Ali's Kitchen: Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fresh Figs and Goat Cheese

Today is an exciting day because I am making one of my FAVORITE recipes ever. I'm not, as I had promised a few posts ago, doing something from a cookbook, but I figure that's okay, because I'm also still the only one posting, and I was promised I wouldn't be a few posts ago, TOO. So. GUILT TRIP!* Ahem hem. Anywho.

This is today's recipe:

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fresh Figs and Goat Cheese
by Marie Simmons, from Fig Heaven

As you can see over at Leite's Culinaria, the recipe calls for: Chicken breasts, fresh thyme leaves, Kosher salt and pepper, fresh green or black figs, goat cheese, olive oil, pancetta or bacon, and dry white wine.

Some alterations we are making:

- First of all, the chicken breasts I bought in the "Value Pac!" were huuuge. I don't even want to know what they fed this chicken. Probably something radioactive. I may have superpowers by tomorrow, or possibly an extra toe. So we're throwing out any timing instructions, and just using a sturdy meat thermometer to time things.

- We're not using Kosher salt. We're not even using REAL salt. We're using "Nu-Salt," which is basically potassium in a form that looks like, and is intended for those of us who puff up from water retention just by LOOKING at salt. (No, actually, it's intended for those with high blood pressure.)

- We're using dried thyme because we already had some, and I didn't feel like yanking a bunch of tiny thyme leaves off a brittle little branch today. Lazy Sunday.

- We're not using pancetta or bacon, not for any nutritional reason - just because I forgot to buy it. Also? Pancetta is expensive, and bacon is NOT classy enough for the regal fig.

Ah, the fig. Behold its wonder:



I make this recipe EVERY time they're selling figs in the grocery store. EVERY time. I kid you not. Figs are the Queen of Fruit (and pomegranate the King).

So get your figgies and your garlic all nice and chopped/diced, respectively. Dump 'em in a little bowl with the "salt," pepper, a little bit of olive oil and thyme. I didn't measure a thing, because this recipe will work out fine no matter the proportions. These ingredients are such a yummy match that it doesn't matter too much which one comes out on top.



Now you get your little (ha.) chicken breasts and butterfly them. The recipe says to remove the fillets and save for a stir-fry. I'm not that motivated today, so we're leaving them on. I think I have all the other times as well, and it worked out juuuust fiiiiine.

Sprinkle the chicken breasts inside and out with "salt," pepper and thyme (I forgot to do this and just did the outside). Stuff the, erm, stuffing into the breasts, and close.

Put in a Pammed pan (ha), and bingo bango, pop 'em in the oven at 400 degrees.

The recipe says 10 minutes per side (also, we don't need to flip them, necessarily, since there's no pancetta to crisp, but I suppose you can if you like). Let's start with 25 minutes for these Frankenstein chicken boobs. Let's hope we don't overcook them. Everyone here is very tense:



During today's intermission, I'd like to take a moment to extol the virtues of distilled white vinegar. Did you know you can put a small dish out, like zees?



and it will keep fruit flies away from your kitchen? This way you will be able to keep out, say, cut tomatoes instead of having to commit the unholy transgression of refrigerating tomatoes. Also with vinegar? You can clean the milky deposits off your crystal and glassware. You can also clean your countertops without using dangerous bleach or chemical-based cleaning supplies or overpriced "granola" cleaning supplies. You can throw it in at the rinse cycle as a scent-free fabric softener. You can clean your floors with it, people. And don't even get me started on the wonders of baking soda. Those two are like Brahman and Vishnu of green AND cheap household cleaning. *End Intermission*

When your chicken is done (it took Frankenstein chicken about 35 minutes! And it wasn't overcooked!), set aside and cover. Bring your roasting or baking dish (whichever you've used - if you're like me you don't have a small roaster and regular old Pyrex has to do, even if the bottom side of whatever meat you're cooking does get a little soggy from its juices) and pop it onto the stovetop. Add in the white wine and boil the liquid down for about 2-5 minutes, depending on how much liquid you're working with.



Now drizzle over your chickies and nom nom nom!



Tarot and I put this one together with some orzo tossed in the extra goat cheese, and a simple side salad. The salad had the fun jazzing-up of persimmon tomatoes, an orange heirloom variety, which you already know if you got your Cooking Light this month like a good little cook.



* I kid, I kid. I know my schedule is particularly conducive to this stuff.

Whoops. I keep forgetting to add my "roundup."

Favorite things about this dish: FIGS. I LOVE FIGS. And I'm not complaining about the goat cheese, either. And thyme may or may not be my favorite herb. You can see why I cook this recipe all the damn time.

Least favorite things about this dish: Leaving out the pancetta really isn't as good. You need the salty piggy to balance out the sweet figs and tart goat cheese. I hoped it wouldn't make a difference, but it did. Definitely better with the crispy pig on top of the Frankenstein chicken.

Surprising thing about this dish: This is a rare instance in which adding wine to a broth does not, for my tastes, help. I would have left out the wine this time. Maybe it was the Sancerre I used - very tart.

New skill learned: Putting Pyrex on top of a stove! I've never done that before! I'm always afraid the glass will shatter or something, though when I think about it, the temp in the oven is probably much hotter and more stressful to the glass. Or maybe not. I don't "do" physics.

Ali's Kitchen: Shellfish with Chipotle and Tequila

I'm REALLY excited about this one because the picture is REALLY PRETTY, and as we all know, presentation is half the battle. See?



I didn't take this picture. Whoever did, please don't sue me. I love you; you're an awesome food photographer.

Here's the gist from Cooking Light:Ingredients1 teaspoon olive oil Cooking spray 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion (about 1 large) 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 3/4 cups water 1/4 cup tequila 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 lime) 1 teaspoon ground cumin 2 teaspoons tomato paste 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped seeded chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained 1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 24 littleneck clams 1/2 pound sea scallops 1/2 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/4 cup chopped green onions Preparation1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add yellow onion, bell pepper, black pepper, and salt to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add 1 3/4 cups water and next 10 ingredients (through chicken broth) to pan. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. 2. Arrange clams in a steamer. Cover and steam over boiling water 8 minutes or until shells open. Discard any unopened shells; set aside. 3. Add scallops and shrimp to tomato mixture; cook 7 minutes or just until done. Ladle 2 cups soup into each of 4 large shallow bowls; top each serving with 6 clams, 1 tablespoon cilantro, and 1 tablespoon green onions.

Accompanying this main dish will be some more couscous, and a simple green salad (tatsoi) with the excess green onions.

So, that's what we're aiming for. Ambitions are high. Hopes are... a little tepid, since I don't actually have the "chipotle peppers in adobo" which this recipe calls for. I have ground chipotle powder. At my dad's suggestion (he is a masterful cook), I'm halving the measurement of "chipotle" whatever, which makes this about 1/2 tsp. chipotle pepper I'm using. Other alterations include SHALLOTS instead of yellow onions (why buy more when you already have something vaguely similar in this crappy, crappy economy?); bottled lime juice instead of fresh limes (ditto); chicken broth that I need to get rid of; not having a steamer for the clams; and some shrimp that really, REALLY needs to come out of the freezer, which was the main reason for cooking this recipe, rather than the other pretty ones in the newest issue of Cooking Light. I would also like to take this moment to advocate buying local food and produce. The other main reason I went with this recipe was that our "local dayboat" littleneck clams were on sale. They look AWESOME. At this point of typing I obviously haven't eaten any, but they LOOK great. And they're SO much easier to clean than mussels. I had to debeard ONE clam, as opposed to every mussel I've ever cleaned. I'm also going with our "local dayboat" (which here means Long Island, probably) scallops, which were similarly reduced by the wonder that is Fresh Direct. Cry for not having it. CRY, I TELL YOU, FOR IT IS AWESOME. Except that it doesn't seem to have chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce at the moment. Oh well. Here we go!

This is one of those recipes that takes A. Lot. Of. Prep. If you are not, for instance, Courtney and never learned how to chop produce professionally, this may take you a long time with all the chopping of the peppers and the onions and the garlic and cilantro and the other onions. And also the measuring of the spices and the tomato paste, etc. Then there's the cleaning the clams (again, not as long as mussels) and the peeling and deveining/cleaning the shrimp.

Shrimp Tip: If you suck at cleaning shrimp, or just don't have a little shrimp de-veiner thingy, just butterfly it (slice it down the back, that is), and, again, if you're like me and can't ever managed to get the poop-or-intestine-or-whatever-that-dark-stuff-is out of the shrimp with the knife itself, a BAMBOO GRILLING SKEWER is great.

Interesting Shrimp Fact: The shrimp I'm using have their poop-or-intestine-or-whatever-that-dark-stuff-is on the BOTTOM. ... WHAT? Who ever heard of that? Also, they're a little freezer burned, but that's not exactly their fault, is it?

So, here are all your ingredients, nice and chopped and prepped, and hopefully you haven't sliced off any of your fingers with your sharp J.A. Henckels knives, which rock hardcore:

Bonus points for me smelling out which square of Saran wrap matched up with which prepared ingredient after this photoshoot

For the clams, since I don't have a steamer, I'm using some of the excess chicken broth mixed with water to steam. Why not, right? This could all go horribly, horribly wrong.

HERE WE GO:

We've already encountered our first unintended alteration: In my frenzy of preparation, I accidentally mixed the salt and pepper in with the other spices, while the recipe calls for them to go in with the olive oil FIRST. No idea how this will affect the food from a chemical/flavor standpoint. Maybe not at all, maybe we'll end up order pizza. [Discovery Channel narrator's voice]

Second problem: WHY DID I PRINT OUT THE RECIPE THIS SMALL?!

Um... wut?

Let's see what's ahead.

So, if you're like me, your stove has a terrible inequity (I almost wrote "iniquity") of heat distribution. This makes it tough to simmer, fry or sautee. But I'm doing my best to simmer the veggie broth for about 12 minutes, over low heat, stirring occasionally.

Since I don't want to overcook the clams, I'm not steaming them yet, but I am pre-heating the steaming liquid so I can cook the clams at basically the same time as the shrimp and scallops. Also, my couscous has already been cooked in the microwave.

While the clam and scallop-shrimp liquids are heating, you can pass your time watching Robin Hood: Men In Tights.

Always diverting

Okay, now we're putting on the shrimp and scallops... and the the clams...

Smells... SPICY. I hope my dad's estimate of the canned-chipotle-to-powdered-chipotle was accurate, otherwise K will be very happy and I will be drinking even more wine. (... It was a stressful day, for the LAST time.)

Okay, TASTES spicy too. Wow. Heat. Yikes. I guess I have no reference for using the chopped canned chipotles peppers vs. chipotle powder, but JEEZ. SPICY.

Anywho, this is what mine turned out looking like:

Looks redder than the recipe photographed for the magazine. On the plus side, look how FAT and JUICY this "local dayboat" clam is:

I'll be making this again, but probably with less freezerburned shrimp and LESS COOKING TIME OVERALL, because this dude lied, and all the seafood should have withstood much less heat. Although the fat clams emerged unscathed. See?

I'm sorry. That's not a clam; it's a feline sous chef sitting in the recycling pile. How terribly misleading of me.

Ali's Kitchen: Salmon Fillet en Papillote with Julienne Vegetables

Sorry to post twice in one week (annoying), but I'm excited about this one...

I was watching Food Network, which I am not wont to do. I was waiting for Throwdown with Bobby Flay to come on to see Amalah make her Basic Cable debut. I tuned in about half an hour early because TV has superseded most other habits in our house, and there was Alton Brown on Good Eats, which has disturbingly behind-the-times graphics, and I wish someone would tell their producers.

The episode was all about pouch cooking, which sent me into the euphoria of memory that is Reminiscing About Sleepaway Camp. What a great freaking place. GOD I LOVED IT. I was terrible at Arts & Crafts and never took it, but I was GREAT at "Outdoor Survival," which, when the Born Agains took over from the lesbians my last year there, became "Outdoor Living," which is just NOT as appealing for those of us who are obsessed with The Road and its ilk, but I took it anyway, even though we just ended up making herbal masks and learning that when you put cream or foundation on you're supposed to apply UP, against gravity, so you don't become a wrinkly, saggy wife for your dashing husband because he is the Priesthead in your Born Again family. Or something. ANYWHO. Every year in Outdoor Survival we had an actual camp-out night where we would do such rugged things as take a big white van to a field about 15 minutes away, set up easy-to-set-up tents and CAMP. At CAMP. GO FIGURE. This camping night always, ALWAYS involved (before the S'mores) Hobo Dinners, which basically consist of a choice of: pre-cooked ground beef or tofu, diced potatoes, onions, peppers, Worcestershire sauce, and cheese. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. Thus began my love of food cooked in pouch form. (Please see: Samosas, Empanadas, Tamales, Stuffed Potatoes, Calzones, et al.)

Well, this meal is not that. We're not 11 anymore, and we're not in Alabama burning lots of calories climbing rocks and canoeing anymore, so we need a slightly less calorie-dense selection for our average work-from-home New York City Wednesday night. Hence, salmon and veggies. I'm adding MORE veggies, because it's ME, and I'm adding more spice (coriander and pepper) than is called for, because, again, HELLO, look who is typing this.

Here we go:

Salmon Fillet en Papillote with Julienned Vegetables

Food Network "Good Eats," courtesy of Alton Brown

Ingredients (which we double, since we're making 2 pouches):

1/3 cup julienned fennel bulb

1/3 cup julienned leeks, white part only

1/3 cup julienned carrots

1/3 cup julienned snow peas

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon whole coriander seed, ground fine

1 (8-ounce) salmon fillet, pin bones removed

1 orange cut into wedges with white, pithy membrane removed

1 tablespoon dry vermouth

Some modifications on my part: Obviously, I'm using more spice and less salt, because that's my M.O. Also, we don't have vermouth. I'll be using a little white wine (vermouth is, after all, just fortified wine with spices, so it must be sort of close, right?). Lastly, we did BUY snowpeas with this batch of groceries, but we are not USING them here. We'll probably eat them with hummus.

Now, Alton says to:

Take a 15 by 36-inch piece of parchment paper and fold in 1/2 like a book. Draw
a large 1/2 heart on paper with fold of paper being the center of the heart. Cut
out heart and open. Lay fennel, leeks, carrots, and snow peas on parchment in
center to 1 side of fold. Mix together salt, pepper, and ground coriander.
Sprinkle vegetables with 1/2 of salt, pepper, and coriander. Lay salmon on top
of vegetables and season with remaining salt, pepper and coriander. Top with the
orange wedges and sprinkle with vermouth. Fold other side of heart over fish and
starting at top of heart shape, fold up both edges of parchment, overlapping
folds as you move along. Once you reach the end tip, twist several times to
secure tightly. Place on microwave safe plate and cook for 4 minutes, on high in
microwave, or until fish reaches 131 degrees. Open parchment carefully and serve
for a complete meal.

I disagree that this is a complete meal. We're adding some couscous, because we still have a bunch in the pantry. Also, I shan't be using the microwave, since it would be annoying to do ONE, then the OTHER. We're doing it in the oven at 425 for 12ish minutes.

Let's get started!

First, let's admire all the produce:

Green, lush, and DIRTY. WHY IS IT SO DIRTY? Oh yeah, it's organic. I didn't actually order organic; they apparently ran out of non-organic because everyone's trying to save money. (In that vein, I would like to point out that I'm using U.S. farm raised salmon, when I'd really prefer to use wild due to its superior muscle tone and protein-to-fat ration. BUT IT'S TOO PRICEY, DAMMIT.) (And I have no idea which one has more mercury vs. which one has more amino acids, but I do feel that, often, we're told to do one this for the Earth and a totally different thing for our longevity. It DOESN'T. MAKE. SENSE.)

Ahem hem. Also, these oranges look like they were kidnapped from their tree home a little early. They're pretty green. Check them out when compared to green and orange produce. Which one do YOU think they more closely resemble:

Mmmmm they actually taste great! Better than they should, by rights, being July oranges and all. I'm still a little skeptical about their use in this dish, but Mr. Brown is the one making lots of money off telling people how to cook, so...

As far as julienned vegetables are concerned... well... my primary association with julienned anything is Aladdin. And it looked pretty easy in that, but that guy had some kind of magical chopper he was trying to pawn off on his audience, so... I'm thinking I might have to watch my fingers using an actual knife, and that it might take a little longer than 2 seconds of animation cels. A few notes on these vegetables:

Now, I love leeks even more than I love the Scrubs musical episode, but leeks are DIRTY. They are a naughty, evil girl, and she must be punished ground-growing veggies related to onions, so you will find silt and dirt caked into all their tiny crevices. (Sorry. Watched Monty Python & the Holy Grail the other day.) So make sure to rinse, rinse, rinse! And don't put them with the other veggies when julienned, just in case you need to re-rinse. You don't want that grit ending up everywhere.

As far as fennel, the closest contact I've had with a fennel bulb is watching the cooks at Aquavit chop them while engaging in thinly-veiled sexual harassment. Ah, the restaurant industry. I miss it. No, wait...

So, here we go. It's pouch assembling time!

Remember how I said I was bad at Arts & Crafts? Well, I'm also bad a Physics, Geometry, and Basic Common Sense. Here's what I ended up with on my first pouch cut:

IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ONE PIECE, ALI.
Okay, abandoning the heart shape for sort of a huge... pill shape. Yeah. Anyway, put on your vegetables,and as Alton (my new best friend) repeatedly says on the TV version of this recipe, "Architecture matters!" In other words, don't, you know, build it like this:

I.M. Pei, God of Architecture, not of Architectural Cuisine

Here we have our assembled product:

Follow the folding instructions, then let's pop 'em in the oven at 425 for 12 minutes.

We will return after the following PSA from our feline sous chef:

Sometimez paper towelz haz to be sacrificed to bunny-kick-evisceration godz.

Ta da!

And now, a roundup that I'm going to try to include from now on.

Favorite things about this dish: Cleanup? Zero. Cleanup consists only of rinsing off or sticking into the dishwasher a couple of knives and cutting boards. THAT'S IT. Also, extra points for tastiness.

Least favorite things about this dish: "Julienned" must be code for "this sucks." Also, you SAW that I said I HALVED the salt. Well... I DON'T KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG. The vegetables were SO salty I couldn't even eat them! What happened?! Thoughts??

Surprising thing about this dish: The oranges? Were a great touch. I was NOT expecting that.

New skill learned: Cooking in a pouch. 'Nuff said.

Ali's Kitchen: Southeast Asian Poach-o-rama

So, I was bored of Googling and otherwise searching online for a recipe that fit the particular ingredient I felt like cooking. The solution: A cookbook? NO, you crazy person - that's NEXT time. When in doubt, grope around in the dark and make one up by yourself! This is not to say that I didn't have help. I used Courtney as a frequent sounding board, and she IM'd me some recipe links that backed up ideas that I already had in mind, but wasn't sure about, flavor-matching-wise.

I started off knowing I wanted to base something around the flavor of coriander (the seed, its leaf - cilantro) and the sensation of creaminess. I knew K would want poultry. I Googled around for goat milk-this or buttermilk-that, but all I came up with were fried chicken recipes. THAT's when it hit me to try my OWN concoction, and THAT's when it hit me to try coconut milk. If something (coriander) corresponds well with something as succulent as lamb, then it must match up well with coconut milk, right?

So now you know my train of thought. Here are the fruits of my (and Courtney's) labor:

Coconut Milk-Poached Chicken Breasts* with Couscous**

Ingredients:

Chicken
13.5 oz. Lite Coconut Milk

1 medium to large shallot, diced

2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp saffron powder, or 3 saffron threads

1/4 tsp white pepper

A "shake" of garlic powder

Salt to taste

Lemon zest to taste

3-4 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs.)

3/4 to 1 cup low fat chicken broth

2 tsp (or more) ground coriander

Couscous
Prepackaged couscous
Chicken broth to substitute for water
Pine nuts

* This creates a very mild recipe - much more so than I had intended. Next time we make this, I'll try 1 Tb coriander, more cardamom, a dash more saffron, and definitely more pepper. At least twice what I used here.

** I just happened to have these around. You don't need them; I just like 'em in couscous.

We start off with something very handy for those cooking for 1 or 2 people: Individually packaged chicken breasts. Great for the small household, not so great for the environment.

(It's a lot of plastic, when you think about it.)

Here we go:

Dice your shallots up and toss 'em into the coconut milk. Measure out your spices and swirl together until it's a nice, homogenized mixture. Don't worry if the saffron doesn't release its telltale yellow hue throughout the liquid yet; it will when it heats up.

I was planning to broil this, until Courtney helped me realize that poaching in coconut milk would NOT be a travesty, so I actually marinated the chicken in the liquid for two hours. I have no idea if this makes any difference. I think we made the right decision. To poach (for quicker cooking), slice the chicken breasts into approximately 2-inch chunks. See?

Like zees.

Get the liquid boiling - and - note to self: COCONUT MILK BOILS REALLY, REALLY QUICKLY IN A LE CREUSET. CAREFUL NEXT TIME. Add chicken broth into the boiling liquid, bring back to a boil, and immerse the chicken. I don't really know the first thing about proper poaching, but I kept the cover off, mostly. It didn't end up cooking down so much, because this is a fairly quick cooking method.

During the 7-10 minutes of poaching, cook your couscous like a real American - in the microwave. If you want something a little salty to balance out the coconut milk chicken, substitute the normal water for your extra chicken broth!

Et puis, voilà!

Le yum yum

Feedback from the diners was as follows:

Me: Yum. Could be spicier, but yum. And I finally managed not to over- or under-cook poultry. It's a true miracle.

K: OMG. This is the best meal you've made in, like... maybe ever. You could open a restaurant based on this meal.

(He's biased, but still. It counts a little, right?)

Tarot: WUT U MEAN I NO CAN HAS CHIKEN BECUZ UV ONION? SMELLS GUD. WANT! WAAAANT! DEATH STARE!