A Favorite August Recipe

By nature I am a non-recipe cook. I use cookbooks and recipes only when I need specific information or a certain technique. One of the things I love about cooking is experimentation, the freedom to be creative. But there is one recipe that I follow faithfully at around this time every summer: Chicken Purloo. I found it in the NY Times when I was looking for okra ideas. Although it is almost absurdly involved, it's worth it.

Mini eggplant arrive at my farmer's market in August.

Since this is essentially the only recipe I follow, I get kind of anal with it, prepping carefully and laying everything out in a nice mise-en-place.

Carefully arranged diced vegetables, with leather-bound copy of Freud's The Ego and the Id.

Purloo is a New Orleans/African style baked rice dish. There are layers of vegetables, rice, and chicken that cook together in a big pot. You begin by browning chicken pieces - I used to cut up a whole chicken but I found that the white meat parts don't respond well to this kind of cooking, so now I go with thighs and legs. The foundation of the dish is something that is apparently very common in New Orleans cooking - a dice of green pepper, celery, and onion. Better to pronounce it "on-yown," like Justin Wilson used to. This, along with eggplant, a bay leaf, some dried thyme and crushed chili flakes, becomes the first layer in a large pot.

First layer of cooked vegetables. Already the house smells great.

Then comes a layer of rice, toasted in oil to minimize sticking when the dish is baked. After that comes a layer of okra and smoked ham cooked with tomatoes and a bit of wine. I use canned San Marzano tomatoes because they are the greatest sauce tomato that I know of. Why don't I use fresh tomatoes? I 'm following a recipe here...

Tasso (smoked ham) and tomatoes provide flavor and aroma, okra acts as a thickener.

Lastly, the browned chicken and some stock. Cover the pot and into the oven for a little over an hour. Let it rest for 10 minutes or so, take out the chicken so you can stir the real bounty, the rice and all of the vegetables.

Moist, tender chicken and highly perfumed rice. Need I say more?

My wife hates when I make this dish because it heats up the house on an already hot August day. But she does love eating Purloo. I suggest doubling the recipe - it keeps well in the fridge and packs great lunches.And now, let's get down to the real point of this post, the wine. I've tried several wines over the years with Chicken Purloo, all them perfectly fine. But this year I hit on a truly excellent companion for this dish, by my tastes anyway. I'm going to tell you what it is, but before I do that (in the comment section in a day or so), let me ask you this: what would you drink with this dish?