Two years, two pounds of M and Ms. I knew Patricia would be eating a bit of chocolate at work, a nice mix of almond, peanut butter and the good old fashioned chocolate, so I figured I'd make a nice little dinner for her as a congratulations.
A few weeks back, at the gym, I was watching the Today Show. Not by choice, just enforced by what's on the wall. They had a chef on whom I had never heard of named Jonathan Waxman making Turkey Milanese. Well, hey, I thought, I could make that for her.
Then I actually read the recipe.
Ok, so, that's out. Too hard for me. Tho the whole 'beating a piece of meat flat' (hey, you, stop sniggering) appealed to me, so, I decided on a fried chicken.
But I still needed sides. We had some potato parmesan bread, so bread was taken care of. We had some left over potatoes, so I went for the old smashed potato stand-by.
I wanted to make more, and not just stuff I've made before.
Well, there was this brown buttered corn I saw over on Orangette. I wasn't entirely sure I would be able to do it, but... what the heck.
So, long story short, I made this:
Now, short story long....
Over there at 9 o'clock, you have the potato parmesan bread, and at 3 o'clock, the roasted smashed potatoes.
Lets talk a little bit about the corn at 6 o'clock, and then we can get to the main course, that gorgeous hunk of meat.
The corn was a beautifully simple recipe, which you already know if you looked at the recipe.
Basically, chop the kernels off three ears of corn, and milk the cob a bit.
Brown some butter with a few sprigs of thyme (lemon thyme was recommended, but I couldn't find any). This was the part I had a problem with. I wasn't sure I could actually brown butter. I mean, it sounds easy enough, melt it, and then cook it. But the pan I used was big enough that 4 tablespoons of butter just sorta covered the bottom, not to much depth.
Then, once it's browned, throw the corn in and some coarse salt, mix it up, and cover. Says to cook it at medium low, but it was barely cooking.. So I cranked it up a bit.
Once it's tender, pull out the sprigs and you're done.
What would I do differently?
Well, first, a smaller pot.
Next, a couple tablespoons more butter. Admittedly, the smaller pan might make it better.
After that, I won't cut so close to the cob. I got some of the tough cob-tastic bits with the corn. That also cut down on the amount of milk the cob produced.
And lastly, I'll actually put in the salt. Dummy that I am, I forgot that step. I didn't do the parsley garnish either, but, I'm not a garnishy sorta guy.
Now, lets pull the ingredient list:
Corn, 3 ears. Local, non-organic.
Butter, 4 Tblspn. Non-Local,, organic.
Thyme, 3 sprigs. Local, organic.
Not bad, if I do say so myself.
And now... the main event.
Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken Milanese
Milanese means flat, right? Right? No? Well.. fine.
Buttermilk Pan-Fried Chicken A-Cup
I'll be honest, I was flying solo on this. No real recipe.
I got two large chicken breasts and proceeded to flatten them. Personally I put it between some wax paper and banged it with a rolling pin until it was flat. I'm not sure it was the right way to do it, but it worked. More or less.
Salt and pepper both sides.
Pour some buttermilk into a Pyrex pan. Salt and pepper that and lay in one of the flattened breasts. Pour in more buttermilk to cover. Put in second breast. Pour in more buttermilk to cover. Throw in fridge for... well, lets say two or three hours. At least, that's what I did.
While that's going, it's time to mix up some dredge stuff. I went a little hog-wild.
I threw in some panko with some italian seasoned bread crumbs to fill it out. Then, I added smoked paprika, chili powder, mexican oregan, a little dash of garlic granules and, for some odd reason, Stubb's Rosemary Ginger Spice Rub.
Pull the chicken out, dredge in the mix.
Olive oil up a big, flat pan, and throw in the breast, one at a time (unless you have a *really* big pan).
I could have cooked it for about 30 seconds less. The chicken was done, it was, to a point, juicy, but the coating was a little burned.
But it was tasty. It was probably a little too much, I should have stuck to one major flavor, with a little kick of something spicy, but, what is important.... I liked it. She liked it. And, we had enough for two meals. I'd try to write up this one's ingredients, but, honestly, I winged it too much to actually know what I did.
