Those of you who know me should now be thinking, ,AeuBut wait, Schelley, you almost never eat chicken and you hate broccoli. What is up with that?,Aeu
Well, two things are up with that.
First, as some of you may know, I regularly try foods that I think I don,Aeot like. Several years ago, I read that in many cases, our food dislikes are childhood relics, and often, we have no idea why we don,Aeot like a specific food. So, we just say we don,Aeot like it, without ever trying and tasting. I,Aeove known for years that I hate the smell of steamed broccoli, and thus, avoided it in all other forms.
However, I,Aeove gradually worked my way towards broccoli. I started eating broccolini about four years ago, which I believe is a broccoli relation. I,Aeove always liked Chinese broccoli, which I think is closer to spinach than broccoli. I,Aeom happily loving brussel sprouts, a cross between cabbage and broccoli. And not that long ago, I ate broccoli fried in parmesan and added to a salad (I should note that the pieces were too small to pick out and I could really only taste the delicious parmesan). Over the past few months, I,Aeove eaten broccoli a few times in Thai stir-fries. And then a few weeks ago, I bought a head at the Farmer,Aeos Market and added some florets to my own stir-fry.
And for the moment in this picture: saut/(c)ed up with garlic, a splash of balsamic and some parmesan for diversity. It was quite good. I still won,Aeot eat it steamed ,Aei the smell is too noxious ,Aei but yes, I,Aeom getting there.
Second, it,Aeos a well known fact that I,Aeom not a big chicken fan. About once a year, I,Aeoll cook chicken, usually a component of another dish (like chicken biryani). Once in a while, a chicken dish will catch my eye in the cafeteria and I,Aeoll succumb. But for the most part, it,Aeos no chicken for me. It tastes, well, not like chicken. It,Aeos chalky and bland and often kind of crumbly. I think I ate too much in my childhood. And, we,Aeove been sucked into believing that chicken is healthy; according to the Overall Nutritional Quality Index, (a new food point system just beginning to roll out, check out the ratings), it isn,Aeot that healthy. Chicken has become the basis of many, many meals; I,Aeom always surprised at how many dishes I can eliminate from the menu by saying no to chicken. I,Aeove also observed that the bigger the chain, the more chicken on the menu.
However, the Cap Hill farmer's market features a chicken vendor. Recently, I bought a dozen beautiful eggs, and found bright yellow yolks, not the pale yellow that we,Aeove been conditioned to think is a normal egg yolk. Those are real eggs, coming from real chickens that scrounge around for bugs and mites. After a few weeks of thought, I succumbed, bought a bird, and cooked it, using Cooks French Chicken in a Pot recipe.
The chicken was good, and tasted exactly like chicken should taste ,Aei like chicken. Not chalky, not salty from injected preservatives, not rubbery. All things considered, it was delicious. But I,Aeom not sure how much I really like the bird. If I,Aeom going with fowl, I really think I,Aeod prefer duck. Or if not fowl, then pork or beef or lamb. I think I,Aeom just not a chicken person,AePbut I,Aeoll keep trying periodically, just to make sure.
For the chicken: easy, easy,AePsalt and pepper the bird, add some olive oil to a dutch oven, heat up, brown the bird, along with some chopped onion, celery, a few garlic cloves and sprig of rosemary. Once browned, cover with foil and the lid, and throw in the oven on low heat until the chicken is done. While the chicken is resting, strain the juice and let it sit to separate the fats, then reheat gently with a tablespoon or two of fresh lemon juice. Carve the chicken, and serve with the chicken au jus.
The stuffed tomato: I seeded, then salted a tomato and let the liquid drain off. I had some stale bread, so I soaked it in water long enough to crumble, then saut/(c)ed the bread crumbs in olive oil. After, I mixed up with handful of herbs ,Aei parsely, cilantro, mint ,Aei added some parmesan and salt and pepper, stuffed the tomato with the breadcrumb filling and baked. Tasty.
For those of you who are curious, my two no go foods are peaches and bananas. I was forced to eat peaches when I was about 10 years old, in one of those classic mother/daughter power struggles, and since, have absolutely hated the smell, look and taste of peaches. The banana dislike saddens me ,Aei it,Aeos a convenient fruit. It started early ,Aei one of a handful of pre-age 4 memories is of eating a banana on my Grandma Olhava,Aeos patio, feeling queasy and then throwing up. The smell of bananas is noxious enough to keep me away from that fruit. And for future reference, if you try to fool me as Pete did a few months ago, well, do so at your own risk ,Aei he convinced me that his fruit smoothie didn,Aeot have banana in it, I sucked down a swig, tasted banana and reacted so violently that we are lucky we didn,Aeot get into a car accident. I can taste bananas in anything. Ahem.
