LOS ANGELES _ The Santa Monica farmers market was one of my first destinations after moving to L.A. a few months ago; I went to feel some connectivity to my new home after weeks of moving limbo. There, stacked as high as my face on every stand's tables, were piles and piles of spring onions. Their newness and my own fresh start in Los Angeles inspired the first recipe for this, my first "Home for Dinner" column.
This column will take a familiar concept and give it a spin that looks at ingredients in a new light. While I strive for ease _ who doesn't? _ I don't sacrifice flavor for expedience. My mission is to create recipes that inspire you to get in the kitchen and enjoy every chopping, stirring and tong-flipping minute of it, whether that's 15 minutes or an hour and a half.
During those first weeks here, though, my patience and makeshift kitchen required the former. Armed with one skillet and a cheap drugstore blender, I turned to one of my favorite quick suppers: braised chicken thighs, where I let the oven take over for me after just 15 minutes of hands-on cooking.
Almost any sauce can work for the braising liquid with this technique, but, inspired by the Mexican influences here and the piles of spring onions at the market, I devised this: a spring onion salsa verde, the onion's mild sharpness mimicking the acidity of the traditional tomatillos in salsa verde.
While the chicken skin renders to a golden brown crisp, I quickly blitz the raw salsa ingredients in a blender, adding some white wine for extra tartness. Then, flip the chicken, pour in the salsa, and chuck the skillet into the oven to work its magic in solitude until the salsa is concentrated and infused into the meat. It's the perfect amount of time to hack into an avocado, wedge up a lime and toast some bread (or heat up tortillas or make rice) to help shovel the dish down.
A handful of sliced spring onions gets showered over the whole dish to add a pop of raw crunch. Their presence reassures me _ like those piles at the farmers market _ that even in the anxiety of settling into a new city, a home-cooked meal is the most grounding thing there is.
