Think On It

Mid-March

March 19th, 2007

The last hem of winter’s skirts is brushing past us these days. People in Minnesota would laugh at us for saying it is cold, but it feels cold and humid. The heat has popped back on during the day. I don’t feel like going out into the garden under the windy gray skies, even though with a sweater it would be fine to do so.

Last week the windows were opened from mid-morning until sunset. Not now.

Still, it is nearly Easter and so I am thinking about what new things I can cook once Easter is come. I am almost at my goal of fitting everything well. I should be gradually adding complex carbohydrates to my diet soon.

What fits this weather? Soup, of course. Frittata. Roasted things and things with hearty sauces. All of the baked vegetable dishes we’ve ever cooked on these pages are ideal for this season of leeks, cabbages and potatoes. I would love to have polenta carbonara right now, but I have no interest at all in messing up my metabolism, which now can make adequate glucose to keep the old brain turning over.

The cherry tomatoes I bought last week were as sweet as strawberries in the mouth. The cucumber was disappointing. Last year the hydroponic cucumbers were very, very good. This year they are undistinguished. Did they change the variety? Or did Coop change the grower?

The non-cooking activities outweigh the cooking activities by a lot, currently. I bought a splendid remnant at market – three meters of beautiful upholstery fabric at one and a half meters wide for €20. That’s a buy for sure. I plan to make dresses for two antique chairs I have and use daily, which has them looking tatty. I haven’t yet found a good upholsterer and can’t afford to reupholster them right now, anyway. First I have to finish the banana colored linen bikini I started for one of them last year.

So, what’s cooking? Today it’s poached chicken. Poached chicken is not boiled chicken. You have to use a good, strongly flavored broth, for a start. Cover the chicken completely with the broth, bring to a simmer and cover it. Continue to simmer until it is just done. I use a thermometer to check doneness. Leaving it covered, turn off the heat and allow the chicken to cool in the broth. That’s it, folks. Fish is poached exactly the same way, using either fish broth or vegetable broth. Chicken will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but don’t try to keep poached fish more than a day. The quality of fish will plummet quickly.

Poached fish or chicken is flavorful and has a nice texture. It can be eaten as is in slices or cubes, or masked with a sauce and served cool, or it can be used in any dishes in which you use cooked chicken with a better result than chicken boiled to extract the flavor and make broth. One idea might be to use the broth to make risotto and serve the chicken in thin slices on top of it. You see? I wrote a whole sentence in which rice occurred without wincing.

I can imagine a country potpie made with either pastry or with a lid of browned mashed potatoes using poached chicken, too. You could cook some carrots, onions and peas in the broth, then thicken it for gravy, assemble it and bake it just before dinner. The next time you go to a potluck or a picnic, poach chicken and make chicken salad with it. Lots of very thin slices of celery—I heard recently that celery has a plant hormone very like male human hormones and therefore is appealing to women. Any recipe you like is fine. Perhaps a curried mayonnaise with a handful of raisins and some peanuts or cashews? I love chicken salad—always in chunks and never ground—with sliced and toasted almonds or white grapes. It’s easy to experiment, because you can always pull out a small amount and try a new ingredient before altering the whole batch without knowing you’ll like it.

My sister used to make what was called “Irish Chicken Hash.” It consisted of chunks of poached chicken, chunks of onion, chunks of parboiled potatoes, all in a buttered low baking dish. Salt and pepper, and then pour thick, heavy cream over it, add pieces of butter and bake slowly. It is delicate enough for an Irish duchess. I recommend it for underweight duchesses. Eat it with something green or something bright yellow/orange. I remember my now-departed brother-in-law pouring ketchup over it, as he did to most things, and to me that explains adequately why he didn’t reach sixty.

If all you want is a chicken sandwich with leaves of lettuce and lashings of mayonnaise, go ahead and I will try to forgive you.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Food, Italy, Dieting