the pom recipe.

The Smart Dutch Woman is going to make pom on Monday and she wants to use my goldang recipe! Only problem is, neither of us could find the durned thing. So here it is, stolen from my eGullet foodblog.

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pom (surinamese chicken and malanga casserole).

300-400g chicken breast, leg, or thigh meat, or a mix of these
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper

100g zoutvlees
150g180-200g butter
3 yellow onions, chopped
3 canned roma tomatoes, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp palm sugar

1 kilo pomtajer/malanga, grated
1/3 cup celery leaves, chopped fine
the juice of 2 oranges
the juice of 1 lemon
freshly grated nutmeg
salt
pepper

Soak the zoutvlees in cold water for 30 minutes or so, then rinse and dice the meat.

















Rub the chicken pieces thoroughly in a mix of equal parts salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Here's my cute little nutmeg grater:

















Brown the chicken pieces in a sautepan, using a little of the butter to facilitate if necessary. Add the zoutvlees and saute for 5 minutes or so, then add the rest of the butter and the onions, tomatoes, chicken broth and palm sugar, and simmer until the palm sugar melts.

















Turn off the heat.

Grab your defrosted, grated pomtajer.

















Add the orange and lemon juices and the celery leaves to the pomtajer, then add all of the liquid from the chicken mixture, and stir to integrate everything.

















































Spread half of the pomtajer mixture along the bottom of a buttered baking dish, and then place a layer of the chicken mixture on top. Top with a layer of the pomtajer mixture. Dot the top with butter if you feel like it.


































Bake for 60 minutes at 175C, and then 30 minutes at 150C. After about the first 45 minutes check to see if the top is drying out. If it is, either dot some more butter on top, or if you think you've already added plenty of butter, you can mix things around in the baking pan to moisten. But when I used the full 180-200 grams of butter, everything was perfectly moist.

Serve with birambie (or similar homemade spicy pickles) either by itself or on a baguette for a broodje pom.

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I did skimp on the butter a little, about 50g less than I probably should've used...but my conscience was peering rudely over my shoulder in the kitchen and I just couldn't do it. I'll think I'll stick with my proportions so that my guilt is just ever so slightly less crushing.


















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