Instructions: A traditional Jewish recipe

POST. This food writer, Daniel Rogov, is known for printing a lot of non-kosher recipes (to the dismay of a lot of JP readers), so I will spare you the French recipe (which uses goat cheese!). In all cases, Ive changed butter to margarine and converted the metric measures to English approximations. These can be good anytime, but Im thinking ahead to Rosh Hashana.

The writer notes: "Despite their drawbacks, even mass-produced chickens can be made tasty, and there is no better way to prepare a chicken than by stuffing it with ingredients that complement and highlight the natural flavor of the meat. Italians are particularly fond of stuffing their chickens with rice and celery; the French use celery and onions; Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians rely heavily on the use of nuts ..."

Place the prunes in a bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Let stand for 1 hour. With a slotted spoon, remove the prunes and set aside. Reserve the liquid.

Cut away unwanted fat from the chicken and wash the chicken thoroughly inside and out. Pat dry with toweling and sprinkle the cavity with 1 tsp of the salt. Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with the remaining salt, pepper and paprika. Loosely stuff the cavity with about 1/2 the prunes, place in an ovenproof casserole and roast for 40 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 180 C/350 F, pasting frequently with the liquid from the prunes. Add the remaining prunes to the casserole and continue roasting until the chicken is done (about 40 minutes longer). Serve hot.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.