Simple Pleasures (Brined, grilled chicken with garden salsa)

So, it’s the end of the season. You’ve still got tomatoes, peppers, and boatloads of basil. You’re tired of making salsa. You’ve got enough pesto. What to do?

As little as possible. That’s what:

• 1/2 c. salt
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 c. water
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• a tomato or two, diced
• a green pepper or two, diced
• pine nuts
• basil leaves, chopped
• couscous

Now, if you’re running really short on time, you can skip the brining. But if you have 10 minutes the night before, it’s so worth it. Brining makes anything (other than beef) juicier, more tender, and more flavorful.

Other than the brining ingredients, vary the amount of ingredients to your liking.

Put the water, salt, garlic, and sugar in a pot over high heat. Stir occasionally until all the solids have dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat. Either let cool to lukewarm or add a handful of ice cubes. Put the chicken in a ziploc bag. Add the brine. Seal the bag and put it in the fridge for at least four hours – overnight is better.

When dinnertime gets close, get a grill to medium-high heat. Drain the chicken and pat dry. Rub the chicken with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with ground pepper. Grill the chicken until the juices run clear – usually 6-8 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over high heat. Add the pine nuts. Toss until lightly toasted. Add the tomato, pepper, and basil leaves. Cook, stirring, for one minute. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Also, make your couscous. For this one, we used pearl couscous – but you can really use anything you like here.

When the chicken is done, remove from the grill and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Plate up. Pour a medium bodied, fruity white wine. Torrontes is a great choice. Chow down.

Egg[plant] Man (Roasted Eggplant with Tomatoes)

I love me some eggplant.

I have a hard time pinpointing exactly when I fell in love with those tasty purple critters, but I’ll use just about any excuse to cook with them now. One my the recipes that the Sweet Partner in Crime requests for special occasions is my Eggplant Parmesan, which I make from scratch. Yummy.

Today, though, we’ve got a more Middle Eastern take. This recipe takes a little time to put together, but a good chunk of the cooking time is hands-off, so you can find other things to do while you’re putting it together. This is my take on a recipe from a recent issue of Food & Wine. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 small eggplants (1 3/4 pounds)

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin

Pinch of cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves

juice from 1 lemon

Get a good, heavy pot. Prick the eggplants on all sides with a fork. Put the pot over medium-low heat, add the eggplant, cover and cook. (Yes, you read that right. Nothing in the pot but the eggplant.) Cook for about 40 minutes, turning a couple of times, until the outside is charred and the inside is soft.

When cooked, transfer the eggplants to a colander. Cut a lengthwise slit in each and allow them to drain for 10-15 minutes, or until the eggplants are cool enough to handle. Cut the eggplants in half and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Take a mashing utensil (potato masher, bottom of a glass, phone book) and pulverize the eggplant.

Put the pot back on the stove and heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil over medium heat. Add the eggplant mush, garlic, and spices. Cook until most of the water has evaporated and the tomatoes start to break down – 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the herbs and lemon juice. Turn the heat down to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or so. While this is simmering, make the couscous. Plate it up and chow down.

If you’re looking for a wine pairing with this, a red from the Rhone region of France is a good bet. I opened a nice Chateauneuf-de-Pape with it, but a good Cotes du Rhone would do nicely.

    

 

 

 

Where Is My Mind? (Roast Chicken with Tomatoes & Marjoram)

Ever tried to make dinner when you’re…shall we say…not completely there? I mean, who’d be silly enough to work around in the kitchen after that third happy hour martini or after a Lazy Sunday Afternoon with no mind to worry.* Certainly not me, of course. For the sake of argument, though, let’s imagine that we’re faced with this situation. Pop quiz, hotshot…what do you do?

The best way to deal with this little hypothetical would be to have a recipe or three in one’s back pocket that can be thrown together with a minimum of effort and time. Picking up an item or two at the store might be necessary, but I’ll assume your hypothetical shopping was done with a little more foresight than your pre-cooking revelry.

You really can’t go wrong with roasting chicken and tomatoes. It’s practically foolproof. Marjoram has a really fascinating flavor – it’s halfway between cilantro and sage. Besides, if you can still pronounce “marjoram” correctly, you’re probably in good shape to make this. A bottle of Spanish rose makes a great accompaniment.

Disclaimer: If the cook’s mental and physical state is such that a few simple slicing tasks pose a significant risk of permanent disfigurement -- plop down on the couch, put on some Allman Brothers, and call your local pizza place or Chinese delivery. Bodily humors make a poor seasoning for this dish. 

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2-3 tbsp chopped fresh marjoram (or 3/4-1 tbsp. dried if you must)
• 5-6 minced garlic cloves
• 1-2 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 3-4 tomatoes, cut into thin wedges and seeded
• 1 c. couscous

Preheat oven to 450. Pat chicken dry. Mix all but 1 tbsp of the marjoram (or 1/2 tbsp. if using dried), the garlic, and the red pepper with about 1/4 c. olive oil in a large bowl.

Add the tomatoes and chicken to the mixture and toss. Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray and pour everything in. Arrange the tomatoes in a single layer around the chicken. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 30 minutes. Check the pan at this point. The tomatoes should be breaking down and making a sauce and if you cut into the chicken (which should be browning), the juices should run clear. If it needs a little more time, put it back in for 5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, make the couscous however you prefer to make couscous. I keep it simple…water, salt, and a little bit of olive oil.

When everything’s done, put down a bed of couscous, top with the chicken, pour the tomatoes and collected juices over everything, and sprinkle the reserved marjoram over the top. What you’ll end up with this is this scrumptious one-plate meal, an easy cleanup, and plenty of time to either crash or recover, depending on your plans.

* Check out “Ogden's Nut Gone Flake” if you’re curious. (h/t to The Wizard of Covington)

Return to Hot Chicken (Chicken with artichokes and basil pearled couscous)

I'm not the only one who cooks in the household, contrary to popular belief. In addition to being a world-famous criminologist, the Sweet Partner in Crime is pretty handy around the kitchen. After all she did get me interested in many things culinary and introduced me to the notion that a house without wine is like a house without a heat source. Sure, you could live there, but why would you want to?

We do have an understanding that maintains peace in the valley. Over the years, we've learned that our cooking styles do not exactly mesh. In fact, unless the two of us come to an agreement on the division of labor, we try (for the most part) to avoid being in the kitchen together. I tend to be a bit...free...with the number of utensils, pots, pans, and other such implements of destruction I'll use in the course of meal preparation. If we try cooking together, I'll go to pick up the spoon I've been stirring a sauce with, only to find that she's put it in the dishwasher while my back was turned. She's a more efficient cook.

Also, she's a much better "throw together" cook than I am. Most of what I know about "non-recipe" cooking's come from her. Give my sweetie a pantry full of random ingredients, some veggies, and a spice or two, and you've got a simple dinner. To wit...if you want to follow what she ended up doing with this amalgamation, here's what we had:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Frozen artichoke quarters
• A lemon, sliced thinly
• A plum tomato, chopped
• 2 tsp capers
• Basil, oregano, garlic to taste
• 1/3 c. white wine, 1/3 c. chicken broth
• Box of Near East "basil pearled couscous" mix

Thaw everything. Preheat oven to 400. Pour some olive oil (which I leave off ingredient lists all the time...it's a staple like salt and pepper) over the chicken and sprinkle with spices. Put in a roasting pan and add the white wine & chicken broth to the pan. Lay the lemon slices across the top. Top with the capers, artichokes, and tomato. Salt and pepper the lot. Roast for around 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

Meanwhile, make the couscous. The SPinC discovered that this particular type of couscous is much more labor intensive than the "boil water, dump in couscous, stir, remove from heat, let sit" normal method, so plan accordingly. When chicken is done, add pan juices to couscous. Mix.

Plate it up. Pour some fruity, easy drinking white wine. Chow down.

Start to finish: Under an hour