The Experimental Kitchen (and Other Stories)

Many icing and candy recipes require you to bring a mixture of water and granulated sugar to a boil and keep cooking until it reaches a certain temperature. This sounds easy enough, but if done incorrectly some of the sugar in the syrup will turn back into crystals and your candy or icing will be unpleasantly grainy instead of silky smooth.

Many icing and candy recipes require you to bring a mixture of water and granulated sugar to a boil and keep cooking until it reaches a certain temperature. This sounds easy enough, but if done incorrectly some of the sugar in the syrup will turn back into crystals and your candy or icing will be unpleasantly grainy instead of silky smooth. The crystals like to form wherever there is something for them to grab onto - such as a little speck of dirt or another, un-melted bit of sugar. You will often see a little corn syrup or an acid like lemon juice or cream of tartar in syrup recipes. Both these ingredients discourage crystals from forming. Here are some more tips to prevent unwanted crystallization:

1. Use only clean granulated sugar and a clean pot. Little specks of flour or other tiny impurities can encourage crystallization. Especially don't use the flour scoop to measure the sugar for your syrup!
2. Mix the sugar and water in a bowl, then pour without splashing into the pan in which you plan on cooking the syrup. Even though this dirties an extra dish, it keeps dry sugar crystals from getting stuck to the sides of the pan while you are stirring the sugar and water together. Any dry crystals near the syrup's edges will cause trouble later in the process by encouraging more crystals to form near them. If you do get a little dry sugar stuck to the edge of your pan, you can rinse it off by brushing the pan just above the crystal with a clean pastry brush that has been dipped in cold water.
3. Once the syrup is on the heat, don't stir at all until it reaches the correct temperature! It can be hard to resist the temptation, but any sort of agitation of the mixture will increase the chances of crystallization.

What is chicken (or veal or halibut) French? Unless you live in Rochester, NY, you are unlikely to know. (Although NYC apparently has a pretender called "chicken Francese" - sounds like they're putting on airs if you ask me.)

Chicken French is not a classic from the continent, but an American invention. Guesses about its history can be found on Arthur Schwartz's site, but what does it taste like? Recipes for the dish are not easy to come by, and those that exist aren't detailed enough for cooks who haven't eaten Chicken French to replicate it properly. Most instructions agree on how to prepare the chicken itself, but the finish remained mysterious until a clue was found in Peterson's excellent book "Sauces". In the butter chapter, he talks about how pan-fried foods can be traditionally served with broken brown butter sauces. (Think Miller's Wife Sole.) For us, this was the key to chicken French -- and what follows is our version of the dish.

For each person use:

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
Canola oil or olive oil
All purpose flour
1 1/2 eggs (For two people, use 3 eggs. For three people, round up to 5 eggs, etc...)
salt
3-4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 lemon
For serving: warm cooked rice and braised garlicky escarole or a nice green salad

1. Cut each breast into two thinner filets with a sharp knife (see photo). If your knife is dull, don't bother with this step - you'll just have to pound harder in step #2.

2. Arrange your breast pieces on a counter and cover with a layer of plastic wrap (see picture). Pound out with a mallet or heavy pan until they are about 1/4th of an inch thick.
 
3. Cut each breast piece in half the short way. This is done mostly so the pieces fit nicely into a pan - skip this step if you'd like.

4. Beat your eggs in a small bowl with a whisk or fork until smooth and uniform. Pour the eggs out onto a dinner plate.

5. Fill a second dinner plate with flour.

6. Heat a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat.

7. Add enough oil to thickly coat the bottom of the pan.

(You may want to grab a friend for the next few steps. It is nice to have one person breading the chicken while the other person flips over the pieces in the pan.)

8. One by one, coat each chicken piece with flour by turning it over on the flour plate. Make sure the piece is evenly coated and tap off any excess. Then dip the piece into the beaten eggs, coating evenly, and immediately place it into the hot pan. Add as many pieces to the pan as will fit comfortably without touching.

9. Brown the pieces on both sides (they will cook quickly) and set them onto a paper-towel lined plate. Salt each piece immediately.

10. When all the pieces have been cooked, remove the pan from the heat and pour off any remaining oil. Wipe the pan out with a paper towel.

11. Add the butter to the pan and heat over medium-high heat until the butter foams and just starts to brown.

12. Add the sherry to the brown butter. Be careful as the sherry could flare up or spatter. Return to heat and boil until the alcohol is cooked off. The sauce will stop smelling like alcohol when it is all gone - this could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

13. Remove from heat. Add salt to taste.

14. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and heat briefly in the sauce.

15. Squeeze lemon juice over all the chicken.

16. Serve over rice with garlic braised greens like romaine or escarole.

My shiitake block has come in the mail -- complete with what looks like baby mushrooms already starting. :)



It has to live outside for now, (...because DH thinks it is too gross to live inside) but seems to be doing fine nonetheless. It's easier to mist it with the hose out there, anyway.

This is a great summer drink -- and more "localvore" than lemonade (which it resembles) for those of us living in New England. I've been selling it at the farmer's market here in Norwich, if anyone wants to drop by and say "Hello!"

For 1 gallon (go ahead, make a lot, it keeps almost forever in the fridge):

1 gallon good-tasting water
1 cup maple syrup -- Grade B if you can get it. (You can get it here)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (use the live stuff, it tastes better -- or make your own!)
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated or 1 tablespoon dried ginger

Mix it all up and drink (although it gets better as it sits around) -- easy-peasy.

Incidentally, on rainy days I wouldn't turn down a little hot switchel with dark rum...

The Experimental Kitchen is back from maternity leave with a new format! You can access the old site here -- which is where you should go to find old articles. I'll be slowly moving over the most popular old articles as I go.