Paul’s selection from this week’s Cook’s Illustrated was Chicken Paillard (pronounced pie-yard), named after a famous Parisian restaurateur from the late nineteenth century. The translation is a chicken cutlet pounded to a ¼ inch thickness, cooked in a skillet and served with a sauce. Sounds simple but there is technique involved to yield the best results. First, slightly freeze your chicken breasts and cut them horizontally before pounding. Put them between oiled plastic wrap and use a firm methodical pound. You might also further cut the breasts in half before pounding to get medallion instead of plate sized cutlets. Add salt and pepper to taste before cooking. Use a traditional, instead of a nonstick, skillet to ensure “fond” (brown bits) which allows for a good pan sauce. Cook chicken cutlets at high heat in an oiled skillet, two minutes to brown on one side and lesser time on the other side as they finish cooking in a heated oven while you are making the pan sauce. We made the simple Mustard-Cider Sauce suggested; using residual heat cook some chopped shallots or onion, add and bring a cup of apple cider (we used pear juice) and a couple tablespoons of cider vinegar to a simmer scraping the bottom of the skillet to loosen the browned bits and reduce to half the volume, add a little whole grain mustard and chopped parsley off the heat and finally whisk in a little butter and serve with the cutlets. Paul paired them with sautéed cauliflower steaks with a little melted cheese on top. Mashed potatoes would be a good addition with the tasty sauce serving as gravy. Yum!
Did you know….there are at least 10 different kinds of greens and each of them has numerous varieties, thus becoming an expert on greens is no small feat. We grew butter lettuce, spinach, rainbow chard, Siberian kale and arugula this year. On offer this week was taco salad, spinach salad, and caprese (sliced tomatoes/mozzarella along with fresh basil) salad with balsamic vinaigrette. We also made Vietnamese Spring rolls which, although labor intensive, were delicious. I harvested all of the greens this week so have been eating them on and with everything imaginable and giving them away by the grocery bagful. I am sure we will get at least one more harvest before the heat and humidity take them out. Finally, greens are all very nutritious; they have antioxidant and anti-aging properties along with all kinds of vitamins (C, K, A) and minerals plus the fiber keeps you regular so eat up my friends!
After harvesting the greens, I gave my tomatoes a haircut and an updo which, along with the rain, they are responding well to with lots of yellow flowers. Maybe a tonic of Miracle Grow would also make them happy right now? I did a final harvest of rhubarb and picked lots of fresh strawberries in a friend’s garden, most all of which went into the freezer for future use! She served some of her delicious Deconstructed Mason Jar Strawberry Shortcake which I quickly finished off. She even sent one home for Paul which he thoroughly enjoyed as well. Oh, and I made Molasses Cookies from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe which turned out soft, moist and delicious; you can find the recipe online. On to next week’s culinary adventures! 2019