Rao's Lemon Chicken

Lemon Sauce;

2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine or balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 /2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup brandy

Whisk together or use your food processor or wand to make an emulsion.

Slice boneless chicken breasts( or grouse or pheasant) on the bias( diagonally) into 1 /2 inch thick portions. Season w/ salt and pepper, dredge in flour, and fry in med hot oil in frying pan a minute or two per side, remove from pan and reserve on plate and do another batch(s) as necessary. Do not overcook the cutlets. Add all the browned cutlets back into the pan, spoon lemon sauce on top of them, and place under a broiler till reheated and bubbly and bronzed.Place on serving platter and sprinkle w/ fresh chopped parsley. Serve w/ wild rice, white rice, pasta or roasted potatoes. Squash or carrots or spinach for the vegetable. Serve with extra lemon sauce on the side and rustic bread.

Rao's Lemon Chicken

I got a book from the antique store where I have a booth and it is called Rao's Cookbook - over 100 yrs of Italian home cooking - a restaurant in Harlem - in which there are many great recipes, including one for " Rao's Famous Lemon Chicken." It is great. It is simple and exceptional.

I understand and appreciate restaurant recipes because I had one for years. They are easy for me to understand and adapt to the home cook. The lemon sauce is the secret in this one, plus the intricate timing and perfect cooking of the chicken.

I have adapted this recipe, which originally involved whole halved chickens, I also have changed the sauce a bit, but owe the entire recipe and concept to Rao's. Recipe follows tomorrow. Thank you.

Love At First Bite

The Copper River Red or Sockeye is the Queen of all salmon. If you have a friend Kenny who fishes them then you are as lucky as I am lucky. They inhabit the SE coastal waters of Alaska.

The best little open faced sandwich in the world utilizes the luscious flesh of the Red One as gravlax - salt, pepper, sugar and dill cured for a day or two in the fridge, or as I have discovered, simply raw or 10 minutes into the cure.

Slice super thin across the grain of the meat and place on your favorite cracker or crustina and top with sour cream and fresh dillweed. Or top w/ wasabi . Eaten bare even, or unadorned is to participate in the history of this glorious one; it is tasting it's prey, it's fight, it's sex, it's speed, it's high jump. Your first girlfriend or your best wife. Or both. Plus the Pacific Ocean.

Remember the little roll ups Mom made with dried sliced beef and cream cheese with a pickle in the middle? Do it with this salmon. Enclose it w/ lefse, even, for a new take on a classic. Salud.

The Big Bakery Conspiracy

A conspiracy of Big Bakeries has turned whole wheat bread into white bread. Anyone notice?

I heard about plans to do this - make ww bread w/ the consistency of white bread about a yr ago on NPR or MPR. It has happened.

The new whole wheat bread lacks bite( texture) and the depth of flavor you get when you chew food. It has the feel of white bread in your mouth - soft glop.

New England Brown Bread is one of the few over the counter real breads remaining - grainy texture, great chew - flavor becoming deeper, nuttier and more complex as you chew. Even tho' it is technically not whole wheat.

Some of the artisanal breads are excellent and I appreciate that trend, but some have crusts that are difficult to chew. And some are not cheap.

Jumbo Wild Raspberries

Not a great photo, but it does show the size of the wild berries that I have been waxing on about in the past few posts.

It Just Keeps on Getting Better

And of course put the wild raspberries on your breakfast cereal, french toast and pancakes.

Do yourself and your family a favor by using whole grain cereals and grains. Make pancakes w/1 c whole wheat flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tblsp sugar(or honey or real maple syrup) 1 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk( skim), 1 egg , 1 tblsp oil. They taste similar to buckwheat cakes, have substance, depth of flavor, nutritional value, and a great nutty taste.

Eat the cakes w/ real butter, and real maple syrup , top w/ berries. It's all about balancing taste and nutrition. I guarantee you that once you eat whole wheat pancakes you will not go back to the empty flavor and calories of white pancakes. If you are eating mostly good stuff, it is ok to eat the butter and syrup.

A Toast to the Wild Berry

Gotta love summer - fresh caught fish pan fried and finished off w/ white wine, parsley,tarragon and butter - the French way. Wild raspberries for dessert, alone, or w/ vanilla yoghurt, or cream, or ice cream. Or as my favorite - the galette - an open faced rustic tart or pie.

When you eat them alone, they are not alone - they are in company with their own sweet/tart nuance of flavor, aroma, and their history of rain, sun,extremes of heat and near frost, the birds and the bees and bears, too. A passing fox, deer, a coyote, grouse, wild turkeys and more. And finally me. Lucky me.

I raise my glass.