Chic Cheap Lunch

We've been eating pasta while we get settled in SF and wait for jobs to start and paychecks to come. LOTS of pasta. But pasta for lunch and pasta for dinner gets a little too pasta for me, so I was forced to become creative, which quite logically led me to bread, which is similarly cheap and comforting and capable of mixing with many ingredients.

We did not have many of those, either, so I rounded up everything in the fridge: the remains of a can of cannellini beans, some leftover sprigs of basil and the butt of a lemon, all of which I fork-mashed (blender?! food processor?! you're kidding, right??) into a frankly very delicious spread for bread. Spread for bread. Rhyme!

We splurged on a peppery cacciatore salami and some blood oranges--MY FAVORITE CITRUS EVER--paired it with Mexican Coke in a glass bottle and called it lunch. Pas mal, eh?

As a side note, this is Napoleon on his new bed after a long play at the greatest dog park ever.

Knife Skills Put to Use: Hacking up a Chicken

A couple of weeks ago, I took a Knife Skills class at The Brooklyn Kitchen. It was fantastic. I learned how to make plateaux, juliennes, and something else I can't remember the French word for where you make teeny tiny little cubes. I also learned how to hack up a whole chicken into individual pieces so I don't have to waste so much money buying those damn chicken breasts! I also hate chicken breasts: so lifeless and tasteless and dull dull dull.

So last night, I thought it would be brilliant to use my new skills and make chicken--not a whole roast chicken, which takes much too long, but some sort of pan-fried chicken. I had to use those mushrooms up, and I had a tiny bit of citrus on hand. Having been gone for a while, refrigerator replenishment was necessary, but I got some good stuff and used it all up...

2/24/10

The Creation:

Citrus-glazed chicken with hazelnuts, mushrooms and roasted fennel

What's in the fridge?
mushrooms
1 slice guanciale
small hunk of Stilton
1/2 white onion
1/3 red onion
1/2 lemon
1/2 lime
chicken stock
rabbit stock

frozen peas

Key ingredients consumed:

mushrooms

guanciale

onion

lemon

Ingredients purchased:

1 whole chicken from The Meat Hook  

hazlenuts

fennel

blood orange

red-skin potatoes

The creative process:

To be perfectly honest, this was about drinking a bottle of 2003 Jadot Meursault Genevrieres that was past its prime. I wanted something to go with this, and the combination of fruit and nuttiness in the wine seemed to beg for a creation like the following...

I hadn't the time or patience for a recipe, so after hacking up the chicken (it turned out beautifully! Thanks, Knife Skills class!) I chucked some olive oil into a frying pan, salt-and-peppered the chicken pieces, and dumped them into the pan over high heat so the skin got all yummy brown. Then I threw in the mushrooms and hazlenuts and squeezed a whole bunch of blood orange over it. Cook cook cook for maybe 20-25 minutes, until I thought it was done, then took out the chicken and let it rest while I deglazed the pan with a splash of wine and some more citrus juice (lemon this time). Reduced a bit, then served over the chicken with a side of mashed potes and roasted fennel. Josiah takes all the credit for the fennel, which I could have eaten on its own for days on end, it was so amazing.

The verdict:

Quite remarkable! The pairing was spot-on, even if the wine was a little dead (lacking acid and fruit expression, mostly just flattish slightly oxidized nut notes). The complexity of the dish was delightful, and there's enough leftover for TWO more meals. I even ate the damn chicken breasts, and they were succulent and flavorful and fantastic--totally unlike the crappy skinless/boneless/tasteless variety you find Saran-wrapped in the grocery store. Plus I made stock out of the carcass and discarded fennel stalks! Like.