Friday Florida Food Fest: Pilau ... AND I Find My Missing Mojo

(nose courtesy of Flounder)

Can you smell it?

It's Pilau.

Let's get the correct pronouncification out of the way first. It's pronounced "Per-low"

Not "Pee-low", Pee-lo, or "Pee-lau".

Got it?

Sausage Pilau and Kentucky Wonder pole beans ... not my Aunt Shelba's, but pretty good anyhow.

That's sausage pilau in the picture, but I'm gonna share the chicken pilau recipe, because it's my favorite and it's the basis for a handful of variations.

There's seafood pilau, sausage pilau, chicken pilau, shrimp seafood pilau, pork neckbone pilau ... it goes on and on.

Basic St. Augustine Minorcan Chicken Pilau

2 fryers

4 stalks celery

1 onion whole

2 chopped onions

3 cups rice

2 cans tomatoes

1 tsp dried thyme

` tblsp sugar

salt & pepper to taste

2 datil peppers

6 cups chicken broth

Stew chicken with cut up celery and 1 onion, salt and pepper. Simmer until tender. Strip chicken from bones.

In a heavy cast iron dutch oven, add about 2 tblspn of oil, brown the chopped onions, when light brown add tomatoes, sugar, salt, and thyme. Mash tomatoes with spoon, cook until bubbly, then reduce heat, cook until liquid is reduced and mixture looks brown and thick like paste (be patient).

Then add 2 tblsp of water and cook til liquid is reduced again.

Go ahead and turn on your oven, preheat to 500 F.

Add rice to tomato paste mixture, add chicken, datil peppers, and chicken broth.

Cover the dutch oven and place in oven for 5 minutes at 500 degrees. After 5 minutes turn off the oven and let it sit for 1.5 hours.

When you eat pilau, it's traditional, but not required, to sprinkle datil pepper vinegar over it on your plate.

Datil pepper vinegar is made by stuffing fresh datils into any old bottle and covering it with vinegar for a few months.

And now for the missing Mojo:

Last week, I posted our Cubaterranean meal and a number of you requested the recipe for the Mojo chicken. Some even attempted to wing it and were faced with disappointing results. I couldn't help you at the time, because I did not (for once) do the cooking.

Today, I cornered Mrs. FC and wrestled the recipe from her.

1/4 cup Orange Juice (this should be Florida OJ of course)

1/4 cup lime juice (Nellie and Joe's or squeeze your own)

2 garlic cloves minced

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

4 boneless chicken breasts

1/2 -1 cup cheap wine

Combine first 6 ingredients in a shallow dish.

Mix well with a whisk, add chicken to marinate for 20-40 minutes.

Heat cast iron skillet with a little olive oil, add chicken, cook about 4-5 minutes each side.

Splash about 1/4 cup of wine over chicken, when chicken is brown on outside (maybe not done inside) remove and cut into strips.

Pour remaining marinade mix into browning pan, add another 1/4 cup wine, stir and scrape pan.

Cook medium heat until bubbly.

Add chicken to pan and simmer.

There ya' go. Two good recipes from the heart of Pure Florida.

You owe me.