding with Fruits and Nuts, waiting in the wings (freezer) for a special occasion. I served it with lashings of whipped cream. 

It was nearly sundown when lunch was finished, time to light the candles. And to wish old friends adios, hasta ahora. 

Here are links to the recipes for the foods served at my festive lunch:

Easy blue cheese dip served with crispy regañás. The recipes for both are here.

The recipe for Salad with Avocado, Oranges, and Fennel is here.

The recipe for my version of Chicken Marbella is here. Pictured here, four small chickens that have been marinated, ready for roasting. 

The recipe for Bread Pudding with Fruits and Nuts is here.

More about Peter Nielsen, artist and handyman who now lives in England (he is shown in the photo at the top), is here.