The Last Exile

Today, we are packing up my daughter, The Last Amazon, and moving her out of town and back to her university. This year, she is officially 18 and on her own. Last year, her Nana made the supreme sacrifice and moved out of province in order to be the LA’s room-mate. It worked for both of them but the Last Amazon put her foot down and wants to spread her wings a little which is all well and good for Kiki Zipporah but Nana is a tad lonely in the last homey house on the road before you ever the deep woods….

The last two weeks I have been rather intense as I have been trying to teach her how to make appealing, and yet, fully satisfy meals on the cheap as well as learning all the little tricks which make up the basics of cooking. My daughter will not eat Kraft dinner and absolutely despises tuna fish. Peanut butter sandwiches will do in a pinch but who can live on peanut butter alone? So the traditional ’student’ fare just won’t suffice. Besides with a little knowledge and a little forward planning one can eat not only very cheap but be well nourished.

I was really lucky because I learned to cook from two grandmothers. The basics of French cooking from my great-grandmother and everything else from my grandmother from how to take a cheap cut of meat and make it melt in your mouth to which herbs and spices go with this or that meat and/or sauce and why. Since I am leaving the boys at noon I had to make something to tide them over for the day and I choose one of their favourites from the last two weeks of menus. I don’t have a name for this chicken and wine stew, and there are probably a million similar recipes, but this is the one I taught my daughter and the one which drives the boys crazy with anticipation from the smell alone.

Now because I didn’t learn to cook from a book or recipe I have a hard time trying to be exact about measurements. Mostly I do things from ‘eye’ and ‘taste’ which is why I can cook from 5 to 50 without breaking a sweat. Generally, I have a hard time following recipes because I am always thinking what would ingredient would work better than is listed with the recipe so feel free to switch around this veggies dish to suit one’s taste.
Chicken, I used boneless breasts because they were on sale but this recipe can be done with any chicken from a cut up fryer to to leg quarters. Whatever works best in the budget should rule. Baby red potatoes (with the skin on), carrots, sliced turnips, green, red and pearl onions garlic, basil, canned diced tomatoes, red cooking wine, flour, butter chicken stock, salt and pepper.

Now the fast rule with using wine in cooking should be 1/2 cup of wine for every two cups of water and one tablespoon of stock for every 2 cups of water (don’t include wine in the water-stock tally). In my case, I used four chicken breasts, and 4 cups of water with 1 cup of wine.

Usually for chicken or fish the wine preference is for a white wine but be daring and use a red. I prefer to use a strong red wine when cooking with reds…like a good Merlot, Pinot Noir to a Marsala. I used a Rubino Marsala and this dish actually takes it charm from the flavour of the root vegetables (potatoes and turnips) slowly cooking in a strong red wine based stock. Marsala has a strong sodium base which is why I add no salt to the actual stew stock base.

Let’s start with the stock. I used four cups of water and 1 cup of marsala red wine. 2 tablespoons of chicken stock, 1 teaspoon of basil and one heaping teaspoon of minced garlic. Now I cheat and have been using minced garlic in oil rather than fresh garlic. Mostly because a great deal of the garlic I have bought in recent years has been somewhat off by the time I bought it. You can tell if garlic is off but the bite. If there is a brittle sharp sour flavour – the garlic is old. The advantage of garlic in oil is that the freshness is literally locked in until you open the jar. Garlic in oil will typically only last one month after the jar has been opened and refrigerated.

To this, I added two green onions finely chopped, a half a cup of diced tomatoes (drained), 10 baby red potatoes sliced in half with the skin one. Two cups of baby carrots, peeled and sliced in half, about 1 cup of turnip, peeled, and sliced finely and then quartered.

You will need to use mix half a cup of flour with pinch of salt and pepper and then cover a small plate, bowl or small plastic bag with flour mixture. Wash your chicken under cold water and take a half of lemon or lime and literally rub it liberally all over chicken. Set aside for a moment

Slice the tip and bottom of your pearl onions, peel only the flaky part. I used 10 pearl onions. Set aside. Then use a frying pan and use about a quarter cup of butter, yes butter and not margarine. Ask yourself this; can margarine really be safe for human consumption when it can sit in your fridge for 6 to 9 months or longer and not go ‘bad’? Heat the butter at a medium setting until it is not only melted but slightly bubbly. Dip the chicken in the flour mixture and cover well. Transfer to chicken to your frying pan. Arrange your pearl onions in your frying pan around your chicken. Don’t be afraid to really brown the bottoms of your onions but don’t let them burn. Don’t hesitate to remove your onions from the pan and add to your stock even if the chicken is not ready yet. Cook the chicken from approximately 5-8 minutes on each side. Only turn the chicken once. You don’t want the chicken to cook completely in the frying pan and the slow cooking in the oven or crock pot will finish the cooking process.

Add the onions and stir your pot well. Then gently place the chicken on top. Cook in a covered dish in the oven for at least 2 hours at 350 degrees or 4-6 hours in your crock pot. Due to the different temperature settings for crock pots I can’t give you a better a better guess than that. The sauce should have thickened to a little less than gravy consistency and the root vegetables should be soft. Watch your pot and add a little water if needed.

Eat alone with a baguette and for leftovers – add over rice or even egg noodles to keep it from being boring until its gone.