After two weeks away on holiday, arriving home late Sunday evening to an empty refrigerator was cause for distress come my hunger Monday morning, but it was also an opportunity to dream up an amazing grocery list!
Here is the epic tale of Five Little "F" Words.
"F" Word #1: FRICASSEE
Perusing through my most favorite Italian cookbook last night after work, I got it in my head that I wanted to make fricasseed chicken with porcini mushroom sauce. The only problem was, I had no clue how to fricassee (nor how to disassemble a whole chicken) (I say "disassemble" purposefully because my chopping that chicken up involved carefully exploring each part and deciding how to remove it).
For your and my own edification, a fricassee is, for most intents and purposes, a poultry stew. Fricassee sounded simple enough, so I decided upon my culinary objective for the evening: combine chicken with the wild-picked mushrooms my father gave me, fricassee it, serve it up with a baked potato and sauteed spinach, and pair it with a beautiful chianti.
With a plan in mind and grocery list in hand, I headed off to do some shopping...
"F" Words #2 & 3: FORGETFULNESS & FREEZING
Being both an adventurous cook and a woman on a budget, I needed to make two grocery stops. After grabbing everything on my list that was cheap and fine enough quality at the discount market, and the rest at the regular supermarket, I was headed back to my car when I glanced at my cell phone and mused at how quickly I had finished shopping. Being both jet lagged and sleep deprived from a fantastic vacation, getting a good hot meal on the table and heading to bed early sounded ideal.
And then it happened.
An "F" word I won't include on the list of five appearing here came out of my mouth as I realized that in a moment of forgetfulness (and slight tendency to be extremely organized, as the only reason I changed up my "getting out of the car routine" was to cross items off my list that I had purchased at the first store), I had locked my keys in my car.
And so the freezing began (TIME CHECK: 5:50 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 25'F).
Admittedly, I've locked my keys in the car once (yes, only once!) before, so I thought about calling AAA immediately. That was a fine plan, except that in this era of attempts at over-efficiency, my California cell phone number got me re-directed to California AAA. After giving them my story, address, description of my location, phone number, make, model, and color of my car, license plate number, and AAA membership number, Representative Number 1 realizeds that I'm was not actually *in* California currently and could not help me.
Transfer to AAA Representative Number 2 (TIME CHECK: 6:01 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 24'F).
I repeat my entire spiel again. Representative Number 2 informs me that it will be approximately 40 minutes before someone can come out, but then realizes that I was transferred to the wrong Connecticut AAA office and needs to transfer the call (again).
AAA Representative Number 3 (TIME CHECK: 6:10 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 20 minutes worth of below freezing).
This time I *first* verify that I have the correct office before giving my spiel in rapid-fire format. Representative Number 3 then tells me that it is going to be an hour before someone can come out. I inform her that I will freeze to death before then, so could they please make it quicker. She then inquires as to why I cannot just go inside the grocery store and wait (I gave her that ammunition when she asked whether the address was a residence or business). I then informed her that a reasonable person just does *not* put that much good food at risk of going bad. She then tells me that it will definitely still be an hour. Clearly, she does not follow my blog. :)
So I wait and pace around my car, looking like an idiot. (TIME CHECK: 6:50 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 1 hour worth of below freezing and I cannot feel my toes, but my feta cheese and chicken are still nice and cold)
Around 7:00 PM, my knight in shining navy blue pants carrying a toolkit arrives not on horseback, but in a truck (just as good)! It takes about 20 seconds for him to let me in my car (if you think locking your car means it won't get stolen, think again, LOL), and me and my happily chilled groceries finally headed home.
"F" Word #4: FRENZY
By the time I got everything inside, unpacked and put away the groceries, and got my ingredients out to start the prep work for my fricassee, it was 7:45 PM. After soaking, rinsing, drying, and chopping the mushrooms; filtering the porcini juice; pulling the giblets out of the chicken, washing, disassembling, re-washing, drying, and flouring the pieces, and then chopping the garlic and onions, it was already 8:30PM. "It's all right!", I thought; "I'll be done soon". And so the browning of the chicken pieces commenced!
I quickly realize however that either my chicken was too big or my pan was too small (probably the latter). For those of you who are still learning like me, overcrowding anything in a pan typically means three things: 1) it's going to take forever to cook; 2) when browning, pieces will not brown evenly; and 3) it really won't ever brown, so you just have to call it a loss and keep on truckin'.
(TIME CHECK: 9:15 PM)
After "browning my chicken all over", the official fricasseeing began with the addition of Marsala Wine to the pan and deglazing (scraping those burnt-on bits off the bottom). And then I see it on the page of my cookbook: "simmer over low heat for 50 minutes - 1 hour". Another unlisted "F" word emerged from my mouth.
At this point, my cooking frenzy met it's proverbial threshold and there was no going back. I stood there and thought, "after everything tonight, if it's the last thing I do before essentially passing out for the night, I'm going to eat fricasseed chicken!"
"F" Word #5: FANTASTIC
And so I did. And it was fantastic.
To summarize, it was a freezing, forgetfulness-filled--albeit fantastic--fricasseed frenzy last night.
I highly recommend you try it at home (but maybe without utilizing all of my "F" words, just fricassee and fantastic).
Baked Potato
-2 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Medium-sized baking potatoes (1 per person)
-Salt and Pepper
-Garlic Power
1) Pre-heat the oven to 500'F.
2) On a piece of aluminum foil, pour olive oil over each potato to coat, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Poke holes in the potatoes with a fork or knife (to let the steam escape while baking), and wrap the foil around it tightly.
3) Bake for 45 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 450'F and bake for another 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of the potato) with the foil open to get the skin crispy (if you like it that way), turning the potato half way through.
Sauteed Spinach
-1 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Baby spinach*
-Salt and Pepper
-Garlic Powder
*A bunch of regular, large-leaf spinach is also fine, just tear off the stems close to the leaf and rinse REALLY well as they tend to carry a lot of silt. Also, if you purchase "triple washed", "ready to eat", or any other type of pre-packed produce, wash it any way. You don't want to be exposed to or infected with E. coli or Salmonella do you? (Had to honk my public health horn)
1) Heat the oil in a small saute pan over medium heat.
2) Add the spinach, salt and pepper to taste (a pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper should do it), a sprinkle of garlic powder, and saute, turning over the uncooked spinach to the bottom and the wilted spinach to the top, about 2 minutes.
Fricasseed Chicken with Porcini Mushrooms
-3-4 Lb whole chicken
-1 handful of dried porcini mushrooms (or other wild mushrooms)
-1/3 cup Marsala cooking wine
-2/3 cup All-Purpose flour
-1 small onion
-3 cloves garlic
-1 Tbsp butter
-2 Tbsp vegetable oil
-Salt and Pepper
-2 cups water
1) Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups lukewarm water for at least 30 minutes until they are plumped and juicy. When they are, squeeze the water out of them gently over the bowl to catch the juice, wash them under running cool water until they the water runs clear, and dry the mushrooms thoroughly. Scrape away any remaining dirt before chopping them finely. Set them aside for later. Place a thin, but sturdy, paper towel in a fine mesh sieve/filter and drain the cooking juices through it to catch the soil that came out of the soaking mushrooms, catching and saving the liquid for later as well.
2) Disassemble the chicken into individual serving-size pieces (4 ounces is a serving a meat, which is about the size of a medium hand's palm). This will probably mean 2 wings, 2 legs, 2 breasts, and maybe a few other pieces of meat depending on your chicken and knife skills (I definitely gave up at one point and just tossed some meat attached to bone away, haha). Wash the chicken REALLY well, pull off as much skin and fat at you can (saving many, many calories as you do), and dry REALLY well.
3) Put the All-Purpose flour on a plate and coat the chicken well in it.
4) Chop the onion into medium pieces and the garlic finely (mince).
5) Heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat in a pan LARGE ENOUGH to hold all of the chicken when it's lying flat and spaced out. If this means using two pans, by all means, do so. When the butter has melted completely and the butter foam has combined into the oil mostly, add the chicken. Cook until it is well browned (not burned) on one side. Add the salt, pepper, and onions and turn over with a flat-edged wooden spoon.
6) Cook the chicken and onions for 3 minutes before adding the garlic. Then continue cooking until the chicken is well-browned on the second side. Make sure it is well-browned because this will give the chicken a nice outer layer, as well as ensure that the juices stay in and the chicken stays juicy for the rest of the cooking process.
7) When the chicken is browned, add the Marsala wine, which I was surprised to find you can buy in the grocery store here, although no regular bottles of wine like Riesling and Chianti. Let it bubble for a few seconds, turn down the heat to low (but just high enough to maintain a constant simmer), and scrape the bottom of your pan with the edge of the wooden spook to bring up the stuck-on bits into the sauce you're creating. Add the porcini mushrooms, stir everything to combine well, and cover.
8) Simmer for 50 minutes - 1 hour, adding a few tablespoons of the porcini mushroom liquid every so often as the sauce is soaking into the chicken and reducing. The dish is done when the meat is as if it will fall off the bones and is fork tender.
9) Serve in a warmed dish with baked potato and sauteed spinach, and enjoy!
Here is the epic tale of Five Little "F" Words.
"F" Word #1: FRICASSEE
Perusing through my most favorite Italian cookbook last night after work, I got it in my head that I wanted to make fricasseed chicken with porcini mushroom sauce. The only problem was, I had no clue how to fricassee (nor how to disassemble a whole chicken) (I say "disassemble" purposefully because my chopping that chicken up involved carefully exploring each part and deciding how to remove it).
For your and my own edification, a fricassee is, for most intents and purposes, a poultry stew. Fricassee sounded simple enough, so I decided upon my culinary objective for the evening: combine chicken with the wild-picked mushrooms my father gave me, fricassee it, serve it up with a baked potato and sauteed spinach, and pair it with a beautiful chianti.
With a plan in mind and grocery list in hand, I headed off to do some shopping...
"F" Words #2 & 3: FORGETFULNESS & FREEZING
Being both an adventurous cook and a woman on a budget, I needed to make two grocery stops. After grabbing everything on my list that was cheap and fine enough quality at the discount market, and the rest at the regular supermarket, I was headed back to my car when I glanced at my cell phone and mused at how quickly I had finished shopping. Being both jet lagged and sleep deprived from a fantastic vacation, getting a good hot meal on the table and heading to bed early sounded ideal.
And then it happened.
An "F" word I won't include on the list of five appearing here came out of my mouth as I realized that in a moment of forgetfulness (and slight tendency to be extremely organized, as the only reason I changed up my "getting out of the car routine" was to cross items off my list that I had purchased at the first store), I had locked my keys in my car.
And so the freezing began (TIME CHECK: 5:50 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 25'F).
Admittedly, I've locked my keys in the car once (yes, only once!) before, so I thought about calling AAA immediately. That was a fine plan, except that in this era of attempts at over-efficiency, my California cell phone number got me re-directed to California AAA. After giving them my story, address, description of my location, phone number, make, model, and color of my car, license plate number, and AAA membership number, Representative Number 1 realizeds that I'm was not actually *in* California currently and could not help me.
Transfer to AAA Representative Number 2 (TIME CHECK: 6:01 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 24'F).
I repeat my entire spiel again. Representative Number 2 informs me that it will be approximately 40 minutes before someone can come out, but then realizes that I was transferred to the wrong Connecticut AAA office and needs to transfer the call (again).
AAA Representative Number 3 (TIME CHECK: 6:10 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 20 minutes worth of below freezing).
This time I *first* verify that I have the correct office before giving my spiel in rapid-fire format. Representative Number 3 then tells me that it is going to be an hour before someone can come out. I inform her that I will freeze to death before then, so could they please make it quicker. She then inquires as to why I cannot just go inside the grocery store and wait (I gave her that ammunition when she asked whether the address was a residence or business). I then informed her that a reasonable person just does *not* put that much good food at risk of going bad. She then tells me that it will definitely still be an hour. Clearly, she does not follow my blog. :)
So I wait and pace around my car, looking like an idiot. (TIME CHECK: 6:50 PM) (TEMPERATURE: 1 hour worth of below freezing and I cannot feel my toes, but my feta cheese and chicken are still nice and cold)
Around 7:00 PM, my knight in shining navy blue pants carrying a toolkit arrives not on horseback, but in a truck (just as good)! It takes about 20 seconds for him to let me in my car (if you think locking your car means it won't get stolen, think again, LOL), and me and my happily chilled groceries finally headed home.
"F" Word #4: FRENZY
By the time I got everything inside, unpacked and put away the groceries, and got my ingredients out to start the prep work for my fricassee, it was 7:45 PM. After soaking, rinsing, drying, and chopping the mushrooms; filtering the porcini juice; pulling the giblets out of the chicken, washing, disassembling, re-washing, drying, and flouring the pieces, and then chopping the garlic and onions, it was already 8:30PM. "It's all right!", I thought; "I'll be done soon". And so the browning of the chicken pieces commenced!
I quickly realize however that either my chicken was too big or my pan was too small (probably the latter). For those of you who are still learning like me, overcrowding anything in a pan typically means three things: 1) it's going to take forever to cook; 2) when browning, pieces will not brown evenly; and 3) it really won't ever brown, so you just have to call it a loss and keep on truckin'.
(TIME CHECK: 9:15 PM)
After "browning my chicken all over", the official fricasseeing began with the addition of Marsala Wine to the pan and deglazing (scraping those burnt-on bits off the bottom). And then I see it on the page of my cookbook: "simmer over low heat for 50 minutes - 1 hour". Another unlisted "F" word emerged from my mouth.
At this point, my cooking frenzy met it's proverbial threshold and there was no going back. I stood there and thought, "after everything tonight, if it's the last thing I do before essentially passing out for the night, I'm going to eat fricasseed chicken!"
"F" Word #5: FANTASTIC
And so I did. And it was fantastic.
To summarize, it was a freezing, forgetfulness-filled--albeit fantastic--fricasseed frenzy last night.
I highly recommend you try it at home (but maybe without utilizing all of my "F" words, just fricassee and fantastic).
Baked Potato
-2 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Medium-sized baking potatoes (1 per person)
-Salt and Pepper
-Garlic Power
1) Pre-heat the oven to 500'F.
2) On a piece of aluminum foil, pour olive oil over each potato to coat, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Poke holes in the potatoes with a fork or knife (to let the steam escape while baking), and wrap the foil around it tightly.
3) Bake for 45 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 450'F and bake for another 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of the potato) with the foil open to get the skin crispy (if you like it that way), turning the potato half way through.
Sauteed Spinach
-1 Tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Baby spinach*
-Salt and Pepper
-Garlic Powder
*A bunch of regular, large-leaf spinach is also fine, just tear off the stems close to the leaf and rinse REALLY well as they tend to carry a lot of silt. Also, if you purchase "triple washed", "ready to eat", or any other type of pre-packed produce, wash it any way. You don't want to be exposed to or infected with E. coli or Salmonella do you? (Had to honk my public health horn)
1) Heat the oil in a small saute pan over medium heat.
2) Add the spinach, salt and pepper to taste (a pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper should do it), a sprinkle of garlic powder, and saute, turning over the uncooked spinach to the bottom and the wilted spinach to the top, about 2 minutes.
Fricasseed Chicken with Porcini Mushrooms
-3-4 Lb whole chicken
-1 handful of dried porcini mushrooms (or other wild mushrooms)
-1/3 cup Marsala cooking wine
-2/3 cup All-Purpose flour
-1 small onion
-3 cloves garlic
-1 Tbsp butter
-2 Tbsp vegetable oil
-Salt and Pepper
-2 cups water
1) Soak the dried mushrooms in 2 cups lukewarm water for at least 30 minutes until they are plumped and juicy. When they are, squeeze the water out of them gently over the bowl to catch the juice, wash them under running cool water until they the water runs clear, and dry the mushrooms thoroughly. Scrape away any remaining dirt before chopping them finely. Set them aside for later. Place a thin, but sturdy, paper towel in a fine mesh sieve/filter and drain the cooking juices through it to catch the soil that came out of the soaking mushrooms, catching and saving the liquid for later as well.
2) Disassemble the chicken into individual serving-size pieces (4 ounces is a serving a meat, which is about the size of a medium hand's palm). This will probably mean 2 wings, 2 legs, 2 breasts, and maybe a few other pieces of meat depending on your chicken and knife skills (I definitely gave up at one point and just tossed some meat attached to bone away, haha). Wash the chicken REALLY well, pull off as much skin and fat at you can (saving many, many calories as you do), and dry REALLY well.
3) Put the All-Purpose flour on a plate and coat the chicken well in it.
4) Chop the onion into medium pieces and the garlic finely (mince).
5) Heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat in a pan LARGE ENOUGH to hold all of the chicken when it's lying flat and spaced out. If this means using two pans, by all means, do so. When the butter has melted completely and the butter foam has combined into the oil mostly, add the chicken. Cook until it is well browned (not burned) on one side. Add the salt, pepper, and onions and turn over with a flat-edged wooden spoon.
6) Cook the chicken and onions for 3 minutes before adding the garlic. Then continue cooking until the chicken is well-browned on the second side. Make sure it is well-browned because this will give the chicken a nice outer layer, as well as ensure that the juices stay in and the chicken stays juicy for the rest of the cooking process.
7) When the chicken is browned, add the Marsala wine, which I was surprised to find you can buy in the grocery store here, although no regular bottles of wine like Riesling and Chianti. Let it bubble for a few seconds, turn down the heat to low (but just high enough to maintain a constant simmer), and scrape the bottom of your pan with the edge of the wooden spook to bring up the stuck-on bits into the sauce you're creating. Add the porcini mushrooms, stir everything to combine well, and cover.
8) Simmer for 50 minutes - 1 hour, adding a few tablespoons of the porcini mushroom liquid every so often as the sauce is soaking into the chicken and reducing. The dish is done when the meat is as if it will fall off the bones and is fork tender.
9) Serve in a warmed dish with baked potato and sauteed spinach, and enjoy!
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| Fricasseed chicken with porcini mushroom sauce, baked potato with sour cream, and sauteed baby spinach |
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