The best chicken ever! or, Jacques Pepin is my hero

Everyone knows chicken breasts are a travesty. Dried out, flavorless, and sometimes even mealy in texture, they are the bane of the existence of anyone who takes food seriously. SRSLY. On the other hand, they are healthy, convenient, and easy to prepare for one or a crowd. What is a girl to do? Try this recipe, that's what. It will change your life and that's not hyperbole. Trust me on this one.

Now, I'll admit I could just watch Jacques Pepin peel carrots all day long so I'm a little bit biased toward anything he does, but this method for "Supremes of Chicken with Herbes de Provence" (originally in his "Short-Cut Cook" book) elevates him to hero status. It's simple, but results in a flavorful, moist and juicy chicken breast. You can serve with white bean puree, any vegetable you like, or my favorite, over salad greens for a light supper.

Here is the method, step by step:

1) pound out a chicken breast to an even thickness -- not exactly thin like a cutlet, but just attempting to get the chicken flat so it will cook more evenly. Before you start pounding, place the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap to keep it from sticking to the meat pounder. If you don't have a meat pounder, you can use a rolling pin or a heavy pan.

Pounded breast:


2) Next, season both sides of the chicken liberally with salt, pepper and herbes de provence. I mean liberally, more than you think you should use by twice:


3) Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat and when the foaming subsides add the chicken breasts. You are looking for a hard sear, to seal in the juices, so don't be afraid to crank up the heat. Just try not to burn your butter. Cook for 3 minutes on each side. Then cover the pan and set it aside for 8 - 10 minutes.

One side:And the other:


4) Let it rest. Goddamm it! If there is one tip for cooking ANY kind of meat or poultry, it is to let it rest. This means a good 10 more minutes on the board. This lets the juices redistribute through the chicken.


5) Now forage for some salad and cut up a lime. Slice the chicken breast and place over the greens in a bowl. Add lime juice to the drippings in the pan and swirl around over heat to warm them. Pour the juices over the chicken and greens and eat.

Almost ready:And plated:

You can thank me later.

Duck Noodle Soup -- or maybe just duck noodles?

Because you're dying to know what I ate today, I'll give in and post a quick and durty review. I got takeout from Pho N Rice in Somerville -- a simple Thai and Vietnamese fusion spot not far from home. Fusion spots rarely do it for me -- the Thai tastes Vietnamese, the Vietnamese is faintly Thai -- but Pho N Rice manages to get both elements pretty much right.

The Duck Noodle Soup comes nicely packaged up with the noodles in one container, the duck and soup in another, and a bag of mixins to add to the top (bean sprouts, basil leaves, lime wedges.) I put it all together into one steaming bowl, with a raft of noodles and a drowning man of duck bits on top. I poured the broth over and it disappeared into the noodles as you'll note from the picture. Garnished with the fixins and mixins and it was a hearty bowl of ducky noodles with a slurp of soup.

It could have been soupier and slurpier but it was a mighty fine bowl of whatever you want to call it. I called it lunch.

85% good -- compromise pie

People will say that the original Pizzeria Regina in Boston's North End is the best. There are theories about the temperature of the ovens, about the natural yeast that develops over time, about the skill of the pizza makers there. These people are all correct.

However, when it's 19 degrees outside, and you need a pie, STAT, you can do worse than getting one that is arguably 85% as good 10 minutes from home. The Regina's outpost in Medford's Station Landing is, to my taste, just about almost as good.

As Barack Obama says, it's tempting to negotiate with hostage-takers, but not if the hostage is going to get hurt. In this case, the hostage was my stomach, and I chose to compromise. Is that so wrong? I don't know, but the link sausage pizza well done really hit the spot. I can live with that.

Leftovers! Prime rib sandwich

I love leftovers. I really do. I take pride in making humble leftovers into something drool-worthy. Last night's prime rib dinner left me with a huge amount of juicy rare beef, a mountain of mashed potatoes, and some crispy crunchy green beans. For lunch, I sliced up some of the beef, put it on a bun with arugula and strong horseradish, and made a yummy sander.

No real skill employed here, but the result was awesome.

In honor of my mama: sausage rolls!

It's Christmas time .. and there's no need to be afraid. Let's make sausage rolls and welcome people into our homes for treats and cheer!

A traditional British treat, sausage rolls are ubiquitous around the holidays. I always know it's the festive season when my mom starts rolling out the pastry and getting the whole thing happening. So, it's a "semi-home made" recipe, nothing from scratch, but absolutely delightful and worth the time it will take you.

Get a package of puff pastry from your grocer's freezer section. We like Pepperidge farms. Let it come to temp while you heat the oven and mix up the sausage. Grab a Jimmy Dean sausage chub and put in a bowl. Add a ton of black pepper, some sage (or poultry seasoning) and any other flavors you like. Consider garlic, chili, thyme, or whatever you fancy. Mix it all up and get ready to roll!

Roll out the pastry on a board, your goal being to stretch it to a longer shape than the square it typically comes in. Then cut the pastry into long strips. The only tricky part is getting the sausage into a thin log shape to fit into the pastry. Mom makes several strips of puff pastry, about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Roll sausage mixture into a rope and place along the pastry. It helps to flour your hands at this point, so you can manipulate the sausage but not mangle it. Once the sausage is placed on the pastry, roll over the edges and crimp down with a fork. It looks kind of like a long white snake at this point. Brush with egg wash (just an egg beaten with a touch of water) and then cut into 2 - 3 inch pieces. Mom likes to score the top with a sharp knife to make them pretty. Bake in the 350 degree oven until puffed, golden and with oozy sausage goo coming out (about 20 minutes, but just keep your eye on them).

Now, dont' be a fool, LET THEM COOL before shoving in your pie hole. Eat as many as 12 at a sitting, no more. Best with spritzies to wash them down.

I'm in a hotpot rut: Q restaurant in Boston

I can get in a rut easily. I'm just rolling along minding my own business, and all of a sudden I notice I'm having pasta every night for a week, or chicken for days on end, or (shamefully) beef beef and more beef. I've been in a bit of a hotpot rut lately but when my friend suggested Q restaurant, the temperature was in the low 20s and it just felt like the thing to do. He was right .. it was a great idea for a freezing night in Boston. Q restaurant is the downtown and more upscale version of Lil Q Hotpot in Arlington. I love Chinese hotpot, much more than shabu shabu (Japanese style) mostly due to the strength of the broth. At Q you can order two broths, and last night it was Ma La and black bone chicken broths. Notice all the sticks and twigs and nuts and berries in both broths. It really is a thing of beauty.


You also get a basket of veggies, your meat of choice and any other add-ins you like. We got a mushroom platter, chinese broccoli, white winter squash, udon and lamb, in addition to the beef short rib that was the foundation of the platter. It's a fun and interactive meal, as you are constantly dipping, slurping, dunking and fishing food out of the broth. And as the broth cooks down, it gets more intense .. the Ma La will make a grown man cry. I've seen it. Twice.

I will admit I'm a sucker for presentation. At Q everything comes beautifully arranged, like this lamb here:


Q is very similar in flavor to Lil Q but it has a wacky "upscale" atmosphere (see the bubble wall in the first picture), with a surprisingly welcoming and cozy bar, an extensive cocktail list, and sushi as well as the hotpots. I may like the Arlington outpost more for it's complete lack of flash and polish, but this is a nice option for downtown, where the theater district meets Chinatown. There are worse ruts to find yourself in.

Q Restaurant
660 Washington Street
Boston
theQusa.com

Recipe: creamy peas with frizzle frazzled leeks and bacon

So now you've met Paula Picatta -- it is to her that I owe the credit for this dish I served at Thanksgiving this year. It was my favorite dish on our "Friends Thanksgiving" table the week before and I wanted to pay it forward. Something about the smokiness of the bacon with the creamy peas and crispy leeks just works, and brings something new to the traditional turkey plate. Herewith the paraphrased recipe:

Creamed peas with bacon and frizzled leeks:
3 large leeks, white and tender green parts only, sliced crosswise and separated into rings
veg oil, for frying
salt and pepper
6 slices thick-cut bacon
4 thyme sprigs
1 cup of turkey stock or low sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup of heavy cream
3x10 ounce boxes of frozen baby peas, thawed
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs water

Wash leeks and thoroughly dry. Heat 1/2 inch of oil and add all but 1/2 cup leeks. cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain, season with salt and pepper.

In a large deep skillet, cook bacon until done. Drain and crumble.

Add the remaining leeks and the thyme to the skillet and cook until leeks are softened, about 8 minutes. Add 1/2 cup stock or broth and cook until it is reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half. Stir in the peas and bacon and remaining 1/2 cup of stock. Bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning. Add cornstarch slurry and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, 3 or 4 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle the top with crispy frizzled frazzled leeks. Eat it up!

**This glorious picture taken by Prav McPrav, of Imprav Images. He's my favorite photographer EVAR! You'll see more of his shots as we go along.

Back to Life, Back to Reality: Tuna Noodle Casserole

Lest you think I'm a fancy 5 course truffle dinner eating foodie, today I want to give a shout out to the simple and hearty Tuna Noodle Casserole. My girl Paula Picatta makes the best one I've had, and she does it old skool. Yep, that means with canned soup. No fancy bechamel, no mornay sauce simmered over a bain marie. Nope. Chunky rigatoni, good Italian tuna packed in oil, a couple of cans of cream of mushroom, with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs and cheese on the top. It's comfort in a bowl.

Starting with a Bang! Truffle blowout in Boston

Go big or go home. The best way to start the yumblog for real is with a recap of an extraordinary truffle dinner organized by my friend Nab. He'd been obsessing over truffles for months and had cooked up the idea to procure some tubers and ask Charles Draghi of Boston's Erbaluce restaurant to do something special with them. Chuck the magic dragon is from Piedmont, and is whipping up some of the most exciting and interesting Italian food in the city. Give him some white and black truffles and watch him go! Chuck also offered to do a wine and cocktail pairing and we gladly obliged.

We started with an antipasti of Taleggio Arancini with white truffles, a bruleed scallop with lemon and white truffle 'maionese', and a white truffle sour cocktail.

Arancini:

Scallops:


Cocktail:
The cocktail was fantastic -- like a truffle ramos fizz, and it cut through the creaminess of the taleggio and complemented the scallop. We were off to a good start!

Then it was on to the First course, which would turn out to be my favorite of the night. Organic duck egg sformato with white truffles, aged parmegiano regianno, and marjoram. Paired with ’09 Nera chiavennasca bianco “La Novella.” The sformata was like eating a truffle cloud, with the sharp cheese adding a little tang and the mostly overlooked herb marjoram a hint of green grassiness. OMG I could eat this all day long. I still think about it. It pervades my dreams. Okay, let me have a moment here. Okay. I'm back.



Second course was Veluttata of celeriac and parsnips with silver sage and white
truffles paired with M.V. Rainoldi brut rose. I love celeriac and parsnips and had never had them together, and this combination really sang to me. No, I didn't know what a veluttata is either but turns out it's a creamy soup. Whatever you call it, it's the yums. Delicate, creamy, dreamy.

The truffles seemed to get more intense as we moved through the evening, or maybe it was the wine talking, but this already seemed heady when it arrived at the table and went over the top when Chuck shaved truffles on top table side. He didn't hold back.

Veluttata:

Third course: Walnut and black truffle risotto with oregano with a ’04 Nera Grumello riserva. I hoped we'd see a risotto or a pasta at some point in the evening and this was divine. The walnuts were uber fresh, almost green tasting, and the only complaint was that it was a huge portion. I was getting nervous about my stomach capacity at this point, but did my best to eat it all up and not get the wrath of the nag. I confess I left some but not much. It was hard to stop eating.

Risotto:

But wait, there's more!

Fourth course of Faraona (Guinea Hen), roasted with black truffles, and a
black truffle- beet sauce. Paired with ’04 Rainoldi Sfursat “Fruttaio Ca’ Rizzieri” Now the black truffles really killed tucked under the skin of the guinea hen. With the beets, this was a perfect Autumn dish. All it needed was a sweater and a moustache to round it out.

Guinea Hen: (with apologies for the lighting)


And finally the Dolci: Marsala and black truffle zabaione with amaretti biscotti; Lemon and pear panna cotta with white truffles and white chocolate. Dessert has never been my bag, but put truffles in a zabaione and I'll try to suffer through it!

Dolci:
Zabaione:

Panna cotta:

And finally, to gild the lily, a little snackette of chocolate truffles, black grapes and roasted chestnuts. Ooof. Okay, mercy. Basta! ENOUGH!!!


The evening was delightful, just as I had hoped it would be. Chef and his team took such good care of us, and seemed to be enjoying it (almost) as much as we were. As we stumbled out into the Bermuda Triangle that is Bay Village, there were no sad faces. We were all in a truffle reverie, and it would last for days.

New Blog by Pearl Harbor Day?

Hmmm... so I've been challenged to publish by December 7. This might be a stretch, because I need to update the site design and also learn how to post pictures, etc. But I'm a good friend so I'll try. I'll try.

See?

I already lost the blogging mojo. If this is going to happen I have to get some discipline.

Blogger, Type Pad, or Wordpress

I had no idea there were so many choices. I'm learning every day.

For now, I'm keeping this yumblog while I'm doing my investigating. I think it will be an interesting overview of the process of setting up a blog for the first time. For me.

How do I learn about all these things?

Gadgets, site design, links, etc? Hmmm. I think I'm going to do this the hard way.

First day of the new blog. Shhhhh.....