Read The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook Online
Authors: Sharon Lebewohl
The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook (27 page)
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Garlic Chicken
SERVES
6
6
Once again, evidence of Chinese chefs in our kitchen.
2 tablespoons crushed fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 4-pound chicken, plus 1 breast (or whatever other parts you favor), hacked into 4-inch pieces (ask your butcher to do it)
â
cup white wine
1. Thoroughly mix garlic, salt, and pepper. Wash chicken pieces, and rub them with the mixture. Place in a baking dish, add wine, and toss to cover thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake chicken in wine-garlic mixture for 30 minutes, basting with pan juices after 15 minutes.
3. Set oven to broil. Place baking dish in broiler, and broil for 5 minutes on each side or until chicken is nicely browned.
Chicken Cutlets
SERVES
6
6
Nonkosher cooks soak chicken cutlets in milk or heavy cream to make them juicy and moist. We find nondairy creamer works just as well. Another alternative: Marinate cutlets in a commercial Italian salad dressing.
3 large whole chicken breasts
1 pint nondairy creamer (preferably Rich's)
1½ cups flour
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
3 eggs, beaten
½ cup water
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
Corn oil for deep-frying
1. Place cutlets in a large bowl, one at a time, and pour nondairy creamer over each, making sure both sides of each cutlet are well soaked. Use the entire pint. Cover bowl, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. In a Pyrex baking pan (or similar shallow dish), place flour, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper; mix well. Dredge cutlets in this seasoned flour, and set aside on platters (do not overlap). Mix eggs and water in a similar pan, and beat well. Place seasoned bread crumbs in a third pan. Dip each floured cutlet in the egg-water mixture, coating it completely; then dredge it thoroughly in bread crumbs.
3. Arrange breaded cutlets on platters (do not overlap), and place in freezer for 30 minutes.
4. Heat just enough corn oil to completely cover cutlets in a very large skillet (you'll need 2 skillets to accommodate all the cutlets in one batch). When oil is sizzling hot, deep-fry for 3 minutes. Turn cutlets, and fry 2½ minutes more. Drain on paper towels, and serve.
Note:
Have your butcher split and debone the chicken breasts, remove all fat, and pound thin. Each whole breast yields two cutlets.
Have your butcher split and debone the chicken breasts, remove all fat, and pound thin. Each whole breast yields two cutlets.
Chicken Fricassee
SERVES
6
6
European housewives, strapped for cash, created meals using poultry leftovers and tiny marble-sized meatballs. This relatively inexpensive entrée would not only feed a large family, but the time consumed coaxing little pieces of chicken from the necks and wings would enhance everyone's feeling of repletion. Since people nostalgically crave the foods they ate growing up, one generation's economy dinner is the next generation's soul food.
FOR MEATBALLS
¼ pound chopmeat
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 slices stale white bread, moistened
1 egg, beaten
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 pound chicken gizzards
1 large bay leaf
10 chicken necks, thoroughly rinsed
1 cup celery, diced into ½-inch pieces
2 cups carrots, diced into ½-inch pieces
1 cup tomato purée
1½ cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon finely chopped or crushed fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 pounds chicken wings, thoroughly rinsed
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine meatball ingredients in a bowl, and, using your hands, blend them thoroughly. Form them into ½-inch meatballs (you can use a melon baller to make them uniform), and place them in a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, and set aside.
2. In a large stockpot, place gizzards, 4 cups of water, and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add chicken necks, celery, carrots, tomato purée, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper, and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add chicken wings and meatballs, and simmer for 15 minutes more. Remove bay leaf. Serve with kasha varnishkes or egg barley.
Annals of Jewish Waiters: Our Diane
A
S INTRINSIC
to an authentic Jewish deli as its state-of-the-art pastrami and corned beef is the fabled genre of the Jewish waiter. This so-called server (male or female) never heard the phrase “The customer is always right.” He or she knows better. Some examples: A couple we know was dining at a Jewish deli in Queens. The husband ordered apple strudel for dessert, and his wife, confidently closing the menu with no fear of rebuff, said, “I'll have the same.” The waiter sized up her chubby frame with a critical glance and
quipped, “You, you don't need it.”
S INTRINSIC
to an authentic Jewish deli as its state-of-the-art pastrami and corned beef is the fabled genre of the Jewish waiter. This so-called server (male or female) never heard the phrase “The customer is always right.” He or she knows better. Some examples: A couple we know was dining at a Jewish deli in Queens. The husband ordered apple strudel for dessert, and his wife, confidently closing the menu with no fear of rebuff, said, “I'll have the same.” The waiter sized up her chubby frame with a critical glance and
quipped, “You, you don't need it.”
And at our own beloved Second Avenue Deli, we once heard the following exchange:
Customer: “How is the stuffed breast of veal served?”
Waiter: “On a plate.”
Many of our waitstaff are colorful characters, but Diane Kassner, a Deli fixture since 1987, is in a class by herself. As decorative as a doll, she's always dressed to the nines with massive jewelry and sequin- and pearl-studded frilly blouses under her bolero-style black jacket. Many customers come in just to catch her act, and some even send her flowers.
As she ladles out your chicken soup, Diane purrs, “I'll be the âpourer,' you be richer.” If time allows, she might even wax lyrical: “It's so delicious, it's nutritious. It's so edible, it's incredible.” Ask for a straw and you'll hear “Haverstraw, that's upstate.” Request ketchup, and as she's heading off to get it, she'll call back in her singsongy voice, “I'll ketchup to you in a minute.” Russian dressing? She's “rushin' to get it.” Mustard? “We supply, you apply.” And when she needs you to rearrange dishes to create more space on a crowded table (Deli diners tend to order a lot of food), she urges gently, “Where there's a will, there's relatives.”
Diane Kassner posing with the Diane doll.
Diane's fame extends beyond the Deli. Fox 5 TV's anchorwoman Rosanna Scotto captured Diane dancing in the Deli in celebration of the restaurant's fortieth anniversary in 1994 and featured her performance on
The Ten O'Clock News.
And Diane recited her above-mentioned ode to chicken soup on
Dateline NBC
in 1996. But her biggest coup was a May 1997 appearance on
Rosie O'Donnell
in honor of National Pickle Week. Diane presented Rosie with a tray of our delicious pickles, and sang, to a national audience, a zany “pickle song” composed especially for the occasion and sung to the tune of “Hooray for Hollywood.”
The Ten O'Clock News.
And Diane recited her above-mentioned ode to chicken soup on
Dateline NBC
in 1996. But her biggest coup was a May 1997 appearance on
Rosie O'Donnell
in honor of National Pickle Week. Diane presented Rosie with a tray of our delicious pickles, and sang, to a national audience, a zany “pickle song” composed especially for the occasion and sung to the tune of “Hooray for Hollywood.”
Famed waitress and Deli fixture Diane Kassner, promoting National Pickle Week on
Rosie O'Donnell.
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