mix, mix…stir, stir

How often is your dinner plan inspired by a food blog you just happened by? It happens to me all the time and I thought I would share what was served at the Peterman house last night thanks to blog inspiration.

Though this isn’t a blog I just happened upon, I subscribe to the RSS feed for Rouxbe’s Blog and I subscribe to the Rouxbe site so I can access their excellent online cooking school program. This recipe for Chicken Vesuvio  just jumped off the screen and I knew what I’d be making for dinner! Maybe it was the appeal of an entire meal in one dish, or it could have simply been the beautiful photos that got me. Either way, it was delicious and a good choice for dinner.

It’s a simple series of basic steps: browning, deglazing, oven braising, sauteing, and reducing liquid. Though the recipe has six cloves of garlic, it’s not pungent and overpowering because the garlic is émincéd, or thinly sliced. It is remarkable how mild garlic is when it is left in larger pieces. It doesn’t seem logical that biting into a large slice of garlic would be less potent than finely minced garlic, but with a finer chop more enzymes are released from the cell walls and that’s what produces the strong sulfurous flavors and aromas. The recipe also has a link to a great instructional video on how to émincé.

So that’s my suggestion if you just can’t figure out what to cook for dinner tonight.