January 8th

A Fricassee Cicada Story

It was Stew Sunday, so Doug made dinner.  If you know Doug, you know he's a big Francophile, so his dinner was from his Provence cookbook.  If you want to sound fancy when you serve this dinner you could say; "We are having Fricassée de Poulet au Vin Blanc, Câpres, et Olives."  If you want to sound normal you can just call it Fricassee of Chicken with White Wine, Capers, and Olives.  Up to you.

Fricassee of Chicken with White Wine, Capers, and Olives

recipe from The Provence Cookbook by Patricia Wells

This was a pretty healthy stew with a nice light flavor.  It's nice and warm for the winter, but I think it would be good in any season.  Doug said it's easy to make, which is always a plus.  The cookbook says it's even better the next day, so I guess Noelle tasted the best of it since she ate the leftovers the day after we had it.

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh chicken (3-4 lbs) cut into pieces (Doug used all boneless skinless chicken breasts)
• salt
• pepper
• 3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 2 onions, peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded, and chopped (Doug just cut up the tomatoes...It was still good without them peeled or seeded)
• 1 cup Picholine green olives, pitted (substitute pimiento-stuffed olives which Doug did)
• 1/4 capers, drained

Directions:

1. Liberally season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper.
2. In a skillet, heat the oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking.  Add the chicken pieces and brown until the poultry turns an even golden color, about 5 minutes.  Turn the pieces and brown the other side 5 minutes more.  Carefully regulate the heat to avoid scorching the skin.  This may have to be done in batches.  When all the chicken is browned, use tongs- to avoid piercing the meat - to transfer them to a platter.
3. Reduce the heat to low and add the onions and sweat - cook covered, over low heat until soft but not browned - for about 3 minutes.  Return the chicken to the pan.  Add the wine, tomatoes, olives, and capers.  Cover and simmer over low heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour.  Taste for seasoning.  Serve with rice or fresh pasta.

This has nothing to do with the stew, but the cookbook had some interesting information about Cicadas and their relationship to Provence.  I found it interesting.  If you want to learn more, here is a picture of the page:

Grades:

Megan - B+ (I thought the flavor was good, but I thought the onions needed to be cooked more.  I don't like them to have any crunch or texture at all in my soup.  I prefer them soft and mushy.)

Doug - B+ (Doug doesn't like olives very much so those brought his grade down a bit.)

Noelle - A (I really was thinking Noelle was going to hate this one since it had big pieces of onion and had olives and capers in it; neither of which she likes.  Boy, did she surprise me!  She loved it and ate a huge bowl, onions, olives, capers, and all!  She thought it was hilarious that the capers were "hiding" in the soup and laughed whenever we found one.)