Yogadad World

Lynn Rosetto Kasper is a food goddess. Her radio show The Splendid Table is one of the few food shows, radio or TV, that I make a point of listening to on a regular basis. She almost always has interesting guests and I often pick up a tip or two that I can put to use. In addition to the radio, she and cohort Sally Swift published The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper a couple years ago. It's one of my favorite go-to cookbooks when I don't have a lot of time to cook. Yes, it's Saturday. I should have beaucoup amounts of time to putter around in the kitchen making a dish with a gazillion ingredients. But after a quick trip to Indianapolis this week and a late arrival home on Friday, I just wasn't up to a lot of cooking today. So this morning, I sat down with the Supper book and found this recipe.

Growing up, I wasn't exposed to a lot of beans. My mom would make chili with kidney beans, but that was just about it. And I never developed an appreciation for that cold bean salad that you almost always find at summer potlucks. Lately though, as I've come to appreciate lentils more, it was an easy jump to make to this recipe.

We ended up making this the main course, well, more like the only course. But it would make a nice side dish if you were grilling a piece of pork or baking or broiling a cut of beef.

What made this dish was the fresh rosemary and the slow frying of the garlic. Make sure that the garlic doesn't over cook. It's easy to do. Then you're going to lose some of the fragrance that makes this such a delightful supper. Don't skimp on the rosemary either and try to use dried from that little bottle that's been in your cupboard for a few weeks or months. You won't enjoy eating your meal nearly as much.

This cooks up very fast. Once you have your garlic and rosemary cleaned and cut, it only takes a few minutes to get this from stove to table.

For dessert, we had apple-rhubarb crisp with rhubarb fresh out of the garden.

Rhubarb is another one of those foods that I just didn't appreciate it when I was younger. Now that I'm advancing through middle age at an accelerating clip, I find that it's pretty darn enjoyable.

I didn't use Granny Smith apples as called for in the recipe. Instead I dug out a few Michigan delicious apples that had been in the crisper for a week or two. A little too mushy for eating but perfect for baking. Their sweetness was a nice counterpart to the tart rhubarb.

Enjoy.

Ingredients
Topping
1/2 slice coarse whole-grain bread, coarse ground in a food processor (2 generous tablespoons crumbs)
3 Tbl fresh-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Generous 1/4 tsp fresh-ground black pepper

Salad
5 large garlic cloves crushed with 1/2 tsp salt and coarse chopped
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tight packed Tbl fresh rosemary leaves, coarse chopped
2 15-oz can white beans (cannellini or Great Northern), drained & rinsed
1 large handful mixed salad greens
Additional salt & pepper, to taste

In a 12-inch skillet or saute pan over medium heat, toast the bread crumbs until lightly browned, stirring often. Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl to cool. When cooled, stir in the Parmigiano and pepper. Set aside

In the same pan, slowly warm the garlic in the olive oil over low heat for 30 secs to 1 minute. Stir in the rosemary, blending for another minute or so, taking care not to burn the garlic. It should be very fragrant & just beginning to soften.

Immediately add the beans and fold them in very gently. Turn the heat to medium. Heat the beans through, about 3 mins., occasionally lifting and turning them as they heat, as stirring will turn them to mush. Add the greens and gently move them around in the pan until they are slightly wilted, 30 secs to 1 min. Turn into a serving bowl, top with the bread-crumb mixture and season with salt and pepper.

This was the dinner I had planned for last Sunday before I got waylaid by the good looking tuna at the fish market. It was worth the wait. The chicken was moist and juicy and the sauce tangy and tasty. For a meal this good, it was ready in an astonishingly small amount of time. Tossing in time to chop the mushrooms and shallot, the whole meal came together in less than 60 minutes.

The recipe is from Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, a companion book to his 2005 PBS series. It's the first one I've tried from this book and based on my experience with this one, I'm sure I'll dip into it again.

One weird thing about this recipe though. It calls for the oven to be pre-heated to 180 degrees, with the chicken in for 10 - 30 minutes to finish cooking after the initial searing. After 30 minutes, I still had pink meat. It was not nearly cooked all the way through. My oven tends to run cool. So I had set it for 200 degrees and checked the thermometer we keep inside to make sure it was hot enough. The temperature was well above 180 degrees. Taking my cue from Pepin's admonishment to not keep the meat in the oven more than 30 minutes, I put it back in the skillet, over high heat and seared the breasts for 3 minutes more on each side. That did it. Now it was warm all the way through and thoroughly cooked.

The rest of the meal went off without a hitch. I used frozen corn and frozen peas, and they came out with just the right amount of crunch. I had never sauteed this two vegetables before and now that I know how easy it is and how tasty the veggies are, it's likely to become a staple way of adding them to a meal.

Dessert tonight was special, too. Shannon baked a white cake with lemon curd and blueberry topping. It was fabulous. Normally, I'm not a big fan of anything lemony in my desserts but this was quite good. The sweetness of the blueberries and the tartness of the lemons played off each other very nicely. The cake held it all together, literally. A great finish to a very good meal.

Ingredients
2 Tbl unsalted butter
1 Tbl good olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (each about 6 oz)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c chopped shallots
1 c diced (1/2-inch) white button mushrooms
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1 Tbl ketchup
1/2 c water

Corn and peas ingredients
2 Tbl unsalted butter
1 Tbl good olive oil
2 c corn kernels (from 3-4 ears corn)
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen peas (choose baby peas if using frozen)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 Tbl chopped fresh chives
 
Heat the oven to 180°F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and the oil over high heat in a heavy saucepan or skillet large enough to hold the chicken breasts in one layer. When hot, add the chicken breasts, and sprinkle them with the salt and pepper. Saute, uncovered, for about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the breasts to an ovenproof plate, reserving the drippings in the pan, and place them in the oven and continue cooking for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.

Add the shallots and mushrooms to the drippings in the pan, and cook for about 1 minute over high heat. Add the vinegar and ketchup and continue for another minute. Add the water, and cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and stir until it is incorporated.

Meanwhile, for the corn and peas: Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the corn, peas, salt and pepper. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through.

To serve, arrange a ring of vegetables on each of four plates. Cut each breast in half crosswise on a slant and place the breast pieces in the center of the vegetables. Coat the chicken with the sauce, sprinkle with the chives and serve.