Bottleshock

Dear lovely foodies,

I am so sorry that it has been so long in between posts...all 3 of you must really be torn up about it! But, it has been a really busy couple of weeks in my little world recently. It's been so busy, that I have been (gasp) eating out a lot! Yes, I would say that in the past 10 days I've eaten out more than I would like to say. But, the great thing about eating out, is that it gives me inspiration to try out what I just ate at home. And, it gives my pots and pans (and manicures) a much needed night or nights off.

My favorite restaurant dish of all time has to be the Chicken Bryan at Carrabba's. For those of you that aren't carrabba's addicts like me, Chicken Bryan is a perfectly sauteed chicken breast topped with goat cheese, fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes and a lemon-butter reduction sauce. It is simply divine. I have had it a number of times, and it wasn't until recently, that I even attempted to make it. It seemed so complex and fancy. But really, when you think about it, it's just a few ingredients.

I had a request on Sunday to make a roast, but with the beef roast frozen solid at 11am, I knew that wasn't going to be an option. So, my mind drifted to something that both me and my hubby love...Chicken Bryan.

The menu was going to be similar in style to carrabba's. They serve a lovely sauteed spinach with fresh garlic and really, it is so easy. I also had some asparagus in the fridge that were begging to be roasted, so I got those out as well. I also had some "cavatappi" pasta in the pantry. For those of you not familiar, it is a corkscrew like pasta that I have come to have love, although not all in my household share the same affinity for it. But I think they might be coming around. I also wanted some garlic bread, so I used two sandwich ciabatta rolls and brushed them with olive oil and topped with fresh basil and chopped garlic.

I think I figured out what makes the chicken at carrabba's so great. For one, it's probably swimming in butter, but also, they do such a good job trimming it. And I don't just mean the fat, I mean all the connective tissue as well. I know that's not appetizing to think about, but trimming all that way really leaves you with tender poultry. Basically, all I did for the chicken was get some EVOO up to a medium high heat in a heavy bottom skillet. I seasoned the chicken breasts LIGHTLY with salt and heavily with pepper. I went light on the salt, (for once) because the goat cheese has such a high salt content that if you over-salt the chicken you will end up with something that resembles a salt lick. Once the chicken had browned nicely on both sides, I topped it with goat cheese, (not feta, but chevre) fresh basil and sun-dried tomato. Top it off with a little bit of a lemon-butter sauce and you are looking at one good tastin' chicken dish.

Side note about lemon-butter sauce. This is one finicky sauce. Too high of heat, the sauce separates, too low of heat, the sauce gets cloudy. OY. Still working on perfecting that one. I'm tempted to just walk back in the grill line at carrabba's and ask one of those nice young men if he'll share his lemon-butter sauce recipe with me.....or maybe not.

Let's talk about asparagus for a minute. They are most delicious (to me) when bathed (lightly) in olive and course ground salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes, juice half a lemon over it, and you have the most heavenly, crispy, salty, asparagus-y tasting veggie ever. Even if you say you don't like asparagus, try it like this and let me know what you think.

The spinach....oh I do love sauteed spinach. It's amazing how a whole bag of the stuff cooks down to nothing. I took a picture of the amount of spinach I started with just to give you an idea. This cooked down to enough for 2 people with a little bit left over. All I did with the spinach was heat some olive oil over high heat and throw in some minced fresh garlic. Then, toss in the spinach leaves and mix them around until they are wilted...so easy and so good.

Now, on to the pasta. I took one can of diced tomatoes, added sauteed garlic, a splash of white wine and some red pepper flakes and simmered over low heat. Once the pasta was done, I combined the pasta with the sauce. This kind of pasta begs to be tossed with the sauce because it really has the ability to absorb the sauce. Topped with freshly grated parmigianno reggiano. The only bad thing about this pasta is getting it to stay on your fork-they really are slippery little suckers!

Well, this post wouldn't be complete with out one last thing. I have to tell you what I'm drinking with this! The white wine that I'm drinking at the moment is nothing to write home about. It's a great everyday table white, but nothing note worthy. But...the red that I'm drinking is very note worthy. (Actually not so much the wine itself but rather the winery). It's so note worthy in fact they made a movie about it! Chateau Montelena winery is located in Napa Valley and has been in business since the late 1800's. Chateau Montelena gained the world's attention when their 1973 chardonnay won the 1976 Paris tasting. It ranked above the top white French burgundies and was tasted by the snobbiest of French wine judges. Chateau Montelena put California wines on the map and showed the rest of the world that the hippies in California could make a better wine than the French! The movie is called "Bottleshock" if you are looking for something to add to your netflix list.
I picked up a bottle of their 2006 Zinfandel a few weeks ago, and it's very good. The 2007 got stellar reviews, and was just released this past spring so I will look forward to getting a bottle and seeing if I can taste a difference.

I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings, because I certainly enjoy writing all of this.

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie