Dinning With Elegance.

Last night I finally had the opportunity to start on a menu from the "Le Cordon Bleu at Home" book I spoke about in an earlier blog.  I wanted to begin utilizing this book to develop my culinary prep skills, but alas, life, and work, gets in the way.  Since I had all day yesterday (when I wasn't cleaning my apartment), I picked up what I needed from the store to start lesson one in the book.

Lesson One from "Le Cordon Bleu At Home"
Concombre a la Menthe- Cucumber Salad with Mint
Poulet Roti- Roast Chicken (I made a tapenade stuffed chicken breast instead)
Petits Pois a la Francaise- Spring Peas with Lettuce, Chervil, and Onions
Salade des Fruits- Fresh Fruit Salad with Cointreau (I chose to make Jacques Pepin's Apricot Popover instead)
Follow the "Read More" link to see what transpired!

Cucumber Salad with Mint

-2 pickling cucumbers
-2 tsp salt
Yogurt Mint Dressing
-3/4 cup yogurt
-1 tbs red-wine vinegar
-Fresh cracked pepper
-12 large fresh mint leaves

-Peel and slice the cucumbers thinly, salt and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes (The salt will draw out the liquid and flavor).  Once drained of some excess liquid, place in a towel and squeeze as much liquid out as you can or it will ruin your creamy dressing.
-Mix together yogurt, vinegar, pepper and a touch of salt.
-Cut the mint leaves in a chiffonade fashion and place in yogurt mixture.
-Toss cucumbers with dressing and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Tapenade Stuffed Chicken Supreme
-2 chicken breast
- 1/2 cup green olives
-2 tbsp olive oil
-1 tbs red-wine vinegar
-1/2 cup de-stemmed and chopped spinach
-1 garlic clove
-2 tbsp diced shallot
-salt and pepper to taste
-2 tbsp olive oil for pan

-Preheat oven to 400 (F)
-Place all ingredients except chicken into food processor and pulse to chop.  Be careful or you will end up with a puree instead.
-Butterfly chicken breasts and stuff with tapenade mixture.
-Place 2 tbsp. olive oil in oven safe pan and set chicken breasts in pan.
-Place chicken into oven for 15-20 minutes until juices run clear and the meat is firmer to the touch.

Spring Peas with Chervil, Lettuce, and Onions
-1/2 head of cabbage (What i had on hand instead of lettuce)
-3 tbsp. butter
-2 tbs olive oil
-1 can sweet peas
-1 shallot (mixed with 1/8 white onion to give filler)
-1 small bunch of Chervil or Parsley (I used 3/4 tsp. crushed Anise for the licorice taste)
-1 1/2 tbsp sugar
-1 tsp salt

- Cut the cabbage into chiffonade
-Add butter and olive oil to pan
-Add cabbage, peas, and shallot/onion to pan.
-Season the mixture with salt, crushed anise, and sugar, then cover and let cook gently for 15-20 minutes until cabbage in tender.

Jacques Pepin's Apricot Popover
-1/2 cup flour
-3 tbsp melted butter
-2 tbs sugar
-dash of salt
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup of milk
-1/4 cup sour cream of yogurt
-1/2 cup apricot preserve
-2 to 3 tbs rum or cognac
-Confectioner sugar to decorate

-Preheat oven to 420 (F)
-Heat butter in a small oven proof skillet
-Mix together flour, sugar, and salt
-Add 2 eggs to flour mixture and whisk together
-Add 1/4 cup milk and whisk thoroughly
-Add the rest of the milk and the yogurt and whisk together until combined
-Add the melted butter to the batter and whisk in gently
-Pour batter into buttered skillet pan and place in preheated oven for 20 minutes
-Place the apricot preserve in a microwave safe bowl and heat slightly
-Mix rum or cognac into preserve
-Remove popover from oven, place on serving tray and let cool for 2-5 minutes
-Spread preserve over the popover and dust with confectioner sugar to decorate.
-Slice and serve!

To make it easier I began by making the Cucumber Salad earlier in the day so it could marinate in the dressing.  Start you chicken first because it will take the longest to cook.  If you have the space, I highly advise you bring out all your ingredients so you won't have to be hunting around in the cabinets for the at the time of action.  Once the chicken is on its way, start the cabbage and peas dish on the stove.  Once that is underway you should be half way if not a little more to the chicken being done.
Once both these dishes are going, make you popover batter and have it ready.  Once the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest 5 minutes so the juices can flow back into the chicken.  At this time, turn the oven up to 420 (F) and stick the popover in.  You can then take the chicken pan and make a sauce for it with any browned bits in the pan by deglazing with some water or white wine, and adding a little cornstarch to assist in the thickening.  A little ways into the meal you can remove the popover and allow it to cool slightly before dolling it up and bringing it out from presentation/consumption.

For this meal I decided a glass of Chardonnay would go well with the oven cooked chicken and sweet peas/cabbage dish.  I happened to have a bottle of Charles Shaw Chardonnay 2009 on hand that never made it to my mother's open house on Nov. 24th, so I thought this would be time to take it out for a test drive.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  You can taste the nodes of honey ad sweet apricot in it.  Perhaps a little sweeter than I would normally consume (Only because my taste for sweet things and become more sensitive as I do not consume sweets very often anymore). The Chardonnay was certainly not as overpoweringly sweet as the Snoqualmie Riesling, but enough to excite the pallet.

Well, lesson one down.  Well, almost down.  I will have to pick up some cointreau and a whole chicken to really complete it, but not a first go at some fantastic and very easy French cooking fair.

Thanks for reading and wishing you best eating
Bon Appétit!