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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Too rich

September 28, 2011 by Mary Frances 2 Comments

Lyon style chicken with vinegar sauce.

© Con Poulos

Last night I made April Bloomfield’s recipe of Lyon-Style Chicken with Vinegar Sauce and her suggested Herbed Steamed Rice recipe that’s in the October edition of Food & Wine magazine. It was scrumptious……. but boy was it rich and fattening! I just don’t usually cook like this. Actually, at The Breslin, one of April’s restaurants here in NYC, I can only eat a half of her lamb burger. And don’t let me fool you, I can eat. So I took a look at these recipes. Six tablespoons of butter for both, plus 3 tablespoons of olive oil and no draining of the chicken fat plus a quarter cup of creme fraiche. Well I was originally going to cut back on everything and then I thought, no. I’ll make it this one time her way. Well my husband and Zach loved it and I did too but it was just way too rich in the end. I felt the fat cells expanding on my hips as I was eating, and believe me, they do not need to do that.

This is the thing. My cooking is full of flavor, clean and relatively low fat – meaning I really don’t use much butter. My big flavors come from lots of garlic, onions and all kinds of fresh herbs. I hope I can convince you that cooking this fresh way is not hard, gives you beautiful colors to play with and spreads your love to everyone around you, even in a healthy way!

Filed Under: Dinner, Poultry Tagged With: April, Bloomfield, butter, chicken, herbs, Lyon, rice, vinegar

Polenta

September 23, 2011 by Mary Frances 1 Comment

After trying to make polenta numerous ways – in a pot, in the oven, with milk, with water, with a combo of milk and water, adding the cornmeal gradually, using the different grinds of cornmeal, I have decided that this is the best way for me – the way my family and I like it best. I hope you agree. This is really a combination of Mark Bittman (making the slurry part), the book HEAT (cooking a long time) and the Dean & Deluca cookbook (my first polenta recipe used). So here we go.Polenta squares on a plate.

POLENTA – serves 4
1.5 cups coarse ground cornmeal – I use Stone-Ground Organic Fancy Polenta from Hudson Valley
5-6 cups water, or more
1 tsp. salt, plus more if necessary
Fresh ground black pepper
1.5 tbs. unsalted butter
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan

Pour 1 cup of water in a pan, whisk in all the cornmeal and make a slurry, then whisk in 4 more cups of water with 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, stirring every once in a while. Reduce heat to a simmer. You should have large bubble plops every so often. The polenta will look alive and be slow moving in its simmer. Add more water if it gets too thick. Stir every so often with a whisk to prevent burning on the bottom and use a spatula to scrape the sides of the pan. Simmer for 45 minutes or longer. It should be pulling away from the sides of the pan and taste it to make sure the cornmeal is done and tender. Add more salt if necessary. When done, add a liberal grinding of pepper. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and then the cheese.

Filed Under: Dinner, Sides Tagged With: best polenta recipe, Bittman, butter, cornmeal, Dean & Deluca, Parmesan cheese, polenta

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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