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Held over from last week, because too much news. From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I think because winter moved back into the neighborhood (seriously, Tuesday’s forecast was for honest to goodness ‘ice pellets’, can ‘raining frogs’ be far behind?) I am finding myself in a berry and citrus mood. I bought 3 lbs of strawberries over the weekend and they are gone. I stocked up on oranges yesterday and I’ll have to do it again by the weekend.
I was going to do a sirloin roast tonight. I had made a really nice one last week, but didn’t get around to photographing it, so I was going repeat it yesterday. But when it came down to it, I just didn’t feel like roast. Instead I grabbed a bunch of lemons and some chicken breasts and decided on Chicken Piccata, tonight’s featured recipe. I like the tangy sauce with the crispy, moist chicken and the herb noodles are a nice side to accompany it.
If spring ever arrives, what do you look forward to most in the produce aisle? Do you crave certain foods by season? Hit the comments and complain about the weather and share your favorite spring foods.
Of course, once I found my recipe, I went hunting to see what JeffreyW might have in the way of lemons and chicken and found a Chicken with Lemon Curd, that sounded yummy. You can see it here, along with a nice slideshow of the prep and final dish.
Now, tonight’s recipe:
Chicken Piccata with Herb Noodles:
Chicken Piccata
1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp basil, crushed
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tsp crushed garlic
½ tbsp olive oil
4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded flat
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, sliced into very thin slices*
½ cup water
2 tbsp fresh snipped parsley
3 tbsp lemon juice
bowl, skilletCombine breadcrumbs, basil, zest, and pepper in bowl. Mix ½ tbsp oil and garlic together. Coat both sides of chicken with oil/garlic and dredge in breadcrumbs. Over medium-high heat 1 tbsp ea. of butter and oil in skillet, add chicken and cook 4-5 minutes on each side. Remove chicken – keep warm – add lemon slices to pan, sauté 30 seconds, add water, parsley and juice, boil for 1 minute, spoon over chicken.
*Scrub well before slicing.Herb Noodles
12 oz egg noodles
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp basil, crushed
½ tsp oregano, crushed
½ tsp rosemary, finely crushed
¼ tsp crushed garlic
Sesame seeds, opt
saucepan, serving dishCook noodles according to package directions. Drain well. Melt butter in saucepan, add spices, mixing well. Toss with noodles. For an extra touch you can add 1 tbsp of sesame seeds.
BD of MN
What’s the reason for pounding the chicken breasts flat? To speed up the cooking time and not burn the crust? Could I just slice them thin and accomplish the same thing?
scav
@BD of MN: Should do something to texture too (plus meaning all your pieces have similar cooking characteristics), so that could be played with as you like your meat.
Yutsano
Asparagus. When spring comes around and asparagus is cheap, I go crazy for the stuff. That and blood orange season, but we already covered that.
Just Some Fuckhead
Last night I made baked salmon with red and orange peppers in a balsamic vinegar sauce and roasted asparagus sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese. And a rice pilaf on the side. The pilaf was kind of bland but the other two dishes just popped and made it work.
Dee Loralei
Baby artichokes
TaMara (BHF)
@BD of MN: You can butterfly the breasts instead if you like. You want them thin so they cook quickly.
Also, I always use breadcrumbs for the crunch, but traditional recipes just call for flour. I’m a rebel.
TaMara (BHF)
@Just Some Fuckhead: That sounds yummy.
Question for everyone. Vadalia onions were all over stores this week. Anyone have favorite recipes that specifically use them? I’m thinking of making some French Onion soup, but the onions come in a big bag and that would take care of about 1/4 of the bag.
scav
All the early greens and baby onion greens and garlic whatevertheyares (scapes?). speargrass. anything with a hint of green suddenly is a magnet.
spring peas
jl
Seems to be some problem with the blog. I’m hungry and I can’t seem to access this meal. Please get this bug fixed asap. Thanks.
JPL
@TaMara (BHF): Since they originate in GA, you see lots of baked onion dips in the spring.
Although I have never made this Onion Pie, friends have and love it. link
jeffreyw
@TaMara (BHF): Onion jam! Fried onion rings!
Litlebritdifrnt
@scav: Ditto, when I was a child in England and me and Mum would go to the market she would give me the choice of a pound of pick n mix candy or a pound of peas. I always chose the peas.
Of course now I grow my own.
MonkeyBoy
Store bought “Italian bread crumbs” are usually heavily loaded with salt.
Emma
Mangoes. The trees are all covered with a combination of green fruit and flower. Soon there will be banquets!
Litlebritdifrnt
@TaMara (BHF): Vidalias are too sweet for me so I usually ignore them, I like a really strong onion so I usually go for the white ones.
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): When I get on lunch I’ll dig up Chef John’s barbequed onion relish. It looked interesting, plus fire to keep Fuckie’s interest.
Calming Influence
@TaMara (BHF): Roasted Vidalias. I cut of the top and root, and peel, then quarter them about 3/4s of the way down. put them in a baking dish, pour some olive oil over them, and sprinkle cumin seeds over the top. (Rub the cumin seeds between your hands first to break them up a little and release their goodness.)
Cover with foil and bake at 325* for 1 hr. Uncover and spoon some of the juices over the onions, then sprinkle on grated cheese (I love cheddar, but Gruyere has a nice bite that complements the sweetness.) Add a little water and olive oil if it’s dry. Cover with foil and bake another 10-15 minutes, spoon juices again, and serve.
The low temp. slow cooking converts a lot of the starches to sugars and really highlights the sweetness of these onions. Great with beef dishes and hearty chicken dishes. Also, I haven’t tried this yet, but if you left off the cheese I think the sections of baked onions would be awesome for fondue dipping!
MikeJ
Picked up some king salmon today, but it’s too fucking hot for me to do anything. It’s 70 goddamned degrees. Blech.
At least the fish goes on the grill on its alder plank, and as a side dish some celeriac nice and cool out of the fridge. No heating up the house.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: As an added precaution, I am starting anti-malarial treatment. Diluted quinine and some juniper flavoured solvent with a twist of lime.
RSA
I have nothing to add, but I thought I’d chip in some applause for this recipe. It looks great.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Fine. Don’t share your jynnantonix you bastage. :P
Yutsano
As promised. With fire!
p.a.
Roast asparagus with the usual suspects; olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice. Have some ponzu, might try that also.
Grilled veggies in curry. Toast curry powder with oil in a grill safe pan, add skim milk and let it simmer. When it thickens, pour over veggies.
greenergood
Alternative chicken piccata, sans breadcrumbs and deep-fat frying:
Butterfly chicken breasts, pound thin, then marinade in salt, crushed garlic, lemon juice, e.v. olive oil, fresh ground cumin seeds, bit of chili, for at least an hour or so.
Chop up some olives, sun-dried toms, capers, a red onion, saute in a big non-stick pan for a bit, then turn up the heat a lot more and chuck on the marinated chicken till brown, turn over, keep stirring till both sides are browned. Then put chicken on a plate covered with foil in a semi-heated oven to ‘rest’, add wine to glaze the pan, then a little flour to thicken the sauce, maybe some chicken stock to keep it going. Serve with rice and some salad.
If this is a recipe to the already enlightened, apologies …
? Martin
Queue wingnut freakout. CA Assembly approved a bill that would allow non-citizens to serve on a jury.
JPL
Veal Piccata is one of my favorite dishes but because of the treatment of the babies, I have not eaten Veal in years. Whole Foods is now offering veal from a farm that treats the calves humanely but I haven’t tried it. Long story short, last year while in a restaurant with family, I asked the waiter if he knew where the calves for the veal were raised. After several kicks under the table, I ordered the Chicken Piccata.
JPL
@? Martin: Thirty plus years ago, a female could only serve on a jury in LA, if they went to the courthouse and registered. Before that in LA, only a male could serve. (Napoleonic law and all that) When we moved to IL several years later, the sons pediatricians daughter, was getting a divorce in LA and she had few rights. The Dr. (female) asked me if that was possible and I said yup. Good for CA to have a jury of their peers.
TaMara (BHF)
Yum, thank you all for the onion recipes. I think my bag of onions will not go to waste.
@Calming Influence: I may start here and move onto Yutsano’s and the rest.
I had already planned on JeffreyW’s onion jam, but I swear it needs a different name.
scav
@? Martin: They do have enough they have to stand in line to get to them all.
Dee Loralei
Chicken piccata is also really good with lemon juice and minced preserved lemon skin. I usually add Salt cured capers and sometimes green peppercorns also. Regular capers work too, but salt cured are ephemeral.
scav
@TaMara (BHF): There’s always Marmalade and Confit, with lots of recipes to go to for tinkering ideas.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (BHF):
Ooh! Ooh!
Sweet Onion, Tomato and Corn Salad with Basil
This is pretty good, too:
Barley-Chicken Salad with Fresh Corn and Sweet Onion
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Asparagus-wise, I’m making this for dinner tonight:
Penne with Asparagus and Bacon
Mnemosyne
@greenergood:
It sounds very puttanesca to me.
muddy
For a quick vidalia treat, clean a large one, cut off root and then cut a slice at the top. Microwave for a few minutes in a closed container with a pat of butter and s&p. Melts in your mouth and no waiting.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Mmm…slut spaghetti!
Comrade Javamanphil
1) your sauce needs white wine
2) I find a mix of regular and panko bread crumbs works very well
3) we usually serve this dish over brown rice or farro
4) pounding the chicken makes for uniform cook times. Even with butterflying the breasts, the bread crumbs blacken too much before the meat is cooked in my cast iron skillet.
5) Piccata is a great recipe for klds to move them past the nugget/fries stage
tybee
@TaMara (BHF):
vidalias spoil quickly. i assume it’s the sugar.
i’m due east of vidalia and won’t buy a big bag this time of year.
but here, the day time temps approach 80 so ymmv.
tybee
@MikeJ:
that works if taken in sufficient quantities.
scav
@Yutsano: I read that as Slug Spaghetti and thought, Yup, Been in the NW long enough. Good luck with the interview!
ETA. Actually, whole Shallots done as a Confit over pasta would both work as that and taste rather ok . . .
thalarctos
From mid-March to mid-June, asparagus (Spargelzeit!) In June, local strawberries; and that’s when the arugula in my garden is ready.
noodler
Piccata is great, one of the first dishes I learned to cook in a restaurant I was working in as a kid. and I am nuts for lemons, anything lemon, to ward off scurvy i guess.
fuckwit
I will never again be able to hear the words “chicken piccata” without hearing Letterman’s joke about McCain being due to appear on Rachel Ray making veal piccata after he was done with his Katie Couric interview. He’d stood up Letterman for the interview, saying he was not going to be in town, but instead he’d lied, and was across the street doing an interview with a competing network at the time.