Let's start with the chicken. I had a giant chicken breast so I cut the breast in half so it was half as thick. I then seasoned with salt and pepper and lightly floured it. I saute'd the chicken in a little bit of olive oil until the chicken was golden brown and crispy. I made a sauce to go on top of butter, lemon, capers, and garlic.
In the top right corner were some lentils I made for Mel because eating lentils on New Years Eve is an Italian tradition to bring good luck in the new year. I cooked the lentils in water with onion, carrot, and celery, with a bay leaf thrown in as well. After 20-25 minutes I removed the bay leaf and strained the lentils. I then added them to a large skillet and added a little chicken broth as well as some salt and pepper. I also added fresh chopped spinach and wilted it in the lentils. Once the chicken broth was absorbed I removed it from the heat to serve.
In the other top corner is a simple pasta dish I came up with. I made the pasta dough and cut the dough into the thin strands. The dough was just a simple pasta dough of flour, eggs, salt, and olive oil. I cooked the pasta for only a minute or two in salted boiling water. In the skillet I cooked the chicken in I added onion and cooked it until translucent. I then added garlic, Roma tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and green onion. I then took the pasta out of the water and added it to the hot pan to finish cooking and tossed everything together.
I thought all of the dishes had nice balance to them. The sauce added a nice brightness to the chicken that countered the browned exterior very nicely. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the sweetness of the sun dried tomatoes worked well with the acidity of the fresh tomatoes. And the lentils were creamy and earthy and the aromatics played really well with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment