Most of the year, Tara Lazar, founder of F10 Creative, a Southern California restaurant group, cooks alongside her houseguests. At a 16-foot island, made from an ailing walnut tree trucked hundreds of miles from outside Sacramento to her home in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs, they gather as she delegates tasks, like stuffing mushroom dumplings or helping prepare potato latkes.
“It relaxes me,” she said, “and it is an unexpected icebreaker.”
But not at Passover.
For her Seder, which can be as intimate as eight guests and as lively as 30, Lazar prepares her dishes before everyone arrives. The meal is too important, as it has been for generations of women in her family.
“I remember when my Jewish grandmother Rita Tannenbaum Lazar slapped my mother’s wrist if she took the top off the matzo balls in less than 20 minutes,” said Lazar, laughing. “And my great-auntap brisket was so dry that my cousin Gaby, who lives in Israel, covered it with a whipped zhug.”
Lazar thought that the meal needed something with more flavor, so she riffed on a chicken dish from Yotam Ottolenghi’s 2018 cookbook, “Simple.” (In the book, Ottolenghi writes that he had improvised on the chicken Marbella in Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso’s 1982 “Silver Palate Cookbook.”)
Putting her desert stamp on the recipes, Lazar substitutes dates, originally from the Middle East and now grown locally, for the prunes.
“It makes sense where we are to use what we have in the desert, just as our ancestors had to do,” Lazar said of the dish, which is even served at Birba, a restaurant she owns with her husband, Marco Rossetti.
When the guests finally arrive, they’ll wash their hands. Someone will hide the afikomen for the children, including her two young sons, Maszlo and Maddox, to find. And, instead of lining up at the kitchen island, guests sit outside at a long table under lemon and grapefruit trees.
Date palms and the San Jacinto Mountains — “so similar to the Sinai,” said Lazar’s cousin David Lazar, rabbi of Or Hamidbar — line the background.
“It is so awe-inspiring,” added David Lazar, who often leads the Seder. “An everyday presence, the mountains put us all in our place.”
Looking at the mountains that face the home where she’s spent most of the past 49 Seders, Tara Lazar said, they “add peace and stability to my life.”
Roasted Chicken With Dates and Olives
Recipe from Tara Lazar
Adapted by Joan Nathan
If you want a bold-flavored chicken dish to please a crowd at your Passover Seder or any time of year, try this one, adapted from Birba in Palm Springs, California. Both sweet and savory, the roasted brined chicken caramelizes beautifully in the oven and gets garnished with bright green Castelvetrano olives, preserved lemons, capers and dates. The only tricky part is cutting up the whole broiler chickens, preferred for their dainty size by Lazar. If pulling out kitchen shears feels like overload, you can use store-bought chicken pieces instead. Marinated — and even roasted — in advance (see Tip), this chicken makes serving for a big crowd a seamless affair.
Total time: 10 hours (overnight marinating, 2 hours cook time)
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 whole broiler chickens (about 3 1/2 pounds each), cut into quarters, or 6 to 8 pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces, such as whole legs, thighs or breasts (see Tip)
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1/2 cup white wine
- Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
- 2 whole preserved lemons, seeded and coarsely chopped, plus 3 or 4 tablespoons of brine from the jar
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic (about 4 large cloves)
- 1/4 cup chicken broth, plus more if needed
- 2 cups dates (about 10 ounces), each pitted and sliced into 4 wide rounds
- 2 cups green Castelvetrano olives, pitted and sliced into 4 rounds
- 1 cup capers, drained (about 4 1/2 ounces)
Preparation:
1. Trim away and discard any excess fat from the chicken pieces, then put the chicken in a large bowl or casserole dish. Sprinkle with the salt and black pepper, add the wine, lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, preserved-lemon brine, garlic and 1/4 cup chicken broth. Massage into the chicken. Cover and let marinate in the fridge overnight.
2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the chicken pieces onto a large sheet pan, skin side up, pour the marinade evenly over the top and cover tightly with the foil. Roast for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and let the chicken roast for about 15 more minutes, until cooked through and golden brown. You can put it under the broiler for a minute or two at the end to get it nice and brown.
3. Remove the chicken from the oven and, if serving immediately, carefully pour a few spoonfuls of the pan juices into a medium bowl and reserve.
4. Sprinkle the chopped preserved lemons, dates, olives and capers over the chicken and drizzle the reserved pan juices on top. Roast for 10 or 15 minutes more, just enough to heat through and caramelize the dates.
5. Transfer the pieces of chicken and their toppings to a beautiful platter, pour any remaining juices over top, and serve.
Tips: If you don’t want to cut up small broiler chickens, you can easily use your preferred standard cut-up chicken parts such as whole legs, drumsticks, breasts and thighs.
To make ahead, refrigerate or freeze the dish after Step 3. Defrost in the fridge overnight if frozen, then continue with Steps 4 and 5.
This article originally appeared in .
