Chicken Simmered with Cream & Onions with Baked Cucumbers

Fondue De Poulet  La Crème avec Concombers Au Beurre

St. Patrick's day was yesterday, who ate corned beef and cabbage? YUM! If I was a organized blogger I would have correlated my posting with the holiday. Especially because I have a really yummy recipe for a corned beef and cabbage dish... but I'm not always organized. I'm an impromptu chef, a working Mommy and life just sucks sometimes. So when life sucks you pout for a few days and eat take-out. Then you put on your big girl panties and get back in the kitchen.
Julia Child has come to rescue me with her French cuisines. She always knows just what I need: a dish cooked with butter, heavy cream, and wine with a side of veggies. Hooray for Julia!!

Recipes continued after the jump...



Fondue De Poulet  La Crème 
[Chicken Simmered with Cream & Onions]
Julia describes this dish: "In this rich and delectable dish, the chicken is cooked in butter and onions, then simmered with wine and heavy cream."

• 2 LBS chicken thighs
• 3 TB butter
• 1&1/2 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 3 cups whipping cream (bring to a boil before using)
• Drops of lemon juice
• Fresh parsley

1. Dry the chicken. Using a large heavy pot, sear the chicken thighs in the butter both sides but do not brown. About 2-3 mins each side. Remove chicken.

2. Add onions to the pot. Cook covered for about 5 mins until lightly browned. 

3. Returning the chicken to your pot, cover and cook for about 10 more mins. Occasionally tossing the chicken and onions.

4. Mix in the salt, white pepper, and curry powder. Then pour in the wine, raise heat to high and boil about 5-8 mins to reduce the liquid until almost evaporated.

5. Pour in the boiling cream and bring to a simmer with the chicken thighs. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 mins until chicken is tender.

6. Remove the chicken to a plate and cover while you are finishing the cream sauce.

7. Skim the fat off the top of the cream sauce and bring to a rapid boil for about 5 mins to thicken the sauce, whisking while cooking. Add in a drop or two of lemon juice and about 3 TB more whipping cream, whisk together.

8. Plate the chicken with steamed rice, and ladle the cream sauce over the chicken and rice to serve.

Oh my WOW.. Julia said 'rich and delectable dish' but this is an understatement. I don't even know what words to use to describe how delicious this turned out to be. I'm left speechless!! All I can say is that you need to eat this dish, put it on your bucket list! 

Concombers Au Beurre 
[Baked Cucumbers]
I had never heard of baked cucumbers until I saw the recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julia says the trick to baking cucumbers is to remove as much of the water from the naturally moist veggie as possible before baking. If you do not remove the unwanted water, they will become a tasteless mush and you will never try them again.

• 6 cucumbers about 8 in. long
• 2 TB wine vinegar
• 1&1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp sugar
• 3 TB melted butter
• 1/2 tsp dill
• 3-4 TB minced green onions
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 TB minced parsley

To remove the water:

1. Peel the cucumbers and then cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out all the seeds using a spoon. After removing the seeds cut the cucumbers into strips, cut each half into 4 strips lengthwise and then cut into about 2 inch strips width wise.

2. Toss the cucumbers into a bowl with the vinegar, salt, and sugar to draw out the moisture. Let the cucumbers sit for at least 30 mins (but they can sit up to several hours). 

3. Drain the liquid from the cucumbers and then pat dry in a clean towel.

To bake:

4. In a preheated oven at 375°, toss the cucumbers in your casserole dish with the melted butter, dill, minced green onions, and pepper.

5. Bake uncovered for 1 hour, tossing 2 or 3 times during the bake.

6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle minced parsley on top before serving warm.

My cucumbers turned into a SEMI-FAIL... I'm not sure what I did wrong with these baked cucumbers. They turned out pretty good; they baked well and came out with a slight crunch to them, not mushy at all. But they were so salty!! I followed the recipe as Julia said so why didn't my taste-buds jump for joy? In step three after the vinegar/salt treatment, she said to just drain the cucumbers and pat dry... I wonder if they should have taken a quick rinse to remove the extra salt. I thought of this when making them, but the recipe just said to 'Drain.' and I figure maybe she didn't say 'Drain & rinse.' because that would add the water back into them? I don't know? I'm kinda disappointed with the outcome. HUM? Any readers ever tried baked cucumbers and can offer suggestions to what I did wrong?
  *Well, after pondering my salty cucumbers all night, it finally occurred to me why it failed... Julia's recipe calls for 6 cucumbers to feed 6 people. I only needed to feed David, myself, and little Marley; so I used 4 cucumbers. BUT I forgot to adjust the volumes for the vinegar/salt treatment. DUH E - apparently my little 'life sucks' pout away from the kitchen this last week had made me forget common cooking sense. HAHA, geeze!* 

(Recipes courtesy of Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Vol. 1)