Chicken Kiev

(serves 6)
Chicken Kiev is the king of chicken breast dishes, the perfect fool proof way of preventing a chicken breast from getting dry. The breast meat is kept moist and juicy because it is stuffed with butter. And when the breast is cut open, the butter serves as a sauce for the dish. No one knows for sure where Chicken Kiev comes from except that it’s not from Kiev. The Russian restaurants seemed to have claimed ownership of this dish while others insist that it was originally a French dish called Cotelettes de Volaille. No matter, it tastes just as good.

Ingredients

1. Big Chicken Breasts (6 halves)
2. Butter (140g)
3. Shallots (4)
4. Bread (4 slices)
5. Garlic (3t minced)
6. Flour
7. Eggs (2)
8. Basil
9. Mint Leaves
10. Salt
11. Brown Sugar
12. Toothpicks

Preparation

1. Begin by brining your chicken breasts overnight, for about 10 hours, in a solution of 3T Salt, 1T Brown Sugar and 4 cups of water. For details you can refer to this post.
2. Place 4 slices of bread exposed in the fridge overnight to dry out.
3. When the 10 hours are up, give the chicken breasts a quick rinse to end the brining process and keep them in the fridge until needed.
4. Finely chop 4 shallots. Pan fry the shallot bits in 2T of oil on a low flame until you notice a few pieces have turned brown. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. In the meanwhile mince a few garlic cloves until you get 3 semi-heaped teaspoons of garlic.
5. Put 140g of butter, that’s about two thirds of a block, in a bowl and cut the butter roughly into cubes. A pair of scissors is the best implement for this. Allow the butter to warm until it is soft, then fold in the minced garlic, shallots, 1T chopped mint and 1T of chopped basil. The butter should stay opaque and not be allowed to melt at any time. Spoon the herb butter onto a large sheet of cling film and roll it into a long rod. Keep the butter sausage in the fridge until it is needed.
6. Toast the bread under very low heat so it doesn’t brown, until it is dry and crisp. Place the bread into a plastic bag and smash it into crumbs using a mallet.
7. The next step is to cut a cavity into each breast. Start by drying the chicken with a tea towel. Plunge a pointed knife about two thirds of the way into a breast from the bigger end. Carefully scrape the tip of the knife along one side of the cavity a few times in a circular motion to enlarge it. Flip the knife over and do the same to the other side of the cavity. While you are doing this, take extra care at all times not to let the knife pierce out through the surface. At the same time you should do your best not to enlarge the opening.
8. Cut the butter sausage into six cylinders. Do this while it is still in the cling film. Unwrap one cylinder of butter, halve it lengthwise and push both pieces into the cavity one after another, as far as they’ll go. Repeat the same procedure for the remaining breasts.
9. Beat two eggs. Cut a one inch piece off the tip off each chicken breast. Dip these trimmings in the egg and after folding or rolling each piece, use them to plug up the openings. Secure each plug with a wooden toothpick. If you inadvertently punctured any of the breasts earlier, you can attempt to ‘repair’ the damage with toothpicks as well.
10. Coat each breast in flour, taking care to cover every part of the breast, especially the area around the plug.
11. Heat up a frying pan with some oil. Roll a breast in egg and then the breadcrumbs until it is nicely coated. Put the breast straight into frying pan. Pan fry for about a minute, making sure the entire surface is cooked. A pair of kitchen tongs will be helpful in achieving this. Control the fire to make sure the bread doesn’t get burnt. Leave the breast to rest on a wire tray inside a baking tray. Do the same for the remaining breasts, adding more oil to the pan for each new breast.
12. Preheat your oven to 175^oC (350^oF). Place the tray of chicken into the hot over for 20 minutes, or until you notice the chicken begin to shrink.
13. It’s best to serve the Chicken Kiev straight out of the oven. Sprinkle lightly with white pepper while the chicken is still on the baking tray. Remember to remove the toothpicks after plating.

 Notes

• Purists will no doubt point out that the proper way to make Chicken Kiev would be to pulverize a butterflied chicken breast into a very thin schnitzel which is then rolled around a slab of butter. This method has its merits but is quite labour intensive. Should you ever choose to try it, you should season the chicken instead of brining it.   
• Chicken breasts can be plump and roundish or elongated and you should buy the former. I find those from Denmark and Holland are very suitable for stuffing. If the breast is of the elongated type, it will be too flat, making the carving a proper cavity for the butter doubly difficult. 
• Don’t expect a large amount of melted butter to gush out when you cut the chicken as some of the butter will be infused into the surrounding meat. If you desire more flowing butter, you can increase the amount of butter to a full block. But in order to do this the cavity has to large; maybe you can wait until you have had some practice at cutting cavities into chicken breast before attempting to use more butter. 
• There is no ‘standard’ herb to use for the butter. You can substitute other herbs of your liking, or even add things like sautéed mushrooms to the butter. I even used a bacon onion dip once instead of butter and it tasted great.
• If you have a large number of diners, it may be easier to just deep fry your Chicken Kiev in one go instead.  

 

Deep Fried Polenta Fingers

(makes 24 fingers)
Polenta is a refreshing corn-based alternative to having potato on your plate day in day out. It may be one of the harder staples to cook to perfection, but triple-cooking your polenta is a sure-fire way of bringing out the full potential of polenta in a crispy on the outside, moist on the inside format. Polenta is capable of accomodating a great depth of rich flavours, and in this recipe polenta fingers are infused with hints of garlic, herbs and cheese.     

Ingredients

1. Polenta-cornmeal (1.5 cups)
2. Shallots (5)
3. Garlic (8 cloves = 2/3 bulbs)
4. Grated Parmesan (0.5 cup)
5. Butter (50g)
6. Herbs de Provence
7. Chicken Stock Cubes (2) 
8. Corn Oil for deep fry

Preparation 

1. Peel the garlic and put the cloves through a garlic press. You should end up with 2 heaped tea spoons of minced garlic.
2. Dissolve 2 chicken stock cubes in 1.5 cups of boiling water and add 0.5t sugar and 1T Herbs de Provence.
3. Chop up the shallots finely and fry them in a non-stick pan, on low heat in 25g of butter. It should take about 10 minutes for the shallot bits to soften. Then add the garlic and stir fry for a further minute making sure the garlic does not burn.
4. Add the stock to the pan and boil for five minutes, then stir in 1.5 cups of polenta and reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Stir often to keep the bottom from sticking. If the polenta begins to dry, keep adding water a bit at a time such that you end up with a mashed potato consistency at the end of twenty minutes of simmering.
5. After the heat is turned off, stir in another 25g butter, 1t black pepper and 0.5 cups of grated parmesan. The parmesan will act as the glue which will bind the mash together.
6. Preheat the oven to 175^oC (350^oF). Pick a shallow pyrex dish such that the polenta will be 1 to 1.5 inches high when poured in. Line the pyrex with parchement paper. Pour the mash in and bake for 30(1 inch) to 40(1.5 inches) minutes depending on its depth.
   

   baked polenta cake being cut into fingers

7. After baking, most of the extra water content would have been extracted and the polenta should have dried into a soft cake. When the pyrex has cooled enough to touch, flip the baked polenta onto a cutting board, also lined with parchment paper, so it can cool faster. You can keep the polenta in the fridge overnight at this juncture if you wish.
8. Allow the the polenta cake to fully cool to room temperature before you begin cutting it. Use a toothless knife to get smoother edges. You can cut them into fish finger sized pieces (see photo to the right) or perhaps combinations of squares and triagles. Preheat some corn oil and deep fry the polenta fingers until they are golden brown. Pad with kitchen towels to soak up the excess oil, they won’t be sticky anymore. Don’t try to fry too many at a time as the moisture content is still high and too much water with hot oil is not a good idea.

Notes

• As nice as the polenta fingers are, they are still a tad dry to serve on their own. Also, this recipe is not all that salty since a sauce of some sort is presumed. I use my polenta fingers to accompany ‘wet’ dishes like osso bucco or duck l’orange.
• Alternatively, you can use polenta fingers as starters by serving them with some pasta type sauces. Refer to my Sausage and Wine Pasta (used in photo on the right) or Duck Ragout Pasta for ideas. Sauteed Mushrooms will also work.
• As a healthier alternative, you can grill the fingers on a wire tray instead of deep frying them. Pan frying is not a good idea as the polenta will stick to the pan and crumble if its not free-floating in oil.
• If you have no parchment paper, line the pyrex with foil. You have to line it with something so it flips out easily after baking.
• Incidently, if you want to make a polenta mash to accompany ‘dry’ dishes, you can use the same recipe until step 4. After that, just add some hot milk and continue cooking/stirring for a short while to get a nice bed of smooth creamy polenta – for things like grilled salmon.

 

The Herb Page

This is by no mean a comprehensive list. I’ve only put in herbs that I use fairly regularly. I feel there is no meaning in putting down a large list of meats and dishes for each herb so my comments are somewhat concise, zeroing in on things to remember each herb by. In the ideal world everything should be fesh. But this is the real world. If you want to have a full range of herbs at your disposal, its more practical to use freeze dried herbs. In general, just use more of the dried variety and you will get close to the effect of the fresh herb. Unless otherwise stated, all my recipes assume dried herbs.

One distinction to keep in mind is the difference between grassy and woody herbs. Grassy herbs can be sprinkled on directly and will just ‘disappear’. Woody herbs (like rosemary and thyme) have to be cooked for a very long time or at very high temperatures to become edible, otherwise you have to use a muslin bag or boil the herbs seperately to get an infusion. 

1. Basil. When I smell Basil, I think Italian cuisine. There are many varieties of basil, including Genovese (think pesto) Basil, Thai Basil, but Sweet Basil is the variety normally found in the kitchen. Basil is one of the few herbs that retains its flavour with cooking so it is sometimes used in stews or slow cooked sauces. When basil is mentioned to me, raw tomatoes will always come to my mind as its perfect partner, in Insalata Caprese (a salad of tomatoes and mozzarella), in Tomato Bruschetta or in some other similar dish.
2. Bay Leaves are one of those strange herbs that have better flavour when they are dried. Consequently that is the way the are mostly sold. Long cooking releases the full bittersweet flavour of bay leaves and most braised and stewed dishes could do with a few bay leaves. When I think of bay leaves, I think of bolognese sauce and other ragu sauces using cooked tomatoes. Remember to remove the leaves prior to serving.
3. Bouquet Garni is a bundle of woody herbs usually tied together with butcher twine that is thrown into long cooking dishes such as stews. After the flavour of the herbs is infused into the food, it is discarded. The bouquet is a legacy practice from the days before bottled freeze-dried herbs became widely available and is not all that common nowadays.
4. Cilantro refers to the leaves of the coriander plant and tends to be associated most with Asian and Latin American cuisine. It is also used in Portuguese dishes, probably because of influences from Macau. Its very strong and permeating aroma does not get assimilated and it is very useful for masking the intensity of an overwhelming primary smell. Cilantro is often used in steamed or poached fish, and in seafood stock, to “freshen up” the seafood. If your Gorgonzola sauce is too cheezy or your goose too gamey, cilantro is one of your options.
5. Dill Weed refers to the thread-like leaves, as opposed to the seeds, of dill. i.e. dill weed is the herb and dill seed is the spice. Freeze-dried (i.e. still green) dill weed retains its flavor relatively well, and should be stocked as a standard herb in every kitchen. When I think of Dill weed, seafood immediately comes to mind. It is used in the marination of raw salmon into gravlax or in dill butter served with crustaceans. It also goes well in cream and cream cheeses, leading to its wide use in dips.
6. Fines Herbes is a combination of herbs popular in the Northern Mediterranian countries, comprising usually parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil although other herbs may be used as well. In general, fines herbes are intended to be added only towards the end of the cooking process, and this dictates which herbs can or cannot be included. If you don’t have an exact herb in mind when cooking something, such as an omelet you just made from leftovers, fines herbes will work well as an all-purpose herb.
7. Herbes de Provence is another combination of herbs. The main components are thyme, basil, fennel and lavender although a few additional herbs are always added depending on the blend. This herb set is the mainstay of Provencal Cuisine, which is the cooking style of that part of Southern France around Marseilles and Toulon. One of the popular ways to use Herbes de Provence is with garlic and butter, such as in the case of baked escargots.  
8. Lemon Grass is a herb used in marinating chicken, pork and seafood to give it an exotic oriental taste. It gets its name from the beautiful citrus rind flavour and aroma that it imparts, without the bitterness. Curries and salads from Indochina and Southeast Asia very often contain lemon grass.
9. Oregano is often paired with basil or tomato sauce and is naturally used in pizzas. I would also consider Oregano when making egg and cheese dishes. Since world war two, when GIs discovered pizza and oregano while liberating Italy, the two have become immutably linked. Because oregano retains its flavour and aroma when dried, it was readily adopted by the US pizza chains. Ironically, I don’t use oregano much, because it reminds me and my guests of pizza.
10. Parsley is defended by many ‘experts’ as a useful tasty herb but I stand firmly in the underwhelming camp. Sometimes I sprinkle some chopped parsely on red or yellow cream soups, on new potatoes, for aesthetic purposes. I also mix chopped parsley with garlic and butter for garlic bread to give the spread more body and a better appearance. Sometimes parsley is used in larger quantities in stuffings, again to give body. To sum up, parsley is good as a garnish and little else.
11. Rosemary to me is an English herb that I always associate with roast chicken, and well basically anything that is roasted. It is woody but has a taste that reminds me of flowers. Rosemary is surprisingly versatile in spite of its distinctive character. It can be used, in lesser amounts, in a large variety of soups, stuffing and meat marinades.
12. Sage is a bitter peppery herb used mostly with meat, popular in the Medditerranean and sometimes English cooking. It is most commonly found in stuffing. Sage has a strong aroma and taste and will dominate other smells if too much is used. I don’t usually use sage unless it is specified by a recipe.
13. Tarragon is cultivated mainly in France and naturally appears often in French recipes. It is probably most known for the flavour it imparts to tartare sauce and bearnaise sauce. When I think of tarragon, I think of desiccated coconut, some people say licorice but maybe it is because they don’t have much contact with coconut. This herb has a strong sweet aroma and is one of my favourites. I often use it in baked casserole dishes.
14. Thyme is a herb in the ‘warm’ category that is usually added early in the cooking process as it releases its flavour slowly. Like bay leaves, thyme retains its flavour on drying better than most other herbs and doesn’t disintegrate easily. Unlike bay leaves however, it  comes in very small pieces and cannot be fished out after cooking. I usually only use thyme if I am going to strain after cooking as in the case of bullion, or if I am using a muslin bag.