Chicken Piccata

I make chicken piccata fairly often.  We always have lemons, capers, and butter in the refrigerator and chicken breasts in the freezer.  I was wasting time one day and came across this video from America's Test Kitchen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp_fnC12UrQ.  There were a couple of things that they do differently:

1)  They slice the meat into just a few chunks.  I slice the raw meat thinly, thinking it will be more tender.  It's more work than their way, and my way is not better!

2)  They salt the raw meat and let it sit a bit.  

3)  They eat the whole slices of cooked lemon.  Haven't tried that. . . 

We were very pleased with this recipe.  They said that salting the meat would make it tender.  They were right.

It's very hot today.  Usually I serve this with linguini fini, but I was not interested in boiling water for that long for the pasta, so I tried ramen noodles.  They are a bit gummy, so they soak up the sauce.  Yum.

(Don't use the flavor packet that comes with the noodles!)

We have two kinds of parsley growing in the garden - curly and Italian flat leaf.  I used both.

This recipe is a keeper!

Ingredients

• 2 large lemons
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds), preferably kosher or Bell and Evans, rinsed, dried thoroughly, trimmed of excess fat, and prepared according to illustrations below
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons) or 1 small garlic clove, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
• 1 cup chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons small capers, drained
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Garden in the First Half of June - 2021

Winters in upstate NY are long, cold, and snowy.  We look forward to plants and flowers and sitting out in the yard enjoying them and listening to the birds.  It's the joy of June.  There are few biting bugs.  The temperatures are mild but not too hot.

The daffodils are finished and so are the tulips.  It's the season of the iris and the peonies.

. . 

Along the base of the hedge in the background (above) is a border of hosta.  Between the hosta are pulmonaria, but they are finished blooming.  There are also begonias.

 . . . . 

We have white bleeding heart.  

But the greatest joy of June is the strawberries.  Years ago, we discovered Mara des Bois berries from France.  Although they have spectacular flavor and are lovely, often completely red inside, they are not grown commercially.  We learned why!  Within a day or two of picking, they are spoiled, mushy, moldy.  So - you have to eat them!  And they are wonderful.

In the first half of June, after cleaning, we ate or froze 28 cups (That's 7 quarts!).

If you are wondering how much property we have, the lot is 99'x90', with a house, garage, sidewalks.

D has become an expert at space utilization!

Along the front walk are iris on the right and daylilies on the left.  

Near the steps are chives (Thanks, Karen).

In the foreground above are three different types of allium.

The tomato plants are blossoming, and there are a couple of tomatoes.

We are growing Cherokee Purple (a reddish/black), Azoychka (a blush yellow), and one new to us - Berkeley Tie Dye (a pink).

I have saved a lot of pictures for another time, including alliums, peonies, astrantia, Itoh peony.  There were 13 that I selected but did not use here. . . Not counting the hundreds. . . 

And to whet your appetite for the next post, here's our first dahlia.

2021 Garden Pics

March

April

May Part 2 and Part One

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.

May Garden - 2nd Half - 2021

I'm not feeling inspired, so here are the pics.  When the mood strikes, I'll rearrange them and add commentary.  

 

Oven French Fries

For a small family, homemade french fries don't make a lot of sense.  They use lots of oil, and frying makes a mess.  This recipe is a good compromise.

Peel 2-4 smallish russet-type potatoes.  

(One of the mealy types rather than the waxy types.)

Cut into fries - whatever size or shape suits your fancy.

Make a brine of 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons sugar or corn syrup, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.    Soak the cut potatoes an hour or up to 24 hours.

This releases some of the starch from the surface and gives a bit of flavor.

Preheat the oven to 450º.  Bring the cut potato pieces to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.

I drain them on a tea towel to absorb much of the surface moisture.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a heavy pan, add the drained, cooled potatoes, and coat them with the oil.  I like the flavor of peanut oil.  You would want an oil with a high smoke point.

This is my favorite 13 inch cast-iron pan.

Bake at 450º for 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes.

After a half-hour, I put the potatoes to the side and add a hamburger.

This is an 8-ounce burger to share.

There are several advantages to this method.  
There are no fat droplets floating in the air making a greasy mess.
There's no worry about storing leftover oil.

There's not much mess to clean up.

And they are delicious!