Serves: makes six figs. Time requirement: 18 minutes. What you’ll need: 6 fresh ripe figs, about the size of a large egg. 3 slices of bacon. 2 teaspoons of honey. Ground cumin. Fresh black pepper to grind. Parchment paper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Preparation: Lay the bacon slices on a clean flat surface and brush with honey. Obviously, you don’t have a lot of honey we are just using 2 teaspoons but spread it evenly as much as you can. Now sprinkle the bacon with ground

Serves 2. Time requirement: about an hour start to finish. What you will need: 2 large chicken thighs 6-8 ounces each. ½ teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. 1 stalk of rhubarb, preferring bright red, about 4 ounces in all. Half a large red onion diced (about 6 ounces). 2 tablespoons olive oil. 3 tablespoons butter. 1 cup white wine. 1 tablespoon honey. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Preparation: Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the chicken thighs and

Serves 2. Time requirement about 45 minutes. If time allows, another 30 minutes to marinade the chicken before you start cooking. What you will need: 2 large chicken thighs, about 6-8 ounces each. 4 tablespoons olive oil. ½ teaspoon powdered ground ginger ½ teaspoon ground cumin 2 pinches of saffron. Black pepper to grind 2 medium sized onions (5-6 ounces each) sliced very thinly. 3 garlic cloves chopped. 12 pitted green olives. ½ preserved lemon, cut into quarters. * ½ cup w

Serves 2. Time requirement about 50-60 minutes start to dinner. This is a warm comforting autumn dish. What you will need: 2 chicken thighs and legs, about 1½ pounds in total. 1 ounce of unsalted butter cut into 4-5 pieces. 3 tablespoons olive oil. 4 whole garlic cloves peeled. 3 slices of pancetta, each slice cut into 4-5 strips. 8 fresh sage leaves. 2 thyme sprigs. ½ pound small red or white potatoes, washed and cut in half. ¼ cup white wine Fresh black pepper to grind. A d

Serves 2. Time Requirement: 30 minutes of your active time to prepare and cook and 45 minutes for the chicken to marinade. A note about chili peppers. This recipe calls for using three cayenne peppers. If you like milder pepper use jalapeno or poblano. A good thing to know is that peppers harvested in July and August are hotter than those harvested in cooler months. While testing this recipe in the summer, one cayenne chili pepper was very hot. In October three cayenne were p

Serves 6. Why this recipe. This is part of my cheap meat repertoire. Veal stew is reasonably inexpensive. It does not cost much more than good quality hamburger. Unlike hamburger, veal has a pedigree. It has some class. As a result, you can put on a classy dinner party. It is flashy dinner item if you make a pot pie with the veal stew. What you will need: 2 pounds veal stew meat. Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. 2 tablespoons olive oil plus more as needed. 4 ounces salt

Serves 2, Time requirement: 15 minutes to prep. 40-45 minutes to cook. What you will need: 2 boneless skin-on chicken thighs. ½ cup dried mushrooms. (See note below.) Some water nearly boiling. 1 slice of bacon. 18 small sage leaves, or 9 large ones torn in half 1 large onion, about 8 ounces, peeled and cut into 8-10 sections. Then the layers from each section separated. 6 whole garlic cloves, peeled. 1 lemon, peeled, and cut into 6-8 slices. 1 small apple cored and chopped.

Serves 2. Time requirements. 15-20 minutes. What you will need: 2 filleted chicken thighs. Skin on or off; It is your preference. (See Chicken Scallopini in the chapter Building Blocks for how to fillet the chicken thighs.) Fresh pepper to grind. 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. 3 whole garlic cloves peeled. ¼ cup dry white vermouth. 1 tablespoon capers preferably packed in salt. If you use caper packed in vinegar, rinse them. 1 cup diced tomatoes (canned if out of seas

Serves 4. Time requirement: 2 hours of prepping and cooking with time between to cool the dish between steps. Plus, you need to make a pie dough, or you could use a prepared dough or puffed pastry. Note a rich homemade chicken stock is a requirement for this dish. I do make a nod to the freezer with this recipe: peas and pearl onions. Pearl onions are a pain to peel and blanch, so I am taking a short cut with frozen pearl onions. Peas are not in season with apples, so I use f

Serves 2-4. Time requirement. 40 minutes. Plus, an extra 30 minutes (if you have them) for the chicken to warm up coming from the refrigerator. The recipe for the Sweet-Sour Hot Sauce follows. What you will need: 4 bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs. Chicken thighs these days are big: upwards to 8-9 ounces. That’s the size of thighs I used to test this recipe. ½ teaspoons kosher salt ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. 2 quarts of pure or refined olive oil. DO NOT USE extra