This dish turned out so much better than I expected. The hormone-free chicken was pan seared with just a bit of salt and pepper until nicely browned and crispy. Meanwhile the polenta was prepared by sweating out onions and garlic in a pan. Four cups of chicken stock went into that and a cup of coarse corn meal was whisked in once it reached the boiling point. This was cooked with frequent stirring for about 40 minutes until it was smooth and thick. The sauce was made in the pan that was used for the chicken. After the chicken was browned and set aside, chopped garlic and onions were added to the pan followed a minute later by sliced mushrooms. These were sautéd until softened and the pan, with all those wonderful chicken drippings, was deglazed with a half cup or so of white wine. The juice of one lemon was added. The sauce was reduced for a few minutes and then mounted with a pat of butter to give it a rich texture. The chicken was plated on top of a bed of the polenta and the sauce was spooned over it.
Chicken and polenta
Pappardelle with mushroom and eggplant ragu
I know ragu is traditionally a meat-based sauce but I think these mushrooms are ‘meaty’ enough to consider this sauce a ragu. Combined with homemade semolina pappardelle, this was a home run hit for dinner. My sauce started with a combination of baby portobello and button mushrooms.
They were halved and sliced.
I also cubed up a whole eggplant for this dish.
Of course you can’t have a pasta sauce without garlic and onions!
First the onions and the mushrooms were cooked down until softened and tender. Then the garlic was added to the pan.
The eggplant was combined with the cooked onions and mushrooms.
Everything was sautéed until the eggplant began to soften.
A bit of red wine was added to the pan.
And a can of tomato paste was stirred into the sauce.
The ragu was covered and cooked down until the eggplant dissolved and the sauce was rich and delicious. A little water was added during the cooking to keep the sauce from getting to dry.
Meanwhile, a pasta dough made from all purpose flour, semolina flour and eggs was prepared and rolled out into sheets using my pasta roller.
The pappardelle was cut by hand into wide noodles.
The noodles were boiled until al dente and tossed with the ragu. Finally I topped it off with some parmigiano reggiano. 
More Pasta
My pasta love affair is not over yet. With the same dough I made for the orrechiette, I rolled out another favorite pasta shape of mine, pappardelle. This is like a big wide fettucine noodle. I rolled them out into sheets using my pasta roller and then cut them into wide strips by hand. Another mushroom based sauce was perfect for this. I sautéed garlic, onion and mushrooms in olive oil, added bit of non-fat half and half for richness and tossed in some fresh grated parmigiano reggiano. This was garnished with a bit of fresh parsley. Another satisfying pasta meal.
Asian Influenced
I ate a lot over the holidays. I ate too many sweet rich foods. It’s time to cut back on the carbohydrates and fat and fill in with flavor. There is no better way to do this than with Asian food. You’ll be seeing a lot if low fat low carb meals from me in the near future. Tonight I made a mushroom and seaweed soup served with a soy/mirin marinated grilled chicken served on a salad with a ginger soy dressing. It was delicious, low fat, low carb and absolutely satisfying.
I used two kinds of dried mushrooms. One was already shredded into thin strips and the package simply called it “dried black fungus”. The other is my favorite dried mushroom, a dried shitake. These were soaked in water for a good 4-5 hours before cooking. I like to soak my mushrooms in zip-lock bags. It’s easy and convenient.
If you haven’t had soup made with dried seaweed you are missing out. I am inspired by many of the Korean soups (masters of soup if I may add) that use seaweed as a base. The Japanese also use dried seaweed as a soup and flavor base. I have two kinds in my soup this evening. One is Japanese – dashi kombu. This comes in wide sheets and hydrates to give a chewy thick seaweed in the end. I broke this up into small pieces. The other is a shredded seaweed. This one is much thinner and opens up into sort of very thin seaweed leaves as it hydrates and cooks. Both have a wonderful salty sea-like taste. It really is wonderful.
Here are everything combined together. The seaweed has been broken up into small pieces. The shitakes were sliced thinly. The mushroom soaking water was added to add all that wonderful color and flavor. To this I added some salt, lots of fresh ground pepper, lots of chopped garlic, a splash of soy sauce, and about 4 cups more water. This was heated to boiling and then simmered for two hours. This picture was taken before adding the water and cooking.
I made a simple salad of finely shredded romaine lettuce, green cabbage and carrots. This was eventually tossed with a dressing made from grated ginger, a splash of soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil and olive oil.
Here is the salad with the grilled chicken on top. The chicken was marinated for two hours with a mixture of sesame oil, mirin, and soy sauce. It was grilled and allowed to rest for a few minutes before slicing.
The soup! It was delicious! I could eat this every day. The flavor of the shitake was most pronounced and it mingled with the seaweed flavor. I enjoyed dinner tonight!
