Fried Plantain Chips. This is one of the earliest photos of my excursions of cooking in 2011. And it was delicious.So, on the 7th I had found myself watching Ina Garten on Food Network between my classes. I don't remember what she was making, but I remember one thing quite clearly: she made her own vinaigrette dressing with Red Wine Vinegar and Olive Oil (but in her case, it was "Good" Olive Oil). After I attended my class on food that day I ran to Meijer and texted my girlfriend with "what do you want to eat tonight?" Her only response was "Chicken." I suddenly felt like I was in Iron Chef and my secret ingredient was chicken.
I raced around Miejer seeking ingredients for my challenge. I decided that I liked Alfredo Sauce. So I looked at the ingredients on the back of a jar of it and went around the store buying stuff off the label. Next, I needed chicken to cook. So I bought some chicken breasts. I wanted to make a salad, I decided. I suddenly remembered Ina Garten making a salad dressing. I bought lettuce, red wine vinegar and eggs. What else do you need for a full meal? BREAD! I remembered something from my past that seemed quite odd when I bought "Artisan" bread and Olive Oil to go with it. When I was a little boy my Grandparents had a 50th anniversary party at an Italian Restaurant. I remembered how they served the bread, with Parmesan cheese and garlic in olive oil to dip it in. And I had my meal set.
I got home and unpacked all the food with a fervor. I wanted to get cooking! The first thing I did was realize that I didn't know how to cook poultry. I thought back to Food Network and remembered that they braised a turkey on Worst Cooks in America by placing it in a steel pan, pouring liquid in with it and covering it. So I did this. I poured chicken broth in the pan and then spiced it, scored the chicken breasts and
threw them in.While the chicken was cooking, I made my salad. I whisked red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and an egg yolk together and place the lettuce on top of it, I'd toss it when it was time to serve.
My next step was to make the sauce. I had no idea where to start. I remembered hearing sometime on food network that you need to cook pasta in the sauce to really make it great. I boiled the pasta and poured what I thought would be acceptable amounts of pees, milk, oil, Cheese vodka, and cheese into one of my calphalons and proceeded to watch it boil up. Then I added the pasta and cooked it down some more. It was deceptively easy.
A little too easy...At this point I realized that I had made the entire meal in less than an hour. So I made my bread sauce, which was simple, and I was done. My girlfriend was greeted by an elaborate meal, complete with sides, when she got home from work. She was pretty excited.
I also realized that I didn't like chicken when it's not fried. How did I forget that? I was so bored with the chicken breast when I ate that I don't think I finished it. I thought the pasta was delicious, with a nice and creamy sauce. I'd have paid someone for this. The salad dressing was very acidic, which I liked until it gave me heart burn. For my girlfriend it was much too vinegar-y, she didn't like it. And the entire loaf of bread was gone by the time we went to bed. It was all such simple food, yet was extremely elegant. Now the shit really hit the fan and I really started to cook a lot.
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