2 for 2

My fantasy of opening a fine dining restaurant has always felt like just that--a fantasy. Especially a year ago, when I took that next step in cooking--a full set of cookware. When I really got into making my own recipes. I mean, sure, I could recreate recipes pretty well, but my original recipes were rarely spectacularly interesting. Sure, a tasty meal at the end of a day of work--but nothing I'd be excited to see on a plate I had paid $30 for.

That seems to be slowly changing. And I owe a significant amount of it, no doubt, to my sauce work and in particular my discovery of gastriques. A gastrique is actually a pretty basic sauce: a pureed fruit of some sort, white wine or vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar. I first had the idea to make a gastrique from some leftover cherries and pair it with my horseradish crusted rack of lamb a few weeks ago. And if you recall, I was so impressed with that dish that I mentioned I would have been happy to have gotten it at any restaurant I've ever been to. (Side note: a reminder for me-next time, serve it over some baby arugula tossed in lemon juice, salt and pepper for a little acidic kick. See? Where is this COMING from??)

I was so happy with the cherry gastrique that when I went exploring in Harris Teeter the other day to try to figure out what to make with my friend Jess, I stopped dead in my tracks as I passed the blackberries.

Although, to be fair, I didn't conceive this dish around the blackberry gastrique. Actually, the dual presentation of a duck breast and thigh at Blue Duck Tavern, as bad as it tasted, gave me an idea of two separate preparations of two different parts of a duck (or chicken) with two different sauces.

So I scoured Harris Teeter for ideas. I settled on skin-on chicken breast and, since the pieces were a bit smaller, both a chicken leg and thigh. Pan roasting the chicken and....how about shallow poaching? It's one of the techniques in The Professional Chef that I hadn't tried, but seemed like a good idea. Cool. And then I'll make a sauce from the reduction of the poaching liquid. I still needed a base for my second sauce and that's when I walked by the blackberries.

I started with by browning minced garlic in butter and adding chicken stock, salt, pepper, and pomegranate juice...just enough to come halfway up the chicken legs and thighs. I poached on the stovetop on medium low for a few minutes, being careful not to let the poaching liquid boil, and then tossed the whole pan in the oven. Next I started the chicken breasts on the stovetop, seasoned with cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, chili powder, coriander, and mustard ground. That pan also ended up in the oven. While the chicken was poaching/roasting, I braised some rainbow chard in balsamic vinegar, white wine, salt, and pepper. Then made the gastrique...I simmer my gastrique with bay leaves, star anise, and allspice before I push it through a chinois and let it continue to reduce until just thickened. Just before I pulled the legs and thighs out of the oven, I turned the broiler on high to caramelize the skin just a bit. Then, took the pan out, removed and covered the chicken, and put the pan back on the stovetop. I let the poaching liquid reduce and strained out the garlic. I laid a dollop of rainbow chard in the middle of the plate and arrange the three pieces of chicken around it. On the side of the pan-roasted breast, I spooned the blackberry gastrique...now a rich, deep red. And on the side with the shallow-poached leg and thigh, I spooned the dark brown pan reduction.

With the exception of a slight overdoneness on the chicken that was basically a timing issue, I was thrilled with the outcome. The acidic chard cut through the sweetness of the gastrique and the rich flavor of the reduction. The chicken was well seasoned and the sauced complimented the preparation styles very well. And it was the second dish in as many tries that I think would be completely worthy of a spot on the menu of the vast majority of fine dining establishments out there.

Lord knows it'd be a step up from Blue Duck Tavern....

PS-One day I'll start taking pictures again. I just don't know when that will be.