Monday, February 20, 2012

Kissing Don't Last: Cookery Do.

So, still getting that alphabet post together; this weekend had some unexpected twists and turns.  In the meantime, I actually cooked a meal!  It's the first real "meal" I've cooked in a long while, so I thought I would share.  I've even included some along-the-way snapshots and some loose instructions. The title of this post is a quote by George Meredith, an English poet from the Victorian era.

Delicious Noms
The first step was to assemble, wash, and rep all the ingredients, because I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing.  I put the chicken on to cook as I was prepping the vegetables. 


 <--So, here we have young white mushrooms, half a yellow onion, garlic, a green bell pepper, young asparagus spears, a red potato, and some fresh cilantro.


Don't soak mushrooms, they get gross. Rinse them quickly, or, better yet, wipe them off with a damp paper towel or a soft brush. Or, you know, leave them out all together, because the whole "fungus" idea is a little weird. I just felt a strange, culinary obligation to put them in.  This dish CALLED for mushrooms--I could feel it...


^^I sliced some mushrooms, diced part of the onion,
Here we have inexpensive versions of paprika,
 basil, ground mustard, lime juice, and sea salt.
NOT pictured here is my 

ever-so-delicious extra-virgin cold-press olive oil. 
Yum.
minced a clove of garlic, julienned half the pepper, and then sliced the potatoes really, really thin...I was going for a variety of shape, but I also wanted to maximize the color of the potato.

You also need a variety of "potions  and powders," as someone once called them.  [So if I use them all the time, does that make me a Potions Master? I might be okay with that.]-->





 Meanwhile, our boneless, skinless chicken breast steak is cooking on the stovetop. A little water to steam it up (I like moist chicken), some basil, a shot of lime juice; add a little ground mustard and a dash of sea salt. Cook it over medium heat, while we turn our attention back to the vegetables.


Sweat the onion in some of the delicious olive oil. Add the pepper strips. Cook for a little bit. Add the asparagus and the garlic [At this point, I cheated a little bit and added just a titch of water to the pan, to steam the asparagus.  Probably not the best plan, especially if there is oil in the bottom of the pan.  I didn't have a problem, but just a fair warning].  As the stove top mix is cooking, put the super-thin potato slices in the microwave, with a little bit of water, for about 90 seconds. Add to the pan; cook for about a minute.






When the vegetables are just shy of crisp-tender, add the fresh mush and cilantro. I also added a dash of paprika and some sea salt.

YES

~ALMOST DONE~

Hey, yeah, also, at this point, your chicken should look kind of like this:
To get the nice brown color, add some of that delicious cold-press olive oil to the pan just before the chicken is done. 

Now, just turn the heat off, pull everything off of the stove, and plate up.  
I made a bed of veggies on the plates, then sliced each breast into seven-ish pieces and laid it over the top. 


Dressed it with some feta cheese, added a sprig of left-over fresh cilantro, 
then sprinkled the whole thing with some grated Romano.

So pretty! 
 Now, go feed it to someone else, and get them to help clean up. 

Yeah, just kidding. There isn't too much clean-up, actually, just the cutting board and two pans. 
But, there IS enough food for two or three servings, so feel free to share. . . or pack it for lunch. . . or whatever you want. 

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.  
~ Virginia Woolf,  "A Room of One's Own"

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