Savoy Cabbage Salad with Sauteed Chicken Thighs

Peter was craving some Savoy Cabbage salad his Aunt in Austria once made him. It's supposed to be a very basic creamy cabbage salad. Since I couldn't find anything simple and basic enough on the internet, I borrowed some ideas I found on the web, and added caraway seeds, mustard and some lemon juice to the the dressing. The honey is my own idea (and I might need to use more next time, because I feel the dressing needs something sweet to offset the tanginess of the sour cream and lemon juice)

Ingredients:

1 Savoy Cabbage

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground carraway

freshly gorund black pepper to taste

3/4 - 1 cup sour cream

1.5 tablespoon mustard of your choice (you can use Dijon, I just don't like Dijon mustard)

juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon honey (use more, if you like the sweetness of coleslaw)

Preparation:

Finely chop the cabbage, season with salt and leave to rest for half an hour. Prepare the salad dressing: mix the sour cream, mustard, honey and lemon juice well together, season with freshly ground black pepper and the caraway. Rub the salt into the cabbage with your hands, pour the salad dressing over and toss well. Leave to cool in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, preferably overnight. Serve with baked/grilled/roast chicken or pork. We served it with sauteed boneless chicken thighs seasoned with caraway, and mashed potatoes.

How to make the sauteed caraway chicken: season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and cook them in a little olive oil on both sides for about 2 minutes, add a teaspoon of caraway seeds and 0.5 cups dry white wine, then cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the juices have reduced by half, then remove the lid and cook the thighs uncovered a few minutes more, until they're nicely browned.

Baked Chicken Patties

I tweaked an Italian "polpette" recipe a bit for these baked chicken patties/meatballs. The original recipe called for beef instead of chicken and was a very basic meatball recipe: using only milk soaked bread, egg and meat, then topped with tomatoes, mozzarella and anchovies. I added onions and garlic and modified the seasoning az well: instead of fresh oregano I used dried Herbes the Provence (Italian seasoning works just as well).

In this process, I think I've found the secret to the best (juicy and flavorful) meatballs... It's onion, lots of it (and garlic, of course).

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken

4 cloves of garlic

2 medium yellow onions or 4 shallots

1 slice of white bread, crust removed

4 tbs milk

1 large egg
2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tbs breadcrumbs for the meat

1/2 cup breadcrumbs for dusting the meatballs

Olive oil for frying

2 large ripe and juicy tomatoes

fresh mozzarella

1 can anchovies

About 1 tbs Herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently heat the milk with the bread, until all milk is absorbed by the bread. Let cool slightly. Chop the garlic, bread and onions in a food processor then mix them together with the meat, 1 egg, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tbs breadcrumbs, 1 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper. Shape the mixture into medium sized patties. Spread the remaining breadcrumbs on to a plate, and roll the patties in them to coat thoroughly.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and fry the patties for about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer the patties into a greased baking dish, and top each of them with one slice of tomato. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence, then place the mozzarella slices on top, then finish with one-two strips of anchovy. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown. Serve hot with mashed potatoes and a mixed salad.

Serves 6.

Grilled Chicken Breast With Balsamic Glazed Onions

I saw this recipe for glazed vegetables (pearl onions) on Food Network's website, and I just couldn't resist the temptation to try it. So this last weekend I bought some multicolored pearl onions at CM, some boneless, skinless chicken breast, and last night I tried it... let me first say, don't ever try this with fresh, unskinned onions! Use frozen pearl onions instead, which will save you a huge amount of preparation time! I didn't realize what a pain it could be to clean 50 tiny onions - well, Peter was the designated victim for the task, but after he managed to skin only 5 onions in about 10 minutes, I went to the web for help, and luckily I found some instructions on how to skin them in almost no time at all. But it was still a little messy, so next time I'll just use frozen onions for this (this says a lot about what a great cook I am, right?).

What I ended up making was not FN's exact recipe, I only used it as a guideline along with some other recipes I found on the internet.

First I blanched the onions (about 14 oz) in their skin, in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, which made them easier to clean, and also had the advantage of  shortening the actual glazing time, as my onions were already pre-cooked. After skinning the onions, I heated 1.5 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon raw cane sugar in a frying pan, until the butter started to foam, and the sugar melted, then added the pre-cooked onions, about half a cup of a good dry white whine, and about 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar. Quantities are really approximate, and next time I might skip the sugar. I think the balsamic vinegar will give it enough sweetness. It wasn't bad this way either, those with a sweet tooth would definitely prefer it with a dash of sugar in it. After adding all the ingredients in, I cooked it on high until the liquid thickened and became syrupy.

We served it with grilled chicken breast, creamy mashed potatoes and a nice green salad with a honey-balsamic vinaigrette.