ESCABECHE!!!
I love the word escabeche. I discovered it some years ago in a cookbook entitled Nuevo Latino which contained a recipe for swordfish escabeche. It was my first encounter with the word and for a very long time the only encounter. I made the swordfish recipe repeatedly -- though only occasionally -- when I wanted a room temperature fancy meal. Hence, I described making it in an entry ages ago right here on this blog, an entry entitled "Cooking in a Heat Wave: Room Temperature Foods."
I have not made escabeche -- the swordfish escabeche -- in ages, as I wrote above. Occasionally, when I have seen lovely wild swordfish out there in the world for purchase, I think about it. For some reason, I have come to think of the recipe as "difficult" or at least "time consuming" and so I have not moved in that direction. It could be that the recipe makes A LOT that deters me. IT could be that it makes a lot and wild swordfish is expensive. In any case, no swordfish escabeche these days.
But the word escabeche came to mind -- and that longish ago recipe -- because of a recent issue of Bon Appetit that contains a recipe for chicken escabeche. I both made it (see below) and was driven to think some more about the term itself.
For me, the word "escabeche" had come to mean the swordfish recipe, not the more general definition that it really has. Roaming the internet on the topic (and reading the little intro in the recent issue of the magazine, of course), really reminded me of something I knew: it is kind of a form of pickling, involves vinegar or other acid, and has roots in a variety of places, including Latin America (the region which inspired the aforementioned swordfish dishes made obvious, probably, by the title of the cookbook from which it came). Another way to think of it is a kind of sweet and sour combination, in the case of the chicken recipe because of the inclusion raisins along with vinegar. Here is a basic definition acquired from the internet which, among other things indicates it is of Persian origin ultimately! The internet seems to really focus on the fish version, but also notes vegetables etc. For a reflections on fish other than swordfish, try here. For veggies, try here.
So: a wide ranging word limited in use in some contexts?
In any case, here is the recent Bon Apetit recipe: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chicken-escabeche which turns out to be adapted from Bäco: Vivid Recipes From the Heart of Los Angeles by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock, Chronicle Books (2017). My tweaks: (a) I cannot seem to find sherry vinegar anywhere these days. (Is that a thing?) so I did use red wine vinegar. I suspect sherry vinegar would be more interesting. (b) I also could not find golden raisins so used ordinary organic Thompson raisins. And (c) i bought pre-separated chicken thighs and legs.
How did it taste? Yummy. I think I could have done a better job browning the legs, which turn out to be harder to get to crisp up than thighs for some reason. And, I think the wine I served should have been a robust red rather than the odd ball while I chose. But: I would make this again. It is tasty and makes good left overs.
