Before I
even start talking about food, let me just say my boys were knocked out of the
playoffs last night so I’m not in the best of moods right now.
However,
the food was good even if the hockey was not* so I’ll try to keep my focus on
that.
After two
days of fairly big heavy meals, I wanted something at least a bit lighter, and
after the temperature decided to take a 20 degree jump between Tuesday and
Wednesday, I definitely needed to incorporate as much cold as possible. But I also really really really wanted to try
Domestic Sluttery’s Breton Chicken recipe.
In cooler times, I will revert to my 70’s roots and use it as the basis
for a biscuit-topped casserole** but when the temperature is still pushing 100
at 6 o’clock, other measures are called for.
Those
measures were not cooking anything
other than the chicken, and consuming a lot of very cold wine along with it. Fat Louis White***, to be exact, in keeping
with the whole geographic theme of the meal.
They put the Eiffel
Tower
 |
| I wish I could have photographed this smell, it was basically all the joy of all the lands |
I only made
minor alterations to this recipe, replacing the pancetta with turkey bacon****,
using dried shallots in place of the leek I didn’t have in the house, and using
almond milk in place of dairy, which I do in just about everything.
 |
| My poor tarragon is not doing well this season :( but we got through one more meal together |
I also may have made another alteration, I’m
not sure. The recipe calls for “English
mustard pepper”. I have no idea if
that’s a specific thing, since Google failed me this time*****, or if “pepper” was
supposed to be listed separately, or what.
So in context, I decided to go with my old standby of French’s, which is
my secret weapon in mac & cheese and had the added benefit of totally
furthering our geographic meal consistency.
I like cheap sharp mustard in cooking because it’s ballsier than its higher-quality counterparts, particularly in rich heavy dishes like this one promised
to be, and it also balances the slight sweetness that stems from using almond
milk in the place of dairy, which is almost always a companion ingredient. And it worked really well here.
 |
| The Dynamic Duo |
The
Domestic Sluttery serving suggestions for this dish are over rice, with bread,
or in a pie. I will do all of those
things in the future, I assure you. For
last night, I stuck with just the bread suggestion, sourdough sliced thin, with
tomatoes also sliced thin and lightly salted, some fresh spinach, and a lot of
grapes, creating a grab-dunk-wrap picnic-y sort of meal.
As
delicious as this chicken is on a slice of bread, it is a whole other sort of
amazing when you put a blob of it on a slice of tomato and cram the whole thing
in your face. With the added benefit of
limiting the amount of time your neighbors have to spend listening to you
yelling at the refs as they hand the series to L.A.
But I
digress.
On the menu
tonight: Creamy Seafood Curry
*I blame
Darryl Sutter’s evil yellow tie. I like
the guy, but that tie seriously needs to inadvertently on purpose die in a fire
forever.
**Anything
we didn’t top with biscuits, we put in Jell-O molds. The 70’s were as fantastic for great bad food
as the 80’s were for great bad music.
***Another
of my recent Big Lots finds at $7 a bottle
****It’s a
pretty sure bet at this point that if any recipe ever calls for pancetta, I
will be using turkey bacon.
*****But
thanks again for the “courgette” thing, because that was really bugging me
******
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