FigOrangeOlive ChickenReduction w/PepperPeachWatermelonSalad
I prefer simple, healthy recipes that don't require much work and are easily adapted if you are short an ingredient or two.
These two recipes can make you look like a pro without much time and effort and with the addition of a veggie like steamed green beans, you have a whole meal.
Fresh Figs, Orange Wedges, and Olives Reduction over Sautéed Fennel, Chicken Thighs and Jasmine Rice:
Ingedients:
Half a pound fresh Figs cut in halves or quarters depending on their size
Three oranges sectioned and peeled - save the juice in a bowl
Two tablespoons chopped fresh Thyme
A cup of mixed black and green olives with pits (pitted olives don't have nearly the flavor, trust me)
One bunch of Fennel chopped thinly like celery. (Only the white part - not the leafy green tops)
Six chicken thighs with skin
Two tablespoons brown sugar
Cooking Sherry
Extra Virgin Olive oil for sautéeing
Directions:
1) Salt and pepper the chicken thighs before browning them in extra virgin olive oil which you add (sparingly) as needed to keep the fat down. Brown the thighs until they are crispy on both sides. Finish them in a 300 degree oven until they are completely cooked and the juices run clear.
2) While the thighs are in the oven finishing off, deglaze the browning pan with cooking sherry -- about a fourth of a cup.
3) Add two tablespoons of brown sugar, the figs, the olives and the thyme into the deglazed pan and sautee. Once the figs have softened, add the orange slices and collected juice from the sectioning of the oranges. You want to put the orange in last so it doesn't break down too much in the sauce.
4) Steam or sautee the fennel, but only lightly as you want some crunch. The picture below of the salad dressing shows some of the fennel on the cutting board if you have questions about how thick the slices should be.
Serve the Chicken thighs over Jasmin rice or couscous. I also like steamed brown rice which is a healthier option.
To serve -- make a bed of the rice or couscous and then a layer of fennel. Place a chicken thigh in the center and spoon the fig/orange/olive reduction on top.
Easy and tasty and reasonably healthy:
With this recipe, you can substitute all sorts of things and still have a good meal. For example, other chicken pieces instead of thighs, tangerines instead of oranges, no oranges or tangerines -- just use orange juice, and so on. Can't stand fennel? Skip it. Hate rice and couscous? The chicken with just the sauce on top is awesome by itself.
And yes -- figs are expensive, but my grandmother has two huge trees older than I am that produce three bumper crops a year. I eat fresh figs until I'm sick of them and then the preserves and cakes start rolling in. There is no escape from figs and so I have a tidy number of recipes that use 'em up. You only need half a pound to pull this particular recipe off -- which is about five bucks these days. It's worth it.
If you have any extra figs, you can make a super tasty appetizer with blue cheese and bacon that I'll post later. (I need to make it and take photos)
Pepper Peach Watermelon Salad:
Ingredients:
A pound of seedless watermelon cubed
A sack of prewashed baby salad spinach
Half a cup of pecan halves
Quarter pound Gorgonzola cheese crumbled
Four tablespoons pepper peach preserves
A quarter cup Cooking Sherry
Directions:
1) Rinse spinach and place in bowl. Top with watermelon cubes, pecans and Gorgonzola crumbles. I make each individual salad in the bowl it will be served in as this is not a good salad to plate at the table.
2) Mix pepper peach preserves with the cooking sherry and microwave until warm to make the dressing which you drizzle on top.
You don't have to use pepper peach or even peach preserves. I've pretty much used whatever I happen to have in the fridge and it has turned out great. For example, there is a raspberry chipolte sauce from Fischer and Weiser that makes a great dressing. Mom always did the pepper peach, so that is how I present the recipe.
This salad is super easy to make and has a fresh taste that can't be beat. You can substitute other kinds of melon and nuts and keep the same basic flavor profile.
I like to experiment and have seldom substituted something out and been horrified with the results.
Note -- in the picture of the salad, I had not yet added the dressing. So please pardon it's nakedness.
Comments
omg, I'm scribbling and printing and plotting. My girls are gonna have some international exposure beyond Thailand for a change! Between you and Stellaa, we're set.
(We went to the Mama Mia singalong the other night. I'll tell them this is what Meryl Streep eats on the island)
I noticed you were asking after a warm place to hang out in another thread. My personal preference is Italy. Great food, tons of culture, lots of coast, great cities, and beautiful people.
Of course, Italy is the penultimate. Ever since I read The Agony and the Ecstasy (I know, lame? But I was like 12, and it, along with The Source, by James Michener, opened my mind up to the world) I've wanted to live there, preferably in Florence. Now I'm looking at Tuscany, which is a very large region. The catch is: making a living. In Europe, the best places for me with my skill set and children are UK and, believe it or not, Germany, probably München. In a few several years, though, the kids are outta school, and I've told them they'll have an email address for me, and that's about it. No Moving Back Home!
They've been warned.
I'm going to try the chicken/fig/olive recipe. I lived in Greece for three years and thoroughly enjoyed all of these ingredients, but don't think I ever had them combined in the same dish. But, it has to be WONDERFUL! --especially with a nice glass of vino...
Thanks for posting.
If you do decide to live in Italy, those kids will find you despite your best efforts to hide. They'll always be coming to visit.
My family never ate out when I was a kid, so everyone learned to cook. Back when I was "Jamaican" and working a couple of jobs, I moonlighted at a culinary school where I picked up some good tips -- but most stuff comes from mom.
If your wife cooks with figs, you must have a tree or perhaps she has Mediterranean background?
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