Le Chef
Guy Buffet
Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

La Belle Cuisine proudly presents a
Major Morsels Extra

Fine Cuisine with Art Infusion

"To cook is to create. And to create well...is an act of ingenuity, and faith."

Chicken Bianco, in which we relate
 The Process, as it were...

"I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play
each time with a variation."
~ Madame Benoit

Recipe of the Day Categories:

   Recipe Home

   Recipe Index

   Appetizers

   Beef

   Beverage

   Bread

   Breakfast

   Cake

   Chocolate

   Cookies

   Fish

   Fruit

   Main Dish

   Pasta

   Pies

   Pork

   Poultry

   Salad

   Seafood

   Side Dish

   Soup

   Vegetable

   Surprise!

 
Monsieur Paul
Guy Buffet
Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

 
La Touche de Magic
Bardwell, John
Buy this Canvas Transfer at AllPosters.com

 
Quality Control
Bardwell, John
Buy this Canvas Transfer at AllPosters.com

  Your patronage of our affiliate partners supports this web site.
We thank you! In other words, please shop at LBC Gift Galerie!

 
Chef's Birthday
Alcibiade Landini
Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com

"Some people like to paint pictures, or do gardening, or build a boat in the basement. Other people get a tremendous pleasure out of the kitchen, because cooking is just as creative and imaginative as drawing, or wood carving, or music."
~ Julia Child

Although it saddens me to imagine it, I suspect there may be those among you
who have yet to experience the writings of The Major, of Major Morsels infamy.  Today is your lucky day! Please allow me to provide a brief introduction...

Here’s what’s important: The Major is an excellent, perhaps even  phenomenal, Chef. Very creative, a tad unconventional, bold. A Risk Taker. He has that je ne
sais quoi thing going. He senses (this is very important), he senses which foodstuffs, herbs, spices, condiments, go well together. Not only that, but he follows his guiding light. And he has a very, very discerning palate. You can trust us on this. He is passionate about his art. Which is exactly as it should be. Don’t you agree? 

The Major, gentleman that he is,  has generously volunteered to enlighten
us, to share with us, the details of a recent evening in his own kitchen. It is his
inimitable way of passing along a living example of his culinary philosophy:

Cook with abandon. With verve. With passion. (In the kitchen?) Mais oui!
Just let yourself create!

Like any great artist, the Major knows how absolutely Essential it is that he
throw himself into his work. Body and soul. He embraces Julia Child’s philosophy:

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.
In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."

Amen!  Enjoy... (MG)

Chicken Bianco, in which we relate
The Process, as it were...

 Okay. This is where we start. You come across this recipe. It includes
major ingredients you think you might like. And nothing you have any particular aversion to. There is this lady I know, absolutely cannot eat anything which might possibly bring her to mind of insects, or other
weird things. She eats crab legs, but "prays every day that I will never
see where they came from."  Anyway, this recipe caught your eye.

 Cool. Go for it.

 But remember this: for the most part, a recipe is a guide, a suggestion.
Now, there are some things that are sacrosanct, as it were. Recipes for
breads and cakes, for example, are really closer to formulas. Unless you
really know what you are doing, you deviate at your own peril. Once you understand gluten and yeasts and acid balance and that sort of thing, you
can write your own bread recipes. Until that point, however, be cautious.
You are generally safe in changing seasonings, but be careful with the
basic things needed for conditioning the dough, for rising, for texture.

 Where were we? Improvisation. Two kinds of improvisation; first, I flat
do not have any of that in the house, and it is entirely too late to go to
the store.  Second, I really wonder what it would taste like if....

"Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste
rather than exact measurements."
~ Marcel Boulestin

 So, this is the basic recipe I came across:

 “Chicken Bianco

 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
12 ounces heavy cream
2 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
1 package fresh spinach
Parmesan cheese

Sauté chicken breast until cooked through. Set aside. Reduce cream to half.  Stir in Gorgonzola and Parmesan cheese and stir until smooth. Wash spinach and toss while still damp in hot skillet and wilt, add to cream sauce. Return chicken to sauce. Toss with pasta of choice.”

 Looks pretty good, no? Chicken, Gorgonzola, cream, pasta. How could it
get any better than this?

 Decided this morning that this was to be dinner tonight. Passing on the gym for the evening. Doing a little carving on my latest Egyptian goddess (Hathor last, now Nuit). Work with the beasties a bit and have a nice dinner.

 Okay. First thing is the chicken. Chicken breast is okay, I guess, but tends
to be a tad dry and somewhat lacking in flavor. So, let us substitute chicken thighs. Much better flavor, generally richer in texture. And I did not happen
to have any Gorgonzola in the refrigerator (I know, shame on me). But I
did have a nice chunk of Stilton.

 Could not imagine a decent sauce coming out of a reduction of just cream.  Obviously needs to be (in the immortal words of Emeril Lagasse), "kicked
up a notch." This guy, by the way, truly understands food. Listen to him. But, I digress. The bottom line is that we are going to add a few
shallots and a clove or two of garlic. And a goodly dollop of wine and
some salt and pepper and....

 Okay, the recipe says that you should "sauté chicken breasts until cooked through." Necessary, but not sufficient (you remember this from Philosophy 101, right?). Sauté in what? And can we add a bit of seasoning - after all, this chicken does not walk off the farm seasoned and fit for human consumption, does it? Not likely. 

I think you are starting to get the picture. We truly do care about what we
put on the table, even if it is only for ourselves and the hounds. Odysseus,
the man never at a loss, demands it. Otherwise, you might as well start
driving the speed limit and looking to reserve yourself a cemetery plot.

 Enough philosophy. This, then, is the end product:

 Chicken Bianca
(and this is not a typo, we have changed gender....)

 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon olive oil infused with basil
1 teaspoon walnut oil
Dash salt
Dash Emeril's Essence Seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small shallot, sliced very fine
1 clove garlic, sliced very fine
6 ounces heavy cream
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 ounces Stilton cheese (or substitute Gorgonzola or Roquefort or...)
3 ounces Parmesan cheese
Fresh ground black pepper
Splash sesame oil
1 bunch fresh spinach
4 tablespoons butter
8 ounces fresh mushrooms
1/2 pound fettuccine, cooked al dente

Pound chicken thighs out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut to large bite-size pieces. Sauté chicken, seasoned with a dash of salt and a dash of Emeril's Essence Seasoning mix, in olive and walnut oils until cooked through. Set aside and keep warm.
In a medium saucepan, gently sauté shallots and garlic in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft. Add the cream and wine. Over high heat, reduce the cream
and wine mixture to half. Reduce heat, stir in Stilton and Parmesan cheeses and a grind or two of black pepper and stir until smooth. Wash spinach and toss, while still damp, in hot skillet with just a splash of sesame oil. Cook
until just wilted (no more than one or two minutes), add to cream sauce. Return chicken to sauce.  Toss with cooked fettuccine.
 Meanwhile, toss sliced mushrooms in a medium saucepan with butter until water is cooked off, about 20 minutes.
 Serve in pasta bowls, with mushrooms strewn over.

 Can you see what we have done here, and why?

 Go for it. Worst case is that the dog gets an unexpected treat for dinner.....

Bon appétit!

The Major

Copyright 2001, Crossroads International. All rights reserved.

"What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe, and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and balms and spices... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the science of
modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It means, in fine,
that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something nice to eat."
~ John Ruskin (1819-1900)
 

Major Morsels Index 
Spice Cabinet Index
Food Features Index
Recipe Archives Index