November 25, 2007
A Couple Meals from Gourmet
I'm off to California for a week, but before I go, a quick re-cap of this weekend's culinary experiments:
Saturday: Cider Braised Chicken [Gourmet, Nov 2007], broccoli with pink peppercorn vinaigrette and roasted fingerling potatoes. Very easy recipe, great flavor in the sauce. Made with bone-in, skin-on split chicken breasts which I salted several hours ahead. Added a little cider vinegar to the sauce at end, to suit my tastes. Maybe cut down on the cream next time to make it a little healthier? Used this recipe as the starting point for vinaigrette although added mustard. Wine: Altos Los Hormigos Malbec 2006.
Sunday: Grilled Pork Chops with Quince Sauce, Onion Port Marmalade [Gourmet, Oct 2007], green beans with radicchio and royal rice blend. I like finding ways to try quince, and using it in a savory recipe is something I haven't tried yet. The sauce had a unique flavor (in a good way). Sauce on bottom, pork, marmalade -- when all mixed together it worked very well and had a nice complexity. Used 2 quinces (probably 0.75 lbs chopped). Wonder if quince paste would work? Used too much sugar in marmalade by mistake -- added red wine vinegar to try an compensate. Wine: Santa Rita Medalla Real Cab 2005. Pumpkin-Cranberry croissant bread pudding [Fine Cooking, Jan 2008]. Meh. I like the blueberry croissant bread pudding recipe I have better.
Posted by David at November 25, 2007 11:33 PM | Editwhats quince?
It's a fruit, sort of like an apple or pear, except with a little more floral scent. They are inedible raw, so you usually see them in cooked desserts, like poached quince or quince tart tatin. The Spanish also make a quince paste called membrillo that they eat with cheese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince