Chicken Piccata

Note from management: We here at The Barefoot Kitchen apologize for the tardy updates. We've experienced some technical difficulties that have now been fixed. You may now return to your regularly scheduled food blog.

I had pictures. I was going to do a lovely Thanksgiving edition with not one, but two dishes. I made a lovely spinach gratin as well as roasted butternut squash for Thanksgiving dinner. The process was lovingly documented. Then, with one slip of the finger, my camera's memory card was erased leaving me quite despondent. I could have cooked during the long holiday weekend. Instead, I chose to sulk and watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York back-to-back.

But I was back in the kitchen last night and tried out a recipe I had been meaning to make for a long time: Chicken Piccata.

I love chicken piccata. The sauce has a nice crisp taste and if there is cream in the sauce, it tastes rather luxurious and silky. Considering that the ingredients are inexpensive, you get a lot for your money and can easily entertain with this recipe.

Ina's recipe for chicken piccata particularly appealed to me because it does not include capers. Whatttttt?! I know! Capers are always in piccata! That's just craziness! Well, Ina doesn't put them in her piccata. And since I am not fond of capers, I went with it.

Here are the ingredients - pretty basic stuff. I'll tell you right here that I didn't fully follow the directions. The recipe in the book called for regular chicken breasts that you flatten. I opted for the 30 Minute Meal timesaver and bought thin-sliced chicken cutlets. I know I'm getting less chicken that way, but the time and effort saved is well worth it for me.



Here's a shot of the pristine dredging and breading station before the flour is everywhere, egg is dripping and breadcrumbs are clumpy.



When I took a cooking class a few years ago, the instructor told us that we really only wanted a fine coating of flour. It was very important to get rid of the excess flour, so she recommended "spanking" the flour off. I am not joking. She showed us by lightly spanking the chicken breast she was holding. It works. The excess flour fell off and the chicken had a really delicate dusting. It works better than just shaking the excess flour off. So yes, I spank my meats.

I also wanted to mention that I have quit using regular breadcrumbs for the most part. Ina's recipe calls for regular breadcrumbs, so that is what I used, but in all other instances I now use panko. Now panko is nothing new to me since I am Japanese. However, its suddenly become the darling of Food Network chefs. They all pronounce it
"paan-ko" or "pank-o." Given, it does look like the word "pancake" so I can understand, but it still hurts the ear. Its "pahnko." Anyway, I now use panko in all the places I used to use breadcrumbs - all breaded meats, meatloaf, and gratin tops. I find that it's just lighter and browns better.

Here is the chicken browning in the saute pan. It will finish cooking in the oven. I have to watch this carefully as I'm prone to burning breading.



The finished chicken. The oven has made the breadcrumbs very crunchy. Yay!



Time to make the sauce. This sauce is very quick and easy to make. I think it really only takes about 5 minutes. All the ingredients go into the pan. Ina says to add the juiced lemon rinds to sauce to infuse more lemon taste. I'm a little scared. Ina really likes her citrus. This could be really strong.



I'm just noticing that in my pictures, the lemon rinds look rather ... nipply. Anyway, the sauce reduces and I take it off the heat and add some butter to thicken it. Here is the finished sauce:



Here is the finished product plated. I think it looks rather good! I don't garnish it with lemon slices, but the drizzled sauce over the top and the parsley it quite presentable. Good enough for dinner anyway!



The Review
Excellent! I am so in love with this dish, I really am. I thought adding the lemon rind would make the sauce over powering, but it didn't. It's very good. Adding some half and half or cream would make it sooo good and very wicked delicious. Finishing the chicken in the over was a good choice. It wasn't overcooked and the coating was very crunchy. I still think it would have been better with the panko, but cannot say that the regular breadcrumbs weren't tasty. I served the chicken with some mashed potatoes and a salad. Joel, who is not crazy about lemon-flavored foods, was happy with the recipe and said that he would happily eat it again. Very good recipe and I highly recommend it.

Parmesan Smashed Potatoes

So why another potato recipe so soon? Well, I actually wasn't planning it, but then Joel and I got inspired by recent Food Network programming and decided to hold our own mini-Thanksgiving for two. I cooked some turkey cutlets with pan gravy, baked up some cornbread, sauteed some green beans and opened that old can of cranberry jelly stuff. Since we were having turkey, I thought it would be appropriate to do mashed potatoes, and the Barefoot Contessa has a few great recipes for mashed potatoes.

First we start off with the ingredients:


I will warn you right now. There is a lot of FAT in these smashed potatoes. I'm not even going to try to cover it up. I think the potatoes will turn out tasty because of the fat, but personally, I think it's excessive. Butter, half and half, and sour cream. That's a lot yo'.

Boil them 'taters. I'm kind of obsessive, I take off all the blemishes and imperfections off of the potato. I know I can leave some of them on, but... anyway, those are the little gouges in the potatoes you see.


While the potatoes simmer away, I'll melt the butter and mix it with the half and half. God. I never have half and half in my house. I don't use it in my coffee. I don't know how else I'm going to use the rest of the carton up.


Shhh. the recipe says to heat it on the stove, but I heated the mix in the microwave.

Here we go! Smashing the potatoes are quite satisfying. It makes you feel like you are truly putting effort into your food instead of just throwing something together to eat. I hear kneading bread dough is similarly cathartic. Here, you can see that the potatoes are pretty dry. I've only added in a little bit of the butter mixture. It should get creamier as I add more fat.


A little while later, the potatoes are smashed sufficiently and are nice mixture of fluffy/creamy. I don't like super fine pureed potatoes and enjoy them when they have a bit of texture. Anyway, now I'm ready to fold in the sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Seriously, I don't think you can make these potatoes any richer. And, I love calorie-laden carbohydrates.


Parmesan smashed potatoes. You can catch a glimpse of the rest of the meal in the background.


The review

The smashed potatoes are excellent. I didn't have a doubt they would be since the ingredients and preparation were very simple. They have a nice smooth texture without being gluey. The use of red potatoes works well. I like the difference that the peels make in the final product. However, as I mentioned above: THIS IS A RICH DISH. I don't think that the use of the three different fats were needed. Basic mashed potatoes contain butter and milk. Sometimes I substitute sour cream instead of the milk. I've never put all three into mashed potatoes before, let alone half and half and a large dose of cheese. This recipe could be significantly lightened with minimal taste discrepancies. Save this one for a special occasion or party.

The recipe makes 6 servings. I used the leftovers to make Shepherd's pie the next night. Potatoes were still quite tasty and didn't become grainy or lumpy overnight.

Cheddar Dill Scones

Here at the Barefoot Kitchen, we like to bake. This is because we love baked goods. We feel that the world would be a happier place if people baked a little more.

Our executive officers, in particular, highly endorse the creation of scones. This endorsement is based solely on the word's entertaining pronunciation.

I say, "skohn"
You say, "skon"
Skohn- [skohn!]
Skon- [skon!]
Let's call the whole thing off!

The Barefoot Contessa cookbooks have several recipes for scones. I decided to start with a recipe for Cheddar Dill Scones. Now, I'm not particularly fond of dill. I really don't use it very much in my cooking and know nothing about it. Well, I know its really aromatic and is used to flavor things I don't care for; like pickles. I do like cheddar however, so I figured that any sort of cheese-tasting biscuit had to be decent and a little dill could be overlooked.

Here are the ingredients. The original recipe makes 16 scones. I don't need that many scones, so I cut the recipe in half.

Yes, that is a bag of shredded cheese that you see in the picture. I confess that I Semi-Ho'd it instead of grating my own cheese. I was too lazy to grate 1/2 lb. of cheese and it was on sale. Will do better next time, I promise.

The first step is to make the dough which is basically flour and butter.


And, here it is:

The dough is very sticky, but you can see the chunks of butter in it. Hopefully this will make the scones light instead of dense, heavy bricks.

Add the cheese and the dill to the dough:


Roll out the dough and shape the scones. Ina likes to make triangles. I am following suit. Here they are, glistening with egg wash and ready to be baked golden-brown:


20 minutes later the apartment is filled with the heavenly scent of cheese and bread. Seriously, I think cookies baking are the only smell that trumps the smell of baking bread. My first observation of the scones were that they looked wonderfully crusty and flaky. Now, I've never had flaky scones, but I'm not going to turn them away either.


Cheddar Dill Scones:


The Review
I set them out to cool, but Joel found them. He tottered into the bedroom, where I was folding laundry, mouth full, saying, "This is pretty good." Like myself, he had been wary of dill-related flavors. I took a bite of the scone he had on his plate. It was lighter than most of the scones I've previously had. More fluffy and biscuit-like than usual. I think this is because there was less cream and more butter in the recipe. Still, it was very good. Since I usually have fruit scones, it was different to have a savory one. The dill itself was not overpowering, but definitely had a strong presence. I smelled it more than I tasted it. The cheese part was delicious as I expected it. Over all, I liked the scones but am not in a hurry to make them again. They did not convert me to dill and honestly, I'd prefer it without the herb. However, if you like dill, feel free to partake as this recipe was easy to make and quite tasty.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

According to Wikipedia, potatoes originated somewhere in the Andes in modern-day Peru. I imagine its discovery went something like this:

Genius potato discoverer: Here Fido! Come here boy!
Fido: Woof!
Genius potato discoverer: Hey you mutt! Stop digging in Francisco's yard! He hates that!
Fido: Woof!
Genius potato discoverer: Why, what is this starchy, tuberous crop you've uncovered?
Fido: *pants*
Genius potato discoverer: *takes a bite of potato* This is delicious! It would be terrific with some ceviche. We should plant and harvest more! Quick, fetch the guano!

Anyhow, this genius discoverer has brought me much joy. I will rarely turn down a potato dish and knowing Ina's penchant for putting rich dairy products in her dishes, I am looking forward to making lovely, delicious potato dishes in the future. We start here with a pretty basic recipe for Garlic Roasted Potatoes.

Now, I've made this plenty of time before because it's easy to make and they incorporate my favorite potato combo: crisp on the outside/tender on the inside. I've made these so often that I think Joel is sick of them. He always tells me I make too many, but what does he know ... leftovers are a wonderful thing.

So here are the ingredients. Simple stuff: potatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley


I like red potatoes. The day I went to the supermarket, the fingerling potatoes didn't look so hot, so I bought the regular-sized reds. I'm impatient so, I chopped them a little smaller so they would cook faster.


Next up is the garlic. I love doing that chef-y thing where you whack the garlic with the side of your knife to remove the skins. I have also done this and had the garlic squirt out from under the knife, hit the wall and ricochet to the floor. So much for smooth chef moves, eh? Anyway, prepare to meet your doom garlic.


I think I've killed it.


Toss the garlic in with the potatoes and add in the oil, S&P. Here are the potatoes, gleaming and oiled ... just like Richard Simmons! (Okay, that's so gross. Even for me. Sorry.)

Dang. Wrong setting on my camera. The potatoes are NOT green. I'll get it eventually.

45-60 minutes and a few turns later: Crisp potatoes!


Sprinkle on the parsley and that's it!


The review:
Excellent. Of course, I'd probably eat it even if it sucked. It's really hard to mess up potatoes. What I love most about this recipe is that you can make it using a bunch of different combinations. Take out the garlic, add some paprika with a dollop of sour cream and its serious good eats.

Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash

I love butternut squash. I love risotto. Mix 'em up, add some heat and you've got a lovely meal.

First up, gather all those ingredients together:


I love risotto because it's very versatile. You can stick in some frozen peas, leftover red or white wine, chicken and it still comes out delicious. I especially love butternut squash, so this recipe was something I knew I'd like.

The first step is to roast the squash. I know Ina enjoys roasting her vegetables and I tend to agree. Roasting the vegetables really brings out the sweetness and magically makes it taste better Don't ask me how - I think it has to do with caramelized sugars blah blah.

Here's the squash before it goes in the oven. Pay no attention to the rather poor knife skills. They're pretty much all the same size though.


About 40-45 minutes later, here is the roasted squash. I must tell you. I could eat this right out of the pan -- and I have. The squash has a little but of olive oil, salt and pepper on it and it's really delicious. Squash isn't very popular in Hawaii, so I didn't have it until I came to college. All those years, wasted!



Next up, risotto! Now, Ina's recipe calls for pancetta. Gotta confess: I'm not that big on pancetta. I feel like I should like it, but whenever I have it, I miss the smokey flavor of regular old bacon. Not that I'd turn it away, but I use bacon in my cooking instead. Ina also mentions that if you can't find pancetta, bacon is perfectly fine to use, so I feel like I've stuck to the recipe. God, whenever you can add some bacon into a dish is a good day.

Here's the shallots and bacon sauteing in some butter and olive oil. I can't hear you right now arteries.


And throw in the rice, wine and stock.


Confession: I don't stir my risotto constantly. Honestly, I've stood there stirring it for 25 minutes straight and I've stirred it every 7 minutes or so to prevent the rice from sticking. It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference in the end product. Since I'm usually making a salad or cleaning up dishes while something is on the stove, I'm happy I don't have to pay it such close attention.

Rachel Ray mentioned a few times on 30 Minute Meals that risotto takes about 22 minutes give or take to cook. She's right. Mine always ends up taking about 25 minutes. Here it is. The saffron has turned it a light yellow, despite my pot and lighting making it look a bit green.


Finish it off the heat with a little bit of cheese and there you go:


The review:
Very good! The squash is lovely and a good texture. It's very soft, but not soft enough so that it falls apart and tastes like babyfood. The saffron adds a nice color to the risotto, but I can't really taste it. The bacon is nice of course. I really don't know if I'd like the dish as much if it had pancetta in it. I think the smokey, salty bacon pairs well with the sweet squash. Joel liked it as well and went back for seconds, a sure sign that he likes it.

Anyway, it's a good start!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Barefoot Kitchen!

To kick off the inaugural post, I decided to do an in-depth, journalistic interview with the author of the blog.

PB: So, why are you doing this?

P.Bunny: Dunno. I like to cook sometimes.

PB: But to attempt to make all the recipes from the Barefoot Contessa book-

P.Bunny: Books. I have five of them.

PB: Alright, books then. Anyhow, attempting to make all the recipes in the Barefoot Contessa books seems rather...ridiculous.

P.Bunny: And quite tasty, I expect.

PB: Right. It seems like a rather large undertaking.

P.Bunny: I haven't got a whole going on, you know.

PB: Hmm. Quite sad actually.

P.Bunny: Ah, yes.

PB: Can you tell me a little more about the project?

P.Bunny: Sure! Well, I've really only got time to cook on the weekends, so I'll be making something and posting weekly. I'll be following the directions and ingredients from the cookbook as closely as I can. Since Ina Garten is a frequent party-giver, many of her dishes serve large numbers I people. I'll occasionally halve the recipe since most of the time there will only be two people sampling.
PB: Very good. And what is the plan with the actual blog itself. Videoclips? Food porn? What's going on with that?

P.Bunny: Eh, I'm pretty low-tech. No videoclips or demos. Just some photos and such. And, my delightful, clever writing, of course.

PB: Of course.

P.Bunny: You don't have to roll your eyes like that.

PB: But I'm very good at it. Moving on. You have a disclaimer saying that you won't be posting the recipes. Why not?

P.Bunny: There are ample places to find the recipes. Food Network carries them occasionally and you can find them online. If readers really wanted to make something, I suggest that they invest in the books. They're very good and contain lovely photography.

PB: Let's wrap it up. Any last words?

P.Bunny: I'll do my best to update the blog on Mondays with the weekend's latest recipe. As I'm very lazy, this is harder than it sounds. Consistency, what's that?

PB: Thanks very much. I can see this interview will garner me a spot in the New Yorker.

P.Bunny: Good luck with that.