Chicken Fried Gourmet

Chicken with red wine, linguine and mushrooms

Sometimes it is best to use old stand by recipes rather than try to ‘re-invent the wheel”. The other night I was craving some form of chicken and pasta so I picked up some linguine, mushrooms and chicken from the store. I decided to make a riff on chicken marsala. I started off by pounding out some chicken breasts to an even thickness and dusting them with some seasoned Wondra flour. I sautéed these in a  pan with some olive oil till golden on both sides. I used the same pan to sauté some diced baby bella mushrooms and fresh garlic. I deglazed this with red wine( Merlot – hence the riff on marsala) and then added some milk and set it to a simmer. I added the chicken back to the pan and let it finish cooking in the sauce.

Meanwhile I prepared the pasta by boiling water with chicken stock. Once the pasta was done I added about a cup of the pasta water to the mushrooms and chicken and let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes. I topped off the dish with freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley.

I even included a shot of my “setup” when photographing food on the stove.

Figs in Louisiana

We have about three main fig trees in our backyard along with about 20 little ones which have sprouted at the base of each.

Over the past two weeks I have been collecting the fresh figs (in a constant battle with the birds) and vacuum sealing, then freezing. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet ,although there are plenty of ideas out there on the web.

I don't want to do the normal fig jam and such. The Commander's Palace cookbook has a recipe for a fig bbq sauce which looks good, but I am undecided. One recipe I really want to try is this one.

Chicken & Grits "Waffles" with Sweet Potato and Rosemary Cane Syrup

Sometimes I like to cook the same things over and over and routinely change up one of the ingredients either by presentation, preparation or texture. I had wanted to do something with chicken and grits and thought I had the idea perfected. Instead of just making a pile of cheesy grits I would turn them into Grit Waffles. Crazy you say? Yes but the idea sounded really tasty, crispy on the outside but with cheesy gooey grits inside.

They sell chicken and waffles so why not make an “upscale” if you will version. I started by making the grits as usual – one part milk to one part chicken stock, add grits, cook ,add cheddar cheese and butter, salt and pepper to taste. For the chicken I chose boneless skinless breasts and marinated them with a mixture of beer, creole mustard, worchestire sauce, garlic, and cayenne pepper. I seared these on a flat top till cooked through.

Sauce wise I went with sweet potato. I juiced about three sweet potatoes and added this to about a cup of milk, crushed garlic and simmered for about 30 minutes. I strained the garlic out before serving. Why juice the sweet potatoes? No particular reason other than I had not done it before and I thought it would give me a lighter cleaner sauce. It did.

I had one sweet potato left over so for a different texture I peeled and cut it into chunks about half the size of a piece of dice. I seared these on the flat top as well with a little salt and pepper.

To cut the richness of the whole dish, I took about a ½ cup of cane syrup and heated it on the stove with about 5 sprigs of rosemary, a shot of worchestire and garlic. I probably heated it too much as when it hit the plate it immediately firmed up like a piece of caramel candy. It still served its purpose though.

Back to the “grit” waffles, they did not work out like I thought they would. Next time I think I will just incorporate a mixture of the finished grits with a waffle batter mixture.

To finish plating the dish I added a “streak” of creole mustard, added a scoop of cheesy grits, the chicken, some sweet potato bits, topped it with sweet potato cream and drizzled the rosemary cane syrup over everything.

For dessert, and please keep an open mind here, I took some french bread slices and toasted them. I then smeared these with Nutella, sprinkled some Maldon Sea Salt and topped with shredded fresh parmesan cheese. It just works......

4th of July with Peach BBQ Ribs, Fried Pickles, Black Bean Garlic Chicken Wings, Fireworks and Family

For the 4^th of July we kind of kept it low key. We joined our neighbors down the street for simple BBQ (Grilling for the BBQ purists) and fireworks. I had some baby back ribs in the freezer so the 4^th holiday would be as good as anytime to cook them.

I wanted to go with a peach based marinade and sauce for the ribs and was trying to find a peach based iced tea to incorporate into the marinade as well as the sauce. For convenience sake I just needed a bottled version but everywhere I went they were sold in packs of 12 or not at all. For a flavor I had never tried before and the fact that I do not drink tea I chose to go with another method. I marinated the ribs in peach nectar, bourbon, garlic and chicken stock. I made a quick BBQ sauce with peach nectar, bourbon, ketchup, red wine vinegar,honey and brown sugar. I added the usual seasonings and reduced it down to a sauce like consistency.

Other dishes I decided to make were Grilled Chicken wings with a black bean garlic sauce ( black bean garlic sauce from a Chinese market, honey, siracha, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar), a corn dish I saw on StarChefs.com and fried pickles with a bacon ranch sauce( I saw this item on Graham Elliot Bowle's new Chicago Restaurant menu).

Usually during holiday events like this I am cooking most of the day and do not get to relax, this day was different. Most of these items could be prepped and pre-cooked ahead of time so it left me more time for having fun and hanging out (plus more time to relax and enjoy beverages of the adult nature).

We lucked out and the forecasted rain never came our way so it turned out to be a good night for fireworks. The only downside of the night was when ,in my sheer stupidity, I attempted to light several sparklers at once in turn burning my thumb and index finger. Yes only I could get injured, not by real fireworks, but by sparklers. Oh and at one point, one of the kids accidentally knocked over several lit fireworks causing everybody to run for cover – I wish I could have gotten a picture of that,it was funny afterwords.

How did you spend your 4^th?

In the pursuit of perfect taste - Mushrooms

So sometimes in the pursuit of perfect taste, in making things "better"....

you can lose sight of the basics, like mushrooms and salt......

silly me seasoned the mushrooms with salt and pepper and thought " hey, I should vacuum seal these and let them marinate in the fridge"

well we all know what salt does to mushrooms, it draws out moisture.

This was not pleasant when I pulled it out of the fridge, you live and you learn :)