A giant interweb dinner party
Posted: October 14th, 2009 | Author: johanna | Filed under: Chicken, Johanna, delish, slow but worth it | 3 Comments »The following is a very formative recipe for me.
Like many cooking stories that begin this way, this recipe involves leeks. It also, luckily, involves Gourmet Magazine. AND, it has a past.
When I was just starting out with this blog, this was the first recipe I ever cooked from Gourmet. So for A Mingling of Tastes’ Worldwide Gourmet Dinner Party, I had to take it on again.
Gourmet March 2008 — Chicken in Riesling
1 whole chicken’s worth of parts sprinkled with salt and pepper, and browned (in batches) in a combination of butter and olive oil.
2 HUGE leeks chopped, along with 1 shallot, browned in butter. The browned chicken pieces, as well as any juices accumulated on the plate, added back into the Le Creuset with the leeks.
4 medium (ok, 2 HUGE) carrots are cut up and added into the casserole, along with a cup of Riesling. And here is where I had the problem a year and a half ago, and where I had the problem again tonight. The next instruction tells you to boil until the liquid is reduced by half …. 3-5 minutes.
I can confirm for you that after boiling the hell out of the dish for at least 10 minutes, the liquid level had INCREASED rather than reduced by half. This is frustrating to me.
Regardless, the chicken, carrots, wine, and leeks went into the oven to braise, and when they came out, they met their old friend “heavy cream”, and became…. Chicken in riesling.
The things that amazed me about this recipe last time around could be summed up in this phrase: “Basically, I was proud that my first foray into nice cooking had produced something so…. nice.”
That’s the thing. That’s what I will miss about Gourmet. Their recipes were perfect. And they made me confident. I was brave. Even though I initially was intimidated by all the techniques involved, when I approached this dish last night I was confident. I knew I could do this dish. And I was not disappointed. It was the perfect thing.
Cheers, Gourmet. You always knew the perfect thing. And this week, I’ll be cooking a few more, to send you off in style.
Mmm. If it takes forever to reduce, a quick way of thickening up liquid is beurre manie – knead together equal parts butter and flour (about half a tablespoon for a pot of stew), and stir it in.
Dude…yes. I am so excited to try this recipe, its not even funny.
Thats my favorite thing about Gourmet as well, they are great recipes for when you want to impress without jumping through ridiculous culinary hoops.
[...] I pulled out that actually survived. Regardless, this issue is amazing – it brought forth the Chicken in Riesling that I made a few weeks ago, as well as the Salmon with Lentils that we enjoyed with Alex in mind. [...]