WHAT’S COOKIN’?

Since we bought the freezer I’ve been able to buy things in bulk, or when they’re on sale. Since I can’t seem to find chicken breasts with the bone in, and since pre-made chicken broth doesn’t exist here, I like to buy whole chickens and cut them up myself. I package up the breasts, usually 2 in a package, then legs and thighs get packaged up, and the backs and wings are saved to make chicken broth.

Zip lock bags, also not found in Italy, are one of my special treats from the states. These, along with Press ‘n’ Seal, make freezing everything so much easier. I had a one gallon zip lock bag with two sets of legs and thighs in it. Last week I got that bag of legs and thighs out of the freezer and used half of them to make the bourbon chicken that I was less than pleased with.

Today I decided to use the rest of the legs and thighs to make the dish we call “Belinda’s Chicken”. This dish, like so many other Italian recipes, is cooked on the stove top. Years ago the average Italian kitchen had a cooktop and a fireplace, but not an oven. People used communal ovens for their bread, and I guess a lucky few had their own outdoor oven.

This dish has prunes in it. I had NEVER eaten prunes before I move to Italy. They just looked yucky, and they were for OLD PEOPLE! Prunes were, as far as I was concerned, something old people ate to help with their regularity, and quite frankly I had no use for them.

Fast forward to now….when I eat so many things that I never dreamed of eating before! Zucchini! Artichokes! And now, PRUNES! They’re actually sweet, and more like giant raisins (which I love), than something medicinal.

This recipe is so easily thrown together, and since it takes just over an hour to cook, you really can make it on very short notice.

BELINDA’S CHICKEN WITH PRUNES

6 chicken thighs
1/3 cup EVOO
4 cloves garlic
1 sm can green olives, pitted
1 sm jar capers
1 pack pitted prunes (12-15)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried oregano)
3 small red onions, thinly sliced
2 TBSP brown sugar

Brown chicken in oil with garlic. Add everything else on top. Rotate occasionally. Cook for 1¼ hours on low heat on stove top.


What else to make for lunch? Well, I had one good sized eggplant (another new food for me!), and when I’d taken the chicken out of the freezer I’d also grabbed a bag of frozen tomatoes.

Of course you have to have a freezer with enough space, but popping the tomatoes into zip lock bags is sooo much easier than canning them! I freeze the tomatoes whole and with the skin on. When they thaw the skins just slip right off.

And so I had a bag of thawed tomatoes in the frig, and one large eggplant. I decided to make a simple tomato sauce and put it on slices of eggplant. A scattering of breadcrumbs would go on the top, a drizzle of olive oil, then I’d bake them in the oven

I put the thawed, skinned tomatoes into a sieve to drain off most of the water, and after sitting for a while I had a nice thick paste. I added a bit of olive oil, a dash of oregano and some salt and pepper.

After cutting the eggplant into thick slices I set them into a WELL OILED baking tray and topped them with the tomato sauce. Breadcrumbs, oil, then into the oven at 350ºF for about 25 minutes.

Speaking of breadcrumbs…..the other day while watching an old Jamie Oliver cooking show (the Naked Chef I think), Jamie was making a dish that required fresh breadcrumbs. The other person in the kitchen, the person behind the camera I guess, asked if it would be okay to use breadcrumbs that had been frozen.

Jamie really got a laugh out of that!!! “Frozen breadcrumbs? Never heard of that!”, he told her. She explained that when she had bread left over, or bread that was about to go bad, she’d just put it into the freezer. Well of course she did! I do the same thing! It’s a great way to use bread before it goes bad! I have seen breadcrumbs in the grocery here, but it just seems silly to waste bread, so I make my own croutons and breadcrumbs. Guess Jamie lives in a different world (ya think???)

Well, that was lunch for today. Quick, definitely low carb, and VERY tasty. Art enjoyed it so much that we had the rest of it for dinner tonight! The chicken makes a wonderful light sauce, and Art suggested that rice, or even mashed potatoes would be a great way to make full use of this sauce.

JONESIN' FOR SOME ORIENTAL FOOD

Although there ARE Oriental restaurants in Italy, we've never been to one. The general consensus for both Oriental and Mexican restaurants seems to be that the food isn’t very good, so we’ve just never bothered. Regular visits back to the states have allowed us to satisfy our tastebuds, and it gives us something to look forward to when we go back.

I have brought some Mexican foods and ingredients to Italy, and we occasionally enjoy fajitas, but alas, no refried beans. Oriental food is something that I’ve never cooked at home though, except for a fried noodle recipe that I fell in love with and eventually had to stop making because there were just too many carbs!

A few months ago I found a recipe for Bourbon chicken, which seems to be the latest hot thing at the food court Oriental restaurants. You can’t walk through a mall these days without being offered a sample, and although it’s not as good as sweet and sour pork, or my favorite, General’s Chicken, it was tasty so I figured I’d give it a try.

I’ll give you the recipe, but not before telling you what I thought about the recipe. First of all, I was surprised that the chicken was baked! I thought after marinating it would then be quickly stir-fried, but no! Secondly, although the chicken was tender and tasty, it may have been a little too….something….too sweet, maybe.

Thirdly, it definitely did NOT satisfy my craving for Oriental food. Perhaps I do need to dig out that fried noodle recipe, or try more ‘traditional’ recipes. Sweet and sour pork or chicken, War Su Gai, General’s Chicken, or maybe even a bowl of pork fried rice might do the trick, but this recipe, although good, just didn’t scratch the itch. The fourth problem I had with this recipe is that it just wasn't good enough to justify using 1/2 cup of my good Kentucky bourbon!!

Perhaps if you have better access to good Oriental food on a regular basis you’ll be easier to please than I was. The recipe is certainly simple enough, and here it is:

Bourbon Chicken

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp powdered ginger
2 Tbsp dried minced onion
1/2 cup bourbon whiskey
1 lb. boneless chicken leg or thigh meat cut into bite size chunks
2 Tbsp white wine

Cooked white rice, optional

In a large bowl, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic powder, ginger, onion and bourbon; stir until sugar has dissolved.

Add chicken and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Place chicken and the marinade in an 8 x 8-inch glass baking dish and bake in a preheated 350°F. oven for 45 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with pan juices.

Remove chicken. Scrape pan juices with all the brown bits into a frying pan. Heat over medium heat and add white wine. Stir and add chicken. Serve immediately with pan juices over cooked rice.

I used a bit more than one pound of chicken...I think you could use up to 1 1/2 pounds with good results. Also I didn't have any dried onions, so I chopped up a bit of green onion and used that instead.

I did find that taking the meat off the legs and thighs to be a giant pain in the ass. I'm not some girly-girl who cringes at the sight (or touch) of blood and guts, but it was just soooo time consuming, and not nearly as easy as de-boning a chicken breast.