Chicken of the Week – Balsamic Shallot Sauce

Four years ago I made an offer to my children. The first one who can facilitate welcoming Chef Jacques Pepin into our home will receive a brand new Ford Mustang.

Why Jacques? Because he’s my go-to chef.

There’s only one recipe of his that I have made that has not been amazing…and that one I blame on lackluster ingredients.

So far, I haven’t had to buy a Mustang. But I haven’t given up hope yet!

This past Thursday, as I was heading home, I was stymied. (Isn’t that the greatest word?) I had no idea what to make for dinner. I had defrosted a potroast the night before, but had been in a rush that morning heading out the door, so I hadn’t put it in the crockpot. The only other option I could think of that I had ingredients for and was quick was tuna casserole.

But I wasn’t in the mood for tuna. Or casserole.

Suddenly, I had an inspiration. Not long ago, as I was looking through Jacques Pepin’s cookbook for the Quick Tenderloin Stew recipe, I saw a picture in his “Fast Food My Way” cookbook (if you don’t have this book, you really should get it…there’s some real treasures in it.) The picture caught my eye. It looked amazing. I remembered the name of the dish was Balsamic something something chicken. Well, I knew I had balsamic vinegar, and of course I had chicken. So I hoped I was good to go.

When I got home and looked at the recipe, I was shocked. It was simple! After browning chicken breasts on the stove, the sauce is simply sauteed shallots (I used some onion too because I didn’t have enough shallots for the recipe) and then add in a surprising amount of balsamic vinegar, a little ketchup and some water. His recipe called for mushrooms also, but I didn’t have any, so mine was mushroom-free. The sauce is fantastic without mushrooms, so I’m almost afraid of how good it would be with mushrooms!

Once the sauce is boiled down and thickened, just pour it over the chicken breast that have been resting in a warm oven, and serve. Everyone…children and grownups at the table loved it.

I suggest you make this and make it very soon.

And if you know Jacques, please invite him to my place for dinner so I can thank him in person for his amazingly inspiring recipes. He makes it all so simple.

My Secret to Great Pizza

I have access to the world’s greatest pizza sauce.  You wouldn’t believe how much it cost me to obtain it and the danger I am now in just by revealing the fact that I have it.

This is a sauce that you can’t just buy. No, you have to know someone. You have to be in “the family.” You have to…

Actually, you have to wait and hope that my lovely sister Anna becomes a successful entrepreneur and starts selling her product on the shelves at your local grocery store.

Me? I just call my sister up and say I need more. Because in a blind taste test, by family chose her sauce overwhelmingly by a margin I’m too embarrassed to admit to.

My sauce was described as acidic and over-seasoned.

Hers was praised as rich and spicy. (Please don’t point out the irony of the fact that it says “Spicy and Rich” in Italian on the front of her jar.)

So Anna, if you’re reading this, I guess I need more pizza sauce.

For everyone else who can’t purchase this amazing sauce just yet, let me give you the perfect pizza crust recipe for you to store away for the day when Anna’s sauce is available to the masses.

Pizza Dough

• 2 1/2 c All Purpose Flour
• 2 1/4 t Yeast
• 1 t Sugar
• 1 t Salt
• 2 t Olive Oil
• 1 c Water (approximately)

Add all ingredients except the water to the bowl of your food processor with the regular chopping blade in. Turn on your food processor and add all but about 1/4 cup of water through the feed tube.

The mixture will start to look crumbly. Add a little bit of water at a time through the feed tube, just until the mixture forms into a ball of dough. Once the dough forms, leave it running for another minute.

Put dough in oiled bowl covered with a damp towel and let it rest. Each recipe makes about 1 large crust for us. I usually make 4-5 batches to feed our group.

Top with The World’s Best Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella cheese and your favorite toppings.

Bake at 425 degrees for 13 minutes on the lowest rack in your oven.

What to do when Goofy Nephews don’t like Meatballs

My two goofy nephews (they’re the ones on the ends. The one in the middle is  own goofy son) slept over last night so my lovely sister could celebrate her birthday. Forgetting for a moment that they were goofy, I decided that  I would make the ultimate kid-friendly meal. One that any reasonable kid is certain to love.  A dinner that never fails to elicit cheers and thrills from every child to whom it is served.

I’m talking about spaghetti and meatballs. With huge, giant meatballs.

And do you suppose I heard cheers and accolades for my amazing creation? Did I hear pledges of un-dying admiration? Did I receive even a simple fist-bump from the goofy nephews?

Nope. I only heard “No sauce, just noodles and cheese, please.”

So today I had enough sauce left over to serve the entire meal all over again. Unfortunately, I also have a family (read husband) who tends to turn their noses up at leftovers.

So, what do I do with a pot full of spaghetti sauce and meatballs? There’s really only one possible answer.

As soon as the goofy nephews were gone…Baked Spaghetti for the rest of us!

This stuff is so good that nobody could possibly mind having the same dish two days in a row. Re-cooking it makes it better, the noodles are saturated with sauce. The sauce has had time to blend its flavors. And of course, oodles of gooey cheese is always a good thing.

Unless you’re a goofy nephew.

Cause goofy nephews apparently have unsophisticated palettes.

To Make Baked Spaghetti that will be Loved by Everyone but Goofball Nephews:

• Butter your baking dish, then sprinkle the dish with Parmesan cheese.
• Mix together leftover spaghetti sauce and spaghetti noodles (make more noodles if necessary)
• Dump into baking dish
• Nestle meatballs (if you’ve got ‘em) into the pasta
• Cover with grated mozzarella or cheddar cheese, ora combination of both
• Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes untilspaghetti is heated through and cheese is bubbly and melted
• Enjoy!

Tastes just like chicken

We are just finishing up a weekend of very, very hard work. It was the weekend for getting everyone their Thanksgiving turkeys and the last of the year’s chickens. What made all the hard work so much easier was the opportunity to talk with the people who have been enjoying our chickens all summer.

We were told over and over by almost everyone how amazing our chicken tastes. This contrasts dramatically with comments I get from others who can’t imagine that there could possibly be a reason to purchase chicken anywhere but the grocery store. I’ve tried to describe it to non-believers a number of ways. The best I could ever come up with is that our birds taste just like chicken, only chicken-ier. I wish I could explain it better, but there’s no way to describe the taste difference between our birds and the ones in the store.

It’s like the difference between a grocery store tomato in the middle of winter and one picked fresh from your garden on a beautiful summer day.

A bag of frozen strawberries or a basket fresh from the farmer’s market sold to you by the little 12-year-old girl that helped to pick them that morning.

Canned corn versus U-Pick corn rushed straight into a pot of boiling water.

Think about it in these terms. Of course there’s a difference. Now, think about poultry. You can have chicken that’s been raised indoors – even if it was raised humanely – or you can eat chicken that as soon as it was old enough to leave the brooder, had fresh green grass, juicy tasty bugs, fresh air and sunshine.

How could it not taste better?

Super Crispy, Uber Tasty Fish

I have been married to a fisherman for over 18 years, and this week, for the first time,  I made uber-delicious batter-fried fish.

You know the kind…a crispy crust that’s not too thick and the flavor of which is so addictive that none of the little bonus crispy bits made it to the table. As soon as they were cool enough, they became chef’s treats.

And as I was the chef…well, let me just say, I was treated.

Crispy Tasty Fish

• 2 1/2 lbs cod
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 c corn starch
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 T Old Bay seasoning
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 2 t salt
• 1 1/2 c water
• 1 qt vegetable oil or, if you can get it, use lard!!!

Cut cod in serving sized pieces. For my 2 1/2 pounds of fish, I had 3 fillets and cut each one in 4 pieces.

Thoroughly whisk all dry ingredients together. Dredge pieces of cod through dry mixture, pat to shake off extra flour. Lay fish on wire racks over a cookie sheet while you get the rest of your dinner ready and heat the oil. The juices from the fish will mix with the flour mixture and create a gluey surface that will help the batter stay stuck to the fish while its frying. And you don’t get the annoying batterless fish coming out of the frying pan.

When you’re ready to cook the fish, heat your oil in a deep pan until it’s 350 degrees. Dip a piece of the fish in the batter, then carefully drop it in the fryer. Cook your fish in batches, a few pieces at a time.

Watch your fish, when they start to look golden brown, pull one out and test its temperature. It should be about 140 degrees in the middle of the fillet.

I like to drain my fish on a cookie sheet that is layered with newspapers covered with paper towels.

Enjoy!