Southern Piccata
So inspired by last night's Top Chef, I decided to make chicken piccata tonight. Every time a new season of that show starts, I start giving into my foodie impulses more often. Partly inspired by the title of the episode ("Anything You Can Cook, I Can Cook Better"), I decided to make my own twist on piccata. I mean, it's a basic recipe, right? Dip chicken in flour & egg. Fry chicken. Remove chicken from pan. Deglaze with white wine, lemon, maybe garlic or shallots, maybe add capers. Reduce, add a little butter, and dump sauce on chicken. Boom. It practically begs for playing.
And in playing, I suspect I made something that was both closer to piccata and possibly tastier than what the losing piccata did last night. It was mostly a classic piccata, with the main substitutions being in the breading (mostly white cornbread with a little flour) and the citrus (orange, since I have some). Capers, shallots, and a touch of garlic. It might've been closer to the winning piccata, which also used orange, but she had more of a straight-up orange glaze. Mine was definitely a piccata derivative, as it had more of the zing from the wine reduction, even if the orange was less acidic than lemon. I may need to fix that again sometime. Easy, tasty.
I was happy to see Richard Blais doing really well, though sad to see Nimma (the other Atlanta contestant) leave so soon. But I blinked and drooled over Blais's pizza (peaches?! sweet tea reduction syrup?!?), and the micro-smoker just really got the attention of the technotoy lover in me. It was interesting how Andrew was criticizing Richard's choice of crab legs for their heavier taste, but then Rocco diSpirito pointed out that with the smoking, the crab cake tasted even meatier, which was certainly helped by using leg meat. Andrew's already getting on my nerves.
Right. Sleep. Won't get much over the weekend, so should get a little now.
And in playing, I suspect I made something that was both closer to piccata and possibly tastier than what the losing piccata did last night. It was mostly a classic piccata, with the main substitutions being in the breading (mostly white cornbread with a little flour) and the citrus (orange, since I have some). Capers, shallots, and a touch of garlic. It might've been closer to the winning piccata, which also used orange, but she had more of a straight-up orange glaze. Mine was definitely a piccata derivative, as it had more of the zing from the wine reduction, even if the orange was less acidic than lemon. I may need to fix that again sometime. Easy, tasty.
I was happy to see Richard Blais doing really well, though sad to see Nimma (the other Atlanta contestant) leave so soon. But I blinked and drooled over Blais's pizza (peaches?! sweet tea reduction syrup?!?), and the micro-smoker just really got the attention of the technotoy lover in me. It was interesting how Andrew was criticizing Richard's choice of crab legs for their heavier taste, but then Rocco diSpirito pointed out that with the smoking, the crab cake tasted even meatier, which was certainly helped by using leg meat. Andrew's already getting on my nerves.
Right. Sleep. Won't get much over the weekend, so should get a little now.