Suzy Says

When Megan was a baby, one of our father’s grad students moved in with us. His name was Gilbert, and he was from Tanzania. Due to political unrest and other unpleasant things of that nature, his wealthy family was unable to get money out of Africa and into upstate New York.

I’m guessing that his stay with us outlasted his temporary financial embarrassment, since he lived with us for a couple of years. He may even have stayed with us until he graduated and went home.

We stayed in touch over the years, Gilbert-style. No writing, no emailing, just the occasional phone call saying “I’m at the airport – can you pick me up?” or, memorably, “Can you buy a truck for me and ship it? Here’s the money.” Gilbert took Dad with him on safari, negotiating prices for lodging and then explaining to the surprised hoteliers that Dad was his brother. He introduced Dad to the Maasai, who called him “The Old White Man Who Walks Far”. And that was before his knee replacement.

Gilbert sometimes cooked for us – in retrospect, I imagine Dad was quite relieved not to have to cook for seven people every night – and one of our favorite recipes was his Chicken Pilau. I made it this week for our Thursday dinner, perhaps inspired by the very thoughtful gift Megan made for our brother’s birthday. She copied the cookbooks (and accompanying drawings) Dad made for us girls, and made Jonathan one of his own.

Here’s the recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed that little stroll down memory lane.

Chicken Pilau

1 cup white rice
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
3 cups chicken stick
Cooked chicken, equivalent to 1/4 bird, cut into pieces
2 sticks cinnamon
15-20 whole cloves
2 tablespoons oi

Chop the onion, garlic, and celery finely. Sauté in large frying pan until tender, increase heat, add uncooked rice, and continue sautéeing until the rice is golden. Stir well to avoid burning. Turn down heat, add chicken stock, and simmer for ten minutes, then add cinnamon and cloves and chicken – this is the recipe of an African friend and there the amount of meat per portion is small. [Note: I just put everything in at once, and it was fine.] Simmer for another ten minutes – when the rice should be tender – or transfer to the oven (medium heat) in closed dish, where it can remain for some time.