After making basque chicken a few nights ago, I had a lot of leftover white wine and I wanted to make something that used it. I looked in epicurious.com for recipes, and I came about this one for Chicken with prosciutto, rosemary, and white wine. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t find it either in my best recipes list or in this blog. It got pretty good reviews so I decided to try it.
Mike really liked it, but I thought it was merely OK. There was nothing wrong with it, it was quite flavorful, but I think the flavors just didn’t do it for me. I thought it tasted like something I’ve made before, but Mike didn’t think so. In any case, I won’t be rushing to make it again.
I did make one change from the original recipe. I used prosecco instead of white wine, because, lo and behold, I actually ran out of the white wine making bolognese sauce – but I can’t imagine that affected the taste.
Year: 2008 (Page 15 of 19)
Mike bought a couple of bottles of this wine last year when they were on sale for $20. He really seems to like it. I always feel guilty about drinking expensive wine (and for me, any wine over $10 is expensive) for the hell of it, but we don’t have enough special occasions to actually drink all the bottles we have (yes, we should have more, but it’s not always easy with 2 little kids).
Sunday night, however, I was making a Cameroonian Menu and my friend Arthur happened to drop by, so we invited him to eat with us. He’s moving away soon, so I figured that merited a nice bottle of wine. Plus I didn’t have any cheaper ones đ
Anyway, I wasn’t too kin on the BV Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. It had a nice beginning, it was smooth and buttery, but then it just fell flat. There was nothing there. No middle, no finish.
Mike and Arthur said they liked it, but the bottle went unfinished.
Mike (my husband) reports today in San Leandro Bytes that the city council will be voting on allowing a new farmer’s market to operate in San Leandro. This market would operate downtown on Wednesday evenings from 4pm to 9pm starting on May 14, 2008, and continuing through October 22, 2008. I, for one, would really like to have it!
More information at http://www.pcfma.com/markethome.php?market_id=21
I spent yesterday cooking. It’d been a long time since I’d spent much time in the kitchen – I haven’t had a dinner party in a very long time. I didn’t last night either, but I made a whole Cameroonian menu for Mike and I (the girls, of course, did not want to touch anything but dessert, and they had chicken noodle soup instead). It was only 3 courses and fairly easy to make.
Harder was the boeuf bourguignon I made following Julia Child’s recipe. It wasn’t hard per se, just took a while. Same thing for a bolognese sauce I made that I will serve over pasta later this week (tonight we’re eating the beef).
I still have more cooking for this week – I’m planning on making a chicken dish with prosciutto and rosemary as well.
Recipes for all as soon as I put them up.
I just received a menu for “Blossom Chinese Restaurant on East 14th. A quick search online shows that this is the old “Good Food Restaurant”, which just a little while ago was “Szechuan Restaurant”. I haven’t been to the restaurant, under any of its incarnations, but Blossom offers delivery for $1, so I will try it sometime.
No. Not yet. But it’s coming!
Yesterday, as we walked past the corner of our block (at East 14th & Estabrook), we found that there were people finally working inside the building that used to house a hip-hop clothing store after housing a video store. The shop has been empty for over a year, one more of the empty storefronts in San Leandro.
But apparently (at least according to the workers inside), the store is becoming a Vietnamese restaurant. I’ve no idea when it’ll open, definitely not very soon given that they are at the very beginning stages of the work (I assume they have to build a kitchen), but eventually we’ll have a Vietnamese restaurant in the corner. As you can imagine, I’m thrilled. Yes, it’s true that we have at least 3 Vietnamese restaurants in San Leandro, and that two of them are within walking distance, but the point is that this one will be mere feet from my house.
Anyway, I’ll keep you informed as to what happens there.
Last weekend we went to Berkeley for Cal’s Day – a day in which UC Berkeley opens to the public with a myriad of activities for adults and children. The kids saw and got to play with lots of animals, made pottery and watch African dance.
Mika and I were quite hungry in the midst of this all and decided to go off-campus for lunch. I wanted a place where we could sit down, and my first choice was La Vals, a pizzeria I frequented during my college days, but it has closed down. After much discussion we decided on the Chinese restaurant in that tiny restaurant mini-mall almost in front of the old La Vals building. There is a donut shop there, and there used to be a Nation’s, again, in my college days.
I have no idea what the restaurant was called but it was very good. I had a huge portion of crispy chicken – very much like Hawaiian katsu – which was impeccably fried and quite tasty with the accompanying sauce. Mika had the chicken chow mein, again a huge portion, and she loved the chicken. I thought it was very tasty too, a couple of notches above your run of the mill chow mein. I don’t remember the prices, but they were quite reasonable. If I was in the neighborhood and wanted some Chinese, I’d definitely go back.
Basque chicken, in its different incarnations, is one of my favorite dishes. A basic chicken stew, it’s homey and satisfying. It’s not high cuisine, but comfort food of the best kind.
I’ve made different versions of this dish before. This traditional version, from a cookbook I bought in Spain, has carrots and cognac and was originally meant for rabbit. This more complicated version is French and comes from Gerald Hirigoyen’s The Basque Kitchen, a book I loved and lost (I loaned it to a friend who never returned it :-(. The one I cooked comes from Teresa Barrenchea’s The Basque Table. It’s simple, has few ingredients, but it did take me about 2 hours to cook đ It is, however, very good. The recipe below is not exactly like the original recipe (of course!), but it’s how I made it. I’m serving it with whole wheat couscous (because it’s so easy and quick to make).
I speak in the present tense because, as I write, I wait for Mike and the kids to come home and have dinner. Hurry up! I’m hungry!
Recipe
-3 1/2 lbs. chicken parts
-sea salt
-1/2 cup olive oil
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-1 onion, sliced
-2 red bell peppers, sliced
-2 medium tomatoes, seeded & diced
-1 1/2 tsp. sugar
-1 cup dry white wine
-juice of 1/2 lemon
Sprinkle chicken parts with salt, set aside.
In a large, deep skillet or pot heat 1/4 cup of oil, brown the chicken on both sides ( you may have to do this on batches). Set aside. Pour off the used oil and add 1/4 cup of fresh oil to the pot, heat. Add the chopped garlic and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced onion and sautee on low heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the red pepper and tomatoes, mix well and season with the sugar and salt to taste. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until the tomatoes give out their juice. Add the wine.
Add the chicken and mix well. Bring mixture to a boil and then simmer on medium heat, partially covered, until the chicken is done, about 40 minutes. The sauce should be somewhat thick, boil off some of the liquid if it’s not. Add the lemon juice and cook for five more minutes. Serve.
It was time for Moms Night Out again, this time with my new mom’s group (two of the original members moved out): Parker (of course), Aamani, Dolores and me. I wanted to go somewhere cheap, and Parker suggested Naan and Curry – or at least that’s what I thought – because we ended up at House of Curries on College Avenue instead. House of Curries is similar to Naan and Curry in that you order at the counter and sit where you can. They do bring the food to the table, however, and the place in general is a little bit nicer than Naan. Still, it’s the same type of formula. They are also a chain with several locations in Berkeley and one in Oakland.
I was quite happy with the food. They did not have lamb (or chicken) korma, but their lamb curry ($7), was quite tasty – with moist, tender lamb and a pleasant if pedestrian curry sauce. All the other lamb dishes have vegetables, so I would probably end up ordering it again. The chicken tikka masala ($6) was much better. The smoky sauce was just delicious, barely spicy and well balanced. I’d definitely order it again, though I thought that the chicken was somewhat dry. The fish tandoori ($10) was also a winner. I didn’t try it, as the fish was salmon which I dislike, but Parker was happy with it. She also liked the Sada Bhindi (okra cooked with ginger, garlic & spices – $6), though she didn’t think it was as flavorful as it could be.
The sweet ($3) and mango ($2) lassis were quite good. Self-yourself chai is free with the meal and they also have canned sodas for purchase.
The naans ($2 for garlic, $3 for keema) were huge and quite nice, though the keema filling had fallen all to one side and I was left with just the bread. I’d definitely order them again.
Dinner for the four of us, including rice, came to $13.50 each after tax – a bargain for our moms’ night outs.
If I was in the neighborhood, I’d definitely eat here again.
House of Curries
2984 College Ave.
Berkeley, CA
510.841.1688
www.houseofcurries.com
(branches also on Telegraph/Durant and Solano, and Hegenbergor Road in Oakland)
I invited my friend Arthur for dinner last night and I wanted to make something fairly quick and easy – but also very good. Of course, I thought about my perennial chicken marsala recipe, which is amazingly yummy and simple – but I didn’t have marsala on hand and our local Safeway doesn’t sell it. Mike suggested that I make Coq au Vin instead, and I loved the idea.
I got my recipe from Coq au Vin from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine years ago, and I make it from time to time, not very often as it’s very fattening. But lord, is it good! It’s also very easy to make, though it does take about 2 hours from beginning to end (the second hour is simmering).
This time I used a $4 Cabernet Sauvignon from Safeway, but I’m sure $2 Chuck would be just as good.
Arthur and Mike (and I) were very pleased with the results.
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