A Few of Our Favorite (Fast) Foods

Around 1750 the Earl of Sandwich put some meat between two slices of bread and gave fast food a good name. It was several hundred years before American ingenuity came along to ruin its reputation.

But fast food doesn’t have to mean a hapless piece of meat or produce that’s been fried to a frazzle, wrapped in layers of paper and plastic and sold for the cheapest possible price. Fast food can be made from scratch, served with pride and consumed with pleasure. The following recipes, a few of our favorites, prove the point.

Dashing Chicken

A friend of mine devised this after I made her a Lebanese dish called djaj mahshi. It’s basically a French sauteed chicken with a dashing dose of garlic, lemon and pine nuts, and takes a quarter of the time of the Lebanese original. You can substitute sliced almonds for the pine nuts, or use a mixture of almonds and pine nuts (as djaj mahshi does).

CHICKEN SUJENNA

1 pound chicken parts (breast or thighs), boned and skinned

2 tablespoons oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups dry white wine

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup pine nuts

Minced parsley

Wash and pat-dry chicken. Heat oil in heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Fry chicken until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Pour off most of oil into smaller pan.

Add garlic to skillet and cook over medium heat until tender. Add wine, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Increase heat to high and boil until alcohol evaporates. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until juices run clear when meat is pierced with fork, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry pine nuts in reserved oil in small pan until golden brown.

Remove chicken from skillet and keep warm. Boil down juices over high heat until thickened. Pour pan juices over chicken and sprinkle with pine nuts and parsley. Serve with sourdough bread and cherry tomatoes, if desired. Makes 2 servings.