Italian Chicken en Papillote (a non-recipe post)

One of the great things about having my mornings in class is I'm forced to get up at the same time as I do when I teach. Now, I know some of you are putting your hands up to say, what the heck? There's method in my madness, I promise.

When I have time off, I stay up late. And then I sleep in. And my sleep cycle gets pushed further and further out of whack.

I don't like it when my sleep schedule gets pushed out of whack.

Believe it or not, I like productive mornings. It's so nice to get everything out of the way right at the beginning!

Plus, it means I don't have to feel guilty for my daily afternoon naps.

It's all about having guilt free naps.

Yesterday, after a drama class filled with some interpretive dance on war/peace to Zoe Keating, I walked to the library for my annual summer library reading binge. I wasn't carrying any bags on me, so I only picked up a few books, one of which was the French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook.

This recipe (if you can call it that) isn't from the book, but was inspired by her several recipes using the en papillote technique. For those of you not familiar with en papillote, it means you take meat or fish and place it, along with other flavourful ingredients, in parchment paper packages which are then baked in the oven. This steams the meat inside, but also infuses it with whatever ingredients you've thrown in along with it.

I opted for chicken with lemons, parsley (although, if you have fresh rosemary, all the better), olives, sundried tomatoes and capers.

The brilliance of this recipe, is that there really isn't one. Use what you've got on hand; just keep it to no more than 2 tbsp of toppings, plus something beneath the chicken to infuse from below. Sautéed shallots or spinach would make a great base. A few cloves of garlic in there with some lemon and lots of black pepper? Delish!

And the bonus? No added oils!

The packages are made by creating a circle out of parchment and layering all the ingredients on one half of the circle.

You then fold the other side of the paper over to create a half moon shape. Fold the sides up along the edge of the circle so it looks like this:

Bake in the oven on a baking tray at 400º for about 30 minutes.

If you're into theatrics, give everyone at the table a pair of scissors and allow them to cut a cross into the top of the package and then tear it open. The big reveal is half the fun.

Do be careful of the steam though. There's a lot of it trapped in there!

Ramp Pesto & Two Tomato Bruschetta

My friend Kat does a lot of work in a communal garden here in Toronto, and one of the things I love most about our Monday night cook-a-thon is she often brings over produce from the garden. Earlier this week, she brought over a jar of ramp pesto! Paired with a quick two tomato bruschetta!

Now, ramps' season is spring, but in the spirit of root to tip and waste-not/want-not cooking, Kat decided to use what was left of the plant.

I'll let her explain it.

The portions of the ramps we used were the buds/heads; the ramps had gone to seed so it was sort of like using the flowery tops of chives instead of the oniony bottom if you know what I mean. Ramp season is fiddlehead season - around April. So these are what's left of the plant at this stage of the year.

Kat's Ramp Pesto


Ingredients

1 bunch of basil, just the leaves, washed
3-4 ramp heads
¼ cup of dry roasted almonds
2 Tbsp olive oil
1-1.5 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
dash of water

Directions

1. Blend all ingredients together in a mini chopper or food processor. If you're not vegan, feel free to replace the nutritional yeast with Parmesan cheese.

My Two Tomato Bruschetta

Ingredients

12 thin slices baguette
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, halved
½ pint cherry tomatoes, seeded and chopped
¼ cup chopped oil packed sun dried tomatoes
¼ cup thinly sliced basil
½ tbsp balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cracked pepper

Directions

1. Preheat broiler of oven. Brush one side of the baguette slices with ½ tbsp olive oil. Broil until lightly browned. Flip over, brush with ½ tbsp oil and toast again until lightly browned. Remove from pan and rub one side of each slice with garlic. Discard garlic

2. In a bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Let sit for 10 minutes. Check seasoning.

3. If using pesto, spread 1 tbsp on each baguette slice. Top with bruschetta.

Bonus points for using yellow and red cherry tomatoes.

Missing One Recipe

Earlier this week, I mentioned to my husband that I really wanted to make "that basmati rice, chickpea salad with sundried tomatoes... you know... I used to make it all the time a couple of years ago".

His eyes glazed over, and I was convinced for a moment that I'd lost him. But he nodded and said, "Oh yeah, that was really good. Why did you stop making that?"

I wish I knew the answer. It's a damn fine rice salad.

So I trooped off to the kitchen and started going through my cookbooks. Thirty minutes and about 20 cookbooks on the floor later, I had no idea where I'd gotten the recipe from.

Frowning, I went to the computer, checked epicurious, martha, cooking light... all with zero success.

I emailed my mother.

And my brother.

Neither of them knew what I was talking about. So I guess it's safe to say I've never made it for them.

One of my friends on facebook messaged me saying "Chickpeas, rice and tomatoes? Isn't that the salad recipe right there?"

And he's 90% right, except there was a dressing. A delicious dressing that pulled the whole thing together. I have NO recollection of what went into the dressing.

But, I had the rice and chickpeas ready to go, so I was going to make a salad if not the salad one way or another.

Basmati Rice Salad with Chickpeas, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Spinach and Basil

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
1 cup water
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup baby spinach, chopped
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup olives (I used salt cured black olives)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (if you don't care about the colour of your salad, you can use regular balsamic)

Directions

1. In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Add rice and simmer until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Fluff with rice.

2. Toss chickpeas through olives together in a large bowl.

3. Dump the basmati rice on top of the spinach-chickpea mixture and let sit for a few minutes, until spinach begins to wilt under the heat. Then toss the whole thing up together again with the olive oil and vinegar. You can add salt and pepper to taste.

This is totally a main course salad, but we opted to have it with some pork brochettes. I ate the same thing for lunch the next day, and it was just as delicious. If you have any feta at hand, that would be delicious tossed into the salad.

I do love me a good chickpea-rice combination.

But there's still the question of the salad. I have to be honest, this isn't what I remember the other salad tasting like. I think, perhaps, I used the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes in that one.

So, while it's back to the drawing board on the dressing, I totally think this recipe is a great weeknight/brown bag meal.

And any dressing suggestions are totally welcome!