Day 26: Pollo al Vino Rosso E Insalata Caprese (Chicken Thighs in Red Wine and Caprese Salad)
Well it’s been a while since i posted new pictures. School started up and I got incredibly busy with that. Didn’t stop cooking however.
Here we have a dish that fully sums up the essential attitude of Italian cooking, which paraphrased read something like “Allow the good ingredients to speak for themselves in simple ways.” The chicken is deliciously tender yet the skin is crisp. The salad is a case of beauty in simplicity.
Here we simply rehydrated some dried porcini mushrooms in hot water for fifteen minutes and then dried them by squeezing them. A generous dab of butter, 2 tablespoons, went into a pan followed by a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf. The chicken thighs soon followed. Oh and don’t let the butter burn. Trust me on this.
Here the type of chicken parts that you use actually matter somewhat. You want something that has some fat that can render out into your pan. I would not recommend boneless, skinless chicken breasts, a favorite weapon of the culinary inquisition aimed at destroying all the flavor in our lives. Something like a thigh, a whole leg, or just buying a whole damn chicken and chopping it into pieces.
Brown the chicken until all sides of it are golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, add mushrooms and add wine. I added about one and half cups of red wine.
Don’t use cooking wine. Don’t use cooking wine. Don’t fucking use cooking wine. You will destroy the dish and you might as well start ordering take out because it’s going to taste like shit. Use something that would drink by itself. If you are worried about opening a bottle just for cooking you can and should drink the wine with the dish. Here I used a nice little number from France called Pierre Amadiu, Côtes du Rhône, Roulepierre, 2006.
Wait it’s from France!? Doesn’t that mean it’s expensive! No, my misguided friend, this particular bottle cost about thirteen dollars, and tasted great.
After you add the wine all the alcohol is going to start to cook off. When it does, reduce the heat to medium, take the chicken out, and wrap it in pancetta. I did not have any pancetta sadly so I substituted with bacon. Secure with toothpicks and reintroduce the chicken into the pan with the wine.
Cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until tender and cooked through, give it thirty minutes or so. Take out of pan and place of serving platter. Garnish with some color if you want to make it look pretty, I recommend rosemary or parsley.
Caprese Salad is one of the easy dishes to make in the entire world. The only way you can mess this up is to use substandard ingredients. It’s three basic ingredients; tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese.
Slice your tomatoes (these are good ripe organic tomatoes of noble birth right, because stop if they are not) into thick slices, slice the mozzarella cheese into think slices, and throw one or two basil leafs on there. Sprinkle salt and pepper on there and then drizzle extra virgin olive oil (and if you use the acronym kill yourself) and balsamic vinegar on top.
Day 11: Suprêmes De Volaille Véronique/Riz á l’Indienne (Chicken Breast with Grapes and Curried Rice)
Today’s dish is quick if you know what you are doing in the kitchen. I browned strips of chicken in a pan and then moved them to another pan. In the first pan shallots are added and cooked. Then the obligatory white wine is added for sauce construction. Fat is poured from the second pan to the first. Then the French secret culinary weapon known as heavy cream is deployed to the sauce. I then add in fresh grapes and reduce the sauce. After the reduction, I then reintroduce the chicken and cook all the way through.
The rice is simply rice cooked with butter, onions, garlic, chopped gala apples, and curry powder in chicken broth with a bay leaf for additional flavor.
Day 7: Chicken Piccata with Egg Noodles and Green Bean/Nut Sauté
Chicken again. This time it is done in the Italian piccata style of cooking, which roughly translates to “sliced, sautéed, and served in a sauce containing lemon, butter, and spices.” First I processed the chicken; pounding it 1/4 of an inch thick, flouring it, and then browning in butter and canola oil. They were then removed and scallions, garlic, onion where added to the pan in order to act as aromatics and for flavor. I then then deglazed with a sherry/lemon juice mixture and also added capers. Finally the chicken was reintroduced and allowed to finish cooking through. They were then plated and garnished with lemon slices and parsley.
The green beans were blanched and then dried. They were then sautéd in olive oil and garlic. Pecans were added to dry roast briefly. They were then served along with the chicken and egg noodles.
Day 6: Chicken Thighs in Garlic and Shallots with Wilted Spinach
Today’s chicken dish is actually a hybrid of cooking methods. The chicken is liberally salt and peppered, browned in a pan, and then finished in the oven with the shallots and garlic. I also added sage, parsley, and thyme for additional flavor. It’s all cooked in a small bit of garlic olive oil along with the oil used to brown the chicken, resulting in a garlic-herb oil that can be utilized for garlic bread or other purposes. The garlic and shallot cloves come out soft as butter. Use them to make mashed potatoes or just spread them on bread with butter and a little of the oil. Myself I just eat them as is during the meal and drink wine to fight the smell.
The spinach is just wilted in a pan, then tossed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.
