Hunter's Chicken -- from our French Cooking Class ages ago

We first made this recipe in a French cooking class last fall. It was flavorful and different that your typical chicken dish. Since I'm not able to link to the recipe online anywhere, I'll post the details next before the photos, then add my commentary. 

Ingredient List:

4 lbs of chicken white and dark meat  
5 shallots 
2 pints of sliced button mushroom  
2 tablespoon of butter 
¼ cup oil  
1 cup of white wine  
¼ cup of Cognac (we used bourbon instead)  
1 lbs of cubed tomato 
1/2 quart of chicken stock   
1 tablespoon of flour  
½ cup of heavy cream 
1 bunch of parsley for garnish 
Salt & Pepper


Preparation:
1. Mince shallots. Place shallots in a pot over medium heat with 2 tablespoon of butter. Stir shallots once to 
cover them in butter, and then let them cook until all have softened and are slightly starting to brown. Deglaze them once with white wine, if necessary. Then move the shallots to the outskirts of the pot and add the oil. 

2.  When the oil is hot, add the chicken and cook until colored on each side. Remove the chicken and toss the mushrooms in. Mix them in, along with the shallots, until they start coloring. Add the flour in and mix to create a roux.  
  
3.  Deglaze with the white wine and the chicken stock, then add the tomatoes. When it’s sizzling, flambé with 
Cognac and then add the cream. Stir for a few minutes.  

4. Put the chicken back into the pot, and let it slowly cook covered for 20 to 25 min. When the sauce has
thickened again, bring to a slight boil and turn off the heat. 

5. Right before serving, add some freshly chopped parsley to the dish. Serve it with the sauce covering the chicken.

The recipe was a little difficult to follow (I edited it slightly so that it made more sense to the reader), but I think we were able to capture the same flavors as we did in the cooking class when we made it at home. We did not flambé the sauce, but rather just added the alcohol (we used bourbon) in to the mixture and cooked off the alcohol. I don't think we changed anything by not doing the flambé (other than missing out on something cool to try/starting a potential fire), but we cooked the sauce longer than suggested just to be sure the liquor was burned off.

We served the chicken with some roasted carrots and parsnips, which went really well with the rustic-style chicken. 

Homemade Papaya Sorbet

We borrowed an ice cream attachment from a friend to use with out stand mixer. We decided on papaya because we had one in the house that was bridging on overripe. 

Straining the pureed papaya

Chilling the simple syrup

Pureed and strained papaya

Blending the simple syrup and the papaya

 Beginning to mix the sorbet in the ice cream attachment

Fully mixed and ready to eat

Finished product!

I would definitely try making either sorbet or ice cream again with the attachment. While you do need to prepare ahead of time by freezing the bowl an prepping the fruit, it's relatively easy to make and can be accomplished in a few steps. I'm not sure I would use papaya again - it was more naturally sweet, and in combination with the simple syrup, pushed it a little too far into the "sweet" realm that I would have liked. 

French Cooking Class

For Paul's last birthday, I bought him (well, us) a French cooking lesson. We finally redeemed our class last Friday evening. We attended a class at Cook Au Vin, which is in Chicago. They make it very clear that while we are actually going to be cooking, we're able to drink some wine and have fun at the same time.

We cooked the Vuitton Menu, with a couple changes. We did a roasted mixed vegetable dish instead of the Tournee vegetables -- and we had a prune pudding instead of a lemon pie.

Our prune puddings cooling -- we had to make these first.

Paul and our chef/teacher for the evening

Prepping all the ingredients

Putting together our scallop appetizer (cooked in a ceramic shell)

Paul stirring the main dish (Hunter's Chicken)

The roasted vegetables awaiting dinner

The finished scallops!

Overall, I thought it was a fun and interesting class. We did learn some helpful techniques during the process, like the easiest way to dice an onion, which herbs should go in at the start of a sauce versus the end, and learned more about making a roux. I am always worried that my roux is too thick, but apparently that isn't as big of an issue as I made it!

I thought the food turned out pretty good (considering a bunch of novice chefs were the ones cooking everything!). Our chef was kind and very thorough in explaining why he did things. He also did a great job of managing all the craziness that ensued once people had taken down a couple bottles of wine! I would be interested in doing another class like this in the future and learning some additional techniques.

Our New Best Pal: The Smoker

Our special little buddy

Who knew that another appliance would add so much variety into our life? Just two short weeks ago, this little guy came into our life. We've used it twice since, with amazing results. We smoked ribs on the 4th of July, and then a pork shoulder yesterday. 


It has two grates, so you can cook more than one thing at once. Paul was able to smoke the 7 lb. pork shoulder yesterday, as well as a 4 lb. chicken. I was impressed. I think Paul is getting a kick out of trying new recipes for rubs and sauces to accompany the meat. Our neighbors don't seem to mind the smoke or smells, and we have lots of leftovers for the week. 

Paul also doesn't seem too upset at having to sit outside with a cold beer on a hot day, manning the grill.

Seafood Paella

In addition to enjoying the bacon wrapped dates, Paul and I also made a seafood paella. We purchased mussels, shrimp and squid to include in the paella. 

Enjoy the photo montage of me prepping the raw squid. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I was wary at first.

You begin by removing the head and the internal organs in one fell swoop.

I think the face is warranted as I was pulling out the spine. Yerg.

Taking off the outer skin. I may have been screeching at this point.

Okay, phew. Last step of chopping up the body into rings.

Yup, it was pretty intense. After I did one, it was easy to do the others, following the directions in Mark Bittman's book How to Cook Everything. I survived however -- and it was worth it as the squid was a welcome addition and quite delicious. 

Back to normal photos...

Cooking up the onions in the paella pan

After adding the raw shrimp, mussels and squid rings.

Final product!

When I make the dish again (yes, I'm still willing to do it again), I think I would add some additional seasoning to spice things up up a little. The recipe is very basic -- onion, arborio rice, olive oil, fish stock, the seafood and some saffron -- so there's room to jazz things up. 

The recipe we used suggested cooking the onions and coating the rice in the onion/olive oil mixture before adding the stock and seafood and moving the pan to the oven. We didn't get that layer of crispy rice (or socarrat) at the bottom, but I hope that will come with practice.

I definitely liked the use of fish stock. It wasn't too fishy, and I think had we used vegetable or chicken, it may not have had the same effect of working with the other seafood items. I liked the variety of seafood included in the paella, and would continue to use two/three/four seafood options.

Update: 2011 Summer Goals

Thought I'd give everyone an update on where we stand with our summer goals. 

1. Try not to kill our herbs. Specifically, the basil plant. 

Basil plant: alive (yes!!)
Cilantro plant: alive
Parsley plant: alive, but looks diseased. We'll put it out of it's misery. 
Rosemary plant (that we tried to resurrect): still dead
Tomato plants: kind of alive, but dying (Note: this is not totally my fault, as the workers fixing our building sprayed some sort of sealant, which killed all of the downstairs flowers AND grass. So I'm not totally to blame.)

2. Make flavored oils. But without giving ourselves botulism. 
Still working on this. Tried a quick ginger oil right around the time of the goal-setting, and it didn't knock my socks off. Maybe we can use some of the still-kicking basil plant for this. 

3. Stop shopping at the local chain grocery store.  
Um, pass.


4. ADDITION: Christine will learn how to grill meats. 
I have mastered preheating the grill for Paul. I ALMOST had to cook last night because Paul was on the phone (and I was out of control starving). I managed to get the grill ready, get everything outside, then found him out there cooking while still on the phone. In my apparent rush to mentally prepare for this foray into grilling, I burned the couscous. Oops. I'll get back to what I'm good at -- making sure stuff doesn't burn in the kitchen.

2011 Summer Goals

So Paul and I set a couple goals for this summer: 

1. Try not to kill our herbs. Specifically, the basil plant. 

This one is directed at me. In dire need of basil, I snipped the whole damn thing. Surprise! It dies. In typical overkill fashion, we went bananas and bought a ton more herbs and some tomato plants, as well as are trying to resurrect the dead (herbs) we already had.

2. Make flavored oils. But without giving ourselves botulism. 

Um, I was unaware this was a concern, until I started looking up how to make them. Holy hotcakes. I do not want that. 

3. Stop shopping at the local chain grocery store.  

It's too expensive. I can go in with a list of 10 things, and end up spending $100. I can't take it anymore. $8 for couscous? THEY ARE TINY BITS OF RICE(? OR PASTA?). whatever they are...no, thanks.


4. ADDED (as anticipated): Christine will learn how to grill meats. 


Yeah. This one is going to be good. 

I will be sure to update on our progress -- and knowing us, we'll probably either add like 8 more in. Or we'll attempt to do everything in the last two weeks of August. Or both.


Happy Summer, all!

Green Thumbs (Hopefully!)

I'm pulling for you, little parsley buddy.

Paul and I decided to restock our sad and dying herbs. I had over-picked, under-watered, and then (oops) left them to dry out during our 90+ degree hot spell last week. We had like one sad yellowy-green sprig of Italian parsley left (see above), and a very dried out rosemary plant. The basil had long ago kicked the bucket. 

While we were grocery shopping this weekend, we found fresh herbs that could be easily sustained (no potting) and picked up a few more: basil, Italian parsley and some cilantro.

Of course, we got all motivated then -- and decided to buy some tomato plants, plant some garlic, as well as try to "save" the sad Italian parsley and the rosemary. What are we, some sort of horticultural Florence Nightingale? This will be the true test of if we're any good at keeping things alive. 

Our ill-fated tomato plants. 

P.S. I'm already concerned about leaving them when we travel at the beginning of July for a couple days. It's so soon after we got them! Are they going to be okay with out me? Should I have someone come check in on them? Reality check, Christine: they are plants. They cost $2. If they bite it, it'll be okay. Killing plants? Not anything new around here.

Welcome to Bissler Bites

Look we're having fun! And eating!

Main reason for blogging: I like food. My husband likes food. We like cooking food together and talking about food.

Secondary reason for blogging: We decided to get a weekly organic produce delivery last month. We are getting crazy new vegetables and fruits, and as a result are trying tons of new recipes and really trying to expand our normal meal plan (which is typically: tacos, pasta, some sort of fish, another kind of pasta, takeout falafel, repeat). 

Since a typical Friday night includes wine-drinking and 45 minutes of recipe-searching and meal planning, we thought maybe someone else would benefit from keeping track of it all. We'll hopefully keep you entertained, either with some recipes gone wrong or kitchen meltdowns (see: epic gnocchi meltdown of 2010. Story forthcoming.). And hopefully inspiration from looking at yummy food photos. Enjoy!

Christine & Paul