Chicken Tarragon And Eryngii Mushroom

It had been a hectic schedule lately for the family. My kid was sniffing and it's not looking good... no thanks to the crazy weather lately (I tried to boost up his immune system with vitamins and rest but in the end the cold bugs won!). So, the stove was not much of smoking even though I got lots of recipes to try out... :-(

Still, I managed to sneak into one (or two) of the local supermarkets on my way out to fetch my kid from kindergarten :-P. This time, I found new batches of Eryngii Mushrooms a.k.a King Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) at quite low price (less than 2 €/pkt of 250 g)! It had been quite sometime I didn't serve this mushroom and buying them in Europe is really expensive as it's considered 'exotic' food along with Oyster Mushrooms, Abalone Mushrooms, Enoki, etc. To read more about this Eryngii mushroom, you can read it here with recipe and an added flavour Ginseng Eryngii Mushroom (haven't find this one for more than 1 year!)

For this hearty 'One Pot' European style recipe, I used deboned chicken thighs and breast meats with smoked bacon. It's easy to make and you can add on other side dishes to it like rice, potatoes, bread, salad, etc. I cooked some left over carrots and zucchini with a knob butter, pinch of salt and few twist of black pepper. Give a quick toss and serve with steamed rice. Oh... one more thing... instead of the usual White Wine used in such recipes, I broke the rule by using Brandy a.k.a Cognac :-P That's what I can find on the shelf at that moment. This French Brandy can be found mostly in Chinese households. You can say that if you want to win the hearts of your potential in-laws of your lady love, this got to be IT when you pay them your first visit and also for birthdays and Chinese New Year (Martell is the best choice so far I'd seen ;-D).

I can say the dish turned out gorgeously creamy, juicy with a hint of brandy and the tender chicken thigh meat was a great substitution that I preferred more from the usual whole chicken! Enjoy cooking it for your next fuss-free meal! :-)

Chicken Tarragon With Eryngii Mushroom

Serves 4

4 pcs Chicken Breasts Fillets/Thighs (about 450 g)

4 rashers Smoked Bacon - cut into strips

150 g Eryngii Mushrooms - thinly sliced

50 ml Olive Oil

80 ml Brandy (or generous amount if you like it more!)

80 ml Fresh Cream

1 Tbl Tomato Paste (15 ml)

1 Tbl Fresh Tarragon - picked, firmly packed (about 4 sprigs)

2-3 stalks Spring Onion - finely chopped

Salt and Freshly grounded Black Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash chicken pieces thoroughly and trim off excess fat. Remove the skin and debone, if using chicken thighs or you can leave the bones in.

2. Preheat oven to 180 ºC.

3. In a large heavy pan, heat the oil to medium high. Add in the chicken pieces and cook about 2 minutes on each side, turning once. Remove from pan and drain excess oil.

4. In the same oil and pan, add in the sliced smoked bacon. Stir for 2 minutes and add in the sliced Eryngii Mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms slightly wilted.

5. Add in the brandy, tomato paste and tarragon leaves. Stir until mixture boils. Reduce heat and add in fresh cream. Simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat.

6. Stir in chopped Spring onions and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. Arrange chicken pieces in a shallow ovenproof dish. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Covered and baked in the oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Note:

You can use Button Mushroom or any seasonal mushrooms of your choice for this recipe. Besides using Brandy, you can also use Dry White Wine or Dry Sherry. If you want a healthier version, replace the fresh cream with plain natural yoghurt :-)

Bon Appétit!

Grilled Nasu With Smoked Bacon And Feta

White, Green, Purple, Indigo, Oval, Long... related to plant family of Nightshades of tomatoes, capsicums, potatoes and tobacco. Yet we still alive!!! We loved them so much (ok, not the tobacco part and look what it did to humans!) that we included them into our daily consumption and national dishes. Strange isn't it? What leads to this meal was while 'cruising' my favourite foodie blogger - Ivy of Kopiaste's online kitchen few days ago, she cooked this simple yet lip smacking Melitzanes Giahni!!! Smacked my head, rushed down to my fridge and wheewww... they are still in eatable condition! Thank you to Ivy for reminding me... LOL

Right... I'm referring to Aubergine aka Eggplant. One of my favourite is Nasu (Japanese Eggplant), a small, thinner skin, fast cooking, sweeter and it's purple, one of my favourite colour! Nasu can be fried, grilled, steamed, simmered, pickle and lovely in curries. If you're health conscious, beware that aubergines absorb oil quickly and use lots of oil when frying them. Also, it's important to soak cut pieces in salted water to avoid discolouration and some cooks claimed that salt removes the bitterness of aubergine. 

I'm not sure of the latter solution though... because I seldom salted them unless I was distracted and need to leave my kitchen for some time. I would cut the aubergine the last and dumped the pieces straight into the pan after frying the basic ingredients. Furthermore, I love bitter vegetables - one of my favourite is the Bittergourd (Mormodica Charantia) and you can learn of its usage not only as food but as preventive cure as well. 

It's a simple and light dish and I need to use up what's left over before my next shopping. I have this idea in my mind for sometime to use the 2 packs of Dodoni Feta cheeses. I love feta cheese... I bought 1 kg of feta from a cheese shop in front of Athens' Agora @ Athinas Street (Athens Central Market) to Belgium tucked nicely inside my luggage during my last trip :-P I love the way the Greeks kept their feta in large barrels and cut them up in slabs for sale. For me, Feta must be PDO (kind of AOC) from Greece... :-D I think Ivy would agreed with me on that!

Grilled Nasu With Smoked Bacon and Feta

2 pcs medium size Japanese Eggplants (Nasu)

4 slices Smoked Bacon

100 g - 150 g Feta (more if you like... :-P )

Few sprigs of Italian flat Parsley

Good amount of Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Heat oven to 200ºC.

2. Chopped the parsley finely - set aside.

3. Crumble or cubed the feta cheese in a bowl.

4. Wash the aubergines and cut them into halves lengthwise. Place them in a deep dish.

5. Add Salt, generous amount of Olive oil and fresh grinded pepper to taste.

6. Grilled at 200ºC at middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven.

7. Roll the smoked bacon around the grilled aubergine. ( I use a spoon to turn the aubergineand chopsticks to fold the smoked bacon around but you can use your own method to do so).

8. Spread the crumbled feta and parsley on top; using the top heat, continue to grill for 10 minutes or until bacon is crispy and feta nicely browns. Serve with extra Olive oil by the side or salad.

Note: I didn't rolled the smoked bacon with the aubergine for 1 st grilling and added the feta only at last minutes of grilling to avoid overcooking the Japanese eggplants and the feta browns too quickly. I prefer that way... :-)