July 11, 2014 PPI chicken and sautéed potatoes with sautéed/sweated chard, mushrooms, garlic, raisins and apples

July 11, 2014 PPI Bobby Flay braised chicken, sautéed potatoes and sautéed/sweated chard, mushrooms, garlic, raisins and apples Catalan Style

We did not want to cook so we decided to heat up the PPI Bobby Flay braised chicken and the potatoes we made two nights ago.  A few minutes before 5:00 I went to the garden and picked a basket full of chard.

  

While watching the Nightly Business Report on TV, I de-stemmed the kale and chard and cut the leaves into bite sized pieces.  

I also had picked five or six stalks of mint and so I made a pot of simple syrup by heating 2 ½ cups of sugar with 3 cups of water.  When the syrup came to a boil, I turned off the heat and put the washed mint stalks into the hot syrup to steep. 

At around 5:30 Suzette came home and we decided to fix dinner, rather than start snacking.

I made us each a mojito with the fresh mint syrup and we discussed how to prepare the Kale/chard.  

I suggested creamed chard but Suzette suggested sautéing it in olive oil. 

I then said, “Great, how about with raisins!”

Suzette replied, “How about with apple and raisins (Catalan style).”

I replied, “How about with mushrooms and garlic and the sweet peppers, also.”

Suzette agreed and that is how we decided on the preparation of the chard.

So, I sliced ½ onion, two large cloves of fresh garlic, and three white mushrooms and peeled and cubed ½ apple and washed and spun the chard.  Suzette put a about seven or eight of the dried sweet peppers we had bought at the Farmer’s Market ($1.00 per bag) into a bowl of hot water to re-hydrate and after about six or seven minutes of soaking I plucked their stems and cut them in half lengthwise and removed their seeds and cut them into ½ inch wide cubes.   

Suzette sautéed the onions, peppers, garlic and mushrooms for about ten minutes on medium heat, while I washed and spun the chard/kale (about 1 ½ cups). 

She then added the raisins and apple cubes and after a minute or two more of sautéing added the chard and kale and covered the pan to let the chard mixture sweat.  This dish was technically not only braised but also stewed and steamed because I had added a 1/3 cup of red wine to the dish during its sauté period.

Sauteed mushrooms, peppers, apple, raisins, onion and garlic

 This sauté/sweat method of preparation has become my new favorite cooking method. Although we have used it before, for some reason I did not take it to heart until recently.  Perhaps it was reading the section on braising in Michael Pollan’s new book, Cooked, that triggered the recognition that when we sautéed and then covered the vegetables and let them sweat, that we were actually braising them in their own steam and liquids.  Anyway I find this combination method of cooking a wonderful way to prepare ingredients that benefit from both browning that concentrates or liberates their sugars while also benefiting from the softening effects of steaming, that allows their flavors to mix together, with the added benefit of being a much faster and more flavorful method to cook than using only one method, such as only sautéing or only roasting in the oven.  In fact, the dual method was what Bobby Flay’s chicken recipe used, but his was braising and then roasting the chicken, that had been coated with a spice rub, in the oven.  We had also used the combination method of cooking the potatoes several nights ago, for cooking the mixture of sweet peppers, sliced potatoes, shallot, onions and garlic. I think this combination method is perfect for cooking ingredients that require a lot of cooking to break down their toughness or to release their sugars, like potatoes or squashes.  I guess the clearest example from another culture to this method is stir frying, where you stir the ingredients in hot oil over heat and then add liquid flavorings and cover the wok to steam.  

I asked Suzette what wine she wanted to drink with dinner and she suggested a rosé, so I went to the basement and fetched a Josefina rosé of syrah for its earthiness, which I thought would go well with the more complex flavors developed by the dual cooking method used for the vegetables and the chicken.

I was correct.  We loved the slightly heavier grape structure of the Josefina (Trader Joe’s $5.99) rosé of syrah with the heavier and complex structure of the meal’s dishes, especially the caramelized/browned edges of the meat and potatoes.  

Suzette wanted to sit under the gazebo and watch the clouds and weather, so we took our plated dishes and glasses of wine out to the gazebo in the garden.  This has become our favorite place to eat dinner this summer because the new gazebo offers almost complete protection from the weather and allows us to eat even in the midst of a rain storm like tonight.  While we ate, we listened to the Dubliner Boys playing music at the zoo as the sky darkened and then enjoyed a cool evening shower that ended the concert but offered us a pleasant change of atmosphere and moisture.  During a break in the rain, I fetched the open bottle of Josefina and a bowl of ice and we drank another glass of wine and watched the rain fall around us from the shelter of the gazebo.

After the rain subsided we returned to the house and I decided to make a dessert of yogurt and the fresh fig compote that Suzette made last night.  I put about ½ cup of Trader Joe’s European style yogurt into a bowl and spooned in about ¼ cup of poached figs that had been poached in a 1/2 bottle of 2002 Franciscan Oakville Estate Port that we had bought at the winery ($30.00).  It was delicious, but I must admit, that after the yogurt settled, I ate a bowl of spumoni ice cream with a large spoonful of lemon curd, also.

Bon Appétit